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Designated Villain: Difference between revisions
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A [[Big Bad]] is a common driving force behind conflict in stories, so it makes natural sense to write one in. But villainy requires villainous acts...so a villain who doesn't really perform those is a bit hard to swallow.
If one is written in anyway, the result is a character who is treated as a bad guy by the plot, despite never actually doing anything as to justify the amount of hate that they receive from the good guys. [[Straw Man Has a Point|Any astute arguments and observations]] by this character are to be dismissed by the audience, because they are [[Obviously Evil]][[
In fact, this may only prove a character a [[Jerkass]], [[Protagonist-Centered Morality|especially in regards to the protagonist.]] This isn't a case of a deliberately over-the-top villain, it's a personification of being an ass for its own sake. That being said, there ''are'' cases [[Villainy Free Villain|where just being a jerk can qualify one for being the antagonist by itself]].
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Alternately, it might be a character that could fall under [[Hero Antagonist]]...except, since they're an antagonist, they can't possibly be on the side of good. Keep in mind that antagonists and villains are very different things.
Compare and contrast [[Designated Hero]], [[Poke the Poodle]], [[Villain Ball Magnet]], and [[Villainy Free Villain]]. Also see [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]. Not to be confused with [[Designated Evil]].
Not to be confused with [[Offstage Villainy]], which is where the bad guy did bad things...but not on screen.
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== Media in General ==
* In most movies about saving the old theater, school, ball field, etc, the villain is someone who wants to tear down this location to put their own business there, a completely legal and understandable (if somewhat tragic for the protagonists) way to make a living. Often they're corrupt or try to achieve their goal of obtaining the property through dishonest or illegal means, but sometimes the movie has no other way to paint them as an outright villain than to make them kind of a jerk.
* Similarly, landlords (or bankers, etc.) get this treatment simply for demanding that protagonists pay them the money they're rightfully owed or vacate the premises. If the "creditor" figure is not outright portrayed as a jerk or involved in some underhanded scheme, they still get painted as "fabulously wealthy landowner being merciless and unforgiving to characters' hardships."
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* ''[[Star Driver]]'' has a bit of this. Yes, the Glittering Crux Brigade kidnapped the maiden to allow them to summon giants to Earth for some reason that probably involves fighting, since we never see anything else happen, but when they aren't wearing their masks, they're pretty nice guys. Even the leader of Adult Bank, President, who is a schoolgirl wife who kisses men other than her husband through the glass because her husband is never around - Openly! Like, ''in class''! - only has a massive boat to live in, not because she's uber rich and spoiled, but because she's pretty sure that {{spoiler|volcanoes will explode when they succeed, and wants to evacuate everyone off the island, so no one dies.}} After asking why else she would possibly have such a thing, both of her subordinates - who give her drinks and massages whenever she wants - simply stare at her, bewildered.
* The Computer Club President from ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' could be considered this. Yes, he cheated in the RTS game, but it was only to get back the computer that Haruhi essentially ''stole'' via some rather cruel blackmail.
* In ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' (the anime), {{spoiler|Faldio's}} 'villainhood' is very poorly executed. {{spoiler|He saves everyone's lives with his desperate gamble in activating Alicia, but gets only grief and reproach from everyone, even himself - though nobody ever suggests a possible alternative to his course of action.}} That Alicia survives to live happily ever after, whereas Faldio has an ignominious death off-scene, compounds the problem. Many fans of the game hate his prominence in the anime *anyway*, so they're likely not to care.
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* In the [[Fairy Tale]] [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/8strangemusician.html "The Wonderful Musician"], the wolf, fox, and hare don't actually do anything to harm the protagonist until he tricks and humiliates them because he wanted a human companion, not an animal. Then they come after him.
* [[They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste|Done deliberately]] in ''Rosso Malpelo'', a novel written by Giovanni Verga. In fact, the child miner protagonist is portrayed by the narrator (who embodies the Sicilian mentality of the nineteenth century) as a malicious and bad bully...[[Values Dissonance|due to his red hair.]] However, it is made pretty clear that Malpelo is just a poor [[Jerkass Woobie]], brutalized by the cruel society where he lives, who sometimes even borders on a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]], especially when he interacts with his ill friend, Ranocchio. (And no, this is not a case of [[Villainy Free Villain]]: all the other characters, [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|with the exception of his father and Ranocchio]], are far bigger jerks than him, if not outright evil).
* [[Michael Crichton|Michael Crichton's]] ''[[Timeline]]'' features a [[Jerkass]] corporate executive Robert Doniger whose quantum teleportation experiments kickstart the plot. He supports all possible safeguards for his technology, all accidents and disasters are caused by people refusing to follow his orders, and he does everything in his power to help the protagonists. As thanks for this, they murder him at the end by sending him back in time to die of the Black Plague. For being a jerk.
* Even if Claudia weren't a member of the Baby Sitters Club, the title of ''Claudia and Mean Janine'' tells us which sister we're supposed to be rooting for in The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry. However, Janine never does anything particularly "mean" in the book. Instead, she makes attempt after attempt to connect with her sister, while Claudia repeatedly shoots her down, internally snarking about Janine's activities, friends, and her clothes. Claudia's complaints that Janine isn't helping take care of their grandmother also ring hollow since (a) no one ever asks Janine to help, and (b) when Janine tried to volunteer to help, Claudia insisted she could take care of everything and there was no reason for anyone else to disrupt their lives.
* Most of the 'monsters' in mythology are never actually shown to do anything evil, and a lot of them are treated horribly anyway. Medusa and the children of Loki especially come to mind.
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*** Sterling's case is further hurt by one scene in which as a cruel joke, the bookworm's wife asks him to read poetry from one of his books to her; he eagerly obliges, only to find that she has drawn lines over the text on every page. Is it any wonder he prefers books to people?
* ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'':
** In the episode "Broken", Cara is on trial for the atrocities she committed as a Mord'Sith. To her defense, it is revealed that Mord'Sith are actually abducted as young girls, [[Break the Cutie|then horribly tortured and brainwashed]] [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|until they become heartless killing machines]]. They were unwilling victims of the D'Haran more than anything else. Cara is ultimately forgiven for this reason. However, during the trial, they arrest another Mord'Sith hiding in the assistance: Cara's mentor, the one who abducted and trained her. They then proceed to condemn this woman to what is described as [[Cold-Blooded Torture|the most painful death in existence]]. [[Values Dissonance|Everybody seems oblivious that, as a Mord'Sith, this woman endured the same fate as Cara, and so is every bit as much of a victim...]] (It could be argued that Cara was forgiven because she was a victim AND repented, while the other Mord'Sith did not repent and would have gone on killing. This does not make the Mord'Sith any less of a Designated Villain, but the death of Cara's mentor is at least somewhat justified.)
** Cara also helped overthrow the evil overlord who was in charge of the brainwashing. So, it could be argued that she had broken her brainwashing and was already helping people without anyone forcing her to. Cara was also happy for them to kill her.
* Possibly used in ''[[Survivor (TV series)|Survivor]]: Heroes vs. Villains'', where people like Sandra and Coach could hardly be considered villains ([[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when Jeff asks if anyone thinks they were put on the wrong team); and Rob, who (shockingly) played the game more heroically than most of the Heroes. The episode where {{spoiler|he gets voted off}} is even titled "I guess I'm not really a good villain". Also subverted with Parvarti and Russel, who said "what did I do that was so bad?" and ended up being the primary antagonists season after season.
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* ''[[Smallville]]'':
** [[Lex Luthor]] is an infamous example of this, performing many selfless (and debatably noble) acts throughout the first few seasons (including risking his life to save Clark's class from a hostage taker and saving his semi-abusive father from a tornado), only to be persistently described as having negative motivations all along when very few have actually been observed in him during his screentime...In later seasons, he regularly commits murders and performs unethical experiments, having crossed the line into ''actual'' villain.
** More [[Egregious]] is the way Clark himself was depicted vis-a-vis Lana. While Clark was certainly never depicted as a ''villain'' in canon, the show ''did'' seem intent on convincing viewers that Clark being uncomfortable with revealing his secret to Lana somehow makes him a horrible, nasty [[Jerkass]] who needs to learn how to "be open about [his] emotions". Worst of all, whenever Lana did something manipulative or bitchy towards Clark, the show would try to portray her as being ''justified'' simply because Clark was uncomfortable with revealing his secret to her, and the showrunners would try to portray this as being an appropriate punishment for Clark's so-called crime.
* A particularly controversial character in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' fandom is Captain Edward Jellico. Commanding the Enterprise D when Captain Picard was off on an espionage mission, he apparently was supposed to come off as a martinet, as evidenced by his [[Tyrant Takes the Helm|changing everything for no good reason other than because he could]], disregarding perfectly valid advice, and generally acting like a jerk. However, when the chips were down, he proved an outstanding commanding officer who singlehandedly stopped a war, recovered the captured Picard (who, caught red-handed as a spy, had no expectation of being returned), and refrained from tossing Riker out the nearest airlock which the character badly deserved it for his childish petulance during the two-part episode.
* ''Heartland'' had a rather idiotic example in their Christmas movie. We're supposed to cheer for the heroes who, among other things, rallied a town against the old man who's trying to stop them from rescuing a bunch of horses trapped by a landslide, while they mount a rescue effort. Except, the old man ''owns'' the horses in question, so he IS entitled to tell them to piss off, and he DOES have the right to shoot the sick horses to put them out of their misery! At the end, they are even wondering if they should let him have them after he has his change of heart?! To sum up those points, a bunch of strangers come into town, get themselves involved in his business, get everyone against him, deny his basic right to do what he wants with his property, and actually consider rustling them for themselves. They were going for a [[Broken Aesop]], right?
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** And slightly later than that, the "[["Previously On..."]]" voice calls Kurt out on it.
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'':
** Mordred, who, in this version, is played by a child. We're supposed to view Mordred as a [[Creepy Child]] because the show plays ominous music over extreme close-ups of his large blue eyes, but all that's played out on screen is a kid who's been hunted, persecuted, and had everyone he's ever loved killed by the people who are generally considered "the good team". He uses his magical powers to kill a group of knights advancing on him with swords drawn, clearly preparing to kill him - this was apparently meant to prove to the audience that he's evil incarnate, even though the good guys make self-defensive kills all the time.
** Morgana definitely counts. What she has done is no worse than what Merlin has done to his own kind, including her. Yet he is viewed as the hero and she the villain. Like Mordred, at first she is only a villain because Merlin believed the dragon when he said she was. All she did was fall victim to Morgause's plans, but was called evil for it. She did bad things of her own will in series 3, but [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy|probably wouldn't have if she hadn't been declared evil in the first place]].
** Morgause as well. What exactly has this woman done besides try to expose Uther's lies to Arthur and then win back what she thinks rightfully belongs to her half-sister? In one episode, she puts the entire castle to sleep in order to assassinate Uther and claim Morgana without any innocent lives being lost - the writers must have realized that this put her in ''too''' good a light, and later [[Word of God|stated]] that the sleeping spell would have eventually proved fatal for everyone were it not broken in time.
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** His successor, "Bingo Bob" Russell, fares no better and for even less cause. At least Hoynes caused a sex scandal (that is, he did something wrong) which could justify the main cast's hatred of him (if they'd known about it before it was exposed). Russell didn't even have that much. He was a choice forced on the West Wing by other Democrats because he had a reputation as a lightweight, and it was hoped wouldn't be much competition to Democrats wanting to run for President in the next election. Russell is aware of his bad reputation and is determined to rise above it, but the rest of the cast doesn't care. While trying to write the speech announcing his Vice Presidency, Toby rants a mock speech on how much they all genuinely despise him that [[Irrevocable Message|accidentally winds up on the teleprompter.]] Russell sees it, but is remarkably good-humored about it. Russell does manage to rise above expectations and be an effective Vice President, and (to the dismay of those Democracts who selected him) is able to become the Front Runner for most of the campain to be the Presidential Nominee...and the rest of the cast ''still'' hates his guts. The worst thing we ever see him do is give a speech in the Iowa caucas praising ethanol, even though [[Informed Wrongness|he and everyone else in-universe "knows" ehtanol is crap.]] But you know Josh's candidate for President, Santos, the man who, according to Josh, is "twice the man Russell is on his best days, ten times, and Russell doesn't have very many best days," that Santos? [[Designated Hero|He did the exact same damn thing.]] Really, it seemed like the office of Vice President on this show was the place to put [[The Friend Nobody Likes|the guy who was on the same side as the main cast whom the main cast could despise,]] even if the reason why they despised him was always left a little vague.
* The treatment of [[Internal Affairs]] (aka "The Rat Squad") in ''[[Law and Order]]'', especially ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'', often veers into this, presenting the officers of the division as little more than self-important, vindictive assholes targeting the main characters purely out of spite, despite their usually deserving far more censure than they inevitably end up getting. The audience is often expected to dislike them for investigating cops for crimes we the audience know they didn't commit, even though they have sufficient evidence to look into it (in spite of the fact that the detectives often investigate the lives of innocent people all the time- it's just part of the job). And the fact that the police on the show have a tendency to do [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|not-entirely-legal things]] doesn't help.
* In ''[[Little House On the Prairie]]'', Harriet Oleson, her daughter Nellie, and sometimes son Willie are all designated villains. The stories are so predictable that if you watch them, if you want to know what the wrong thing to do is, watch Harriet. She's always wrong.
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** The [[Loads and Loads of Characters|massive]], [[Chaotic Neutral|borderline psychotic]] cast very eager to pulverize ([[Non-Lethal KO|non-lethally]], granted) each other for the most flimsy of reasons. While there are those that don't invoke this, nearly all of the [[Excuse Plot|Excuse Plots]] are based on one of the two [[Designated Hero|Designated Heroes]] being annoyed and endeavoring to beat up the person responsible, regardless of what they're actually doing. ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' is the worst by an enormous margin: the antagonists were merely attempting to release their friend from her ''millennium'' of imprisonment, who is herself [[The Messiah|almost saintly]], but no, they're [[Youkai]] and therefore must be stopped.
** ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' offers a rare encounter: in one route, at least, Marisa and Byakuren seem to hit it off on the subject of magic use, end-up sidelined by a painfully short theological disconnect ("'youkai' protected from humans" versus "humans protected from 'youkai'"), and it's the last boss who demands the fight. Marisa might have been rude (as always) but Byakuren didn't even try hard.
** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Alternatively]], given events in ''Silent Sinner In Blue'', where {{spoiler|Reimu and Marisa assist Yukari in her invasion of the Moon for [[For the Evulz|no apparent reason]] and were soundly beaten}}, it's possible that Reimu and Marisa were meant to be [[Villain Protagonist|villain protagonists]] for the duration of UFO in the same vein [[Heel Face Turn|previous bosses became player characters]].
** It's [[Invoked Trope]] in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'', where Tenshi designated herself as the villain [[For the Lulz|because she was bored]].
* ''[[Yggdra Union]]'':
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** They claim that they don't hate mutants, but when you see CEO Bruce Goodkind in private, it's clear that he does. And funding bigots is the least of their crimes against mutants. They also shipping children (including their own son) off to be tortured by a [[Mad Scientist]] who horrifically tortures mutants, for example. However, other, less influential, Goodkinds are actually considered good, or at least neutral, characters. The MCO aren't particularly good guys either, thanks to rampant dog-kicking; the Knights of Purity are an enigma - it's not clear where they stand with two major characters having an argument about this...
** Ayla -- nee Trevor, son of the selfsame Bruce -- Goodkind, a.k.a. Phase, is a mutant, a member of Team Kimba, and one of the main protagonists. This is relevant because the stories written from his perspective seem to make it fairly clear that the Goodkinds do believe in using their considerable wealth and power responsibly and aren't necessarily bad people at all...so long as you're a baseline human, anyway (it doesn't help the mutant cause that Ayla's own mother is clinically mutophobic thanks to a particularly monstrous [[Super Villain]] eating her sister alive in front of her when she was six).
** As for the Knights of Purity, they're demonised by Chaka for going after Jolt, an emergent mutant, when Jolt could have easily killed someone (electricity powers). Chaka also points out that they have huge casualty rates, but the [[Ko P]] go after mutants, usually super villains, and so it's not surprising- they contain mutant threats, and sometimes that can't be done without casualties- sometimes they're the only option or the closest one there.
* Spoofed (to a degree) with Blue Laser in the ''Cheat Commandos'' shorts at ''[[Homestar Runner]]''.
** Blue Laser is frequently staked out and attacked by the Commandos (Gunhaver in particular) no matter what they're doing, including [[Villains Out Shopping|shopping or having Thanksgiving dinner]]. Gunhaver makes a point of exaggerating the "evil" potential of every action Blue Laser takes. Occasionally, Blue Laser does do evil or pseudo-evil things, but more often than not, they're only opposed to the Commandos because the Commandos are the heroes and Blue Laser are the villains.
** Sometimes, it turns out that whatever innocuous thing Blue Laser was doing actually was meant to help them crush the Cheat Commandos. Like the time the Cheat Commandos busted in on their grocery shopping; they were out shopping because a computer analysis had determined that the moldy grout in the shower was the reason they hadn't yet crushed the Cheat Commandos. Blue Laser is that kind of villain.
* The appropriate ''[[Cracked.com|Cracked]]'' list for this page: [http://www.cracked.com/article_18417_9-famous-movie-villains-who-were-right-all-along.html "Nine famous movie villains who were right all along"].
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* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]],'':
** Secret groups of children are locked in war with teenagers and adults. Yet aging inevitably happens, so to prevent former KND agents who have aged past 13 from knowing KND secrets, they are supposed to willingly subject themselves to [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]], thus becoming clueless and hopefully harmless. Anyone who does not to do this turns evil at that very second, a type of evil that includes insults and fighting dirty. There are undercover exceptions but this is usually the rule. In the KND 'verse, [[Growing Up Sucks|puberty makes you evil.]] This is explicitly the case. While not all adults are evil, ''all'' their enemies are adults, and kids are mostly good. (There are exceptions on both sides.) The kid's parents are good, but perhaps that's because none of them were agents (that we know), and thus not subject to [[The Dark Side]] tempting them.
** {{spoiler|Numbah 86's father is Mr. Boss}}. Unusual because he loves his own child, but is one of the greatest and oldest enemies of the present KND and is the leader of some of the lesser villains.
** Some villains don't even display malice toward the KND after their introductory episodes. The holding of events like villain barbecues and award ceremonies seems to indicate that fighting the KND is a hobby as well as a crusade.
** However, {{spoiler|Numbah 1's dad}} was once the greatest KND agent who had his memory erased and has shown no signs of being evil (though he does seem rather dippy). There's also the fact that Chad's parents only were villains on the show ''because'' Chad was a member of KND (they thought that he had "such a low number" and wanted to pick off the other agents so that he could be Numbah 1).
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** Done intentionally in earlier episodes, where the KND were more self righteous rebels who played themselves as heroes against any sort of enforced rule or annoyance an authority figure put against them (eg. the adult swim in a public pool, a delivery of tuneless pianos, ice cream reserved for a private meeting). The majority of these cases played the KND more as Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists and usually ended in comedic failure.
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'':
** Plankton in recent episodes, in which he's become much more of an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]], and Mr. Krabs is more of a [[Jerkass]] [[Designated Hero]]. The only reason he doesn't become a completely undeserving target of the show's increasing [[Comedic Sociopathy]] is the few stray episodes where he actually acts like a villain, and [[Complete Monster|the role he takes]] in [[Big Damn Movie|the movie]].
** Squidward comes across this way too. All he really wants is for SpongeBob and Patrick to allow him some peaceful and quiet time to himself. But apparently wanting some downtime and respite from his loud and obnoxious [[Designated Hero]] neighbor makes Squidward a [[Jerkass]]...somehow. Honestly, many viewers end up sympathizing with Squidward's desire to have some time to himself to relax, away from SpongeBob's loudness and intrusiveness.
** Mrs. Puff too. Before she attempted to murder Spongebob, all she wanted to do was to not have to deal with Spongebob's bad driving, and because of that, it makes her a jerk who deserves the abuse she gets, simply because she dislikes Spongebob, when really, fans sympathize with her because Spongebob is un-teachable and Mrs. Puff shouldn't have to put up with him.
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** Though Eddy's main schtick is [[Ambition Is Evil|scamming the other kids and being exceptionally greedy]], he's often forced to pay the price for attempting legitimate business ventures. More often than not, he (or the other Eds) put a lot of effort into these businesses. An example of this is an incredibly elaborate theme park ride that showcases the sort of [[Bamboo Technology]] we might expect from the future, not unlike the kind people ride frequently at Disney World. {{spoiler|They eventually manage to break out of their role in [[The Movie]].}}
* There's a few cases on ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' when characters are designated villains as the result of a wish (Jorgen in "Action Packed", the popular kids in "[[Halloween Episode|Scary Godparents]]", as well as Timmy himself in "Nega Timmy") or the circumstances, as Tootie in "Dread and Breakfast".
* Tom from ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' is usually attacked by Jerry unprovoked. Jerry is portrayed as the hero. No matter what happens, Jerry is viewed as being right and Tom is always punished. The worst examples are when Tom is, in an episode set in the past, ''executed'' when he was ''just doing his job.'' Tom's job in this short was simply defending his home's supplies and nothing malicious. To be fair, the shorts had plenty of other instances where Tom would [[For the Evulz|pick on Jerry for fun]].
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'':
** Wile E. Coyote
*** He is just trying to get a bite to eat; in some cartoons, he's so desperate for food that he is seen eating shoes, cans, and flies, and he is almost always depicted as the villain despite the Roadrunner not being very heroic. Sometimes, the Roadrunner can be quite mean to him, like causing him to hit his head on the cliff walls, scaring him into jumping off the cliff, and he once got him to eat a stuffed toy of himself which was filled with metal, causing him to get caught in a magnet. The Coyote IS trying to kill and eat the Roadrunner, putting him in danger every day of his life.
*** Indeed, one of the rules the writers always followed was that the audience should always sympathize with the coyote. If not for his motivations, than for the poor idiot's inability to [[Hoist by His Own Petard|go one day without hurting himself.]] For what it's worth, they generally never show the coyote ''starving'' even if he is hungry enough to chase after the roadrunner. The implication being that the coyote brings it on himself by choosing not to give up and chase something slower.
** Sylvester:
*** A better case in "Canned Feud" where he's '''not''' trying to hurt the mouse; he just wants the can opener that the mouse is spitefully keeping from him so he can '''eat cat food'''. Naturally, [[Downer Ending|he fails]].
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* The Giant in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Benderama", whose only "crime" was getting mad that everyone was being ridiculously douchey to him. Though he likely wasn't meant to be seen as antagonistic as much as everyone else was meant to be the [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]. Worse off, Bender, who had been a real douche to him, eventually has his clones absorb and kill him.
* A great many cartoons feature a slow-witted, loyal dog trying to defend some valuable property from a thief. We're supposed to take the thief's side. Probably the most obvious example is [[Chilly Willy]], though ''[[Underdog (animation)|Underdog]]'''s Klondike Kat also qualifies.
* A possible deconstruction of this trope: in the pilot episode of ''[[Justice League]]'', an American Senator has a proposal to rid the world of nuclear weapons by having Superman work round-the-clock to dismantle the nukes of every country on Earth (it's implied that all the countries agreed to this). While he's outlining the proposal, an angry American General stands up and declares that he shouldn't do it because "Those weapons are our only defense against aggression!" (In this continuity, the Earth had just barely escaped an alien invasion by [[Darkseid]]...and a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] [[Superman]] as well...only a few years earlier) The American general is accused of warmongering and shamed into silence and the nuclear disarmament begins. Then, after all the nukes in the world are disarmed, it turns out that the Senator was actually an evil alien in disguise and the disarmament plan he proposed was intended to keep the nations of Earth from destroying the alien ships that were about to invade. Oops. Guess you should have listened to the warmongering American General in the first place, eh? <ref>The funniest part of that episode is that when the invasion began, the Senator (who hadn't yet been revealed as an alien) appeared on television and announced that "no one could have predicted this would happen". Well, no one except for, um, the American General who said those nukes were, quote, "our only defense against aggression".</ref> This is clearly [[Take That|satirizing]] the plot of ''[[Superman IV]].''
* In the ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' episode "The Duelist and the Drifter," [[Master Swordsman]] the Duelist appears guilty of nothing more than challenging swordsmen to duels for their swords and winning, but is set up as a villain to [[Kid Hero]] Lion-O, who foolishly takes up his challenge unaware of his rep. While the Duelist does eventually prove to be less-than-honorable--he insists that Lion-O [[Duel to the Death]] and attempts to kill him after Lion-O wins--there's no evidence of wrongdoing before that, apart from goading Lion-O by implying his dead father [[Nobody Calls Me Chicken|was a coward]], and some unadvertised deck-stacking through the use [[Dual-Wielding|of two blades to Lion-O's one]]. After all, he [[Spell My Name with a "The"|introduced himself as]] "the Duelist". It's not his fault that Lion-O failed to pick up on the [[Punny Name|homonymic pun]].
** He is, however, stated to be prideful and obsessed with winning. It's implied he may have pulled similar tricks before.
* The Urpneys of ''[[The Dreamstone]]'', who are essentially [[Slave Mook|Slave Mooks]] to the far more malicious Zordrak, ordered into stealing the titular stone with threat of [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] or death if they fail. The heroes are generally apathetic to this situation and have no problem punishing them equally anytime they invade the Land Of Dreams (even using somewhat greyer solutions such as [[Heel Face Brainwashing]] or placing them in certain death situations, on a few occasions). Add to that their highly affable demeanor and camaraderie, and the Urpneys really linger as genuine antagonists.
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