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{{quote|''"[[Memetic Mutation|Did he say what I thought he said?]] I '''win?!?'''"''|'''Dr. Ivo Robotnik''', ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''}}
 
{{quote|''"Yes! Oh, yeah! I did it! I finally did it! I beat my old rival Mario! Yessss!"''|'''Bowser''', ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]''}}
 
That's right. Somehow, the [[Goldfish Poop Gang]] won.
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Speaking of role reversals, if the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] joins the heroes in an [[Enemy Mine]] situation where they both fight for a good goal, they'll no longer be under the same "[[The Good Guys Always Win|bad guys always lose]]" onus, and remind us why they were, [[Once Upon a Time]], relevant as they bash the [[Eviler Than Thou]] new threat.
 
Likewise, new characters in the show may be introduced as [[Distressed Damsel|Distressed Damsels]] being beaten by the Goldfish Poop Gang so that the heroes [[Pursued Protagonist|can come to their aid.]] It also serves to show us how pathetic they are and feel to lose to ''these'' guys. Afterwards, with some confidence boosting pep talks from the heroes and combat training, they will solo their temporary tormentors and make them [[A Twinkle in Thethe Sky]]. Similarly, a [[Tournament Arc]] allows most [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Quirky Miniboss Squads]] the chance to win a few matches to remind us they don't completly suck, only to then [[The Worf Effect|go down to a bigger threat]].
 
At any rate, you can expect a hero or one of the squad members to finish by asking "So... [[And Then What?|what now?]]''
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== Anime ==
 
* Team Rocket, the [[Trope Namer]] from ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'', beat the crap out of Ash's Pokémon when they were allowed to run Viridian City's Gym using Giovanni's Pokémon, at least until Ash managed to regain momentum and beat them at their own game. There have been a few other instances where Team Rocket has been successful in battle, but it was because they were [[Redemption Promotion|trying to do something good for a change]]. Their victories never lasted too long, and they were often sent flying at the end of the episode anyway.
** Jessie (while under her Jessilina alias) has actually become competent enough to win Pokémon Contests all on her own without cheating (though she has considered it at times.) She lost out on winning her fifth ribbon needed to get into the Grand Festival, but Dawn (or rather, a Dawn lookalike by the name of Princess Salvia, [[It Makes Sense in Context|long story]]) gave her the sixth ribbon she had just won. Jessie gratefully accepted it and made her way to the semi-finals against Dawn in the Grand Festival.
** In ''Off the Unbeaten Path'', James won a contest that involved teamwork with one's own Pokémon. He used Mime Jr. and was steadfast in playing by the rules despite Jessie's repeated attempts to encourage him to cheat. So this goes with the "Team Rocket can win if they act like good guys" rule.
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** Hell, after a while they were the most popular team in the organization! And did a [[Heel Face Turn]] because of it! And became one of the most successful teams in the crossover!
*** It's a series inspired by pro wrestling, of course the team with the most showmanship is going to win!
* The second season's arc of ''[[La Serie De Ken (Fanfic)|La Serie Dede Ken]]'' is kicked precisely because of this, Team Rocket manages to steal all but one of Ken's Pokémon and he has to start anew with a new set to try to recover them, it also marks the start of the villains as [[Not So Harmless]] and the series' [[Cerebus Syndrome]].
* A ''Powerpuff Girls'' picture strip story, "Diet With Honor," had Mojo Jojo making good on a threat to give Blossom "the spanking you so richly deserve."
 
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* ''[[Touhou Project]]'' has this in the handful of games that you can actually play as Cirno. Or, you know, if you lose to Cirno in the regular games. Cirno's plotlines generally have nothing to do with anything actually going on, and involve her just trying to prove she's "the strongest".
** Meiling is usually the [[Butt Monkey]] of the Scarlet Devil [[Cast Herd]], but playing as her in ''Unthinkable Natural Law'' and actually winning makes her declare to her friends that [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|she was holding herself back and playing the fool all along, waiting for a truly dire situation to reveal herself]]... [[Unreliable Narrator|not that you can necessarily trust that statement]].
* In the Dreamcast and [[PSPlay Station 2]] ''[[Wacky Races]]'' game, the final unlock is the ability to play as Dick Dastardly. It's worth going through all the trouble to do so just to win a race as him and hear the announcer's bewildered or disgusted reaction.
* Team Skull from ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers (Video Game)|Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers]] of Time/Darkness/Sky'' was introduced as an [[Warmup Boss|easy first boss]]. In a later mission where your team is sent out to get Perfect Apples however, Team Skull brings their leader along to defeat your team, and then they take the apples you were supposed to find.
* In the first ''[[Paper Mario]]'' Bowser once again starts the game's story by invading Princess Peach's castle. Peach sends Mario on him, [[The Good Guys Always Win|predicting the usual result]]. Then Bowser pulls out the newly stolen Star Rod, boosting his strength, cue a [[Hopeless Boss Fight]] where your only choice is to let Bowser chalk up his first canonical victory against the plumber. Peach and even Bowser himself are completely astonished.
* In a similar manner, Dr. Eggman starts off the events of ''[[Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)|Sonic Unleashed]]'' by depowering Sonic ''in his super form'' and using his power to activate a laser to create an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]. Keep in mind no other villain ([[Sonic the3 Hedgehogand 3Knuckles|bar Knuckles technically]]) has actually defeated Super Sonic.
** Playing E-102 Gamma's story in ''[[Sonic Adventure (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure]]'' allows you to battle and win against Sonic in a brief mini boss. Amy stops him just short of finishing the job however.
 
 
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== Western Animation ==
 
* ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]''. ''[[Mad Love]]'' has Harley Quinn manage to use one of the Joker's plots to capture Batman and have him dead to rights. This being [[Mad Love|Harley Quinn,]] Batman manages to play on her insecurities and call Joker. [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|That goes down as well as you'd expect.]]
* One episode of the ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'' had Mojo Jojo, Princess, Fuzzy and Him team up into an ultra successful band, the "Beat All's", which the Girls were powerless to beat conventionally. Enter [[Yoko Oh No|Moko Jono]]. True, Him is hardly a [[Harmless Villain]], but Fuzzy, Princess and Mojo (at times) are pretty low on the threat scale.
** In another episode, Mojo aqcuired the Girls' abilities and defeated them, only to launch into a [[Contemplate Our Navels|navel-gazing session]] so severe that he didn't notice the Girls recover and turn him back to normal.
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*** It turns out to be a tainted victory however {{spoiler|when Professor Utonium vows to never come to his diner again.}}
** The [[Grand Finale]], ''See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey'' began with the city beseiged by the girls' entire [[Rogues Gallery]], and the girls getting their butts kicked to set up the main plot.
* The Kanker Sisters in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' ''always'' seize the day away from the Eds.
** "A Glass Of Warm Ed" and "Dim Lit Ed" however end with the Eds successfully making a profit out of one of their scams. The "Big Picture Show" finale also ends with the Eds finally becoming popular.
* In ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'', they did this once. The "superheroes" lost control of their powers and were badly injured, and Mermaid Man was too weak to fight. However, Barnacle Boy (who just had a [[Face Heel Turn]] and called himself "Barnacle Man") decides to simply go back to being good, just because he can now have an adult-sized Krabby Patty. The other villians are later seen in jail, participating in the [["Everybody Laughs" Ending]].
** [[The Movie]] has Plankton actually succeed in stealing the Krabby Patty formula (though, natch, [[The Un-Reveal|he doesn't read it to us]]).
** In "Wishing You Well" he also gets his wish of growing to several hundred feet to "crush his enemies". His appearance ends with him happily knocking down random buildings in Bikini Bottom.
* Designated villains The Really Rottens actually won in at two episodes of the ''[[Laff-aA-Lympics]]''. Usually most of their points were ruled invalid by the judges, but yep, a couple of times, the rotten bastards won.
** An issue of the Laff-A-Lympics comic book (Marvel #5) had the Rottens apparently renouncing their cheating ways and winding up winning. However, they were disqualified because The Great Fondoo and Magic Rabbit, who were "kicked off" the team, kidnapped Boo Boo Bear and Blue Falcon, took their physical forms through Fondoo's magic, and caused the Yogis and Scoobys to lose on purpose.
* On a similar subject, one episode of ''[[Wacky Races]]'' actually ends with Dick Dastardly placing in first. But unlike the Really Rottens' example, he doesn't get to keep his victory, because the announcer then shows a slow-motion replay of the race's finish that shows that the Mean Machine stretched its front forward to give the illusion that he came in first (despite the fact that if you look at the actual finish, you don't see such a thing happening). Watch the clip [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZv8HdAS8Vk here].
* Dastardly actually won two races outright in the comic books: "The Scavenger Scramble" (Gold Key #7) and "Trek To Tazmania" (Archie Comics #1). There were catches to the victories, however. Hanna-Barbera Fun-In (Gold Key #5) had a one-pager of Dastardly pushing the Mean Machine across the finish line after Muttley bails on him, and he uses the trophy, filled with hot water, to soak his feet.
* In an episode of ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'' in which Omi freezes himself so he can find his future self (doesn't work of course because ''he wasn't there'') he ends up in a [[Bad Future]] where Jack Spicer has taken over the world. The crazy part is that he apparently defeated and captured the other three villains, despite them being far more evil and powerful.
** On a lighter note, he also won in two episodes, one where the robot he sent lost the showdown, but he stole all the monk's Sheng Gong Wu (in the "shake the heroes out of their comfort zone" model), and another where Omi actually loses due to misusing a shen gong wu, and the episode has a downer ending. Despite being an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]], hes had several [[Near Villain Victory|Near Villain Victories]] as well.
* One ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short (the made-for-TV short "Soup Or Sonic") has [[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner (Animation)|Wile E. Coyote catching the Roadrunner]]. Of course, the coyote has shrunk down to a comically puny size so the Roadrunner is '''much''' bigger than him. Wile E. [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades this by]] [[No Fourth Wall|pointing out to the audience that he has absolutely no clue what to do next.]]
{{quote| '''Wile E. Coyote:''' [[Talking Withwith Signs|(Holds up a sign)]] Okay, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him. Now what do I do?}}
** Also, in [[Cartoon Network]]'s ''~I Shouldn't Be Alive~'' [http://vimeo.com/11486841 short on the Coyote], after spending almost a whole year attempting to attack and capture the Road Runner, he finally has him within his grasp (he simply laid out some bird seed and leapt at him while he was eating), only to discover that his finger muscles were too weak to do anything to him.
** A bumper on ''The Road Runner Show'' (CBS, 1966-68; ABC, 1971-72) had the coyote diverting the Road Runner's attention by drawing a portrait of the two, the coyote in the drawing with a rifle in hand. The coyote grabs the Road Runner's neck only to have the coyote drawing blast him in the ass with the rifle.
** Also Elmer Fudd defeated Bugs at his own game in ''Rabbit Rampage'' (a semi remake of ''[[Duck Amuck]]'') as well as in ''Hare Brush'' (albeit due to something of a personality exchange, with an insane Elmer "turning" into Bugs). He also finally "killed da wabbit" in ''What's Opera Doc'' ([[My God, What Have I Done?|though didn't really find victory all that satisfying]]).
** In the original nine-minute long version of ''Duck Dodgers and The Return of the 24th and a Half Century'' Marvin the Martian seemingly achieves his goal of detonating the earth. With Dodgers distracted from his duties and earth's destruction almost certain, Marvin is left with no choice but to ensure the viewers "it's only a cartoon". Oddly this was cut from the shortened theatrical version of the short, though since it ends with Dodgers still having not stopped Marvin, the implication is still there.
** Even following his Flanderization into a [[Butt Monkey]], Daffy seemed to score more victories than most other fall-guys in the series, {{spoiler|1=knocking out Taz in a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] in ''Ducking The Devil'', being the first foe to defeat Speedy Gonzales in ''Mucho Locos'' to name a few. Counting an [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RIvO74ZC5c obscure Tang endorsement from ''The Bugs Bunny Show''] and [[Cartoon Network]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO7lR1Fzw48 Big Game from 2001], he has also defeated Bugs twice as well.}} Also, perhaps due to being created by fans of the shorts and the character, some later features tend to [[Throw the Dog Aa Bone|throw Daffy a bone]] a few times as well.
* Almost happens in ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. When the normally incompetent [[Goldfish Poop Gang|Scratch and Grounder]] are converted into [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|ninja robots]], they almost manage to kill [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]] and Tails, if it wasn't for Sonic and Tails escaping via sheer luck.
* The ''[[Super Mario World (Animationanimation)|Super Mario World]]'' episode has Bowser actually make off with the money he made selling his mutant food to the cavepeople (or at least two bags of it), with Mario and Peach making no effort to stop him ([[Villain Exit Stage Left|not that they ever tried before, though]]). Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that his restaurant actually was a legal business, even though he was using it to turn the cavepeople into his [[Mook|Mooks]].
** He also kept the money when he sold televisions to the cavepeople. In the cartoons, [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|someone cut Bowser a check]] and he's been abusing it ever since.
** In ''The [[Super Mario Bros Super Show]]'' episode "Flatbush Koopa," Bowser is attacking Brooklyn, and Mario succeeds in trapping him back in the Mushroom Kingdom. Only he realizes too late that he's trapped there too, and the episode ends with Bowser blasting away at Mario and the gang, who are running away.
* In an episode of ''[[Justice League]]'', a group of Superman villains teamed up, planning to use their combined talents to finally kill the big blue alien once and for all. Naturally, the Justice League wipe the floor with them before Superman even gets there, but they still manage to pull it off! The one who made the killing blow? ..... Toyman. {{spoiler|Yeah, it was Toyman in a [[Humongous Mecha]] and Superman was really only sent thousands of years into the future and returned home at the end of the episode, but still. Toyman.}}
* Possibly the only [[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]] cartoon where Tom doesn't get utterly humiliated at the end by Jerry, ''Southbound Duckling'' ends with Tom... well, just [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plXz3USuewA watch for yourselves].
** Tom wins in a few cartoons such as ''Million Dollar Cat, The Vanishing Duck'' and ''Duel Personality.''
** Actually, Tom has won in a total of 13 different cartoons.
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* ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' episode 25, "Retreat": [[The Starscream|Starscream]] pulls a [[Determinator]] on the Autobots, managing to steal the Omega Lock and the three Cyber Planet Keys found thus far. This after ''successfully'' betraying Megatron. He goes on to [[Make My Monster Grow|supersize himself]] and become a major threat on his own until towards the end, and his showdown with Galvatron.
* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] in ''[[Re Boot]]''. In Season 3 Hack & Slash ''would have'' succeeded in executing Cyris, but Slash refused to go through with it. It turns out Slash never wanted to win in the first place, counting on (now-absent) Bob to prevent him & Hack from doing anything ''too'' bad.
* In the [[Mega Man (TVanimation)|Ruby-Spears Megaman cartoon]], while his primary goal wasn't achieved, Wily made off with the money from robbing the citizens in "Crime of the Century" and the money from selling a shrunken Washington D.C. in "The Incredible Shrinking Megaman". If you want to get technical, he also got all the money from selling Fun World tickets.
* In ''[[The Dreamstone]]'' episode "Argorrible Attack", the Urpneys actually succeed in giving the majority of the Land of Dreams nightmares ([[Poke the Poodle|a small time victory]], but exactly what Zordrak wanted). The heroes try to give Viltheed good dreams in revenge, and it actually proves somewhat ineffective. Though granted after that they decide to just [[Curb Stomp Battle|beat the crap out of all of them]] instead.
** Also in "The Spidermobile" Blob and his gang effortlessly overpower the entire Wut army and capture the Dreamstone (along with Rufus, Amberley and Pildit) using the aforementioned machine. For once they do not screw things up, it is [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|Zordrak and Urpgor instead that lose the stone]], something Frizz and Nug find to be [[Actually Pretty Funny]].
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