Villain Decay: Difference between revisions

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* All those evil corporations, organizations and elite hacker groups seem pretty daunting at first in ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]''. The knights were particularly presented as being high-level hackers. It has you rather worried for Lain, that is until we find out (MAJOR SPOILER) {{spoiler|that Lain has complete control of the Wired, which in its merging state with the real world, pretty much makes her God. Sayonara, Eiri! Knights: DELETED.}}

* Kagura in ''[[Inuyasha]]'' suffers this. She nearly overwhelms Inuyasha on her own in his first two fights with her, but a big contributor to that was his inability to use his Wind Scar supermove on her because she could control the air. When he gained the ability to use it whenever he wanted, he could take her easily. She was, however, still a tough enemy for the rest of the cast. What really killed her as a threat was [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil|the constant popping up of villains stronger then her]].

* Minor example: Misa Amane in ''[[Death Note]]'', who starts out as a typical [[Genki Girl]] [[Moe]] [[Yandere]] [[Perky Female Minion]] with moments of sinister [[Ax Crazy]] creepiness. After she has her Death Note stolen (twice), she becomes a [[Genki Girl]] [[Moe]] [[Yandere]] [[Perky Female Minion]] ''without'' any moments of [[Ax Crazy]] creepiness, and stays that way for the rest of the series. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that having one's Death Note taken away erases all memories that the owner had ever since owning it.

* Minor example: Misa Amane in ''[[Death Note]]'', who starts out as a typical [[Genki Girl]] [[Moe]] [[Yandere (disambiguation)]] [[Perky Female Minion]] with moments of sinister [[Ax Crazy]] creepiness. After she has her Death Note stolen (twice), she becomes a [[Genki Girl]] [[Moe]] [[Yandere (disambiguation)]] [[Perky Female Minion]] ''without'' any moments of [[Ax Crazy]] creepiness, and stays that way for the rest of the series. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that having one's Death Note taken away erases all memories that the owner had ever since owning it.

** Possibly played straight. In her first few episodes she's seen as a competent villain and legitimate threat even managing to {{spoiler|kill a member of the Kira investigation team and finding out Kira's identity}}. Once she [[Love Makes You Dumb|met up with Light]], she began to decay fast.

* From [[Rurouni Kenshin]], Isurugi Raijuta, as admitted by [[Word of God|the author himself]]. A fearsome swordsman possessed of [[Genius Bruiser|"macho intelligence"]] and a [[Social Darwinist|belief]] that's on the opposite spectrum of the hero's...but in the final battle, he's revealed to be a cowardly fake, who's never actually killed anyone and gets taken out with one blow (and [[Villainous Breakdown|completely broken]] afterwards).

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** Of course, in the earlier example, it's clearly established that they had surprise on their side at least partly -- plus a handy ability to [[Zombie Apocalypse|turn anyone they bit into zombies]], which evened the odds somewhat.

* Marvel Comics' Onslaught initially appeared as beyond godlike and it took every superhero on Earth to defeat him. He made a recent return in which he was {{spoiler|defeated far more easily and sent to the Negative Zone.}}

** When he did come back, he was the subject of a low-selling mini where he was defeated by [[Captain America]] and some of the author's [[Pet Characters]]. Not very fitting for a guy who literally took on the entire Marvel Universe at one point.

** When he did come back, he was the subject of a low-selling mini where he was defeated by [[Captain America (comics)]] and some of the author's [[Pet Characters]]. Not very fitting for a guy who literally took on the entire Marvel Universe at one point.

* Dr. Light in [[The DCU]]. At first, he was tough enough to take on the whole Justice League, and then declines through the 1980s to the point where he is beaten by the kid ''non-powered'' superhero team, Little Boy Blue and his Blue Boys.

** This was [[Explained/retcon|retconned]] in the infamous ''[[Identity Crisis]]'' storyline as the League having given him what amounted to a psychic lobotomy via [[Zatanna]]'s magical powers after he had sneaked aboard the Watchtower and [[Moral Event Horizon|raped Sue Dibny]]. He later recovered and went back to his threatening self...until [[The Spectre]] turned him into a candle.

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* Rodrigo Borgia from ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' starts out as the menacing [[Big Bad]] in the game by slyly walking around Italy making sure everything is going according to plan and even has a [[Buffy-Speak|cool dark reddish-black]] [[Black Cloak|hooded robe]], but at the end {{spoiler|he ditches the cloak for not as cool majestic Pope robes and shows off how much of a fat bald guy he is. Then he ditches his [[Magnificent Bastard]] demeanor and rambles about religion. If that's not enough he gets the stuff KNOCKED out of him by a bare handed Ezio. And finally the next game has him being upstaged by his kids with them disobeying orders and is eventually killed by an apple}} To be fair it is [[Shown Their Work|based on history]].

* Kerrigan from ''Starcraft''. In the original she was little more than an [[Axe Crazy]] [[Psycho for Hire]] [[Elite Mook]] to the Overmind. In Brood Wars she ascended into a [[Magnificent Bitch]] of her own right, manipulating ALL the other sides against each other, [[Hero-Killer|eliminating one key figure after another]] and eventually crippling her enemies and proclaiming herself Queen Bitch of the Universe. And it WAS NOT an empty boast. Then...came Wings of Liberty. Sarah suffered from a sever case of [[Orcus on His Throne|"Arthas Syndrome"]], and for the whole Terran campaign stayed in the background, being repeatedly thwarted by the humans, spurting some cliched villanious trites interlaced with some fatalistic emo crap, and finally being rescued by the hero, who carried her on his arms into the sunrise. All the hopes now lie in the upcoming Zerg campaign which is supposed to rehabilitate our beloved [[Femme Fatale]].

* In ''[[Command ~~and~~ Conquer Red Alert]]'', the [[Reds with Rockets|Soviets]] are fear-inspiring Nazi replacements who want to [[Take Over the World]] and cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]] several times. Over the course of the games, they become increasingly goofier and sillier, eventually becoming [[Harmless Villain|Harmless Villains]] in ''[[Command ~~and~~ Conquer Red Alert 3]]'', compared to the new antagonist, the [[Katanas of the Rising Sun|Empire of the Rising Sun]].

* In ''[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]'', the [[Reds with Rockets|Soviets]] are fear-inspiring Nazi replacements who want to [[Take Over the World]] and cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]] several times. Over the course of the games, they become increasingly goofier and sillier, eventually becoming [[Harmless Villain|Harmless Villains]] in ''[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3]]'', compared to the new antagonist, the [[Katanas of the Rising Sun|Empire of the Rising Sun]].

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* In ''[[Gormiti the Lords of Nature Return]]'', this was the fate that befell Orrore Profondo (Deep Horror), who, in the [[All There in the Manual|backstory narrated in the toyline]], was a terrifying opponent, feared by all the Gormiti siding with the Wise Old One. He even managed to {{spoiler|trick the Air Gormiti into doing a [[Face Heel Turn]]}}...but in the series (which takes place many millennia after the toyline story), he seems to play second banana to [[Evil Overlord]] Magmion and doesn't really show the competence a villain of his caliber should. Note, however, that this only seems to apply to his anime self: in the comics, as of now, he has retained all of his credentials and Magmion is just one of his underlings.

* Satan was big and scary in his first appearance in ''[[South Park]]'', but he's become "a whiny little bitch" in God's own words ever since he was first established as the lover of Saddam Hussein. It's arguable that he started out pre-decayed, though. He LOOKED intimidating, but his master plot in his first appearance was conning the city out of a lot of betting money, rather than, you know, the End of Days or anything like that.

* Mandark's first appearance in ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' established him as clearly superior to Dexter in terms of brains, to the point where he could read minds, and saying his name invoked [[The Scottish Trope]]. He was quickly brought down to being Dexter's equal, with his telepathy disappearing. In fact, "[[The Movie|Ego Trip]]" even stated he had to resort to stealing Dexter's ideas to get ahead. Justified in that Mandark was badass until meeting [[Achilles Heel|Dee-Dee]] in that very episode, so as long as she's around, he's too lovestruck to do anything, even while she wrecks his lab. The '''real''' [[Villain Decay]] for Mandark came in the final season where he [[Retcon|has a Flashback episode, revealing his birth name was "Sue," an innocent flower child that met Dexter years ago, taking the name Mandark after being refused friendship by Dexter,]] despite the fact that his debut ep introduced his real name as Ivan Astronomonov with the aforementioned nickname [[The Scottish Trope|Mandark.]]

* Mandark's first appearance in ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' established him as clearly superior to Dexter in terms of brains, to the point where he could read minds, and saying his name invoked [[The Scottish Trope]]. He was quickly brought down to being Dexter's equal, with his telepathy disappearing. In fact, "[[The Movie|Ego Trip]]" even stated he had to resort to stealing Dexter's ideas to get ahead. Justified in that Mandark was badass until meeting [[Achilles' Heel|Dee-Dee]] in that very episode, so as long as she's around, he's too lovestruck to do anything, even while she wrecks his lab. The '''real''' [[Villain Decay]] for Mandark came in the final season where he [[Retcon|has a Flashback episode, revealing his birth name was "Sue," an innocent flower child that met Dexter years ago, taking the name Mandark after being refused friendship by Dexter,]] despite the fact that his debut ep introduced his real name as Ivan Astronomonov with the aforementioned nickname [[The Scottish Trope|Mandark.]]

* Metallo from ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'' became less and less of a credible threat with each appearance. Probably intentional, too. Metallo's appearance over the episodes maintained the damage he suffered from each prior appearance, implying that he wasn't getting internal repairs, either.

* While ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'''s Heinz Doofenshmirtz has always been a [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]], Buford was introduced as a truly nasty bully. By the second season he's mostly just cranky and posturing and is in fact a friend of [[Phineas and Ferb]]. Also, Tri-State Unification day episode contains both of these elements. He tries to ruin the parade, but also has a [[With Friends Like These...]] relationship with Baljeet whom he used to pick on.