History BigBadWannabe / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'':
** On his own, Edison Po is a dangerous villain, and he is one hell of a threatening and smart enemy, but he's in way over his head in comparison to the Clairvoyant, who he only manages to be TheDragon and MouthOfSauron to before [[spoiler:the Clairvoyant [[YouHaveFailedMe has him killed after his efforts at torturing Coulson for information prove ineffective]] and subsequently promotes Raina into serving as his replacement. Speaking of]]...
** Raina may be a ManipulativeBastard and may think [[IJustWantToBeSpecial she's meant for something great]], but ultimately she's just an expendable pawn in the schemes of HYDRA and Mr. Hyde. This is even reflected by [[spoiler: what happens to her when she undergoes terrigenesis. Raina was expecting to be a beautiful and powerful angel blessed with amazing powers. Instead, she was turned into a gnarled, spikey, and pathetic monster who is in perpetual agony and is left with painful prophetic powers that she can't even control.]]
** While Dr. Whitehall is certainly a dangerous HYDRA leader, Cal notes that he still has no clue what the purpose of the Obelisk is even after all his extensive research, comparing him to a monkey scratching hopelessly at it. [[spoiler:Then there's the fact that Coulson just shoots him InTheBack in the most hilariously anticlimactic manner possible right as Cal is seconds away from engaging in what he'd hoped to be a climactic showdown with the man... 10 episodes into the 22 episode season.]]
** In Season 3, [[spoiler:Grant Ward]] tries to rebuild HYDRA from the ground up to take revenge on S.H.I.E.L.D. But while he's Team Coulson's [[ItsPersonal most personal]] enemy, he's far from the biggest threat: his one attack that managed to cause some damage, [[spoiler:assassinating Coulson's LoveInterest]], also [[spoiler:provoked Coulson into killing him...which subsequently allows him to be possessed by the far worse threat Hive]].
** Season 4 has Anton Ivanov, the so-called "[[BadassNormal Superior Man]]". He's the head of the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Watchdogs]], who plague S.H.I.E.L.D. throughout most of the season, all as part of a decades-long vendetta against Coulson for a previous encounter. Except not only does Coulson [[ButForMeItWasTuesday not even remember him or the event in question]] (robbing him of much of his significance), but he ends up [[CurbStompBattle easily defeated by Daisy]], after which the season's real main villains usurp his resources and turn him into a pawn.
** HYDRA ended up being far less of a threat than they were initially made out to be. Their motto "cut off one head, two more will take its place" is designed to make it seem like they will be around forever and there's no point in fighting them. And during both [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger their time overtly working to achieve their world domination agenda in World War II]] and [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier their time covertly influencing the world for their benefit without anyone else being any the wiser]], they genuinely gave Captain America quite the challenge in foiling their plans. But as it eventually turns out over the course of this series, they are ultimately only truly capable of causing real damage when they don't have a dedicated force going after them and trying to take them down. To start, during Season 2, Coulson is able to trick most of HYDRA's leaders into killing each other, and the season finale has a MookLieutenant inform Ward that the heads were not growing back. Then it was revealed that they were just a cult waiting for the return of a powerful Inhuman, whose return ended up ironically ''accelerating'' their demise. After said Inhuman, named Hive, kills Gideon Malick's daughter, Malick [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal gives S.H.I.E.L.D. everything he knows]] about HYDRA's operations, resulting in S.H.I.E.L.D. and the United States military launching a coordinated strike that leaves General Hale as the last HYDRA head standing. Speaking of which...
** General Hale thought she could manipulate S.H.I.E.L.D. into helping her take over the Confederacy. Not one of her schemes worked out, she was never in a position of power over the Confederacy, and [[spoiler:she was unceremoniously killed off by Graviton, ending the last remnant of HYDRA (all this happened in the TV series; to fans who only watched the MCU movies, HYDRA would appear to have fallen victim to ChuckCunninghamSyndrome)]].
** General Hale's daughter Ruby believes it is her destiny to become the Destroyer of Worlds by assimilating all of the obtained Gravitonium into her body. This backfires horribly, as [[spoiler:she can't even absorb eight percent of it without the voices of those who were previously trapped inside of it driving her beyond crazy and completely out of control, after which Elena [[DiscOneFinalBoss ends her threat before it truly begins]] via SlashedThroat with one of her own chakrams. Ultimately, the one who becomes Graviton is General Talbot]].
** The Confederacy believed themselves to be much more powerful than they actually were. They were easily [[spoiler:cowed by Graviton before subsequently getting destroyed off-screen by the Chronicoms]].
** Atarah is one of the leaders of the surviving Chronicoms whose planet was wiped clean of life by Izel. Her obsession with using FitzSimmons' brains to learn how to time travel and restore her species' homeworld causes her to undergo SanitySlippage and delve further into StupidEvil tendencies. [[TheDragon Malachi]] [[spoiler:shoots her and takes leadership over the rest, intending on making Earth into their next home planet... except he is DemotedToDragon by Sibyl in the final season with virtually no fanfare. It is possible that she was the real boss all along, of course]].
** [[spoiler:Sibyl herself, despite being the only character who fulfills the BigBad role for the entire final season (having [[TheDragon Luke]] form a BigBadDuumvirate with Wilfred Malick in the first half before forging one herself with Wilfred's now-superpowered son Nathaniel in the second half) and being potentially the most powerful and dangerous threat of them all by virtue of being able to affect time itself, shows tendencies of being outplayed by S.H.I.E.L.D. more than once, to the point where both she and Nathaniel dismiss her own calculations and probabilities. She also gets KilledOffscreen after Coulson and May trick her one last time while Nathaniel serves as the FinalBoss for Daisy, who quakes him into one of the reactor cores, obliterating him, Sibyl, and their entire space armada.]]
** [[spoiler:Nathaniel, despite being TheHeavy and a much more direct threat who really earns the enmity of the heroes, is another hilariously StupidEvil SmugSnake who deludes himself into believing that Sibyl and her armada work ''for'' him rather than ''with'' him, even though he had to resort to asking Sibyl to give him some of her Hunters, plus he has no idea of the "new world order" structure he's even building, his postulations about giving power to those who are more deserving being an excuse to cause anarchy in the world and then step in to "fix it" himself and rule the planet, even though he's been told more than once that Sibyl wants to make Earth into her people's new homeworld. This guy has UnwittingPawn written all over him, making Sibyl the clear dominant partner between the two of them. Finally, despite being Daisy's last opponent in the series, even though he has Daisy's and Kora's powers ''combined,'' Daisy is still holding back to avoid annihilating the warship. When her team is safe and she finally cuts loose, she obliterates him and the entire armada with a single attack, although nearly at the cost of her own life.]]

* General Wade Eiling in ''Series/TheFlash2014''. Normally he'd be a genuine threat and someone to be concerned about, but he's far less influential than he thinks and is ultimately irrelevant compared to the Reverse-Flash and Gorilla Grodd, the real {{Big Bad}}s. In fact, this ends up being his downfall; [[spoiler:after his attempts to make metahuman weapons interfere in the Reverse-Flash's schemes once too often, he gets fed up with it and has Grodd effortlessly MindRape Eiling.]]

* On ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', a trip to 1717 reveals that under his boasting and supposedly evil persona, Blackbeard is a coward who doesn't hesitate to give up information under the slightest threat or bargain to save his own skin.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Alexander Luthor talks a good game, and his EnfanteTerrible (later TeensAreMonsters) status, and undoubted EvilGenius make him a legitimate threat to the heroes. Yet he's too fundamentally screwed up to replace the genuine ComicBook/LexLuthor, and his CloneDegeneration causes him to slowly break down both [[SanitySlippage mentally]] and physically, [[spoiler: ultimately resulting in total amnesia and a HeelFaceTurn]]. A similar case could be made for the AxCrazy Lex Clone who escaped in the Season 10 premiere: he's incredibly dangerous, but is too insane to fully step into Lex's shoes, and is in the middle of TheLastDance anyway. They've got the same problem in fact: they're very capable opponents but are overshadowed by both their genetic source material and the season's real BigBad.

* ''Series/Watchmen2019'': The [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Seventh Kavalry]], and their leader [[spoiler:[[CorruptPolitician Senator Keene]]]], ultimately turn out to be this. Their white supremacist agenda, carried out by extremely violent means, makes them the most obvious threat in the series, especially once we learn that their true goal is to [[spoiler:steal [[PhysicalGod Doctor Manhattan's]] powers for themselves]]. However, in the final episode it's revealed that all along they were {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of the true BigBad, [[spoiler:[[TheChessmaster Lady Trieu]]]], who allowed them to carry out the setup for that plan just to swoop in and hijack the endgame for her own ends.

** On his own, Edison Po is a dangerous villain, and he is one hell of a threatening and smart enemy, but he’s in way over his head in comparison to the Clairvoyant, who he only manages to be TheDragon and MouthOfSauron to before [[spoiler:the Clairvoyant [[YouHaveFailedMe has him killed after his efforts at torturing Coulson for information prove ineffective]] and subsequently promoting Raina into serving as his replacement. Speaking of]]…

** On his own, Edison Po is a dangerous villain, and he is one hell of a threatening and smart enemy, but he’s in way over his head in comparison to the Clairvoyant, who he only manages to be TheDragon to before [[spoiler:getting fatally replaced with Raina. Speaking of]]…

** While Dr. Whitehall is certainly a dangerous HYDRA leader, Cal notes that he still has no clue what the purpose of the Obelisk is even after all his extensive research, comparing him to a monkey scratching hopelessly at it. [[spoiler:Then there's the fact that Coulson just shoots him InTheBack in the most hilariously anticlimactic manner possible… 10 episodes into the 22 episode season.]]

** Season 4 has Anton Ivanov, the so-called "[[BadassNormal Superior Man]]". He's the head of the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Watchdogs]], who plague S.H.I.E.L.D. throughout most of the season, all as part of a decades-long vendetta against Coulson for a previous encounter. Except not only does Coulson [[ButForMeItWasTuesday not remember him or the event in question]] (robbing him of much of his significance), but he ends up [[CurbStompBattle easily defeated by Daisy]], after which the season's real villains usurp his resources and turn him into a pawn.
** HYDRA ended up being this. Their motto "cut off one head, two more will take its place" is designed to make it seem like they will be around forever and there’s no point in fighting them. And during both [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger their time overtly working to achieve their world domination agenda in World War II]] and [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier their time covertly influencing the world for their benefit without anyone else being any the wiser]], they genuinely gave Captain America quite the challenge in foiling their plans. But as it eventually turns out over the course of this series, they are ultimately only truly capable of causing real damage when they don't have a dedicated force going after them and trying to take them down. To start, during Season 2, Coulson is able to trick most of HYDRA’s leaders into killing each other, and the season finale has a MookLieutenant inform Ward that the heads were not growing back. Then it was revealed that they were just a cult waiting for the return of a powerful Inhuman, whose return ended up ironically ''accelerating'' their demise. After said Inhuman, named Hive, kills Gideon Malick’s daughter, Malick [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal gives S.H.I.E.L.D. everything he knows]] about HYDRA’s operations, resulting in S.H.I.E.L.D. and the United States military launching a coordinated strike that leaves General Hale as the last HYDRA head standing. Speaking of which...

** General Hale thought she could manipulate S.H.I.E.L.D. into helping her take over the Confederacy. Not one of her schemes worked out, she was never in a position of power over the Confederacy, and she was unceremoniously killed off by Graviton, ending the last remnant of HYDRA (all this happened in the TV series; to fans who only watched the MCU movies, HYDRA would appear to have fallen victim to ChuckCunninghamSyndrome).
** The Confederacy believed themselves to be much more powerful than they actually were. They were easily cowed by Graviton before subsequently getting destroyed off-screen by the Chronicoms.

** Cersei Lannister tries to be a player in the Game of Thrones, but she is only effective in the first few seasons against her drunken husband and overly honourable Ned Stark. Against everyone else? She loses control of her son Joffrey while trying to be the woman behind the throne, and almost all of her plans are outmaneuvered by everyone from Margaery Tyrell to the High Sparrow. Even after she gains real power in Season 7, she is basically ignored by her enemies to focus on the Night King, and once he's gone, everything she has gets wiped out very quickly by Daenerys, the real FinalBoss of the series.
** Joffrey himself tries desperately to be a powerful king but is instead just a cruel bully. He's definitely one of the most pointlessly cruel characters in the show, but he's only able to act on that cruelty because his title allows him to make frequent [[StupidEvil stupid and sadistic decisions]] without fear of repercussion. His aspirations to lead his army and boasts to personally face Stannis Baratheon in battle are proven hollow when he cowers in his palace in fear. His uncle Tyrion's and grandfather [[DragonInChief Tywin]]'s political cunning and Westerlands army is the only thing holding Joffrey's regime together. It's made very clear to [[AuthorityInNameOnly Joffrey]] himself that Tywin has no respect for him at all and is the real man in charge. He later expresses the belief that he was the sole individual responsible for ending the War of the Five Kings, despite Stannis still being alive to return to fight another day, the ongoing Greyjoy Rebellion, as well as the Riverlands and the entire North still not being under any semblance of control.

** For someone that served as one of the strongest BigBad contenders of the story and was actually responsible for many tragedies that take place, [[spoiler:Littlefinger]] turned out to be this in the end. [[spoiler:He started the whole plot in the first place by poisoning the previous Hand of the King and set off a series of events that escalated into the civil war with the end goal of all combatants killing each other so he could rule Westeros with [[BrokenBird Sansa Stark]] as his [[VillainousCrush queen]]. However, he never actually gets anywhere near close to his big ambition and gets reduced to relatively small-scale schemes by setting the Stark kids against each other. In the end, he gets outwitted by them, his crimes are exposed to everyone, and dies an UndignifiedDeath begging for his life on his knees]].
** Played with in regards to Euron Greyjoy. He is the least effective antagonist when introduced in Season 6 and doesn't initially seem that different from Balon which culminates in Theon and Yara ruining his initial plans by stealing his best ships and making an alliance with Daenerys before him. In Season 7, though, he finally proves himself as a much more competent threat than Balon by making an alliance with Cersei and establishing himself as a very real threat when he attacks Yara's fleet, personally slays Obara and Nym, and defeats Yara in combat. Needless to say, Euron is ''very'' underestimated, simply for the fact that he is a Greyjoy. It could be possible that Euron ''knew'' that Theon and Yara would escape and make an alliance with Daenerys before him. Even in the books, Euron doesn't seem to be interested in actually marrying Daenerys but rather bringing her dragons to Westeros so he could utilize their full potential for his own ends. By sending Victarion to court Daenerys, Euron knew the risk that his brother would eventually turn the tables on him since none of his brothers trust him.

** In spin-off media, the Meddling Monk — the Doctor's first Time Lord enemy — tends to come across as this; he likes to consider himself the "hero", rebelling against Time Lord society to make history better according to his own views while dismissing the Doctor as a fool at best and a hypocrite at worst, but his efforts to supplant the Doctor always fail. The Monk's most elaborate scheme — ''Blood Heat'' to ''No Future'' — simply creates an alternate timeline where the Doctor died, rather than killing the Doctor in his own past, and while the Monk claims that his later plans were always intended to just distract the Doctor from his main scheme, he is finally tricked and defeated by the Doctor's companion Ace. When the Monk's return in the Eighth Doctor audios sees him [[spoiler:make a deal with the ''Daleks'', he is genuinely shocked when the Daleks betray him, spending time weeping about the death of his companion.]] The Monk goes on to try and [[spoiler:take the Doctor's place in history after convincing himself that the Doctor was the reason everything went wrong, but even when he succeeds after tricking the Fifth Doctor into changing history in "The Secret History", the Monk's former ally looks into the future and realises that history is worse with the Monk's active interference than it would be with the Doctor's more benevolent, hidden assistance]].
** In the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' spin-off audios, the Time Lord criminal known as 'the Eleven' was described at least once by the Doctor as being potentially more dangerous than the Master because his own criminal actions are committed ForTheEvulz rather than because he has a clear plan and long-term agenda. However, in "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoNEDASRavenous4E3DayOfTheMaster Day of the Master]]", [[spoiler:when the Eleven offers an alliance between himself and three different incarnations of the Master as the Doctor's two greatest arch-enemies, the three Masters shoot the Eleven and throw him out of the TARDIS, dismissing the idea that a lunatic like the Eleven could be the Doctor's other greatest arch-enemy]].

*** There's technically a lot more wannabes than just those three. They're just the ones who come the closest to being Big Bads. As for the others, Sid dies after pulling an unsuccessful backstab, Jonouchi is nowhere near the brilliant mastermind he thinks he is and Hase falls out of the power game pretty quickly, resulting in [[spoiler:him accidentally turning himself into a monster in an attempt to keep up and getting easily killed by Sid up there]].

** Queen Juuza of ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'' ends up like this not as a result of incompetence but rather underestimation of her own soldiers, in any other show she probably would've remained the BigBad from start to end thanks to her power but in ''Jetman'' where every single major villain is a treacherous backstabber she doesn't lasts long in her position before the Vyram elites help the Jetman defeat her, with Radiguet personally finishing her off and taking her schemes for his own use.

** A more humorous example is Yabaiba from ''Series/HyakujuuSentaiGaoranger'' who wants to be a Higness Duke through his merits but is too dumb, inept and passive to ever be a real threat, even when he's the only major Org left he can't do much other than hiding the [[EvilLair Matrix]] from the Gaorangers and once [[spoiler:[=TsueTsue=] and the three Highnesses come back from the dead due to his efforts he goes back to being their sycopanthic servant]].
** Boss Tau Zant from ''Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger'' is turned into one by virtue of his [[TheDragon second-in-command]], Sandaaru [[spoiler:backstabbing and killing him as soon as he'd began his final plan]]; and this is after Sandaaru did the heavy lifting of putting the plan in motion; furthermore [[spoiler:the Evil Will he so much coveted takes his dead body for itself and was implicitly [[UnwittingPawn manipulating him]] in order to be awakened from before the series even started]]. On a minor example the Gouraigers ally with Jakanja at the start of the series but plan on betraying them all with the intent of obtaining the Evil Will for their own use but wind up manipulated without even realizing it until they find redemption.

*** Warz Gill is the son of TheEmperor of Zangyack and the commander of their Earth invasion force, which nominally makes him the BigBad. However, in practice, he's a buffoonish and overly egotistical idiot, with his DragonInChief Damaras taking command a lot of the time, though even then Warz tends to ignore his (often useful) advice. He does (briefly) become a serious threat when he gets the [[HumongousMecha Great Warz]] however.

* ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' had [[spoiler:Frax, originally Doctor Louis Fericks, who was nearly killed by Ransik and subsequently saved himself by transferring his brain into a robot. When Ransik learned the truth, Frax tried to act on his own, but while his robot forces helped him pose a threat, he was eventually subjected to an EvilerThanThou by Ransik by the finale, where Ransik reprogrammed him as a mindless drone]].

** Mikoto Nakadai / Abare Killer in ''Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger''. He's a dangerous threat and while he briefly becomes acting leader of the Evolians, he still pales in comparison to the actual BigBad, [[EldritchAbomination Wicked Life God Dezumozorlya]], and [[spoiler:was Dezumozorlya's UnwittingPawn for the entirety of his life, containing half of his essence inside of himself.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime "The Invasion of Time"]]: The Vardans manage to temporarily conquer Gallifrey and the Time Lords with the Doctor's help, only for it to turn out that it was all a trap by the Doctor. Furthermore, they also turned out to be unwitting stooges of the Sontarans, who were using them to do all the difficult stuff and they were planning to wipe them out anyway. When the Vardans attempt a BadassBoast much later in the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novels, Benny Summerfield cuttingly points out that they're the only race in history to be ''outsmarted'' by the ''Sontarans''.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime "The Invasion of Time"]]: The Vardans manage to temporarily conquer Gallifrey and the Time Lords with the Doctor's help, only for it to turn out that it was all a trap by the Doctor. Furthermore, they also turned out to be unwitting stooges of the Sontarans, who were using them to do all the difficult stuff and they were planning to wipe them out anyway.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': [[CloningBlues Alexander Luthor]] talks a good game, and his EnfanteTerrible (later TeensAreMonsters) status, and undoubted EvilGenius make him a legitimate threat to the heroes. Yet he's too fundamentally screwed up to replace the genuine ComicBook/LexLuthor, and his CloneDegeneration causes him to slowly break down both [[SanitySlippage mentally]] and physically, [[spoiler: ultimately resulting in total amnesia and a HeelFaceTurn]]. A similar case could be made for the AxCrazy Lex Clone who escaped in the Season 10 premiere: he's incredibly dangerous, but is too insane to fully step into Lex's shoes, and is in the middle of TheLastDance anyway. They've got the same problem in fact: they're very capable opponents but are overshadowed by both their genetic source material and the season's real BigBad.

* Jackie Aprile Jr. from ''Series/TheSopranos''. He's the spoiled and overly-ambitious son of a deceased mobster who thinks he can rise through the ranks like Tony did and become the boss. Nobody wanted him in the business, not even his father, but he insists on pushing his way in and feels entitled to respect because of his heritage. All he ends up doing is causing tensions with the Dimeo crime family after he stupidly attempts to rob a card game held by them, which results in his crew getting slaughtered when the robbery predictably goes south. He never once approaches anywhere near the power needed to take on Tony and the second it looks like he might, Tony casually has him killed.

** Joffrey himself tries desperately to be a powerful king but is instead just a cruel bully. He's definitely one of the most sadistic characters in the show, but he's only a threat because his title allows him to make frequent stupid and sadistic decisions without fear of repercussion. His aspirations to lead his army and boasts to personally face Stannis Baratheon in battle are proven hollow when he cowers in his palace in fear. His uncle Tyrion's and grandfather [[DragonInChief Tywin]]'s political cunning and Westerlands army is the only thing holding Joffrey's regime together. It's made very clear to [[AuthorityInNameOnly Joffrey]] himself that Tywin has no respect for him at all and is the real man in charge. He later expresses the belief that he was the sole individual responsible for ending the War of the Five Kings, despite Stannis still being alive to return to fight another day, the ongoing Greyjoy Rebellion, as well as the Riverlands and the entire North still not being under any semblance of control.

** In Season 3, [[spoiler:Grant Ward]] tries to rebuild HYDRA from the ground up to take revenge on S.H.I.E.L.D. But while he's Team Coulson's [[ItsPersonal most personal]] enemy, he's far from the biggest threat: his one attack that managed to cause some damage, [[spoiler:assassinating Coulson's LoveInterest]], also [[spoiler:provoked Coulson into killing him]].

** HYDRA ended up being this. Their motto "cut off one head, two more will take its place" is designed to make it seem like they will be around forever and there’s no point in fighting them. During Season 2, Coulson was able to trick most of HYDRA’s leaders into killing each other. The season finale had a MookLieutenant inform Ward that the heads were not growing back. Then it was revealed that they were just a cult waiting for the return of a powerful Inhuman, whose return ended up accelerating their demise. After Hive killed Gideon Malick’s daughter, Malick [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal gave S.H.I.E.L.D. everything he knew]] about HYDRA’s operations, resulting in S.H.I.E.L.D. and the United States military launching a coordinated strike that left General Hale as the last HYDRA head standing. Speaking of which...

** The Confederacy believed themselves to be much more powerful than they actually were. They were easily cowed by Graviton and were destroyed off-screen by the Chronicoms.

** [[spoiler: [[VillainDecay ''Peter Pan'']]]] of all people in Season 5's latter half. Where in Season 3 he was [[spoiler: the EvilOverlord and immortal ruler of Neverland whom Rumple pulled a HeroicSacrifice on to kill]], here he's just another soul in the Underworld run by Lord Hades and has to hold Zelena hostage in order to get any sort of deal out of him and get a heart to return to life. At the end [[spoiler: his own son, Rumple, (now with more dark power than anyone else sans Hades himself)]] does him in yet again and sends his soul directly to the River of Lost Souls without even mentioning it to the heroes.