History BigBadWannabe / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
** The Jokerz are a street gang who emulate [[ComicBook/TheJoker the Clown Prince of Crime]], but they are a far cry from the original villain, [[PretenderDiss as pointed out by both Bruce Wayne and the Joker himself]].
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Derek Powers A.K.A Blight]] is very much a nasty piece of work, but after his schemes continuously fail, it's clear that he isn't the criminal mastermind that he considers himself to be. Not helping matters, his condition is causing his mental health and body to rapidly deteriorate. Once his son outs him as Blight, it's basically over for Powers and he's [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat (apparently)]] killed off not long after.

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': After breaking up with the Joker, [[Characters/HarleyQuinn2019TheCharacter Harley Quinn]] seeks to replace him as the top villain in Gotham City. However, her attempts only make her seen as a regular criminal at best. When she tries to attract a big-league superhero like Superman or Batman, or try to join the Legion of Doom, it never works out as she hopes, being seen as a nuisance at best or a pest at worst. [[spoiler:Eventually she admits that she's not even sure how bad she is anymore and that being with Ivy is more important to her.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003''
** Killer Moth is a MadScientist with dreams of conquering the city, and the skill to probably make it happen if he didn't have a ridiculous gimmick, and wasn't completely cowed by his BrattyTeenageDaughter. She's as evil as he is, but not very bright, and when she hijacks his scheme as a means to get a date for her prom, things go downhill pretty fast. His second appearance, without his daughter to make demands, he came a lot closer to defeating the Titans.
** Control Freak thinks himself the Titans' nemesis, but would later discover they don't consider him much of a villain. Their list to Titans East on their biggest villains mentioned Puppet King, a one-shot villain, but not him.

* [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright]] and Grime in ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' throughout Season 2. After failing to defeat the Wartwood frogs in Season 1, Sasha and Grime decide to shift gears and hatch a plot to take over Newtopia. The plan [[spoiler:actually goes pretty smoothly throughout most of the season, culminating in them snatching the Calamity Box and briefly usurping the throne in the season finale]]. The main reason for their failure is them being unable to [[spoiler:convince anyone of their discovery that King Andrias is the BigBad and intends to become a MultiversalConqueror, thanks to a combination of [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Sasha's constantly betraying Anne's trust]] and Grime's own past villainous actions against the heroes making it impossible for them to get the heroes to listen to them. As such, the heroes help Andrias take the city back ''and'' give him access to the Box, unaware until far too late that Sasha and the toads were actually the LesserOfTwoEvils]].

* [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright]] and Grime in ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' throughout Season 2. After failing to defeat the Wartwood frogs in Season 1, Sasha and Grime decide to shift gears and hatch a plot to take over Newtopia. The plan [[spoiler:actually goes pretty smoothly throughout most of the season, culminating in them snatching the Calamity Box and briefly usurping the throne in the season finale]]. The main reason for their failure is them being unable to [[spoiler:convince anyone of their discovery that King Andrias is the BigBad and intends to become a MultiversalConqueror, thanks to a combination of [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Sasha's constantly betraying Anne's trust]] and Grime's own past villainous actions against the heroes making it impossible for them to get the heroes to listen to them]]. As such, the heroes help [[spoiler:Andrias]] take the city back ''and'' give him access to the Box, unaware until far too late that Sasha and the toads were actually the LesserOfTwoEvils]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': Turns out to be this in Season 2. [[Characters/TheDragonPrinceViren Lord Viren]] attempts at becoming regent and manipulating the Pentarchy end up failing big time. His actions are then discovered by Opeli, who strips him of his power, and he gets taken down rather anti-climatically without ever confronting the heroes. Finally, it's revealed that for all his mastery in magic, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter there's someone else more powerful and knowledgeable than him]]. [[SubvertedTrope He manages to turn it around, and comes roaring back to prominence over Season 3.]]

* [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright]] and Grime in ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' throughout Season 2. After failing to defeat the Wartwood frogs in Season 1, Sasha and Grime decide to shift gears and hatch a plot to take over Newtopia. The plan [[spoiler:actually goes pretty smoothly throughout most of the season, culminating in them snatching the Calamity Box and briefly usurping the throne in the season finale]]. The main reason for their failure is them being unable to [[spoiler:convince anyone of their discovery that King Andrias is the BigBad and intends to become a MultiversalConqueror, thanks to [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Sasha's constantly history of betraying Anne's trust making them untrustworthy]]. As such, the heroes help him take the city back ''and'' give him access to the Box, not knowing the Sasha and the toads were actually the LesserOfTwoEvils]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania}}'' has [[SinisterMinister the Bishop]], the ArcVillain of the first season who takes center stage as the antagonist while the real BigBad, Dracula, is a mostly offscreen GreaterScopeVillain. Despite this, he's ultimately taken down very easily [[spoiler: [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork by Dracula's minions]] once they find him, shrugging off the idea of God still protecting him, and only bother taking their time killing him because of his direct role in Lisa's death and Dracula's revenge on Wallachia]]. Otherwise, he's not a threat at all. Even his attempt of killing the Speakers falls apart as soon as Trevor reveals to the mob that the Church was the one responsible for the monsters' invasion.

** Long Feng had a pretty good conspiracy going in Ba Sing Se, managing to keep the Earth King under his control by not letting him know there was a war going on. He manages to delay the Avatar and his friends, [[spoiler: brainwashes and kills Jet]], and even manages to maintain control of the Dai Li after he is exposed for his treachery. When [[MagnificentBastard Azula]] shows up in the city he tries to use her to start a coup against his king. When this plan succeeds and he tries to betray her, he finds that Azula's charisma has made the Dai Li loyal to her [[spoiler: putting Ba Sing Se in the hands of the Fire Nation]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Zig Zagged. [[Characters/MiraculousLadybugChloeBourgeois Chloé Bourgeois]] made Marinette's life miserable every chance she gets and ends up being attacked by an Akumatized villian, usually one with a grudge against her, or she becomes one herself with Hawk Moth manipulating her. While she does become the central antagonist in "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS05E23Revolution Revolution]]", she was ultimately a pawn of the series Big Bads and gets abandoned by them in the end.

** [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] himself is actually this. While Cartman has been the BigBad on occasion, his schemes only work if he can manipulate people into following his whims. If he can't do that, he's reveals himself to be a very petty and inept dumbass whose plans backfire tremendously on himself. This is shown with his interactions with his mother during ''The Streaming Wars'', who has become wise to Cartman's tactics while Cartman just ends up getting breast implants. In fact, Cartman would end up homeless and miserable if he remains evil, with the only thing that he managed to accomplish is driving everyone away from him with his awful behavior to the point where not even Butters wants anything to do with him.

** Subverted in the fourth season with Mina Loveberry. Originally just a comic relief character, Mina is given the power needed to overthrow Eclipsa as ruler of Mewni by the Magic High Commission (and, as revealed in the final episodes, [[spoiler:Queen Moon]]), turning her into an actual threat.

* [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright]] and Grime in ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' throughout Season 2. After failing to send a message to the Wartwood frogs in season 1, Sasha and Grime initially hatch a plan to take over Newtopia. The plan actually goes pretty smoothly throughout most of the season: they get the support of the other toad towers to raid Newtopia, Sasha is able to convince her friends that she's on their side, and they even successfully, if very shortly, snatch the Calamity Box and usurp the throne. However, things go south quickly afterwards: Sasha [[HeelRealization starts questioning her actions]] after [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Anne calls her out for being a horrible person,]] and Grime, in an attempt to cheer her up, accidentally unveils a [[spoiler: mural showing King Andrias' [[MultiversalConqueror true intentions]], which are ''way'' worse than what they had in mind.]] This kicks both of them into a realization that [[HeelFaceTurn they need to stop this evil]] before it's too late. Unfortunately, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Sasha's recent history of betraying Anne's trust multiple times]] makes reasoning with Anne impossible, leading her to unwittingly lead the true BigBad back into power.

** [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderZuko Prince Zuko]] in the first season. Zuko is a more persistent threat than Zhao and a better fighter personally, but Zhao has an army at his command and is far viler. The climax of the season revolves around Zhao's plan to [[spoiler: kill the Moon Spirit and conquer the Northern Water Tribe]], and Zuko's attempt to capture the Avatar is reduced to little more than a side-story that pops up at an inconvenient time for the heroes. This ultimately turns out in Zuko's favor, though, since [[spoiler: unlike Zhao, he actually survives the season]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode "[[Recap/TheBoondocksS1E4GranddadsFight Granddad's Fight]]", the Freemans think Colonel Stinkmeaner is a serious threat from the way he easily took Granddad down the first time they crossed canes, and Stinkmeaner certainly seems to agree with them. Nope; Stinkmeaner was just ''obscenely'' lucky. Their rematch is an actual fair fight, Granddad doesn't hold back, and [[spoiler: he ends up ''killing'' Stinkmeaner completely by accident.]]

* Ludo from ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' is initially this. He's completely incompetent as a villain, never showing to possess any magical abilities of his own and [[NeverMyFault frequently blaming his failures on his minions]]. In the case of the latter, he at one point punishes them for something that was clearly his fault, which is what leads to [[TheStarscream Toffee]] convincing most of his minions to turn on him. He then [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] in Season 2. [[spoiler:Only to become Toffee's pawn again. Only worse, since Toffee's spirit is outright possessing Ludo.]]
** [[spoiler: [[Characters/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilMoonButterfly Moon Butterfly]] and the [[Characters/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilTheMagicHighCommission Magic High Commission]] support Mina Loveberry's scheme to overthrow Eclipsa as ruler of Mewni -- both realizing too late that Mina is too insane to be controlled and won't stop at just removing Eclipsa from power. Moon gets the worst of it, getting stabbed in the back by Mina the moment she tries to stop her. With the exception of Heckapoo, who realizes they messed up and goes to help stop Mina, the Magic High Commission are all too busy celebrating their "victory" to notice the damage caused by Mina and are largely irrelevant for the entire finale. Their deaths due to the destruction of magic is almost an afterthought.]]