History Main / NotSoHarmlessVillain

** "The Bandits of Bunglewood" from ''Dungeon Adventures 51'' seems to be inspired by Tucker's Kobolds. The eponymous Bandits are kobolds who have gotten more training than the typical ones, and investigating their misdeeds is difficult because nobody is willing to admit they were beaten up and robbed by mere kobolds. As a result, their actions around the town the module takes place are clouded by stories of orcs, lycanthropes, trolls, and other "respectable" monsters.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': The eponymous VillainProtagonist, a super-intelligent GadgeteerGenius and MadScientist. He seems harmless because he always gets defeated by that FlyingBrick, Metro Man. But then he [[spoiler:apparently]] finally kills Metro Man with a KillSat. {{Deconstructed|Trope}} unusually as he fully expected Metro Man to foil the plan easily and send him back to jail just like every other time, the success was caused by a fluke that wasn't part of his plan, and he doesn't know what to do with himself afterward and quickly comes to miss the routine of repeatedly being foiled by Metro Man. [[spoiler:Then it's {{subverted|Trope}} as it turns out Metro Man was just FakingTheDead and Megamind never stood a chance against him after all. ''Then'', it ends up somewhere between a DoubleSubversion of this and an example of LetsGetDangerous, as after his HeelFaceTurn he does manage to defeat [[FromNobodyToNightmare Titan]].]]

Okay, so you have a villain, and, for whatever reason, either because they're {{harmless|Villain}}, {{ineffectual|SympatheticVillain}} or both, you do not take them seriously. You might [[UnknownRival not even think about them]] at all. They might have a lame gimmick or a weird name or maybe they just do not stand out among the {{Mooks}}. They are not exactly on your radar. Even if you do remember them, you think they are either a nobody or a total joke.

** Shenzi, Ed, and Banzai at first seem like Wile E. Coyote-esque villains who always fail every time, but at the end of the film, they all show their true dangerous selves when they [[spoiler:kill Scar for betraying them]]. Even before that, the only reason they didn't kill Simba and Nala at the ElephantGraveyard is Mufasa's arrival, and they later make another attempt to kill Simba after Mufasa's death, only being stopped by a thorn patch.

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'' has Chick Hicks, who is constantly losing to his rival Strip "The King" Weathers, and during the climax, he almost ''killed'' the King!
* ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'' has Grem and Acer, a pair of bumbling villains who appear to be based on two of the worst cars ever made. But then we see them kill Rod "Torque" Redline...

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' has Hekate. While she has a reputation as someone never to cross, she's not particularly successful most of the time and usually sticks to playing TheDragon to Don Sebastiano. [[spoiler:And then it's revealed that the events that led Skybolt and Cavalier to become sex-slaves to the Alphas were her doing, using magic straight out of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. She came perilously close to making Fey into her mind-slave, and actually killed Jade, who got better.]] Sebastiano spent most of his career riding off the reputation her magic brought him and looks a lot less competent when the truth comes out. He's a rapist thug, but she's on a whole different level of villainy from him.

* On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', Schlatt is an old, sickly, senile alcoholic who [[SuperDrowningSkills sinks like a rock and drowns]] in even the shallowest body of water. He almost never wears armor leading to him being an easy target for assassinations, and relies on others to protect him from mobs. It's very easy to underestimate him and doing so would be a very big mistake; [[ObfuscatingStupidity he is much more clever than he lets on and keeps his cards very close]]. He is also a savvy businessman and [[spoiler:has somehow convinced [[TheDreaded Dream]] to make a contract with him, mitigating any disadvantage he may have had in the manpower department]].

* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic''

* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', Schlatt is an old, sickly, senile alcoholic who [[SuperDrowningSkills sinks like a rock and drowns]] in even the shallowest body of water. He almost never wears armor leading to him being an easy target for assassinations, and relies on others to protect him from mobs. It's very easy to underestimate him and doing so would be a very big mistake; [[ObfuscatingStupidity he is much more clever than he lets on and keeps his cards very close]]. He is also a savvy businessman and [[spoiler:has somehow convinced [[TheDreaded Dream]] to make a contract with him, mitigating any disadvantage he may have had in the manpower department]].

* ''Film/RoboCop1987'': Prior to killing Murphy, Boddicker's gang just seemed like merry pranksters, essentially harmless. Clarence even jokes around with [[PremortemOneLiner one-liners like "Can you fly, Bobby?"]] and [[DistractAndDisarm Joe cheekily shows Lewis his schlong]]. When they actually start dismembering Murphy [[MoodWhiplash it feels like a complete 180 from what we saw before]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'': The movie begins with a fight between Miles Morales/Spider-Man and the Spot. Miles constantly mocks Spot during this fight while Spot [[BigBadWannabe insists to be Miles']] ArchEnemy, which ends with Miles seemingly defeating Spot with ease. But then Spot finds out he has the ability to travel the multiverse. He than becomes a threat not only to Miles ''but the whole multiverse'' thanks to his powers.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': Biff Tannen is a high school bully, who turns out to have a glass jaw. One good punch from George [=McFly=] and 1985-Biff goes from workplace bully to sniveling sycophant. Then in the sequel, 2015-Biff gives his teenage self a sports almanac from the future, and 1985-Biff becomes a {{Trumplica}} who murdered George and can commit whatever crimes he wants with impunity because he owns the police.

* Alberich in Music/RichardWagner's ''Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen'' stats off as a harmless [[ExtravertedNerd lovesick dwarf]]. Foiled in his amorous attempts, he steals the Rheingold and becomes [[FromNobodyToNightmare absolute ruler]] of the Dwarves. And that's just the beginning...