Big Bad Wannabes in fanfiction.
Crossover
- The Chaotic Masters: In their introductory scene, Monkey Fist calls out Drakken for being such a joke that Kim and Ron only bother with him because Shego is an actual threat.
- Child of the Storm: Dr. Robert Reynolds, the Arc Villain of Book 2's Smallville arc, has pretensions to being a serious player who can pull a Who's Laughing Now? on everyone, up to and including the White Council. Harry points out that he was skulking around in the dark to avoid being caught, and even after he's powered up into what would be a genuine threat, one that pushes Harry and Clark to their limits to subdue, he isn't treated all that seriously. Clark's merely wary of him, while Harry outright ignores him when something more important/interesting comes up, and contemptuously quotes "The Lazarus Experiment", stating that he was nothing but "a vain old man who tried to defy nature" and got consumed by the devil's bargains he'd made and his own hubris.
- Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron:
- Compared to the Galra Empire, the Holy Empire of Britannia is small fry, for while Britannia controls over a third of the planet Earth, the Galra rule pretty much the entire universe.
- Cornelia thinks herself to be Zero/Lelouch’s greatest enemy. She was before Lelouch became the Black Paladin, and now she’s little more than a nuisance.
- Code Prime:
- The Britannians think themselves as the top rulers of the Earth. Unbeknownst to a majority of them, the Empire is nothing more than a puppet state for the Decepticons, as Charles only managed to become Emperor thanks to Megatron’s mentorship. At the end of R1, the Decepticons proceed to demonstrate just how outclassed the Britannians are, by launching a full scale assault on the capital, and assassinate Charles.
- Gene Smilas in R2 envisions creating a European Empire and tries to martyr Lelouch/Zero and Leila to do so. However, thanks to Lelouch’s connections with Peace Mark, he finds out that Gene was the one who assassinated Leila’s father, and when Lelouch confronts him, he proceeds to Geass Gene into obedience, but not before telling him that Optimus would have seen right through him.
- Starscream and Schneizel halfway through R2. While Starscream is as much of a joke of a villain as he is in canon, Schneizel is an interesting example where under the right circumstances he could actually be the Big Bad of the story. Unlike Starscream, he actually has wits and charisma to bring people around him, and lacks an out-of-control ego that constantly causes his demise. Unfortunately, for all his genius much, like Starscream, Schneizel still made the mistake of underestimating Megatron, which led to their reign after seemingly defeating being short-lived, resulting in both his and Starscream's gruesome deaths, alongside all the remaining rogue members of the Decepticon faction.
- Beleth, the progenitor of evil Geass. The Epilogue of R2 reveals that he planned on hijacking Neo-Ragnarök from Megatron for himself to spread chaos and cruelty across the universe, and that only he would reign supreme. He immediately finds out the hard way, that he was never "the Chaos Bringer" he thought himself to be but nothing more than a pawn in Unicron's game against the Forces of Primus, and is absorbed by the True Bringer of Chaos to prepare for his awakening, alongside Megatron and Victor.
- In The Confectionary Chronicles, Draco Malfoy basically wants to be Hermione's enemy once she's sorted into Slytherin after starting at Hogwarts. However, from Hermione's perspective, when she's already the High Priestess and unofficially adopted daughter of the Trickster Loki, and has had to face being tortured and nearly executed by Odin because of that association, Draco barely qualifies as an annoyance.
- CRISIS has Visser Three. He clearly thinks of himself as a key member of the Legion of Doom, but Darkseid and the others don't take him seriously. And his confrontation with the Animorphs during the Final Battle ends up almost comically anticlimactic in nature.
- When Donna Noble is de-aged and sent back to 1991 in "Donna Noble and the Magic Castle
", once she starts attending Hogwarts, she reflects that Snape and Malfoy don't really compare to the regained memories she's gained from the Doctor, and even based on her personal experience she regards Davros as far more intimidating than either of them. - Earth's Alien History has a couple of examples:
- The Mekon. It's not that he isn't threatening — he's actually the first major villain in the story — it's just that in the long run, he inadvertently ends up helping more than he hurts our heroes.
- Voss Ratarau. The Romulan warbird he manages to capture and reverse-engineer into a handful of other ships altogether makes him a moderate-sized threat, but as he's going up against the Terran Treaty Organization and the entire Romulan Empire, he's nowhere near as impressive as he thinks he is and ends up killed anticlimactically by his own rebelling slaves.
- Flashpoint 2: Advent Solaris as an adaptation of the Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) storyline while also crossing it all over with the DC Animated Movie Universe, inevitably features Dr.Eggman as this due to the fact Mephiles the Dark is the true main antagonist. There's also a one-chapter wonder character as well in the form of Elise's aunt, who is practically a wannabe of a wannabe.
- In Frozen Turtles, while Hans is ruthless and ambitious, he’s a rank amateur at best when compared to the Shredder, and is swiftly taken down when his attempts to inspire a revolt prove to be a failure.
- In the Infinity Crisis spin-off Sins, Sirens & Strife, while Amora the Enchantress thinks of herself as a brilliant strategist with great plans, Thor tells her that Loki once commented that her plans were so transparent it was like she was standing naked in front of a clear glass window.
- Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger:
- Cinder Fall is certainly a dangerous antagonist in her own right and is not one to be taken lightly. Under normal circumstances, her plan to destroy Beacon and steal the Fall Maiden's powers — combined with her cruelty, intelligence, and vast resources — would be more than enough to qualify her for the status of Big Bad. However, she is overshadowed by Darth Nihilus, whose evil and malevolence far outstrip hers and presents a greater threat to the story overall.
- Collan Eislo from the chapter "Legends" aspires to become a Sith and vies for ownership of the Mask of Darth Nihilus, a Sith artifact that he believes can grant him Force-sensitivity. Despite his ambitions, Collan is just a pampered rich kid (albeit one that's slightly Force-sensitive) who's clearly in way over his head trying to compete with the galaxy's criminal underworld. He ends up being unceremoniously killed off by Darth Nihilus, the very being he sought to summon from the mask. For his part, Nihilus finds Collan pathetic and considers him unworthy of even being a Sith neophyte (the lowliest rank of the Sith).
- Adam Taurus is a terrorist leader with the goal of sparking a global Faunus uprising. He thinks that the Fall of Beacon is his main event and treats it as the culmination of his lifelong revenge against the Schnee family. In reality, he's an Unwitting Pawn for Cinder and serves as little more than a stepping stone for her true goal of stealing the Fall Maiden's powers. During the Battle of Beacon, he does little to contribute to the battle itself and instead wastes most of his time trying to settle a petty vendetta with his ex-girlfriend. When faced with Darth Nihilus, he is easily overpowered and drained of his life.
- Justice League of Equestria:
- Mare of Steel: By the time the second arc starts, Rainbow Dash has apparently had to deal with numerous wannabe villains all claiming to be her Arch-Enemy. She finds it all annoying.
- Steel Wing is the first antagonist introduced in the second arc, but is quickly reduced to Brainiac's Unwitting Pawn, and is dealt with before him and Silversmith.
- The Miraculous Adventures of Dan Kuso: Hawk Moth thinks that he can share the powers of the Miraculous with the vengeful alien trying to restore his planet’s corrupt regime. He ends up in a Time Stands Still situation (along with his bodyguard) as soon as said alien no longer needs him.
- Prehistoric Earth: Frank, The Dragon to Percival von Grimm and immediate supervisor of the secret prehistoric animal smuggling ring set up on the same island as the titular Extinct Animal Park. He talks a good game, is more than willing to beat up and kill any animals he feels like attacking or capturing, and even manages to prove himself a considerably bigger immediate threat and obstacle for the park staff to overcome than von Grimm due to the latter largely being too uninvolved with everything going on (to the point that he himself is more than willing to make an effort at backstabbing his boss and taking full control over the operation himself). But at the end of the day, his actual level of ability to fully handle the situation and achieve his goals is nowhere as strong as he likes to claim; and his effort at backstabbing Percival ends up seen coming from a mile away by Percival, who proceeds to thwart said backstab attempt before it can even begin by swiftly incapacitating Frank with a taser and leaving him to the mercy of the Prehistoric Earth staff as he flees. And as if to further emphasize how he's still not true Big Bad material despite otherwise being a bigtime Dragon-in-Chief, Frank ultimately dies an Undignified Death via getting trampled to death by a stampeding herd of giant herbivorous dinosaurs while he's trying to hide from the park staff in a porta-potty over the course of an effort at escaping from their custody.
- Percival himself is reduced to this in Prehistoric Earth's subsequent Continuity Reboot Prehistoric Park Reimagined. In this story, he is firmly established as one of the least pleasant members of the Novum executive board and has ideas for the park that his boss (and uncle) Theodore, the majority of the other board members, and everyone at the park are all too swift to reject, with the implication being that he plans to commodify the de-extinct wildlife on display at the titular zoo so as to make them into a means of earning Novum even more money. But while his Prehistoric Earth self was able to easily run rings around the good guys without them even being fully aware of anything untoward going on, everyone who knows him personally in this continuity are well aware of what he wants and are swift to shoot his ideas down in flames. And while he is swift to make a serious effort at getting them to 'change their minds' by hiring a group of lazy temporary workmen to make life difficult for the park and serve as his spies, said serious effort blows up in his face when the workmen end up convinced to change allegiance as a result of him giving them insultingly low wages due to largely viewing them as a means to an end.
- The Silver Raven: The Rogues are this, as while they are dangerous and willing to sacrifice anyone to get the power needed to combat Belos, they never really get anywhere. Whenever they summon a Demon Lord, its quickly taken out as soon as it arrives, with Lilith, Nero, Luz, and Eda having all stopped their efforts before they could get off the ground. The author has even stated that their ultimate purpose in the story is to serve as a means to get Devil May Cry bosses to the isles and little else, meaning they're nobodies in the grande scheme of things.
- Son of the Seven Kingdoms has the Ironborn. They believe themselves capable of bringing the North down and sacking King's Landing. Their actions, so far, have been restricted to being the stompees in a naval Curb-Stomp Battle and taking (and then losing) two Northern fortresses.
- The Avengers / Doctor Who crossover Time Anomaly makes Kang the Conqueror an example of this; he tries to present himself as a warlord with advanced technology capable of conquering Earth's defences in the twenty-first century, but the Doctor swiftly realises that Kang really stole his time-travel technology, has little in the way of actual military hardware, and has no real idea what he's doing when it comes to traveling in time, to the point where he fails to actually conquer Earth even when the Doctor stands back and tells Kang that he'll let the man destroy New York.
- A Starstruck, Phantasmic Romance, Chapter 29. The chapter in question is called Control Freak...and it is mostly Danny just mocking Control Freak. When Danny becomes a Teen Titan, his first job is to stop a disturbance caused by Control Freak. Meeting him, Danny is less than impressed at him due to Control Freak not only looking utterly pathetic and proving hilariously ineffective at even putting up a proper fight, but also having pathetically low ambition goals in his life and desires to defeat the Titans.
- The Warmistress of Equestria: Lord Talon Hoof views himself as the leader of the Traitor Legions and the greatest threat to Equestria, but is, in fact, an Unwitting Pawn to Scorpan and his master, Tirac.
- The Weaver Option: Xelian thinks he's in charge of Commorragh, but Vect is poised to overthrow him, and the Imperium barely cares whether he lives or dies.
- Lestat in Xendra thinks he's a highly dangerous vampire, partially because having his still human friends as underlings make other vampires think that he's a master vampire so old he can hold multiple humans in his thrall. In reality, he's an extremely out-of-shape fledgling who's only a few months old. The only real reason he's a threat is that Buffy is out of town so the other Scoobies have to deal with it.
- After being turned, Snyder tries to prey upon the Scoobies and their families but fails miserably. Not only is he rather weak for a vampire (due to both being an out-of-shape middle-aged man and being a newborn vampire), but after his first attack, everyone was onto him. Xander and Willow's family nearly kill him while Joyce stands just on the other side of the doorway and threatens him for several minutes as she waits for one of the Slayers to come by and dust him.
- Wei and his Dragon Sho, from Legacy of the Fire Empire hold several children hostage so they can force Fire Lord Jiazin to step down from her throne, and bring back the Fire Empire. When Kanoda throws a spear at them, they make the mistake of sending out the soldiers leaving themselves unguarded. Kanoda then acts as a diversion, while Avatar Aang ambushes the soldiers when they come back and promptly knocks out Wei and Sho.
- In Worlds Apart, Lyle Gorch comes across as this; he might be over a century old, but of the eight vampires gathered for the tournament, he’s the only one none of the watching student Watchers recognise, even when ‘Angelus’ has been absent and presumed dead for a century.
- Resurrected Memories: Despite being the central antagonist of the prom storyline Paulina doesn't even register as a threat, merely being an annoying Spoiled Brat that the heroes (and Ember) want to put in her place.
- C Listers: Killer Moth has grand ambitions of being "the anti-Batman", the protector of Gotham's underworld, but he's hindered by the fact that he's a cowardly, moronic Manchild with no impulse control.
- In the Superman story Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, the newest Superman faces up to Muto, his father's nemesis. Muto ploys to get rid of Superman and then taking over the world. A pity he's taken down in the tenth chapter.
- My Father's Son: Balon Greyjoy spent several years through the chaos of Rhaegar's Rebellion and the great plague preparing with his brother Euron for a campaign of reaving and conquest on the mainland. Of course, with Rhaegar starting to rebuild trust in the land, and the rise of dragons, and especially with Euron having a finer touch, Balon in the end was way out of his depth, with Rhaegar remarking that while his father Aerys had greatness in him once, Balon was just a pathetic old man.
- A Bad Week at the Wizengamot: Fudge's efforts at reinventing himself as a Dark Overlord following his release from prison so that he can get revenge on Harry and Sirius for ruining him all completely fall flat due to his utter incompetence. He's incapable of presenting himself as a threat or convincing anyone to serve him, his efforts at evil schemes all end in failure (and usually with him accidentally maiming himself), and he ultimately ends up getting himself killed when he accidentally blows up 4 Privet Drive after mistaking it for Potter Manor.
- Partially Kissed Hero states that Severus Snape's real reason for hating James Potter was that James' bullying of him during their school years prevented Snape from being taken seriously enough to become a Dark Lord in his own right.
- Voldemort is also reduced to this, as his only successes come when Harry and Dumbledore are busy fighting each other, and he loses horribly to both in different parts of the story.
- The Power of Seven starts by taking Draco Malfoy's canon reluctance to kill Dumbledore to the point that he fails to cast the Killing Curse even when Dumbledore's directly in front of him. On a more personal note for Harry and his 'harem'- Ginny, Hermione, Luna, Demelza Robbins, Susan Bones, Katie Bell, and Fleur Delacour- Pansy Parkinson attempts to infiltrate the group to pass on information to Voldemort, but the harem all know from the start what she's really up to and just Feed the Mole to give her fake information.
- Reginald Copperbottom in Begrudging Assistance Requests. He's plotting to overthrow Henry and reclaim leadership over the Toppat Clan, and when it looks like he succeeded, his airship and clan are put down due to a gambit by the proper Big Bad, and he gets arrested.
- Snotlout takes this role in The Blacksmith's Apprentice; early on, when he's officially become heir after Hiccup's been disinherited, Snotlout thinks he’s a great heir to the position of chief of Berk, but Stoick can clearly see that Snotlout lacks any diplomatic skill and is tactically useless at any kind of planning beyond ‘beat the other guy up’, to the point of having Hiccup ‘pretend’ to be the Heir when other tribes are visiting (albeit saying that Snotlout just isn’t ready yet rather than acknowledging that he never will be). After being Outcast, Snotlout tries to reclaim his title by making a deal with Alvin, but this ‘deal’ proves to be hopelessly in favour of Alvin, even if Snotlout accepts a position of apparent power among the Outcasts when Alvin takes the position of Berk chief that he had ‘promised’ to Snotlout.
- In Saving the Boy, the Big Bad, Original Character Misu Teeyer, is also this. While she's still the biggest direct threat to Peeta during the Games, in the end, she's small potatoes compared to Snow and the Capitol and a pawn for them like everyone else. This becomes all too clear at the end of the story, where it's revealed that Snow rigged the Games to ensure Peeta would win, to the point of deliberately having the mutts that would kill Misu programmed to ignore him. Misu never had a chance at winning, and never even realized it.
- For the Glory of Irk: Xia eventually becomes The Dragon to the Control Brains, but is completely oblivious to the true power dynamic between them, being convinced that she's the ultimate authority and smartest person around, with even the Control Brains serving her. And while her position and skills do make her extremely dangerous, she's ultimately just another Unwitting Pawn of The Conspiracy, being utterly in the dark about what's really happening and why.
- Queen of All Oni:
- Lung, Daolon Wong's former apprentice, who views himself as the only one powerful and skilled enough to take Wong's place as the Darkest Mage. However, his master plan — to force Jade, and by extension, her Shadowkhan, into his service — was too simple-minded, and fell apart rather easily. More importantly, the fact that his only response to said plan failing was to not acknowledge that fact and keep bludgeoning ahead, and that his reaction to Jade's minions showing up was to slip into a Villainous BSoD bordering on a full-scale breakdown... yeah, he's really not in Wong's league. And then Jade's minions kill him, so he's definitely never going to make Big Bad.
- Shortly afterward, Drago arrives from the future in an attempt to change the timeline to his desire. However, while he has the strength to back up his plans, said plans are constantly derailed by every other faction he comes up against kicking his ass and he's eventually sent back to the future, where the Matriarch (future Jade) has him restrained and beaten. He doesn't look so impressive at that point.
- Daolon Wong himself actually rather comes off as having degraded to this in-story, given his pitiful attempts at regaining his power and the Humiliation Conga he goes through (Tarakudo even calls him a wannabe at one point).
- Anton Mortimer thinks that his money and business connections make him beyond the touch of the law, that it makes him the ultimate Diabolical Mastermind that the J-Team can't hope to fight. After they ultimately end up blackmailing his Oni mask off him, Jade then shows up and proceeds to rob him blind, while giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech over how insignificant he really is.
- Wisdom and Courage: While Veran is very dangerous, managing to acquire the Triforce and bring both Hyrule and Termina to ruin by herself, it's revealed upon her demise that her plan to conquer the Sacred Realm was nothing but a delusion of grandeur; even if she had gotten into the Sacred Realm, Din, Nayru, and Farore would have easily annihilated her, and Din outright mocks her for being such an arrogant moron. Furthermore, Majora reveals to Link that the only reason Veran was able to control its power in the first place is that Majora was letting her do so, and planned to kick her to the curb as soon as it was convenient.
- Multiverse of Madness: Clea Cut establishes Maya Hansen as this; not only did her counterpart in the prime Marvel Cinematic Universe die as nothing more than a pawn of another villain, but her Earth-717's self ultimately amounts to nothing. While 717-Maya is able to set things up so that she acquires control of Stark Enterprises after Tony's death and joins the new Avengers as Iron Woman, when she tries to use Clea to take out the other Avengers so that she can become the sole hero for this Earth in the aftermath, she subsequently loses a fight to 616-Spider-Man (even when Peter doesn't have access to Stark technology in his suit anymore) and after a final attempt to kill America Chavez, she is held immobile by Strange and Peter long enough for Wanda to crush her in her own armor.
- Kanoya in World as Myth tries to take over the Student Council with force, but is promptly defeated by two freshmen in the first chapter.
- Limitless Potential: Dr. Fujiwara thinks he's in full control of Operation: Independence Day, and he's been secretly working with Sigma to cause several Maverick incidents in his bid to gain control of Abel City. Sigma finally decides that Fujiwara has become unnecessary for his plans and promptly executes him to show as an example of what'll happen to anyone who opposes him.
- Yognapped has Peva. He's built up as a Manipulative Bastard and a worthy successor to previous Big Bad Sben, killing Sips on a whim and forcing the Yogscast to mine away at bedrock until Herobrine is released. Once things predictably go to hell and Peva loses his entire pool of gathered troops instantaneously, he's revealed as little more than a Jerkass with a petty grudge, and his attempt to fight results in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown with him on the losing side, shortly afterwards being stabbed in the skull by a resurrected Sben.
- One for All and Eight for the Ninth:
- All for One. Unlike his canon villainous mastermind, this version of the character may have been a great and unstoppable force of evil in the past, but by the time the story rolls around, it's clear he is all bark, no bite. First he gets maimed while trying to steal Overhaul's Quirk, loses said Quirk (alongside 40 others) during the Kamino arc, is left paraplegic during his rematch against All Might, and finally, his last great scheme to steal his apprentice's body backfires immensely when Tomura seizes control of his Quirk, destroys his consciousness and explodes his braindead body.
- Re-Destro and the Meta Liberation Army are this as well. For all the talk about their grandiosity and how the country would fall with their revolution, they only manage to kill a handful of heroes during the Uprising, before being promptly defeated in less than a day. Re-Destro gets the most humiliating defeat of all. Instead of losing in battle against a retired All Might, he gets curb-stomped, loses all of his teeth, and is finished off by Inko Midoriya, out of all people. And the whole fight was recorded on video, which means his defeat will be forever remembered on the internet. Add insult to injure, Re-Destro and his lieutenants survive only long enough for Tomura to steal their Quirks and leave them to die in an explosion during the Tartarus breakout.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In Loved and Lost, an extended retelling of the 2nd season finale, Queen Chrysalis is reduced to this. Her invasion is stopped in the fic's first quarter (differently than canonically, though), but Prince Jewelius, who proves himself to be a more competent manipulator, uses the mess she caused to turn the public against all the other heroes than Twilight Sparkle and make himself Equestria's king, while Chrysalis and her Changelings are locked up in Canterlot's dungeons. The 11th chapter reveals that Chrysalis started her canon plan when Jewelius first approached her, played her like a fiddle, and helped her infiltrate Canterlot and steal Cadance's identity by telling her about the underground caverns. However, when Jewelius saw how Chrysalis' imperfect impersonation of Cadance made Twilight Sparkle (whom he himself charmed with his considerate façade) suspicious (he even scolded Chrysalis for endangering their plan because of this), he successfully double-crossed her at a crucial moment when he decided he'll gain more for himself by helping Twilight defeat her. The Changelings eventually escape, and everypony (except for Jewelius himself) is afraid of a new Changeling invasion, but Chrysalis is unable to beat Twilight when the unicorn blocks her path to Jewelius, so she retreats to plan from the shadows. With some secret assistance from one of her disguised Changelings, the heroes defeat Jewelius' forces and corner him in the final battle, at which point Chrysalis sweeps in and has her Changelings kill Jewelius as revenge. She then attempts to beat the exhausted heroes, only for Shining Armor and Cadance to give her and her army their canon defeat that has been delayed only because of the plot alterations caused by Jewelius.
- The Nuptialverse: Olive Branch is set up as the Big Bad of Families, a Villain with Good Publicity aimed at taking down Celestia's regime who appears to be The Chessmaster...until the climax, where his ultimately poorly thought out plans fall apart, with him unable to compensate at all.
- The Nyxverse story Alicornundrum has this in its main antagonist, Duke Blueblood (Prince Blueblood's father). It's made clear that Celestia has been shooting down his petty schemes with ease for years (usually leaving his "victims" better off than they were beforehand). Even the main threat he represents — a conspiracy of unicorn supremacist nobles — while successful in undermining Celestia's government for a time, falls apart completely the moment the Princesses are presented with hard evidence of its existence. As does the Duke's mind, as the shock of realizing how badly he's been Out-Gambitted results in a Villainous Breakdown that actually causes brain damage, reducing him to the mental state of a foal.
- Pony POV Series: In the Dark World timeline, the Valeyard views himself as The Man Behind the Man to Discord, humoring him while planning to one day steal his power for himself. However, while he is a genuine threat, he ultimately doesn't match up to Discord and is defeated well before he is.
- In the Wedding Arc, there's General Lone Ranger, who thinks he's playing the Changelings for his own convoluted agenda of making Equestria become more warlike. However, while he's pretty strong and smart, he's an Unwitting Pawn all along, and by the time the Mane Six confront him, he's so physically and mentally broken down that he goes down easy.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles: Several groups of rogue ninjas have claimed to be the Akatsuki in the years since the actual Akatsuki disappeared. In the flashback from Chapter 130, Yuko met one of those groups and called them "Fakesuki" as she sees them as nothing more than two-bit rogues:Yuko: You and posers just like you have been a nuisance to the shinobi nations for a while; a nuisance, but not a problem. Not one 'Akatsuki' copycat group has ever lived up to the reputation they stole.
- Ruby and Nora: Keter, the Starter Villain. Despite being a vicious, bloodthirsty Serial Killer, is nothing more than a sniveling, cowardly child who is bested the second he stupidly attacked the protagonists.
- Blaze and Cinder in Team LVDR. Blaze, while the main antagonist of the first volume, is a Smug Snake and Dirty Coward.
- Adam Taurus in Vale's Underground. He is a part of the Big Bad Ensemble as one of the major mob bosses in Vale, but he's very upset that Cinder has been put at the top. She has the most influence in the city, but he thinks that she doesn't deserve it. Cinder quickly puts him in his place when he tries to pick a fight with her. Ultimately, may be a Big Bad, but he wants to be the Big Bad. What prevents him from doing that is his rather impatient attitude and volatile temper that causes him to murder his own workers on occasion. Things that, as Cinder points out, are some major drawbacks.
- War of Remnant: A RWBY Anthology: Jax Asturias and the Crown as a whole. While a group of loathsome, monstrous bastards, they are ultimately run by a completely delusional child who was only allowed to run around for as long as he did because his sister couldn’t work up the nerve to rat him out. When people become aware of them and have the nerve his sister lacks, they crumble rather quickly.
- Essentially the case for the Trust in What You Already Know: Lost City (even if they wouldn't consider themselves the 'villain'), as Daniel Jackson's new psychic abilities and Kinsey's vendetta against the archaeologist lead to the Trust's leaders being identified and captured before they can actually put any of their plans for the Stargate program into action.
- Star Wars: Ascendancy: Miskara Pesh of the Vagaari Miskarate presents himself as a wealthy Galactic Conqueror; dressing in elaborate silk robes, surrounding himself with slaves taken from alien races he's subjugated, and boasting of his people's legacy as conquerors and warriors. In reality, he's what the Vagaari have always accused the Ebruchi of being: a pirate with delusions of grandeur who bullies primitives too technologically backwards to fight back. Even Pesh's own second-in-command thinks he's a Fat Idiot whose disastrous leadership has turned the Vagaari into galactic laughingstocks. It's clear from the very beginning that Thrawn could easily destroy Pesh's fleet if he wanted to, and the only reason he doesn't is because he considers it a waste of time. When the Voidlord decides to forcibly enlist the Vagaari as part of his hunt for the Chimaera, he easily cows Pesh into submission by seizing his treasure ships and threatening to kill all his slaves.
- Monster Chronicles: A number of canon Total Drama antagonists have become minor threats in the face of the titular monster.
- Chris McLean, the despised host of Total Drama, who is hated by the contestants of the show for his torturous challenges, dredging up drama, and humiliating the contestants, was reduced to a prisoner of a supernatural serial killer. While he continues to be the host of the show, there are times when he's reminded that he's a prisoner of Cedric and how dangerous the situation is.
- Alejandro, The Arch Villain, was the main antagonist of the season before Cedric appeared but found himself outmatched against the powers of his new rival. Thinking that he was dealing with Cody, Alejandro underestimated Cedric, which resulted in him being framed, eliminated, tortured, and murdered.
- The Wolf in me: Margo in "Revenge of the Wolf" talks a good game about wanting to use Jade to have werewolves conquer humanity, but it is clear that she is just a pawn in Mr. X's game against Jade. When she dies, Mr. X simply continues on as if nothing happened.
- Fallen King has Yami Bakura, who is a threat, but isn't nearly as pressing or as personal a threat as Pegasus is. In his internal monologue, Joey thinks that Pegasus is the real monster and Bakura can't compare.
