Big Bad Wannabes in live-action TV.
- Walt Cummings from 24 season 5 thinks he is at the head of a conspiracy to increase US influence in eastern Europe by letting terrorists smuggle away poison gas then triggering it to create a humanitarian disaster. He browbeats and coerces President Charles Logan into going along with it. It is later revealed that Logan himself was behind the whole thing. There's a scene where some characters even talk about letting Cummings think that he's running the whole show.
- Gordon Dean on Alias. He stakes his claim to being the show's newest Big Bad in the first episode of Season 5 by brutally murdering Sydney's love interest right in front of her, but he proves over the next several episodes to be a singularly inept Arc Villain instead. APO almost effortlessly exposes his operations, steals all of his money, captures him, and successfully tortures him for information, and he is subsequently murdered by his employers after they determine that he has outlived his usefulness.
- Angel: One Villain of the Week in Season 1 was Angelus's former protege, who had been following the same killing pattern since he became a vampire. When he tried to make Angel think he was going to kill a bus full of children, Angel knew that wasn't his plan because it was too inventive.Angel: I'm sorry for what I turned you into.Penn: A first-class killer. An artist. A bold reinterpreter of the form.Angel: Try cheesy hack. You've been pulling the same routine for two hundred years. It's pathetic and cliched. I'll bet you even have a killer shrine. Candles, photographs, news clippings. [Oh, Crap! expression on Penn's face]. Ugh, you are so prosaic.
- Prince Edmund in Blackadder tries to lead a group of the evilest men in England to take over the kingdom. Since he's cowardly and petty, they betray him the moment someone else shows up. It's not helped by how Edmund thinks he's a brilliant manipulator when he's really a complete idiot.
- In Breaking Bad, Lydia Rodarte-Quayle actually comes pretty close to having been a Greater-Scope Villain for the show overall, since it was her who gave Gus and The Cartel the supplies to make their meth business as big as it was. However, when she's finally introduced in the fifth and final season, she's revealed to be a weak-willed and cowardly woman, whose only real threat comes from her hired muscle, the Aryan Brotherhood, with Lydia herself staying as far from trouble as she can help it. In the Grand Finale, when enacting his endgame against her and the Brotherhood, Walt goes out of his way to make sure she dies, but makes it clear to her when they have an accidental conversation later through the phone when they're both dying, that she was almost an afterthought, only barely worth his notice.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Warren Mears, despite being the closest Season 6 has to a true Big Badnote , is still a bumbling loser whose various Evil Plans all fall flat on their own face, and even after he proves himself to be genuinely villainous by killing somebody this mostly just turns him into truly unpleasant rather than an actual threat. He does manage to shoot and hospitalize Buffy and kill Tara, but the latter was an accident and only manages to get him brutally murdered by a vengeful Willow, while the former gets him mocked by vampires (for being so cowardly as to resort to a gun) who cause him to panic and try to flee town when they reveal he didn't kill her. That he only did this out of desperation and embarrassment that his other evil schemes were foiled only makes him even more pathetic.
- Harmony, the Beta Bitch-turned-Alpha Bitch-turned-vampire, gathers a small band of Mooks and tries to establish herself as a player in Sunnydale. The minions quickly get annoyed with her, and she's reduced back to being Spike's not-really-girlfriend.Buffy: Harmony, when you tried to be head cheerleader, you were bad. When you tried to chair the homecoming committee, you were really bad. But when you try to be bad? YOU SUCK.
- Spike himself repeatedly calls himself "The Big Bad." While he was the Big Bad for about the first half of Season 2 after proving worse than the Anointed One, he then gets usurped by Angelus. And then it happens again in Season 4 when his overblown rant from the shadows is swiftly interrupted by Initiative agents capturing him. He also falls into this briefly, early on in Season 5, where he attempts to have the chip the Initiative planted in his head removed and it appears to succeed for a bit, only for Spike to again scream in pain when he attempts to actually physically hurt Buffy, which leads the doctor to reveal that he faked the surgery since he didn't know how to properly remove it without causing Spike irreparable brain damage. In this case, it occurs before Glory has even shown up.
- Genevieve is a strong Slayer who puts together a credible plan to kill Buffy, but she is easily bested in battle by Buffy, and she was an Unwitting Pawn for Twilight in the first place.
- Criminal Minds:
- Episode "A Real Rain" has the BAU chasing down a Vigilante Man who kills criminals by stabbing them through the head. William Sykes is an Attention Whore who tried to take credit for the crimes, but, unlike the real killer who had specific targets in mind, would just wander around hoping to be attacked. He guns down an apparent mugger in the park, then turns himself in to the police the next day claiming to be the vigilante. The FBI doesn't believe him, and when Gideon asks him: "Is that why you stabbed him in the groin?", realizes that he was lying by his affirmation. The mugger turns out to be an undercover cop, meaning all Sykes got himself is a very long prison sentence.
- Henry Grace from "Masterpiece." After his Serial Killer brother was caught by Agent Rossi of the FBI and put to death, Henry decided to reinvent himself as the Moriarty to Rossi's Holmes. He began abducting victims himself, and disposed of their bodies with sulfuric acid to avoid leaving evidence, then walks right up to Rossi and confesses to a kidnapping. He leaves behind extremely obscure and elaborate clues that he knows the geniuses of the BAU can figure out but would sound like nonsense to a jury, and plans to kill Rossi's entire team with a booby trap on his house. He's so certain he'll win that he freely admits the original acid murders right to Rossi's face. Rossi's response? "Did you get all that, Garcia?" Cue Villainous Breakdown.
- The Human Trafficking Ring from Season 10. During the premiere "X", they are revealed to have supplied the Villain of the Week with his victims and have many more clients. They spend the entire season stalking Meg and finally kidnap her in the season finale. They have the rather stupid assumption that such a brazen attack against an FBI agent will discourage the FBI from investigating them. Up until that point, the BAU weren't even aware of their existence. Within a few hours of getting the BAU's attention, the entire ring is completely wiped out by them.
- On CSI: Miami, the leader of a domestic terrorist group tries to give a We Are Everywhere speech when captured, telling Caine that there are thousands of his followers and they're growing every day and can't be stopped. Smirking, Caine tells the guy that anyone he's ever talked to is now a person of interest in the federal investigation against the group and we see a montage of dozens of members arrested around the country. The man is utterly stunned to hear his "vast organization" has been destroyed in a single afternoon.
- Vern on Dark Oracle spends the whole of Season 2 attempting to become the Big Bad. His magical power increases exponentially, and he becomes a legitimate threat, though he is thwarted at every turn by Lance and Cally. Then, just as it looks like he's going to achieve true Big Bad status, former Big Bad Omen returns, his bosses, Blaze and Violet break free from their Dark World in the mirror, and Vern is relegated to loser status again.
- Dexter has Neil Perry who in order to make a name for himself, consciously obstructs a murder investigation by claiming to be the Ice Truck Killer. He views himself as a sinister mastermind destined for fame when in fact he's little more than an unscrupulous poseur. Once LaGuerta shows him a severed head, he starts crying like a baby and owns up that he is not the Ice Truck Killer.
- Doctor Who:
- "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 Badass Boast much later in the Doctor Who New Adventures novels, Benny Summerfield cuttingly points out that they're the only race in history to be outsmarted by the Sontarans. And they turn out to be stooges of the real villain again.
- "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday": The Cybus Cybermen invade Earth with an army of five million and stood a good chance of conquering the planet. Unfortunately for them, they're invading the Earth at the same time the Daleks have their plans for it and quickly get brushed aside when they show up.
- "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky": Again with the Sontarans in collab with Luke Rattigan. Luke comes up with the device du jour that puts Earth in danger and thinks he's in a Big Bad Duumvirate with the Sontarans, but as soon as he reveals to them nobody from his genius school wanted to join him on "Earth.2", the Sontaran leader reveals they would all have been shot anyway, leaving Luke a whiny little snot who just lashes out angrily at a society that doesn't take him seriously.
- The Master makes a good account of himself in "The End of Time" — by turning all but two of the human beings on Earth into duplicates of himself — but, in the end, he turns out to be merely the Unwitting Pawn in the Time Lords' plan to escape the Time War and destroy time itself.
- Rassilon becomes this in "Hell Bent". Starting out as a threat behind the events of the previous two episodes, he is defeated within the first twenty minutes with little fanfare. The rest of the episode proceeds with, depending on your viewpoint, No Antagonist or the Doctor himself as the antagonist following major Sanity Slippage.
- The Saxon Master becomes this again in "The Doctor Falls". At first, he is set up as the creator of the Mondasian Cybermen (or at least a subgroup) with an army of them at his command; then the Doctor expands the kinds of life forms the Cybermen can upgrade to include him. Once the Mondasian Cybermen turn on him, the Master is left completely powerless as they take over the Big Bad role.
- In season 1 of The Elephant Princess, Vashan is clearly set as the sinister schemer trying to get rid of Alex so he can become king of the magical land of Manjipoor. He loves to flaunt his magic to assistant Diva, boasts of his genius, and manipulates Alex to abdicate the throne. He gloats on how he's finally going to be ruler...at which point it turns out Diva is a 600-year-old sorceress who's ten times more powerful than Vashan could ever hope to be and playing him like a fiddle all this time. In two minutes, Vashan is drained of his magic and tossed in the dungeon as Diva becomes the show's real Big Bad.
- Game of Thrones:
- Viserys Targaryen tries to amass an army to take back the Seven Kingdoms from King Robert, but despite marrying off his sister to Khal Drogo he never gets any respect from the Dothraki due to his arrogance and disrespect for their customs. He gets fed up with waiting on Drogo to fulfill his promise and is easily killed after he threatens both Daenerys and Drogo's unborn son.
- Queen 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 Final Boss of the series.
- King Joffrey Baratheon 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 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 Tywin's political cunning and Westerlands army is the only thing holding Joffrey's regime together. It's made very clear to 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.Joffrey: They know I won the war!
Jaime: The war's not won. Not while Stannis lives.
Joffrey: I broke Stannis at the Blackwater! - Balon Greyjoy declares himself king, but none of his fellow prospective kings give him the same consideration they gave each other, and with good reason since all his attacks prove little more than annoyances that his enemies ignore until they can deal with at their leisure. His warriors might be vicious, but they're raiders as opposed to conquerors and regularly insubordinate with little sense of loyalty. Furthermore, the Iron Islands are largely isolated and Balon himself lurks alone in his keep taking no advice from anyone. The biggest threat the Greyjoys ever pose was the taking of Winterfell, which was entirely due to Theon and Dagmer going rogue with a single ship as opposed to any direction from Balon. Even though he hasn't been incapacitated, nobody beyond the Boltons (who see the Greyjoys as a nuisance at best) considers him a danger, and why would they? He's an isolated old man who occasionally throws out his tentacles only to get them repeatedly lopped off. On the other hand, he can technically be considered the winner of the War of Five Kings, being the only one of the titular five still alive by the end of Season 5. Naturally, not long after bringing this fact up himself in Season 6, he's effortlessly killed by his brother Euron, who wants Balon's position for himself.
- For someone that served as one of the strongest Big Bad contenders of the story and was actually responsible for many tragedies that take place, Littlefinger turned out to be this in the end. 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 Sansa Stark as his 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 Undignified Death begging for his life on his knees.
- Played with in regards to King 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.
- Arthur Petrelli of Heroes, mentioned before in hushed tones, debuts by draining the previous Big Bad's power, then drains all of Peter's powers (including his ability to get and hold powers), and starts gathering people together for some evil scheme while easily stopping anyone who opposes him. Then after a few episodes before he can get his plan going or we even find out what it was- beyond the implication that he intends to create a serum that will give powers to anyone who can pay him- he is easily killed off by Sylar.
- Justified:
- Season 2 has drug-dealer Dickie Bennett, the scheming middle child of Harlan County marijuana kingpin, Mags Bennett. In contrast to his mother, who rules as the uncrowned Feudal Overlord of the town of Bennett, Dickie is sullen and incompetent, with his attempts at stepping up leading nowhere but bad. He's still vicious enough and underhanded enough to be a serious problem, gunning down Helen Givens, wounding Ava Crowder, and triggering a Mob War between his mother and up-and-coming Harlan gangster Boyd Crowder.
- In season 4 Josiah Cairns tries to learn Retired Outlaw Drew Thompson's new identity and sell the information as soon as Arlo (a dangerous man invested in keeping that secret) goes to prison and nearly tricks Raylan and Boyd in going to their death in the hills. However, Raylan and Boyd survive and all Josiah's efforts do is alert the authorities and scores of more capable villains that Drew is alive, with some of them kidnapping and torturing Josiah when they think he might be Drew Thompson. He's Put on a Prison Bus (with a stopover at the hospital to treat an amputated foot) after only appearing in two episodes. His actions set off the season's main conflict, but he doesn't play much of a role in it.
- Season 6 has supposedly legendary gangster, Avery Markham. Introduced with the same flair as Bo Crowder, Mags Bennett, and Robert Quarles, Markham proves incapable of actually living up to his reputation, and his schemes rapidly collapse around his ears, costing him most of his henchmen, and any control he might have had. In fact, Markham ultimately winds up, not driving the plot, but as the target of schemes from other players, including Boyd, Wynn Duffy, and his own ex-girlfriend, Katherine Hale.
- Kamen Rider often has at least one:
- Kamen Rider BLACK: Bilgenia really wants to be the next Creation King of Gorgom, but while he's definitely a threat on his own he isn't anywhere near the level of Gorgom's actual Century King, Shadow Moon, and is killed by Shadow Moon once he awakens.
- Kamen Rider Double has Saeko Sonozaki and Isaka Shinkuro, the Taboo and Weather Dopants, a couple who seek and fail to overthrow Saeko's father as the ruler of Fuuto's underworld.
- Kamen Rider OOO presents Kazari as the obvious candidate for ascension to Big Bad among the Greeed, as he's a chessmaster who eventually consumes his own allies to empower himself. However, he makes the fatal mistake of giving a human the power to become something far more dangerous than himself and is the first of the Greeed to be slain by his monstrous creation.
- Kamen Rider Gaim has three wannabes. The first is Mitsuzane Kureshima, who thinks of himself as a master manipulator but proves the disposable pawn of every older, better con. The second is Ryoma Sengoku, creator of the show's belts and a much better conman than Mitsuzane, who uses the oncoming calamity as an opportunity for his schemes to achieve godhood. What he doesn't know is that godhood is only given to a select few, and he isn't one of them. The third is Redyue, the Overlord who acts as a counterpart character to both Mitsuzane and Ryouma. While powerful and manipulative in her own right, she's the first of the trio to fall, as the Overlords are exterminated in favor of the human antagonists.
- 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 him accidentally turning himself into a monster in an attempt to keep up and getting easily killed by Sid.
- Kamen Rider Build one-ups Gaim with four wannabes, thanks to the show's actual Big Bad Evolt (AKA Blood Stalk) being that good at manipulating people. Night Rogue and the leaders of Hokuto and Seito are bad enough, but weapons mogul Jusaburo Nanba takes the cake: unlike them, he's fully aware that Evolt is a supremely powerful alien being who destroys planets for fun, including single-handedly turning Mars into the lifeless rock it is today...and yet Nanba still believes Evolt is loyal and subordinate to him. It shouldn't take a genius to figure out what happens after Evolt achieves his final form and doesn't need to maintain the boot-licker act anymore...
- Kamen Rider Zi-O has Hiryu Kakogawa, a young man who wants to get revenge on Sougo, blaming him for causing the death of his parents, and commands formidable power as Another Zi-O. Unfortunately for him, he debuts in the same arc where Geiz gets his Mid-Season Upgrade, and is defeated in only the second episode of a four-part story arc. He returns in a later story arc where the timeline is changed so that he becomes Oma Zi-O instead of Sougo, gaining a massive increase in power....but even then, he's still just a puppet for Swartz—the real Big Bad of the series—who ditches him once he served his purpose and Hiryu is defeated for good at the end of the three-episode arc.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Both Horobi and Azu. When Horobi tries to pull a Dragon Ascendant, he winds up as Azu's Unwitting Pawn. Azu herself, although able to enable others to be threats, isn't much of a threat on her own and is easily taken advantage of by villains who are smarter than Horobi. Her scheme to start a Robot War in the final arc only results in a few protests that are quickly de-escalated, and her plan is ultimately thwarted simply by Aruto regaining his senses. Everyone else she tries to manipulate after takes advantage of her power for their own ends, instead of the other way around, and she ultimately falls when she tries to manipulate the much more intelligent Lyon Arkland.
- Kamen Rider Saber: Both Legeiel and Zooous think they're in a Big Bad Duumvirate with Storious. While all three are major threats, Legeiel and Zooous fall a lot sooner than Storious does...
- On Legacies, the Necromancer shows up, boldly introducing himself as if the very mention of his name will make anyone tremble and boasting of his greatness. Alric, who has faced scores of murderous vampires, just brushes him off.Necromancer: This is no way to treat a man of my station...
Alric: Literally no one knows who you are!
Necromancer: (scoffing) That's impossible.- As it happens, the Necromancer, like many supernatural creatures, was fed to a monster that has erased all memory of his existence from the world (except in myth). The idea the world has forgotten how powerful he was is seen as a fate worse than death for his ego.
- Leverage: Season 4 appears to be setting corrupt investor Jack Latimer up to be the series' first-ever Big Bad. He's The Man Behind the Man to many of the companies they've taken down, is making a clean profit from every move they make, and has been spying on the team by wiretapping their apartment. It is eventually revealed that Latimer has been getting most of his information from former Mark, Victor Dubenich, whom he believes he has under control. In reality, Dubenich is the far smarter of the two, holds the real power in their relationship, and ultimately turns on Latimer in the finale, shortly after the investor reveals that he is Too Dumb to Live.
- Indeed, a few of the marks of the show that are set up as massive threats turn out to really be nowhere near as competent as they thought as the team runs rings around them to take them down. In fact, quite often, it's the least seemingly threatening targets that end up nearly ruining the cons.
- From The Mentalist, the San Joaquin Killer, James Panzer, was a Serial Killer of young girls. Filled with delusions of grandeur, he built up a mythology of himself as unstoppable, Evil Genius, and stated that he’d keep killing more and more people while the police were helpless to stop him. Red John, meanwhile, has eluded police capture for decades and has a network of utterly devoted Serial Killer apprentices working under him, a number of which are powerful people placed in positions of influence. With Red John presumed dead, the San Joaquin Killer believed he would be the next biggest threat. Too bad for him he was a Smug Snake who believed his own lies regarding his invincibility so much that he insulted the presumed dead Red John on TV, ensuring that Red John had him killed.
- Once Upon a Time:
- King George is only able to become a competent antagonist to the heroes when there is not another villain around as well. Needless to say, this does not happen often. The best demonstration of this is in the penultimate episode of Season 1 where it looks like the flashback is going to be about Snow rescuing Charming from him, then Regina shows up and he is barely mentioned after that.
- Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West, is reduced to this in Seasons 4 and 5 after her role as Arc Villain of Season 3B. Her plans are treated as a minor annoyance to the heroes and her defeats come with little fanfare it is clear that she is only dealt with so the heroes can focus on the actual villains running around.
- Cruella De Vil and Ursula are part of a Villain Team-Up with Rumplestiltskin and Maleficent in Season 4, however, Rumple only really uses them to get himself back into Storybrooke and resurrect Maleficent. Once she's back, the other two are mostly support. Maleficent even points out to Rumple that Cruella and Ursula are simply a means to an end for herself and Rumple - something he doesn't deny. It's arguably even worse with Cruella than Ursula (even though Ursula leaves the story earlier) - she decides to go solo in "Sympathy for the De Vil" and uses animal magic on an enraged Dragon Maleficent, forcing her to stop and lie down. Instead of forcing Mal to bodyguard her, she leaves her there and gets killed by Emma because she couldn't defend herself — in fact, the Author took away her ability to kill decades ago.
- King Arthur in Season 5A. He starts out as the main antagonist of the flashback story but much of his threat comes from having Zelena as an ally and he is soon brushed aside when it becomes clear there is a greater problem. In Storybrooke, as soon as everyone learns he is evil, he goes down at the beginning of the next episode.
- Peter Pan of all people in Season 5's latter half. Where in Season 3 he was the Evil Overlord and immortal ruler of Neverland whom Rumple pulled a Heroic Sacrifice 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 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.
- The Evil Queen has become a much more Machiavellian antagonist in Season 6 without her Good Counterpart Regina's influence, however, when Gideon arrives in Storybrooke, he throws her across the street, turns her into a snake in a cage and never spares her another glance.
- Lady Tremaine/Victoria Belfry in Season 7. She is a Composite Character of previous villains and is set up as a major villain who cast the Dark Curse again. Except she didn't; it was her daughter, Drizella/Ivy who cast the Dark Curse that created Hyperion Heights and it is clear it is her who is running the show. Even Tremaine's plan to revive Anastasia pales in comparison to Drizella's revenge. And then Ivy gets Victoria arrested, steps in to take over her company, and clearly the one in charge, having run rings around her mother.
- Only for it to then be revealed that Gothel was the one playing everyone and tricks Drizella into giving up her magic to Anastasia. She dumps both Drizella and Victoria into a well and takes Anastasia to embark on her true plan of uniting a deadly coven of witches. In other words, Victoria and Drizella each thought they were the big mastermind but Gothel was the true evil all along. Drizella is an interesting example, however, in that she is genuinely competent and dangerous, especially in her methods of using the new Curse — it's just that Gothel was several steps further ahead and ensured that she'd lose her power in the end.
- Oz: Huseni Mershah is set up as a major villain, but his scheming to kill Saïd and take over the Muslims blows up in his face when Saïd survives the attempt on his life and exiles him. Mershah's subsequent efforts to get revenge only make things worse for himself and isolate him from the other inmates, and he ultimately commits suicide.
- On the Disney XD series Pair of Kings, scheming Lanny is always trying to get rid of his cousins in order to become king of their island nations. Not only does every one of his plans blow up in his face but even worse, the cousins don't even get Lanny's doing this, thinking him just a goofy friend, and Lanny is infuriated they don't even recognize him as a threat.
- Power Rangers: A few villains try their hand at being the main threat with often lethal consequences for them:
- Power Rangers Time Force had 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 Eviler than Thou by Ransik by the finale, where Ransik reprogrammed him as a mindless drone.
- Power Rangers Wild Force: After Master Org is outed as a mutated human and is depowered by the Rangers, Mandilok walks in to take the spot of the main villain but between his ineptitude at scheming, obsession with his hedonistic whims and lack of an actual plan he winds up pretty unimpressive and when Master Org returns he can't put up any fight and is easily outwitted and killed by his former boss for his treachery with the Master retaking his spot right after.
- In the fourth season of Revenge Natalie (Gina Torres) comes to the Hamptons, the wife of Conrad's late father. She soon does her best to manipulate Victoria and set herself up as the new "queen" of the area. She seduces David but then at a party starts acting like he's attacking her. David realizes Natalie was a lover of Conrad's and is now trying to destroy David and Victoria as revenge. She boasts she married Conrad's father and refused to feed him until he named her the sole heir in his will. She's about to continue her plot...at which point, a grinning Victoria enters to reveal she taped Natalie's entire confession. Victoria forces Natalie to sign over the money to her and leave the Hamptons or Victoria turns her in for fraud and abuse. Too late, Natalie realizes that when it comes to being a conniving bitch, she has nothing on Victoria.
- A Saturday Night Live sketch called "That's The Game
" has a drug lord pulling a coup on his partner and boasting of how he'll be the new boss of the city. It fails when it hits his underlings that their would-be boss has absolutely no idea how this operation works. Not only does he fail to grasp the market aspects (he thinks a $30,000 bag is worth a hundred bucks) but he doesn't even know the difference between cocaine and heroin. He eventually agrees to let his partner take 100% of the operation while continuing to boast "I'm the King!" - Hester, one of the Kappa pledges in Scream Queens (2015) would be the Big Bad of a drama series due to her schemes to take everything Chanel Oberlin has. Unfortunately, with a Serial Killer running around she's a secondary character. It doesn't help that Chanel is smart enough to spot her schemes a mile away... until the season finale reveals that Hester is the Red Devil and she successfully frames Chanel and her Girl Posse for everything.
- The Sopranos:
- Jackie Aprile Jr. is 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.
- A later example is Feech Lamanna in "All Happy Families". Like Jackie, he tries to scheme his way to the top, but by that point, Tony's learned to nip this sort of nonsense in the bud and manipulates him into getting sent back to prison before he can cause trouble.
- Space Sheriff Sharivan: Reider is a shinigami sorcerer with aspirations of taking over the Madou. But while he's far more dangerous than every other Madou executive, he's still dwarfed by Demon King Psycho himself, which leads to his coup attempt not going as planned.
- Stargate SG-1: Senator Robert Kinsey is basically this; while his political ambitions made him potentially dangerous to the continued operation of the Stargate program, his repeatedly demonstrated inability to understand the Goa'uld meant that it was always relatively easy for SG-1 to demonstrate to the right people why it would be a bad idea to let Kinsey do things his way.
- The writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation initially set out to make the Ferengi the new villains- due to the Klingons having 'reformed' since the original series- but it didn't take long to determine that the Ferengi weren't that scary, prompting the creation of the Borg instead mid-way through the second season.
- Their initially intimidating appearance and rapid 'fall from grace' was explained in spin-off novel The Buried Age; set before Next Generation began, it features a Ferengi captain musing that the Ferengi Grand Nagus has been setting up a system of militarisation to create a more intimidating impression for when they make official contact with the Federation, regarding their moneyless economy as proof that the Federation was made up of lunatics.
- In the Mirror Universe episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Mirror version of Garak comes across as this; where he demonstrates the petty vindictiveness and fondness for torture that the 'prime' Garak possessed before his exile, he lacks any of the subtlety or intelligence of his counterpart, making more blatant power grabs and resorting to explicit torture for the sake of it where 'prime' Garak operated in the shadows and was so discreet even his closest friend on the station was never entirely sure what he was going to do next.
- Once the writers on Star Trek: Voyager gave up trying to make them a legitimate threat, the Kazon became this: a race of Planet Looters that talked tough, but were little more than a bunch of dimwitted thugs so pathetic that even the Borg considered them not worth assimilating.
- Supernatural:
- Crowley. Despite being the King of Hell, he tends to come off as a minor threat due to being overshadowed in power by the real Big Bads and even some of the Disc One Final Bosses like Eve and the Archangel Raphael in Season 6. He was part of the Big Bad Ensemble of Season 8 along with Naomi, Abaddon, and Metatron, but even then he was the least powerful member. He's still quite dangerous from the perspective of a Muggle, but in a world where most of the real Big Bads could kill him just by touching him, he's not very frightening by comparison.
- Metatron is reduced from genuine Big Bad to this in Seasons 10 and 11 after the Angel tablet that gave him power is destroyed. It seems like he's going to regain the title after stealing the demon tablet in Season 10, but since he's also lost his Angelic Grace by that point, he can't actually get any power from it, and he's left as just a pathetic, nerdy Manchild.
- Several episodes of Season 10 set up the Styne family as a new major, recurring threat, being an Ancient Conspiracy of Serial Killers and Mad Scientists who have been manipulating world events to their benefit for centuries, and even manage to kill recurring ally Charlie. Unfortunately for them, that last action pisses off Dean, who is under the influence of the Mark of Cain at the time, and he proceeds to slaughter them all.
- Super Sentai
- Towards the end of J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, Boss Iron Claw is convinced by Shine that he'll become "Emperor of the Solar System" if he defeats JAKQ. Unfortunately for him, it turns out at the end that Shine, the great alien conqueror Iron Claw thinks he's serving, has been duping him and is far less impressive than he presents himself. However, Iron Claw still liked the idea of becoming "Emperor of the Solar System", which leads him to actually become the Big Bad in the crossover with Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
- General Zenobia in Kagaku Sentai Dynaman is a tough and cunning warlord who even Emperor Aton is wary of. Towards the end of the series, she betrays Aton and tries to obtain ultimate power by giving herself ten tails, except she ends up being used as an Unwitting Pawn by the Dark Knight and dying as a result of his machinations, leaving the Dark Knight to become the final Big Bad after Aton's death.
- Choushinsei Flashman has Lee Keflen become this at the end. It's not entirely his fault, as Mess had already been wrecked by a particularly destructive Enemy Civil War, but the only reason he comes into power is because the Flashmen take care of both Cowler and Lah Deus for him. Once he's leader of Mess, the best he can do is use what limited resources he has to make one last Beast Warrior, and he goes down incredibly easily once the Flashmen confront him.
- Choujuu Sentai Liveman has Guildos, an alien who believes himself to be far superior to the human geniuses in Volt and eventually begins plotting to surpass Great Professor Bias himself. What he doesn't know is that he's actually a robot built by Bias to spur his students' creativity, who dies after overexerting himself in battle against the Livemen.
- Gosei Sentai Dairanger has Gorma XV, The Emperor of the Gorma Tribe. Despite possessing the powerful Earth-shaking jewel, however, he's a playful Manchild who would rather fool around than do anything serious. And he's later revealed to be (much to his surprise) just a clay puppet made by the real mastermind, Lieutenant Colonel Shadam.
- A more humorous example is Yabaiba from Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger who wants to be a Highness 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 Matrix from the Gaorangers and once TsueTsue and the three Highnesses come back from the dead due to his efforts he goes back to being their sycopanthic servant.
- Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger:
- The Gouraigers ally with Jakanja at the start of the series, but plan on betraying them all with the intent of obtaining "It" for their own use. However, they wind up being manipulated without even realizing they're just pawns to invoke "It" until it's almost too late.
- Boss Tau Zant devolves into one once Sandaaru shows up and quickly proves himself to be more dangerous than Tau Zant, putting their plan in motion that they had failed to accomplish before and usurping Tau Zant as the plan's controller once he catches onto the fact that Tau Zant is using him. Although Tau Zant gets revived later, by that point he's being overshadowed and possessed by the Evil Will.
- Mikoto Nakadai / Abare Killer in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger. He's a dangerous threat and while he briefly becomes acting leader of the Evolians, he still pales in comparison to the actual Big Bad, Wicked Life God Dezumozorlya, and was Dezumozorlya's Unwitting Pawn for the entirety of his life, containing half of his essence inside of himself. If the Abarangers hadn't reached out to him, the Evolian would've been able to kill him by extracting said half with him none the wiser.
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has two.
- Warz Gill is the son of The Emperor of Zangyack and the commander of their Earth invasion force, which nominally makes him the Big Bad. However, in practice, he's a buffoonish and overly egotistical idiot, with his Dragon-in-Chief 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 Great Warz however.
- Basco ta Jolokia is a privateer in the employ of Zangyack who's far more competent than Warz, despite possessing fewer resources, and The Rival of the Gokaigers in their quest to collect the Greater Powers. While he's easily one of the most vile villains in the show and comes close to beating the Gokaigers, there's still another villain much more powerful and formidable than him - The Emperor of the Zangyack Empire himself.
- Max of The Thundermans boasts of being a supervillain in training and wanting to be evil. He even has a former super-villain changed into a rabbit to give him advice and throws in with bad guys when he can. The problem is that at his worst, Max comes off as less "evil monster" than "annoying jerk" and his "plots" are really little more than childish pranks. Most importantly, as much as he hates to say it, Max really is a good kid deep down. Thus, whenever he's given a chance to get really bad with some villains, he can't go through with it.
- Todd and the Book of Pure Evil has Atticus, after he takes over the Satanic Society in Season 2. He thinks he's now an evil mastermind destined to rule the world, but his own minions have zero respect for him, and despite a few Not-So-Harmless Villain moments here and there, most of his plans are simple and easily fail. Even in the Bad Future episode, he only manages to take over the town because Hannah has a Face–Heel Turn and aids him, and while in the final episode he finally gets the Book and uses its power to become a demon, it turns out that he was merely an Unwitting Pawn of the Metal Dudes all along.
- The Walking Dead:
- Gareth. Terminus is destroyed in the first episode of Season 5, and he and the Hunters are wiped out two episodes later. His one victory in Season 5, capturing Bob and eating his leg, backfires spectacularly: Bob was already dying from a zombie bite, and returning him to the group leads Rick to take action to finish off the Hunters.
- Simon. Despite being a terrifying and capable leader, the man thinks way too highly of himself and is only half as dangerous as Negan himself. During the second half of Season 8, he manages to take Negan's place as the main antagonist of the season for a mere two episodes before Negan's return.
- The Wire: Stringer Bell is smarter than the average Baltimore gangster, but he is only really educated and intelligent by the standards of his street peers, and worse he tends to misunderstand the nature of the game, to the point of Avon often having to correct him when he attempts reckless solutions to his problems such as ordering a hit on a Senator. He overestimates his own intelligence and underestimates the intelligence of those around him as a result, not realizing that street smarts matter more than college smarts when it comes to street crime. Part of his problem is that he wants a low profile and doesn't want to act as Big Bad, but still has to before retooling his organization, and as Avon points out, he may be too smart for his fellow criminals, but he might not be smart enough for the white-collar world he aspires to and is thus playing an intellectual more than actually being one.
- Wynonna Earp: Early in the first season, the witch Constance Clootie seems to be the one pulling the strings of the more obvious threat, the revenant Bobo Del Rey. However, she makes a number of mistakes (mainly by underestimating both Bobo and the Earps), leading to her downfall and Bobo's emergence as the true Big Bad of the season.
