Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain - Television Tropes & Idioms

Joel Cairo: More pathetic than you.

A potential villain who is consistently a failure or never gets the respect he thinks he deserves, and may even be angry that the heroes don't take him seriously.

He may not be inept... exactly. Villain Decay is usually too simple an explanation. This is sometimes a relative situation, and the hero's Rogues Gallery just happens to include people more showy, better financed, or just plain scarier than him.

This does not mean he doesn't bear animosity; that's a Punch Clock Villain. He's probably jumping at the opportunity to outdo his rivals and the hero. But there is something about his perseverance or attitude about the whole thing that is just short of sympathetic.

May also be a Determinator out of necessity or overlap with Draco In Leather Pants. If they get even more pathetic in regard to the hero, Unknown Rivalry looms. Just watch out, they may suddenly turn out to be Not So Harmless.

Video Game versions of this trope frequently overlap with the Goldfish Poop Gang if they are just as pathetic in actual battle as they're treated by the story.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Mousse from Ranma 1/2 is a loser whose plots against Ranma go only so far before backfiring spectacularly. He was usually played as an unrepentant jerk, although maybe once a season he'd get a moment of quiet reflection for the audience to sympathize with him — right before going back to his old ways, naturally.
Principal Uchimiyada on Great Teacher Onizuka often plots to get rid of Onizuka, yet is portrayed as less of a threat than the troubled students in Onizuka's class, like Miyabi, Urumi, and (towards the end of the manga) Sho.
James and Jessie of Team Rocket, especially in the Fourth Wall-breaking 4Kids version of Pokemon. They are so pathetic, you can't help but feel sorry for them (though it's still satisfying to see them get belted into the stratosphere). They even occasionally team up with the heroes when the fate of the world is at stake, showing they're not really evil — just misguided and incompetent.
- This Troper finds them a whole lot more sympathetic and likeable than the shrill, obnoxious Ash.
Dorodoran in Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star. Unlike most Pretty Cure villains, he's trying as hard as he can from the start, and is increasingly frustrated and upset by his repeated failures. When he finally comes close to victory, it all evaporates due to sabotage by Michiru and Kaoru. It's hard not to feel sorry for him.
Zeta Gundam had Jerid Mesa, who ended up becoming the Designated Rival for the show's protagonist, got into a vicious cycle of each killing the other's friends and/or lovers in battle, and eventually was killed when the hero threw his mobile suit into an exploding battleship. And all this because he made fun of the protagonist for having an effeminate name ("Kamille").
- To be fair, he died a bit of a Karmic Death, when he decided to challenge the hero right after Emma/Emma's boyfriend died. Kamille was in a pretty bad mood...Doesn't help that his challenge actually delayed Kamille the crucial seconds.
Following in Jerid's spirit is Jeremiah Gottwald from Code Geass, who began the show as the military equivalent of a Jerk Jock, but made the mistake of crossing Lelouch, which left him disgraced, hated, and saddled with the ignoble nickname "Orange". His enormous popularity spared him from a planned quick death, resulting in his returning later as an Ax Crazy cyborg.
- Just to crank up the sympathy another few notches, the side materials revealed that Jeremiah was a palace guard on the day Empress Marianne was killed, and has based his entire career on an attempt to atone for failing not only Marianne, but her children, who disappeared in Japan, leading him to think they were killed by the Japanese, which prompted his racism against Elevens, which resulted in Lelouch (Marianne's supposedly-dead son) publicly humiliating him. Whoops...
  - Said side materials were brought into the second season when Jeremiah, sent by the Geass Order to assassinate Lelouch, revealed that he was still loyal to Marianne, and when Lelouch admitted that avenging his mother was one of his main reasons for becoming Zero, "Orange-Boy" immediately dropped his thirst for vengeance and became Lelouch's retainer.
More recently, Gundam 00 introduced Patrick Coulasour, who quickly develops a one-sided rivalry with the Gundams after being publicly humiliated by them in the first episode, only to be dispatched in similar fashion when he returns later. As with Jeremiah, fans latched onto him, giving him the nickname "Team Patrick".
Excel in Excel Saga at times. Often subverted by following a sympathetic moment by doing or saying something disturbing.
Viral from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, who goes rapidly downhill from his first battle with the protagonists. By the time the heroes reach the Helix King himself, Viral, even given immortality and a four-armed upgrade to his Humongous Mecha, is swatted aside by Simon as if he was a humorous interlude.
- Perhaps justified in that after Thymilph is defeated, Viral is handed over to a string of superiors who seem to love nothing more than undercutting him at every available opportunity, and in one case beating the liquid center out of him for daring to ask "how high" when told to jump. Is it any wonder that the female fanbase loves him?
Harry Champ from Zoids New Century, though he's more of a rival then a villain per se. Major Polta is certainly innefectual, but does very little to garner sympathy.
- There's also the ~~Fuzzy Pandas~~ ~~Tigers Team~~ Zabre Fangs; though they do prove to be worthy opponents a few times in the series, they're mostly comic relief, and in fact lose their final battle against the Blitz Team when their Zoids do a facefault and malfunction from the fall.
Doctor West from Demonbane is basically just an anime Jack Spicer.
Kinkotsuman and Iwao from Kinnikuman are complete losers, plain and simple, who can't seem to do anything right. Of course, they're also kind of a subversion, because Kinnikuman is just as big a loser. Also, sometimes when they aim high, they miss high. Like when Kinkotsuman accidentally shot Terryman in the leg when he was aiming for Kinnikuman and Terryman ended up having to have his leg amputated.
- In fact, in Nisei, Kinkotsuman's son Bone Cold's entire motivation as a villain is distancing himself from how lame his dad is.

Comic Books

Harley Quinn of Batman The Animated Series tended to fall into this trope, especially when she caught on as a popular character. Harley was often treated as genuinely misguided past her introductory episode, so the audience sometimes forgave her for her more violent behavior depending on how softening a particular episode was.
- DCU Harley recently underwent a Heel Face Turn, and did it without changing her character in the slightest — the only change was that the Joker tried to kill her and she broke up with him for it. Free of his influence, she's doing what she thinks is the right thing... which turns out to be, more or less, the actual right thing. (Plus, she's having fun helping out all the people who usually beat her up. I didn't say the girl got sane.)
  - Given how abusive her relationship with "Mister J" got, she may not be sane, but at least she's consistent.
- Also from TAS, Baby Doll is probably one of the most sympathetic characters in Batman's Rogues Gallery. She kidnaps her former TV costars, but just to yell at them for abandoning her and forcibly reenact the show. (Still, she is pretty efficient about it.)
The Riddler in DC Comics is often treated as slightly less of a threat than most of Batman's gallery because his particular lunacy isn't manifested violently (obsessive-compulsive disorder), nor is he disfigured. Similarly, the fact that the Penguin is perfectly sane may have contributed to his mutation into a gray market white-collar criminal whom Batman is grudgingly willing to tolerate as a source of information on the criminal underworld.
- The Riddler also had himself a Heel Face Turn recently. He decided that he could use his genius for puzzles to solve crimes instead of committing them and is currently operating as a private detective...for NOW...
The Marvel Universe's Toad is a classic example of this. He has second-rate powers, a stupid nickname, and an even stupider real name (Mortimer Toynbee). However, the first X-Men live action film, with the character played by Ray Park, changed him into a wry villain with more self-respect and redefined powers that are actually scary in their deadliness — managing to become his own Canon Immigrant.
The Shocker from Spider-Man almost revels in his second-rate status, remarking on one occasion that at least it keeps him off the radar of guys like The Punisher.
- Not that he's entirely comfortable with it - this troper recalls a scene in which a variety of Marvel heroes are hustling into a superhuman prison, vigorously expositing about the potential damage that the villain they're after could cause. In the process, they run by The Shocker's cell.
  Wolverine, smirking: "Yeah, we wouldn't want the Shocker to get out - then we'd really be in trouble."
  The Shocker, arms crossed petulantly: "Shut up!"
- In fact, he's kind of hit the skids lately, having been fired from Hammer Industries, where he worked as hired muscle, and not appearing on the local news' supervillain alerts even though Stilt-Man was. Desperate, he teams up with a similarly over the hill Hydro-Man to knock over ONE bank and retire. You feel pretty bad for him when Spider-Man not only stops them, but evaporates Hydro-Man and injures the Shocker to the point that his ribs stick out of his chest.
Though the rat creatures in the comic Bone are quite fearsome in force, the nameless two most commonly seen around the valley where the protagonists live are pretty pathetic on their own. They want to eat the story's protagonist, but they do themselves more harm than they do anyone else with their bumbling.
Marvel's Porcupine was a rare example of a Heel Face Turn from this type, although it went wrong. The villain initially created his battlesuit to sell to the military, but for some reason they weren't interested (perhaps just because it looked goofy). He became a particularly pathetic supervillain, to the point that when he tried to sell the battlesuit to other villains, they also turned him down. He then turned to the Avengers for assistance, only to be killed by his own costume when he got in the way of the Serpent Squad.
The DCU villain Dr. Light was a goofball villain not taken seriously in the Post Crisis era. That all changed with his rape the wife moment in Identity Crisis.
- Thereby bringing in one of the more tediously shameful DorkAges in recent DCU comics history.

Film

For this troper, it has to be Kaa from Disney's The Jungle Book. Partly because he's cute, but mostly because he found Mowgli not very likable in the film (for a kid raised in the jungle, his lack of survival skills were annoying).
- Kaa's interest in Mowgli occasionally bordered on the paedophiliac, though. Unlike in the book, where he's a Bad Ass.
Peter Lorre in M. And again in Casablanca. And in The Maltese Falcon. And Arsenic And Old Lace. In fact, Peter Lorre in general.
- Peter Lorre in Mad Love; all of the sympathy, three times the creepiness. Fairly efficent, given how nuts he was.

Literature

CMOT Dibbler somewhat fits this description, since while he (like his counterparts across the Discworld) is extremely amoral, particularly in the novel Moving Pictures, his schemes invariably fail and he is back to selling dodgy sausages. For this reason, he is a humorous character rather than an out-and-out villain.
Prince (later King) Korin, The Dragon (although the Big Bad dies first) of Lynn Flewelling's Tamír Trilogy...although, especially towards the end, he ends up less sympathetic than merely pitiful. In real-world history, kings like him tended to end up with the sobriquet of "The Unready."

Live Action TV

The Stillman Sisters from an episode of Charmed, entitled The Power of Three Blondes. They are trying to steal the Halliwell sisters' powers and prove that they're more than just dumb blondes, and they come oh-so-close to succeeding at both.
Dr. Clayton Forrester of MST 3 K springs to mind. As his character brief in the show's official Episode Guide puts it, "His passion for depravity far exceeds his aptitude."
Harmony from Buffy The Vampire Slayer after she became a vampire.

Video Games

In Xenogears, Kahran Ramsus appears as a primary villain early on, and with his prettyboy features, white hair and usage of a sword as his weapon seems destined to be the big bad. By the end of the game his wallflower-like personal assistant has turned out to be the real Big Bad, he finds out he’s a failed clone designed to mimic the powers of the main character (Who he has repeatedly lost to) and is abandoned by his masters for his repeated failures.
Final Fantasy V had Gilgamesh, the Big Bad's enthusiastic, melodramatic, and ultimately Affably Evil sidekick, who despite being a reasonably tough boss to fight really talked himself up to be a lot more than he was...and eventually, after deciding he liked the heroes a lot more than his boss, he blew himself up to take out another boss that was attacking them - but not without a cheesy and confusing farewell speech.
- He's proved so popular with fans that he's made reappearances as a summon in FFVIII, a sidequest character in IX, an unrelated character with the same name in XI, and appeared in all his original glory as a comical quest-character/bonus boss in XII. He was also Retconned into the rereleases of Final Fantasy I and VI as a secret boss/summon.
Teisel Bonne from the Mega Man Legends games, supposedly a feared air pirate who gets consistently beaten by Mega and his crew. He was a one-man Team Rocket before Team Rocket was popular. Most of the planning and robots built for the attacks come from his younger sister, Gadgeteer Genius Tron Bonne.
- Their crew (well, Tron and her herd of adorably indestructible minions, anyway) is so sympathetic they later got their own spinoff game as protagonists that Mega Man wasn't even in.
Disgaea has the Dark Adonis Vyers... at least, that's what he was called before the world bent to accomodate Laharl's Lampshade Hanging:
Vyers: I see. So you saw my potential and decided to strike first against moi... Such wonderful intuition... Well played, son of Krichevskoy.
Laharl: I've never even heard of you. It's only a coincidence that we're here. You're just a tiny stepping stone on my path to the throne.
Vyers: *gasp* How dare you! I'm the Dark Adonis Vy...
Laharl: Who gives a damn about you? Your new name is "Mid-Boss".
Mid-Boss: M-m-mid-Boss!?
Solt and Peppor, the bumbling duo from Chrono Cross fail continually to succeed at anything, even acting as combat tutorials for the main character because of how ineffective their combat planning is.
Rose, from Zack and Wiki, gets this in her second appearance. She gets frozen in ice, and used as a statue!
Luke Atmey from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney. While he was a serious, mad, blackmailing murderer, this troper had trouble taking him seriously because of his...fascinating...pieces of dialogue (Example: Shouting "Shall we say the figurative Sir William will be dropping his panties before lunchtime!" while shifting poses excitedly.) and his ridic—er, interesting looks. (Magnifying-glass monocle? Shaved, black hair with a spikey tuft of blond hair over it? Oversized nose? Seriously?)
- Winston Payne from the same series, while not a villain, is prosecutor and therefore antagonist. The fact that he was once the famous "Rookie Killer" who claims to have never lost a case in his first seven years as a lawyer, but lost one case along with his hair and from then on was basically a joke makes me feel quite sorry for him.

Web Animation

Burnt Face Man's entire Rogues Gallery, whose nefarious schemes include harassing him over MSN and stealing his submarine (he doesn't have one, the plot was randomised). Taps Man splashes his opponents with water. "Hot, and cold. Hot, and cold, and a combination of them, which I call 'HOLD'."
- Despite that, Taps Man managed to kill Burnt Face Man's rival, Slightly Bruised Man, with a spray of scalding water, followed with tepid water with lead piping and a faulty boiler.

Webcomics

Waldo and Steve in the webcomic College Roomies From Hell!!!, though they are far too ugly both physically and socially to ever be truly sympathetic.
Cassiel from Misfile desperately wants to be Rumisiel's nemesis and is constantly plotting his downfall. Too bad she makes Team Rocket look competent and effective.
Fructose Riboflavin in The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob, who has been trying and trying and failing to take over the Nemesite Empire for just so danged long you have to pity him, just a little.

Web Original

Dr. Horrible of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, portrayed as a decent fellow with evil ambitions and a crush on a girl from his laundromat while also bullied around by Jerk Jock superhero Captain Hammer.
- He even qualifies as a Well Intentioned Extremist; he thinks Utopia Justifies The Means and a benevolent dictatorship would do that. Kind of like the Brain.
- This troper agrees with this and likes Dr. Horrible a lot. Her flatmate does not, and there have been running arguments over the matter for weeks.
Lee Phillips from KateModern, during his brief time as a villain. He is perfectly serious in his plot to revenge himself on Gavin and Tariq, but overshadowed by the arrival of far more threatening antagonists such as Kate's Watcher and Terrence.

Theater

Dr. Einstein of Arsenic And Old Lace. At the very least he's helped Jonathan escape from jail and evade the police. He probably has something to do with the latter's ability to be a contender in the play's Body Count Competition as well. However, he's clearly motivated by fear and spends a lot of time drunk. This may be the reason for his escape at the end.

Western Animation

The Amoeba Boys in The Powerpuff Girls. While the Powerpuff Girls are out beating up the real criminals, the poor Amoeba Boys can't get the girls' attention, despite committing heinous acts such as littering, jaywalking, and disobeying a "Keep off the grass" sign.
- In one of the early World Premiere Toon shorts, the Girls actually commit a bank robbery solely to show the Boys how it's done. When the Girls are brought in for the crime, the boys turn themselves in in an attempt to appear "big time."
- In another, during the actual series, the Boys stumble upon Mojo Jojo's Deathtrap plans, and they, along with the Girls, mistake it for a "scavenger hunt" — so they find all the things it calls for and put it together, and once it's assembled the Girls think it's a theme-park ride, so they willingly submit to the plan intended to destroy them.
- In another episode, the Boys catch a cold while loitering on the grass in yet another attempt at crime. Even though they end unwittingly mutating the cold into a deadly strain of virus and even more unwittingly starting an epidemic in Townsville, the viewers still can't help but feel sorry for them.
- And in another episode, they manage to actually succeed at stealing an orange for once, and when it splits apart, are reminded that as amoebae, they are capable of multiplying. There is quickly an army of them, and the only thing they can think to do is to steal all the oranges in Townsville (although this does cause the citizens to contract scurvy).
The Toilenator from Codename Kids Next Door badly wants to be a villain, but is far too wimpy and incompetent to pull it off. He's a minor inconvenience to the KND, and most of the bad guys try not to be seen with him because of his clingy Baldrick personality.
In Xiaolin Showdown, Jack Spicer, despite being the main villain in some cases, is usually an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, especially in the later episodes.
With one exception (The Phantom Limb) and, in later episodes, The Monarch, all the villains on The Venture Brothers are of this nature.
- Most of them are of the Not So Harmless type. It's shown that the reason OSI and such tolerate Supervillian's stupid games is it keeps them from committing real crimes or blowing up cities. The Monarch is particular special case. When he was taken off Dr. Venture he was unhappy with the normal game and proceed to kill 5 heroes in a short time.
Wile E. Coyote of Looney Tunes fame is pretty much the definition of this.
Waspinator from Transformers: Beast Wars is one of these, being as he is a Chew Toy on the side of the bad guys.
- Ditto for Sky-Byte in the later Transformers series Robots In Disguise.
Prince Zuko in the first season of Avatar The Last Airbender.
Frisky Dingo's Killface is a pseudo-cultured, incompetent supervillain whose plans are often derailed by trivial matters and lacks knowledge of common subjects (it's a revelation to him that P.C. stands for "personal computer"). He's still more likable than "hero" Xander Crews though.
- Killface is so sympathetic, especially when compared to Jerk Ass Designated Hero Xander Crews, that it's easy to forget that he brutally killed two people in the pilot and has added to his body count throughout the series. It helps that some of the other members of the cast have committed similar misdeeds.
Invader Zim qualifies for this trope most of the time, more often than not his schemes thwarted by the Ditz portion of his Genius Ditz personality rather than his arch-nemesis or his Cloud Cuckoo Lander robot. Of particular note is the episode where he survives a Training From Hell in order to receive some Humongous Mechas from his leaders, only to be shot into a sun for his troubles.
Karl anyone. The comercals for the next episode subjests he'll join the heroes so he can keep up with everyone else

Implacable Man

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