Follow TV Tropes

Following

Near Villain Victory / Western Animation

Go To

The following have their own pages:


  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • In the very first episode, "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad", Scratch and Grounder catch Tails, forcing Sonic to give himself up lest Tails be hurt. Both of them are successfully imprisoned with no escape in sight and the two robots call Robotnik in to claim their reward. Their scheme only fails because Coconuts wants to take credit and Sonic successfully tricks the monkey into putting Scratch and Grounder in the cage so that he could escape. Had Coconuts not interfered, Robotnik would've won before the show even hit its second episode! Of course, being that it was an Origins Episode being told by Sonic, it's only natural things turned out the way they did.
    • Robotnik actually comes very close to defeating Sonic a fair few times. He does so each time he gains a Chaos Emerald in the four-parter arc, only for Sonic to usually manipulate some time paradox against him.
    • Another example from the Chaos Emerald saga is in the third part, "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme", where Sonic's Egyptian ancestor never met his future wife at a chilli dog stand, leading Sonic himself subject to being Ret-Gone. After this, Tails takes it upon himself to play matchmaker.
    • The Clip Show "Hero of the Year" has Sonic surrender to stop Robotnik from drowning his friends by sinking a yacht, only for Robotnik to lie and set the yacht to sink anyway, with Sonic trapped at the bottom of the ocean in an escape-proof cell that would cut off his oxygen supply if anyone tried to save him. Robotnik promises Wes Weasely his own shopping channel in exchange for helping him with this plan, but it is later revealed that Weasely isn't actually allowed to broadcast it. This inspires Weasely to turn against Robotnik and help Sonic save his friends.
    • Momma Robotnik comes closest of all in "Momma Robotnik Returns" when she disguises herself and becomes Sonic and Tails' legal guardian; Sonic is practically helpless to stop her from taking over Mobius with a supercomputer, since she takes Tails hostage. Sonic has to be saved by Coconuts and none other than Robotnik himself, both of whom rat her out to a social worker to avenge her mistreatment of them.
  • Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: "Shoot Out". The Queen has three Rangers in chains, displaying them like a trophy. The fourth is competing for his life in a Blood Sport where the Queen's new champion has shot and wounded him. The animation where she's on her feet cheering while her captives look on in dismay is wonderfully done.
  • Adventure Time: Most times The Lich appears, Finn and Jake usually only manage to triumph due to circumstances beyond their actions, often just pure luck.
    • In his first appearance, Finn is able to negate the Lich's powers with his "like-like sweater". However, neither Finn or the Lich had any idea that was even a thing until that very moment. Notably, in the very next episode, the sweater no longer has any effect on the Lich.
    • In his second appearance, the Lich reaches Prismo the Wishmaster and successfully wishes for the complete extinction of all life. Finn's attempt to wish the Lich never existed doesn't work, as a different Lich comes into existence later on anyway. Jake is only able to find a solution to the outcome of both wishes by Prismo outright telling Jake exactly how to word his wish to prevent any unforeseen consequences.
    • In his third appearance, the Lich kills Prismo so that he will be taken to away to an inter-dimensional super-prison. There, he frees and takes control of the other inmates to create an all-powerful army to wipe out life on every world. Finn is able to defeat the Lich when he falls in a puddle of rejuvenating Guardian blood, and his attempt to feebly swat away the Lich splashes some blood on the Lich, causing flesh to grow over the Lich's undead skeletal body, resulting in Death of Personality. Finn had no idea this would happen, and it was only by chance he landed in the blood puddle.
    • In his fourth appearance, the Lich tricks an alternate, insane version of Finn into creating a portal accessing the multiverse. Normal universe Finn and Jake are only able to stop the Lich because Finn's grass arm gained autonomy and attacked the Lich without Finn's control as a defence mechanism, as Jake had been knocked out by the Lich and Finn was frozen in a block of ice.
    • In his fifth appearance, the Lich hand that was knocked into the main universe tries to corrupt Sweet P (the former Lich of the main universe) into joining him. Finn and Fern are unable to stop the Lich, and Finn is nearly killed by the Lich, until Sweet P overcomes the Lich's corruption and slays his evil predecessor without Finn doing anything.
    • In his last major appearance in Adventure Time: Distant Lands, the Lich manipulates the son of Life and Death into destroying all the Dead Worlds and ending the cycle of reincarnation, thereby preventing life from ever being created again. Life grants Finn and Jake a weapon able to harm New Death, but neither is sure how to use it. They then find out whoever kills Death is forced to become Death, and neither is willing to let the other take on the burden. In fact, the one who kills New Death is Mr. Fox, who happened to arrive just in the nick of time, and accidentally uses Life's rod the right way, thwarting the Lich's scheme right before he was about to make them all Deader than Dead.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • This happens three times in Avatar: The Last Airbender: the Fire Nation ultimately wins the war at the end of the second season when Princess Azula conquers Ba Sing Se, forcing Aang and his friends into hiding on enemy territory. Later in season 3, the few remaining pockets of resistance unite for a surprise counter-attack on the Fire Nation capital; it fails, costing the Avatar most of his remaining allies. At the end, with a super-charged Fire Lord Ozai preparing the killing blow against Aang, the Fire Nation's victory seemed irreversible until Aang regains access to the Avatar State and defeats Ozai thus finally ending the war in the anti-Fire Nation forces victory.
    • From the Sequel Series The Legend of Korra, Amon comes within seconds of completing his plan, having successfully robbed Korra of her powers and taken over Republic City. The only reasons he fails are beyond his control; namely Korra suddenly being able to airbend and his own survival instincts.
      • All of the Arc Villains in Korra come close to winning only to be defeated at the last second; Unalaq merges with Vaatu, destroys Raava, and puts Republic City under siege, only for Korra to have a Heroic Second Wind and defeat him (with help from Jinora), Zaheer successfully poisons Korra and wears her down to near death, but all his friends die, he's captured and Suyin is able to Bend the poison out of Korra's body, and Kuvira captures Republic City with her Humongous Mecha superweapon, but fails to kill Korra and gives the heroes enough time to rally and fight back.
  • Batman: The Animated Series: Poison Ivy almost murders Batman during their first encounter but a number of choices end up shooting her in the foot. Chiefly the fact their goodnight kiss was far shorter than the one Harvey Dent received earlier. Had Ivy lingered into it, forcing him to ingest a larger amount of rose poison, Bats wouldn't have been able to hold it together long enough to pull a Playing Possum maneuver and escape from her flytrap's Vine Tentacles.
  • Occurs throughout the first season of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. Aggregor successfully manages to drain the powers of all four of the Andromeda Galaxy aliens, gather all four pieces of the Map of Infinity and locates the Forge of Creation, where he intends to drain the powers of a baby Celestapian and be omnipotent. He defeats the members of Ben's Team and reaches to grab the baby, only to be suddenly stopped by once again mutated Kevin and is drained of the powers of the aliens he had absorbed knocking him out.
  • Big City Greens: In "Chipocalypse Now", the Greens' legacy is threatened once again by Chip Whistler, who buys out Big Coffee, fires Cricket and Gloria, demolishes the café and the apartment complex and replaces them with a megastore leaving the farmhouse in shadow, and worst yet, the house itself is going to be destroyed and replaced by a parking lot. Chip also issued a destruction petition supposedly signed by all the Greens' friends and neighbors, making Cricket assume everyone hates him. If Cricket hadn't visited Remy who admits he never signed any petition making him realize the petition is fraud, if Channel 11 News didn't come to report on the final battle and broadcast Tilly's Rousing Speech, and if all of Big City didn't show up to stand up for the family following said speech, Chip would've won. As if that weren't enough, Chip was on the cusp of nearly killing them if his chopper hadn't gotten caught on the power lines which stopped it just mere inches from Cricket's face — something Cricket immediately notices — and then gets slung off to parts unknown.
  • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: In "Conspiracy", after they failed to frame Buzz for attempting to assassinate the Galactic President by disguising as him, the Gargantian Terrorists tried to get Buzz to do the deed for them, and they would have succeeded had they known that Commander Nebula (who they were really disguised as) hates doing paperwork.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
    • In The Movie Operation: Z.E.R.O., the Big Bad Grandfather has crushed the Kids Next Door, turned everyone into Senior Citizombies, and has re-established his tapioca factories by transforming the KND Treehouses. However, he still remembers that the last time he ruled the world, he was stopped because the Book of KND had inspired his son Numbuh Zero to rebel against him, which lead to his defeat and decommissioning. So in order to cement his victory, he plans to destroy the Book of KND so that it never inspires anyone to rise against him ever again. Despite the recommissioned Numbuh Zero stalling him for as long as he could, he ultimately does get his hands on the Book. However, in mere seconds of doing so, before Grandfather even has a chance to destroy the Book, the plan to drop the Moon Base on him goes off which allows them to get him in a decommissioning chamber to erase his memory again.
    • The episode "Operation: U.N.D.E.R.C.O.V.E.R." starts off with one. Sector V is chained to an iceberg, and the Delightful Children are closing in on them with a drill. The only reason they don't succeed is because Lenny pulls a lever that sends the DCFDTL flying away. The entire episode is about Lenny becoming a Fake Defector from the DCFDTL.
  • The Cuphead Show!:
    • In "Sweater Luck Next Time", after the Devil discovers that Cuphead is not wearing the protective sweater, he advances on the latter and starts pulling out his soul, hoping that it will soon be his. However, he gets distracted by Mugman, who had arrived in the nick of time with the sweater and puts it on the Devil, shocking him and saving Cuphead's life.
  • Elena of Avalor:
    • In "Spellbound", Fiero is close to ruling Avalor and having everyone stoned forever, until Matteo turns his own spell back on him, turning him to stone instead.
    • In "A Spy in the Palace", a disguised Carla was within one second of grabbing the Carnival tiara from the treasury, but is called back to the Jaquin Festival by Naomi, making her scheme a complete waste.
    • In the climax of "Song of the Sirenas", Elena was almost killed by Shuriki, but thanks to using her scepter's magic at just the right moment, she survives and kills her.
  • In the made-for-TV Felix the Cat cartoons, while Professor and Rock Bottom never earned a true victory over Felix, they've come pretty close on occasion. In "Oil and Indians Don't Mix", Professor and Rock Bottom succeed in setting up an Oil Rig near Felix's diner and strike black gold, but the subsequent spout of it is so strong, that they're sent flying helplessly in the air, unable to claim Felix's oil. In "Felix's Gold Mine", Professor and Rock Bottom nearly win out over Felix, only to their plan to be foiled by a Deus ex Machina (namely, two birds that abruptly show up and carry them away, causing them to drop their money in surprise).
    • In "Master Cylinder Captures Poindexter", Master Cylinder comes dangerously close in his goal of destroying the Earth with a meteor. Felix only narrowly averts disaster by breaking free of Cylinder's trap and using Poindexter's spaceship to drag and fling the meteor into the moon, where it harmlessly explodes on impact.
  • The Fairly Oddparents:
    • In the climax of "Christmas Everyday", the Easter Bunny comes within a mere second of sending Santa to February 33rd, but every child in the world Timmy encountered shows up to save the day.
    • In "Boys in the Band", Vicky comes close to marrying Chip Skylark until Wanda brings the record company executive to reveal Chip is not rich.
  • In the first part of the Gravity Falls series finale "Weirdmageddon", Bill Cipher escapes from his Nightmare Realm and takes over Gravity Falls, turning it into his personal World of Chaos. Over the next two parts, Dipper and Mabel Pines rally all of their friends and family against Bill and his demon army, but Bill plays wise to their moves and has all them detained before threatening to have Dipper and Mabel murdered unless Ford help him spread his chaos throughout the world. Of course, Bill didn't anticipate that Ford and Grunkle Stan would switch identities with each other in case things would fail and upon Bill being tricked into entering Stan's mind, Stan gets his memories to be temporarily erased by Ford to destroy Bill and save the world, thus everything ends fairly happily.
  • In the Season 1 finale of I ♡ Arlo "The Uncondemning", the Bog Lady has taken over Arlo's old swamp home and held Edmée hostage as bait, separated Arlo's friends from him, destroys their way out, lured Arlo to her domain, and finally has him ensnared in her roots where she hypnotizes him into never leaving her, and it seems all hope is lost until Bertie and Alia arrive which breaks the spell on Arlo allowing him to save the day.
  • This happens several times in Jackie Chan Adventures, at the end of each seasonal storyline. For most of the season, the heroes keep beating the villains to whatever the magical artifact of the week is, thus negating their evil plans... until the last episode, in which the villains somehow get their hands on all of the artifacts (or otherwise win with a successful backup plan) which brings them very close to breaking free and achieving global domination, until they're finally defeated and banished/imprisoned for good.
  • In the series finale for Justice League Unlimited, Darkseid delivers an utter asskicking on Superman for almost the entire episode and constantly taunts him about how he's going to win. Even after Superman's "No More Holding Back" Speech and awesome Megaton Punch, Darkseid immediately turns the tide back into his favor by simply changing tactics activating an Agony Matrix that leaves Superman completely helpless. As Darkseid pulls out a kryptonite knife to carve out Superman's heart for a trophy (and yes, this is a kids' show), Lex Luthor shows up with the Anti-Life Equation. For those who know the lore behind Darkseid and the New Gods, they know why this affects the outcome.
  • The Supreme One Shego from A Sitch in Time of Kim Possible had every hero captured and was finishing them off, when Dr. Drakken got her to do some Evil Gloating. Would be a great idea, if it didn't trigger Ron Stoppable's Berserk Button.
    • Drakken had a near victory in So the Drama with his Diablos scheme. However, when even the hero had lost hope, the sidekick confessed his feelings to her, bringing the hero's fighting spirit back, and they discovered that Shego had forgotten about the naked mole rat...again.
      • Worse, Shego LEFT THE FREAKIN' BACKPACK with ALL of the gadgets IN THAT VERY ROOM!
    • The Alien Invasion in the Grand Finale probably counts as well. It may actually be the closest in the series the world came to ending.
  • The Legend of Vox Machina: In the second season finale, even with three Vestiges of Divergence and a far more skilled and coordinated party than the one that defeated the younger dragon, Brimscythe, at the beginning of the first season, Umbrasyl (an ancient black dragon) is so much more powerful than Brimscythe was that he manages to completely overwhelm Vox Machina in the final battle against him and would have achieved a Total Party Kill had it not been for luck and Scanlan pulling a last minute play to steal Mythcarver and stab him in the eye with it.
  • In the third season finale of Mia and Me, Lord Drakon would've obtained Onchao's golden horn and regained his physical form if Gargona and Dax hadn't stopped before throwing it into the pool of green fluid to ask about their rewards, allowing the heroes to catch up to them. And even when the heroes did arrive, it was still a really close call.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • In "The Puppeteer," the titular villain is able to talke control of anyone who she has a doll of, which she uses to turn Alya, Nathaniel, and Roger into their akumatized forms and control them, and she also gets Cat Noir under her control as well. Ladybug defeats her by managing to use Lady Wifi's ability to pause her, right when she's about to take control of Ladybug through a doll of her.
    • "Dark Owl" and "Troublemaker", have the villain of the episode taking off one of Ladybug's earrings, causing her to start detransforming. Luckily, she manages to get it back in both instances before she fully destransforms.
    • In "Zombizou" and "Chameleon", Hawk Moth sends an akuma after Marinette, and would have unintentionally stumbled into a surefire victory had he managed to akumatize her. However, both times Marinette manages to keep enough of a positive attitude to prevent it from happening.
    • "Party Crasher" has the titular villain capture Ladybug first, and the other heroes who Master Fu gave their Miraculouses to for backup (Carapace, Viperion, and Pegasus), and Chat Noir. He would have successfully delivered them to Hawk Moth if not for King Monkey's power when Fu gives out another Miraculous.
    • "Ladybug" has Hawk Moth unknowingly become very close to winning. He akumatizes Nathalie into Catalyst to expand his powers and send out many akumas, one of which actually reaches Marinette, and she begins to remove her earrings. But then Nathalie/Catalyst suffers more symptoms from using the damaged Peacock Miraculous, causing him to drop what he's doing to help her, which makes the akumas leave. If not for that, Marinette would have not only handed him her Miraculous but also revealed her identity.
    • In "Miracle Queen," there are a few times where Snake Noir (Cat Noir using the Snake Miraculous) has to use Second Chance because Ladybug has either lost her powers or been taken control of.
    • The biggest example is in "Ephemeral". Shadow Moth actually succeeds in getting the Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses and is seconds away from resetting the universe to fulfill his wish. Luckily, Sass travels back in time at the last second to fix everything.
    • In "Deflagration", Monarch successfully acquires both miraculouses and is only defeated because the Kwams manage to fight back and the Resistance distracts him long enough for Adrien to grab the Ladybug earrings and get them back to Ladybug.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
    • In the episode "Knock It Off", the Professor's old colleague, Dick Hardly, starts creating knockoffs of the girls to become rich and famous. He even defeats the original girls by draining them of their Chemical X. And if the knockoffs hadn't realized his cruelty and betrayed him, he would have definitely got away with it.
    • In "Stray Bullet", Mojo Jojo irrevocably traps the girls and almost succeeds in destroying them until the little squirrel that Bubbles nursed to health with Chemical X shows up and kicks his butt.
  • Played with on ReBoot: Megabyte takes advantage of the chaos during the Web invasion to get rid of Bob and cripple Mainframe's defense forces, but he's then imprisoned by Enzo at the start of the third season. Because the series follows Enzo's adventures in the Games after that, we don't know what happens to Mainframe until he rescues Bob and finds a way home - only to find that Megabyte escaped and conquered the city a long time ago.
  • Samurai Jack; in the penultimate episode, Aku forcibly turns Ashi into a Humanoid Abomination and Jack, unwilling to kill the woman he loves, surrenders to his nemesis. The finale opens with Aku broadcasting Jack's capture and pending execution to the world, but he wastes enough time waffling over how to kill the samurai that Jack's allies launch a counterattack to save him. This in turn gives Jack a chance to break free, snap Ashi out of her brainwashing, and get back to the past to destroy Aku once and for all.
  • In the Season 1 finale of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Entrapta uses the Black Garnet Runestone to hack the power distribution network of Etheria, weakening the princesses. Simultaneously, Catra launches a massive siege on the kingdom of Brightmoon in an effort to destroy their Runestone which, due to how all of the Runestones are connected, will strip the power from all of the Runestones except the Black Garnet permanently stripping the princesses of their powers. The Horde comes within a single cannon shot of winning before the various Princesses Adora/She-Ra met on her journey arrive to provide some backup and all of them together enhance She-Ra and each others powers allowing them to break the Black Garnet's connection and drive the Horde back securing their victory.
  • Spongebob Squarepants:
    • At the end of the episode "Frozen Face-Off" this happens to Plankton, then the snow monster confuses him for a jellybean.
    • In "Single Cell Anniversary", Plankton successfully gets Karen to upload the krabby patty formula until her Tears of Joy from the song he sang short her out.
  • In the Superman: The Animated Series episode "World's Finest", The Joker comes to Metropolis with an enormous amount of kryptonite to make a deal with Lex Luthor to kill Superman. Both Luthor and Superman severely underestimate the Joker as just some wacky clown, until the Joker traps Superman in a room with acid and half of the kryptonite. By the end, the Joker is dancing over Superman's nearly lifeless body and is only stopped by Batman's timely intervention, a man who Luthor and Superman also underestimated.
  • Total Drama:
    • World Tour is the first season where the main antagonist reaches the finale. After lying, backstabbing, and manipulating everyone all season, Alejandro all but wins the final challenge. Given that this is a case of Multiple Endings, One ending has Alejandro only losing because Heather was able to trick him into drawing out his victory and abandoning the win condition in favor of gloating.
    • The second round of Island (2023) shows Julia controlling the game once Zee is eliminated, taking out MK, Damien, Raj, and Priya in succession with none of the other campers able to stop her. It helps that Priya and Caleb’s relationship drama kept costing them their ability to trust each other, and Wayne and Raj’s stupidity prevented them from actively antagonizing Julia, preventing anyone from organizing a front against her. In the end, Julia nearly ties with Caleb after having the upper hand over him for the latter half of the season, only losing because Wayne came out of left field and reached the finish line at the last second.
  • Happened a lot in Totally Spies!, such as the second episode, "The New Jerry", with the Spies trapped in a space capsule and Tim Scam firing on the Earth with the Evapo-Blaster.
  • Transformers:
    • Transformers: Cybertron uses this. Galvatron has the MacGuffins in his hands. He knocks out Primus himself, and is on the verge of achieving his desire of godhood. The universe is minutes from being consumed by the Unicron Singularity, leaving Galvatron to remake things in his own image. The Autobot leaders - Optimus Prime, Override, Scourge, Evac, and Metroplex - manage to kick his aft by combining their Cyber Key attacks (leading to him having the following Oh, Crap! moment: "Uh-oh.", which works beautifully as delivered by David Kaye). But he's not through yet. Galvatron, in a last act of spite, pitches the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys into the Unicron Singularity. If he can't win, nobody will. But even this fails. Override, Scourge, Evac, and Metroplex recover the keys, and Optimus Prime snatches the lock back from the jaws of the event horizon. The lock and keys couple to Primus' body, fully reconnecting his spark and bringing him back to full power. He uses the massive starship Ark to channel his power as a Wave-Motion Gun, firing it at the Unicron Singularity. The unnatural black hole of doom shudders, contorts, and disappears. His work done for now, Primus transforms back into Cybertron. But not as it had been, chewed up by the hell of war. It is reborn as a paradise for humans and Transformers alike. Just goes to show, the closer to ultimate victory you are, the harder you fall when it's snatched away.
      • But there's still more. In the next episode, it's the Final Battle. Optimus Prime versus Galvatron, to the death. Galvatron has Optimus knocked flat on the ground, face in the dirt of one of Cybertron's moons. As he brings his sword down for the killing blow, Vector Prime uses the planet map (his last physical link to the linear universe) to block Galvatron's blade as well as give Optimus Prime his sword Rhisling. Optimus uses it, combined with the power of the Matrix of Leadership, to skewer Galvatron, killing him. Galvatron gives his fitting Final Speech: "I still function... you haven't... won... not while my... spark... still burns... ha ha ha ha ha ha..." before crumbling to ashes that are swept away by the lunar winds.
    • Beast Wars Megatron has been just a hair away from victory three times. The first time, he nearly erased the Maximals from existance by killing Optimus Prime four million years before he woke up. The second was when he found the repaired Nemesis and tried to use it to kill the Autobots still offline in the Ark. The third time he absorbed nearly all the sparks on Cybertron, became a god, and tried to remake Cybertron in his own image.
    • Transformers: Prime: The aptly named "Darkest Hour" sees the Decepticons destroy the Autobot base and scatter Autobots to the winds, while Optimus himself is reduced to a near death state.
    • In Transformers: Cyberverse Starscream comes dangerously close to defeating both the Autobots and the Decepticons once he gets his hands on the Allspark.
      • First, he unleashes a horde of scraplets on the Decepticons and has them at his mercy. An Autobot strike force answering a distress call is quickly overwhelmed and only Cheetor's connection as guardian of the Allspark allows to sever Starscream's connection to the Allspark's power.
      • Later, Starscream unlocks the power of the Allspark, gains near omnipotence, and takes out the combined Autobot and Decepticon forces sent to stop him. A last ditch blast from the Matrix of Leadership from Optimus is the only thing that saves everyone.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (2012): In "Game Over", Arcade's plans are foiled — just as he was about to type in the very last digit that would've launched the missiles of every government base and started World War III just because he thought it would be fun.
  • The Venture Brothers: Le Tueur nearly succeeds in killing Brock (and likely the rest of the Venture family after that) during the season 3 finale, but Hank distracts Le Tueur just long enough for Brock to steal his katana and slice him in half.
  • Dick Dastardly appeared to have won the race in the Wacky Races episode "Creepy Trip To Lemon Twist", until the judges ask to see a slow-motion replay. It shows Dastardly extending the nose of his car ahead of the other racers. He is disqualified and the race awarded to Penelope Pitstop.
  • Every Big Bad in Wakfu comes within a hairsbreadth of victory, only for circumstances to turn against them at the last moment.
    • Nox seeks to travel back in time to save the family he had failed 200 years prior to the show, an act which would also undo all of the myriad of atrocities he had committed up until that point in the pursuit of that goal. Despite the heroes' efforts he successfully drains the Sadida's Tree of Life, resulting in the death of their entire race, in a bid to power an ancient artifact that he believes will allow him to turn back time. In the final battle between him and The Hero, Yugo, it looks for a moment as if Yugo is going to win. However, Nox uses a momentary distraction to kill (well, maybe knock out, since he does the same thing to Yugo's dad in the second episode, and he lived) Yugo. With The Hero dead, Nox uses all the energy he had collected over the last 200 years to travel back in time. Unfortunately for Nox, that is barely even enough to travel back in time 20 minutes. In a bit of a twist the ending might actually have been happier if it had been a complete villain victory instead of merely a Near-Villain Victory.
    • Qilby has successfully overpowered Yugo and the rest of the Eliatropes despite their final assault actually doing a significant amount of damage to him. He reunites with his Dofus and his sister Shinonome still within it, planning on going through with his intention of draining the wakfu of the World of 12 so the two of them can roam the cosmos again...only for Shinonome, who's had a Heel Realization in the past 10,000 years or so since they've been separated, to forcibly separate him from the Eliacube, severely De Powering and weakening him while giving Yugo the opportunity to snatch it up and imprison Qilby once again in the White Dimension.
    • Despite the best efforts of Sadlygrove and Yugo having both reached the level of Physical God through different means, Ogrest and his dragons still overpower them and leave them helpless. The only reason Ogrest doesn't crush them to death with the final blow is because Otomai successfully at the moment manages to remove the Six Primordial Dofus that were the source of Ogrest's power and his connection to his dragons from Ogrest's stomach, resulting in the ogre being Brought Down to Normal and back to his senses.
    • Oropo once he manages to go One-Winged Angel overpowers the heroes' best efforts to stop him and he actually succeeds in his goal to rip open a Hyperzaap to the world of the gods and prepare the Fantastic Nuke he intends to use to destroy them. The only reason he loses is because Lady Echo sends the Brotherhood and the remaining Siblings through the Hyperzaap first, forcing him to choose between his dream and the bonds (however much he tried to hide them) he made with them all. Ultimately, Oropo can't bring himself to sacrifice them for his dream, and since he was Living on Borrowed Time anyways he brings the bomb back with him to Echo, who didn't have any intentions of trying to escape death after all she had done, leading the two of them to embrace and kiss before the bomb goes off and annihilates the dimension they're inside of.
  • Wander over Yonder: By the end of the second season, Lord Dominator had succeeded in destroying the entire galaxy, except for a Secret Planet she knew nothing about.
  • Lord Darkar from Winx Club was seconds from obtaining the power of the Realix and securing his victory when Bloom managed to break free from his control and hijacked the Realix power.

Top