Basic Trope: A villain who poses no real threat.
- Straight: Darcy W. Ip-lash considers Hiro to be his nemesis, and unless Hiro concedes to his demands, he will ... put itching powder in his pants?
- Exaggerated:
- Darcy W. Ip-lash attempts to hold the world hostage by threatening to BEND a SPOON! And That's Terrible!
- No matter how hard he tries, Darcy W. Ip-lash always accidentally does good things.
- Darcy hasn't done anything worse than spoilering movies.
- Downplayed:
- Darcy is a mugger who Apologises a Lot and often gives back half his earnings out of guilt.
- Stupid Crooks
- Justified:
- Darcy needs to uphold the reputation of his family line, but being unable to bring himself to do truly evil acts, and instead settles for being annoying.
- Darcy is a form of Fae, and he is compelled to be a minor inconvenience to everyone because of it.
- Inverted:
- Darcy W. Ip-lash is a supremely competent villain whose schemes are always a clear threat.
- Hiro is a Failure Hero who loses every confrontation with Darcy badly.
- Magnificent Bastard
- Invincible Villain
- Ultimate Life Form
- Subverted:
- While, for now, he’s content with firing freshly-made dinosaur eggs at the Statue of Liberty, Darcy actually has enough Evil Minions, Applied Phlebotinum, and Offscreen Villain Darkmatter to be a severe threat to the world at large, should he ever turn his thoughts to conquest.
- Darcy turns out to be a Not-So-Harmless Villain.
- Darcy is a Stealth Mentor, but his moral compass means he can't do anything particularly heinous while tutoring his "students".
- Darcy was never harmless, and it was all a ruse to distract the heroes from his true schemes.
- Double Subverted:
- All of Darcy’s Evil Minions and Applied Phlebotinum are masterful at pulling off really silly schemes, and nothing else.
- But being defeated even after pulling out all the stops damages Darcy's confidence. He never goes back to trying anything serious or ambitious.
- Though if he were any better at it, he wouldn't be defeated so much.
- Over time, Darcy starts to genuinely enjoy being evil-ish. He celebrates by going on a rampage of YouTube comment trolling and pushing all the buttons on the elevators in random office buildings.
- Parodied: The French immediately surrender upon learning of Darcy Ip-lash’s "terrifying" pancake cannon!
- Zig-Zagged: Darcy’s plans are almost bipolar, switching between genuinely threatening to completely harmless with next to no warning. Naturally, Hiro is very confused.
- Averted:
- All the villains in the series are a genuine threat to the world at large.
- It's a Good Versus Good or otherwise non-villain-dependent story.
- Enforced: Darcy is head of the Goldfish Poop Gang in a video game, and thus, shouldn’t be all that difficult after the second time you defeat him.
- Lampshaded:
- "Hang on, Darcy W. Ip-lash is trying to strip the princess naked on live television. I’ll be back soon, this should only take a minute."
“Hey, remember when Darcy was a threat?”“Uhhh, no?”“Me neither.” - Invoked: Darcy acts as a Harmless Villain so he won’t get in serious trouble for his delightful antics.
- Exploited: Darcy is a lot smarter than he lets on, and sells his services to villains who need the hero distracted for a half-hour or so.
- Defied: Darcy realises Hiro perceives him as this, so he becomes stronger and smarter to prove he isn't.
- Discussed: “No villain is harmless, Hiro. Remember that.”
- Conversed: “Y’know, for once in this show, I would like to see a villain that could be dimly considered a threat.”
- Deconstructed: The courts take Darcy seriously, and he is handed a life sentence simply because of the scale of his “crimes.”
- Reconstructed: The judge dismisses Darcy's pranks. He realizes he prefers to be an annoyance instead of a true threat, and people learn to accept it.
- Played for Laughs: By its nature, this trope is played for laughs.
- Played for Drama: At one point or another, Darcy breaks into tears and rants about his sheer inability to do anything right, no matter how hard he tries. By the end, he's so depressed that he surrenders to the heroes.
Back to Harmless Villain! Or I shall squirt you with CITRIC ACID!