History Main / FillerVillain

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' has TheMovie where the villain is this. ''WebVideo/YuYuHakushoAbridged'' did that movie, and gave the name of the trope [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7InuCQh5pr8 in the last part]].
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'':
** ''Sailor Moon R'' avoided [[OvertookTheManga overtaking the manga]] by using the aliens Ail and En and their energy-eating tree, Makaiju to fill 13 episodes. They are never referenced again, though the ''Sailor Moon R'' NonSerialMovie seems to draw some inspiration from it with the flower-obsessed alien Fiore and his evil life-eating Xenian Flower. Fiore looks markedly similar to Ail and shares his voice actor (Creator/HikaruMidorikawa) and the flower shares An's (Creator/YumiTouma). The villains from the other two movies might also count, although it worth noting that the ''Sailor Moon S'' movie, as well as the ''Ami's First Love'' special, are actually adapted from the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] side stories (which tend to use a lot of unique villains).
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':
** The Big Five served this role in the first Virtual World arc. Since the show had them collaborating with Pegasus, the BigBad of the previous arc, it doesn't feel horribly out of place.
** A later arc in the anime had Noah and Gozaburo Kaiba as its main villains, with the Big Five returning as their henchmen. In the manga, Gozaburo had been a PosthumousCharacter who played a major role in Seto Kaiba's backstory, so it again, worked fairly well although it was awkardly placed in the middle of the Battle City arc.
** Then there was Dartz from the Waking the Dragons arc, and Siegfried von Schroeder from the [=KaibaCorp=] Grand Prix, neither of whom had any additional setup. That being said; Dartz averted the whole "unmemorable and generic villain" to some degree; aside from having a shown backstory, Dartz is ridiculously ancient (twice as old as Ancient Egypt itself, which is what the canon story's MythArc focused on) as well as [[SNKBoss ridiculously overpowered.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' does its filler material as season-long arc stories. As a result, every filler arc has a filler villain.
** The Bount Arc had the Bounts, led by BigBad Kariya. The anime was so fond of this that it deliberately inserts a couple of filler scenes later on during Ichigo's Visored training just to bring back Kariya for a few random moments.
** The Captain Amagai Arc also has a filler arc villain. [[spoiler: Captain Amagai himself.]]
** The Zanpakuto Unknown Tales Arc has a filler arc villain in the form of Muramasa [[spoiler: and his master, insane shinigami Kouga Kuchiki]].
** The Invasion Arc's filler villain is Kageroza Inaba [[spoiler: who is nothing more than a puppet for the real filler villain, Oko Yushima]].

** A filler villain, Don Achino had the amazing power of controlling heat. This allowed him to control the lava on his [[HailfirePeaks frozen volcano island]]. Given that a major villain of a later arc is made of lava, the implications are astounding...yet he will never actually have an effect on the plot due to his Filler Villain status. Though it's definitely worth noting that Creator/EiichiroOda ''wrote'' that particular filler arc, and the powers of Don Achino and the other lava-man are still completely different (Don controls heat and can move lava, but the other is a logia-type actually made of it.).

* In ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', we have:
** Joker, Shin's [[TheDragon right-hand man]] whose main purpose was to serve as an informant between Shin and many of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villains of the week]] that were sent out to get Kenshiro. He actually has a bigger screen-time than any of Shin's [[QuirkyMinibossSquad playing card-themed henchmen]] from the manga (along with the Godland Colonel and Jackal for that matter).
** The renegade Gento Koken successors, Taiga and Boltz, are essentially stand-in for Jakoh's sons from the manga, Jask and Shieno, who were omitted from the anime version.
* Majahal in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' is this (the conflict with him has little impact on the overall story arc), although he ''does'' receive a CallBack later on.
* ''Franchise/FairyTail'':
** The Daphne Arc features [[AntagonistTitle Daphne]], a crazy woman obsessed with creating an artificial dragon [[DisproportionateRetribution to get back at everyone who didn't believe her when she saw a dragon as a child]].
** Played with in the Key of the Starry Heavens Arc, where the villains first appear to be the Legion Platoon, a religious sect who's out to collect the pieces of a DoomsdayDevice while Fairy Tail tries to stop them. This group is mostly composed of [[AlternateSelf Alternate Selves]] of the QuirkyMinibossSquad from [[BizarroUniverse Edolas]], led by a tall and imposing version of chief of state [[TheNapoleon Byro]], with three original characters thrown in.[[note]]Two of them, Dan Straight and Samuel, are completely unique to the anime; the other, Guttman, is based on a creature design from one of the manga's volume cover artworks.[[/note]] Then it turns out they're being manipulated by [[spoiler:the Neo-Oración Seis, returning villains from the manga's Nirvana Arc, this time led by [[DragonAscendant Midnight]], TheDragon to that arc's villain; this time a completely original member is added in the form of Michelle[=/=]Imitatia, who acts as TheMole and a central character of the arc.]]
** Played with again during the Eclipse Celestial Spirit arc, in which the villains in question are actually the {{Superpowered Evil Side}}s of the existing canonical Celestial Spirits of the Zodiac, along with Ophiuchus and the Celestial Spirit King, all of whom get new designs and powers. They also have a canon reason for existing, namely [[spoiler:getting exposed to the Eclipse Gate's evil magic while closing it near the end of the [[TournamentArc Grand Magic Games Arc]]]].
** The [[Anime/FairyTailTheMoviePhoenixPriestess first movie]] features Prince Cream, a power-hungry prince who [[ImmortalitySeeker wishes to become immortal]] so he can preserve his beauty forever and conquer other lands without dying. He is one-upped by [[TheStarscream Dist]], the leader of the Carbuncle guild hired by Cream who also desires immortality because--[[AllThereInTheManual according to the tie-in prequel manga/OVA]]--he became [[MortalityPhobia afraid of dying]] after his pet weasel's death taught him that all things die eventually.
** {{Averted}} in the [[Anime/FairyTailDragonCry second movie]] with [[BigBad Animus]] and his chief advisor [[TheDragon Zash Caine]], as the movie is considered to be in-canon to [[Manga/FairyTail the manga]]: while Zash is merely TheHeavy who wants to get back at his home kingdom for exiling him, Animus turns out to be [[spoiler:a dragon that sealed himself within Sonya, whose [[DisneyDeath supposed death]] at his hands is recalled by [[GreaterScopeVillain Acnologia]] during the FinalBattle as one of the reasons he hates dragons so much.]]

-->--'''Anubis''', ''[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged]] [[TheMovie Movie]] trailer''

** The next arc introduced Duke Devlin as a villain who wanted to defeat Yugi to prove that his victory against Pegasus was undeserved. After being defeated, however, Duke had a HeelFaceTurn and [[DefeatMeansFriendship became friends with Yugi]].
** A later arc in the anime had Noah and Gozaburo Kaiba as its main villains, with the Big Five returning as their henchmen. In the manga, Gozaburo had been a PosthumousCharacter who played a major role in Seto Kaiba's backstory, so it again, worked fairly well although it was awkardly placed in the middle of the Battle city arc.
** Then there was Dartz from the Waking the Dragons arc, and Siegfried von Schroeder from the [=KaibaCorp=] Grand Prix, neither of whom had any additional set up. That being said; Dartz averted the whole "unmemorable and generic villain" to some degree; aside from having a shown backstory, Dartz is ridiculously ancient (twice as old as Ancient Egypt itself, which is what the canon story's MythArc focused on) as well as [[SNKBoss ridiculously overpowered.]]

* Majahal in the ''Anime/FullMetalAlchemist2003'' is this - the conflict with him has little impact on the overall story arc - although he ''does'' receive a CallBack later on.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* The Titans on ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' were exactly this kind of BigBad. Extremely powerful and [[SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat destructive on a grand scale]]; their episode was a season finale and involved many big events including both the introduction of the major character Chris, and [[DeityOfHumanOrigin the Charmed Ones becoming goddesses]]. But they were still only there for that one episode; no one had needed to think about them before some obscure demon cultist released them from [[SealedEvilInACan a block of ice]], and there was no need to ever mention them again.

** The Bount Arc had the Bounts, led by BigBad Kariya. The anime was so fond of this that it deliberately inserts a couple of filler scenes later on during Ichigo's vizard training just to bring back Kariya for a few random moments.

* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' has a whole bunch of these, of widely varying quality and power level. Foxy, an actual canonical villain from [[Manga/OnePiece the manga]], seems to have been demoted to filler villain, showing up randomly in a couple of filler arcs, and forming a GoldfishPoopGang with subordinates Hamburg and Porche.
** A filler villain, Don Achino had the amazing power of controlling heat. This allowed him to control the lava on his [[HailfirePeaks frozen volcano island]]. Given that a major villain of a later arc is made of lava, the implications are astounding...yet he will never actually have an effect on the plot due to his Filler Villain status. Though, it's definitely worth noting that Creator/EiichiroOda ''wrote'' that particular filler arc, and the powers of Don Achino and the other lava-man are still completely different. (Don controls heat and can move lava, but the other is a logia-type actually made of it.)
** The movies, as well, typically have villains that don't even amount to Goldfish Poop Gang status, aside from the movies that revisit/reimagine story arcs. There is an exception to this rule in the form of Shiki from ''Anime/OnePieceFilmStrongWorld'', considering that his movie is actually canon and he has been referenced in the manga (specifically, he was the only person prior to the Impel Down arc to escape Impel Down). Z, from ''Anime/OnePieceFilmZ'', would also count, as his movie was originally slated to be canon like Shiki's, but there were too many discrepancies between the movie and the manga to make it official.

** Played with again during the Eclipse Celestial Spirit arc, in which the villains in question are actually the [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Super-Powered Evil Sides]] of the existing canonical Celestial Spirits of the Zodiac, along with Ophiuchus and the Celestial Spirit King, all of whom get new designs and powers. They also have a canon reason for existing, namely [[spoiler:getting exposed to the Eclipse Gate's evil magic while closing it near the end of the [[TournamentArc Grand Magic Games Arc]]]].

* Majahal in the ''Anime/FullMetalAlchemist'' is this - the conflict with him has little impact on the overall story arc - although he ''does'' receive a CallBack later on.

Rarer in Western media due to what gets adapted and how, but it still does occur. The main thing is that there has to be no canonical appearance, or [[ContinuityNod even a mention]] of this villain ''after the arc''. And the arc has to be filler, not just one that [[CanonDiscontinuity isn't mentioned]] (so [[Comicbook/XMen Onslaught]] doesn't count).

They will probably be a HateSink, as their entire ''raison d'etre'' is to fill time while the real villains are elsewhere anyway. There is a 75% chance that most of them will be {{Generic Doomsday Villain}}s as well.

** The [[Anime/FairyTailTheMoviePhoenixPriestess first movie]] features Prince Cream, a power-hungry prince who [[ImmortalitySeeker wishes to become immortal]] so he can preserve his beauty forever and conquer other lands without dying. He is one-upped by [[TheStarscream Dist]], the leader of the Carbuncle guild hired by Cream who also desires immortality because--[[AllThereInTheManual according to the tie-in prequel manga/OVA--he became [[MortalityPhobia afraid of dying]] after his pet weasel's death taught him that all things die eventually.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode "The duck who would be king" has a villain named Mung Ho, but since the whole episode is a {{Filler}} within a five-episode story arch, and nothing that happens in it is ever mentioned again, he is forgotten about as soon as the heroes return home.

[[folder: Fan Fic]]

** {{Averted}} in the [[Anime/FairyTailDragonCry second movie]] with Animus and his chief advisor Zash Cane, as the movie is considered to be in-canon to [[Manga/FairyTail the manga]]: while Zash is merely TheHeavy of the movie, Animus turns out to be [[spoiler:a dragon that sealed himself within Sonya, a little girl he attacked in front of [[GreaterScopeVillain Acnologia]], who was spurred further into vengeful hatred of dragons because of it.]]

** The Daphne arc features [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Daphne]], a crazy woman obsessed with creating an artificial dragon [[DisproportionateRetribution to get back at everyone who didn't believe her when she saw a dragon as a child]].
** Played with in the Key of the Starry Heavens arc, where the villain first appears to be Byro Cracy, the [[BizarroUniverse Earth-land version]] of one member of the QuirkyMinibossSquad from the Edolas arc; he leads a group composed of counterparts of the rest of the Edolas villains, plus three completely original characters. Then it turns out [[TheManBehindTheMan they're being manipulated by]] [[spoiler:the Oracion Seis, the villains from the manga's Nirvana arc, who are led this time by Midnight, TheDragon to the Nirvana arc's main villain Brain, and include a previous ArcVillain and one original character to fill out their numbers]]. In an even more interesting case than the ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' example above, not only were the new villains designed by the original mangaka, but the whole arc itself is referenced in the manga as something that happened offscreen.
** Played with again during the Eclipse Celestial Spirit arc, in which the villains in question are actually the [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Super-Powered Evil Sides]] of the existing canonical 12 Gold Key Celestial spirits, [[spoiler:along with [[TheManBehindTheMan Ophiuchus]] and The Celestial Spirit King]], all of whom get new designs and powers. Also, they have a canon reason for existing, namely [[spoiler:as a direct result of the Eclipse Project near the end of the ''Grand Magic Games'' arc]].
** The [[Anime/FairyTailTheMoviePhoenixPriestess first movie]] features Prince Kriem, a power-hungry prince who [[ImmortalitySeeker wishes to become immortal]] so he can conquer other lands and not die. He is one-upped by [[TheStarscream Dist]], the leader of the Carbuncle guild hired by Kriem who wishes to become immortal for...not particularly explained reasons. Unless one counts TheMovie's tie-in prequel manga/OVA, which shows that Dist first became obsessed with immortality because his pet weasel died when he was a little boy, though it's not so much his weasel dying but [[WhoWantsToLiveForever Eclair]] ([[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom who at the time was working as a fortune teller when he came to her]]) telling him all things have to die eventually and to cherish your life while you can. He took it the wrong way however and was more afraid of dying.
** {{Averted}} in the [[Anime/FairyTailDragonCry second movie]] with Animus [[spoiler:who's actually a dragon SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan]] and his chief advisor Zash Cane, as the movie is considered canon to [[Manga/FairyTail the manga]].

** A later filler arc had Noah and Gozaburo Kaiba as its main villains, with the Big Five returning as their henchmen. In the manga, Gozaburo had been a PosthumousCharacter who played a major role in Seto Kaiba's backstory, so it again, worked fairly well although it was awkardly placed in the middle of the Battle city arc.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has several as part of its AdaptationExpansion of the manga.

* ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'': Many, many, MANY filler villains during its season-long filler arcs so as not to overtake the manga. A few notable examples:

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a whole bunch of these, of widely varying quality and power level. Foxy, an actual canonical villain from the manga, seems to have been demoted to filler villain, showing up randomly in a couple of filler arcs, and forming a GoldfishPoopGang with subordinates Hamburg and Porche.
** A filler villain, Don Achino had the amazing power of controlling heat. This allowed him to control the lava on his [[HailfirePeaks frozen volcano island]]. Given that a major villain of a later arc is made of lava, the implications are astounding...yet he will never actually have an effect on the plot due to his FillerVillain status. Though, it's definitely worth noting that Oda ''wrote'' that particular filler arc, and the powers of Don Achino and the other lava-man are still completely different. (Don controls heat and can move lava, but the other is a logia-type actually made of it.)

* ''Manga/FairyTail'''s Daphne arc features [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Daphne]], a crazy woman obsessed with creating an artificial dragon [[DisproportionateRetribution to get back at everyone who didn't believe her when she saw a dragon as a child]].

** {{Averted}} in the [[Anime/FairyTailDragonCry second movie]] with Animus [[spoiler:who's actually a dragon SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan]] and his chief advisor Zash Cane, as the movie is considered canon to the manga.

* The Titans on ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' were exactly this kind of BigBad. Extremely powerful and [[SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat destructive on a grand scale]]; their episode was a season finale and involved many big events including both the introduction of the major character Chris, and [[AGodAmI the Charmed Ones becoming goddesses]]. But they were still only there for that one episode; no one had needed to think about them before some obscure demon cultist released them from [[SealedEvilInACan a block of ice]], and there was no need to ever mention them again.

* ''Film/Goldfinger'', while memorable and well regarded is the only villain during Sean Connery’s (and George Lazenby’s) tenure with no connection to SPECTRE or [[ArcVillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld]] and only shows up in his titular film with no impact on any of the other canon.