History Main / NonActionBigBad

* ''Fanfic/AllWorldsAlliance'' has a ZigZagged case for Chikage Tachibana, [[DragonInChief despite]] being the ''de facto'' BigBad[[note]]He is only acting as one and is, in reality, TheDragon to his much higher-ranking superiors[[/note]]. Often times when he shows up, he is there to simply menace Chizuru all the time and he leaves most of his dirty work to his other Apostle members, preferring to stay away from battling. Despite that, however, he is a fighter powerful enough to take out an army by himself.

* ''Fanfic/AllWorldsAlliance'' has a ZigZagged case for Chikage Tachibana, [[DragonInChief despite]] being the ''de facto'' BigBad[[note]]He is only acting as one and is, in reality, TheDragon to his much higher-ranking superiors.[[/note]]. Often times when he shows up, he stays away from action and often shows up to simply menace Chizuru all the time, but at the same time he leaves most of his dirty work to his other Apostle members and stays away from battling. Despite that, however, he is a fighter powerful enough to take out an army by himself.

* ''Fanfic/AllWorldsAlliance'' has a ZigZagged case for Chikage Tachibana. Often times, he stays away from action and often shows up to menace Chizuru all the time, but at the same time he leaves most of his dirty work to his other Apostle members and stays away from battling. Despite that, however, he is powerful enough to take out an army by himself.

While we can't name examples this is partly TruthInTelevision, as commanders are usually more well known for being a MagnificentBastard, and even real-life badasses aren't the OneManArmy [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome that fiction tends to suggest]].

* King Cepheus and Lady Vega in the first two ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' games tend to rely on their ultimate weapons, {{Quirky Miniboss Squad}}s, and minions to do the fighting for them. In both games, the final boss isn't the villain, it's the device they planned to use to take over/destroy (delete as applicable) the world.

* Jail Scaglietti of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS''. Being a MadScientist with SuperIntelligence and a lot of resources, he was one of the biggest threats to the TSAB itself in the franchise and came the closest to taking TheFederation down even though he himself has little to no fighting abilities. [[spoiler:The battle against him was pretty much over once all of the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Combat]] {{Cyborg}}s guarding his base were neutralized and [[TheLancer Fate]] finally got around the Capturing Threads set up in his lab]].

** [[TheCracker Obake]] is a scheming mastermind who operates behind the scenes whilst leaving the dirty work to his robots or hired arms. The heroes never face him in direct combat and in fact aren't even aware of his existence until midway through the first season.

* Varrick from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is this. He is quite ruthless and surprisigly competant a villain, yet hardly lifts a finger when opposing the heroes. Varrick isn't effective on the field, instead relying on {{Mooks}} to do his dirty work. He also makes up for it by being a MagnificentBastard.

* Hawk Moth's whole deal from ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' is that he [[TheCorrupter corrupts people]] and turns them into his superpowered servants, [[VillainOfTheWeek the Akumas]]. As such, he spends most of his time [[OrcusOnHisThrone standing around in his lair]], directing them from afar. The episode "Robostus" shows that he ''is'' capable of fighting (with a handy SwordCane no less) when forced to, but he's left completely exhausted afterwards.

*** Another branch of the World Government, [[AristocratsAreEvil the Celestial Dragons]], are hardly ever seen fighting, depending almost entirely on [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem their ridiculous level of authority over the Marines and the populace]] and the fear of [[DisproportionateRetribution how they won't hesitate to use such authority]] against anyone who so much as annoys them - sure, they use firearms a sometimes, but it's mostly against weak or helpless targets who couldn't possibly hurt them; the few times they try on someone stronger than an average civilian or grunt marine (i.e. almost any named character), [[NoSell it doesn't have any effect]] and/or invites [[CurbStompBattle a completely one-sided stomping]] if the other party is angry enough and/or doesn't give a damn about ending up on the entire World Government's shit list.
** Shogun Kurozumi Orochi is not a fighter in any capacity despite possessing a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit. [[spoiler:When Zoro and Oden attack him, he just stands there and pisses his pants in fear, and probably would have died without someone else saving his ass. This is emphasized when Kaido decapitates him in an instant, setting the stage for himself and Big Mom to serve as the Final Boss for the arc.]]

** The World Government are the ones ordering the marines, including the Fleet Admiral. Several of the members of the [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Five Elder Stars]] have what look to be battle scars, and one even carries a sword, so it's very possible that they're retired fighters, but none of them have been seen fighting. [[spoiler:And Imu, the man in command of ''them'', is not allowed to go out and fight either, because him being in charge of the World Government goes against its very tenets that no one man could rule the entire world; him trying anything in person would risk blowing a civilization-shattering secret wide open]].

** In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'' duology, [[spoiler:Mael Stronghart prides himself on never actually having killed anyone directly, techincally doing "nothing wrong" [[note]]While he certainly orchestrated short of all of the events that happen in the games, he doesn't actually take the reels and kills anyone directly[[/note]]. With this, he manages to almost convince the jury to spare him of punishment, as he did all of his actions in the name of Britain. But like all of the criminals in the series, he falls too ([[VillainousBreakdown quite literally on his case]]).]]

* ''ComicBook/SinCity'' baddies tend to qualify. The Roarks, Ava Lord, Wallenquist, and the Colonel never get their hands dirty and are likely incapable of doing so. Instead, they send {{dirty cop}}s, {{mooks}}, hitmen, and assassins to do their jobs who tend to be more physically capable. Manute, for instance, was Ava Lord's dragon. Ava was only dangerous if you were a man who didn't know she was untrustworthy. Manute, on the other hand, is so dangerous that he has been a recurring villain in the series... a rarity.
* ''ComicBook/ContestOfChampions2015'' has The Collector. Justified, as without the Iso-8 Sphere, he's a somewhat fragile immortal. He has to resort to threats, bluffs, and the aforementioned sphere to keep everyone doing what he says.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** ComicBook/LexLuthor most of the time. He does have a [[PoweredArmor battlesuit]], but he tends to get in fistfights a lot less than he uses his ManipulativeBastard and CorruptCorporateExecutive aspects.
** ''ComicBook/SupermanUpUpAndAway'': After Superman has been depowered, Luthor declares he will kill the alien with his bare hands. Superman, who is ''still'' larger and brawnier than Lex, punches him out rather easily.
** Lesla-Lar is a brilliant mad scientist, a cunning schemer and a subtle manipulator, but she has zero fighting skills. In ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'', Lesla gets easily caught by ordinary cops, and [[ComicBook/StrangersAtTheHeartsCore the only time]] she fights ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} hand to hand, she loses badly.
** ''ComicBook/TheKillersOfKrypton'': [[BigBad Empress Gandelo]] spends most of the story plotting, scheming and expecting her underlings to do her work for her. When she finally confronts Kara, she fails to be a serious physical threat.
** ''ComicBook/DayOfTheDollmaker'': The titular main villain is a pudgy runt. Without his army of killer dolls or bomb-strapped hostages Dollmaker cannot protect himself and is knocked out in one single punch by Catherine Grant, who has no fighting skills whatsoever.
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': The Leader. He may be a [[{{mutants}} mutate]], but his only power is SuperIntelligence, and he's got the physique of a string bean.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* In the pages of ''Comicbook/IronMan'' and ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'', we have seen guys like the Roxxon Oil heads, Justin Hammer, and the leaders of the Maggia who were corrupt business men or mafia bosses who could not go up against the heroes one-on-one and often employed super villains. Obadiah Stane and Count Nefaria also started off this way but both men either gained powers later or eventually wore a suit of PoweredArmor.

* Also in the ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'', when the Elders of the Universe plot some evil scheme, the Astronomer usually orchestrates the plot and acts as leader. While many of the Elders have incredible superhuman powers and/or incredible technology at their disposal, the Astronomer does not seem to have any powers that are useful in a fight, and always teleports away if trouble starts.
* The Yellow Bastard in ''ComicBook/SinCity''. Sure he's a rapist and murderer (of children, no less) with enough influence to get the muscle to help along, but in combat, he's a DirtyCoward and is eventually killed pretty easily.
** Honestly, every villain in Sin City tend to fold like a wet towel in a straight-up fight, even built-up badasses like Manute and The Colonel. The only real exception is Kevin.
* Franchise/SpiderMan:
** MadScientist and underworld supplier the Tinkerer is an old man with no fighting skills. The same can be said for Jonas Harrow, who's a DirtyCoward on top of it. (Ironically, Harrow was a one-time suspect for the Hobgoblin's identity.)
** ComicBook/TheKingpin is interesting in that he is a very strong and skilled fighter, but he is usually in the mob boss role. In his earliest appearances, he had legitimate SuperStrength and could fight guys like Franchise/SpiderMan and even overpower him. [[RoguesGalleryTransplant Once he became]] a Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} villain, he was brought down a peg or two and less likely to fight Spider-Man. Instead, when he shows up in Spidey's books now, he is usually employing supervillains.
** Fortunado is a crime boss who, at one time, filled the EvilPowerVacuum left by the Kingpin. While portrayed as a fighter in his youth, he's an old man at present whose physical skills have degenerated.
** Silvermane is this when not a cyborg; usually he's running his criminal organization from a wheelchair, being half-crippled. In one storyline he was even running his organization while bedridden.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: During the Saturnian Empire arc pretty much every Saturnian Wonder Woman, ComicBook/SteveTrevor and ComicBook/EttaCandy face off against is a manipulative dangerous fighter while the Emperor sits on his throne. Once Diana gets into the throne room itself the Emperor decides to sign a treaty with the United States rather than fight himself.
* ComicBook/VandalSavage: Most iterations of the character outside of the comics are much more schemers than fighters. Comics Savage, on the other hand, is always up for a brawl.

* Every single antagonist on the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' series, since it's the Pokemon who do all the fighting for them, while the main antagonist are not shown to have any fighting ability whatsoever. The Pokemon themselves are said to never be evil, while the theatrical [[OlympusMons legendary Pokemon]] are merely troubled, confused, or highly protective, and are EasilyForgiven at the end.

However, this villain has zero fighting ability. They might be elderly, disabled, a woman in a setting where ladies aren't regularly trained in combat, or they fight well ''for a human'' but they're against a superpowered hero. Or they just think fighting is beneath them; that's what the [[TheDragon hired]] [[QuirkyMinibossSquad help]] is for. In any case, what they lack in physical prowess they make up for in resources, cunning, and/or [[VillainWithGoodPublicity good PR]]. In the event they do encounter the hero one-on-one, they usually try to trick them into not attacking, just run for it, or they have the fight stacked in their favor by empowering themselves and/or weakening the hero.

However, this villain has zero fighting ability. They might be elderly, disabled, or they fight well ''for a human'' but they're against a superpowered hero. Or they just think fighting is beneath them; that's what the [[TheDragon hired]] [[QuirkyMinibossSquad help]] is for. In any case, what they lack in physical prowess they make up for in resources, cunning, and/or [[VillainWithGoodPublicity good PR]]. In the event they do encounter the hero one-on-one, they usually try to trick them into not attacking, just run for it, or they have the fight stacked in their favor by empowering themselves and/or weakening the hero.

*** Mariah Dillard. Out of the first season's rather crowded BigBadEnsemble, she is the only one with no fighting ability whatsoever. Instead, she prefers to act through hired thugs, powerful connections, and plausible deniability (and a bit of luck), while using her position to provide a legit front for it all. After [[spoiler: she kills Cottonmouth]], she becomes a lot more ruthless but is still no physical match for Luke himself. Note that this is a far cry from her comic book counterpart, Black Mariah, who is a definite BrawnHilda. This also contrasts her sharply with Bushmaster in season 2, who is more than willing to dirty his own hands.

** Chancellor Wong in ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'' is the bad guy in the second act- he's super manipulative (he even has literal chess-pieces in the shape of the Gundams), is the De-Facto leader of everything and holds authority over [[OldMaster Master]] [[RatedMForManly Asia]]... however, he hardly stands up from his floaty chair, only sets up fights for Domon, and has an [[Manga/DeathNote L]]-Level sweet tooth. Suffice to say, [[spoiler: he's almost vaporized by collateral damage--which was the direct result of his own manipulations--and when he actually gets in a Gundam (unwillingly) he lasts all of two minutes. And most of those two minutes are spent talking]].

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walter White becomes this toward the end of the series after he assumes the role of Big Bad. Being an older man with no combat or shooting experience dying of lung cancer means he's useless in a fight and can be taken out by his own protégé, the short, string-beaned Jesse Pinkman. Walt uses this in his favor at points as more dangerous drug lords consistently [[UnderestimatingBadassery underestimate him]] through the series; his intelligence, knowledge of chemistry and engineering, and cunning make him far more dangerous than you'd think.

** Despite being the GreaterScopeVillain for most of the films, Cipher never directly fights the heroes throughout ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'', instead sending Dom (whom she coerced into a FaceHeelTurn) and [[TheDragon Connor Rhodes]] to steal nuclear weapons for her. Even when Deckard Shaw finally confronts Cipher, [[DirtyCoward she chooses to escape via parachute than deal with him.]] It gets even worse in ''Film/{{F9}}'' where her only action was piloting a drone remotely in an attempt to kill Dom near the end.

* Obake from ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries'' is a scheming mastermind who operates behind the scenes whilst leaving the dirty work to his robots or hired arms. The heroes never face him in direct combat and in fact aren't even aware of his existence until midway through the first season.

* Subverted by Tombstone from ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan''. Spider-Man invokes this trope, right before Tombstone beats him in less than 5 seconds.

* Shendu from ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. Being TakenForGranite will do that to you. Averted with his true form- [[OurDragonsAreDifferent a 16 foot tall flightless dragon]] and powerful and devious [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demon]] [[EvilSorceror Sorceror]] who [[BroughtDownToBadass even without his magical talismans is seemingly invincible and an extremely dangerous enemy]]. In both his natural form and when he's stuck [[DemonicPossession possessing unwilling human hosts]], he demonstrates supernatural and impressive fighting skills as well as the ability to [[BreathWeapon breathe fire]]. And until the 4th series, he could summon his EliteMooks [[MadeOfEvil the Shadowkhan]] at will to fight either for or with him.
* Xanatos from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' starts out this way; he's a MagnificentBastard to the bone, and surrounds himself with lots of MechaMooks and a very dangerous [[BigBadDuumvirate partner]], Demona, but while a skilled fighter by human standards he's physically no match whatsoever for any gargoyle. [[SubvertedTrope He does, however, recognize this, and soon has a suit of]] PoweredArmor [[SubvertedTrope made for himself that levels the playing field]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'':
** The Delightful Children from Down the Lane. They rarely face off against the heroes without a tough fighter, an army of {{mooks}}, or a HumongousMecha backing them up, and they get [[CurbStompBattle soundly beaten]] in the rare event that they do.
** Also, [[EvilCounterpart Negative Numbuh Four]] from the half-hour episode "Operation: P.O.O.L." Not only is he not a fighter, he's a [[DirtyCoward spineless coward]], as the regular Numbuh Four was, [[SmartBall ironically, the first to figure out]].