History Main / NotSoHarmlessVillain

* In ''Machinima/DeusExMachina2007'', [[spoiler:Patrick]] is obviously going to be a villain from the moment you see him, but from his nerdy voice and attitude, he doesn't seem very threatening. [[spoiler:Then he gets mind raped by the covenant and dons his supersuit before weakening the earth's defenses to the point that the covenant can easily break through and kill us all WHILE killing off Michael, John's only friend, and making every single attempt to save the world meaningless before throwing him into a pit with two berserkers.]] Even PLAGUE didn't cross the horizon this much.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

** Okay, nobody considered KnifeNut [[EvilChancellor Archagent]] Jack Noir to be ''harmless'', but then he [[spoiler:ascended to BigBad status, killed off the previous Big Bads, massacred a huge army from both Kingdoms and wrecked two planets]].

* The BigBad mastermind of ''Website/GaiaOnline''s deicide storyline? [[spoiler:Don Kuro, the [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld perpetually]] five-years-old dark elf mob boss]], about whom all we'd known previously was that he [[JustForFun/OneOfUs likes going to anime conventions]] ([[NoFourthWall Gaia conventions, even]]), has an [[CoolBigSis awesome big sister]], is a huge MommasBoy, and owes Devin favors ([[ShipSinking not that kind]]).

** Scar, while an effectively calculating villain, by his own admission, didn't really inherit the brawn of his family, and when confronted by Simba, starts to [[VillainsWantMercy beg pitifully for his life]]. It turns out to be an ISurrenderSuckers however, and he gives Simba a legitimately epic LastVillainStand which he very nearly wins. He ''really'' wanted to be king -- and when that failed he [[spoiler:pulled a DefensiveFeintTrap on the hyenas and, SoreLoser that he was, went for TheLastDance -- which, three fighters on one scrawny opponent, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome went about as well as one would expect]]]].

** Scar, while an effectively calculating villain, by his own admission, didn't really inherit the brawn of his family, and when confronted by Simba, starts to [[VillainsWantMercy beg pitifully for his life]]. It turns out to be an ISurrenderSuckers however, and he gives Simba a legitimately epic LastVillainStand which he very nearly wins. He ''really'' wanted to be king - and when that failed he [[spoiler:pulled a DefensiveFeintTrap on the hyenas and, SoreLoser that he was, went for TheLastDance - which, three fighters on one scrawny opponent, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome went about as well as one would expect]]]].

* ''Disney's WesternAnimation/RobinHood'':

* Trumper from ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep'' Movie. He looks and acts pathetic, but once he starts using an electronic grabber to chase Shaun and the Flock, is really business. It gets worse when he uses a tractor to trap them in a shed and throw them in a Quarry.

* Brutish and Oafish Guard from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'' are often subject to amusing humiliations, but they still enforce a brutal and corrupt regime. Among their misdeeds throughout the film, they initiate the public humiliation Quasimodo goes through, subdue Phoebus when he turns on Frollo and were inches away from executing him before Esmeralda interfered. Brutish Guard in particular is responsible for setting off the entire second half of the film when he discovers Esmeralda’s escape offscreen and reports it to Frollo.

-->'''Mr. Tweedy:''' ''(to Ginger)'' I've got a score to settle with you.

* The Riddler in ''Film/BatmanForever'' may have been a LargeHam and the most comical villain in the 1989-97 film continuity (down to being played by Creator/JimCarrey), but all things considered, he managed to figure out who Batman was on his own and launched an assault on Wayne Manor that completely destroyed the Batcave and left Bruce Wayne for dead. If not for his need to utterly screw with Bruce serving as his downfall, the Riddler came the closest to killing Batman far beyond what any of the other villains in the pre-Nolan films achieved, not counting the amount of damage he inflicted alongside Two-Face and his successful gambit to play the people of Gotham City for saps with his brainwave-stealing Box devices. Indeed, his plans for what he would do once he destroyed Batman involved using the second-wave Boxes to gain even specific knowledge from its users, which could allow for world conquest.

* The Riddler in ''Film/BatmanForever'' may have been a LargeHam, but all things considered, he managed to figure out who Batman was on his own and launched an assault on Wayne Manor that completely destroyed the Batcave and left Bruce for dead. If not for his need to utterly screw with Bruce serving as his downfall, the Riddler came the closest to killing Batman far beyond what any of the other villains in the pre-Nolan films achieved, not counting the amount of damage he inflicted alongside Two-Face and his successful gambit to play the people of Gotham City for saps with his Box devices.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation.ThePowerpuffGirls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/notsoharmlessjojo.png]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'':
** The eponymous VillainProtagonist, a super-intelligent GadgeteerGenius and MadScientist. He seems harmless because he always gets defeated by that FlyingBrick, Metro Man. But then he [[spoiler:apparently]] finally kills Metro Man with a KillSat. {{Deconstructed|Trope}} unusually as he fully expected Metro Man to foil the plan easily and send him back to jail just like every other time, the success was caused by a fluke that wasn't part of his plan, and he doesn't know what to do with himself afterward and quickly comes to miss the routine of repeatedly being foiled by Metro Man. [[spoiler:Then it's {{subverted|Trope}} as it turns out Metro Man was just FakingTheDead and Megamind never stood a chance against him after all. ''Then'', it ends up somewhere between a DoubleSubversion of this and an example of LetsGetDangerous, as after his HeelFaceTurn he does manage to defeat [[FromNobodyToNightmare Titan]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'': Edgar. He's rather bumbling and somewhat of an IneffectualSympatheticVillain, but he still clearly has evil intentions. Sure, he doesn't kill the cats but he tries to take them away from their owner by dumping them in the countryside (with some speculations that he was going to ''throw them in the river'') and then ships them to Timbuktu.

* Michael's arc in the first of ''Film/TheGodfather'' movies. As the initially straight-and-narrow youngest son of the Corleones, hardly anyone -- even within the Corleone circle -- take him seriously when he expresses interest in the family business after the failed assassination of his father. Sonny, Clemenza, and Tessio openly laugh when Michael offers to kill Sollazo and corrupt police captain [=McClusky=] in retaliation, while the latter two arrange a truce meeting with Michael ''specifically'' because they don't see him as a threat. Towards the end of the movie, there's a plot to asassinate Michael when he takes control, perceived as a weak don that can easily be duped and disposed of. By the end of the movie, after Michael [[spoiler: orders successful hits on the heads of the Five Families and the traitors who tried to sell him and his family out]], ''everyone'' now takes Michael seriously.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation.ThePowerpuffGirls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mojo_jojo_evil4.png]]]]

** Hilariously averted with the cultists; after their first plan to destroy the universe ends terribly at the hands of the Light Warriors, they come back a few hundred strips later seeming much more competent; they see through Black Mage's disguise like a window, lock of the rest of the Light Warriors, and actually set up the summoning ritual for the monster that will end the universe. It seems like a massive threat to the universe and the Light Warriors. [[spoiler:Then Black Mage kills them all with his knives in a few seconds and summons the monster, who immediately dies to Red Mage (by accident, no less).]]

** The lich sorcerer Xykon is an extreme example. His humorous dialogue and status as a CardCarryingVillain along with the fact that he rarely fights directly (in anything but an instant win) lead many people to believe he was much less serious or at least genuinely malevolent than he really is. Then he's pushed into exerting himself... As Redcloak puts it: "I know he seems funny and charming, but believe me, when you see for yourself the depths to which he'll sink, you will never sleep well again."
** Qarr the imp is a definite case of playing with a trope. The first we saw of Qarr was an ominous red and black speech bubble speaking from just off-panel during a CliffHanger. Fans went into a flurry of speculation about this mysterious new being, but nobody expected him to be [[TheImp a tiny imp]] with virtually no power of his own and who isn't even all that bright. However, Qarr's attempts to convince Vaarsuvius into a DealWithTheDevil draws the attention of the IFCC, a trio of powerful evil beings bent on creating enough chaos, confusion, and disorder so that they can move ahead with their own attempt to seize [[EldritchAbomination The Snarl's]] Gate. Qarr is now working with them, and as a result after starting out as something of an inversion, Qarr is now much more dangerous than he ever was in his previous position.

** And undyingUmbrage. It was easy enough to write off his verbal aggression and death threats as non-serious - Dirk seemed to, after all. It got even easier in one conversation when uu hilariously demanded that Dirk draw porn for him...of people holding hands and reciting poems to one another, uu all the while acting as though normal human romantic behaviour was the most terrible of all weird fetishes, cementing him as a not-so-heroic ComedicSociopath. And then [[spoiler:he kills Calliope's dream self, thereby taking control of their shared body]]. And he eventually grows up to become [[spoiler:the BigBad Lord English, the most powerful and evil character in the story]].

** The Nostalgia Critic is a pathetic, miserable, useless waste of space... but he rigged WebVideo/{{Kickassia}} with dynamite just in case anyone wanted to take his finally-gained power away.

* Grif and Simmons from ''Fanfic/MurderersRow'' seem like some of the more benign inmates. They're content just bickering amicably with each other, and they're prone to giving out advice and tips to newer inmates out of seemingly genuine altruism. This all belies how vicious they truly are when crossed; they're in prison for having beaten a man to death for nearly causing Grif's sister to OD, and they later beat Lopez within an inch of his life for unwillingly helping O'Malley mutilate Donut, with him noting afterwards that they could have killed him had they gone any further. Tellingly, even Church fears their wrath.

* Brutish and Oafish Guard from ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' are often subject to amusing humiliations, but they still enforce a brutal and corrupt regime. Among their misdeeds throughout the film, they initiate the public humiliation Quasimodo goes through, subdue Phoebus when he turns on Frollo and were inches away from executing him before Esmeralda interfered. Brutish Guard in particular is responsible for setting off the entire second half of the film when he discovers Esmeralda’s escape offscreen and reports it to Frollo.

** General Tarquin initially comes across as an AffablyEvil NobleDemon type of villain, combined with the same goofy sense of dramatic conventions as his sweet-natured son. While he can be funny and charming, not unlike Xykon, he's as monstrous as other tyrant -- particularly when he perceives a threat to his superiority and control. [[spoiler:Even if it's from his own sons.]] His charm also belies a string of women he's coerced into marriage with torture.

* A recurring theme in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/33584764/chapters/83453668 C-Listers]]''. The main characters are all flamboyant, amiable, and often comedic C-list villains, which makes it all the more terrifying when the audience is reminded that they're villains.

** Firefly is a weirdo with absolutely no social skills who [[IJustWantToHaveFriends secretly only wants companionship]]. He's also regarded as the most dangerous of the C-Listers because he's a pyromaniac who makes a habit of burning people alive; even the people he cares about aren't entirely safe, as he confesses he has at the very least entertained the thought of setting them on fire too.

** Killer Moth is an archetypical IneffectualSympatheticVillain: he's a cowardly, amiable loser with grand ambitions he can't possibly live up to, and absolutely terrified of his best friend and partner Firefly's habit of burning people alive. Chapter 19, however, reveals he's killed a lot of people; all of his cowardice and standards are the result of a weak stomach rather than any actual morals, and he's totally willing to resort to murder if it comes to it. Chapter 36 reveals he's a lot worse than previously thought; [[spoiler:he's been manipulating Firefly the whole time throughout their friendship and has been basically using him as an attack dog, and is actively trying to sabotage any attempts to help him with his mental issues]].

** Killer Moth is an archetypical IneffectualSympatheticVillain: he's a cowardly, amiable loser with grand ambitions he can't possibly live up to, and absolutely terrified of his best friend and partner Firefly's habit of burning people alive. Chapter 19, however, reveals he's killed a lot of people; all of his cowardice and standards are the result of a weak stomach rather than any actual morals, and he's totally willing to resort to murder if it comes to it.

* A recurring theme in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/33584764/chapters/83453668 C-Listers]]''.

** Killer Moth is depicted as an IneffectualSympatheticVillain: he's a cowardly, amiable loser with grand ambitions he can't possibly live up to, and absolutely terrified of his best friend and partner Firefly's habit of burning people alive. Chapter 19, however, reveals he's killed a lot of people; all of his cowardice and standards are the result of a weak stomach rather than any actual morals, and he's totally willing to resort to murder if it comes to it.

* Like in canon, Team Rocket starts off unthreatening and nothing Ash can't handle. Unfortunately, this means Ash counted his chickens before they hatched and assumed this would always be the case, making him totally unprepared for when [[spoiler:they attack ''him'' instead of his Pokemon, beating him up so bad that he suffers permanent brain damage and is never the same again]].

** General Tarquin initially comes across as an AffablyEvil NobleDemon type of villain, combined with the same goofy sense of dramatic conventions. While he can be funny and charming, not unlike Xykon, he is frighteningly competent and ''not'' someone you want to piss off.