History Main / TeamRocketWins

Some antagonists are expected to be only a minor threat to the story's main characters, something they can be expected to defeat [[GoldfishPoopGang time and again]]. Threats that the heroes have dealt with many times before, and are used to show how much they have grown, because those antagonists are annoyances at best.

Some antagonists are expected to be only a minor threat to the story's main characters, something they can be expected to defeat time and again. Threats that the heroes have dealt with many times before, and are used to show how much they have grown, because those antagonists are annoyances at best.

** "A Glass of Warm Ed" and "Dim Lit Ed" however end with the Eds successfully [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness making a profit out of one of their scams]]. The "Big Picture Show" finale also ends[[spoiler:with the Eds finally becoming popular after the kids saw the Eddy's brother influenced Eddy to be the way he was]].

** "A Glass of Warm Ed" and "Dim Lit Ed" however end with the Eds successfully [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness making a profit out of one of their scams]]. The "Big Picture Show" finale also ends, in a [[spoiler:with the Eds finally becoming popular after the kids saw the Eddy's brother influenced Eddy to be the way he was]].

* Presuming that the condition for villain victory is "kill the slayer", ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has numerous examples:
** Spike legitimately out-fights and kills two Slayers, Drusilla effortlessly takes out Kendra the Vampire Slayer, The Master kills Buffy on two occasions (one time she is revived and the other in an alternate universe), and a random vampire nearly kills Buffy in "Fool for Love", and it's Riley that ultimately puts him down.
** Even ''Harmony'' (probably the biggest joke on the show) managed to kill a Slayer in the episode "Harmonic Divergence" (although it was at least partially by accident) and she had a more earned victory in "Harm's Way" against another vampire (that one was technically a case of EvilVersusEvil, but she was clearly the lesser evil.)
** If you count characters who ''nearly'' pull off kills until [[DeusExMachina somebody saves them at the last second]], then that opens up a much larger group, including [[spoiler: the Gentlemen, Warren, Dark Willow, and Caleb]].
** Glory kicked Buffy's ass all over season five. Willow was the only one who managed to do any true damage to her. Well, her and Giles, but that was only because he [[spoiler: killed her human host while she was essentially unconscious]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* On a similar subject, one episode of ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' actually ends with Dick Dastardly placing in first. But unlike the Really Rottens' example, he doesn't get to keep his victory, because the announcer then shows a slow-motion replay of the race's finish that shows that the Mean Machine stretched its front forward to give the illusion that he came in first Watch the clip [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZv8HdAS8Vk here]]. It is then shown that the Mean Machine's nose was in its extended state and it ends with Dastardly cursing his disqualification. (Chalk it up to LazyArtist).

** One short (the made-for-TV short "Soup Or Sonic") has [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner Wile E. Coyote catching the Roadrunner]]. Of course, the coyote has shrunk down to a comically puny size so the Roadrunner is '''much''' bigger than him. Wile E. [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this by]] [[NoFourthWall pointing out to the audience that he has absolutely no clue what to do next.]]

** In a similar manner, Dr. Eggman starts off the events of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' by depowering Sonic ''in his super form'' and using his power to activate a laser to create an EarthShatteringKaboom. Keep in mind no other villain ([[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles bar Knuckles technically]]) has actually defeated Super Sonic.
** Playing E-102 Gamma's story in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' allows you to battle and win against Sonic in a brief mini boss. Amy stops him just short of finishing the job however.

** When the normally incompetent [[GoldfishPoopGang Scratch and Grounder]] are converted into [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot ninja robots]], they almost manage to kill Franchise/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}} and Tails; if it wasn't for Sonic and Tails escaping via sheer luck, and still at the very least they suffer no humiliating indignity this time.

* The latter half of the duo ''WesternAnimation/TheAntAndTheAardvark'' stands out as one of the biggest losers of the RoadRunnerVsCoyote genre with him suffering extreme punishments and never managing to get his meal (Charlie the ant that is). There are a few times that play with this, with the short ending with the Aardvark chasing Charlie and him running for his life but [[NoEnding there is no resolution clear enough to truly count as a victory]]. The one and single time that he clearly won was in the Scrath a Tiger cartoon where he manages to get the titular Tiger on his good side and he is last seen chasing the helpless and terrified ants with his help.

* ''Series/TheNanny'': During the later seasons, [[RichBitch C.C.]] [[ButtMonkey Babcock]] would occassionally score some victories against Niles in thier games of wit. Interestingly, this coincided with C.C. becoming a DefrostingIceQueen, too.

* The page picture comes from ''Plague's Misadventures'', one of the hosted comics in ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge.'' Sigma, who in this series is pretty much a nuisance HarmlessVillain, actually succeeds in bringing down the space colony and bringing about the end of the world when the heroes shoot it down with the giant canon.

* ''FanFic/MagicalTroubleshootingCrossoverFightingFederationUltra'', a tournament with a crossover cast of various anime series, actually has Team Rocket win at least once, much to their own shock.

* Zig-zagged with ''Disney/WreckItRalph''. The title character, a figure in a 30-year-old video game is tired of being the "bad guy" and schemes to get a medal to prove he can be a good guy. After accidentally landing in another game, "Sugar Rush," he helps an outcast little girl, Vanellope Von Schweetz, win a race, but he has to deal with the game's evil boss and a swarm of cy-bugs which were brought in from another game to this one.

* Presuming that the condition for villain victory is "kill the slayer", ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has numerous examples: Spike legitimately out-fights and kills two Slayers, Drusilla effortlessly takes out Kendra the Vampire Slayer, The Master kills Buffy on two occasions (one time she is revived and the other in an alternate universe), and a random vampire nearly kills Buffy in "Fool for Love", and it's Riley that ultimately puts him down.

* In the Joe Oriolo WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat TV cartoons, the villains, Professor and Rock Bottom, [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin are always trumped by Felix]], be it through his intervention, their sheer incompetence or just pure bad luck. But whereas Professor, Felix's main nemesis, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption never once scored a victory over Felix]], Rock Bottom actually did manage to score a victory over Felix in "Penelope the Elephant"--[[MeaninglessVillainVictory but even that victory doesn't pay off for him in the long run]]. The episodes plot is centered on the eponymous elephant who has gotten lost from her Rajah, who offers a 50,000,000 bakshee reward for her return. Felix finds Penelope and intends her safe return, but Rock Bottom gets word about the reward, kidnaps her and ties up Felix, and makes it to the Rajah's palace to claim the money reward before Felix can stop him. He is promptly given it by the Rajah--but it turns out that thanks to foreign exchange rates, 50,000,000 bakshees [[RidiculousExchangeRates is only worth 10 cents in American money]]. Rock Bottom is so flabbergasted at this outcome, that he angrily throws the meager award aside and goes into shock, while Felix gets the last laugh.

** Brutus (Bluto's name in the 1960s) actually comes up smelling like a rose at the end of ''The Day the Ball Went Over'' (1960) without even laying a finger on Popeye, whose nitroglycerine-laced ping-pong ball explodes on him when he intends to have it explode on Brutus.

%% Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1486147231088787700
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[[quoteright:347:[[Webcomic/BobAndGeorge https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Won.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:347: I guess I could retire? ...Oh right, the plan.]]

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''Series/TheNanny'': During the later seasons, [[RichBitch C.C. Babcock]] would occassionally score some victories against Niles in thier games of wit. Interestingly, this coincided with C.C. becoming a DefrostingIceQueen, too.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'', WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck normally loses when confronted with WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale. In the short "Working for Peanuts", Donald actually manages to repeatedly thwart them, with the aide of Dolores the Elephant. Averted, though, in that they ''still'' end up getting what they wanted, by successfully faking a place for themselves in the zoo as rare albino chipmunks.

*** In the N Saga, though, they fell back into their old comic routine because of negative fan reaction to their new serious attitude. And by ''X & Y'', they had pretty much lost all their competence, going back to being the butt monkeys.

** "A Glass of Warm Ed" and "Dim Lit Ed" however end with the Eds successfully [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness making a profit out of one of their scams]]. The "Big Picture Show" finale also ends, in a [[spoiler:with the Eds finally becoming popular after the kids saw the Eddy's brother influenced Eddy to be the way he was]]]].

** On a lighter note, he also won in two episodes, one where the robot he sent lost the showdown, but he stole all the monk's Sheng Gong Wu (in the "shake the heroes out of their comfort zone" model), and another where Omi actually loses due to misusing a shen gong wu, and the episode has a downer ending. Despite being an IneffectualSympatheticVillain, hes had several {{Near Villain Victor|y}}ies as well.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** [[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE21MadLove "Mad Love"]] has Harley Quinn manage to use one of the Joker's plots to capture Batman and have him dead to rights. This being [[MadLove Harley Quinn,]] Batman manages to play on her insecurities and call Joker. [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou That goes down as well as you'd expect.]]
** "Riddler's Reform" has the Riddler decide to end Batman once and for all with a trap with no escape. [[spoiler: Batman only survived by hiding in a safe.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has nearly succeeded in taking over the world/defeating [[HeroAntagonist Dib]] several times, only to be beaten by one DeusExMachina or another. However, there ''is'' one time he ''did'' win: in "Bad, Bad, Rubber Piggies", he uses a time machine to repeatedly cripple Dib in the past until he dies in the present. To repeat - Dib, the only person standing in the way of Zim's plans of WorldDomination, is ''dead''. Of course, then the ButterflyOfDoom kicks in, and Zim is forced to hit the ResetButton, returning Dib to normal. Which really wasn't a win; Dib only died for a split second, and once he came back he was actually a greater threat than ever, almost killing ''Zim'' before he quickly hit the ResetButton. Neither Zim nor Dib ever gets a complete win, of course, but Zim does better than Dib fairly often.
** Although he didn't actually successfully complete his plot, Zim does get one satisfactory ending in which Dib is left trapped inside a cage with a vicious monkey while Zim gets to watch. Likewise, another episode in which it is revealed that Zim is allergic to water ends with Zim unleashing a monstrous water balloon filled with the city's water supply FROM SPACE directly onto the Skool and Dib. Finally, although it was a trivial victory, Zim fooled Dib into believing that he was granted special powers by shoe ghosts that allowed him to single-handedly take down Zim and the entire Irken armada. It ends with Zim revealing that he in fact had Dib under a simulation in a successful attempt to prove that Dib had thrown a muffin at him the day before. Although Zim never truly wins, he has been known to achieve multiple moral victories in the name of the Irken Empire.

-->-- '''Jessie''' (as Team Rocket finally defeats [[TheHero Ash]] in a fair battle after [[LongRunner 951]] episodes), ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''

** In ''Off the Unbeaten Path'', James won a contest that involved teamwork with one's own Pokémon. He used Mime Jr. and was steadfast in playing by the rules despite Jessie's repeated attempts to encourage him to cheat. So this goes with the "Team Rocket can win if they act like good guys" rule.

** In ''The Thief That Keeps on Thieving!'' they actually managed to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQjyJY7iEVg catch the wild Pokémon]] that the character of the day was after and send it to their boss. Of course, he sends it back to them and it promptly evolves, giving Jessie a new Yanmega. Said Yanmega then proceeds to get as close as any Team Rocket Pokémon has to blasting off Ash & co.

** Z-Crystals are useless on their own though, so how do they remedy this? Not only do they manage to obtain a Z-Ring from Nanu, but James's Mareanie learns a Dark move (Knock Off) and successfully preform Black Hole Eclipse. They also obtain a Mimikum-Z so Jessie's Mimikyu can preform its species exclusive Z-move Let's Snuggle Forever.

* A Geico spot with the characters from ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'' has Skeletor distracting He-Man, She-Ra and Man-At-Arms with the sales pitch "Switching to Geico could save you hundreds on car insurance" long enough for him to make a clean getaway.

** In Ippatsuman, another sub-series from ''Time Bokan'', the incompetent TerribleTrio with no superpowers manage to seemingly beat the titular FlyingBrick Superhero. However this ends up {{Subverted}}, not only was it actually the threatening SuperVillain that was the one who actually killed Ippatsuman with the Trios attacks having no effect, but [[spoiler: it was [[ActuallyADoomBot a Robot Decoy of the SuperHero that was destroyed.]]]]

* At the end of the first arc of ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'', [[spoiler:Bagramon easily takes all the Code Crowns and reconfigures the Digital World. Taiki, Akari, Zenjirou, and Shoutmon are blown back to Earth. While they're gone, Kiriha and Nene are forced into hiding, Xros Heart is captured, and the Digital World comes under worse oppression than before.]]
* ''Manga/TentaiSenshiSunred''

* Anytime The Shocker does anything right, it counts as this. But what stands out in particular was his appearance in the ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan book, where after countless, effortless losses to Spidey (who slammed the point home by cracking jokes), he managed to knock him unconscious. He then tied him up with chains, ranting and torturing him, and likely would have killed him if not for Kitty Pryde and the NYPD finding his location.
* SpiderMan has been beaten by [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Stilt-Man]] ''twice''. (Spidey himself rates the two incidents as numbers 3 and 4 among his "10 Most Embarrassing Moments" in ''Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #12''.)

** If you count characters who ''nearly'' pull off kills until [[DeusExMachina somebody saves them at the last second]], then that opens up a much larger group, including [[spoiler: the Gentlemen, Warren, Dark Willow, and Caleb.]]

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers''
** In ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', Zedd and Rita would pull this off at least once a season. This usually involved the zords being destroyed and re-formed, and as such, usually happened when they had run out of Sentai footage and/or just in time for an action-figure shopping season. Topped by the series finale of ''Mighty Morphin'', as the two actually do succeed in not only leaving the Rangers powerless, but also ''destroying'' the Command Center. Damn.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had the episode "Victory of the Daleks", which was exactly what it said on the tin; that is to say that the Daleks managed to accomplish their main goal and escape to tell the tale.

* The ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' ones don't always get away without a scratch. The list is actually quite long:

* After Seth Rollins betrayed SHIELD-mates Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose to join Evolution, and then went on to win the Money In The Bank briefcase, he declared would face a special opponent, worthy of his greatness, in an exhibition match. In true dickhead heel fashion, the "mighty" opponent he picked was notorious jobber, Heath Slater. But Dean Ambrose was still ''incredibly'' bent out of shape over Rollins stabbing him in the back, and shortly after the match started, came down to the ring to heckle Rollins and mess with the Money In The Bank briefcase. These distractions kept letting Slater get the upper hand temporarily, and ultimately lead to Staler pinning Rollins in the middle of the ring, to the ''extreme'' delight of the crowd, and Ambrose absconding with the briefcase in order to further screw with Rollins.

* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}''

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', Kefka's triumph [[spoiler:in Thamasa]] is a complete surprise to the player. After all, almost every other encounter has consisted of Kefka casting a weak spell and then running away, and when Kefka seems to finally be serious in Narshe, he is still quite beatable. So when he appears in [[spoiler:Thamasa, destroying Espers left and right]], there is really no precedent. And right after that, [[spoiler:[[ApocalypseHow Kefka destroys the world]].]]

* In the Dreamcast and [=PS2=] ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' game, the final unlock is the ability to play as Dick Dastardly. It's worth going through all the trouble to do so just to win a race as him and hear the announcer's bewildered or disgusted reaction.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''

* In the Joe Oriolo WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat TV cartoons, the villains, Professor and Rock Bottom, [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin are always trumped by Felix]], be it through his intervention, their sheer incompentence or just pure bad luck. But wheras Professor, Felix's main nemesis, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption never once scored a victory over Felix]], Rock Bottom actually did manage to score a victory over Felix in "Penelope the Elephant"--[[MeaninglessVillainVictory but even that victory doesn't pay off for him in the long run]]. The episodes plot is centered on the eponymous elephant who has gotten lost from her Rajah, who offers a 50,000,000 bakshee reward for her return. Felix finds Penelope and intends her safe return, but Rock Bottom gets word about the reward, kidnaps her and ties up Felix, and makes it to the Rajah's palace to claim the money reward before Felix can stop him. He is promptly given it by the Rajah--but it turns out that thanks to foreign exchange rates, 50,000,000 bakshees [[RidiculousExchangeRates is only worth 10 cents in American money]]. Rock Bottom is so flabbergasted at this outcome, that he angrily throws the meager award aside and goes into shock, while Felix gets the last laugh.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. [[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE21MadLove "Mad Love"]] has Harley Quinn manage to use one of the Joker's plots to capture Batman and have him dead to rights. This being [[MadLove Harley Quinn,]] Batman manages to play on her insecurities and call Joker. [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou That goes down as well as you'd expect.]]

** In "Him Diddle Riddle", Him challenged the girls to solve a series of riddles on time to find Professor Utonium or the professor would have to "pay". They found the Professor a few seconds too late and Professor Utonium had to pay... [[spoiler: the diner bill. It was just a diner bill but, the villain won and the narrator didn't have anything to say when he'd usually say the day had been saved.]] It turns out to be a tainted victory however [[spoiler: when Professor Utonium vows to never come to his diner again because the food was not worth the price, leaving Him to beg him not to leave, promising to make his pancakes cheaper.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''

** "A Glass of Warm Ed" and "Dim Lit Ed" however end with the Eds successfully [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness making a profit out of one of their scams]]. The "Big Picture Show" finale also ends, in a [[spoiler:with the Eds finally becoming popular after the kids saw the Eddy's brother influenced Eddy to be the way he was.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''

** Dastardly actually won two races outright in the comic books: "The Scavenger Scramble" (Gold Key #7) and "Trek To Tazmania" (Archie Comics #1). There were catches to the victories, however. Hanna-Barbera Fun-In (Gold Key #5) had a one-pager of Dastardly pushing the Mean Machine across the finish line after Muttley bails on him, and he uses the trophy, filled with hot water, to soak his feet.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''

** Also Elmer Fudd defeated Bugs at his own game in ''WesternAnimation/RabbitRampage'' (a semi remake of ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'') as well as in ''WesternAnimation/HareBrush'' (albeit due to something of a personality exchange, with an insane Elmer "turning" into Bugs). He also finally "killed da wabbit" in ''WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc'' ([[MyGodWhatHaveIDone though didn't really find victory all that satisfying]]). Two other cartoons, Fresh Hare and Bugs' Bonnets, ended in a draw.

** Even following his Flanderization into a ButtMonkey, WesternAnimation/{{Daffy|Duck}} seemed to score more victories than most other fall-guys in the series, [[spoiler: knocking out Taz in a CurbstompBattle in ''Ducking The Devil'' ([[RedemptionPromotion notably]] as a PunchClockHero), being the first foe to defeat Speedy Gonzales in ''Mucho Locos'' to name a few. Counting an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RIvO74ZC5c obscure Tang endorsement from ''The Bugs Bunny Show'']] and Creator/CartoonNetwork's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpjVBeDalTY Big Game from 2001]], he has also defeated Bugs twice as well, also both were times where [[LaserGuidedKarma unusually it was Bugs who messed with him first instead of vice-versa]].]] Also, perhaps due to being created by fans of the shorts and the character, some later features tend to [[ThrowTheDogABone throw Daffy a bone]] a few times as well.
* Almost happens in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. When the normally incompetent [[GoldfishPoopGang Scratch and Grounder]] are converted into [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot ninja robots]], they almost manage to kill Franchise/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}} and Tails; if it wasn't for Sonic and Tails escaping via sheer luck, and still at the very least they suffer no humiliating indignity this time.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', a group of Superman villains teamed up, planning to use their combined talents to finally kill the big blue alien once and for all. Naturally, the Justice League wipe the floor with them before Superman even gets there, but they still manage to pull it off! The one who made the killing blow? ..... Toyman. [[spoiler: Yeah, it was Toyman in a HumongousMecha and Superman was really only sent thousands of years into the future and returned home at the end of the episode, but still. Toyman.]]

* This pattern was replicated with Hanna-Barbera's later cat and mouse team ''Pixie And Dixie and Mr Jinks'' in ''WesternAnimation/TheHuckleberryHoundShow''. Perhaps due to his even more ineffectual qualities, Jinks actually came out on top a fair bit more often than Tom.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'', WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck normally loses when confronted with Chip 'n' Dale. In the short "Working for Peanuts", Donald actually manages to repeatedly thwart them, with the aide of Dolores the Elephant. Averted, though, in that they ''still'' end up getting what they wanted, by successfully faking a place for themselves in the zoo as rare albino chipmunks.

* The latter half of the duo ''WesternAnimation/TheAntAndTheAardvark'' stands out as one of the biggest losers of the RoadRunnerVSCoyote genre with him suffering extreme punishments and never managing to get his meal (Charlie the ant that is). There are a few times that play with this, with the short ending with the Aardvark chasing Charlie and him running for his life but [[NoEnding there is no resolution clear enough to truly count as a victory]]. The one and single time that he clearly won was in the Scrath a Tiger cartoon where he manages to get the titular Tiger on his good side and he is last seen chasing the helpless and terrified ants with his help.
* A recurring trope with any show written by Creator/GregWeisman. Being the guy who created that [[XanatosGambit Xanatos]], it's quite common for the heroes to succeed only for the viewer to realize that the villain's plans never hinged on the outcome of the heroes' intervention. A good example from WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}. Xanatos orchestrated the jail break of the Pack (except Fox, who decided to stay) with some covert tactics and a robotic duplicate that allowed him to claim no involvement and then gives them upgrades to boost their ability to fight the Gargoyles. Of course, the Gargoyles foil the escape and manage to get the improved Pack Neutralized, but the threat to the the Gargoyles was incidental. Xanatos couldn't care less if they had won or lost, as the goal of this scheme was to create a mass jail break that Fox would refuse to partake in, thus securing her an early release from an impressed parole board.
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': The Brotherhood boys pretty much always get their asses kicked by the X-Men, however, in the season 1 two part finale, they actually manage to defeat them (along with Rogue defeating Toad). And an episode in season 2 depicts a fight between the two groups in a mall at night; as usual, the X-Men seem to have won again, but then Wanda Maximoff shows up...
---> '''Blob:''' All right! We finally beat 'em!
* The very first episode of Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse(2002)'' ended with the evil forces of Skeletor actually defeating He-Man and his allies in clean battle. Granted, the fight was precipitated by the Masters going to Snake Mountain only to warn Skeletor of the impending danger of an even greater evil (King Hsss, ruler of the mythical Snakemen) about to escape the bowels of Snake Mountain, but when the battle was fully engaged and the Masters were resigned to defending themselves, the Evil Warriors definitely had their number. Stinkor took out Mekaneck, Tri-Klops defeated Man-At-Arms, Whiplash (with help from Mer-Man) beat Stratos, and Skeletor and Evil-Lyn together managed to deliver He-Man himself one of the extremely rare losses by knockout he would ever suffer in the series. Skeletor tops it off by taunting the routed Masters with "See how they run: the Masters of FAILURE!!!" Of course, the immediate and foretold Rise of the Snakemen would make this a decidedly PyrrhicVictory....

*** Even wilder, they became competent and so far have ''stayed'' that way. They almost capture Pikachu and Iris's Axew. Key and operative word: almost. During a good bunch of that season, they didn`t blast off as usual (the blasting off role was taken by a Sandile who appeared in a couple of episodes). They generally stay away from Ash and company, however, because of their new mission.

*** A great example of this occurs in the Kami trio two parters. In the first, they set in motion the appearance of two of the legendary Pokemon, and then wait for Ash, since they know that he'll show up. Then they use him and his friends to summon Landorus. ''They use the fact that Ash attracts legendary Pokemon to their own advantage.'' In the second, they locate an undersea ruin and are able to help Giovanni capture Ash, the gang, and Meloetta, who is the key to summoning the Kami trio again. They came close to taking over the Unova region, but Giovanni got possessed by the reflecting mirror used to transform the Kamis into their Therian Formes, and Team Rocket had to actually help the twerps break the possession before Giovanni destroyed, rather than took over, the world.

*** A great example of this occurs in the Kami trio two parters. In the first, they set in motion the appearance of two of the legendary Pokemon, and then wait for Ash, since they know that he'll show up. Then they use him and his friends to summon Landorus. ''They are GenreSavvy enough to use the fact that Ash attracts legendary Pokemon to their own advantage.'' In the second, they locate an undersea ruin and are able to help Giovanni capture Ash, the gang, and Meloetta, who is the key to summoning the Kami trio again. They came close to taking over the Unova region, but Giovanni got possessed by the reflecting mirror used to transform the Kamis into their Therian Formes, and Team Rocket had to actually help the twerps break the possession before Giovanni destroyed, rather than took over, the world.

* The ''Series/LazyTown'' episode "Robbie's Dream Team" has Robbie successfully capture Sportacus; his plan only fails because his henchmen fall asleep on guard duty and the kids manage to get Sportacus an apple to regain his strength.

** In "Him Diddle Riddle", Him challenged the girls to solve a series of riddles on time to find Professor Utonium or the professor would have to "pay". They found the Professor a few seconds too late and Professor Utonium had to pay... [[spoiler: the diner bill. It was just a diner bill but, the villain won and the narrator didn't have anything to say when he'd usually say the day had been saved.]] It turns out to be a tainted victory however [[spoiler: when Professor Utonium vows to never come to his diner again because the food was terrible, leaving Him to beg him not to leave, promising to make his pancakes taste better.]]