History Main / TeamRocketWins

* In a similar manner, Dr. Eggman starts off the events of ''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 ([[SonicTheHedgehog3 par Knuckles technically]]) has actually defeated Super Sonic.
** Playing E-102 Gamma's story in ''SonicAdventure'' allows you to battle and win against Sonic in a brief mini boss. Amy stops him just short of finishing the job however.

** Jessie (while under her Jessilina alias) has actually become competent enough to win Pokémon Contests all on her own without cheating (though she has considered it at times.) She lost out on winning her fifth ribbon needed to get into the Grand Festival, but Dawn (or rather, a Dawn lookalike, long story) gave her the sixth ribbon she had just won. Jessie gratefully accepted it and made her way to the semi-finals against Dawn in the Grand Festival.

*** Said Yanmega then proceeds to get as close as any Team Rocket Pokémon has to Blasting Off Ash & Co.

*** 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. We're 40 episodes in and they've yet to blast off ''once''(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.

*** So far this season Giovanni has given them one mission. The goal of said mission was to collect dream energy from an abandoned research facility in order to help with Team Rocket's plans to conquer the world. While they failed to capture the Pokémon of the day, the episode where they put this plan into action basically ended with Giovanni congratulating them on succeeding and telling them that he had people looking at the energy to see what they can do with it. That's right, Team Rocket just successfully completed the first step in a plan for world domination.

** They seem fairly competent whenever they are not dealing with Ash and co. - remember that they had wanted posters with their first appearance? - and many of their plans worked... until Ash got involved.
*** Actually, it's more than that. According to Pokémon Chronicles, Jessie and James weren't just competent, they were THE BEST operatives in Team Rocket history! In fact, in their first appearance they managed to not only steal ALL the Pokémon in the center (owned by full fledged trainers) and wreck the place, BUT would have gotten away scot-free if not for Ash using a team of Pikachu to supercharge his own! Then... they stopped doing real evil in favor of following Ash around and trying to steal some noob's yellow rat.

* In 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.

* In a similar manner, Dr Eggman starts off the events of ''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 ([[SonicTheHedgehog3 par Knuckles technically]]) has actually defeated Super Sonic.

** In another episode, 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 to 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.]]

* In FinalFantasyVI, [[spoiler: Kefka's triumph 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 comes into Thamasa imploding Espers left and right, there is really no precedent.]]

* Team Rocket, the TropeNamer from ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'', beat the crap out of Ash's Pokémon when they were allowed to run Viridian City's gym using Giovanni's Pokémon, at least until Ash managed to regain momentum and beat them at their own game. There have been a few other instances where Team Rocket has been successful in battle, but it was because they were [[RedemptionPromotion trying to do something good for a change]]. Their victories never lasted too long, and they were often sent flying at the end of the episode anyway.

*** Said Yanmega then poceeds to get as close as any Team Rocket Pokémon has to Blasting Off Ash & Co.

*** 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. We're 40 episodes in and they've yet to blast off ''once''(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

** They seem fairly competent whenever they are not dealing with Ash and co - remember that they had wanted posters with their first appearance? - and many of their plans worked... until Ash got involved.
*** Actually, it's more than that. According to Pokémon Chronicles, Jessie and James weren't just competent, they were THE BEST operatives in Team Rocket history! In fact, in their first appearance they managed to not only steal ALL the Pokémon in the center (owned by full fledged trainers) and wreak up the place, BUT would have gotten away scott free if not for Ash using a team of Pikachu to supercharge his own! Then... they stopped doing real evil in favor of following Ash around and trying to steal some noob's yellow rat.

* One ''LooneyTunes'' short (the made-for-TV short "Soup Or Sonic") has [[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.]]

[[quoteright:347:[[MegaManX http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Won.jpg]]]]

*** Said Yanmega then poceeds to get as close as any Team Rocket Pokemon has to Blasting Off Ash & Co.

*** Actually, it's more than that. According to Pokemon Chronicles, Jessie and James weren't just competent, they were THE BEST operatives in Team Rocket history! In fact, in their first appearance they managed to not only steal ALL the pokemon in the center (owned by full fledged trainers) and wreak up the place, BUT would have gotten away scott free if not for Ash using a team of Pikachu to supercharge his own! Then... they stopped doing real evil in favor of following Ash around and trying to steal some noob's yellow rat.

* Team Skull from ''PokemonMysteryDungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky'' was introduced as an [[WarmUpBoss easy first boss]]. In a later mission where your team is sent out to get Perfect Apples however, Team Skull brings their leader along to defeat your team, and then they take the apples you were supposed to find.

** In the ''Best Wishes!'' series, [[spoiler: they got new uniforms because of a PROMOTION.]]
*** Even wilder, [[spoiler:they became competent and so far have ''stayed'' that way. They almost capture Pikachu and Iris's Axew. Key and operative word: almost. We're 40 episodes in and they've yet to blast off ''once''(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.]]
*** [[spoiler:It's possible they'll be competent all through the ''Best Wishes!'' series, because they're supposed to be the spark for Team Plasma's appearance.]]
*** [[spoiler:So far this season Giovanni has given them one mission. The goal of said mission was to collect dream energy from an abandoned research facility in order to help with Team Rocket's plans to conquer the world. While they failed to capture the Pokémon of the day, the episode where they put this plan into action basically ended with Giovanni congratulating them on succeeding and telling them that he had people looking at the energy to see what they can do with it. That's right, Team Rocket just successfully completed the first step in a plan for world domination.]]
*** [[spoiler:And now they've managed to break into a top-secret research facility and steal data on a meteorite that gives off some kind of ultra-powerful energy that can be used for WorldDomination.]]
*** [[spoiler: And it just keeps on going from there.....]]

* In SchoolRumble, Tennouji beats Harima once when the latter was in despair after finding out Tenma liked Karasuma.

* One episode of ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' (originally a comic book) 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.]]

** A handful of occasions however end with the Eds successfully making a profit out of one of their scams.

The shortest and simplest answer is that they got their act together-- ''[[LetsGetDangerous really together]]''-- and are now a threat. As to "why", the Author wants to shake the heroes and viewers out of their comfort zone by allowing [[TheBadGuyWins the bad guys to win]] [[YouCantThwartStageOne round one]] so the heroes will be forced to get their act together and make their next encounter a truly epic fight. These third string villains undid the VillainDecay that put them at the bottom of the SortingAlgorithmOfVillainThreat by going through TrainingFromHell, using some kind of UpgradeArtifact or ArtifactOfDoom, or are under the effects of a VillainOverride. Another possibility is that they catch the heroes off guard. Maybe Team HarmlessVillain was NotSoHarmless all along, and have been [[IAmNotLeftHanded pretending to be weak]] to lull the heroes into [[{{Pride}} complacency]] (which warrants the question, why didn't they [[BondVillainStupidity just shoot them]]?)

If neither is the case, it may be that they have both traded places in the story-- if the heroes do a FaceHeelTurn and the bad guys make a HeelFaceTurn due to a MirrorMoralityMachine, they will "cosmically" [[RedemptionPromotion get the power boost needed to make sure good comes out on top]], ''they'' are the {{Boring Invincible Hero}}es now.

Speaking of role reversals, if the QuirkyMinibossSquad joins the heroes in a StrangeBedfellows situation where they both fight for a good goal, they'll no longer be under the same "bad guys always lose" onus, and remind us why they were, OnceUponATime, relevant as they bash the EvilerThanThou new threat.

Likewise, new characters in the show may be introduced as {{Distressed Damsel}}s being beaten by the Goldfish Poop Gang so that the heroes [[PursuedProtagonist can come to their aid.]] It also serves to show us how pathetic they are and feel to lose to ''these'' guys. Afterwards, with some confidence boosting pep talks from the heroes and combat training, they will solo their temporary tormentors and make them ATwinkleInTheSky. Similarly, a TournamentArc allows most {{Quirky Miniboss Squad}}s the chance to win a few matches to remind us they didn't always suck, only to then [[TheWorfEffect go down to a bigger threat]].

-->'''Popeye:''' Oh, yeah? Well, ''one'' of us is goin' to the hospital...(''takes out spniach'') and it '''''ain't you!!'''''

* Three {{Popeye}} cartoons have Bluto/Brutus winning, but it was all precipiated by Popeye himself:
** In ''Hospitaliky'' (1937) and ''For Better Or Nurse'' (1945), Popeye and Bluto are both jockeying in severely injure themselves so they can get close to nurse Olive at the hospital. Popeye ends up force-feeding his spinach to Bluto, who delivers the necessary punishment to send Popeye to the hopsital. ''I Bin Sculped'' (1961) has Popeye and Brutus vying to be Olive's model for a statue depicting a tired, beat-up specimen.

** In ''Hospitaliky'' (1937) and ''For Better Or Nurse'' (1945), Popeye and Bluto are both jokeying in severely injure themselves so they can get close to nurse Olive at the hospital. Popeye ends up force-feeding his spinach to Bluto, who delivers the necessary punishment to send Popeye to the hopsital. ''I Bin Sculped'' (1961) has Popeye and Brutus vying to be Olive's model for a statue depicting a tired, beat-up specimen.

** In ''Hospitaliky'' (1937) and ''For Better Or Nurse'' (1945), Popeye and Bluto are both jokeying in severely injure themselves so they can get close to nurse Olive at the hospital. Popeye ends up force-feeding his spinach to Bluto, who delivers the necessary punishment to send Popeye to the hopsital. ''I Bin Sculped'' (1961) has Popeye and Bluto vying to be Olive's model for a statue depicting a tired, beat-up specimen.

* In the first ''PaperMario'' Bowser once again starts the game's story by invading Princess Peach's castle. Peach sends Mario on him, [[TheGoodGuyAlwaysWins predicting the usual result]]. Then Bowser pulls out the newly stolen Star Rod, boosting his strength, cue a HopelessBossFight where your only choice is to let Bowser chalk up his first canonical victory against the plumber.

* In ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', Zedd and Rita would pull this off at least once a season.

* In an episode of ''XiaolinShowdown'' in which Omi freezes himself so he can find his future self (doesn't work of course because ''he wasn't there'') he ends up in a BadFuture where Jack Spicer has taken over the world. The crazy part is that he apparently defeated and captured the other three villains, despite them being far more evil and powerful.

* In one episode of Phineas & Ferb, Candace actually does succeed in busting her brothers. [[spoiler: However, this turned out to be just a dream.]]

* Team Rocket, the TropeNamer from ''[[{{Anime/Ptitlei015gc004kw4}} Pokémon]]'', beat the crap out of Ash's Pokémon when they were allowed to run Viridian City's gym using Giovanni's Pokémon, at least until Ash managed to regain momentum and beat them at their own game. There have been a few other instances where Team Rocket has been successful in battle, but it was because they were [[RedemptionPromotion trying to do something good for a change]]. Their victories never lasted too long, and they were often sent flying at the end of the episode anyway.

** Also Elmer Fudd defeated Bugs at his own game in ''Rabbit Rampage'' (a semi remake of ''DuckAmuck'') as well as in ''Hare Brush'' (albeit due to something of a personality exchange, with an insane Elmer "turning" into Bugs). He also finally "killed da wabbit" in ''What's Opera Doc ([[MyGodWhatHaveIDone though didn't really find victory all that satisfying]]).

--->'''Wile E. Coyote:''' [[SignLanguage (Holds up a sign)]] Okay, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him. Now what do I do?