History Main / VillainBall

* In the GrandFinale of ''Transformers: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', Megatron [[spoiler:decides to use the [[WaveMotionGun Fusion Cannon]] on the entirely helpless proto-humans [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid when he should have attacked the Maximals first, who could actually do something to stop him]]]]. To make it even worse [[spoiler:all of the proto-humans [[UnexplainedRecovery survived somehow]] and he only succeeded in killing Quickstrike and Inferno, ''his own minions'']].

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'', [[BigBad Scheck]] finds a document that would prove Arnold's neighborhood is a historical landmark and therefore can't be torn down and he keeps it hidden in a filing cabinet instead of destroying it. The idea of destroying it doesn't occur to him until after he catches Arnold and Gerald with it, which leads to him [[CaughtOnTape being caught]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard by his own security cameras]] burning the document.

* Creator/{{Disney}} villains in general ''love'' tossing this Ball around, as pointed out [[http://9gag.com/gag/a8j2KEO in this humorous comic post]]:

* Sometimes tossed around in the ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros'' cartoons. In "Reptiles in the Rose Garden", for example, Kootie Pie would have gotten away with taking over the United States had she explicitly not [[JustBetweenYouAndMe told Mario that she and Koopa were doing so.]] Another example from the SMW cartoon episode "A Little Learning", in which Hip and Hop plan on framing Yoshi and Oogtar for their schemes in school, only for King Koopa to ruin their evil plans because he hates school that much.

* ''[[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/sheltered-rwby-pseudo-crossover.713359/ Sheltered]]'' (a {{Anime/Shelter}}/{{WebAnimation/RWBY}} fic) features a ''spectacular'' fuck-up on the part of Jacques Schnee, Weiss' father, who in his greed attempts to force Rin to sign away all overship rights to her ship, including the intellectual property rights, hoping to secure exclusive access to advanced alien technology. Beforehand, Rin had little reason to think the Schnee patriarch would attempt to exploit her - had he played the long game and entered a partnership with her, he would have still secured an extremely lucrative source of profit, but instead he decides to attempt to basically claim ''everything'' from her, and it backfires ''hard''. He initially attempts this when Weiss is away for an extended period of time, hoping Rin would skip over the legalization of the documents she's been sent, only for her to properly study them in detail. He then attempts to directly pressure Rin by using a combination of gaslighting her via fake audio from Weiss, cutting off any communication with the world outside of the Schnee estate to prevent her from trying to contact Weiss beyond that, and locking her in her room. Unfortunately for him, this causes Rin to become desperate enough to remotely order her ship to come to her to get her out of there, and she also first uses her semblance in the process. Jacques' blunder is so spectacular in scope that in order to avoid getting metaphorically crucified by General Ironwood and Weiss, he stages things to make it look like Rin was kidnapped in a White Fang attack (and the resulting security revamp likely having its own consequences later down the line), but he also hires mercenaries in an attempt to re-secure Rin after she lands in Menagerie, which goes ''poorly'' thanks to Ghira Belladonna and his forces, and it also scares her off ''again'', causing her to become paranoid enough to try to slip under the radar, suspecting that Weiss and Ironwood were potentially in on this scheme and had betrayed her trust (even later, when Rin is informed that Weiss is attending Beacon, she is too hesitant to contact her directly out of fear that she was under her father's thumb and might report back to him). Rin eventually ends up living with Taiyang Xiao Long and his daughters Yang and Ruby, who manage to secure her trust, and this ends up causing the technology that Jacques' craves to end up being used by a ''competing company''. In his greed and impatience, Jacques scares off the golden goose, and ends up having to scramble to cover up his blunder, which would make things even worse for him if ''anyone'' from Atlas found out the truth. In the words of one forum poster...

Depending on the effectiveness of the villain in question, this can sometimes be a JustifiedTrope due to the AnthropicPrinciple. It's not as worrying with a baddie that's error-prone or lacking in foresight, but what if the heroes have to contend with a beast like [[WesternAnimation/Gargoyles David]] [[XanatosGambit Xanatos]]? In dire circumstances, EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce, and evil winning means there's no longer a show/game/whathaveyou; sometimes to give the heroes a realistic chance, the supervillain just needs to fumble. To make that fumble believable is often one of the most daunting tasks for a storywriter, and the spectrum of mishandling it ranges from AssPull at best to DeusExMachina at worst.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'', [[BigBad Scheck]] finds a document that would prove Arnold's neighborhood is a historical landmark and therefore can't be torn down and he keeps it hidden in a filing cabinet instead of destroying it. The idea of destroying it doesn't occur to him until after he catches Arnold and Gerald with it, which leads to him being caught on a security camera burning the document.

** At the end of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', when Simba, still blaming himself for his father's death, is dangling from the edge of a cliff, Scar can't resist doing some EvilGloating and says "'''[[JustBetweenYouAndMe I]]''' [[JustBetweenYouAndMe killed Mufasa.]]" [[UnstoppableRage Big mistake.]]

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' episode [[Recap/TheBatmanS3E13GothamsUltimateCriminalMastermind “Gotham’s Ultimate Criminal Mastermind]] with the Digitally Advanced Villain Emulator (D.A.V.E.), who is a robot with the combined memories and abilities (both physical and mental) of Batman’s entire rogues gallery. This makes him an unbeatable opponent who can commit crimes like ''stealing all of Gotham’s money'' with casual ease, but it turns out he also has all of their Villain Ball traits which ultimately leads to his defeat.

** Multiple episodes of feature some variation of a plot where Aku forces a person or a group of people into deceiving Jack and luring him into a trap to save their own lives or get some desired MacGuffin from him. Inevitably, this plot will succeed, but Aku [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo always fails to uphold his end of the bargain]]. Which, of course, leads to [[TheDogBitesBack the dog biting back and helping Jack escape]]. Had Aku ever just swallowed his pride and ''not'' screwed somebody over in exchange for the death of his most hated and dangerous enemy -or just waited to do it until Jack had been dealt with- he would have won. At least one episode suggested that Aku, being [[MadeofEvil a living personification of evil]], is literally incapable of ''not'' [[KickTheDog kicking the dog]] even when it [[PragmaticVillainy would be beneficial for him not to do so]].

"Evil sows the seeds of its own destruction", saith the fortune cookie. Regardless of how savvy they might otherwise be, villains tend to inherently draw heroic attention to themselves that leads to their demise, or at least the demise of their EvilPlan. Even if their success is seemingly assured, they can't seem to help but do something evil that serves no purpose other than giving TheHero the extra [[ItsPersonal motivation]] and [[AlwaysClose opportunity]] to wreck everything, and he will.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Spliced", Cuvier's big evil plan to keep splicing from getting outlawed is to... send spliced people to kill the D.A. leading the move to outlaw it. How that would, in ''any'' way, accomplish anything other than prove every criticism against splicing to be valid and turn the public more against it than ever, not to mention send the police commissioner (said D.A's ''husband'') on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge hell-bent on avenging her murdered husband, is anyone's guess. He even rants at his goons for "ruining" his plans when the police raid his lab and begin hunting him after the assassination attempt fails... as if the police wouldn't have done that if the assassination had succeeded either. Even if his plan was to intimidate the police and public into not coming after him again, trying to intimidate the people of the most crime-ridden supervillain-riddled city in America by being a supervillain who commits a crime is a ''hilariously'' boner move.

->''"For all you aspiring villains, remember: When victory is just a push of a button away, you are required to complicate the matter in the most ridiculous way possible."''
-->-- '''''Website/{{Cracked}}.com''''', "The 5 Most Needlessly Evil Super Villain Strategies"

-> '''Superman:''' It turns out Luthor had this chunk of Kryptonite that would have totally ruined me if he would've just whipped it out.\\
'''Batman:''' Really?\\
'''Superman:''' Yeah, but for some reason he told me his evil plan first and then tried to trick me into finding the Kryptonite myself. What's up with that?\\
'''Batman:''' Villains are stupid.
-->-- ''[[WebAnimation/HowItShouldHaveEnded How Superman Should Have Ended]]''

* [[TheDragon Drake]] from ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' seems to be aware that hurting [[DarkChick Diana]] would be pushing a BerserkButton of the BigBad, [[StalkerWithACrush Caine]], and, while he openly hates her, he saves most of his taunting of her for when Caine isn't around, even though she often provokes him. But then in ''Hunger'', he [[spoiler: picks her up with his whip-hand and bashes her head open against a rock ''[[DisproportionateRetribution because she yelled at him]]'', all in front of Caine]]. This does not go over well. Of course, he's not exactly mentally stable, so...

* The Wicked Witch of the West passes off the Villain Ball in ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' to The Wizard. Of course he's always been a Nazi! And Dorothy was his unwitting dupe! At least until HE gets to narrate and pass the Ball...

** Charles Muntz from ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' murders people because he thinks they're going to steal the bird he discovered. Even if they did, it would prove the skeleton he brought back to America years ago was real and not a hoax.

* In the comic ''[[http://ilikefish.comicgenesis.com/ Pearls of Mer]]''. The more senior agent of the NebulousEvilOrganisation tells the new comer to sit back and watch Arra the mermaid until they get word from HighUps. So what does the guy do? He runs out, tries to kidnap her and ends up shooting her human boyfriend. Things did end well from her wrath.

* Sometimes tossed around in the ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros'' cartoons. In "Reptiles in the Rose Garden", for example, Kootie Pie would have gotten away with taking over the United States had she explicitly not [[JustBetweenYouAndMe told Mario that she and Koopa were doing so.]]