History MotiveDecay / WesternAnimation

* Plankton from ''SpongebobSquarepants'' started out wanting to steal the recipe to the Krabby Patty, but over time, his motivation has changed to where he is willing to do anything as long as it's evil.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Spider-Man The Animated Series}}'', J. Jonah Jameson has a perfectly understandable and sympathetic reason for distrusting Spider-Man: his wife was killed by a masked assassin working for a mobster Jameson was about to expose, prompting him to start a crusade against people who wear masks and act above the law. However, in Mysterio's introductory episode, Mysterio, who has done next to nothing to earn anyone's trust and wears a mask himself, publicly announces that he's going to bring down Spider-Man... and is promptly lauded as a hero by Jameson. He's the one responsible for creating The Scorpion, although he does regret it later.

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' averts this with most of its cartoonish super villains, but with Bushroot it follows this trope to hilt. Bushroot started his life of villainy to get revenge on the scientists who mocked him and destroyed his inventions and any chance with the woman he longed for. Some of his solo acts are committed in-line with his misunderstood lonely madman personality, such as trying to create sapient plants, but others are just plain supervillainy, like growing money to steal more money. Whenever he's teamed up with the [[FiveBadBand Fiendish Five]], or just partnering with another villain, any good side goes away completely. Quackerjack, on a lower level, switches from trying to rebuild his toy empire/getting revenge on the toys/businesses who drove him out of business, to just wanting to commit random acts of crime. Then again, he's insane.

** [[MonsterClown Zombozo]] was originally portrayed as a EmotionEater who fed on people's happiness. This is entirely dropped when he returns in UltimateAlien, and replaced by him trying to take RevengeByProxy on Ben, which to some extent made sense (after all, Ben did ruin his business in his first appearance). Comes ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse Omniverse]]'', he is introduced as robbing a brain bank for no apparent reason.
** [[EvilTwin Albedo]] was initially introduced with the simple goal to get Ben's Omnitrix so he could use it to free himself from his ShapeShifterModeLock and get his original form back, and, while he was rather psychotic in his methods, it was made clear he had no real evil intentions beyond it (in on episode, he manages to temporarly get his original form back, and was ready to just leave Earth without any further fight). In ''Omniverse'', he actually succeeds in his goal, and now focus on revenge, which is still a logical approach. But then he turns out to be trying to absorb [[BigGood Azmuth]]'s intelligence to become the smartest being in the galaxy, even though a major part of his personnality was about trying to prove he was smarter than Azmuth already. His two next appearances have him work for [[BigBad Vilgax]] ([[TooDumbToLive Even though Vilgax betrayed him last time they teamed up and do it again second time]]), with at least one case where he had nothing to gain from such an alliance and the other where he just wanted to overthrow Azmuth as First Thinker of Galvan Prime.

** [[EvilTwin Albedo]] was initially introduced with the simple goal to get Ben's Omnitrix so he could use it to free himself from his ShapeShifterModeLock and get his original form back, and, while he was rather psychotic in his methods, it was made clear he had no real evil intentions beyond it (in on episode, he manages to temporarly get his original form back, and was ready to just leave Earth without any further fight). In ''Omniverse'', he actually succeeds in his goal, and now focus on revenge, which is still a logical approach. But then he turns out to be trying to absorb [[BigGood Azmuth]]'s intelligence to become the smartest being in the galaxy, even though a major part of his personnality was about trying to prove he was smarter than Azmuth already.

--->You're probably looking forward to one of my erudite speeches about me, [[{{Egopolis}} Megaframe]], the new viral dawn, et cetera et cetera. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you. [[MotiveDecay There is no grand scheme here.]] This is about revenge.

** It seems to be more an inherent character trait. When he gets what he wants he's actualy a rather good and kind guy. It's just that when he doesn't he's quick to turn to bitterness and hatred to TAKE what he wants. The longer he stews the more unhinged he gets (to the point of making holographic and cloned copies of Maddie/Danny to try to have those when it's clear he can't get the originals).

* The Dai Li in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' were founded centuries ago by that time's Avatar to preserve the cultural heritage of the city of Ba Sing Se. However, by the time of the show, they've become a SecretPolice led by an EvilChancellor -- brainwashing dissidents, holding all the true power in the city, and hiding from the king the fact that, you know, they've been at war with the Fire Nation for a century.

* Dark Vegan of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'', in his first two appearances, was a KnightTemplar trying to destroy the Earth in order to maintain the Utopia of his home planet, but since ViewersAreMorons and can't know who to root for without the verbal equivalent of a bright neon light pointing to it, he was changed to just another [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying]] GenericDoomsdayVillain obsessed with taking over the world and destroying Johnny for no real reason other than because BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad.

** ChuckJones would often quote George Santayana's definition of a fanatic - "someone who doubles his efforts while forgetting his aim" - in describing Wile E. and intentionally made most of the humor come from the fact that even though ''gravity'' is clearly against him at times, he never gets the message and gives up/chases some other animal.

** [[EvilTwin Albedo]] was initially introduced with the simple goal to get Ben's Omnitrix so he could use it to free himself from his ShapeShifterModeLock and get his original form back, and, while he was rather psychotic in his methods, it was made clear he had no real evil intentions beyond it (in on episode, he manages to temporarly get his original form back, and was ready to just leave Earth without any further fight). In ''Omniverse'', he actually succeeds in his goal once and for all... And suddenly schemes to team up with [[EgomaniacHunter Khyber]] and attack [[BigGood Azmuth]].

*** Some argue she still suffered it in two ways: first that if those were her motives all along, they seriously decayed when she started [[DesignatedGirlFight fixating more on getting revenge on Gwen]] prior to those motives being revealed, and secondly that resurrecting her father wasn't really foreshadowed at all back when freeing her home dimension was established as her motivation, so it being a driving force for her came out of left field.

** Inverted with Charmcaster, whose motivations in the original show didn't seem to go further than getting more power and rivalry with Gwen. Ben10UltimateAlien fleshed out her motivations by giving her a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds backstory and revealing she actually was looking for more power to overthrow the tyrant who took over her home dimension and resurrect her father. After she accomplished the former and the latter proved impossible, she stopped being a villain and started going toward TrueNeutral.
** [[MonsterClown Zombozo]] was originally portrayed as a EmotionEater who fed on people's happiness. This is entirely dropped when he returns in UltimateAlien, and replaced by him trying to take RevengeByProxy on Ben, which to some extent made sense (after all, Ben did ruin his business in his first appearance). Comes [[WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse Omniverse]], he is introduced as robbing a brain bank for no apparent reason.

** He does explain it quite clearly. He's obsessed with having complete control over his students with his psychic powers. Even though some like BumbleBee could resist him, they could still be over powered if he directed his attention to them. Cyborg was the only person he'd ever met that was completely immune to his control so as his arc went on he became more and more obsessed finding out what made Cyborg immune and making more cyborgs was just semi coincidental with the fact you can program totally obedient robots and he already had Cyborg's blueprints so why not?
The obsession with control is also intended to make him look pathetic as he keeps losing his calm demeanor when he raves about Cyborg's resistance.

** Kang the Conqueror comes to conquer 21st century Earth so he can prevent a disaster that will destroy the world, including the empire he rules during the 40th century. After the Avengers put him in jail, he remains imprisoned for 31 episodes[[note]]30 if you watch episodes 16-19 in Creator/DisneyXD's broadcast order[[/note]], until the Council of Kangs helps him get rid of the Avengers. Kang proceeds to send troops from the 40th century to help him take over 21st century Earth. FridgeLogic says that since Kang ''has'' troops in the 40th century, the Earth-shattering disaster must have been successfully prevented, and he doesn't have much of a reason to take over the world of the past anymore.

** Kang the Conqueror comes to conquer 21st century Earth so he can prevent a disaster that will destroy the world, including the empire he rules during the 40th century. After the Avengers put him in jail, he remains imprisoned for 30 episodes, until the Council of Kangs helps him get rid of the Avengers. Kang proceeds to send troops from the 40th century to help him take over 21st century Earth. FridgeLogic says that since Kang ''has'' troops in the 40th century, the Earth-shattering disaster must have been successfully prevented, and he doesn't have much of a reason to take over the world of the past anymore.

* Now admittedly ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' was never the greatest at establishing concrete motives for its villains (with a few exceptions), but a particularly solid case of decay still exists in the form of Brother Blood. He starts out as your typical [[strike: power-mad]] supervillain ''pimp'', helped by the fact that he has psychic powers, but then degenerates into ForTheEvulz territory and his final EvilPlan involves--becoming exactly like Cyborg. Why? Because he's decided that Cyborg is simply the greatest thing since sliced bread, apparently, which winds up making Blood look rather pathetic.
* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' averts this with most of its cartoonish super villains, but with Bushroot it follows this trope to hilt. Bushroot started his life of villainy to get revenge on the scientists who mocked him and destroyed his inventions, and to be with the one he loved. Some of his solo acts continued with his misunderstood lonely madman, such as trying to create sapient plants, but others are just plain supervillainy, like growing money to steal more money. Whenever he's teamed up with the [[FiveBadBand Fiendish Five]], or just partnering with another villain, any good side goes away completely. Quackerjack, on a lower level, switches from trying to rebuild his toy empire/getting revenge on the toys/businesses who drove him out of business, to just wanting to commit random acts of crime. Then again, he's insane.

* Gargamel, being a true capitalist, originally wanted to melt TheSmurfs to make gold (probably to fix up his junky old hut). For some reason, in later seasons, he simply wanted to eat the [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical blue communists]] (kinda reminiscent of cannibalism). This was made fun of in WesternAnimation/RobotChicken where he said he never was clear on his motive.

* At first, it seems Wile E. Coyote of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' wants to eat the Roadrunner. Typical predator/prey relationship. But, some of the things Wile E. plans (poisoning, exploding, etc.) would make the Roadrunner inedible. He just wanted that bird dead after a while!
** ChuckJones would often quote George Santayana's definition of a fanatic - "someone who doubles his efforts while forgetting his aim" - in describing Wile E.

** Notably averted by the [[ScaryScarecrows Scarecrow]], who was always trying to carry out some twisted science experiment with the people of Gotham as his guinea pigs. When he did commit robbery and fraud, it was typically to obtain money to buy more chemicals.

** He returned in JusticeLeague however and only joined Grodd's group because Grodd promised him a cure.
** Zigzagged, but uterly averted: at WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries episode ''The ClockKing'', the eponimous villain motivation was simple: to make Mayor Hill look inefficient, and then kill him. At The New Batman Adventures episode ''Time out of joint'', he still wants to do that (and destroy the new Judicial building). At the JusticeLeague episode ''Task Force X'', he works as a BoxedCrook, presumably to get on parole. And in a case of AllThereInTheManual, TheBatmanAdventures shows him sucessfuly tampering the election so Hill could be not the Mayor. Batman is no more than a nuisance to him.

** [[MonsterClown Zombozo]] was originally portrayed as a EmotionEater who fed on people's happiness. This is entirely dropped when he returns in UltimateAlien, and replaced by him trying to take RevengeByProxy on Ben, which to some extent made sense (after all, Ben did ruin his business in his first appearance). Comes Omniverse, he is introduced as robbing a brain bank for no apparent reason.

* ''TheZetaProject'': The bounty hunter from "Taffy Time". In that episode, he wanted to capture Zeta for the reward. His next appearance featured him chasing Zeta not for the reward (which he no longer cared about) but to exact vengeance for what happened to him in "Taffy Time".