Line #6 PlayingWith/NotSoHarmlessVillain


1	'''Basic Trope''': A [[HarmlessVillain villain]] reveals they're much more badass than previously thought.
2	* '''Straight''': [[TheDragon Dracone]] is considered fairly harmless throughout the world. However, he proves he's much more dangerous than previously thought by completely routing an opposing army.
3	* '''Exaggerated''': Dracone goes [[FromNobodyToNightmare from harmless comic relief to world-destroying psychopath]] in the span of about a few seconds.
4	* '''Downplayed''':
5	** Dracone is a fairly pacifistic minion of [[BigBad Emperor Evulz]] and he's more likely to open the door for the heroes than he is to try and attack them. However, when the [[BerserkButton heroes try to kill his boss,]] he proves himself to be quite a CombatPragmatist and is able to seriously injure the heroes long enough for his boss to escape.
6	** Dracone was already a [[{{Jerkass}} cruel]] [[TheBully bully]], but when his victims have finally had enough and stand up to him, he promptly pulls out a knife and [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope stabs them to death]].
7	* '''Justified''':
8	** Dracone relied on ObfuscatingStupidity to get his work done.
9	** Dracone has come to realise his flaws, and vows to improve himself.
10	** Dracone's goals just don't require taking very extreme action most of the time, and doing so anyway is something he'd consider [[EvenEvilHasStandards tasteless]], [[PragmaticVillainy pointless]], or both. When he ''does'' [[TheGlovesComeOff show what horrors he's truly capable of]], it's a [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness telling sign that something has gone seriously wrong]].
11	** Dracone is a [[FairPlayVillain courteous]] NobleDemon whose plans are hardly extreme. (Sometimes they're [[PokeThePoodle downright laughable]].) But one day, he goes berserk and unleashes his full might... [[EvilVersusEvil against Emperor Evulz]] [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou for daring to hunt down and almost kill]] [[WorthyOpponent his nemesis Hiro]].
12	** Dracone has been fighting and losing against some of the strongest characters in the setting thus giving him a bad reputation. When faced with characters of normal power he destroys them.
13	* '''Implied''': The camera continuously lingers on Dracone and ominous music plays on the moments he's not being funny.
14	* '''Inverted''':
15	** Dracone, thought to be the world's biggest threat, is suddenly demoted to comic relief overnight.
16	** See VillainDecay.
17	** LetsGetDangerous for the heroic variation.
18	** TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily
19	* '''Subverted''': It was temporary - he's really ''not'' that dangerous. (See BigBadWannabe for the most likely way of doing this.)
20	* '''Double Subverted''': At least, that's what he wanted you to think.
21	* '''Parodied''': No matter what Dracone does, be it taking over the world, blowing up a city, or anything else, no one stops thinking of him as the HarmlessVillain.
22	* '''Zig Zagged''':
23	** He doesn't seem that dangerous, until he succeeds in taking over his country. Then he uses his newfound power to create several homes for children orphaned during his bloody rise to power. The heroes decide not to fight against the benevolent ruler, until the first inspection day at the orphanage, when he reveals that he EatsBabies. And once they have finished taking the babies away, Evulz arrives and pretty much whips Dracone into being his minion.
24	** Dracone becomes the most over-dramatic, intense, most dangerous villain the world has ever seen... and then his favorite show comes on and has to cancel being evil, and decides to reschedule the world domination plan to next week, but he has terrible taste in TV shows and the heroes beat him up for that instead. And steal his ice cream.
25	* '''Averted''':
26	** No one thinks of Dracone as harmless.
27	** Alternatively, Dracone never becomes a threat to anyone.
28	* '''Enforced''': The writers are pressured by the executives to make the once harmless Dracone more dangerous.
29	* '''Lampshaded''': "I know you thought I wasn't dangerous, but I'm not so harmless!"
30	* '''Invoked''':
31	** Dracone intentionally makes people underestimate him.
32	** Alternatively, Dracone gets sick of not being taken seriously, and decides to do something about it.
33	* '''Exploited''': Emperor Evulz, realizing that Dracone has the potential to be more dangerous than he is, sends him out to perform a vital mission. The heroes underestimate Dracone and either send a B-list team (assuming he'll be a pushover) which gets wiped out, or they don't send anyone (assuming whatever he's doing isn't worth reacting to). [[XanatosGambit Either way, Evulz gets what he was after]].
34	* '''Defied''': "We must consider every threat, even one that seems as silly as Dracone."
35	* '''Discussed''': "Yeah, he's not so dangerous. He's just...whoa, did he just kill that guy?"
36	* '''Conversed''': "Did that HarmlessVillain just kill that guy? Whoa!!"
37	* '''Deconstructed''': The nations of the world were entirely unprepared for Dracone to rise to power - they just didn't see it coming. As a result, he's able to rule unchecked.
38	* '''Reconstructed''': ...But because of how unobstructed his ascension is, Dracone deems the nations harmless, and what goes around comes around.
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40	Back to NotSoHarmlessVillain
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42	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
43	%%
44	%%* '''Implied''': ???
45	%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???
46	%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

Context PlayingWith / NotSoHarmlessVillain