Basic Trope: A villain who (unintentionally) fails at being evil to the point where you can’t help but to feel sorry for them.
- Straight: Everytime Lucky tries to mug someone, he keeps failing and being humiliated no matter how hard he tries at being evil.
- Exaggerated:
- No matter how hard he tries, Lucky always accidentally does good things.
- All of the villains in the series are like this.
- Downplayed:
- Lucky sucks at being a jerkass.
- Lucky is a mildly competent villain who does succeed in a couple of steps in his Evil Plans, but otherwise is portrayed as pathetic by the narrative.
- Lucky always ends up failing and being humiliated everytime he tries to mug someone, but the narrative does not paint him in a sympathetic light, whatsoever.
- Justified:
- Lucky happens to be a Cosmic Plaything.
- Lucky is a Stupid Crook.
- Lucky is a Butt-Monkey who turned evil out of the constant mistreatment he went through from everybody. Unfortunately, Lucky is still an unlucky person even after his post-Face–Heel Turn.
- Laser-Guided Karma is in effect.
- Lucky is a Smug Snake with many Tragic Flaws that inevitably makes him easier to defeat. Bonus points for him always suffering Aesop Amnesia after every single time he gets defeated.
- Lucky suffers from Villain Decay.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- Lucky takes a level in badass and becomes more of a competent villain as time goes on…
- Lucky finally succeeds in doing something legitimately evil for once, and it’s so heinous and depraved, he loses all of the audience sympathy he had from the audience.
- Double Subverted: And then he suffers from Villain Decay because ultimately, Status Quo Is God.
- Parodied: Lucky tries to commit the heinous crime of drinking milk straight from the carton and putting it right back into the fridge. When he opens the fridge, the gallon of milk (somehow) suddenly starts to float into the air for no reason whatsoever, and beat Lucky up in the head.
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes Lucky sucks at being a villain, while at other times, he doesn’t.
- Averted: Lucky is fairly competent at being evil.
- Enforced: It’s a kids show so the author can’t have Lucky do anything too malicious. However, they still want Lucky to be a villain who at least poses some kind of threat, so they decide this trope should do the trick.
- Lampshaded:
- Invoked: Jacob, a wizard, sees Lucky trying to mug somebody with a gun, so he casts a spell on Lucky to be as comically incompetent as possible for his own amusement. Hilarity Ensues.
- Exploited:
- Officer James uses Lucky sucking at being evil as an excuse for being apathetic whenever Lucky tries to mug someone, because there’s no point in trying to stop a crime that will never be committed.
- Lucky only fakes being an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain so that he can torture, or even kill someone out of cold blood in private without anyone suspecting him, because A. Nobody was there to witness the event, and B. They wouldn’t take the idea of Lucky actually succeeding in being evil seriously.
- Defied: Lucky takes drastic measures to ensure he will succeed in his evil plans via ridiculously complicated plans and all sorts of gadgets, weapons, and Noodle Implements. Surpisingly, this ends up giving him a reputation as a man who prepares over 275 different back-up plans just to be able to con $50 out of someone.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: “Damn, Lucky’s incompetent like CRAZY! Honestly, it just makes me want to root for him.”
- Deconstructed: While Lucky is definitely incompetent, his powers can have incredibly dangerous consequences if used correctly. Thanks to his incompetence, none of the heroes ever pay any serious attention to him, which gives Lucky enough time to truly master his powers and become a genuine threat.
- Played For Laughs: Lucky sucks at being evil so much to the point where you can’t help but to laugh at him.
- Played For Drama: Lucky sucks at being evil so much to the point where you can’t help but to feel sorry for him.
- Played for Horror: Lucky’s incompetence leads to dangerously lethal consequences for him via a Cruel and Unusual Death.
Back to Ineffectual Sympathetic Villai- Freeze! This is a robbery! Nobody move, or I will shoot! Wait… FUCK! I FORGOT TO LOAD MY GUN WITH AMMO!
