Basic trope: A minor villain who appears early in a show.
- Straight: The first episode of The Adventures of Bob has our heroes dealing with Captain Jack, a low-rank minion of Emperor Evulz who controls a small town.
- Exaggerated: Jack is nothing but a school yard bully who happens to be a fan of Emperor Evulz.
- Downplayed: While Jack is a threat, later villains have more resources and greater plans.
- Justified:
- Bob's mentor intentionally pushes Bob into confronting Jack so that he can get some experience before taking on greater threats.
- The Adventures of Bob is a videogame and the first few levels spent campaigning against Captain Jack are a Justified Tutorial.
- Evulz sends Captain Jack to confront our hero in order to test his capabilities, knowing he'll be easily taken care of by anyone who poses an actual threat.
- Inverted:
- The very first villain Bob takes on is the Big Bad, and they spend the rest of the series mopping up the multitude of smaller bad guys left leaderless in the wake of his defeat.
- The first very hero Daniel Badman confronts is the weak Captain Bob.
- The villain protagonist first defeats the Big Good and later starts to defeat other weaker heroes.
- Subverted:
- Captain Jack works to make up for his failure, and comes back with a higher rank more dangerous than ever.
- Captain Jack was The Mole, and from the next episode onward secretly trains Bob to fight Evulz.
- Double Subverted:
- However, by the time Jack gets around to striking at Bob, Bob has also taken several levels in badass and defeats him just as easily the second time around. Bob continues to escalate in power faster than Jack, and Jack quickly becomes a non-issue.
- Jack is later revealed to be The Starscream who aims to become emperor himself.
- Parodied:
- Power Levels are counted as Jacks.
- All Bob needs to do is slap Jack in the face, and he runs off crying.
- Zig Zagged: Jack returns several times, his power level compared to Bob's varying depending on how much time Bob's spent grinding.
- Averted:
- The first villain Bob faces is also the only one.
- "The Adventures of Bob" don't have villains.
- Enforced:
- "We need a weak villain for Bob to beat up easily, to show how tough he is."
- The creators feel that the final Big Bad needs to be off the radar at the beginning so they can be built up and/or The Reveal of their true plans is all the more surprising. However, the hero needs to receive their call to arms in the first episode and therefore needs someone they can fight at that point.
- Lampshaded: "I'm just the first villain, guys. I'm thus the weakest."
- Invoked: The army believes its enemies are weak, so they just send their weakest members to defeat them.
- Exploited:
- Defied: The true villain decides to attack every potentially threatening Ragtag Bunch of Misfits at full force.
- Discussed: "The true villains never show up first. They send their minions first."
- Conversed: Why do the big bads always send their weakest Mooks to fight the hero at the start?
- Deconstructed: After his easy defeat of Captain Jack on his first attempt, Bob is elated and rushes into his next fight, feeling invincible. Unfortunately, General Ripper, his next foe, is much more formidable and he is soundly defeated.
- Reconstructed: The experience and knowledge gained in defeating Captain Jack serve as a boost to Bob's confidence. With many of his old insecurities no longer holding him back, Bob is now capable of facing much more dangerous villains on an even footing.
Back to Starter Villain. But I'm warning you, next time won't be so easy!
