Board 8 > Best of the Trope Season 2: Day 13 - Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Best of the Trope!

Here are the rules. Each day, I will post a trope from TV Tropes, and each poster can name up to three examples of that trope. Whichever nomination gets the most mentions wins! Posters may also name as many Honourable Mentions as they like, but they are purely optional and will not count towards the running score. You may look at the TV Tropes page for that day's trope for examples, but you do not have to pick all your examples from the page. You can nominate whatever examples you like, as long as they qualify for the trope. Each trope will last around 24 hours before the next one goes up.

Posters may also nominate any tropes they wish to see come up during the series. This is optional, and you don't have to do it every day, or at all. Just bear in mind that I may close trope nominations temporarily if the list gets too long. Tropes will be randomly selected from the list each day, except for some occasions where I will pick a thematically appropriate trope that may or may not be on the list.

Here's the list of previous tropes, so if you wish to nominate some tropes, check on here that it wasn't previously done in Season 1. http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Best_of_the_Trope

Here is the current list of tropes.

Evil Brit
Jack-of-All-Stats
Karmic Death
Laughably Evil
Walking Spoiler

Without further ado, let's get started!

Yesterday's trope, An Ass-Kicking Christmas, was won by Die Hard which got 8 votes.

Previous Winners:
Un-Canceled - Futurama
Continuity Reboot - Batman Begins / Tomb Raider (2013)
Opposing Sports Team - Monstars (Space Jam) / Globo Gym Purple Cobras (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) / Luca Goers (Final Fantasy X)
Calling Your Attacks - Falcon Punch (Super Smash Bros.)
Arc Words - You have failed this city! (Arrow) / Bad Wolf (Doctor Who)
The Gunslinger - Roland Deschain (The Dark Tower)
Interface Screw - Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy (Yoshi's Island)
Cold Sniper - Widowmaker (Overwatch)
Signature Move - Falcon Punch (Super Smash Bros.)
Badass Santa - Santa Christ (Nostalgia Critic)
How the Character Stole Christmas - How the King Stole Christmas (Brawl in the Family)

Today's trope is Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. Here is the link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IneffectualSympatheticVillain

A potential villain who is consistently a failure or never gets the respect that he thinks he deserves, and may even be angry that the heroes don't take him seriously.

He may not necessarily be entirely inept or have a laughably mild idea of what counts as villainy. Villain Decay is usually too simple an explanation. This is sometimes a relative situation, and the hero's Rogues Gallery just happens to include people more showy, better financed, or just plain scarier than him. These guys are why people are found Rooting for the Empire. A defining feature of such a villain is his gullibility: they are more often than not pitted against a Trickster who easily bamboozles them and leads them on their defeat, while it is obvious to the viewers that they should know better than listen to and believe their intended victim. A considerable number of them tend to be Klutzes who are likely to fall in their own traps thanks to poor judgement, underestimating their foes to a ludicrous extent and/or failure to think ahead or pay any attention to their surroundings. And it is a usual way to showcase their stupidity by making them screw up their own plans and even die or get injured due to such mistakes in more realistic and grittier works.

This does not mean that he doesn't bear animosity; that's a Punch-Clock Villain. He's probably jumping at the opportunity to outdo his rivals and the hero. But there is something about his perseverance or attitude about the whole thing that is just short of sympathetic.

TL,DR: A villain who is so harmless and pathetic you just feel sorry for them.

Nominations:
Dr Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb)
Robbie Rotten (Lazytown)
The Carpenter (DC Comics)

Team Rocket
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Team Rocket
Gilgamesh
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gonna choose more later but first thought is

Jack Spicer (Xiaolin Showdown)
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Patrick Coulasour (Gundam 00)
Londo Mollari (Babylon 5)
Kahran Ramsus (Xenogears)
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Wile E. Coyote
Elmer Fudd
Yosemite Sam

Looney Tunes is basically built on this.
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SaveEstelle posted...

Londo Mollari (Babylon 5)

Interesting choice. He definitely fulfills the criteria, but for the most part not all at the same time.
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kevwaffles posted...

SaveEstelle posted...

Londo Mollari (Babylon 5)

Interesting choice. He definitely fulfills the criteria, but for the most part not all at the same time.

Thanks, yeah. I wasn't 100% sure on that one but in the end I opted to run with it since the destruction that engulfs Centauri Prime is undoubtedly in part his own fault, which makes him ultimately ineffectual despite all his successes, and in his downfalls he's always so much more sympathetic than during his rises.

I'd say I'm toeing the line a bit, though, heh.
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Tom (Tom and Jerry)
Wile E. Coyote (Looney Tunes)
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Remove: Yosemite Sam
Add: The Trix Rabbit
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Team Rocket
Tom (and Jerry)
Wile E. Coyote
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Wile E. Coyote
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Heinz Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb)
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Shocker (Spider-Man)
Nux (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Injustice League
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Mid-Boss Vyers (Disgaea)
Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy)
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Megamind(Megamind)
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Midboss (Disgaea)
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Oh yeah duh.

Wile E. Coyote
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Toiletnator (Kids Next Door)
Jack Spicer (Xaiolin Showdown)
Vyers / Mid Boss (Disgaea)
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Team Rocket
Dr. Doofenshmirtz
Benop and Rocksteady (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
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*Bebop
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Gilbert (Trails in the Sky)
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Zigerions(Rick and Morty)
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Rankings so far:
Wile E. Coyote (Looney Tunes) 5 votes
Team Rocket (Pokemon) 4 votes
Dr Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb) 3 votes
Mid-Boss / Vyers (Disgaea) 3 votes
Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy) 2 votes
Jack Spicer (Xiaolin Showdown) 2 votes
Tom (Tom and Jerry) 2 votes
Robbie Rotten (Lazytown)
The Carpenter (DC Comics)
Patrick Coulasour (Gundam 00)
Londo Mollari (Babylon 5)
Kahran Ramsus (Xenogears)
Elmer Fudd (Looney Tunes)
Trix Rabbit (Trix)
Shocker (Spider-Man)
Nux (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Injustice League
Megamind (Megamind)
Toiletnator (Kids Next Door)
Bebop and Rocksteady (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Gilbert (Trails in the Sky)
Zigerions (Rick and Morty)

I'm happy to see that today's trope is so active!

Popple (Mario & Luigi)
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Killer Moth (DC Comics)
Tom (Tom and Jerry)
Excel (Excel Saga)
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Dr Doofenshmirtz
Trix Rabbit
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