History Main / NearVillainVictory

* The goal of ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'''s villains Fat Doc and Slim Doc is to capture Lamput, an orange shapeshifting blob that EscapedFromTheLab. One episode has Fat Doc with Lamput in the lab, where he places him in a room that's mostly empty save for the presence of a cardboard box and expects him to stay there... only for Lamput to stick to Fat Doc's bottom as he walks away, thus narrowly escaping imprisonment.

** Its follow up, ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', takes this a step further. Bane beats Batman and heavily injures him, flies him halfway the world to let him rot in an [[HellholePrison underground prison]]. Then takes over Gotham and turns it into a police state, likewise revealing the secret behind Harvey's death. The city nearly tears itself apart in the ensuring chaos which is just a waiting period so Wayne's energy reactor, now turned into an atomic bomb, can slowly overload. On the day they're meant to activate it, Bruce escapes his imprisonment just in time to help Gordon and the rallied remaining police mount war against Bane's forces. [[spoiler: And even when Batman gains the upper hand. The last minute reveal of Talia Al Ghul tips the scales once again, leading to a chase through the city to stop the reactor and Bruce seemingly sacrificing his life to save Gotham.]]

** In ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', Gaston makes it his intent to have Belle for himself, regardless of what she truly thinks of him. To that end, he tries to blackmail her by paying the local insane warden in locking her father, only to fail when Belle proves her father's sanity by exposing the Beast's existence to everyone. And then learning that Belle has feelings for the Beast, he intends to kill him by playing off the villagers' fear of monsters. And while the villagers end up being warded off by the castle servants, Gaston makes his way to attack the Beast (who is too depressed to fight as he sulks over Belle's departure). Of course, if Belle hadn't returned to the castle, Gaston would succeeded in killing the Beast; even his fatal stab on the Beast [[DisneyVillainDeath proved to be his own downfall]] as the Beast would later be revived and turned back to normal thanks to Belle's declaration of true love for him.

** Lord Farquaad in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' rounded up all the fairytale creature and had them evicted before getting his hands of Princess Fiona, as he intends to marry her so that he can become king. However, upon learning that Fiona is actually in love with Shrek and that she has been inflicted with a curse that turns her into an ogre after sunset, Farquaad decides to tie up loose ends by having Shrek imprisoned and tortured to death and getting Fiona locked up in her old tower. If Shrek hadn't whistled for Dragon, then perhaps Farquaad would've won.

*** Even Prince Charming gets his share on ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'', where he rounds up all the fairytale villains to join him in his conquest to take over Far Far Away and capture Shrek so that he can publicly execute him in cold blood. Even when Arthur convinces the villains to [[HeelFaceTurn turn over a new leaf]], Charming refuses to tag along and stabs Shrek; of course, it would've worked if Charming learned to fix his aim as Shrek managed to avoid the hit.

*** Lord Shen in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' was able to successfully take over Gongmen City, build up an arsenal of cannons, and capture the Furious Five, also seemingly killing Po in the process. He's in the middle of riding out on his fleet to conquer all of China when Po comes back to stop him and ''even then'' he needs to pull out an EleventhHourSuperPower to do so.

*** The Chameleon in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda4'' makes it her intent to steal every fighting skills from all kung-fu villains of the Spirit Realm and become more powerful than Po. To that end, she impersonated the deceased Tai Lung while attacking a mine in order to draw Po's attention. She then gets her protege Zhen to lure Po into a trap in Juniper City so that she can take the Staff of Wisdom (which Oogway entrusted to Po). After sending Po to fall off a cliff, the Chameleon uses the Staff to create a doorway to the Spirit Realm, where she takes the opportunity to summon all kung-fu villains (including the real Tai Lung, as well as Lord Shen and Kai) and painfully deprive them of their skills before locking them up in cages. If it weren't for Zhen's HeelFaceTurn, Po wouldn't have gotten a second chance and the Chameleon would've won.

** In the climax of ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', Hades' plan is nearly victorious: Hercules is DePowered, demoralized, separated from his allies, and about to be killed by the {{Cyclops}}; plus Hades has gotten the Titans to capture all the gods on Mount Olympus, and he's ready to begin his reign as the new ruler of the cosmos. It all falls apart when his former subordinate Meg pulls a HeelFaceTurn after falling in love with Herc. She ends up being a SpannerInTheWorks by freeing Pegasus, convincing Phil to come back, who then inspires Herc to defeat the Cyclops without his SuperStrength, followed by Meg unintentionally breaking Hades' deal with Hercules by performing a HeroicSacrifice to save Herc from a falling pillar[[note]]The deal stipulated that Meg would be safe from harm[[/note]], allowing Hercules to save the gods and help get rid of the Titans for good. Hades himself voices how close he was to victory while raging over his failure, taking his anger out on Meg for betraying him.
-->'''Hades:''' WE WERE SO CLOSE! So close, but we tripped at the finish line. Why? Because [[IronicEcho our little nut, Meg]], had to go all ''noble!''
*** Even when Hercules comes by to the Underworld to fish Meg's soul out from the River Styx, Hades slyly points out that Hercules will already be dead before he can get to her, hoping that it would be a last act of spite that he can rub against Zeus and the other gods. Of course, Hercules was willing to risk his own life to save Meg's soul, thus allowing to regain his godhood, something which a shocked Hades himself didn't expect.
-->'''Hades:''' This is..... this is IMPOSSIBLE!!! You can't be alive, you'd have to be a.....\\
'''Pain and Panic:''' A god?!\\
''(Hades screams in anger, realizing that he has truly lost)''

** Judge Claude Frollo in ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney'' makes it clear on his goal to round the entire Romani population into custody so that he can wipe them out from existence, as well as either having the local Romani dancer Esmeralda to himself or kill her if she refuses. He succeeded in tracking down the Romani hideout known as the Court of Miracles by tricking Quasimodo into leading him there. After tracking down the hideout, Frollo gets his soldiers to round up all the Romani people into cages, even doing the same for his former captain Phoebus when the latter defied him and having Quasimodo chained up back in the bell tower to prevent further interference. Personally hosting a bonfire event at the town square, Frollo intends to execute all Romani citizens (starting up with Esmeralda when the latter defies him) while having his soldiers to brush off other citizens (including the Archdeacon) who try to stop him. Hadn't Quasimodo mustered enough strength to ring the bells and break the chains to free himself, Frollo would've succeeded.
** In the climax of ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', Hades' is nearly victorious: Hercules is DePowered, demoralized, separated from his allies, and about to be killed by the {{Cyclops}}, his forces have captured all the gods on Mount Olympus, and he's ready to begin his reign as the new ruler of the cosmos. It all falls apart when his former subordinate Meg pulls a HeelFaceTurn after falling in love with Herc. She ends up being a SpannerInTheWorks by freeing Pegasus, convincing Phil to come back, who then inspires Herc to defeat the Cyclops without his SuperStrength, followed by Meg unintentionally breaking Hades' deal with Hercules by performing a HeroicSacrifice to save Herc from a falling pillar[[note]]The deal stipulated that Meg would be safe from harm[[/note]], allowing Hercules to save the gods and help get rid of the Titans for good. Hades himself voices how close he was to victory while raging over his failure, taking his anger out on Meg for betraying him.