History VillainProtagonist / WesternAnimation

* [[Characters/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballGumballWatterson Gumball Watterson]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' sometimes crosses the line from JerkWithAHeartOfGold to what can only be described as "[[ComedicSociopathy dangerous psychopath]] PlayedForLaughs".

* WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker went in and out of being this and an AntiHero in the original cartoons. Sometimes, he just goes about breaking the rules or causing trouble for the mere thrill of it or just out of ignorance, and is clearly shown to be a selfish glutton who will mow down or manipulate anyone who gets in the way of his food. On the other hand, he did occasionally star in a sympathetic light (i.e. "The Hollywood Matador") and by the late 40's his AntiHero traits were played up more by director Dick Lundy, especially when Buzz Buzzard entered the series. By the 50's, Woody veered between being a straight up hero, a villain and an anti-hero, and by the mid-50's both of the former traits were dropped altogether in favor of making Woody a straight up hero character.

* Unlike most episodes, "King George and the Ducky" from ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' has Larry being depicted as a villain - King George, who becomes obsessed with rubber ducks and goes as far as to steal one when he has a bunch of them.

** In "The Spoiler", he goes crazy trying to avoid hearing any spoilers about a movie he's going to watch, even knocking someone out with a shovel and eating another student alive.

* Gumball Watterson of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' sometimes crosses the line from JerkWithAHeartOfGold to what can only be described as "[[ComedicSociopathy dangerous psychopath]] PlayedForLaughs".

** Roger. He started out as a sympathetic, vaguely hedonistic alien, but over time he has established himself as a volatile, dangerous sociopath.
** Stan also counts. Like Roger, he started out as more sympathetic albeit a little extreme. But as time went on, the lows he would stoop to in order to get his own way or hide his hypocrisies from the rest of his family turned him into this in about half the episodes of any given season. Episodes like "The Scarlett Getter", "Seizure Suit Stanny" and "Father's Daze" just to name a few are prime examples of him playing this trope completely straight.

* The first season in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'' is just as much about Jinx's downfall from a sweet and innocent young girl into an AxCrazy terrorist as it is about Vi. What's more, it's Jinx's actions that drive the plot: her messing with hextech crystals in episode 1 causes the explosion which gets Jayce's experiment exposed and sets enforcers on the undercity, her bomb in episode 3 [[spoiler:kills her family]], her stealing the Hexstone kicks off the conflict between Piltover and Zaun and her repeated actions keep it from being resolved, and in the final episode [[spoiler:she kills Silco by accident and fires a hextech weapon at the Council, turning the cities' cold war hot and likely initiating weaponized hextech.]]

* Stewie Griffin from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' started out as this in early seasons (he still has his moments, but it's more general ComedicSociopathy).
** Peter Griffin has turned into this thanks to {{Flanderization}}, having gone from "well-meaning but incredibly dumb" to "unbelievably selfish and callous".

** Bender is a greedy and amoral criminal who constantly lies, cheats, and steals from everyone. Although Bender really does like his best friend Fry, he is not above swindling him as well.

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': Harley breaking away from the Joker is presented as a woman standing up for herself and taking control of her own life back. However, Harley's ultimate goal is to be a super-villain, upstage the Legion of Doom, and generally cause the downfall of Gotham City, along with the rest of the world. Harley has a lot of personal victories and CharacterDevelopment throughout the show, but she's still a bad person.

* Zim of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', an alien trying to TakeOverTheWorld. He is juxtaposed to Dib, a preteen paranormal investigator trying to stop him.

* When ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' started out, Dr. Doofenshmirtz started out as a standard cartoon villain. But as time went on, he became more and more sympathetic, idiotic, and hilarious, to the point where he and Perry the Platypus were becoming the real stars of the show, even more so than the titular characters.

* Rick Sanchez from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' qualifies. A [[TheSociopath sociopathic]], [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]], MadScientist that frequently builds doomsday devices out of boredom or to take care of serious problems that he created. Said problems are often created because of the numerous enemies he's made throughout his misadventures across [[AlternateUniverse the Multiverse,]] which often end in a massive body count. A couple of episodes have also shown that Rick has no qualms with [[ArmsDealer selling wepaons to shady characters, or to make a quick buck.]] Rick also has no issues with putting his family in mortal danger, with his grandson, Morty, frequently acting as an UnwittingPawn in his schemes.

** [[BumblingDad Homer Simpson]] occasionally drifts into this territory, especially when {{Flanderization}} kicked in and his JerkAss tendancies got amped up. One particularly extreme early example is "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E11HomerTheVigilante Homer the Vigilante]]", where he becomes the leader of an incompetent VigilanteMilitia that violently beats people for petty crimes and apparently plans on world domination.

* Cartman from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. He either serves as TheDragon for an even greater evil, or IS the BigBad in most episodes. Occasionally though, he functions as a NominalHero and, on one and only one occasion, he had genuinely heroic intentions when he saved cats in ''Major Boobage''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Plankton usually fills this role, mainly in episodes where he attempts to steal the Krabby Patty formula.
** Depending on the episode, Mr. Krabs can occasionally be this in episodes focused on him, especially in the later seasons.

** ExBigBad Heather, notable for being the first main antagonist introduced in the series, ends up becoming the main protagonist and hero of ''World Tour'' over the course of the season. Not because she pulled off a HeelFaceTurn, mind you, but because Alejandro, the new BigBad, is actually ''[[EvilerThanThou much]]'' [[EvilerThanThou worse than her]], leaving Heather as the one up to stop him from winning the season.

** Stan also counts. Like Roger, he started out as more sympathetic albeit a little extreme. But as time went on, the lows he would stoop to in order to get his own way or hide his hypocrisies from the rest of his family turned him into this in about half the episodes of any given season. Episodes like "The Scarlett Getter", "Seizure Suit Stanny" and "Father's Daze" just to name a few are prime examples of him playing this trope 100% straight (and most of them are ones where [[DesignatedHero he's supposed to be seen as the hero by the end!]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' are two trouble-making delinquents and representatives of the decadence of their society whose idea of fun includes beating frogs and poodles to death with a baseball bat and committing wanton acts of violence and vandalism for their amusement (although they do it as often accidentally). And they are still downplayed examples because their mental deficiency prevents them from having a particularly developed understanding of evil and as a result they lean towards ChaoticStupid more than anything. Couple that with the fact that they end up as stooges to more capable scumbags who treat them like garbage despite their [[VillainCred admiration and worshipping]] and you get the cruelest five-year old-minded fourteen-year-old low-lives that one could ever meet.

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* Both {{WesternAnimation/Tom and Jerry}} can alternate between this role in [[DependingOnTheWriter any given theatrical short]], a fact ''especially'' glaring if the former ends up being a DesignatedVillain and the latter turns into a DesignatedHero.

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/VillainousCartoonNetwork Villainous]]'' shorts are centered around Black Hat, the wicked head of an evil company that produces inventions specifically meant to be used by villains. And that's not getting into the fact that he's the GreaterScopeVillain to ALL of Creator/CartoonNetwork.

* WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker went in and out of being this and an AntiHero in the original cartoons. Sometimes, he just goes about breaking the rules or causing trouble for the mere thrill of it or just out of ignorance, and is clearly shown to be a selfish glutton who will mow down or manipulate anyone who gets in the way of his food. On the other hand, he did occasionally star in a sympathetic light (i.e. "The Hollywood Matador") and by the late 40's his AntiHero traits were played up more by director Dick Lundy, especially when Buzz Buzzard entered the series. By the 50's, Woody veered between being a straight up hero, a villain and an anti-hero, and by the mid-50's both of the former traits were dropped altogether in favor of making Woody a straight up hero character.

* Chris [=McLean=], the [[DepravedKidsShowHost sadistic host]] of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' ends up being the series' biggest villain. He doesn't care about the safety of the contestants or the interns, takes pleasure in seeing them suffering or ruining relationships [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and he doesn't even give Chef his salary]]. While all the seasons have a different BigBad, Chris is the only one who plays the villain role in every season (excluding Ridonculous Race), especially the later ones.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' parodies this trope by completely redoing the series as ''Joker: The Vile and the Villainous''. The storyline was adapted from an issue of the seventies ''Joker'' comic. The episode uses the standard "Batman teams up with random DC superhero to stop the VillainOfTheWeek" formula with SwappedRoles, in which the Joker teams up with fellow supervillain Weeper in order to stop Batman from building a machine that detects crime. Completing this RoleSwapPlot are the police, who are depicted as Batman's {{Mooks}} and Batman even does his own heroic version of the NothingCanStopUsNow speech.

** While WesternAnimation/BugsBunny was generally a sympathetic character, there have been several episodes where he became a straight up villain. Examples of this include ''WesternAnimation/ElmersCandidCamera'' (he picks on Elmer unprovoked), "WesternAnimation/ElmersPetRabbit" (where he heckles Elmer for no justifiable reason), "WesternAnimation/TortoiseBeatsHare" and its follow ups "WesternAnimation/TortoiseWinsByAHare" and "WesternAnimation/RabbitTransit" (where Bugs is portrayed as an egomaniac who's willing to harm and cheat just to beat a turtle[[note]]To be fair, though, Cecil wasn't any better[[/note]]), "WesternAnimation/WabbitTwouble" (again, picking on Elmer unprovoked), "WesternAnimation/TheWackyWabbit" (picking on an unprovoked Elmer again), "WesternAnimation/BuckarooBugs" (where he's a flat out thief and bully), and "WesternAnimation/RebelRabbit" (where he wreaks havoc on the US solely because the bounty for rabbits was so low, doing atrocities like filling up the grand canyon and ''sawing Florida off the mainland'', breaking into congress during session and physically assaulting a senator, and by the end of the short gets so out of control that the '''military''' is called in to bring him down). Out of the shorts listed, "Buckaroo Bugs" is the only one where he's officially recognized as the villain.
** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck also had several bouts of this trope, such as "WesternAnimation/DaffyDuckInHollywood" (where he causes trouble in a Hollywood studio for the heck of it) and "WesternAnimation/BoobsInTheWoods" (where he heckles WesternAnimation/PorkyPig for the sake of causing trouble). This only intensified during his later meaner years where he evolved into a genuine villain, albeit still often with the primary spotlight (see above).
** "WesternAnimation/HoneysMoney" is the only Yosemite Sam short where Sam is the star, rather than playing antagonist to Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale'' also fill this role, for most of their appearances in the cartoon shorts. While Pluto, Donald, and even Mickey (to a lesser extent) were the main characters, the chipmunks often [[SpotlightStealingSquad stole the spotlight from them]]. In their cartoons, the chipmunks go out to provoke them, at any cost possible. Even when they are usually never provoked.