Basic Trope: A dangerous character tries to be the Big Bad, but they lack in too many necessary characteristics to properly fulfill the role.
- Straight: Alex is a mobster who wants to rule Las Vegas. But because he's ultimately a small-time crook whose biggest and only asset is his gun, he's swept aside by General Evil, a legitimate supervillain who cements himself as the larger threat.
- Exaggerated:
- Alex desperately wants to be a Dimension Lord, but cannot as he easily gets knocked out by a sneeze.
- Harmless Villain.
- Downplayed:
- Alex wants to rule the playground, but Francis can always out-bully him.
- General Evil defeats Alex, but takes him on as his second-in-command.
- Alex was the legit Big Bad in the first season. He just Can't Catch Up as the stakes rise.
- Alex is the legitimate main antagonist of the story, but is either incompetent or a small fry compared to the distant and uninvolved General Evil.
- Alex is a mobster who is pushed into irrelevance by General Evil, but General Evil is Too Powerful to Live while Alex ends the story as he began it, a small-time but successful criminal.
- Justified:
- Alex believes he's the only person bad enough to rule Las Vegas but lacks the skills.
- Alternately, Alex has the skills, but someone else is an even better candidate.
- General Evil is Alex's Dragon-in-Chief.
- Alex is indeed very powerful and threatening on his own and would have been the Big Bad if it wasn't for General Evil who has supernatural powers.
- Inverted:
- Alex wants to help Las Vegas as the Big Good, but he is second-best to a philanthropist.
- Alex truly is the biggest bad there is, but fears there's Always Someone Better.
- Despite his competence, Alex doesn't want to be the Big Bad; he's happier as General Evil's Hypercompetent Sidekick.
- Subverted: General Evil initially seems to be a far more serious and credible threat than Alex and gives Alex a beating to prove it. Ultimately, however, Alex gets his revenge and returns to the spotlight.
- Double Subverted: After his first defeat, Alex makes a credible attempt to return to Big Bad status. He fails, and General Evil ensures he won't be able to try again.
- Parodied: Alex wants to rule Las Vegas, and he tries everything he can to do so. He often ends up helping Betty get into a position of power each time he tries
- Zig Zagged: Alex desperately wants to rule Las Vegas. But wait, the current leader of Las Vegas is actually a projection of his mind, technically meaning that he's actually already ruling the city. He doesn't know this, and inadvertently destroys the projection. With anarchy ruling the streets, it's easy for Alex to take control. Later, Alex himself gets killed in an accident.
- Averted: Alex has a realistic assumption of his abilities and doesn't even try to take centre stage.
- Enforced:
- The writer wanted to show Alex as a failure in every respect: Evil, useless, misguided. They decided to use this way to show what a loser he was.
- Alex is meant to be a red herring.
- Lampshaded: "Alex really seems to be overshooting his abilities, doesn't he? Doesn't seem like he would ever be capable of ruling a lot less than Vegas".
- Invoked: Betty wants there to be a distraction while she works on something behind the scenes, so she gives "inspirational" speeches to Alex to egg him into becoming a distraction by giving him ambitions that don't match his skill.
- Exploited: Other villains regularly trick Alex into doing things that he thinks will make him more powerful, but that really only helps the other villains' goals.
- Defied: Alex takes a few moments to think about what he's done in his goal to rule, and stops once he realizes how poor a job he's doing.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Alex aspires to be the greatest villain of all time, but only because it is what society expects of him rather than what he wants to do with his life. He only pulls a gradual Heel-Face Turn in response to someone finally showing moral support.
- Played For Laughs: Alex is a No-Respect Guy to everyone in-universe, and his inevitable hilarious failure is a Once an Episode gag.
- Played For Drama:
- While Alex will never be able to get a position of power, his recklessness makes him an even more dangerous foe than the Big Bad.
- Alex is the Villain Protagonist and the series focuses on his constant failure to usurp the role of lead villain.
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