YMMV / Villainous (Cartoon Network)

• Adaptation Displacement: Villainous originally came from a series of web shorts made in 2012 for Ituriel's website That Place To Hang Out. It doesn't help that almost all of the artwork and shorts were removed off of the website, and the original shorts have been privatized on its main YouTube page, likely for legal reasons—as Cartoon Network Latin America now owns the rights to the show.
• Adorkable: Flug is perpetually nervous and his doting on 5.0.5. is so sweet it could rot your teeth, from playing hide and seek with him, to gushing over how smart his "son" is for picking his card out of a deck for a magic trick, despite the fact that Flug never chose a card in the first place.
• Awesome Ego: Black Hat thinks that he is the greatest villain ever. It's hard to blame him. His muscular version is a great example, thanks to his hammy personality.
• Awesome Music: The music from the teaser trailer gives us a catchy theme set to a dark jazz number that sings about Black Hat and how evil and frightening he is:
  "Gather around my children,
  For I have a tale to tell
  Have you heard the lore
  Of the most peculiar man of all
  He's tall and wears a black hat
  And within the dark he strikes, Oh my!
  No hero dares to stop him
  They run in terror and fright
  If you've been having trouble with any hero or are just a parent with a terrible child,
  call 1-800-BLACK HAT
  But you've been warned
  Beware of-" [record scratch]
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The snowball-throwing children who seemed to be part of Dr. Flug's security system. They seemingly come out of nowhere, the lasers, flaming inferno and sawblades make more sense in the theme of how destructive the security system is, then all of a sudden there are kids throwing snowballs, when there was no indication of snow or children when viewing the lair from the outside front.
• Catharsis Factor: After brainwashing people into being her followers, being a False Friend to Flug and manipulating him to win over Goldheart, and falsely representing herself as a model heroine, it's satisfying to see everyone Miss Heed brainwashed be freed from her control, lose the popularity she garnered and be exposed as the fraud she is, and get sent to a maximum security prison.
• Crazy Is Cool: Demencia is an absolutely off the wall, and yet, she's so capable of going toe-to-toe with superheroes that Black Hat Organization has a service where a villain can temporarily hire her to dispatch their nemesis, and she's so good at it that people often request to keep her permanently.
• Creepy Awesome: Black Hat is a Humanoid Abomination, near-bordering on Eldritch Abomination, who is extremely powerful and even more sadistic, although it's for this reason as to why fans love him.
• Crossover Ship:
  • There is loads of fanart pairing Black Hat and Bill Cipher, though mostly in a Platonic Life-Partners kind of way. Alastor has also been added to the mix.
  • Pairing Miss Heed up with Verosika Mayday is pretty popular as well. Helps that both are celebrities with an affiliation with, and powers related to, lust and the colour pink.
• Cult Classic: For a series of mostly minute long shorts that unceremoniously debuted one afternoon, the first phase of Villainous content quickly gained the show popularity that rivaled much of Cartoon Network's on-air programming, both in Latin America and the United States.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Miss Heed constantly craves attention and is overly flirty, showing signs of histrionic personality disorder.
  • Demencia is generally shown to be insane; however, her obsession with Black Hat is a tell-tell sign of obsessive love disorder.
• Draco in Leather Pants: It's a show about villains. This is everywhere.
  • It's downplayed with Black Hat. While many fans accept that he is evil to the core, many are under the belief that he cares about Flug, Demencia, and 505 and is like a father figure to them(if they aren't being shipped with him for the former two). This is in spite of the fact Black Hat is shown to torment all three if he wants a laugh and barely seems to notice them.
  • Flug and Demencia play it straight. Flug is a Nervous Wreck and Fatherly Scientist, but he also commits his fair share of cruel acts, such as his shrinking of planes (with people in them no less). Demencia is utterly insane and a Blood Knight who delights in the carnage she causes, but that hasn't stopped fans from thinking that there is a sweet girl under all that who just needs the right person to bring it out.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Black Hot, the muscular Black Hat, is the most popular out of Black Hat's clones, because of his voice and personality. He even got a whole episode where he leaves BH's lair after the events of his short to start his own evil base of operations.
  • Another alternate version of Black Hat became popular very quickly: The heroic Black Hat, who appeared for two seconds as a Fandom Nod to a popular Alternate Universe Fic ^note  He is officially called "White Hat" by the fandom. Some fans like to ship him with Black Hat, despite him only existing in Demencia's imagination. There's a whole AU about him and his respective organization too.
  • Penumbra has gained a considerable following from her appearance in the pilot, mostly due to her being a Perky Goth and actually being quite nice. Fans like her so much that she has a real life Instagram page. Posts made on said Character Blog, which showcase her life following the events of the pilot, as well delving into her backstory and foreshadowing future potential plot-lines in the full show, has led her to arguably becoming the most popular character in the show, outside of the main cast.
  • Miss Heed was already a fairly popular character, owing to her being at the centre of the developing Story Arc in her official Character Blog (as well as other reasons). Her popularity only increased following her official debut episode and the implication, brought about from a Freeze-Frame Bonus during the title card sequence of Boo!Lldozing, that she may have a Dark and Troubled Past.
  • In regards to villains introduced in the shorts, Metauro and Mawrasite have gotten the most play in the fandom. The former for his tragic backstory, and the latter for her interesting design and character.
  • Dark Phantom's right-hand henchman, Ghoul, has grown much play in the fandom.
  • In regards to heroes, G-Lo quickly become a fan-favourite, owing to her memorable design and the implication that she's a far more genuinely heroic character than previously introduced heroes such as Sunblast and Miss Heed.
  • Coyote, a villain first introduced in Miss Heed's official Character Blog as the archnemesis of her partner, Omega Nuclear, and who was brainwashed along with the latter to be her bodyguards, became popular due to his design being based aesthetically on Lobo and wondering what he was like unbrainwashed.
• Epileptic Trees: There is a popular fan theory that Demencia used to be a normal girl named Amelia ("Amy" for short) who got kidnapped and mutated by Black Hat and suffers from Stockholm Syndrome. The theory stems from some notes being shown in the background sometimes, some of which are signed as "Test Subject: Amelia" or "Love me BH, <3 Amy". Demencia has been confirmed to be one of Flug's experiments in any case.
• Estrogen Brigade: Dr. Flug and Black Hat are insanely popular among gals, if fan-made content (and Demencia, in the case of Black Hat) is anything to go by. ESPECIALLY the Muscular Black Hat.
• Evil Is Cool: Black Hat, hardcore. Demencia as well, and Flug when he shows his sadistic streak.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: It is beyond common to see works that present Black Hat having ties or deals with villains beyond Cartoon Network shows.
• Fanfic Fuel: The second batch of shorts shows Black Hat having ties to an entire multiverse of Cartoon Network villains, many of whom he has personally worked with. That's enough to keep fics going for ages! His report on the The Delightful Children From Down the Lane, especially so, as it ends with the Kids Next Door being made aware of Black Hat's existence and Flug telling them to back off lest they face the organization's wrath.
• Fanon:
  • Most fans depict Black Hat as being some sort of demon or a Eldritch Abomination. The show doesn't do much to discredit that idea.
  • Based on how Flug reacts to Peridot's Heel–Face Turn, many fans have gone with the idea that the organization utterly hates reformed villains. It is safe to assume few things infuriate Black Hat quite like a villain going good.
  • Certain art pieces, made by an illustrator and storyboard artist of the show expand on the character of Ensemble Dark Horse G-Lo. While the canonicity of these art pieces is questionable, many fans like to believe that certain aspects of them, such as G-Lo's admiration of Miss Heed and her friendship with Mawrasite, apply to the canon lore of the show.
• Fridge Horror: While Black Hat is the absolute embodiment of all evil in the multiverse, we don't feel too bad enjoying his presence due to what he does being darkly comedic or too fantastical to take too seriously (like destroying planets). However, the implication that as the personification of all evil, he logically would goad more realistic and serious evils like dictators sending people into death camps or sexual predators giving into their urges can make you enjoy his presence a lot less.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • The fandom seems to be quite an overlap with the Wander over Yonder fandom, with a lot of crossover art being drawn (a lot of which happens to include a certain EVIL SANDWICH.)
  • Many fans of the show also like Hazbin Hotel, due to the similarities in the art style and the similarities between Black Hat, Lucifer and Alastor. It helps that some of the staff of Hazbin also worked on Villainous.
• Gotta Ship 'Em All: Black Hat/Dr. Flug and Black Hat/Demencia are both incredibly popular ships, but fans have also been known to shake things up by pairing Dr. Flug and Demencia or just shipping all three together.
  • Dr Flug/Miss Heed gained a lot of traction after her premiere episode revealing their shared past.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: With his penchant for showing off his body, Mark's role as Black Hot (Muscular Black Hat) becomes even more amusing once he made an Onlyfans account for charity.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • Paperhat = Black Hat/Dr. Flug
  • Lizardhat = Demencia/Black Hat
  • Paperlizard = Dr. Flug/Demencia
  • Sunbra = Sunblast/Penumbra
  • Paperheart = Dr. Flug/Miss Heed
  • Lizardheart = Demencia/Miss Heed
• I Knew It!: Fanwork depicted Dr. Flug as a Fatherly Scientist to 5.0.5, before the show made it clear that he is.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Dr. Flug, who takes the majority of the abuse in the show and generally gets no respect from the nefarious Black Hat but it's downplayed somewhat when it's made clear that Flug isn't just an unfortunate Butt-Monkey, but also a genuine supervillain and a willing accomplice in Black Hat's evil schemes.
  • Miss Heed, a self-centered influencer who uses her powers to brainwash people, is nevertheless a deeply insecure and broken person. Even Flug, who was a victim of her actions, pities her and gently tells her she needs to learn to love herself.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Quite a few people watch the show just because Markiplier voices 5.0.5. and the Muscular Black Hat.
  • There's a good portion of people who watch the show just for Black Hat's minions, especially Dr. Flug.
  • Several got into the show purely for Miss Heed.
• Love to Hate: Black Hat, who is well-regarded for taking all the tropes associated with villainy and using them to be genuinely menacing.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Once the Cartoon Network shorts hit the web, the animation community immediately gathered together to get in on the action.
  • The record player in Black Hat's office.^note In the Teaser trailer, a song plays on the record player, which he stops, before making a slide glance to the camera as the bell rings. Fans have proceeded to edit that segment, often adding in very memetic songs to it.
• Moe:
  • Dr. Flug sometimes gets this reaction from fans, due to his nervous attitude around Black Hat and his Butt-Monkey treatment.
  • Demencia as well, due to her constant smiling and ogling after Black Hat unrequitedly.
  • 5.0.5. also counts, due to being a cute and snuggly bear.
• Older Than They Think: Despite being marketed as such, this isn't the first animated show to come from CN Mexico. Rather, it was actually Santos Contra Los Clones, which followed a similar format as being a miniseries with minute-long installments.
• Self-Fanservice: A lot of fan-artists like portraying Dr. Flug as Beautiful All Along underneath his bag.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To Evil Con Carne, another Cartoon Network animated show that followed the exploits of a dysfunctional supervillain organization. Only difference is that the Black Hat Organization is much more professional and malevolent about their evil actions.
  • In the same respect, some people also see it as one to League of Super Evil.
• Testosterone Brigade: On the opposite end from the Estrogen Brigade, Demencia seems dementedly popular among male viewers.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!:
  • A few detractors criticize the show for being too similar in concept and characters to the older Cartoon Network animated series Evil Con Carne.
  • While a lot thought the scattered references to other Cartoon Network series in the initial phase of shorts were amusing and cute, the second phase of orientation videos went heavier on the references and implied the connections actually existed in-universe in a more serious and concrete fashion, though still relatively played for humor. Some thus thought this was too much like an OC crossover fantasy a kid would make, due to piggybacking on other people's works with Black Hat being the OC who's more awesome and powerful than everyone else. (While Cartoon Network shows and bumpers have done the "everything is connected" approach before, it tended to be purely humorous or by showing characters as just actors in the studio.) The emphasis on more local or internal worldbuilding and characters in later phases like the pilot and the actual series episodes were thus seen as an improvement.
• Unexpected Character: While some fans may have expected the The Powerpuff Girls girls to get an orientation video, almost no one expected it to be their original version over the reboot.
  • Due to said reboot, the Powerpuff Girls at least fit the theme of the other orientation videos by still being relevant and being a modern show. Because of this, no one expected the Kids Next Door to get an orientation video. Even in the video, since most of the videos were only of the villains in question and the main heroes, was anyone expecting to see Numbuh 362 during the scene when the Kids Next Door learn about the Black Hat organization?
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It's a Cartoon Network show about a supervillain team loaded with tons of Black Comedy and Comedic Sociopathy, as well as a decent amount of fanservice and innuendo.
• The Woobie:
  • 5.0.5. He's one of the sweetest creatures you'll ever meet, but unfortunately, he lives with the most evil creature in the world/universe, who regularly abuses and belittles him because of what he is.
  • Penumbra can't catch a break. While she is saved from being forever bullied by Sunblast, her instagram shows that she has trouble with more than that. First, the city of Atreno paints her as the bad guy when heroes attack her unprovoked and she fights in self-defense, then she ends up feeling like she betrayed her own when she finds out one of the heroes she beats is an Umbra. She is even forced to leave her own home when the city announces Miss Heed as their new hero. Right when it looks like she has found a place to be safe, she is found and brainwashed by Miss Heed.
  • Heed herself is something of a woobie. Growing up as a mostly unpopular girl with Flug being her only friend, she stole his work on emotion control chemicals and tried to use them as the means to become a beloved superhero who would also draw the attentions of Goldheart. This plan backfired, as not only were her brainwashed fans unable to truly give the affection she craved, but aside from being inducted as a member of PEACE, Heed barely seems to register on Goldheart's radar at all. Ironically enough, the only person who did (and still may) harbor any true affection for her was the one she betrayed twice. Though if one looks closely at her prison scribbles, the initials H&F are written in underneath one of her hearts. It would seem in spite of what she's done, Flug still has a place in Heed's heart.
• Woolseyism:
  • In "The Dreadful Dawn", Flug originally exclaims, "Ah, La Llorona!" when he first sees Penumbra, mistaking her for the weeping ghost woman of Mexican legend. She protests, as she thinks he called her a llorona, i.e. a crybaby. In English, he instead calls her "poor thing" while talking to Black Hat, and she objects to being called a "thing".
  • In "The Heedeous Heart," Flug says he'll need his backpack to find Miss Heed—because "backpack" is a feminine noun in the original Spanish, Ghoul gets confused and thinks Flug is asking where the backpack is when he says "Where is she?"^note  Spanish lacks an "it" pronoun, so saying "Donde esta?" could mean either "Where is it?" or "Where is he/she?" English lacks gendered nouns, so Flug simply asks for "the location"—again, Ghoul quizzically asks if he means the backpack's location.
  • In the original "BH's Bizzare Bad-Venture," Demencia's muscle double is named Dolencia, a combination of "dolor" (pain) and "Demencia" that retains the "D——encia" naming structure. In English, she is named Violencia, combining "violence" with "Demencia".

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