Sorry about the accidental double post of my comments.
Edited by Craver357
Exactly what is wrong with Real Life examples for this trope? Does it glorify sympathy for bad people in a way that it makes it too controversial?
No, it calls real life people villains. Bad idea, my friend.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Mah boi!
Should we change the quote? Eridan is now neither ineffectual nor sympathetic.
I wonder what's for dinner? Hide / Show Replies
Especially since tools aren't really sympathetic. A tool is pretty much the same thing as a douche, with a bit of loser thrown in.
Meh, I`ve since replaced it with a more fitting MLP quote that pretty much sums up the theme of the trope anyway. (Funny thing is, that was before stumbling on this discussion page.)
You can look it up in the page history if you like.
"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart
Spike from MLP:Fi M is not a villain. His actions are fueled by envy, his objective is petty and it's one time only. While he acts like a villain a second time in another episode, he is considerably effective.
I believe there must be a better example.
The opinion above may change without notice. By answering it you agree with those terms.
Dick Dastardly is actually quite effective in his own way. It's true that he was regularly defeated by a pigeon, but at the same time, Vulture Squadron apparently succeeded in continuing to fight World War One for over 50 years after it ended, on the side which had already lost (since Yankee Doodle Pigeon is obviously American, I assume DD must have been in the pay of Kaiser Bill).
More to the point, his official in-house biography states that he is currently the dictator (or should that be Dicktator?) of Dickaragua. As the unelected but seemingly permanent ruler of his own country, this puts him on a par with Dr. Doom (in fact, ahead of him, since at least he has never lost a fight with Squirrel Girl), and with several real-life supervillains against whom American military intervention was allegedly not only justified but unavoidable! So DD is basically Saddam Hussein with a better gag-writer, and less dead. I wouldn't call that "ineffectual", would you?
Wimpy McSquishy
I think Chess from The Cape (a TV series) should be added to the list of examples. In the first episode he was a total badass, but from the 2nd on, the audience never got to see him in his costume again and he became all emo FOR NO APPARENT REASON.
'Cross my heart, strike me dead, stick a lobster on my head.' Hide / Show Replies
That is not this trope. You are probably looking for Badass Decay.
Hodor
Coudn't we change the name of this trope to 'the doof'?
Heinz Doofenshmirtz is pretty much this trope best poster boy this trope has had in years.
or not?
Lately the site has been moving away from trope names that come from specific characters in favor of names that can be understood by anyone. So I don't think it's likely to be renamed.
Head Lopper
...You know, the Carpenter image is genius. It's funny how I not only knew that image beforehand, that's actually one of my favorite Batman comics of all time. I should have thought to suggest is previously.
Wrestler, bodybuilder. No hopes, no dreams.
Shouldn't we delete the "Real Life" folder for this page, since we usually discourage Real Life examples on Villain tropes?
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