History Main / NearVillainVictory

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': BigBad Makuta Teridax actually comes out on top at the end of the 8th year's main story arc, taking control of the planet-sized [[HumongousMecha Great Spirit Robot]] the entire story up to this point takes place inside and upon, sealing [[BigGood Mata Nui]] into the Mask of Life, and firing it off into space to keep him from interfering while he clamps down on any dissidents who remain. By the time of the FinalBattle, Teridax follows Mata Nui's trajectory to a nearby world, to find he's amassed the support of the world of Bara Magna and gotten control of a weaker prototype of the Great Spirit Robot. However, Teridax has control of a couple armies of his own by now, and despite some small-scale victories from the heroes, the Great Spirit Robot is still easily the single most powerful force on the entire battlefield, inflicting immense casualties and easily able to win the conflict all by itself should the weaker prototype robot fall. Mata Nui only barely clinches a victory by pushing the robot's head into the path of an approaching chunk of planet.

''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': BigBad Makuta Teridax actually comes out on top at the end of the 8th year's main story arc, taking control of the planet-sized [[HumongousMecha Great Spirit Robot]] the entire story up to this point takes place inside and upon, sealing [[BigGood Mata Nui]] into the Mask of Life, and firing it off into space to keep him from interfering while he clamps down on any dissidents who remain. By the time of the FinalBattle, Teridax follows Mata Nui's trajectory to a nearby world, to find he's amassed the support of the world of Bara Magna and gotten control of a weaker prototype of the Great Spirit Robot. However, Teridax has control of a couple armies of his own by now, and despite some small-scale victories from the heroes, the Great Spirit Robot is still easily the single most powerful force on the entire battlefield, inflicting immense casualties and easily able to win the conflict all by itself should the weaker prototype robot fall. Mata Nui only barely clinches a victory by pushing the robot's head into the path of an approaching chunk of planet.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'', Professor Ratigan enacts his ultimate plot to overthrow the Mouse Queen by kidnapping a mouse toymaker named Hiram Flaversham and forcing him to create a clockwork replica of the Queen. And to ensure Hiram's cooperation, Ratigan gets his right-hand bat Fidget to kidnap Hiram's daughter Olivia as leverage against Hiram. Even when Basil and Dawson manage to deduct the location of Ratigan's secret lair in the riverfront area, Ratigan turns the tables by setting an ambush on them, cruelly mocking Basil for falling to it and [[HeroicBSOD driving him to depression]]. Strapping up both Basil and Dawson on a mousetrap connected to a Rube Goldberg machine with death traps, Ratigan enacts his plot in getting his henchmen to replace the royal guards and have the Mouse Queen fed to his pet cat Felicia. Of course, if Dawson hadn't convinced Basil to snap out of his misery, Basil wouldn't have found a weakness in the trap that would've allowed him and Dawson to escape, and Ratigan would've succeeded in his plot. And even when Basil succeeded in foiling Ratigan's plot and rescuing both Hiram and Olivia, this only drives Ratigan to take out all his rage against Basil by thrashing him to a pulp at Big Ben, and he would've succeeded in killing Basil if it weren't for dumb luck on Basil's part.
** In ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', Sykes is coercing Fagin to pay off his debt under the threat of having him and his pet dogs killed. And when Fagin comes across a kitten named Oliver belonging to a rich family known as the Foxworths, he puts up a ransom for the kitten as a means to pay back the debt, to which the Foxworths' daughter Jenny brought up by delivering the money on a piggy bank. However, Sykes turns the tables by kidnapping Jenny and confining her to his warehouse, as he intends to put up a bigger ransom against the Foxworths. Even when Oliver, along with Dodger and his gang, attempted to rescue Jenny, their chance to escape was blocked by Sykes and his dogs. Even when Fagin came to the rescue by driving Jenny and the pets to the subway tunnels for safety, Sykes became thirsty for revenge as he swerves his car into the subway station to catch up to them. If it weren't for an upcoming subway train, Sykes would've succeeded in kidnapping Jenny again and murdering Fagin and the pets (even Oliver and Dodger were no match for him).

** Scar from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' [[ManipulativeBastard not only succeeds in taking over Pride Rock,]] but actually holds onto this position for several years (despite a ZeroPercentApprovalRating) until Simba returns. And he almost won there as well. The only reason he didn't is because his FatalFlaw, {{Pride}}, came in as [[JustBetweenYouAndMe he decided to let Simba in on "a little secret" before killing him]] leading to Simba's UnstoppableRage.

** In ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'', Alameda Slim is content on his plan on buying all the farmers' lands by kidnapping their cattle and selling them on the black market. When three cows (Maggie, Mrs. Calloway and Grace) attempted to capture Slim and use the reward money to save their farm from being auctioned off, Slim angrily ropes them in custody before having them contained inside a boxcar while heading off to buy their farm. Of course, [[BrokenPedestal if Buck hadn't found out that the bounty hunter Rico was in league with Slim]], he wouldn't have freed the cows, and Slim would've have won.

** ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'': [[spoiler: Hopper makes it clear on his intent to secure his control over Ant Island, not just to satisfy his grasshopper gang's desire for food, but also to keep the ants in line for his own amusement. And when he learns that Flik orchestrated an ambush by crafting a fake bird (with the help from the ants and the circus bugs) to foil his plan of murdering the Ant Queen, he wastes no time getting his [[TheDragon right-hand man Thumper]] to thrash Flik before berating the ants and circus bugs for trying to stand up against him and his gang. Of course, if Flik hadn't made [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech his upsetting yet satisfying speech of how Hopper treated the ants]], then Princess Atta wouldn't have defended Flik, who would've been squashed to death by Hopper as a final insult to the ants.]]

** Lord Farquaad in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' rounded up many fairytale creatures and had them evicted before getting his hands of Princess Fiona, as he intends to marry her so that he can legally 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, so that he can still be king. If Shrek hadn't whistled for Dragon, then perhaps Farquaad would've won.

* 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.