Harmless Villain/Playing With

Basic Trope: A villain who poses no real threat.

• Straight: Darcy W. Ip-lash considers Hiro to be his nemesis, and unless Hiro concedes to his demands, he will...put itching powder in the his pants?
• Exaggerated: Darcy W. Ip-lash attempts to hold the world hostage by threatening to BEND a SPOON! And That's Terrible!
• Downplayed: Darcy is a mugger, who Apologises a Lot and often gives back half his earnings out of guilt
• Justified:
  • Darcy needs to hold the reputation of his family line, but can’t actually bring himself to do truly evil acts, and instead settles for being annoying.
  • Dracy is a form of Fae, and he is compelled to be a minor inconvenience to everyone because of it.
• Inverted:
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy
  • Darcy W. Ip-lash is a Complete Monster.
• Subverted:
  • While, for now, he’s content with firing freshly-made dinosaur eggs at the Statue of Liberty, Darcy actually has enough Evil Minions, Applied Phlebotinum, and Offscreen Villain Dark Matter to be a severe threat to the world at large, should he ever turn his thoughts to conquest.
  • Darcy turns out to be a Not-So-Harmless Villain.
• Double Subverted: All of Darcy’s Evil Minions and Applied Phlebotinum are masterful at pulling off really silly schemes, and nothing else.
• Parodied: The French immediately surrender upon learning of Darcy Ip-lashes’ ‘terrifying” pancake cannon!
• Zig Zagged: Darcy’s plans are almost bipolar, switching between genuinely threatening to completely harmless with next to no warning. Needless to say, Hiro is very confused.
• Averted: All the villains in the series are a genuine threat to the world at large.
• Enforced: Darcy is head of the Goldfish Poop Gang in a video game, and thus, shouldn’t be all that difficult after the second time you defeat him.
• Lampshaded: “Hang on, Darcy W. Iplash is trying to strip the princess naked on live television…I’ll be back soon; this should only take a minute.
• Invoked: Darcy act as a Harmless Villain so he won’t get in serious trouble for his delightful antics.
• Exploited: Darcy is a lot smarter than he lets on, and sells his services to villains who need the hero distracted for a half-hour or so.
• Defied: “NO villain is harmless, Hiro. Remember that.”
• Discussed:

“Hey, remember when Darcsy was a threat?”
“…Uhhh…no?”
“Me neither!”

• Conversed: “Y’know, for once in this show, I would like to see a villain that could be dimly considered a threat."
• Deconstructed: The courts take Dracy seriously, and he is handed a life sentence simply because of the scale of his ‘crimes’.
• Reconstructed: ???
• Played For Laughs: By it’s nature, this trope is played for laughs.
• Played For Drama: At one point or another, Darcy breaks into tears and rants about his sheer inability to do anything right, no matter how hard he tries. By the end, he's so depressed that he surrenders to the heroes.

---

Back to Harmless Villain! Or I shall squirt you with CITRIC ACID!