A potential villain who is consistently a failure or never gets the respect that they think they deserve, and may even be angry that the heroes don't take them seriously. They may not necessarily be entirely inept, small-minded, or have a laughably mild idea of what counts as villainy. Villain Decay is usually too simple an explanation. This is sometimes a relative situation, and the hero's Rogues Gallery just happens to include people more showy, better financed, or just plain scarier than him. These guys are why people are found Rooting for the Empire. A defining feature of such a villain is their gullibility: they are more often than not pitted against a Trickster who easily bamboozles them and leads them on their defeat, while it is obvious to the viewers that they should know better than listening to and believe their intended victim. A considerable number of them also tend to be Klutzes who are likely to fall in their own traps thanks to poor judgement, underestimating their foes to a ludicrous extent and/or failure to think ahead or pay any attention to their surroundings. And it is a usual way to showcase their stupidity by making them screw up their own plans and even die or get injured due to such mistakes in more realistic and grittier works. If they lack real fighting skills they may resort to Feminine Two-Fisted Pounding This does not mean that they don't bear animosity; that's a Punch-Clock Villain. They're probably jumping at the opportunity to outdo their rivals and the hero. But there is something about his perseverance or attitude about the whole thing that is just short of sympathetic. May also be a Determinator out of necessity or overlap with Draco in Leather Pants. If they get even more pathetic in regard to the hero, Unknown Rivalry looms. Just watch out, they may suddenly turn out to be a Not-So-Harmless Villain and succeed or come dangerously to succeeding with their goals in which case they will probably lose the sympathetic part and likely cross the Moral Event Horizon. After all, their appeal lies in how hopeless their attempts are. Video Game versions of this trope frequently overlap with the Goldfish Poop Gang if they are just as pathetic in actual battle as they're treated by the story. They may maintain threat status if Conservation of Competence allows them to keep competent supporters. The Evil Counterpart to Failure Hero. Arguably a Sub-Trope of Boisterous Weakling. Super-Trope to The Family for the Whole Family, which specifically requires the villain to be incompetent and their likely threat level sans said incompetence to be that of a Knight of Cerebus. A character who acts like a villain while genuinely not wanting to do anything truly evil (or simply not having the capacity to do so even if they wanted to) is a Harmless Villain. On the Sliding Scale of Character Appreciation, these guys fall under "villains we sympathize with". Blatantly Self-Defeating is a hallmark of these sorts of characters. Contrast Complete Monster, where we instead have an utterly nasty, dangerous, and unsympathetic villain. Also contrast Hate Sink, who is made to be as detestable as possible and someone you want to see defeated. Also contrast Smug Snake, who is generally less effectual than they believe they are, and unsympathetic to boot. Compare Small-Minded Villain, who can certainly be effective at committing petty crimes or other evil, but is notably not living up to their evil potential. Not to be confused with Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain, where the sympathy lies in the villain being capable of redemption.