Inept villains you actully pity

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GeorgiaSue

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Are they are any inept villains that are stink at villainy so badly, that you actully pity them, and maybe even wish they could win one time?

This isn't for everybody, there are some that don't have any sympathy for the pathic, especially those on the bad side. Here is what comes to mind at the moment.

Team Rocket trio (Pokemon)

Beastly (Care Bears)

Tolietnator (Codename: Kids Next Door)

don't know if I classify these two as villains but still:

Wilie E. Coyotte (Looney Toons)

Tom (Tom And Jerry)
 
I know a few that I pity which I wish they could win:

Beastly(CareBears)
Wile E.Coyote/Sylvester(Looney Tunes)
Tom(Tom & Jerry) - I totally wish for those three to win since Jerry,Tweety, & Roadrunner are annoying little buttfaces that never lose.
Rocksteady & Bebop(TMNT)
Scratch,Grounder,& Coconuts(Sonic the Hedgehog)
Dick Dastardly & Muttley(Wacky Races) - I pity them which they want to win the race for once.
Bushroot(Darkwing Duck)
The Amoeba Boys(Powerpuff Girls)
Invader ZIM(IZ) - I pity him since he wants to conquer the Earth only with his rival Dib getting in his way that he has to get rid of.
Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy(Dave the Barbarian) - he's a pitiful evil pig, but he's hilarious.
The Big Cheese/Bad Bird(Samurai Pizza Cats)
Emperor Pilaf(Dragonball) - I pity him when he wishes for world domination only with mistakes like Oolong,Red Ribbon Army, and an adult Goku get in his way.
Meowth(Pokemon)
Petrafina(Flint the Time Detective)
Skullduggery/Kinkotsuman(Kinnikuman) - I wish for him to at least win against a match with Kinnikuman.
 
Wile E. Coyote is probably the most famous example. Not only does he always fail, but his failures are always self-inflicted - the Road Runner does nothing to antagonize him beyond merely existing. The truly pitiful thing is that the Coyote could stop any time were it not for his raging fanaticism. That is, of course, the secret to the series' humor, but it also adds a superb layer of pathos to the formula.

Pretty much the same concept is at work with Jessie, James, and Meowth on "Pok?mon". They don't want to capture Pikachu because they admire its skill or believe it can benefit Team Rocket - they just want to prove to themselves that they can indeed do it. Of course, their personalities are constantly in conflict with one another (self-centered Jessie, pushover James, and short-tempered Meowth), thereby ensuring that their best-laid plans will never succeed.
 
First of all, I don't even know if a road runner even tastes good, they don't sell road runner at the supermarket. It be funny if he caught the Road Runner, took a bite of him, and just spat it out.

Over time the Team Rocket trio have become Wile E. Coyote esc., watching them struggle. The TR centered episodes in which they get to be the heros in their own storylines, or we learn about their inner struggles, and the fact that deep down they love each other (despite their original motto condeemed love) I kind of root for them to succeed in something. They are not really that bad. They are like the Chicago Cubs.

Most of these villains has to have some good or redeeming quality, and / or at least have some sense of humor. A serious hard core evil villain shouldn't get sympathy when they lose, unless you are completely sick person.

I think it is easier to root for characters like the Team Rocker trio, that struggle everytime, and try to succeed, but never do, than a character that has super powers, had a perfect life.

How could I forget them, I have to add them to my list:

Dick Dastardly and Muttley (Wackey Races)
 
I've always felt sorry for Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, and Tom. Particularly with Tom, sometimes I think he has good reason to go after Jerry, like when he intentionally annoys him. Wile E. Coyote and Sylvester just want their dang food like anyone else. I also agree about Team Rocket. I think they deserve more than they get, and deep down they aren't that bad. Giovanni treats them unfairly too, and even almost set up their own death with that whole blimp scheme.
 
Well, other than agreeing with Wile, Tom, and Sylvester, here's one I really pitty

Bushroot- Somehow, I just don't think he even wants to be a villain. He just has that "mad scientist" thing thrown at him, especially in his origin episode. He was really bullied by the other scientists, and all he wanted to do was make the world a better place, and have that female scientist fall in love with him. In quite a few other episodes he really seems like he's a reluctant supervillain. Especially in that one where Gosalyn turned into Yucky Duck, when Darkwing actually let him escape (I think that's the one).
 
Sometimes you need to have rival villains, who are actully compedent and maybe even more evil. For example, Butch and Cassidy help complete Jessie, James and Meowth characters. They in comparision make them more sympathic characters. Though I don't think Butch and Cassidy that much more evil than the Team Rocket trio, they are better at what they do, and are smug about it. But that doesn't make them that evil.

If you take away their goofyness, ineptitude, etc. and focus on their struggle and their back story, the Team Rocket trio ain't that much different from Prince Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and he also had a rival villain, Zhao was his version of Butch and Cassidy, Zhao was actully evil.

Is it just me, or was late in the Care Bears series, when No Heart barely appeared anymore and became a figure head villain, it was just Beastly and Shreaky that caused trouble in every episode, that they were the Team Rocket of their day. I see a lot of similuraties, except they didn't have rival villains like Butch and Cassidy.

I think some of these villains has had victories. Meowth won in Meowth Rules, Jameswon in Sweat Baby James and will probably have some sort of victoy, at the very least moral victory in Gardina And Cacnea: A Farewell Is For Whom, and Jessie won in Borrowing In Bad Faith.

Beastly won in one episode, he won in The Fabulous Care Bears Safety Game (he got unfairly robbed in Care A Lot Games, they had no proff that he cheated) so once in a while, some writers may throw these types of characters a bone, and let them have a win in some way.
 
Count me in as one of many Tom sympathizers. :D
He is such a great character and by being primarily pantomime, your caring for what happens to him has to come from how he moves and looks. But Jerry is great too for all the same reasons.
 
Actually the roadrunner has several slices of meat on its body each with a unique flavor as told by Wil. E. Coyote in a cartoon where two young boys ask the very questions we pose about him today. I for the life of me don't know the name of the short.
 
Actually, Zuko's more pathetic. 1/2:p

I have to think the regular TR trio isn't nearly as bad since they've never used their guns on the twerps. I think it's possible that their legendary ineptitude allows the rest of the organization to be perceived as being less dangerous.
 
It was either "Zip Zip Hurray" or "Road Runner A-Go Go", both of which were released in 1965 (cobbled together from footage taken from Chuck Jones' unsold 1962 TV pilot, "The Adventures of the Road Runner"). Frankly, even I have a hard time remembering which cartoon is which.
 
I don't think Tom can be called an inept villain. He has had his fair share of victories. The only time I remember him just being completely dominated by Jerry is during the Gene Deitch era. Chuck Jones made it so that they were almost evenly matched.
 
Team Rocket was the 1st people I thought of and alot of other characters that people have mentioned I agree too. Tom I really feel fore because Jerry is just as mean as him, just because he's smaller and cuter we're supposed to care that he dosesn't get eaten. I really hope that one day Family Guy does a bit where Jerry gets it good (kinda like how they did the RoadRunner and Wile E. and the Bugs Bunny/elmer bits they've done previously) because that might be the only time we see Jerry die, unless you consider Itchy and Scratchy kinda like a "sweet revenge" story, but even then the mouse always wins.

Scratchy is another character you kinda feel sorry for, but you love his pain more because his deaths are so outragious and unthinkable, it's not as bad as watching Tom get a shotgun to his face or Wile E. fall to his death. I've always felt bad for Daffy Duck too when he was paired up with Bugs. You compare the classic Daffy to the "Duck season/rabbit season" like eps and you can see there is a great personality shift in his character. I like him being a daffy duck instead of a greedy duck.
Pinky and Brain, are technically not villans but they are trying to take over the world, and you pity them because everytime they fail even when the plan sounds so good.
 
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