"Any man who must say "I am the King" is no true king." |
Villains and Rivals that wanna be the bad guy or the rival to a character but fail. It's often known as Big Bad Wannabe.
The Big Bad Wannabe is a villain who is seen as a significant threat but can't back it up when it comes to the crunch. The absolute level of menace varies widely, from an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain having a good day, to a villain who could legitimately be the Big Bad if the real Big Bad wasn't even more badass than they are, but within a story they are (initially) presented as a big deal.
There are a lot of ways of building up a baddie. In a Slice of Life show a school bully might just talk tough. In a more action oriented work the wannabe might beat up a tough hero to look even tougher: the Worf Effect.
There are also many ways of revealing the villain is an over-inflated threat. A school bully might run from a real fight. In the second example Worf Had the Flu — an unfair circumstance gave the villain his early victory. Sometimes it's just a matter of scale; the heroes catch a murderer, but he's just a copycat, not the real mastermind serial killer he was thought to be. Alternatively the real Big Bad might outdo the wannabe or even kill the wannabe.
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