and then you have the venture bros, where the monarch starts off as goofy and ineffectual but becomes more menacing as the series goes on and the stakes get higher
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Villain Cay
Alternate name for Epstein Island
If anyone is a victim of "Villain Decay" in the Venture Bros its Brock Sampson. The Swedish Murder Machine is practically a teddy bear by the final arc.
They did fucking stellar work with the character growth. I normally hate the "you need to give it a couple seasons" kind of thing, but Venture Bros did so well to have a moment where you feel the tone start to change, and somehow, the goofier start ends up working in the shows favor.
I will never look at a Homies the same way again.
wait i've just described ordinary (if incredibly well done) character development
Also goddamn the Monarch is one of the best-written villains of all time.
My brother recommended Venture Bros. to me since I like the recent Harley Quinn series. I need to start watching it sometime.
Oh, its easily one of my top 10 all time TV shows, personally. It's smartly written from start to finish. Absolutely worth your time.
Upon a moment more thought, I'd reckon it may sit as high as #3 or 4. It's damn near perfect.
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As mentioned elsewhere, the first season or two is kinda rough animation-wise, but it's truly a masterpiece. If you're an 80s/90s kid, it's even better because they lampoon a lot from that era, specifically (but abstractly) Johnny quest.
That's three times Venture Bros have come up for me this week, guess that means its time for another re-watch. :logs into Nightreign as The Bat:
Don't forget the movie between seasons Uhh... 4 and 5 I think? I didn't know it existed and was very confused.
Isn't there just the one movie, which is the series finale? Unless you're talking about one of the holiday specials.
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Only to rivals, though. His plots against Rusty stayed pretty slapstick and harmless. They even worked together in a late season.
between the death's head panoply, the butter glider, and the scarionette cannon? i'd definitely say he upped his game from the dreaded candiru and the deadly cloud of deception slash diversion.
beyond that, going from threatening bodily harm to financial ruin was definitely a glow-up in my opinion.
"YOU ABANDONED MY HATRED!"
The one thing missing from my life is being able to scream like the monarch
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This same process is why u stop watching cop/detective dramas as soon as a protagonist gets kidnapped.
- This happens 100% of the time, usually 3 season in
- You know they’ve gone from procedural to full on drama at this point
- The quality always drops off a cliff here
Examples?
Castle, Bones, Law & Order SVU, The Rookie (though it still has good episodes, the protagonists get kidnapped a lot tho), NCIS, Criminal Minds (again, multiple times), Hawaii 5 0 refresh, CSI, Monk…
...this is making me realize that I watch very few procedural detective shows, apparently. I think SVU is the only one of these I've seen, at all.
I read it as SUV.
And now I imagine a detective show in the Cars universe.
Title character being a grumpy SUV detective with a Keicar as the comedic sidekick
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"Supernatural" in a word
Villainflation
Hercule.
Dude didn't even have super strength.
Yeah, but you know shit’s about to get real when he summons all the characters into the drawing room.
I see this in politics and everyday acquaintances all the time. When the turf you've been fighting over gets attacked by a mutual significant foe, some hostilities get paused.
Why did they posted a picture of Team Rocket? Does Pokémon actually have more villains?
Giovanni is the big bad in the early seasons iirc. No clue how the show progressed past that though but there was always a more serious organization looming (ie Team Aqua and Magma, Mewtwo in the movie are the only ones I can think of right now...)
idk for more recent seasons, but i know the xyz and sun & moon arcs had more serious villains (especially xyz)
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"But the as the stakes"