Pettiness

Wrestling also has types of heels called "monster heels" that just run over the competition and make it look impossible for the good guy to defeat them.  These kinds of villains are popular in comic books in particular.  As powerful as Superman is, it's always interesting when even HE can look like an underdog next to a bad guy.  But there was one villain in particular that Superman had who seemed different from the others in that he was apparently more annoying than dangerous.  I believe he went by the name Mister Mxyzptlk, but I know little more than that because I didn't read comics very much.  However, I DID watch quite a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and one villain on that show fit this description in particular - a villain named Q.

Q was certainly powerful enough to be dangerous and at times actually was.  But since he could so EASILY destroy Picard with his overwhelming omnipotent power, it wasn't any fun to make that his goal.  So he just decided to pop up here and there to annoy Picard instead.  Like when he rudely interrupted that archaeological speech that Picard REALLY looked forward to giving in order to dress Picard up as Robin Hood and force him to rescue his girlfriend in some fantasy medieval world.  It was unnecessary and stupid, but that's the kind of thing heels do.  And the timing of when Q did it was the icing on the cake.

Picard genuinely feared the monster heels that the Borg were, but even though Q was more powerful than the Borg, Picard was barely even afraid of Q.  Because the defining characteristic of Q wasn't menace, but pettiness instead.

Pettiness is a great characteristic for a heel character.  I like to try to annoy my friends by making loud throat-clearing noises in place of a greeting.  There's no reason to do it other than to be petty and create a meaningless attempt to annoy.  It SEEMS to indicate some kind of minor disapproval of something without actually stating it.  But what is there to disapprove of when you first see somebody at the beginning of the day?  No time for anything to have even happened yet to imply disapproval of!

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