Card-Carrying Villain/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character (who may be low on the Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness or relatively high) self-identifies as "evil", "a villain", or the like.
 * Straight: Dr. Villainous Evil styles himself as a Genre Savvy character who knows he's a villain, refers to himself whenever the subject comes up, and often responds to someone's criticisms of his moral character with a hearty Insult Backfire rejoinder.
 * Exagerrated:
 * Dr. Villainous Evil appears to be basing his every action on what would be the most villainous thing to do.
 * Stupid Evil
 * Dr Villainous Evil is so into the idea that he's a villain, he actively hates any villain who doesn't acknowledge they are in the wrong.
 * Justified:
 * The world is ruled by a Balance of Good and Evil, and Dr. Villainous Evil gains power by allying with the forces of evil.
 * Evil Is Cool or Evil Is Sexy: Dr Villanous Evil doesn't personally think he's evil, however, he pretends to think he's one as villains are popular/chicks dig the bad guys.
 * Dr Villanous Evil is such a Complete Monster that he can't possibly find a way to justify or explain his actions as anything other than him being evil.
 * Dr Villanous Evil used to be good and also believed in moral absolutim. He refuses to give up his moral absolutism even as a villain, and because of this, he believes himself to be in the wrong.
 * Inverted:
 * Villain With Good Publicity, who works hard and successfully at convincing the world that he is good and not evil.
 * The Cape, a perfect Hero.
 * Knight Templar, a bad guy who thinks he's moral and just.
 * Subverted:
 * The heroes confront the Well Intentioned Extremist and he remarks, "Right, my only reason for doing any of this is that I'm evil." The heroes fail to note that he is being sarcastic.
 * The villain has a Zero Percent Approval Rating, so he pretends to be a Card Carrying Villain.
 * Double Subversion: The villain doesn't believe in his Well Intentioned Extremist motivations at all, and really is just doing it For the Evulz.
 * Parodied:
 * Even when he's trying to infiltrate the heroes' organization, Dr. Villainous Evil still gives himself away by referring to himself as a villain. (Or, he would have given himself away, but such examples almost always go unnoticed by the heroes.
 * Doctor Villainous Evil considers himself a Complete Monster, yet he can't harm a fly.
 * Deconstructed:
 * Dr. Villainous Evil is doomed to a Zero Percent Approval Rating because he never pretends to be anything but evil.
 * The reason Dr. Villainous Evil chose that name is that he's actually disgusted by the moral absolutism of the "heroes". Ultimately, he ends up saving the world since he's a Noble Demon, but since he presented himself as the ultimate bad guy, no one realizes this until long after his lonely and celebrated death, having been bound by his own ideological image.
 * Dr Villainous Evil comes to the realisation that he no longer needs to justify his actions in any moralistic fashion, since it would clash with seeing himself as the villain. This leads him to become unrestrained in his evil, plummeting into depravity.
 * Dr Villainous Evil sees himself as evil due to his self-hatred.
 * Reconstructed: The Evil League of Villains gains a great deal of grudging respect from most non-members because, after all, they are cool and powerful, and at least they're not hypocritical about their evilness, like so many other people.
 * Zigzagged: Sometimes, the villains are Obviously Evil and admit it, while other times, the same villainous characters are portrayed as far more morally complex, believing that Even Evil Has Standards, liberally engaging in dog-petting, and so on.
 * Averted:
 * The villains may be clearly bad people, but they show no sign of thinking of themselves that way.
 * Knight Templar or Well Intentioned Extremist.
 * Enforced:
 * It was decided that the audience wouldn't be able to tell that Dr. Villainous Evil was a bad guy unless they gave him that kind of name and self-description. Perhaps because, without it, there wouldn't be much difference between Dr. Evil and his enemies.
 * The actor wants to play a Large Ham, and being a Card Carrying Villain will enhance the hamminess
 * Black and White Morality: They have to enforce the idea that evil people think they're eeeevill!
 * Lampshaded: "It's really quite a lot of fun, being evil."
 * Invoked: In the story of Dr. Villainous Evil's turn to villainy, a major milestone was when he began self-identifying as evil.
 * Defied: "Yes, I was convicted in that plot to blow up the White House, but I'm really a nice guy. I've changed, honest!
 * Discussed: "You're one hell of a scoundrel, you know that? Wait, you probably take that as a compliment.
 * Conversed: "Why do the villains on these shows just come right out and say that they're 'bad'? It's almost as if they're unclear on what the word 'bad' means."

Back to Card Carrying Villain