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Aristocrats Are Evil: Difference between revisions
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** And naturally, her [[Bastard Understudy|protege]], the Evil Queen from ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]''.
* The Emperor of ''[[Dune]]'' is only good in comparison to [[Complete Monster]] Baron Harkonnen. The Emperors throughout the series fall under this trope, even the Necessary Evil ones—God Emperor Leto made himself the most reviled being in history, distrusted and despised even by his closest supporters.
* Downplayed with the Queen of Hearts in ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''; she has a foul temper and very fond of ordering executions for petty reasons (her timid husband the King quietly pardons anyone she orders beheaded), but
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
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* Downplayed with the Duchess in ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''. She's an [[Abusive Parent]] and in a foul mood when she an Alice first meet, but she's far friendlier the second time, although she also has [[No Sense of Personal Space]].
=== [[Live
* ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'' had [[Co-Dragons]] Jindrax, Duke of Orgs and Master of Blades and Toxica, Duchess of Orgs and Mistress of Magic; both evil, both [[Card-Carrying Villain]]s, both [[Large Ham]]s.
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* Count Ugo Carifex from the [[Young Bond]] novel ''Blood Fever''.
* Viscount Hundro Moritani in the ''[[Dune]]'' prequels. As much, if not more, of a bastard than Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (see below). Most of his subjects take after him. His ambassador shoots a rival at a state dinner. He orders the bombing of civilian targets despite the declaration of Kanli, a war limited to military targets. He has his rival's son and daughter kidnapped and publicly executed. When another House condemns these actions, he orders the assault on their planet to steal their most holy relic. An ally of the viscount's assassinated the rival's second daughter at her wedding to Duke Leto Atreides (the ally was himself a Duke, by the way). He gets what's coming to him, though.
* Counts in the ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'' vary. Most of them are presented as fairly normal politicians though the worst of them grind down on their fiefdoms tyranically.
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
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**They are however many surprisingly ''blackmailable'' Manticoran aristocrats and a mole is able to stalemate the House of Lords by the whisper of the vast hoard of information she has. Which does not make them evil precisely, but it does mean that some of them have something to hide and enough cowardice to let that manipulate them against their countries interest.
**At the same time they are as likely as anyone to be found on the front lines either fighting well, or if they can't do that, getting blown up [[Family Honor|to prove a point.]] Pavel Young(one of the series' most distasteful villains) of course is an exception and not only is he a miserable person he does not even have the grace to get killed in a gentlemanly way.
* In [[Belisarius Series]] there are a number of aristocrats some of whom are sadistic to the point of stupidity and others of whom are attractive enough. As this is the Middle Ages no one is to
** Neither aristocrats nor commoners are particularly gentle though not all of them are precisely cruel. But the villain is a demon robot from the future. Making normal earthly class and tribal rivalries petty.
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
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** There are a couple exceptions in the manga: not counting Serpico (who was not really born a noble) or Farnese (whose [[Heel Face Turn]] coincided with her abandoning her renouncing her status), Roderick is pretty nice, while Laban and Owen actually give a crap about protecting commoners.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' has the entire [[Big Screwed-Up Family|Zabi family]], including [[Non-Action Big Bad|Sovereign Degwin]], [[Evil Prince|Prince]] [[Complete Monster|Gihren]], [[Four-Star Badass|Prince Dozle]], [[Evil Genius|Princess]] [[Manipulative Bastard|Kycilia]], and [["Well Done, Son" Guy|Prince Garma]].
* ''[[The Aristocrats]]'' joke plays on this trope, the disgustingly [[squick]]y performance being triumphantly named "The Aristocrats."▼
=== [[Film]] ===
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* The [[Kingkiller Chronicle]] books play with this somewhat. Ambrose Jakis is the son of a rich baron and uses his birth and wealth as an excuse to be a colossal douchebag to everyone and especially Kvothe. On the other hand, Willem and Simmon are both sons of minor nobility and Kvothe's best friends, while Count Threpe is a [[Cool Old Guy]] who occasionally helps Kvothe and serves as a patron to a number of musicians and entertainers.
* The [[Low Fantasy]] novel ''Gerfalcon'' by Leslie Barringer subverts this as rank isn't noticeably indicative of goodness or evil; there are two [[Complete Monster]] counts (one's actually a [[Mood Swinger]] who seems more-or-less reasonable '''most''' of the year, but [[Nightmare Fuel|then]]....) and one [[Evil Uncle]] count, but also some good and plenty of neutral counts. The hero starts out waiting to be given the title of baron when he turns eighteen, but becomes a viscount before he can claim his barony ... and within a year is himself a count. His cousin, a viscount, lazy and thoughtless but good-natured, was one of the few people at his uncle's castle who showed him any friendship. Also, one of the kindest men in the story is a baron throughout.
=== Meta ===
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=== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]]s ===
* Trade Prince Maldy in the goblin starting zone in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' Cataclysm is shaping up to be quite the scumbag.
=== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ===
▲* ''[[The Aristocrats]]'' joke plays on this trope, the disgustingly [[squick]]y performance being triumphantly named "The Aristocrats."
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
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* The very existence of aristocracy is based on oligopoly of violence. The concept of nobility is the elite of violence—be they knights, samurai, sipahis, rajputs, narts or savaran—that is, elite soldiers who are stronger than the oppressed masses and are able to subjugate them and live off their work. The alternative for aristocracy is usually either [[plutocracy]] (domination of elite of economy), theocracy (rule by the clergy), or [[Anarchy Is Chaos]].
**Every state is based on an oligopoly of violence. More to the point, no one can help their ancestry and it is not unknown for any given aristocrat to be harmless or even useful in the present. What is closer to making this [[Truth in Television]] is that aristocracies tend to reflect conquests or robberies in the past. In other words aristocrats are hardly automatically evil but a good many of their ancestors were.
* A lot of the problem that created the abuses of aristocracy in the past stemmed from combining proprietary, familial, political, military, and ceremonial authority in the same persons causing them to be [[Drunk with Power]]. Later when the ceremonial aspect was emphasized more and other aspects downgraded the ugly side grew less. In other words a queen whose portrait is on your wall is better then a queen who can [[Off with His Head|cut off your head.]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]
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