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Being Evil Sucks: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"I'm the bad guy! [[Big Damn Heroes|I don't save the day]], [[Riding Into the Sunset|I don't fly off into the sunset]], ''[[Did Not Get the Girl|and I don't get the girl!]]'' ...*sigh* I'm going home."''
|'''[[Megamind]]'''}}
It's good to be bad? Think again.
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Compare [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]] and [[This Is Your Brain on Evil]]. Being evil can be even worse when you're ''bad'' at it.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* General Regius Gaiz of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS''. After years as a corrupt official, guilt came knocking at his door in the form of Zest{{spoiler|'s clone}}, his best friend who shared his [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|dreams of justice]] {{spoiler|and was killed because of his secret connections to [[Big Bad|Scaglietti]]}}. Once he learned about his return, the formerly pompous general spent his time sitting in his desk in a defeated state, waiting for Zest to come.
* Gaara of from the series ''[[Naruto]]'' doesn't ''quite'' realize this until he [[Defeat Means Friendship|gets the snot kicked out of him]] by Naruto in full "I fight for my friends" mode.
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', Lelouch finds out that being evil tends to get karma screwing you over, and {{spoiler|people stabbing you in the back, whereas Suzaku learns that being evil and conquering relatively innocent people and threatening ex-friends with highly addictive psychotropics... well, sucks. So they try to do good by killing himself and condemning himself to a long, harsh life of non-existence, respectively.}}
* Light Yagami of ''[[Death Note]]'', who starts out as a normal yet highly intelligent high schooler who could truly make a difference in the world in a positive way, but also has too much free time on his hands. That is until he finds the Death Note, which at first he claims to use only on irredeemable criminals under the alias "Kira". He quickly comes to use it to kill off anyone who gets to close to uncovering the truth or questions his motivations. He grows progressively more paranoid and unhinged, jumping of the moral slippery slope as he tries to ensure Ryuk doesn't grow too bored (who will kill him otherwise) and [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulates just about everyone he knows including his own family]] to serve his ends. It all comes to a head at the end of the series, {{spoiler|where Light is finally outed as Kira and [[Laughing Mad|snaps]]. He dies humiliated and terrified in the knowledge that there is no afterlife for him, and this is the end. It's later shown in the manga's epilogue that things quickly went back to normal afterwards, making his actions seem rather pointless.}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* {{spoiler|Ozymandias}} in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]''. His intentions, of course, were never entirely evil; he wanted to stop World War III before it started, and {{spoiler|killing several million people was the only solution. Regardless of the fact that he sacrificed comparatively few to save pretty much everyone (sans Dr. Manhattan) it's obvious that he does feel remorse and wishes that there had been another way.}}
** {{spoiler|That Ozymandias asks Dr. Manhattan if he did the right thing only to get a very vague and unsatisfying answer does nothing to help ease his guilty conscience.}}
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* Superhero team the [[Thunderbolts]] was founded as a front for a group of supervillains to gain the trust of the world's various peace-keeping forces in preparation for a world domination scheme, by changing their identities and pretending to be heroes. At least half the original team members came to realize that they really liked not being feared and hated and decided to give up on world domination and remain good guys.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In the ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
==
▲* In the [[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command|BLoSC]] [[Fan Verse]] of ''[[For Good]]'', [[The Dragon|Warp Darkmatter]] holds this opinion [[Hidden Depths|beneath his front]] of [[Evil Pays Better]]. It's a crucial factor in his eventual [[Heel Face Turn]].
== Film ==▼
* ''[[American History X]]'' has Derek turning away from his neo-Nazi lifestyle as he realizes how unhappy and basically crappy it has made his life:
{{quote|"And I kept asking myself all the time, how did I buy into this shit? It was because I was pissed off, and nothing I ever did ever took that feeling away. I killed two guys, Danny, I killed them. And it didn't make me feel any different. It just got me more lost and I'm tired of being pissed off, Danny. I'm just tired of it."}}
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* Lord Shen in ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]'' is haunted by the perception that his parents hated him, and now is out to conquer Gongman City and then China to have something worthwhile in his life. However when pressed, even he can't say whether his dream is worth anything other than an excuse to kill anyone in his path.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' For the first few books, it seems Count Olaf will always win, but slowly we realize that he alienated the one person he loved and lost practically all his henchman, all on the hopes of getting the Baudelaire fortune. Guess how well that worked out?
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'':
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* After [[The Chronicles of Narnia|Edmund Pevensie]] gets captured by the White Witch, he realizes that satisfying his greed wasn't worth the consequences it entailed for Narnia and his siblings.
* This is pretty much the whole thing about [[Blessed with Suck|vampires]]. Sure, you'll [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|remain young for all eternity]], but in due time [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|life will lose its thrill]], and you've seen your last sunrise as well. Both [[The Undead|metaphorically]] AND literarily speaking. You'll have some really neat super powers, too, possibly including, but considering the fact that [[Our Vampires Are Different|all vampires are different]], most likely not limited to: [[Super Strength]], [[Super Speed]], [[Shapeshifting]], [[Nigh Invulnerability]] and [[Flight]]. But the primary thing that you will use these amazing abilities for is hunting down other humans in order to sustain your accursed life.
:Finally, the cruncher: while you may feel [[The Stoic|emotionally dead]], there is still a fairly good chance of you finding your one true love. But bear in mind that said person is also [[I'm a Humanitarian|your food.]] Thus, each time you see his/her exposed neck, you will feel the urge to bite him/her, an act that may curse him/her with the same disease that turned your life into a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] (well, unless you're a [[Succubus]] that is, in which case you have a rather different way of taking in nourishment. A process which will almost certainly outright kill your significant other. Consequently, you [[Can't Have Sex Ever]]). The alternative is either [[Love Hurts|leaving your beloved before anything bad can happen]], or, through [[The Power of Love]], resisting the urge... [[Mayfly-December Romance|Only to see your loved one grow old and wither away in front of your very eyes.]] Conclusion: [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Being a vampire sucks.]]
** It should be noted that in recent years vampires in literature have gone from 'cursed' to 'you, only [[What Measure Is a Non Super|better than you will ever be]]', with no real downsides that come close to outweighing the benefits. They've also by and large swapped being villains or antiheroes for being [[Boring Invincible Hero]]es. ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' is, of course, the worst offender and most well known.
** More recently, in other genres, vampires are often portrayed as [[Black Mage]]s.
* Raistlin Majere at the end of the ''[[Dragonlance]] Legends'' trilogy. {{spoiler|He gained so much power and was on the verge of becoming a God only to discover that continuing with his plan would result in the extinction of all life on the planet leaving him only God on a barren world. The alternative was only marginally better.}}
* This is the overarching meta-theme in ''[[The Lord of the Rings
* You also see this in Shakespeare's ''[[Richard III]]'', where at the beginning Richard says, "I am determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days." At the end of the play, {{spoiler|after, amongst other ill deeds, having his brother and nephews murdered,}} he remarks to himself:▼
{{quote|What do I fear? myself? there's none else by:▼
Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.▼
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am:▼
Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why:▼
Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?▼
Alack. I love myself. Wherefore? for any good▼
That I myself have done unto myself?▼
O, no! alas, I rather hate myself▼
For hateful deeds committed by myself! }}▼
* In the book version of ''[[The Talented Mr. Ripley]]'', Ripley gets away with everything. On the other hand, Ripley spends the rest of his life in paranoid fear of the police, wondering if the next cop he sees has figured out what Ripley has done.
* [[The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants|The ''Sisterhood'' series]] by [[Fern Michaels]]: Roland Sullivan in ''Lethal Justice'' learned this the hard way. However, it is does not cause him to [[Heel Face Turn]]... possibly because he's too spineless and weak to do it.
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has {{spoiler|Theon Greyjoy}}. After he {{spoiler|takes Winterfell}}, he thinks everyone he betrayed would stay his friends and accept him as their new leader. Instead, he gets [[0% Approval Rating]]. Crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] {{spoiler|by killing Bran and Rickon (or at least he thinks so)}} doesn't help his cause either.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' - "Selfless". The whole point of that episode was to show how damaged Anya was following her return to vengeance.
** Even soulless vampires are sometimes subject to this—if, like Harmony or [[Badass Decay|chipped Spike]], they're [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Ineffectual]] enough to be aware that they're Ineffectual. Harmony flat out says it in season four:
{{quote|'''Harmony:''' Being a vampire sucks. }}
** When Faith returns in Season Four it's clear that her hostility is accompanied by deep self-loathing of what she's become. She seemed to be happier with it prior to her awakening, but this is likely because her slide into darkness went in hand with her relationship with her [[Affably Evil|father figure]]. With him dead all she had left was the knowledge of how badly she'd fallen. Immediately after she leaves the season, she shows up in the first season of ''[[Angel]]'' attempting [[Suicide by Cop]], but thankfully ends up with a [[Heel Face Turn]] instead.
* The fact that ex-demon Cole in ''[[Charmed]]'' managed to [[Power Copying|amass enough demonic power]] to become [[Nigh Invulnerable]] is the main reason that Phoebe divorced him (as he had become a threat to her and her sisters); particularly tragic as he'd only done all of that so he could [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|escape hell]] to return to her. [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|He couldn't even kill himself]] from the resulting grief.
* Mentioned by Mitchell in one episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' after they've captured a Mook and promised him protection from the bad guys. Sam points out that "protection" will mean locking him up:
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* In ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]],'' Dayu made a [[Deal with the Devil]] but didn't get what she asked for in the way she wanted ([[Jerkass Genie|devils are like that]].) By this point, she's sick of being [[The Dragon]] to Master Xandred but there's no way out. However, she's no friendlier to the Rangers, at least not yet.
* Subverted in [[Voltaire (musician)|Voltaire]]'s song "When You're Evil". The last verse sounds almost like the singer is bothered by his villainous ways and longs for some human happiness... 'Almost' being the key word here:
{{quote|''It gets so lonely being evil.''
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* [[The Who]]'s "Behind Blue Eyes," which was intended to be a song for the villain of ''Lifehouse'', the album that became ''Who's Next''.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* The original and most ancient concept of Karma, before later doctrines, meant action. Hence, doing anything inherently created a new 'self' which was different. Grossly oversimplified, the first victim of wrongdoing is yourself, since you've made yourself into something less than you were.
* Similarly, in Christianity and Islam, the wages of sin are death, a weakening of your relationship with God, and eventual damnation if not repented.
** Satan himself is supposed to be constantly tortured by his decision. [[The Divine Comedy]] even has him {{spoiler|imprisoned with the rest of the sinners who betrayed their lords}}.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In the ''[[New World of Darkness|World of Darkness]]'', [[Failure Is the Only Option|you just can't win]]. Not only does [[Being Good Sucks|being good suck]], but if you decide to go the other way and embrace the dark side, you can look forward to a number of side effects - starting with batshit insanity. Each of the game lines comes with its own drawbacks, lovingly crafted to screw with that particular type of critter.
** [[Vampire: The Requiem|Vampires]]: Stronger predatory instincts and a thinner veneer of humanity, meaning the human prey can sense you want to eat them. This tends to make them want to stay away. But wait, that's not all. You're literally going to devolve into a mindless animal if you do enough evil. And moreover your new society consists of assholes and psychopaths, most of whom are way older and more powerful than you and there is that mutual risk of flipping out and killing each other whenever you first meet another vampire. [[Vampire: The Masquerade|The original Vampire]] doesn't let you off the hook lightly either. While meetings between two groups of vampires do not devolve into brawls every time, you're still stuck in the society of manipulative monsters, and the power difference between you and the [[Powers That Be]] is much greater.
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** [[Genius: The Transgression|Geniuses]]: (yes, it's fanmade, but shut up): the you that's actually, well, ''you'' slowly dissipates and your personality is overtaken by some strange, [[Eldritch Abomination|unknown and terrifying will]] that leads you to [[Ax Crazy|horrible acts]]. Also, the Geniuses who ''haven't'' given in to Illumination (likely including your friends and [[Mentor]]) will hunt you down and kill you. Granted, at that point it could be considered a [[Mercy Kill|mercy]] to ''you''.
* The fate of most servants of Chaos in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. Sure, the lucky few become immortal and godlike Daemon Princes, but the vast majority is doomed to become consumed by their emotions and end up as blood-crazed berserkers who live only to kill and die in battle, jaded hedonists who have to keep doing more and more depraved things simply to feel something, sorceress who are forever driven to expand their knowledge in an attempt to reach an impossible goal, or disease-ridden husks who are kept alive by supernatural powers despite their bodies rotting away. That is, if you don't simply end up becoming a mindless mass of betentacled gribblyness because of all the mutations you've been receiving, or simply sacrificed, as cannon fodder, as an experiment, to slate the hunger of ravenous daemons, as a sex toy to rapacious daemons, or simply [[For the Evulz]].
* Do enough truly evil stuff in ''[[Ravenloft]]'' and you'll end up becoming a darklord, along with the requisite powers and your own domain. Sounds fun, right? Except that you're confined to to your realm, you're forever being tormented by the objects of your desire, and the only way to escape is through a [[Heel Realization]]. Of course, as the sourcebook states, if you were the kind of person to ever ''have'' a [[Heel Realization]], you probably wouldn't have become a darklord in the first place.
==
* Several villains in [[Shakespeare]] plays find this out. [[Macbeth]] and his wife find that killing the king so that you can inherit the throne wasn't worth it, and [[Hamlet|Claudius]] also ends up learning that same lesson.
▲** You also see this in Shakespeare's ''[[Richard III]]'', where at the beginning Richard says, "I am determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days." At the end of the play, {{spoiler|after, amongst other ill deeds, having his brother and nephews murdered,}} he remarks to himself:
▲{{quote|What do I fear? myself? there's none else by:
▲Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.
▲Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am:
▲Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why:
▲Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
▲Alack. I love myself. Wherefore? for any good
▲That I myself have done unto myself?
▲O, no! alas, I rather hate myself
▲For hateful deeds committed by myself! }}
== [[Video Games]] ==
* {{spoiler|Aribeth}} in ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' turned to the dark side to get vengeance fully understanding that being evil sucks, and counted on the fact that her boss would betray her and kill her because she felt she deserved death for turning in the first place.
* Being evil for Darth Nihilus in [[Knights of the Old Republic]] ''really'' sucked, as indulging his supernatural hunger ate him away from the inside.
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** While in the original [[Final Fantasy VI]], Kefka was painted as a [[Complete Monster|psychopath without remorse, restrains or regrets who actively, and successfully, tried to make every bad situation much, much worse]], [[For the Evulz|all of it because he found it]] [[Laughing Mad|entertaining beyond reason]], the developers for [[Dissidia Final Fantasy]] decided to run with an [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]. There he is instead depicted as a man who's nigh-godlike powers have ruined his ability to feel joy to the point where he can only feel it when destruction is involved. The reprise of his well-known, hateful, nihilistic rant about the futility of the world from the original game takes on the nature of a wistful lament, and even as Kefka dies, he laughs. [[Alas, Poor Villain|A sad laugh.]]
=== [[Visual Novels]] ===
* Kotomine in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' discovered a long time ago that [[Being Good Sucks]] but kept trying anyway. After all, even if it brought him no satisfaction he ''did'' have a moral compass. And then his [[Ill Girl]] of a wife died and he had a chat with Gilgamesh and decided to be evil instead. By the time the story starts, [[Being Good Sucks]] ''and'' Being Evil Sucks and it pisses him off so much {{spoiler|that he attempts to bring a pseudo-[[Cosmic Horror]] into the world to get some answers.}} Basically: If being good is supposed to be a good thing, why doesn't he like it? If he should just be evil, [[Failure Is the Only Option|why does that feel wrong to him]]?
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Trudy of ''[[General Protection Fault]]'' loves Nick, but her scheming to take over the world and using him in those schemes ultimately drives him to reject her. In the [[Bad Future]], this leads to her killing him, [[Villainous BSOD|losing her sanity in the process]] and hunting down the rebels to "avenge" his death. In what actually happens, she tries to kill him, but is unable to go through with it, and ends up on the run, tormented by dreams of guilt about her actions and by Nick's last disappointed look toward her. After Nick and Ki get engaged, she slips past the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and once [[Driven to Suicide|attempts suicide]], but meeting Akhilesh enables her to come to terms with herself and work more toward atoning for what she has done.
* [[
* During the "Court of Karnak" arc in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', Karnak and Bulgak both realize that reigning in Hell is utterly meaningless—no one truly rules Hell. They are all prisoners.
** Bulgak responds by [[Heel Face Turn|renouncing his old, selfish, egotistical self]], which [[Fantastic Nuke|releases his essence back into the world]]. Karnak simply appoints himself warden.
* Alt-Schlock in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' learned this far far too late after he'd [[The End of the World as We Know It|eliminated nearly all of humanity]] and created a [[Crapsack World]] of only one city who's few remaining citizens are living drug addled lives with no memories and that the only way to maintain it will slowly destroy what's left. He finally shuts off the nano machines keeping himself alive because he's lost everything and doesn't even want to live anymore. Schlock prime is heading in the same direction.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
* The ''[[The
▲== Web Original ==
▲* The ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' prequel book ''Start of Darkness'' details the origins of Xykon and Redcloak. Redcloak eventually learns how much being evil sucks after Xykon makes him {{spoiler|kill his brother (who had already tried to run away from Xykon's evil scheme twice)}}.
▲* ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]''.
* ''[[A Very Potter Musical]]'' has this gem:
{{quote|'''Voldemort:''' Killing people doesn't make them like you, it just, it just makes them dead.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Batman]]'': In the episode "The Apprentice", a kid in Barbara Gordon's class falls in with the Joker. Both have a weird sense of humor, and Joker makes him his sidekick as a mock to Batman and Batgirl. However, when they succeed against the caped duo and the Joker tells him to kill Batgirl, the kid is horrified. [[Not What I Signed on For|He just wanted to make a statement and defy convention, not kill.]] He wisely bails and the now favorable odds let the heroes beat the Joker.
* This is essentially the reason for Dinobot [[Heel Face Turn|switching sides]] during the first story of ''[[Beast Wars]]''.
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* In the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' episode "Joyride", one Jokerz initiate tags along as another member of the gang hijacks an experimental advanced fighter craft. He becomes increasingly horrified as the hijacker goes mad with power and does things like attacking a rival gang armed with nothing but chains and tasers. When he overhears the guy denouncing the Jokerz as a crutch and ignoring Terry's warnings {{spoiler|that the craft's illegal nuclear reactor is going critical}} that's the last straw. He knocks down the lunatic with a folding chair and leaves the Jokerz forever.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
* Simple question: In works of fiction, who tends to have more admirers and sympathizers among fans, the good guys or the bad guys? Well, there you go.
* Alexis de Toqueville once met a plantation owner who had impregnated several of his slaves and was surprised to learn that by a quirk in the local law he could not free them: Which meant that he had to live knowing that his ''own children'' would grow up as slaves.
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