Card-Carrying Villain: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Burns''': I'm absolutely evil.

Villains like this may be greedy, violent, [[Badass]], etc. but most importantly, they are [[Obviously Evil|Evil]]. It's in the job description. They refer to ''themselves'' as Evil, with a capital "E". Stretch it out to "Eeeeeevil" for emphasis. (They may even pronounce the "I" with emphasized shortness. Ee-vill. Like the froo-it of the dev-ill.) Terminal cases even require their minions to call them "[[The Magnificent|Your Evilness]]". In fact, calling them evil, vile, ruthless, or any generally negative epithet will be an [[Insult Backfire]] and be [[Arson, Murder, and Admiration|taken as the kindest of compliments.]]

 

 

Thus, they are expected to [[Kick the Dog]] and never [[Pet the Dog]]. If they acted differently, [[Slave to PR|they'd lose their Evil ranking]]. Especially ironic if the reason they [[Face Heel Turn|fell]] was because they wanted freedom from constraints on their actions. Whatever action they as a good guy wanted to do is considered "bad", so they have to do other bad things as well now. After a while, they usually forget about [[Motive Decay|whatever goal it was that turned them Evil]] in the first place. So...in a very odd way, they're very much [[The Fettered]]; since their actions are bound by the expectation of Evil.

'''Zorg:''' *Smirking* I know. }}

* Bowler Hat Guy from ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]'' aspires to be one of these. He's [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|not very good]] [[Hilarity Ensues|at it]].

{{quote|'''Mayor''': Master, what exactly is the Evil Council's plan?

'''Betty''': [[Department of Redundancy Department|It is evil. It is so evil. It is a bad, bad plan that will hurt...many people...who are good. I think is great, because it is so bad.]] }}

* 1979's ''The Villain,'' a western comedy with Kirk Douglas as the hapless, [[Looney Tunes|Wile E. Coyote-esque]] titular character.

* Oba from the second [[Joshuu Sasori|''Female Prisoner Scorpion'']] film, ''Jailhouse 41''. She's very quick to exaggerate her own badness compared to the legendary Sasori (the titular character), but her crowning moment of evilness is the point at which she outdoes all the other women present in describing the crime for which she was imprisoned: {{spoiler|she drowned her two-year-old son and then stabbed her unborn baby to death, because her husband had an affair. She hikes up her dress to show off the scars...and keeps it up and in everyone's face for what seems like an eternity.}} She absolutely embraces this persona and the fear it engenders in almost everyone, and ultimately {{spoiler|dies still muttering about going back to her home island, burning down everyone's house, and stabbing them all.}}

 

== Literature ==

{{quote|'''Greenyham''': ''You can't do that!''

'''Vetinari''': ''Can I not? I'm a tyrant. It's what we do.'' }}

* Acheron Hades of the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' series ''literally'' wrote the book (''Degeneracy for pleasure and profit'') and extols the wonder of doing evil for its own sake. He also complains that profit "dilutes the taste of wickedness".

* Some of ''[[Redwall]]'''s villains clearly revel in this trope. Vilu Daskar, upon being praised by his crew for inventive sadism, modestly says "Oh, I do my best to be the worst." The trope gets even more obvious in ''Triss'', when the villainous pirate crew does ''three [[Villain Song|song and dance numbers]]'' dedicated to their own gruesome behaviour. The irony here being that Grubbage, one of the singers of the second song (''"'Tis nice to be a villain/wot all honest creatures fears/and terrorise the beasts for miles around"''), does a [[Heel Face Turn]] in a sadly ''very'' brief skimmed-over epilogue.

* The Nome King from [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''[[Land of Oz]]'' stories is a sadistic old bastich who enjoys being angry because it makes everyone around him miserable.

** Fenrir Greyback could also count. There's his memorable line towards the end of ''Half-Blood Prince'', in which he openly admits to coming to the castle without being invited, just because he wants to kill and eat children. While still in human form.

** If ''The Methods of Rationality'' is right, anyone creating a horcrux would pretty much have to be a completely unironic Card-Carrying Villain. The theory is, you need to do something so depraved and inhumane that you literally cannot live with yourself and break your own soul to get a piece to put in the horcrux. ([[Nightmare Fuel|Yikes]].)

* The poster-boy for [[Yellow Peril]], [[Fu Manchu]], started out as one of these ("They die like flies! And I am the God of Destruction!"), before turning into something closer to a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]].

* [[Complete Monster|Conrad Bland]] in Mike Resnick's ''Walpurgis III''. He's quoted as saying "Evil is its own justification," declares that a decent and honorable man is "the Enemy" he must destroy ... and he'd never make a pact with Satan, because [[Eviler Than Thou|he doesn't feel any need to own Satan's soul]].

 

* Taken literally in [[Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger]] where all the villains carry business cards that they toss to The Akibarangers

* The Janitor from ''[[Scrubs]]'' identifies himself as evil and takes great dislike in anyone who doesn't fear him, coining the phrase "Fearitude" for his presence.

{{quote|'''Sherlock Holmes:''' You're insane.

''' {{spoiler|Jim}} Moriarty:''' [[Insult Backfire|You're just getting that now?]] }}

 

== Music ==

* Danish metal band Evil only released one EP, but half the tracks on there fit this trope perfectly: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fOy3n-MHAI their namesake track] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNtQ4k96Vjc "Son of the Bitch."]

* Many songs from the point of view of a serial killer. For example, "The Ripper" by [[Judas Priest]].

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

'''Catbert''': All of them. Some are just more noticeable. }}

** Don't forget Phil The Prince of Insufficient Light.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* [[The Undertaker]], when giving his [[Motive Rant]] upon one of his heel turns, said, "And I know that some of you are wondering how it is that I can join forces with such an evil, despicable, maniacal individual [as [[Paul Bearer]]]...well, if that isn't reason enough all by itself then I don't guess I can explain it to you folks any better!" He would go around calling himself The Lord of Darkness and saying things like, "Embrace the purity of evil."

* William Regal actually has the word "Villain" written on his tights.

 

== Radio ==

* The ironically named Mr Gently Benevolent in the Dickens parody ''[[Bleak Expectations]]''. Also, the less ironically named Hardthrashers and their cousins, the Sternbeaters, Whackwallops, and Grimpunches.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** And then there's the whole reason they're like that—the Ebon Dragon had an active hand in their creation. Each of the Primordials represents a principle of Creation, and the Ebon Dragon once represented betrayal. Every thing he does is based around screwing someone over, even if it screws him as well.

 

 

== Video Games ==

** However, if it suits his plan, he would still present himself as a 'mild mannered' officer of NOL, as shown with anyone else not Hakumen, Ragna, Kokonoe or Rachel. He still gave off the vibes of 'suspicious and is dangerous to trust' regardless.

* Most demons from the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series actively try to cultivate an evil and [[Badass]] image for themselves through means that vary from [[Kick the Dog|wanton acts of violence and depravity]] to [[Poke the Poodle|not recycling and playing Ding Dong Ditch.]] Most of them [[Noble Demon|fall into the latter category]] - place them next to the former, and they will [[Even Evil Has Standards|recoil in disgust.]]

* Murray The Demonic Skull from ''[[Monkey Island]]''.

** [[Big Bad|LeChuck]] from the same series.

* Helen, Mell, and, later, Dave in ''[[Narbonic]]''. Helen is, in fact, a Shirt Wearing Villain—her habitual outfit includes an old T-shirt which reads ''"evil"'', with a heart dotting the ''i''.

* ''[[Bob and George]]'' actually has this [[Catch Phrase]]: "What? I'm evil. [[I Lied]]."

* In ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'', all of the monsters of the mountain identify themselves as evil, though only the Drow (and King Louie the Liche) act like it. The only real difference between the rest of the monsters and the "good" humans and elves are a tendency to eat other sentient beings and a casual approach to mortal violence.

* ''[[Concerned]]'' has Wallace Breen of ''[[Half-Life]]'' become something like this.

* ''[[Precocious (Webcomic)|Precocious]]''? Well, the main kids [http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2009/06/30 play as the Super Villain Union]. And when it's time to pick the Class President? Dionne quickly turns the campaign negative [http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2010/03/12 as her selling point.]

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Ellen was this initially in an effort to give herself some sense of identity.

 

== Web Original ==

'''Vegeta:''' OF COURSE NOT, I'M [[Precision F-Strike|F**KING]] EVIL! }}

** Also Freiza, he even demands God to strike him down [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulu|and laughs when he survives unscathed]]

 

== Western Animation ==

** Evil is a whole lifestyle in ''[[Kim Possible]]'', with its own magazines (Shego reads ''Villainess'' while not listening to Drakken's [[Evil Plan]]s), supervillain conventions and trade shows, and a corporation that supplies equipment and henchmen ("[[Trope Co|HenchCo]]"). Though a [[Disney]]-produced show, they aren't above take potshots at the corporate lifestyle and how nicely it dovetails with being a villain.

*** It even has an own TV show: Evil Eye for the Bad Guy.

** On a character basis, Father calls himself the second most evil adult, then refering to his father as the 'World's Most [[Ultimate Evil]]' before reawakening him. Grandfather goes on to refer to himself as pure evil.

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' has [[Harmless Villain]] Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. He calls himself evil and has a company called 'Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated', complete with [[Jingle]]. In several episodes, he has a [[Villain Song]] where he declares how evil he is. It comes to the point he'd erase the media just to prevent his fellow villains from finding out he (accidentally) saved a kitty. In the [[Christmas Special]], he feared he'd be expelled from his evil scientist association for not hating Christmas.

* Dick Dastardly is a true, if ineffective, card-carrying villain, and probably the most popular bad guy in the Hanna-Barbera stable. The narrator of ''[[Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines]]'' calls him "the deadly, diabolical, despicable demon of the skyways."

* [[The Rival|Captain Zero]] from ''[[TUGS]]'' - he's not so much outright evil as sort of [[Honest John's Dealership|a shyster]], but it's touched on in the first episode.

* In ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' This is [[Invoked]] in a very literal sense, as [[Big Bad]] [[Sorcerous Overlord]] Mumm-Ra must [[By the Power of Grayskull|call upon]] "Ancient Spirits of Evil" to grant him access to his [[One-Winged Angel]] Form.

* A number of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' villains refer to themselves as such (most notably [[Large Ham|Technus]]). [[Big Bad]] Vlad Plasmius initially averted this - for the first two seasons, being called a villain was almost a [[Berserk Button]] for him - but after [[Villain Decay]] began to set in he started acting more like a conventional card-carrying baddie.

 

== Real Life ==

* The corporation-targeting criminal organization known as The Monster with 21 Faces left this note when a police investigator committed suicide by setting himself on fire after failing to catch them: "We are bad guys. That means we've got more to do other than bullying companies. [[Evil Feels Good|It's fun to lead a bad man's life.]]"

* Anton Lavey, founder of the Church of Satan. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Anton_LaVey_photo.jpg Just look at him, for bad's sake.]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Villain Ball]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]