Card-Carrying Villain: Difference between revisions

* A somewhat...[[Narm|jarring]] variant in the first [[Spider-Man]] film where the Green Goblin makes Aunt May finish the Lord's Prayer.

{{quote|'''Aunt May:''' "Deliver us..."

'''Aunt May:''' "From EEEVIL!" }}

* Ratigan of ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' is no [[Harmless Villain]], but in the spirit of Shakespearean villains, he loves boasting about how good he is at being bad.

{{quote|You're all a bunch of assholes, you know why? You don't have the guts to be what you want to be. You need people like me! You need people like me so you can point your fucking fingers and say 'That's the bad guy!' What that make you? Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide. How to lie. Me? I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say goodnight to the bad guy!}}

* Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg from ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' is a great example, though he tries to justify this behavior by claiming that life comes from chaos and, therefore, destruction actually creates and improves life.

'''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]].

** While he's this trope, he chucks it off to being ''born'' a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] (in this case, a planet), with the intended purpose of keeping balance, and blames his existence on [[Neglectful Precursors]] of some sort. He likes the being evil part, but he doesn't like the being sealed or keeping balance parts. {{spoiler|[[Karma Houdini|He gets his wish]]...sort of.}}

* Alex Russo in ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]''. Whenever someone refers to her as evil, dark, or scary, she just grins and/or giggles, she actively encourages her [[Cool Loser]] status at school and deliberately provokes fights with her brother, Justin, because "that's how things are supposed to be".

* The Big Cheese from the ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' "Secret Service Dentists" sketch, who not only shoots his own [[Right-Hand-Cat|Right Hand]] <s>Cat</s>[[Right-Hand-Cat|Rabbit]] but also makes death threats including phrases like "...and because I'm so evil..."

* Pretty much all the villains in most ''[[Super Sentai]]'' or ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' series.

* While the Goa'uld of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' are [[Exclusively Evil]], none of them ever seem aware of how evil they are. Anubis, who also happens to be the most evil Goa'uld, however, is a little different. From his dialogue as "Jim", it's implied that he knows ''exactly'' how evil and vicious he is. He spends a good deal of his appearance complaining about how cruel Anubis' actions are and how unfair it is that nobody is stopping him. All while pretending to be a good guy.

* John Bly, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]]'', actually cites uses this trope as the reason he refuses to free his now-useless hostage in the episode "Fountain of Youth". "Why don't you let me go? I'm no use to you anymore." "Because I'm evil, Professor."

* {{spoiler|Jim}} Moriarty from ''[[Sherlock]]''.

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

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** And now 4th Edition has tossed out the second dimension of alignment. The law-chaos scale determining another portion of one's mindset is gone, so now alignment is simply determining just ''how'' good or evil you are.

*** Debatable, since alignment in 4th Edition has absolutely zero effect on your character (no penalties for acting out of alignment, no "Evil" or "Good" spell descriptors, etc.), it could be said that alignment is now only cosmetic.

** They recently created a new variant for casual play called Archenemy, a one-vs.-many game where, by dint of being the [[Big Bad]] of the game, the outnumbered player gets a number of benefits, including use of a "scheme" deck, a set of cards (that actually have the type Scheme) maintained separately from the library that give special benefits (usually for free) once per turn. (The idea is that the Archenemy is such a threat that other Planeswalkers have put aside differences and banded together to stop him.) The kicker is that each Scheme has a grandiose title (usually accompanying an equally devastating effect), often degenerating into card-carrying villainy, and some darkly appropriate flavor text. For example, Behold The Power Of Destruction destroys all nonland permanents target player controls. The flavor text?

{{quote|''I'd call that a successful first test. Golem! Rearm the [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Doom Citadel]]!''}}

* ''[[Exalted]]'' gives us the Infernal Exalted; while they aren't [[Exclusively Evil]], the cards are stacked against them. For one thing, if they go against the will of their [[The Legions of Hell|Yozi]] masters, they accrue Torment, which can backlash and affect mortals in nasty ways. The only way to bleed off torment is to engage in Acts of Villainy—stick your foes in death traps, force an innocent into an arranged marriage, monologue at your archnemesis, etc. This is what happens when the guy behind the plan is ''the cosmic embodiment of douchebaggery''. Mind you, it's doesn't say ''who'' you have to perform some of those Acts of Villainy on...

** Also a subversion in that any given Infernal's [[Evil Plan|dastardly evil scheme]] could be [[Completely Missing the Point|"make creation into a utopia"]] and their [[Poke the Poodle|Acts of Villainy]] [[Good Feels Good|don't even have to be evil]]. All that matters is that they ''[[Dangerously Genre Savvy|act]]'' like a Card-Carrying Villain.

** Bonus points: his voice actor in the [[Anime of the Game|anime adaptation]] is [[Norio Wakamoto]].

* Luca Blight from ''[[Suikoden II]]'', even after [[Annoying Arrows|being showered with arrows]], [[Climax Boss|battling three squads of the opposing army's most powerful soldiers simultaneously]], being showered with ''[[No One Could Survive That|even more]]'' arrows, and [[Duel Boss|losing a duel to the death with the main character]], still has the strength to roar triumphantly in his [[Final Speech]] that even though it took hundreds to kill him, he [[Omnicidal Maniac|slaughtered humans by the thousands]], and that he is probably [[Complete Monster|the single most evil man who has ever lived]] (which is probably true), before finally dying.

{{quote|"OK, all right, fine! How about this reason? Seems as good as any. I do all the wonderful things I do because [[For the Evulz|I want to see the miserable look on the faces of people like YOU when you're wallowing in despair, dismay, grief, frustration, misery]]...all sorts of other unpleasant nouns."}}

** [[Justified Trope|He does explain later on that people's hatred of him is what keeps him from]] [[Ret-Gone|disappearing]]. [[Double Subverted|Still, when he enjoys everything else he mentioned and specifically does it as his only source of entertainment with no regrets or]] [[I Did What I Had to Do]]...[[Complete Monster|There's just no excuse]].

== Web Comics ==

* Xykon from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' prides himself on his evilness.

** The Linear Guild literally carries (business) cards.

** As do {{spoiler|their masters}}, the Inter-Fiend Cooperation Commission, though, considering they're fiends (and therefore literal incarnations of evil), this trope rather goes with the territory.

* [[Doctor Steel]] is apparently a member of the [[Weird Trade Union|Mad Scientists Union (Local 42)]] and also seems to be on an Evil Genius Committee.

* The Villain Evil from the Flash cartoon "[[Bonus Stage (web animation)|Bonus Stage]]" is also ''named'' "Evil".

* Ganondorf, from the Machinima series ''[[Melee's End]]'', seems to only act as an antagonist because he was designed as a bad guy.

* [[The Spoony Experiment|Dr. Insano]] and [[Ask That Guy With The Glasses|Ask That Guy]].

* Evil Blah in ''[[The Demented Cartoon Movie]]''.

* Marik in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'' has this tendency. Ironically, he is one of the ''least'' evil characters.

'''Marik''': No! The card game is essential to the plot! [[Evil Is Hammy|The EVIL plot!]] }}

* Vegeta in season 1 of [[Dragonball Z Abridged]]:

* Let us not forget ''[[Captain Planet]]''. While, contrary to popular belief, the show's villains generally ''did'' have some kind of discernible motive (usually raw profit at the cost of the environment), causing damage to the planet for its own sake sometimes seemed to [[Flanderization|take a life of its own and supersede anything else]]. In particular, villains such as Verminous Skumm, Dr. Blight on a bad day, and the evil spirit Zarm tended toward the "Corruption/Destruction for its own sake" end of the scale.

* Azula from [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]] embraces the rest of the world's view that she's evil. She even calls herself a monster in the later episodes, but that's actually her way of coping with the self-loathing brought on by those beliefs.

* Megatron in most of the earlier ''[[Transformers]]'' incarnations had a rather grating tendency to laugh and say how evil he was, or how evil his plan was, just so that the kids knew who to root for.

** [[Expository Theme Song|"Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons"]]

'''Polaris:''' You gonna wash your hands?

'''"Luthor":''' No...[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}KyYOuuRmQp0 cause I'm EVIL]. }}

* A bit of a ''plot point'' in the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'' episode "Phantoms". Phantom Zone escapee Drax hears the voices of his still-imprisoned parents in his head, constantly reminding him that he's ''evil'' and always will be. Supervillains really do make [[Abusive Parents]].

** In the series finale, despite never having self-identified as evil before (quite the opposite, in fact), the still-alive villain says to...no one in particular, "Evil does not die. It evolves," in an ill-fated [[Sequel Hook]].

* In ''[[Yin Yang Yo!|Yin Yang Yo]]'', every single villain is a Card-Carrying Villain and [[Large Ham]], like [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Carl the EVIL Cockrotch Wizard]] or his tyrant brother, Herman. They're the biggest suspects, but there are a lot of runners up. These include everyone who's evil, basically. [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The]] [[Ultimate Evil|Night Master]] is the worst, as he's the embodiment of EVIL until [[Villain Decay|his defeat]]. There's evil restaurants and everything.

* After [[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]] explains that [[Christmas Episode]] makes people "feel good," Skeletor responds, "I don't want to feel good! I want to feel evil!"

* Lucius on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''

Hail Pottsylvania, Hail, Hail, Hail!" }}

** In the movie, when Natasha starts musing about what a wonderful life they could have together if they could only stop moose and squirrel, she mentions about how they could have children that they raise to be "little monsters". This is mentioned in the same breath as them living a peaceful life in a house by the sea.

** You doubt he wanted to be evil at first? When he was turned into a baby for one episode (don't ask), he spent his entire time breaking things to the (adorably) malevolent chant of "Evil! Evil!"

* In ''[[Angry Beavers]]'', Norbert's costume [[Super Villain]] persona: Baron Von Bad Beaver, {{spoiler|later extended to Baron Von Once Bad Then Good Then Bad Again Beaver}}.

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Mr. Burns]] from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' sometimes introduces himself with the Imperial March music from [[Star Wars]].

* [[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.

{{quote|'''Captain Zero:''' You're a team! The best, the better-looking, more powerful, and, dare I say? More devious!

'''Zip:''' ...Oh. }}

* 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.