Dark Is Evil: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"From the world of darkness I did loose demons and devils in the power of scorpions to torment."''|'''[[Axe Crazy|Charles Manson]]'''}}

* ''[[Berserk]]'': the [[God of Evil|Godhand]] are the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of the series. All of them are Black Demons.

** Subverted with [[Dark Messiah|Femto]], as his human self, {{spoiler|Griffith}}, has [[Light Is Not Good|various connections with the light.]]

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': the homunculi all wear black and have dark hair.

** Interestingly subverted with the leader of the homunculi, [[Big Bad|Father]], [[Light Is Not Good|who wears all white.]] Eventually played straight {{spoiler|with his true form, an [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Living Shadow]] with evil eyes all over the place.}}

* ''[[Hellsing]]'': [[Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant|Alucard]] the vampire has darkness powers. He's also '''DRACULA''' himself.

* ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'': [[Complete Monster|Koichi Shido]] wears black, complete with [[Scary Shiny Glasses]] and pale white skin.

* ''[[Film/Howls Moving Castle|Howls Moving Castle]]'': Howl's night-black bird-monster form is said to be wrecking his soul, even when he does have a good reason to fight.

* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] A's'': while the Book of Darkness herself is a textbook case of [[Dark Is Not Evil]], the [[Enemy Without|Darkness of the Book of Darkness]] is an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[Eldritch Abomination]].

** Ditto with the Ruler of Darkness, Hayate's completely [[Evil Twin]] that was formed from the remnants of the Darkness of the Book of Darkness during the climax of the ''Battle of Aces'' video game.

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'': Johan Trinity pilots The Dark Based Eins Gundam.

* ''[[Onegai My Melody]]'': the [[Big Bad]] is simply called "The Spirit of Dark Power", and anyone possessed by it will say the word "dark" as a [[Verbal Tic]].

** On the other hand, it ''is'' made clear that Poison-type Pokemon (the most "evil" type before Dark was introduced) aren't evil, even if they're sometimes forced to serve evil masters.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': The '''Dark''' Kingdom and the '''Black''' Moon Clan.

* ''[[Saint Seiya]]'': The Black Saints.

** [[Everybody Hates Hades|Hades]] and his Specters.

 

 

== Card Games ==

** Kamigawa being the foremost rare exception.

** Black is also the color of entrepeneurs and businessmen - a not-so-subtle [[Take That]] against materialism?

* Darkseid (pronouned "dark side") in [[The DCU]].

* In the ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' "Max Bubba" story, Bubba's Vikings all wear black armor. The ([[Deliberate Values Dissonance|somewhat]]) more good Vikings that side with Johnny have rather paler armor and weapons.

** It's somewhat of a subversion: [[Word of God]] has described the Black Lanterns as being [[Above Good and Evil]]. To them, they're simply fighting off the light, which they see as intruding in the universe (hey, no life, no wars, right!). It's more [[Order Versus Chaos|Darkness is Order and Light is Chaos]], really.

* Marvel has [[Doctor Strange|Dormammu and Umar]], rulers of the Dark Dimension. It's been implied that the Dark Dimension is something of a [[Fisher King|Fisher Kingdom]], however, and millennia of Dormammu's rule has made it into the nasty place it is today.

* The Dark Side in ''[[Star Wars]]''.

** Also from [[Star Wars]], Darth Vader wears a dark costume in the original trilogy and Darth Sideous wears a cloak so his face is in shadow. [[Word of God]] is that Luke wears a light costume and it gets progressively darker as he goes from innocence to accepting the dark side as something that exists and overcoming it as opposed to avoiding or destroying it.

* Deconstructed sharply in Spike Lee's biopic of ''Malcolm X''. In the prison library scene, Charles Dutton's character gives a monologue about the implicit association of darkness with evil and lightness with good in the English language, which has a profound effect on the man who would later name himself X.

** Actually, a ''lot'' of bigotry has historically been "justified" (in the minds of the bigots, at least) by applying this trope to black people. No wonder it has [[Unfortunate Implications]].

* Surely, a group called [[The Dark Knight Saga|the League of Shadows]] will do nothing but good deeds, right? Right...?

* Some Disney Villains have this:

** [[The Great Mouse Detective|Professor Ratigan]] has a black suit, which contrasts with Basil's brighter outfit.

** Scar from [[The Lion King]]. He has black Mane and dark skin.

** [[Everybody Hates Hades|Hades]] from [[Hercules]]

* ''Darkness'', a US-Spanish coproduction from 2002, plays this trope straight, if you couldn't guess from the title straight away.

* From [[Legend]], the demonic villain Darkness.

** And before him was his own master, Morgoth (which means "The Dark Enemy of the World"). Some of Tolkien's unpublished writings imply that dark is associated with evil because Morgoth's [[Omnicidal Maniac|ultimate goal]] is to tear down the world until it is reduced to the original primordial void.

** Notably averted with Tolkien's Dark Elves, the Moriquendi. While "Dark Elf" has come to mean evil in nearly every subsequent [[High Fantasy]], the Moriquendi are simply Elves that never went to Aman and never saw the light of the Two Trees of Valinor. They're just as good, if not better, than any other group of Elves and are even represented by one of the most popular Elves ever, Legolas.

* According to the movie adaptations of ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]'', the Pevensie children are divided in two categories: Peter and Lucy, who are fair haired, are the good kids compared to Edmund and Susan, who are dark-haired and fall to the dark side at least once ([[Anti-Hero|Edmund]] betrays his siblings to the [[Big Bad]] and [[Mis Blamed|Susan]] falls into disgrace later, when she refuses to believe in Narnia anymore and is left outside Heaven - aka Narnia).

* The Dark Faery court from Melissa Marr's ''Wicked Lovely'' series. Although, this is possibly a subversion - they are more cruel than evil and need to be to survive. They are essencially emotional parasites, but Irial truly loved Niall and Leslie (although he was very cruel to them, using Leslie as an emotional conduit and stripping her of emotion and free wiil and allowing his servants and guards to both phsically and sexually abuse Niall), and although Gabriel comes into the 'abusing Niall' category, although only physical, he was NOT one of the fey who raped Niall - this is a common misunderstanding - and can be incredibly kind to his halfling children. Niall himself comes more under [[Dark Is Not Evil]], although the injustices of the past push him more and more towards the moral grey area Iri and Gabe occupy.

* In ''[[The Rape of the Lock]],'' Umbriel (whose name means "Shadowy") goes to the Underworld (the pit of Ill-Humor) to bring up a bag of temper tantrums to create even more chaos.

* The [[The Fair Folk|court that comes out]] during the dark of the moon in ''[[Wildwood Dancing]].''

* Mr. Hood and his "family" in ''[[The Thief of Always]],'' though they don't seem dark at first...

* The [[Big Bad]] in the ''[[Gone]]'' series is sometimes called "The Darkness".

** Also, most of the main villains have been dark brown tabby toms, for some reason. Even Thistleclaw, a gray and white cat, accidetally got described as dark brown a couple times. Once fans pointed this out, villains began to have different pelt colors: Sol and Mapleshade are torties and Dark Forest cat Snowtuft is white.

* Averted in Diana Henstell's NEW MORNING DRAGON, where the Devil insists on wearing white suits at all times.

* Dark Elves and Dark Eldar from ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' respectively.

* The Ebon Dragon in ''[[Exalted]]''. A fifty-mile-long dragon made of the shadows of everything, he's also the inventor and embodiment of the concept of being a [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|treacherous]], [[Complete Monster|sadistic]], [[For the Evulz|needlessly cruel]] [[Magnificent Bastard|scheming asshole]].

 

 

== Videogames ==

* [[Nintendo]] loves this trope.

** ''[[Kirby]]'' [[Final Boss|Final Bosses]] Dark Matter, Dark Mind, and Dark Nebula. They're not related to each other.

*** Well, Dark Mind seems to be the [[Alternate Universe|Mirror World's]] version of Dark Matter.

** ''[[Metroid Prime]] 2'' and Dark Samus.

*** {{spoiler|[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Darkrai_(Mystery_Dungeon_2_character) Darkrai]. Freaking Darkrai. Did I mention he tells you to go kill yourself?}}

*** Also, "Dark", the English name of one of the 17 elements common to all Pokémon, was localized directly from "Evil", as the type is known in Japanese. This explains why many moves of the Dark-type involve [[Combat Pragmatist|doing immoral things like stealing or lying]] or having "bad thoughts". Though the type had relation to darkness even in the original games, such as Eevee evolving into Umbreon at night.

** Played straight for [[Our Dragons Are Different|Hydreigon]]. Although (like all Pokémon) they can be loyal to skilled trainers, they are generally nasty creatures that savagely attack [[Anything That Moves]] and [[Extreme Omnivore|devour everything in sight with their three heads]]. Oh, and it's {{spoiler|[[Complete Monster|Ghetsis']]}} signature Pokémon too.

** ''[[Kid Icarus]]'' generally follows this trope, perhaps [[Anvilicious|Anviliciously]].

** While it can be that [[Dark Is Not Evil]] in later games, the Dark Magic in [[Fire Emblem Jugdral]] and the people who use it, the [[Religion of Evil|Lopt Sect]], are very evil, although in Thracia 776, you can recruit an ex-clergyman.

* ''Opoona'' follows this quite heavily, to the point that most people can't even enter true darkness without serious damage to their mind and body. {{spoiler|Justified in that it's actually [[The Corruption]], created by the ultimate [[Big Bad]] of the setting, though not the game itself.}}

* In the ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' series, the titular character is an [[Anti-Hero]] with a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]], but that's the extent of any [[Dark Is Not Evil]] overtones. The world's magical [[Psycho Serum]] is black and purple '''DARK''' Eco, Precursors [[The Corruption|corrupted]] by it become '''DARK''' Makers, [[Always Chaotic Evil|Metal Heads]] literally live off of it, and the first game's [[Big Bad Duumvirate|Big Bads]] turned into [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]] after being exposed to it for too long. Oh, and out of the five people who underwent the Dark Warrior Program, only Jak got out alive...because he's [[The Chosen One|special]]. Not to mention the fact that both Jak ''and'' Daxter's [[Super-Powered Evil Side|dark alter-egos]] are [[Ax Crazy]].

* The [[Fatal Frame]] series of games almost always involve some failed ritual releasing an evil, corrupting presence known simply as the "Malice" or the "Dark".

* While Ragna from ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' follows the [[Dark Is Not Evil|opposite of this trope]], the [[Eldritch Abomination|Black]] [[Orochi|Beast]] responsible for the [[Crapsack World]] {{spoiler|and the source of Ragna's power}} embodies it. In Jubei's own words, it was "evil, the likes of which the world has never seen".

* In [[Minecraft]], enemies spawn in any dark areas (whereas non-enemy animals spawn on grass in the light).

* [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Shadow the Hedgehog]]. Subverted in that he's more of an [[Anti-Hero]] ([[Heel Face Revolving Door|most of the time]]).

* In [[Warriors of Might and Magic]], you can't learn Dark spells, and the few swords imbued with the dark element aren't really strong. Furthermore, Skeletons, Ghouls, Undeads, Wraiths, and Demons have the Dark Element with them.

** The RPG series notes that Dark magic isn't evil ''as such'' - it is how you use it that is important - but it includes spells whose casting can be called evil no matter the circumstances (sacrificing a hireling for a temporary advantage!) and is associated with the Path of Dark, a religion/philosophy that nigh-universally seems to attract cruel people that want to do bad deeds.

* The Darkspawn of ''[[Dragon Age]]''. The Taint that created them originated from the corrupted Golden City in the Fade, now known as the Black City. Subverted slightly in ''Awakening'' with the appearance of intelligent Darkspawn, but even then, the more antagonistic faction of the awakened Darkspawn wear black armor.

* The [[Final Fantasy]] series uses this along with its [[Light Is Not Good|sister trope.]]

** ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' has {{spoiler|the Emperor of Hell, though the emperor of Heaven [[Light Is Not Good|isn't any better.]]}}

*** This deserves further clarification--the original IV equates dark-elemental abilities with [[The Dark Side]], even having the dark-elemental protagonist's "Spirit" score drop as he levels up and becomes more hardened. As part of the plotline, he's eventually required to give up his powers and [[Restart At Level One]] with light-elemental abilities. ''[[Final Fantasy IV the After Years]]'' goes a more balanced route--having been unable to completely purge his dark side, the hero is ultimately forced to accept and control it. ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' takes this all the way to [[Dark Is Not Evil]].

*** Also, in [[Dissidia Final Fantasy]], he has dark-based moves, such as Shadow Flare and Octaslash.

* [[League of Legends]]: Morgana is a fallen angel, [[Light Is Good|in contrast with her sister, Kayle.]]

** Nocturne. He'd give [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'s {{spoiler|Darkrai}} a serious run for his money.

** Viegar may or may not be a [[Harmless Villain]], but he certainly fits the bill, due to use of Darkness spells and the wearing of Purple and Black.

** While Swain doens't wear any dark colors, he does turn into a Demonic Crow.

 

** [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4098 Though, when Satan tries to bring a book back under his influence, he reminds it that it's of night and of shadows and tells it to banish light.]

** [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3288 Satan destroys light.]

* In ''[[Soul Symphony]]'', the villain Tom Mustaine is always seen wearing a black shirt, black wristbands, and sunglasses. But that may just be because he's a [[Metalhead]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* The main villain from ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', Aku, is essentially a giant shadow demon, and things under his control are often artistically depicted as being wrangled by black veins. There's another element to his darkness as well, with robot enemies having [[Bloodless Carnage|black thick oil instead of blood]], and his effect on the corrupting effect on the world is a pollution of it in some cases.

* In ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgOAR4Xq4Y Allegro Non Troppo 1]'', all the animals are brightly colored and cartoony, except for [[Humans Are Bastards|those jerk-face apes]] with [[Black Eyes of Crazy|red eyes and black sclera]] {{spoiler|who wreck the planet as they become human but remain vicious animals on the inside}}. Averted in the beginning with the black proto-blob, unless {{spoiler|evolving out of human trash}} counts as evil.

{{quote| '''Iron Man''': So, what's your prognosis, Doctor?<br />

[''Doctor Strange sizes up Chthon, who is cackling and rubbing his hands'']<br />

'''Doctor Strange''': [[Obviously Evil|He's evil]]...? }}