Equal Opportunity Evil/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Evil characters come in all sorts of races, creeds, genders, sexual orientations and handicaps.

  • Straight: Emperor Evulz employs Mooks of all sorts of different races and creeds.
  • Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz has a Token Minority for pretty much everyone, and panics when he notices a shortage of blind bisexual Lithuanians.
  • Justified:
    • Emperor Evulz rules a large multinational empire, and needs to draw his troops from every corner of his realm to be able to fight effectively on his current scale.
    • Alternatively, Emperor Evulz is a Villain with Good Publicity, and knows that by having a politically correct army he'll be viewed as progressive by his subjects.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted: Emperor Evulz has Mooks that are both men and women, gay and straight, of every race, color, religion and creed. Then we see that there's a considerable glass ceiling, and most, if not all, of his higher-ups are more "pure-blooded".
  • Double Subverted: Except for his female blind psychic bisexual Lithuanian Dragon, Lina.
  • Parodied:
    • Emperor Evulz' Five-Bad Band consists of almost every comedic stereotype, from Scary Black Man to Camp Gay.
    • Emperor Evulz' keeps complaining about being hounded by the Affirmative Action people even though he's already got countless minorities in his ranks.
  • Deconstructed:
    • Despite Emperor Evulz' remarkable tolerance, his laws are still Draconian, and his rule is still inept with myriad economic and social problems. The resulting unrest causes his subjects to decry him as a lazy politician, with the Equal Opportunity Evil as a cheap attempt to garner good ratings.
    • Alternatively, the subjects of Emperor Evulz have a low opinion of Bob, the hero's, homogeneous Five-Man Band.
    • Cultural differences between different ethnic factions in Emperor Evulz army render it ineffective.
  • Reconstructed: In addition to political correctness, Emperor Evulz has also made remarkable strides in keeping his empire's economy in check and improving infrastructure and public welfare, thus retaining his Villain with Good Publicity status.
  • Zig Zagged: Emperor Evulz has the most diverse Evil Army in the world. But that's just for the Mooks, and a heavy glass ceiling means that only straight males of Evulz' own ethnic group and religion are officers. However, extenuating circumstances have Emperor Evulz hire Lina, a blind bisexual Lithuanian girl, as a soldier, and despite all odds she is promoted to The Dragon. However, it then turns out that Emperor Evulz only promoted her for her psychic powers, and plans to kill her off. Lina then pulls a High Heel Face Turn for Bob, the hero, and the resistance movement kills off Emperor Evulz. His successor, Emperor Evulz II, is a Politically-Incorrect Villain, until his own Mooks kill him off and replace him with a more tolerant regime.
  • Averted: Emperor Evulz is neither this nor a Politically-Incorrect Villain; all Mooks are all completely anonymous with diversity not being an issue.
  • Enforced:
  • Lampshaded: "For an evil empire, he's remarkably politically correct."
  • Invoked: Emperor Evulz, an Affably Evil Villain with Good Publicity, knows that his being viewed as progressive is vital to being beloved by his people, and integrates racial, religious and gender equality in all of his government agencies, including the military.
  • Defied: See Inverted.
  • Discussed: "You'll find Emperor Evulz doesn't particularly care who does the dying for his goals. The color of the body doesn't really affect his plans, after all."
  • Conversed: "Ever notice how the bad guys are more diverse than Our Heroes?"

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