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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Men have preferred [[Dark Is Evil|darkness]] to [[Light Is Good|light]] because their deeds were evil.''
|'''[[The Bible|John 3:19]]'''}}
Any scene location where the villains do their plotting is invariably dark. This includes, but is not limited to, starship command centers, unethical laboratories and throne rooms. A more personal effect is when the villain seems to absorb the light around him, presenting dramatic shadows that you could have sworn weren't there moments before the heroes arrived.
In some circumstances, it's obvious. The villains don't want to meet on the street, either to conspire or with a victim of [[Blackmail]], or travel with their ill-gotten and
But they don't turn on the lights once they're inside the stronghold and everyone knows them.
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Some evil monsters require [[Always Night]]; sunlight can harm them, but it does produce this effect.
Interestingly enough, it has been produced in a lab: [http://www.livescience.com/culture/darkness-begets-dishonesty-100301.html people are more likely to be dishonest/commit moral transgressions in a dark environment.] Perhaps it is revealing [[What You Are in
Often the setting for the [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]. Glowy orange or purple colors are optional. Compare [[Empathic Environment]], [[Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty]] and [[Face Framed in Shadow]]. See also [[Dark Is Evil]] and [[Darkness Equals Death]] for why this trope is employed, and [[Chiaroscuro]] (and the page image) for another reason why. Compare '''AND''' contrast [[Daylight Horror]] and [[Light Is Not Good]].
{{examples|Examples: }}▼
== Anime
* All evil plotting in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' takes place in almost complete darkness.
* Alucard's room in ''[[
** Possibly justified because Alucard is a vampire, and vampires are typically nocturnal.
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* Father from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' plays it straight with his dark subterranean throne room.
** The Brotherhood anime, however, made the room much more bright.
* The Seven Stars from ''[[Shikabane Hime]]''.
* The senators in ''[[Eureka 7]]''. (Points for a dramatic green light in the center of the room.)
* Akatsuki in ''[[
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has Precia and most of the areas in her [[Ominous Floating Castle|Garden of Time]].
* In ''[[
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==
* In ''[[
* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[
{{quote|
== Film ==
* Nero from the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (
** The bridges of Klingon ships in earlier movies were also poorly lit, with a red tinge to the lighting. The ''Bounty'' shows us that Klingon starships don't have the wiring to be brighter inside.
* Any number of [[Star Wars|Sith]].
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**** Except for Palpatine's throne room. Clearly he got a taste for it.
* The evil owner of the baseball team from ''[[The Natural]]'' kept his office unlit. That led to a humorous scene when the hero turned on the light on his way out, and the team owner completely overreacted. ([[Roger Ebert]] complained about the opposite device in his review, saying that Robert Redford and Glenn Close were frequently lit like angelic beings, just in case you didn't know who to root for.)
* Common in the [[Disney Animated Canon]]; villains almost always get a scene or two with low lighting.
== Literature ==
* In ''[[
* [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]], aka the Dark Lord, is very fond of this trope. His favorite scenes for evil showdowns include an old graveyard (at midnight) and a vast chamber filled with snake statues built far underground. Also Slytherin house, which has a far greater ratio of mean students to nice ones, has a commons room that is noticeably dark and poorly lit compared to the commons rooms of the other houses.
** Lampshaded by Dumbledore, who believes Voldemort is using the darkness and the death motifs to scare his enemies. From what we heard of Slytherin, he wasn't a very pleasant person, and the students who are enrolled in his house are usually very much like him, so it's somewhat justified.
* Specifically averted in the third Honorverse book, The Short Victorious War, in which the future Committee of Public Safety, who have not yet carried out their coup, [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|meet in a tennis court]] in an abandoned high-
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[
{{quote|
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Kull]]/[[Bran Mak Morn]] story "Kings of the Night", where the [[Religion of Evil]] performs its [[Human Sacrifice]]:
{{quote|
* Averted, sort of, in [[The Man Who Was Thursday]], when the Supreme Council of Anarchy meets over breakfast in broad daylight in a very public location. Of course, as with just about any other event in the novel, there's more going on than meets the eye. {{spoiler|For starters, none of the Council members are actually evil.}}
* [[
▲== Live Action TV ==
* [[Stargate Verse]]: averted with the Goa'uld, the Ori and the Asurans, as all of them had pretty well lit ships. Played straight with Replicators and the Wraith. Seemingly inverted in ''[[
▲* [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]: Federation starships are definitely better lit than Romulan, Borg or Klingon ships (even after Klingons became good guys).
* ''[[
▲* [[Stargate Verse]]: averted with the Goa'uld, the Ori and the Asurans, as all of them had pretty well lit ships. Played straight with Replicators and the Wraith. Seemingly inverted in ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'', as the Destiny (and presumably the other very old Ancient ships) is darker than the hostile alien ships were so far.
* This happens in ''[[Asfour]]'', when Itzik is taken to meet Saragousti. Justified, as {{spoiler|Saragousti has suffered very severe brain damage several years prior, barely moves if at all, and does not speak. Kobi uses him as a dummy boss
▲* ''[[ICarly (TV)|I Carly]]'': Nevel's blackmail of Carly takes place in the dark dingy alley behind her and Freddie's apartment building.
▲* This happens in ''[[Asfour]]'', when Itzik is taken to meet Saragousti. Justified, as {{spoiler|Saragousti has suffered very severe brain damage several years prior, barely moves if at all, and does not speak. Kobi uses him as a dummy boss [[Worldwide Punomenon|quite literally]]; in that scene, he keeps Saragousti seated on a revolving chair with his back to the unwitting Itzik, who is very nervous about the scene.}}
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Halo (
** Though in the books that's explained as the lights being in the blue/violet range because that's the color that Elites' eyes were adapted to.
* Count Bleck's Castle in ''[[
** In the original ''[[Paper Mario (
** In ''[[Paper Mario:
* Taken to an extreme in ''[[Metal Gear]]: Ghost Babel''; a spinoff for the [[Game Boy Color]]. The villain Marionette Owl [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|can see well in dark areas]].
* ''[[Alan Wake]]'''s [[Dark Is Evil|Dark Presence]] is not only this, but Not Well Lit Is Evil.
* [[Big Bad|Morphix]]'s [[Applied Phlebotinum|GLOPP]] factory in [[Duke Nukem]]: Manhattan Project.
{{quote|
* In ''[[The Sims|
* In the ''[[Command
* In ''[[The Dark Meadow]]'', monsters won't attack you in any room that has light coming in. (Although a little bit getting in through a crack is OK for them, apparently.)
* The BlackCastle in ''[[
* In ''[[Wario Land]] Shake It'', the throne room the Shake King stays in through about 90% of the game is literally completely dark. As in, the bit Wario enters from is pretty much just a black screen and the rest of it seems like only half the lights are on, to the point you can see the villain's eyes glowing in the dark.
* In ''[[Don't Starve]]'', you ''must'' keep a light source nearby at night, as Charlie can - and will - attack if you don't have one. And if that happens, [[Invincible Villain|she ''will'' kill you.]]
== Webcomics ==
* Subverted in ''[[Dan and
* Kyran from [[Emergency Exit]] [http://eecomics.net/?strip_id=104 likes] [http://eecomics.net/?strip_id=1117 this,] despite complaints about its impracticality.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Lampshaded via a [[Running Gag]] in [[Pebble Version]] is the (presumably) [[Big Bad]]'s search for adequate lighting in his office. When he did get a lamp, it was blindingly bright.
* In ''[[
== Web Original ==
* In Legend of Neil, not only is Ganon's lair poorly lit, but also commonly under the effects of fog machines (fog = power], making it damn near impossible to find anything.
* In ''[[
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Obviously Evil]]
[[Category:Darkness and Shadows Tropes]]
[[Category:
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