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'''Yami''': [[And Then What?|What's the point in destroying the world? What do you gain from it?]]
'''Anubis''': I don't understand the question.
'''Yami''': You are the most disappointing movie villain since General Grievous!
|''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Movie]]''}}
The '''Generic Doomsday Villain''' is an overpowering antagonist without a believable goal, motive or plan. They do not [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|fancy themselves to be doing the right thing]], they're not [[Driven by Envy]], they have no [[It's Personal|personal vendetta]] against any of their victims, they are not [[Only in It For the Money|in it for the money]] and they're not seeking [[Revenge]] for any real or imagined wrong done to them. Why are they evil? Because they're spreading destruction and misery.
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{{noreallife|Calling real-life people either "evil" or "stupid" is an extremely bad idea - calling them both is even worse.}}
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Of all the villains in ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', Hades is perhaps the least motivated and most small minded. His grand plan is to cause The Great Eclipse, which will perpetually block out the sun and kill everyone on Earth. Being the king of the dead, you'd imagine he wants to do this, because he wants an army of the dead to attack Olympus with or maybe he's trying to give humanity a "peaceful" death because he foresees [[World War Three]]. Nope. He just has this nebulous dislike (not even hate) of the living and mortals, thinking them mildly distasteful.
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== Comic Books ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is Doomsday, whose sole reason for being was [[The Death of Superman]]. While previous [[Superman]] villains were usually really smart guys or evil robots or alien warlords or some other intelligent type to contrast Supes' [[Superpower Lottery]], Doomsday was just raw unstoppable emotion on wheels with no agenda outside destruction and couldn't be reasoned with. Most of his depth comes from the back story in later comics. Doomsday was
* Bane decayed into this after breaking Batman's back and ultimately having served his purpose, which is why he got thrashed by Azrael in what almost seemed like a bit of an afterthought. Eventually the writers fixed Bane by giving him an identity beyond being "the guy who broke Batman's back once", as well as a surprisingly sympathetic backstory. Not to mention distancing him from Batman. Unfortunately, there is also a tendency for some of his portrayals to focus entirely on the steroidal "Venom" aspect of his character and nothing else [[Badass Decay|meaning that once someone cuts his tubes, he goes down quick.]]
* Onslaught was more powerful than anything the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] had ever faced, took nearly all the Marvel heroes to beat, had no overarching plan other than "blow shit up" and existed solely to set up "Heroes Reborn", which was later retconned back anyway. Onslaught did have a back story as a psychic entity born from the combined mentality of Professor X (mutants and humans should co-exist) and Magneto ([[Humans Are the Real Monsters|humans will never accept mutants]]). So he wanted to turn everyone in the world (and later the universe) into a hive mind with himself in control. However, many of the details behind his character were scattered
** Let's not forget Apocalypse, whose ''only'' motive for doing anything is vaguely established Social Darwinism, so he's mainly defined by how big and powerful he is. Of course, this is usually [[Depending on the Writer]].
* The [[Crisis on Infinite Earths|Anti-Monitor]] has many of these qualities. No real personality, motivations or backstory, just ridiculous amounts of power in one package. Still, part of the concept is that he's so ridiculously powerful that it's difficult to so much as get his attention so there is some reasoning behind his seemingly Generic Doomsday Villain nature.
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* Shinzon from ''[[Star Trek: Nemesis]]''. His reasoning seems to consist of "Well, I'm the villain of this movie, so I guess I better [[Moral Event Horizon|mentally rape Troi]] and [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy Earth]]." The extreme actions that actually relate to his supposedly well-intentioned goals occur entirely in the opening minutes of the movie: as he was raised by the Remans, he understandably doesn't like their status as the [[Proud Warrior Race|Warrior]]-[[Slave Race]] of the Romulan Empire. But when he assassinates the entire Romulan Senate and installs himself as the new dictator...''he's already solved all the Remans' problems.'' At that point his only real explanation for wanting to destroy Earth is to prove the Remans' superiority over the Romulans and show the galaxy that their Romulan empire is not to be messed with which is somewhat unclear. For a poorly explained reason (to prove to everyone that the Remans are to be taken seriously), he has a super battleship way more advanced than every ship it comes up against. He also got a planet-destroying superweapon from... somewhere.
* The villain from the fourth ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)||Mission Impossible]]'' movie has a generic doomsday agenda (provoke nuclear war, destroy planet) without a motivation deeper than being some sort of insane A-bomb mystic. [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], as his sketchy nature allows to concentrate on the heroes and present the plot in a very simple but entertaining [[Three Act Structure]].
* Darth Maul of the first ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequel is the prime example of this trope. He barely has any lines of dialogue in the entire movie, and quite literally exists and lives to serve his master as an obstacle for the Jedi to overcome. Seeing as the lightsaber duel he took part in (and his double-edged lightsaber) proved so memorable, fans see him as huge wasted potential. It would seem that George Lucas agreed, because years later in ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'', Darth Maul turned out to be [[Not Quite Dead]] and got a ''lot'' more screentime and dialogue than he did in ''The Phantom Menace'', resulting in him feeling far better realized as a character as opposed to a near-mute obstacle for the heroes to overcome.
* Malekith the Accursed in ''[[Thor: The Dark World]]'' pretty much ''defines'' this trope. He is out to destroy the universe and return everything to darkness because as a being of darkness and evil, light annoys him and he wants it gone. He's less a character and more a plot device to justify having Thor and Loki team up. Any scenes intended to flesh out Malekith's character were actually excised from the film.
== Literature ==
* Rodney Casares from the Peter Clines book ''[[Ex Heroes]]''. He randomly turns up with the power to control the zombies, to survive the zombification with his own intelligence intact, and with enhanced physical abilities and stature he never had in life. The most that's ever explained about him is that he used to be a random gangbanger and that he was one of the first victims of the disease, but he is otherwise completely unique and exists for no reason other than to present a massive threat to the main cast.
* The Mule, villain in the second book of the ''[[Foundation]]'' trilogy, is a deconstruction of this trope. He's a {{spoiler|(actually rather scrawny)}} [[Genre Savvy]] mutant with potent [[Emotion Control]] powers in an otherwise generic space opera setting trying to take over the galaxy just because he can. Of course, for all of his [[Genre Savvy]]-ness, {{spoiler|he still ends up brainwashed by the [[Ancient Conspiracy|Second Foundation]]}}.
* A classic literary example would be Professor Moriarty of ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' fame. He's introduced in the last chapter of ''The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes'' and is talked up to be Holmes's [[Arch-Enemy]] who is supposedly his intellectual equal, even though we never see evidence of this. He was also said to be "the Napoleon of crime", and had a hand in many of Holmes' previous capers. In this particular case, he was behind a conspiracy bigger than anything Holmes had tackled before, and it ended up supposedly costing Holmes his life. And yet he had little page time and no personality to speak of, only defined by the threat he posed. Of course, he became the [[Breakout Villain]] and has since been more fleshed out in adaptations and spin-offs.
== Live-Action TV ==
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* The [[God of Evil|First Evil]] from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. This gets bonus points for being an [[Informed Ability]]; we are told repeatedly it cannot be fought directly, and yet does damned little in the onscreen villainy department.
** Ditto The Beast from ''[[Angel]]''. His status as this becomes a plot point, when they realize he's not smart enough to have come up with his plan on his own, and is serving someone else.
* Initially the bad guys in ''[[Power Rangers]]'' had little origins or motivations to speak of other than being, well, evil. [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|Rita and Zedd]] seemed simply evil for evil's sake. When ''[[Power Rangers Zeo]]'' came along hints were dropped that they - and the newcomers from the Machine Empire - were part of some larger conglomerate of galactic evil. Eventually, ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'' started a trend of going deeper into the bad guys' backstories, which has continued to the present.
== Mythology and Religion ==
* Surtr, the fire giant who is responsible for the end of the world in [[Norse Mythology]], is probably the [[Ur Example]]. He doesn't appear in any myths except the one that tells of Ragnarok, where he and his armies invade Asgard, he kills Freyr and engulfs the world in fire, and even that myth gives him little description or characterization. Still, while he may not appear, he is referred to in numerous other tales of both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. And he's hardly the only Jotunn lacking character depth.
** Ironically, he is given something of a motive in ''[[Thor: Ragnarok]]''. Simply put, as he himself tells Thor, he has to do so [[Because Destiny Says So]], whether he wants to or not.
== Professional Wrestling ==
* Between 2002-2006 in [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]], it was incredibly hard to sum up [[Triple H]]'s character beyond "World Champion", "[[Stephanie McMahon]]'s husband", and "sledgehammer aficionado".
* This was the main problem with [[WCW]]'s [[New World Order]] angle (in all its incarnations): the fact that this faction of bad guys was so elite that they ''never lost''. Even the nine-month buildup leading to the defeat of [[Big Bad]] [[Hulk Hogan|Hollywood Hogan]] by [[Dark Messiah]] [[
** Indeed. The original outcome was for Sting to be pinned by fast count thanks to Nick Patrick's interference, therefore creating a valid reason for the match to be restarted by [[Bret Hart]], who was one of the hottest commodities in wrestling at the time and was making his big debut in WCW at the time. It is rumored that [[Hulk Hogan]] bribed Patrick, a notoriously corrupt ref, to intentionally slow down his count so that the main reason for restarting the match and giving the victory to Sting would be null and void. This created a great backstage controversy that basically killed all of the momentum [[Bret Hart]] had in his entrance to WCW, which was supposed to be the last major blow against the then-WWF to kill WCW's chief rival for good. However, thanks to the bullshit pulled backstage by Hogan and his little clique, among other things, the WWF was able to rally itself going into 1998 and ultimately crush WCW at the end of the Monday Night Wars.
** The capper was that when Sting slapped on the Scorpion Deathlock, Hogan never tapped out. Supposedly, Hogan was yelling "I quit" but none of the cameras or mics picked this up. After almost two years of dominating WCW and nine months of building up Sting as the [[Badass]] savior of WCW, seeing the villainous leader of the nWo giving up in agony against Sting should have been a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for WCW but it instead signaled what was going to happen to the company later on.
* Michelle McCool gets this, in large part due to being a [[Creator's Pet]] because of her relationship with [[The Undertaker]]. The worst is likely the Piggie James angle - she spent months running down Mickie James all building up to Mickie beating her and taking the Women's Championship... then Michelle won it back about two weeks later and has had no problems with Mickie since. It didn't help that "Piggie" James spent most of the feud getting the crap beaten out of her and being mocked about her weight. Being hated is a [[Rudo]]'s job but they are supposed to get properly punished to please the fans that now hate them.
** Though when she started feuding with [[Beth Phoenix]], [[Kelly Kelly]] and Natalya her wins and losses were more even, along with Layla.
== Tabletop Games ==
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* The [[Big Bad]]s of the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' tend to be treated similarly, but then again, the manifestation of any of them was explicitly a sign of the apocalypse.
== Video Games ==
* Occasionally when Russia appears in a modern [[First-Person Shooter]]. Real Russians are not amused by the [[Unfortunate Implications]].
* The title characters of the ''[[Overlord]]'' games are meant to be classic stereotypical [[Evil Overlord]]s and thinly-veiled [[The Lord of the Rings|Sauron]] [[Captain Ersatz|copycats]]. While the characters are often doing evil and the players do get to determine how evil they are, it's really [[Evil Chancellor]] Gnarl that [[Card-Carrying Villain|carries their villain cards]] for the [[Silent Protagonist]]s.
** What makes it worse is that, in the entire time you're trying to build yourself up as the [[Villain Protagonist|incarnation of evil]], you spend the entire time fighting heroes... Who are now the corrupted embodiments of various sins, so you're not even being THAT effective a bad guy. While it could be said that by defeating them you prove you are the "most evil", the [[Karma Meter]] in the game basically sways between (very!) benevolent dictator and [[Omnicidal Maniac]]. At least in the sequel, the "hideously evil" path means you have to slaughter everyone in the villages you took over while the "domination" path meant magical [[Mind Control]].
* The [[Final Boss]] and ultimate threat of ''[[Battle Moon Wars]]'' is {{spoiler|a devil}}. Yeah, that's it. Doesn't help that it's quite the [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]. They could have at least given it ''a name''. Also, as the game is a [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]], it also falls victim to "More powerful than anyone they've faced before!" Syndrome.
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* Odio in ''[[Live a Live]]'' is a reincarnating force of destruction. At any point in time there would be a hero to rise up, Odio will manifest during that time, causing terror, death, and annihilation, and directly oppose the hero. Odio will always bear a similar-sounding name that fits with that time period (such as Odi Iou for [[Jidai Geki|feudal Japan]] or Odie Oldbright for late 20th century America), making him easy to spot for the player, but the idea is that while the heroes may consistently defeat Odio, it will always rise up again in some other time. {{spoiler|...Except no, [[Subverted Trope|he isn't that at all]]-he's actually the mind of [[Fallen Hero]] Oersted, who has [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|very well-defined motives]]. The reason he opposes the protagonists, as it turns out, is because he takes umbrage at their [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|idealism]] and wants to prove a point to himself.}}
* While the reapers of ''[[Mass Effect]]'' always have had shades of this, having next to no characterization besides Sovereign and Harbinger, the [[Big Bad]]s of ''[[Mass Effect]]'' and ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' respectively, it was heavily implied that whatever motivated the reapers was something organic lifeforms could not hope to comprehend. When their motivation was revealed at the Climax of ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', it pushed them into this trope. Apparently, the reason the reapers exterminate all spacefaring civilizations to a man ever 50,000 years is to {{spoiler|prevent the creation artificial intelligences- known as synthetics in the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' galaxy-which would ultimately kill all organic life in the galaxy.}} Beyond making next to no sense on multiple levels, this motivation contradicted practically everything the previous games had established about {{spoiler|synthetics}} in subtext. and felt extremely out of place in the setting, and more like a [[Hand Wave]] for the [[Sadistic Choice]] that was [[Mass Effect 3]]'s ending. The fact that this motivation was literally related to the player in the last five minutes also doesn't help.
* Downplayed with M. Bison from ''[[Street Fighter (video game)|Street Fighter]]''. Exactly how he became such a power-hungry tyrant with plans of [[Take Over the World|world domination]] hasn't been explored much, nor has much detail been given about how his Psycho Power works or how he got it. Some of this was addressed in more recent titles, but still left vague.
* While Ganondorf himself is more into [[Take Over the World|conquest]], some of ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'''s other [[Big Bad]]s are a lot closer to this trope.
** In contrast to the fleshed-out monstrous sadist that is ''Oracle of Ages'''s Veran, General Onox from ''Oracle of Seasons'' is a much flatter character who wants to throw the seasons of Holodrum out of whack because... well, hell if we know, since he barely gets any screentime or meaningful dialogue. While he's {{spoiler|following Twinrova's orders to spread suffering in order to usher in Ganon's return}}, we don't know what ''he'' gets out of the whole arrangement since Veran at least makes it clear that she likes hurting people for its own sake.
** Bellum from ''Phantom Hourglass'' is a more deliberate example: while he doesn't have any real characterization to speak of, it's because he's less of an evil mastermind and more of a hungry animal on the prowl for prey. This is averted in the manga adaptation, where he's a sentient being and an incredibly cruel one, at that.
** Malladus from ''Spirit Tracks'' is fairly similar to Bellum in that he's a silent, near-mindless force of destruction. {{spoiler|At least until he possesses Chancellor Cole, but even then he doesn't really have much in the way of a compelling personality to speak of.}}
** Even Ganon himself has qualified for this status in a few games. In these cases however, it's due to external factors at play such as {{spoiler|the Ganon in the ''Oracle'' games [[Came Back Wrong|turning into a mindless brute due to a botched resurrection ritual]]}} and Calamity Ganon in ''Breath of the Wild'' supposedly being the end result of Ganondorf devolving into an insane, animalistic mass of hatred and malice (at least until ''Tears of the Kingdom'' revealed that {{spoiler|he's simply running interference for a malicious, sentient Ganondorf who is waiting out a seal placed on him by Rauru}}).
* In ''[[Guild Wars]]'' ''Nightfall'', Warmarshall Varesh wants to wake a dark god and its legion of demons, unleash Torment upon the world, and bring about eternal night and suffering because ... [[And Then What?|hmm]].
* ''[[Kid Icarus: Uprising]]'' features two: The Aurum, a
== Webcomics ==
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** Pretty much every evil character in ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' total is in it [[For the Evulz]].
** And then His killing spree of the Trolls was out of [[Unstoppable Rage|pure anger]] after {{spoiler|Jade dies again}}.
* ''[[Goblins]]'' has Kore, a legendary Dwarven [[Light Is Not Good|Paladin]] who kills anybody even vaguely connected to the [[Exclusively Evil|"Evil"]] races, especially the women and children. Why? [[The Stoic|He's not saying]], but his Armor Class is ridiculous enough to let him get away with it.
* The Snarl from ''[[The
== Web Originals ==
* Mecha Sonic from ''[[Super Mario Bros Z]]'' fits this. It's justified (perhaps deconstructed) in that even when he was just Metal Sonic, Eggman didn't give him a personality beyond "make Sonic dead" and "blow up anything in my way", so he's running off nothing but what he's known how to do all along.
* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'': The Entity is a deconstruction. When it reveals its' master plan is to assimilate everything in existence into itself, Linkara calls it out on having such a simple and generic motive that will leave it with nothing else to live for. Upon letting this sink in, the Entity suffers from an existential crisis and then decides to find out what happens when an Outer God dies.
** In-universe, this is what Linkara considered Batman in the Elseworld
* The reason why [[SCP Foundation]] [http://www.scp-wiki.net/eldritch-application refuse to take] [[Zalgo]] as SCP.
{{quote|''"You're overpowered, you don't have a hook, and quite frankly, you're boring."''|'''"The Director"'''}}
== Western Animation ==
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* D.A.V.E in ''[[The Batman]]'' may well be a deconstruction. A robot programmed by Hugo Strange scientist with the memories and abilities of Batman's worst foes for the sole purpose of giving Batman a challenge. He proceeds to easily curbstomp Batman and steals ALL of Gotham's money just to commit the ultimate crime, but is defeated when Batman asks him to explain his origin story. Since D.A.V.E believed that he used to be a person, he basically went catatonic after realizing that he had no backstory of his own.
* Imperiax from the second season of ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', who launched a full scale invasion of the galaxy because...he was power hungry, I guess?
* The Phantom Blot is this in ''[[Duck Tales]]''. In the comics, he's a vain master thief motivated both by greed and thrills, driven by a desire [[Attention Whore| to immortalize his name]] in "the annals of crime". In the cartoon, however, his ego is magnified, and he wants to [[Take Over the World]] because, well, [[For the Evulz| just because.]]
* [[Evil Overlord|Pariah Dark]] from ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' had elements of this, being an obscenely powerful ghost out for world domination, but without a terribly interesting personality. However, the [[Made for TV Movie]] he appeared in featured major roles from a lot of the more interesting [[Rogues Gallery]] members (such as [[Arch Enemy|Vlad]], [[The Hunter|Valerie]], [[Magic Knight|Fright Knight]], and [[Egomaniac Hunter|Skulker]]), so it all evened out.
** Nearly ''all'' of the third season villains were generic [[Take Over the World]] villains with little difference between them apart from appearances, voice, and powers (IE: Nocturne, Vortex, and Undergrowth).
* The ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' version of Brimstone is a
** Most of the Legion of Doom henchmen assembled in the third season, because there's way too many of them and too little time for them to get much characterization.
*** Also, there's Doomsday himself. Even with the ability to
* A few of the ''[[Sushi Pack]]'' villains fall into this, most notably the Titanium Chef, who wants to spread chaos throughout the world for no other reason than he has [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|a book that tells him how]].
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' has King Sombra, the [[Big Bad]] of the Season 3 premiere. He's built up as a huge threat to the Crystal Empire, and is revealed to have set up an intricate security system to prevent anypony from getting the Crystal Heart. But seeing as he's become a dark force of nature, his characterization is nonexistent whenever he shows up, especially in comparison to the show's previous villains. There is barely any backstory or motivations for him to speak of, and he actually has only ''five'' lines of dialogue in the entire two-parter, none of them being spent on any meaningful interaction with the other characters.
* ''[[Megas XLR]]'' featured many of these as one-shot villains, most notably Ender, who existed to "end" things, and Gurrkek the Planet-Killer.
* Atomic Skull from ''Superman vs. the Elite'' has no motivation for his violence. He killed people just to draw out Superman so that they could fight. Why does he want to fight Superman? ''Just because.''
* Vaatu from ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' is definitely this. It's actually justified since he's the spirit that embodies evil, chaos, and destruction, thus he has nothing but dark thoughts and feelings. His collaborator Unalaq, however, has ''much'' less of an excuse for qualifying. While he seems to be a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] at first, it turns out that he isn't uniting the physical and spiritual worlds for any sort of benevolent purpose. He wants to use it as a stepping stool to fusing with Vaatu so he can plunge the world into darkness... because he thinks darkness is just that cool? Between his confusing character motivations and one-dimensional villainy, good luck trying to figure out ''why'' he wanted to become a Dark Avatar so badly.
* Surtur from ''[[The Avengers:
** When it comes to the Masters of Evil, Crimson Dynamo is probably the standout in regards to this trope, since his hatred of Iron Man is almost all there is to him.
* The [[Bigger Bad]] of ''[[Scooby
* The Juggernaut in ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' devolved into this. In his first appearance, his goal was to kill Xavier for putting him in prison. But when he next showed up, Xavier is nowhere to be seen, and he just decides to wreck random destruction for no given reason. His main purpose was as plot device to get the X-Men to fight out of genuine heroism despite people's discrimination against them, even though their chances of beating him were slim due to his raw power.
* The Brain from ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' is a [[Villain Protagonist|Generic Doomsday Villain ''Protagonist'']]. Sure, everyone knows his plan -- to [[Take Over the World]] -- but despite getting loads of [[Character Development]], he never truly explains ''why'' he has this goal.
* While he's got plenty of characterization in other media (specifically, he's a sadistic, monstrous, downright ''batshit insane'' butcher of a Gen'Dai), Durge's personality in ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'' begins and ends with being a silent, creepy [[The Brute|brute]] with a terrifying [[Evil Laugh]]. [[Tropes Are Not Bad]] though, because his ridiculous strength, superhuman durability, and lack of a defined personality make him come off as an unstoppable and malicious force of nature.
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