Psycho for Hire: Difference between revisions

Contrast the more realistic [[Serial Killer]], who doesn't flaunt it, and the less realistic [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]] who hangs around heroes and whose sadistic games are treated as wacky hijinx for the sake of comedy. As various examples of the latter may testify, it is all too possible for a character to sit on the fence. If two Psychos For Hire are paired together, they might be [[Those Two Bad Guys]]. If the Psycho For Hire is not for hire, he's doing it [[For the Evulz]]. The all but canonical alignment for these type of characters are [[Neutral Evil]]; [[Chaotic Evil]] characters of this type are usually Types 2 through 4, but others usually go [[Serial Killer|freelance]]; and [[Lawful Evil]] is typically more [[Professional Killer|professional]].

 

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* Sir Luciano Bradley, the Knight of Ten from ''[[Code Geass]]''. Similar to the Kimbley example above, he specifically states that he joined the army so that he would be allowed to kill a lot of people without being punished for it.

** Bradley doesn't have ''a single line of text'' where he isn't insulting, threatening or otherwise expressing a desire to hurt someone.

** Ali Al-Saachez of ''[[Gundam 00]]'' comes off as a fusion of Yazan and the above-mentioned Gauron. An [[Axe Crazy]] [[The Sociopath|psychopath]] who freely admits that he enjoys killing for the fun of it, Ali has started wars, armed [[Child Soldiers]], and toppled entire governments for money and kicks, all while salivating about how he's the worse kind of person there is.

** Decil Galette of ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' is what Yazan and Ali would look like if they were [[Enfante Terrible|Enfante Terribles]]. A gleefully [[Axe Crazy]] [[Cheerful Child]], Decil views war as one giant game, and all the soldiers under his command as playthings. This attitude does not improve upon his reaching adulthood, and he now [[Expy|resembles]] his two inspirations more than ever.

* Lono from ''[[One Hundred Bullets (Comic Book)|One Hundred Bullets]]''.

* American comic books have a bottomless supply of them, from '''A'''rcade to '''Z'''sasz

** It;s been shown that even hiring Lobo is dangerous. Having killed, and generally destroyed the planet of, most people who've ever hired him. Most recently he was tasked by a god with tracking down the one weapon that could kill said god, and returning with it. Upon completing his mission, Lobo immediately killed him with it. He really should have seen that coming.

* In the ''[[Daredevil]]'' comic book, the [[Big Bad]] used a Psycho For Hire to make a mob hit look like a random killing. Once, it worked -- but another time, the Psycho For Hire got carried away, and the whole thing was blown.

* ''[[Repo the Genetic Opera|Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' has the Repo Men, hired by Gene Co for their surgical precision and their ability to become sociopathic killers with the flick of a scalpel.

* Jonathan Brewster from ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'' is a good example, in that although his villainy is motivated by a desire for wealth, it is apparent from his conversations with his sidekick, Dr. Einstein, that when killing someone who crosses him, he prefers to make their death as long and painful as possible.

* Bullet Tooth Tony in ''[[Snatch]]''. He's not only one of the toughest guys in London, but he's willing to torture and kill people for a visiting American who will only be in town for a few days.

* In ''[[The Devils Rejects]]'', Sheriff Wydell hires the a pair of psychotic bounty hunters called the Unholy Two and sics them on the [[Axe Crazy]], mass-murdering Firefly family. The Unholy Two are so [[Badass]] that they actually win the showdown.

** Actually Jem'Hader are slave soldiers, and seem to be treated tragically by the show rather then focusing on psychopathy. Presumably the Founders programmed them to like causing pain, but they are also often treated as if not quite as honorable opponents in the Klingon or Romulan sense, at least as dedicated soldiers who take pride in their valor and discipline.

* Elle Bishop from ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]''.

* Keamy in season 4 of ''[[Lost]]''.

* [[Bounty Hunter]] Jubal Early from the ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'' episode "Objects in Space," as mentioned in the above quote.

** And for the competition, we have The Savoy Siblings and Mordecai. Mordecai especially.

* [[Narbonic|Mell Kelly]] is a more amiable example of this trope than most, but this doesn't change the fact that she works for Narbonic Labs mostly because she likes big guns and shooting people with them. She would be a [[Heroic Sociopath]] if it weren't for what the main characters [[Villain Protagonist|do for a living...]]

** He's gotten somewhat better recently after a [[Vision Quest]], if only because he's realized that if he plays along with the other heroes' rules most of the time, he'll have more free reign when it comes to "stabbing the bad guys" time. He's still not a ''[[Token Evil Teammate|good]]'' person by any stretch, but he may just have moved up from [[Stupid Evil]] to actual [[Chaotic Evil]].

* ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' features Lothar Hex, who is ''literally'' a Psycho For Hire; he's a mercenary, and as an incidental bonus he's a psychopath. He has some features of the [[Heroic Sociopath]]...but he has also been known to explain to his friends that "You guys have three seconds to get off me, or I stop thinking of you as friends and start thinking of you as mutilated corpses," ''while revving up his [[Chainsaw Good|circular saw]]''.

[[Category:Violence Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]