Put Them All Out of My Misery: Difference between revisions

This is a villain who poses a [[Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness|credible threat]] to [[Sliding Scale of Villain Threat|an entire community]], is miserable, and blames it on everyone else. They rationally want to "[[Put Them All Out of Their Misery|Put them all out of their misery]]".

This character is not necessarily an [[Omnicidal Maniac]], a nihilist who wants to destroy everything for the sake of destruction, nor a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] who was mistreated, snaps, and lashes out on the world. This person is simply trying to cure an ailment, and are willing to go to any length to do it. While [['''Put Them All Out of My Misery]]''' villains are usually at least slightly sympathetic in the sense that at least their motive is understandable, [[Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness|they come off as jerks]] for putting their own misery ahead of others' safety.

# The villain [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|is indestructible, but wants to commit suicide]]. He believes that he will succeed in suicide if he destroys the whole world or can force a [[Suicide Byby Cop]] by someone who can get the job done if he stays on the right side of the [[Moral Event Horizon]], and perhaps also that he is doing his murdered victims a favor by granting them the "gift" of death he is trying to get for himself. After all [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]] See also [[Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum]] which is the game plan for a villain exhibiting this type of the trope.

Contrast [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]], which is somewhat of the inverse of this trope. Note: both this trope and that one can fall anywhere on the [[Sliding Scale of Villain Threat|scale of villain threat]]. It's the scope of the story that defines the threat: They may be up against everyone in the town the story takes place in, or the entire world. Not the same as [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] or [[Utopia Justifies the Means]] -- while—while the villain may wish to destroy humanity for what they regard as noble or important ends, this fellow is ultimately driven by pure misanthropy and his own misery. The key to this trope is that they [[Motive Rant|rationalize]] their actions due to self-pity, or contempt for the setting that they view as harmful.

[[Alas, Poor Villain]] may still apply, despite their [[Jerkass Woobie|jerkass tendencies]], but only because [[After -Action Villain Analysis|Explaining The Villain Explains The Conflict]].

[[Motive Rant]], [[Cry for Thethe Devil]], and/or [[Straw Man Has a Point]] may apply. If [[An Ice Person]] wishes to freeze the entire planet simply to [[Heal Thyself|heal himself]], [[Fridge Logic]] [[Incredibly Lame Pun|may ensue]]. If hatred of an antagonist is their ''only'' motivation, see [[Best Served Cold]].

* ''[[Ookami KakushiOokamikakushi]]'' gives us {{spoiler|Sakaki, whose motivation stems from Type 4: His fiancee was murdered, and he received no cooperation from the authorities to find and punish the murderer--Nemuru Kushinada, who had to carry out the old laws on dealing with Kamibito who lost their self-control.}} This caused him to develop a grudge against the entire city of Jougamachi, and he ultimately {{spoiler|attempts to flood the village at the end of the anime.}}

* The King of the Night in ''[[Kore wa Zombie Desu Kaka?]]'' just wants to die but Eucliwood won't let him so by God he will kill every last person on Earth if he has to to convince her to finally kill him.

* The motives of {{spoiler|King Joseph of Gallia}} in ''[[ZeroThe noFamiliar Tsukaimaof (Light Novel)|Zero no Tsukaima]]'' can be explained as such. For a long time, he was overshadowed by his immensely talented brother and was intensely jealous of him. He thought he would feel better if he got his brother out of his way, but it did not work and he ended up becoming devoid of any feelings. And then he thought perhaps destroying the world would fill the void in his heart....

* In ''[[Hero Squared]]'', Captain Victory hurt his girlfriend, so she became a supervillain and destroyed the ''entire universe''. He managed to escape to another universe and found his non-superpowered equivalent; she followed. Caliginous has decided that life is nothing but pain, misery, cruelty and death, and should be ended in preferably the most all-encompassing fashion possible.

** Her arch-nemesis [[The Cape (trope)|Captain Valor]] just sees her as an evil megalomaniac, but his alternative self Milo manages to recognize that beneath it all she's a broken, lonely, [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|psychologically tormented and suffering woman]].

* Azrael in ''[[Dogma]]'', a formerly pacifist angel who was cast into [[Hell]] for refusing to fight in the war between God and Satan, tries to end the universe via a cosmic [[Divide Byby Zero]] error to end his suffering.

* Nero the Romulan, from the new ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'', REALLY wants Spock to understand his pain...{{spoiler|by destroying his homeworld, as Romulus was destroyed}} in Nero's original timeline. And after Spock, the rest of the Federation is to get the same treatment, {{spoiler|starting with Spock's mother's homeworld, Earth}}.

* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Filmfilm)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'': "We all deserve to die - even you, Miss Lovett, even I - For lives of the wicked should be made brief - for the rest of us death will be a relief..."

* In the 2007 ''[[Beowulf (Filmfilm)|Beowulf]]'' film, Grendel was made somewhat more sympathetic with the inclusion of a justification for his attacks: somehow the acoustics of the mead hall meant that the revelry within was painfully loud for his sensitive exposed eardrum.

* Grace in ''[[Dogville]]'' can be interpreted like this (type 4). Or as a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]. Or a ''whole'' lot of other ways.

* While 'Dark Alessa' from the ''[[Silent Hill (Filmfilm)|Silent Hill]]'' movie qualifies as [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]], her original, 39-year-old, now soulless body ends the film by {{spoiler|finally getting her revenge on the cult who burned her alive by killing them all, with the exception of her mother, Dahlia.}}

* ''[[Batman Begins]]'': [[Knight Templar|Henri Ducard]] comes across as a case of either type 3 or type 4 (or maybe both) with the type 3 component being evident from his [[Knight Templar]] attitude, and the type 4 component being apparent from his earlier talk (if he means it) about how [[Freudian Excuse|his wife was taken from him and he "learned the hard way that there are those in the world without decency, who must be fought without pity."]] The sign of [[Put Them All Out of My Misery]] itself is in his conversation with Bruce Wayne about the prospect of destroying Gotham.

{{quote| '''Wanye''': You're gonna destroy millions of lives.<br />

'''Ducard''': Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime. Despair. This is not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance. <br />

'''Wayne''': Gotham isn't beyond saving. Give me more time. There are good people here.<br />

'''Ducard''': You're defending a city so corrupt, we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure. When I found you in that jail, you were lost. But I believed in you. I took away your fear, and I showed you a path. You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world. <br />

'''Wayne''': I'll be standing where I belong. Between you and the people of Gotham. <br />

'''Ducard''': No one can save Gotham. When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.<br />

'''Wayne''': You attacked Gotham before?<br />

* In ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Literaturenovel)|How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]'', the Grinch wants to remove the holiday from society because he finds the mindless joy, celebration, and materialism annoying (Type 3) and also because the singing hurts his ears (Type 2). In [[How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Filmfilm)|the live action film version]], it's revealed that it's really a case of Type 4 - the Grinch subconsciously desires revenge for being ostracized as a child because of his odd appearance.

* [[The Dragon|Ishamael]] has elements of this- he teamed up with [[Big Bad|the Dark One]] because he came to the conclusion that the endless repetion of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' made life pointless misery, and he decided to end it by simply breaking the Wheel (which would also have the effect of destroying the universe).

* ''[[Larry Niven|World of Ptavvs]]'' demonstrates this in its most basic form, with the last survivor of a telepathic alien race stranded on Earth and surrounded by humans, their unshielded minds boring into his. In fury, he blasts a powerful command: "STOP THINKING AT ME!" [[Empty Shell|Quite a number of people do]], and everyone else in the world is left dazed. This isn't a matter of lack of control, by the way--heway—he views all non-telepaths much the way most humans view cattle, and if they must be sacrificed for his comfort, well, it's not like they're ''people'' like him.

* Subverted in the ''[[New Jedi Order]]''. {{spoiler|Onimi}}, the real [[Big Bad]], has a lengthy [[Motive Rant]] in which he describes to a captive Jaina Solo how horrible his life has been and how he's going to ''kill every living thing in the galaxy'' so he can ''become a god'', all to get back at the gods he believes in, because he thinks they ruined his life (oh, and he also thinks Jaina is the avatar of one of these gods). The subversion comes because contrary to what {{spoiler|Onimi}} thinks, rather than making him sympathetic, this rant just makes him come off as very, ''very'' [[Ax Crazy|insane]].

* Prince Gaynor the Damned of the ''[[Corum]]'' series by Michael Moorcock. Long ago, he was [[The PunishmentCurse|cursed with eternal life]], and he joins the side of some [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s who are trying to plunge the world into an eternal winterland where everything will die--hencedie—hence, he will finally achieve the death he yearns for.

* A minor villain in the short-lived ''[[Birds of Prey (TV series)|Birds of Prey]]'' series had the ability to mimic the abilities of other metahumans. Unfortunately, he was also an anti-meta bigot who had horrifying migraines whenever another metahuman was around. His motivation was thus a combination of Types II and III, in that his physical and emotional pain was caused by the presence of metahumans (to the point that he commits [[Driven to Suicide|suicide]] in the end) and that he considered metas to be an abomination.

* The Evil Queen in ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'' convinces other fairy tale villains to go along with her plans to cast [[EndoftheThe End of the World Asas We Know It|the dark curse]] by telling them that it will create a world where they can finally win and get ''their'' [[Happily Ever After|happy endings.]]

* "[http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/soundgarden/blow+up+the+outside+world_20128135.html Blow Up The Outside World]" by [[Soundgarden (Music)|Soundgarden]].

* ''[[Exalted]]'' features the Neverborn, an example of Type 5. Once, they were Primordials, the creators of the universe, but as they designed it, they didn't believe the cycle of death would ever need to incorporate something as grand as themselves. So when they ended up getting killed, they found they couldn't pass into Lethe, eventually undergoing the cosmic equivalent of sepsis without ever being able to die from it. So they plotted to feed Creation into Oblivion, mainly so it'd stop the pain.

* Belkt, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Another CenturysCentury's Episode]] 3'', is this due to an immense quadruple-whammy. Not only was he born into a [[Crapsack World]] where everyone is trying to kill each other (as well as [[Aliens and Monsters]]) with [[Humongous Mecha]] [[After the End|after]] barely surviving [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]] as well as being considered nothing more than an expendable tool to his superiors in [[The Federation]], but he's also got a bad case of {{spoiler|[[Cloning Blues]] coupled with [[Freudian Excuse|the fact that he thought his "father" didn't care about him either]]}}. So not only does he decide to wipe out his ''own'' Earth, but also the Earth of an [[Alternate Universe]] {{spoiler|where his "father" was originally from and his "base" (i.e., the boy he was cloned from) is living a somewhat less screwed-up life as an [[Ordinary High School Student]]}} via [[Earthshattering Kaboom|smashing them into each other]].

** {{spoiler|Seymour}} in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. His backstory transforms him from an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] to a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]. He was subject to [[Fantastic Racism]] due to being born a [[Half-Human Hybrid]], then was [[Forced to Watch]] his mother perform a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save those people while his father nodded approvingly when he was twelve. Is it any wonder that he [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|Went Mad From The Revelation]] that the church that encouraged all of this was in fact [[The Necrocracy]] dedicated to [[Medieval Stasis|keeping things this way forever]]? From that perspective, destroying Spira to put an end to its pain is simply the obvious conclusion of the state religion's position that ''death is peace!'' It's hard to [[Take a Third Option]] if your entire existence is based on denying such a thing is possible.

* Ganondorf in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: theThe Wind Waker (Video Game)|Wind Waker]]'' wants to use the Triforce to take control of all of Hyrule and is willing to beat up two kids to get it. Just before attacking, he gives a very heartfelt monologue about how his people, who lived in a desert, were constantly dying while the rest of Hyrule prospered and how this made him want to control the land in which everyone lived a better life.

* {{spoiler|Professor Gerald}} from ''[[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure 2]]'' initially seems to be a genocidal [[Mad Scientist]], but once we learn that {{spoiler|the cause of his insanity was losing his home, his research and his granddaughter, basically ''all that was important to him'' in rapid succesion,}} its hard not to feel a bit sorry for him.

* Yggdrasill of ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]''. He spends 4,000 years trying to bring back his dead sister, while trying to fulfill her last wish of a world without discrimination. Unfortunately, he ends up deciding that the best way to accomplish that is by creating a world of lifeless beings.

* Purge from ''[[Space Channel 5]]'' Part 2 could be considered this if you take the time to read the profiles for some of the Rhythm Robots and his own profile.

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Arcanum: ofOf Steamworks and Magick Obscura|Arcanum]]'', {{spoiler|[[Omnicidal Maniac|Kerghan]], first of the necromancers}}, plans to kill every living thing in existance before allowing himself to die, because {{spoiler|he died once already and discovered that the afterlife is a state of eternal peace, whereas life is pain and misery. He brought himself back from the dead in order to carry out his plan, claiming that people only fear death because they do not know the eternal bliss that lies beyond. Also, because living necromancers can summon the spirits of the dead back from the afterlife, so he himself cannot be certain that his eternal peace will not be disturbed by the living.}}

* This seems to be [[Dr. HorriblesHorrible's Sing -Along Blog|Dr. Horrible's]] motivation for becoming a villain: he wants to topple the system and bring about some kind of vaguely defined social change. Or at least that was originally it; this desire becomes more and more of an afterthought as the plot progresses.

{{quote| '''Bender:''' I'm so embarrassed. I wish everyone but me was dead.}}

{{quote| '''Calvin:''' I wish I was dead... Wait, no I don't. I wish everyone ''else'' was dead.}}

{{quote| '''Bender''': I've come to free you from your complicated lives! ...the "complicated" part, not the "lives" part.}}

** Made all the worse by the fact that, since she's immortal, she's [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]], since she'll [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|outlive everyone and thing]] she's ever cared about at all. Besides which, five words: "The access code is... Alone."

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[[Category:TropeApocalyptic Index]]