Evil Brit: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"We play villains in your movies. ''[[Star Wars]]''? The Death Star? Full of British people."''|[[Eddie Izzard]]}}
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** A Britannia that has defeated Rome (and become them) would be quite different to one that threw Rome out and reverted to a clan / local King system.
*** Of course, at the same time, it wouldn't ''be'' Britannia without major Roman influence.
** Though it seems that the Britannian nobility is a tad more cosmopolitan than their real-world counterpart
** Britannia is basically a cross between the darker aspects of the British Empire and America. Despite what some people may say, it isn't actually either one of them, because in this [[Alternate History]] America never formed in the first place because the American Revolution failed. On top fo that, the British nobility were kicked out of Great Britain by the Scots after they had fled from a conquering Napoleon and were forced to go to the American colonies as a last safe refuge. There, they managed to thrive, resulting in the [[Social Darwinist]] Empire we all love to hate/love.
* Bakura in the dub of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'', although his British accent sounds more pronounced when he's his mild-mannered self rather than his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]. The accent was how the dubbers tried to match his use of polite [[Japanese Honorifics]] in the original.
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* Another example from the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]]: [[Tom Hiddleston]] as Loki in ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]''.
** It should be noted that almost all Asgardians have Brittish accents in the film, up to and including Thor himself
* Charles Dance has played an
* The "hooligan" sounding tough guy variety of
* Tavington from ''[[The Patriot]]'' (who, in the person of [[Jason Isaacs]], supplies the page picture), a travesty of the [[Real Life]] [[wikipedia:Banastre Tarleton|Banastre Tarleton]]. Sure, it's a movie about the American Revolution, but did they really have to make him so utterly cruel and despicable?
** The trope showed up in other [[Mel Gibson]] films: in 1981's ''Gallipoli'', the British soldiers are shown drinking tea on the beach while the Australians die in the battle, and ''[[Braveheart]]'' portrays the heroic struggle of the Scots against the evil English. All have been roundly criticised by historians for their wild inaccuracies, often involving playing up (or outright fabricating) British atrocities and general nastiness. In a particularly notorious example, ''[[The Patriot]]'' shows British soldiers burning a group of townsfolk alive in a church, an act actually committed centuries later by the Waffen-SS in France.
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** And [[Jeremy Irons]]'.
** And, going back a bit, George Sanders.
** If it was too late to be the [[Trope Codifier]], [[Alan Rickman]]'s villain in ''[[Die Hard]]'' certainly made the
*** Actually Hans and his brother Simon from ''[[Die Hard]]'' were German, but you certainly wouldn't guess that from their accents.
**** The topic of British villains in movies and Rickman in particular was discussed on Stephen Fry's panel show ''[[QI]]'', while on Top Gear, Scottish actor Brian Cox suggested to Jeremy Clarkson that Brits were cast as the baddies in Hollywood movies because Americans 'fundamentally mistrust intelligence'.
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** Then again, ''everyone'' was either British, Russian or American in this film. Including the protagonist. Trevelian was the child of Lienz Cossacks, making him probably Brit-raised-Austrian.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'', although that was more incidental, since union rules for British films at the time required a minimum number of speaking parts for British actors, so a lot were cast as Imperial officers. Both he Imperials and Rebels were played by mostly British actors but all the Rebels' voices were later dubbed by American actors. A few sources claim that the upper-class English accent is the default accent on Coruscant.
** The late [[Peter Cushing]] (Grand Moff Tarkin), who actually played mostly good guys in his
*** In fact all major bad guys were played by Brits, The Emperor (Ian [[Mc Diarmid]] is Scottish), Darth Vader (although not his voice actor, as the voice of David Prowse was too west-country, earning him the nickname Darth Farmer), Count Dooku, and even Darth Maul (London-based Scot Ray Park's voice was dubbed by British voice-actor and comedian Peter Serafinowicz).
** A good number of good guys in ''Star Wars'' have British accents, however. Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and Qui-Gon ([[Liam Neeson]]) and Mon Mothma, leader of the Rebel Alliance. In the first film, Princess Leia has a quasi-British accent [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|in some scenes]].
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* Seemingly subverted In Woody Allen's ''Scoop'', where a charming high-society Brit, played by [[Hugh Jackman]], is suggested to be a murderer. However, he's so charming and so handsome that the [[Hot Scoop]] played by Scarlett Johansson finds this impossible {{spoiler|in the end, it is revealed that he was the murderer after all}}
* The debonair, dashing and very deadly Devlin from ''[[The Net]]'', who seduces [[Sandra Bullock]]'s character in a bid to steal a disk in her possession, and then sets about trying to kill her.
* As noted above
* Inverted in the ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]'' films, where the only characters in the series with American accents are the evil wolves and the heroes are all British.
* [[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter]] as portrayed by both Scot Brian Cox and, of course, Welshman Anthony Hopkins. The less said about the French kid and ''[[Canon Discontinuity|Hannibal Rising]]'' the better.
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** Except for Goldeneye, of course.
* The Evil Brit is a common trope in [[Jackie Chan]] movies due to their anti-colonial themes, discussed in detail in [http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/theatrefilm/current/projector/vol1issue2folder/vol1issue2art1.htm here].
* In ''[[Anaconda
* [[Christopher Lee]], although he's a specialist villain actor anyway.
* Underworld saw Bill Nighy as an
== Literature ==
* In [[Michael Moorcock]]'s ''[[Hawkmoon]]'' stories, the villains are the [[Evil Empire|Dark Empire]] of Granbretan: An [[
* In the [[Andrew Vachss]] Burke book ''Strega'', Burke is forced to speak civilly to a self-proclaimed pedophile with a "semi-Brit" accent. Said pedophile becomes an occasionally recurring character. {{spoiler|At least until ''Dead and Gone'', where he turns out to be behind the plot to kill Burke, was actually faking the pedophile thing, and gets killed offscreen.}}
* Pretty much the entire point of Steve Grasse's ''Evil Empire''.
* In [[The 39 Clues]] book series, the [[The Rival|Kabras]] are the [[Grey and Gray Morality|most evil]] of the main characters, {{spoiler|especially [[Evil Matriarch|the mother]], [[Big Bad|Isabel.]] The children, }} [[Handsome Devil|Ian]] [[Brother-Sister Team|and]] [[Spoiled Brat|Natalie]] are more [[Mean Brit
* [[Sadist Teacher|Agatha]] [[Complete Monster|Trunchbull]] in ''[[Matilda]]'' - even in [[The Movie]], where every other character is American.
* ''[[In Death]]'': A number of the murderers turn out to be British, as well as [[Complete Monster
== Live Action TV ==
* In one episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' Moriarty from the [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories comes back in holographic form to menace the crew. However, he was played an American actor who miraculously effected a stunningly believable British accent. Justified in this case by the fact that, well, it's Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes
* Adam Monroe and Daniel Linderman from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. Though Adam is actually played by an American.
** More recently Edgar (sort of, he's not quite ''evil'' as much as misguided, and even has doubts in regards to Samuel's plans) and Samuel too, although Samuel's accent changes constantly, sometimes within the same episode or even the same scene.
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* Lila from ''[[Dexter]]''.
* Dr. Zachary Smith on ''[[Lost in Space]]'' was never specifically said to be British, but he most definitely fits the "vaguely upper-class" stereotype with his pompous personality, refined way of speaking, and haughty manner.
* Gaius Baltar from the re-imagined series of ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' is played by James Callis, who is British. Most of the cast speak in American or Canadian
** Lampshaded when James Callis put on a Yorkshire accent to demonstrate his poverty-stricken origins on Aerelon.
** Which is weird for two reasons: 1. His 'fake' Caprican accent sounds like none of the other (North American) Capricans. 2. His 'posh' accent sounds more like Estuary English i.e. it sometimes sounds 'posh' but sometimes sounds slightly 'Cockney'.
** Ironically enough, Jamie Bamber's [[Real Life]] wife (who is ''also'' British) plays one of the doctors assisting Cottle in Galactica's medical bay, but uses her original British accent. It should be noted that the show has used actresses from New Zealand (Lucy Lawless) and Australia (Stephanie Jacobsen) who also use their native accents.
*** Since ''[[Caprica]]'' started, things have gotten a bit murkier, since Clarice Willow speaks with Polly Walker's native English accent (not terribly different from Callis', although Walker is from Cheshire). At first, this lent credibility to the theory that the planet Caprica has lots of different
** Jamie Bamber is actually half American, though it is true that he grew up in Britain.
** According the commentary on 'Razor' everyone got to use their real accent for the most part; to imply variety in the Colonies. The only reason Bamber didn't use his British accent was to make him sound like Commander Adama to imply their familial relationship, which they needed all the help they could get on, considering the actors were different ethnicities (Olmos being an emphatically-brown Mexican and Bamber being as white as they come; Olmos wore blue contact lenses to return the favor, covering his brown eyes).
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== New Media ==
* On this very Wiki we used to have a trope called [[British Nazis]], in which some [[Troll]] tried to convince people that British people are [[
** Obviously a troll. Strongly hierarchial Fascist governments are clearly Lawful Evil, as any fule kno.
*** Not to mention [[You Keep Using That Word|monarchies and feudal systems are not a form of facism]].
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== Radio ==
* ''[[The Goon Show]]'' featured the ''entente cordiale'' of
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* Interestingly subverted in [[The Saboteur]]. Sean certainly doesn't ''like'' Bishop, since Sean is strongly hinted to be an Irish Nationalist. Bishop himself is most definitely secretive and dodgy and doesn't give the player too much reason to trust him. But in the end, he and the SOE are the most solid and powerful allies you have once {{spoiler|Santos sells you and [[La Résistance]] out to the Nazis and things go to hell in a rocket-powered handbasket.}}
* The imperiously domineering Isabella "Ivy" Valentine from the [[Soul Series]], and femme fatale for hire Christie from [[Dead or Alive]] (both voiced with the applicable RP accent) are both great examples of the
* In the RTS ''RUSE'', Nazi General von Richter talks with a British accent, although his aide-de-camp talks in English with a German accent. It is subverted though, as Colonel Campbell is actually British (with an appropriate dialect), and on the goodie's side.
* Archibald Grims from [[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]] is a particularly [[Ax Crazy]] [[Wicked Cultured]] version of this. One of his ancestors in a side manga was pretty much this as well.
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* In ''[[Age of Empires II]]'', the Brits are almosy always the bad guys, regardless of whether they're fighting William Wallace, Joan of Arc or William the Conqueror.
* Subverted in ''[[Assassin's Creed]]''. Despite his name, one may expect Robert de Sable to be British, as he works directly under the king of England, but, both historically and in game, he is French.
** With ''[[Assassin's Creed III]]'' taking place during the American Revolution,
*** Worringly, not one piece of media shown so far has actually shown Connor attacking anything other than the Redcoats.
* Kid Icarus:Uprising plays this straight with {{spoiler|Hades and Arlon}} who, while not actually British, have distinctly British accents, [[Evil Counterpart|Dark Pit]] has a slightly British tint to his voice at times.
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* [[Fairly Oddparents|AntiCosmo]]: Accent, posh, outfit, FANGS! He's a textbook example. In fact, many fans have potrayed him as a Vampire.
* Evil mastermind Ra's Al Ghul has a cultured British accent in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', courtesey of [[David Warner]].
** David also voiced the Lobe from [[Freakazoid]] - also an
** David pops up again as Alpha, a major [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Men in Black (animation)|Men in Black]]: The Series''.
*** This trope could practically be called 'The David Warner'. He's also [[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy|Nergal]], [[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command|Lord Angstrom]], [[Gargoyles|The Archmage]] and so on. From what this troper hears, he's a pretty nice guy in real life.
** In ''[[Batman: Under the Red Hood]]'', Ra's' cultured British accent is provided by Jason Isaacs.
* Superman's enemy Metallo was [[Race Lift
* Terrence from ''[[Totally Spies]]''. Even though {{spoiler|[[Luke, I Am Your Father|his brother]]}} Jerry is a good guy.
* A whole page of [[Trrrilling Rrrs|Evil Brrrrrrrrits]] and we haven't mentioned [[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog|Long John Baldrrrrrrrry's take on Dr. Rrrrrrrrobotnik]]?
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* The extraterrestrial but yet still-so-British Killface on ''[[Frisky Dingo]]''.
* The ''[[Kim Possible]]'' villain Monkey Fist is a British Lord...and one of the few villains who is genuinely nasty on a regular basis. And there is that Scottish mad golf guy.
* [[Master of Illusion|Mad Mod]] in ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' plays this to the hilt, though he's a mostly comical villain rather than a serious threat (and at one point it's remarked that even real British people probably can't stand him). Brother Blood, one of the major [[Big Bad
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]''' Marvin the Martian started out with a nasally American voice, but then was given a snooty, sort-of upper-class English accent. This trope is so naughty, he could just ''pinch'' it!
* [[Big Bad|Van Kleiss]] of ''[[Generator Rex]]''. Seriously, his voice creeps me out.
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