Wicked Cultured: Difference between revisions

** Francisco Scaramanga, [[The Man with the Golden Gun]]. He was rich, played by [[Christopher Lee]] (see Count Dooku) which already makes him suave and dangerous, and he even had an eco-friendly [[Evil Lair]]... located in the Phang Nga Bay.

** The higher-ups of [[Quantum of Solace|Quantum]] [[At the Opera Tonight|love]] their ''[[Tosca]]''.

** General Chang from ''[[Film/Star Trek VI The Voyage Home|Star Trek VI The Voyage Home]]'' is definitely this. The man could barely get through a given day without gratuitous Shakespeare quoting; even when trying to smash the ''Enterprise''.

*** You should hear him quoting Shakespeare in the <s>Klingon original</s> original Klingon!

* Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil from ''[[Dangerous Liaisons|Les Liaisons Dangereuses]]''. She's obviously the most cultured, clever and deepest character of the book (Valmont also counts, but he's her villain sidekick). Her choice to pursue a career in evilness was heavily influenced by the philosophers she read. She would probably protect intellectuals and free speech if she wasn't too occupied ruining other persons' lives.

** Her modern, American, and underage counterpart in ''[[Cruel Intentions]]'' also fits this trope, but it's largely an act: she's a slut, and has a surprisingly filthy mouth.

* ''[[Left Behind]]'' seemed to be aiming for this with Nicholae Carpathia.

* Vetinari, periodically. In particular, his hobby of reading the ''[[Discworld]]'' equivalent of classical music, because actual instruments are just too unrefined.

* Patrick Bateman, the [[Villain Protagonist]] of ''[[American Psycho]]'' ''thinks'' he is, but then goes and describes Whitney Houston as [[Comically Missing the Point|"the most exciting and original black jazz voice of her generation."]] Then again, Bateman is ''supposed'' to be a vain, hollow fake.

* Captain Nemo of ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]'' conducted most of his discussions with Dr. Arronax in his fantastic library, decorated with the finest original and replica art, a catalog of priceless biological specimens, and of course his massive [[Ominous Pipe Organ|organ]], on which he played music by the foremost composers. Only a borderline example, because Nemo isn't entirely a villain.

{{quote|''a great patron of the arts -- all the great lords are.''}}

* Captain Hook of ''[[Peter Pan]]'' is generally portrayed as cultured, and often something of an [[Anti-Villain]]. Peter, by contrast, is a feral tyrant, ruling by whim but setting strict rules for the Lost Boys. (In some adaptations this is taken farther: Peter is incapable of learning or memory, and murders the Lost Boys if they don't follow his rules.)

** In Disney's otherwise very loosely adapted version, he speaks pleasantly to Wendy while switching to a prettier gold (with ruby ring!) hook to play the piano—looking quite dashing in a villainous way.

* Several [[Dean Koontz]] villains are (or fancy themselves as) this.

* ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]''. Despite being a homicidal maniac, he has decidedly highbrow hobbies. This is carried over to the Lloyd-Webber show, although his talents as a musician being somewhat lacking.

* Count [[Dracula]], being a Voivode and all, comes across as a fairly refined, rich old gentleman before he's revealed as a vampire.

* Alex from ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]''.

* In ''[[Night Watch]]'', [[Magnificent Bastard|Zavulon]] (or Zabulon) always appears wearing a suit and rarely shows anger. However, he is a scheming bastard who would be considered an outright villain if not for this world's [[Grey and Gray Morality]]. His Dusk appearance, however, is that of a demon (the author even felt the need to mention his [[Squick|spiked penis]]). [[The Movie]] version shows him more as an anarchist wearing black leather and a bandana.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]''' Nicodemus, the host and compatriot of a fallen angel, definitely qualifies. He's the scariest and evilest creature in a series full of scary, evil creatures who could squash him with their pinkies, but he does it with impeccable taste.

* Although he's pretty clearly a [[Complete Monster]] as well as a terrifying [[Body Horror]] (it's implied that he "[[Re Made]]" himself by choice), the gangster Mr. Motley of ''[[Perdido Street Station]]'' is definitely this. He's well informed about what's going on in the avant garde art scene and has this very [[Sophisticated As Hell]] way of speaking in which in a cultured voice and with [[Big Words]], he talks about things like his philosophy on life and which of his rivals he plans to kill.

* In [[Sherlock Holmes]], Holmes insists that all of the incredibly successful criminals are well-rounded, usually in the aristocratic arts. His nemesis Professor Moriarty definitely fits the bill.

* [[Nightrunner|Lynn Flewelling]] apparently is ''in love'' with them.. "Nightrunners" gives us first Lord Mardus. Gentleman, with high intellect and large interests, which are just as broad as the ones of one main character. Extraordinarily well mannered. Polite even to the prisoner he plans to bloodily sacrifice. Really, if you didn't know {{spoiler|he aspires becoming the Avatar of a God of Destruction}} you'd really like him. Later Ulan (who starts out not really a villian but extremely pragmatic. And sadly if the main characters achieved their goal his clan would suffer, [[Nothing Personal|so]] {{spoiler|Later it turns out that not only HE is responsible for the mess of Seregil's life, he also doesn't hesitate supporting rather nasty experiments just to prolong his life.}} ... and then we met Yakobin. Nice fellow. Has a good taste of tea. And dislikes beatin up his sleves more than neccessary - actually he is REALLY civilized and intelligent. Oh, have I mentioned he is an {{spoiler|alchemist who creates [[Creepy Child|child-like clones of you]] to brew some medicine of them and kills them when they wont fit your expectiations? Just to make you suffer the whole creation process once again?}}. The ''Tamír'' triad again gives us Nyrin. Court wizard. Soft spoken. Well mannered. Handsome. Apparently a good lover if you happen to be his mistress. Oh... and aspiring ruling from the shadows. And more or less directly responsible for countless assassinations of female members of the royal blood line.

* [[Flashman]] villain John Charity Spring was on the Oxford don career path before getting booted out and seeking an alternate career in the slave trade. Spring is a brilliant classical scholar who constantly throws [[Gratuitous Latin]] tags into his conversation, but he's also a psychopath with a [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]. While there isn't a [[Good Is Dumb]] contrast (since Flashman is a [[Villain Protagonist]]), there is a contrast in intellect, since Flashman is [[Book Dumb]] and while he's an [[Omniglot]] when it comes to learning to speak living languages, he could never pick up Ancient Greek and Latin.

== Live-Action TV ==

* Jim Moriarty from BBC's ''[[Sherlock]]''. He's never shown in anything less than a suit, except when {{spoiler|he's Jim from IT, Richard Brook or just undercover}}, and he speaks very well, when he's not talking in sing-song. He's very contrasting, and the first impression the viewer gets is that he's silly. This is very quickly shown to be wrong, as his mood swings can be genuinely scary.

* Sort of [[Real Life]], since it's reality TV, but Joe & Bill (a.k.a. Team Guido) from ''[[The Amazing Race]]''. They were relatively old, gay, had lived all over Europe, spoke several European languages and were overall kind of prissy. Needless to say, the other teams did not like them. Although they did give reason to, most famously because one of them shoved somebody's mother and reduced the daughter to tears.

** The "Cultured" part definitely applied to them (they were even the first team to wear matching outfits), but, [[Nostalgia Filter|in retrospect, they weren't really that "Wicked"]]. It was mainly three teams who were complaining about them, and the things they were complaining about are now considered basic strategies that every team is expected to know. Meaning these days, Joe & Bill come of as innovators, while the other three teams appear to be [[Scrub|whining about a team actually trying to win]]. The only really wicked thing Team Guido did was trying to block said three teams from getting on their plane, which led to the aforementioned shoving incident, somehow shoving a woman who was standing behind them.

* In an episode of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', the team goes to a planet whose leaders struck a deal with the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Wraith]]. The Wraith who regularly visits the planet enjoys fine cuisine and wines, despite the fact that they provide no nourishment for him.

* [[Blade the Series|Marcus van Sciver]] is known throughout Detrot as a patron of the arts and a proponent for the city's cultural revival. At the same time, he's a vicious [[Our Vampires Are Different|bloodsucking]] mastermind, whose goal is to overthrow the vampiric aristocracy. Being [[Evil Brit|British]] helps. Hell, he manages to get Krista to sleep with him after killing her brother and forcibly turning her by telling a sob story about his late wife.

** Also, the self-aware Moriarty holodeck program. Seriously, the holodeck can create some really cultured foes.

* Peter Stone, the [[Big Bad]] of seasons 5 and 6 of ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]''. [[Executive Meddling]] had him do a [[Heel Face Turn]] in season 7, though. In the meantime, he filmed Manny stripping and sent it over the Internet; took some bikini pictures of Darcy and sent them over the Internet; and planted some weed in Sean's locker.

* [[Batman: Arkham City]]: Subverted with this version of The Penguin - he's [[Jabba Table Manners|a thoroughly coarse]] [[Fat Bastard|and unpleasant]] [[The Bully|individual]], [[Small Name, Big Ego|even if he'd like to think otherwise]].

* Also subverted with Chatterbox, the [[Monster Clown|clown-faced Soho mob boss]] in the videogame version of ''[[The Warriors (video game)|The Warriors]]''. He fancies himself a [[Mad Artist|great artist]] (so much so that he ''kills'' anyone besides himself who tries to create anything resembling art in his neighborhood) - but he's [[Fat Bastard|grotesquely fat]], [[Cluster F-Bomb|foul-mouthed]], [[Bad Boss|cruel to his own men]], and on the whole obnoxious and buffoonish.

* De Killer from [[Ace Attorney]]

** {{spoiler|Kristoph Gavin}} from [[Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]]