Stupid Evil: Difference between revisions

Similarly, the ''D&D'' sourcebook ''Book of Vile Darkness'' spent a good while detailing how to run an evil character without being a [[Omnicidal Maniac|mass-murdering lunatic]]; but it does give tips for that, too, since even [[Card-Carrying Villain|cartoon supervillainy]] has [[ThisTropes ExistsAre (DarthNot Wiki)Bad|has its place.]].

This is different from [[Complete Monster]], usually; in that those monsters almost always have some kind of goal, desires or something else that they're willing to commit atrocities for; - Stupid Evil means doing it when it is both pointless and [[Too Dumb to Live|self-harmingly stupid]], although examples the former sometimes does actions that are considered this and earn themselves a fitting [[Karmic Death]].

It is notable that this is, along with [[Chaotic Stupid]], is often [[Lampshade Hanging|given as an official reason]] in a work for why the forces of evil haven't completely destroyed the forces of good yet: They're too busy behaving like this, usually towards [[Evil vs. Evil|other evils]], to focus on uniting against good and conquering the world. There's often a conscious concern on the part of the good guys of this fact.

Compare [[Lawful Stupid]], [[Chaotic Stupid]], [[Stupid Neutral]] and [[Stupid Good]]. Contrast as well [[Pragmatic Villainy]]; a villain who is evil only when it benefits them more. [[Chaotic Evil]] is the alignment most likely to be reduced to '''Stupid Evil''', for some reason. [[Threw My Bike on the Roof]] often overlaps with this.

{{noreallife|people in the real world do evil things for a reason.''' They don't have to be good reasons, but they ''are'' reasons. They may be emotionally unstable and easily driven to violent outbursts, may have passed the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and become numb to morality, may be so single-mindedly focused on a goal that they'll ignore the suffering of others to achieve it, or they may be mentally insane and have no control over their thoughts and actions. Whatever the case, there has never been an actual person in the history of the world who has done evil just for the sake of evil.}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Pretty much the entire cast of villains in ''[[Ranma ½]]'' have moments of acting like this, particularly in the manga version and [[Status Quo Is God|''particularly'' if "Smart Evil" threatens the status quo]]. Two of the most notable examples are Soun Tendo stealing a cure for Ranma's [[Gender Bender|curse]] with the intent of blackmailing him into marrying Akane with it, only to blab about it in front of Genma Saotome, who promptly stole it himself... and Nabiki's attempt to sell Ranma Saotome's engagement to one of the other members of his [[Harem]] during her stint as his [[Official Couple|official]] [[Arranged Marriage|fianceefiancée]], only for the girls to spontaneously decide that it would be better to simply kill her rather then pay her price. If it wasn't for the fact Ranma is a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]], she would have died.

*** [[Melee à Trois| Tron]] has a habit of giving his henchmen {{spoiler| (who are ''also his sons'', by the way)}} cards that are too powerful for them to control, which cause disasters when played. The first example was when he gave IV a Spell Card called Flaming Hell Blessing to use in a duel against Rio Kamishiro; it won the duel for him, but it also caused a raging fire that destroyed the building they were in. Rio was in the hospital for months recovering; IV managed to get out {{spoiler|(being the one who carried Rio to safety and likely saved her life)}}, but not unscathed. The accident [[Scars Are Forever| left a scar on his face that never healed]].

*** Even worse was the card he gave III to use against Yuma, Angolmois. The true effect of this card was to open a portal to the Barian World, which would basically have done the same thing that a black hole does. If it had worked, it would have killed everyone, Tron included (and he didn't even seem to care; he was laughing his head off as he watched the duel). {{spoiler| Fortunately, III, being a lot smarter than his dad, came to his senses before that happened, and Yuma was able to win the duel before the full effect occurred.}}

*** Paradox from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time]]'' was worse. A bad guy challenging the main protagonist of a series is one thing, ''this'' idiot decides to challenge [[Dream Team| the protagonists of ''three'' series of a franchise]] ''simultaneously''.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Norman "Green Goblin" Osborn had the world as his oyster during ''Dark Reign'', with him in charge of the US security, the Avengers replaced with a team of villains loyal to him, and all the regular heroes incapacitated or wanted fugitives. But he just had to defy the President and, go rogue and attack Asgard for some reason, losing everything and getting the good guys back in power in one day.

* In a story in the ''[[Batman: Streets of Gotham]]'', third-rate villain Jennifer Duffy (aka the Carpenter) is hired by the Director to build a [[Death Trap]] complex with the intent to use it on Batman and ''film'' it, intending to market the footage as a [[Snuff Film]]. And he doesn't plan to stop theirthere either, having "scripted" similar films with [[Superman]] and [[Wonder Woman]] as victims. He even ''advertises'' these movies. One movie poster shows Diana's dead body hanging from a gallows. Duffy's own opinion of this is, [[Captain Obvious|Batman is going to curb-stomp him]], and she hopes to be paid and get miles away before that happens.

== [[Fan Works]] ==

== [[Film]] ==

* Evil Bill and Evil Ted from ''[[Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure(film)|Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey]]''. They try to run down cats while steering their time-traveling phone booth, [[For the Evulz|just because]]. Of course, they ''are'' [[Evil Knockoff|evil duplicates]] of the [[Stupid Good]] heroes, so it's no wonder.

** Of course, the bad guys are not immune to infection -- should any of them personally end up hit by the virus, they would need the cure. Also, it's stated that since the cure is cheap and requires only one dose, but the palliative treatment used to help disease-sufferers before the cure was invented is expensive and requires repeated doses, the corporations would genuinely make a greater profit by not distributing the cure. (Personally, I don't see how this works -- after all, the above calculation assumes that your entire potential market can ''afford'' the expensive version, which they probably couldn't -- but it's a plausible enough logic chain that the corpcorporation execs don't look like total morons for following it.)

** Ego the Living Planet from ''[[Guardians of the Galaxy (film)|Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2]]''. His goal was to destroy all mortal life in the universe in order to become the dominant species. Yeah, no-one's really certain what he'd do after that. Not only is this a stupid plan, it makes very little sense, as: he previously claimed to be lonely, the reason he fell in love with a mortal woman.

** Thanos from ''[[Avengers: Infinity War]]'' and ''[[Avengers: Endgame]]''. For most of his career, the Mad Titan (who truly deserves that title, no matter how sick he gets of hearing it) considered himself a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] and [[Necessary Evil]] who claimed the only true way to save mortals from doing themselves in was to reduce populations of inhabited worlds. Gaining the Infinity Gauntlet gave him god-like power, able to complete his goal with a snap of his finger, but also made him the most hated and reviled man in the cosmos, as survivors had to watch family and loved ones turn to dust. He never considered that, maybe he could abandon his original plans and instead use this omniponentomnipotent power to, say, construct more livable planets and heal existing ones, while providing them with infinite supplies of food and drinkable water. He'd have been viewed as a heroic savior instead of the horrific villain he became. [[Word of God]] has indeed admitted that Thanos is [[Hypocrite|not as well-intentioned as he claims]], and is desperately trying to prove that his previous plan could work to the point where it blinded him to all better options. {{spoiler|This is proven in the second movie, when he stops pretending to care for anyone but himself and attempts to destroy the universe so he can remake it into one where people will be forced to be grateful to him.}}

* The schemes of some [[James Bond]] villains can be pretty dumb sometimes, and not [[Bond Villain Stupidity| just for the obvious reason]]:

** Elliot Carver, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]''. A media mogul who is the embodiment of [[New Media Are Evil]] he seeks to provoke a war between the United States and China to boost sales and ratings of his news divisions. (Again, the old "start [[World War III]] on purpose scheme" that never ends well.) This guy can actually blackmail the President, something he does as a [[Character Establishing Moment]]; if he has ''that'' much influence, maybe he could fulfill his goal by manipulating something with, you know, much less chance of extensive civilian casualties and global economic crisis? Not only does this plan get 007 after him, but China's equivalent, who eventually sides with Bond.

** Gustav Graves, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Die Another Day]]''. He plans to use his solar-powered [[Kill Sat]] to destroy the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, so the North Korean army can invade South Korea. Even the guy's father - an actual North Korean general - realizes low ludicrous this is and the one-sided slaughter such a blatant violation of the treaty they hold would result in. Graves actually murders his father as a result, proving to everyone he's a bonafidebona fide lunatic.

* [[Helena Bonham Carter]]'s version of Bellatrix Lestrange in the ''[[Harry Potter]] (film)|''Harry Potter'' movies]] borderlines on this. She's portrayed as an insane character who delights in petty acts of vandalism like shattering windows and setting houses on fire. In the books, she's described as much more serious - she's considered insane only because of the level of her devotion to Lord Voldemort.

* ''[[Super Mario Bros. (film)|Super Mario Bros.]]''; - man, where to begin here?

** King Koopah's evil plan is to merge ''his'' world with ''ours'' so he could conquer it. Assuming this didn't cause ''two'' [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]s, ''his'' world has only one settlement, Dinohattan, meaning he'd be facing off against multiple armies with his limited forces. This includes the police of Dinohattan, who are overworked, understaffed, and speakingincompetent; ofKoopa's enforcers, the woefully stupid Goombahs which were ''purposely'' made so via devolution; and his cousins Iggy and Spike, whom he trust to get the [[MacGuffin]] he needs ''after'' the two morons kidnap the wrong girl ''five times'' before managing to grab Daisy...

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Big Bad|Voldemort]] in was [[The Dreaded| the feared and dreaded]] symbol of [[Pure Evil]] in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' franchise, and also one of the stupidest villains in modern fiction:

** For the record, the whole franchise would never have happened had he not failed in his first attempt on Harry’sHarry's life due to a - ''misinterpreted -'' prophecy. The biggest reason he failed to kill Harry as an infant was because Lily sacrificed herself to save her son, - but in hindsight, did Voldemort really need to kill Lily? If he had instead used the Cruciatus Curse to subdue her (or frankly, even just pushed her aside), he’dhe'd have had a clear shot at Harry. Killing Lily not only fouled up later attempts to kill Harry, it gave Harry a valuable ally, and speaking of whom…whom...

** Snape’sSnape's crush on Lily was sort of creepy, but using a [[For Want of a Nail]] scenario, Lily’sLily's death was the sole reason Snape turned against him, giving Harry a potent ally. While Voldemort’sVoldemort's most stated weakness is [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good| his inability to comprehend concepts like love and friendship]], he does know a thing or two about loyalty, pride, and holding grudges. He should have known Lily’sLily's death would enrage Snape to the point of desiring revenge,; and for all his jerkass[[Jerkass]] tendencies and uppity attitude, Snape is a competent and ''very'' powerful wizard, and not someone you want on your bad side if you can help it. Indeed, had Snape remained loyal to Voldemort, it is very likely Snape would not have gone out of his way to save Harry during the QuiddichQuidditch match where QuirrelQuirrell booby-trapped Harry’sHarry's broom, ending the young hero’shero's career in his first year.

** One of the reasons heroes with capes and masks use secret identities is because of a common trick bad guys use to get to the good guys, trying to do them in through their family and friends, but even though Harry has neither cape nor mask, he has plenty of allies he cares for who depend on him.: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Dobby, to name a few. Yet, this is something Voldemort rarely tried. He did it once, in ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Order of Thethe Phoenix (novel)|TheHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'', sending Harry visions of Sirius Black, and it worked; how hard could it have been to expand this theme? Especially seeing as Hermione’sHermione's parents are both muggles[[Muggles]], how hard could it have been for him or another Death Eater to kidnap her during summer vacation?

** One of his biggest mistakes was [[It's Personal| making the conflict with Harry a personal issue]]. Sure, Voldemort is an evil wizard, and it’sit's understandable that he’dhe'd blame Harry for having to share Quirrel’sQuirrell's body, feed on unicorn blood, and [[Evil Makes You Monstrous| looking, well, hideous.]]. And he believed a prophecy about being the only one who could kill Harry. But frankly, he could have survived had he just let go a little. His vendetta was an obsession, and [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|his insistence on doing Harry in himself]] is the biggest reason the Boy Who Lived, er, ''lived'' as long as he did. Due to his orders, his followers were goofing around giving the students cursed diaries rather than make any steps towards eliminating Harry, and even when he did come back, his “leave"leave him to me” mentality only helped Harry escape, often with far more information than the villain would have liked.

** His ''entire plan'' in ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (novel)|Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]''. Here's the problem: You need the blood of your enemy to restore your physical body. So you decide to convince Barty Crouch Jr. to kidnap "Mad Eye" Moody, brew a year's supply of Polyjuice potions, have Crouch infiltrate Hogwarts disguised as Moody, teach the Defense Against Dark Arts class for a year (giving Harry and his friends some ''very'' useful info about combating black magic), manipulate the Goblet to compel Harry to compete in the Tri Wizard Tournament, push Harry in the right direction during said Tournament, and finally, turn the trophy into a port key that delivers Harry into your clutches. Well, it works, but wouldn't it have been a lot easier to just enchant his toothbrush or something? In the end, Voldemort's whole plan seems to be a whole lot of unnecessary effort and cost for something that, on the surface, he could have done easier.

*** Not to mention, if he really needed blood of an enemy, the dead body of poor Cedric was right there, but Voldemort was so hung up with his obsession with Harry to consider that option. In fact, the only folks who didn’tdidn't qualify were the Death Eaters. Even Pettigrew (you know, the guy who thought spending three years as a rat was a valid plan?) thought this was a bad idea.

** There’sThere's also his complete inability to use subtlety in his assaults on Potter. Despite what Dumbledore would have you believe, Hogwarts’ security, [[Swiss Cheese Security|Hogwarts' security, to be blunt, stinks]]. SirusA Black12-foot-tall mountain troll manages to get as far as the dorms in the first book before the staff even realizes its there (requiring the [[Power Trio]] to take it down; Sirius Black, a fugitive convicted of murder who had just broken out of jail), was able to sneak in, vandalize the fatFat lady’sLady's painting and get away before anyone noticed,; Rita Skeeter spied on numerous staff and students in order to write her slanderous stories,; and Peter Pettigrew spent ''three years'' in the students’students' dorms disguised as a rat before anyone noticed. Had Voldemort actually tried to sneak in himself after Goblet of Fire (or had one of his minions do it), possibly using a Polyjuice potion to disguise himself as Ron, Hermione, or for that matter, anyone Harry trusted, it would have been all over. But each and every time he confronted Harry, he had to make a big show out of it, giving Harry the chance to escape or fight back.

** A point often brought up by fans is how big part of defeating Voldemort lay in finding and destroying his HoracruxesHorcruxes, but it seemed he made them WAY''way'' too easy to find. Why not sink one in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or bury another in Antarctica? It isn't hard to imagine that Godric Gryffindor himself would be challenged if he had to find them ''there''.

** Another missed opportunity, [[Magically-Binding Contract| the Unbreakable Bond]]. This spell places two wizards into an agreement that will ''kill'' one of them should he break it, and it seems surprisingly easy to cast. Fred and George nearly made one with Ron when they were just kids, so it’sit's absurd to think Voldemort couldn’tcouldn't have used it to prevent his own minions (including Snape, Karkaroff, and the Malfoy family) to prevent desertion and/or betrayal, but he seemed content on using the Black Mark, which in the long run, did little to ensure loyalty.

** [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom| Good old lovable idiot Horace Slugthorn]], the guy who inadvertently told Tom Riddle about HoracruxesHorcruxes in the first place. Poor guy was [[Properly Paranoid| paranoid that the Death Eaters would try to silence him]], but one has to wonder, did they even try at all? One would think Voldemort would put at least some effort into eliminating this dangerous loose end, but no, Slugthorn not only lived long enough to retire, but come out of retirement, and eventually give Harry the info he needed to take down Voldemort.

** And finally, there’sthere's the Time Turners, a major plot device (and a lot of wasted potential) in ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This(novel)|Prisoner device wasof Azkaban]]''invented'' by. Lucius Malfoy (one of the Death Eaters), may have had a hand in inventing this device<ref>If ''[[Harry Potter and the Cursed Child]]'' is considered canon.</ref> and despite how powerful it was, it seemed easy to get, given how many the Ministry of Magic had. Sure, there are rules governing their use, but when has Voldemort cared about that? He had so many chances to grab one, and could have used it to undo any of the mistakes he made on this list, but it never seemed to occur to him.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

** The Daleks: Sure, these things are pure [[Nightmare Fuel]] for anyone who grew up watching ''Doctor Who'', but in retrospect, you might actually be ashamed of yourself for ever being scared of them. They’reThey're pretty dumb, for a variety of reasons; and would be candidates for a racial version of the Darwin Awards if they just did the universe a favor and stayed dead for once. Note that, to be fair, a lot of this can be blamed at least partially on [[Monster Progenitor|Davros]], who created them with a flawed design:

*** For starters, while they claim to [[A Nazi By Any Other Name|be "superior" to every other species]], the design of their cybernetic exoskeletons is just plain... wrong. A lot of jokes have been made about how, in early episodes, the only handicap they had that was worse than their inability to maneuver up a set of stairs is their even worse inability to maneuver ''down'' a set of stairs. Later incarnations managed to correct this with levitation devices, but they had other problems. Their optic-sensor-on-a-stalk has always been another Achilles heel: it gives them absolutely no peripheral vision or depth perception, and they have to rotate their entire bodies simply to look around. You could theoretically run rings around a DarlekDalek as it was struggling even to get a bead on you with one of its weapons. The Doctor famously blinded one of them with his hat in one episode, and this Troper is fairly certain there was at least one episode where a Companion did so with a wad of chewing gum. Some of them have a sensor ray to correct the first problem or can heat the eyepiece to remove any foreign material, but the only Daleks who use these additions are [[Plot Armor| the ones who must survive for sake of plot]]. Also, that plunger-arm they have is pretty good for draining knowledge from a victim’svictim's brain or information from a computer, and their manipulator-arm is useful as a cutting tool, flamethrower, or seismic detector, but both are downright terrible for turning pages in an ordinary book, opening a door with a key, or any other task that requires fine manipulation or opposable thumbs. Their gunsticks are powerful weapons, but would be even better if they didn’tdidn't have to swivel their entire bodies simply to aim them. A Dalek can move almost silently, so a smart one would try to sneak up on their victim while using a weapon like this, but Dalek’sDalek's can’tcan't help but scream [[Catch Phrase|“EXTERMINATE"EXTERMINATE!”]] all the time at the top of their lungs in their squeaky, scratchy, jarring voices, making them unable to sneak up on anything with a sense of hearing. It is discovered later [[Timey-Wimey Ball|(earlier?)]] that this is a command word that reloads the weapon, but that just adds another design flaw. They used to have a “dry"dry ice gun” (which they were eventually smart enough to stop using) a deadly weapon designed for close range, a type of combat [[Glass Cannon| no sane Dalek would engage in]]. In short, the only reason their invasions ever succeed is because in this series (like many others) Earth’sEarth's armies [[Red Shirt Army| consist of soldiers with no fight-or-flight response.]] Usually, that is; some ordinary soldiers can trounce them pretty well. Worst of all, they tend to technologically regress every time they have to rebuild their civilization, and speaking of which...

*** Daleks also have a self-imposed [[Hive Mind]] (sort of) that links them all through a data-sharing network [[Magical Computer|(the Pathweb)]], but the efficiency of said network borders on pathetic. In one episode, [[Playful Hacker|Clara]] manages to hack into it and delete all knowledge of the Doctor’sDoctor's existence, and it took her all of five seconds. ([[Ironic Echo|"Doctor… who??]] says a puzzled Dalek afterwards.) Sure, this was the mistake of an “imperfect”"imperfect” Dalek who was later killed, but it seems they discover and “EXTERMINATE"EXTERMINATE!” members of their own kind for being “imperfect”"imperfect” at least twice per episode where they appear. Still, the problem with Pathweb is mostly an extension of their individual brains. Designed only to hate other races and destroy what they hate, and showing any positive trait or emotion other than hate [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good| (like showing mercy, gratitude, or generosity)]] will mark a Dalek for death by its [[Social Darwinist]] kin. The Doctor and his Companions also discovered quickly that the best way to confuse a Dalek is to spout nonsensical babble; they're struggle to make sense of it [[Does Not Compute| until they panic out of frustration]]. Something they do a lot, actually, screaming and shooting their weapons blindly (often falling down stairs!) if a plan goes sour. It’sIt's a miracle these things survive long enough to reproduce, and speaking of which…

*** A Dalek’sDalek's biological make-up is the biggest reason they’vethey've been “brought"brought to the brink of extinction” so many times, due to their own biological experiments and relying so much on the exoskeletons. [[I Cannot Self-Pollinate| They cannot reproduce on their own]], and creating new Daleks requires technology and genetic material from other beings. Usually Davros (someone they have grown to hate) does this, but they have been known to plead for the Doctor to aid them too, and even when he does, they never show any gratitude. One has to wonder what would happen if they succeeded in obliterating all other races; they’dthey'd likely die out, either from this inability to create more or turning on each other, and [[Overly Long Gag|''speaking of which…which...'']]

*** Possibly the Crowning Moment of Stupidity for the Daleks came with the Cult of Skaro, a group of four Daleks designed to research methods and strategies that most Daleks found unorthodox. Selected by the Dalek Emperor, these four Daleks were allowed to have individuality, even having names, and were allowed to base their ideas on emotion and imagination without fear of consequence. One of them, [[White Sheep|Dalek Sec]], has since become known as [[You Are a Credit to Your Race|the smartest Dalek who ever lived]], for good reason. He did indeed get some clever ideas, which enabled him to rescue millions of other Daleks from a Time Lord prison. He figured, to paraphrase, [[Heel Realization|"Wait, if humans are inferior, why do we keep losing to them?"]] He then proposed combining their DNA with that of humans, using himself as a test subject; as a result, [[Redemption Promotion|he became smarter and stronger]], even to the point where he could function without his cybernetic armor and freeing himself of every flaw mentioned above due to the ill-conceived design. For a while, it seemed there was hope that the Daleks could prosper. But despite the positive results of this experiment, the other members of the Cult saw Sec’sSec's ideas as blasphemy and murdered him, and act that led to the Doctor quickly killing two of them. Only Dalek Caan survived, only to again put his species back on the same unending cycle of hatred and failure. In fact, the next time the Daleks came close to extinction, it is heavily implied Caan's insanity had led him to do it on purpose.

*** What’sWhat's more, Dalek schemes tend to show ridiculous incompetence. Say a story ends with the Daleks having dwindled to a dozen or so due to their last defeat and the above-mentioned problem. Their plan will start by finding a way to replenish their species, but before their race is even close to recovering, they’llthey'll launch their genocidal campaign again, eventually bringing them right back to where they were before. They also suffer from the flaw of all arrogant and overconfident villains, [[Bond Villain Stupidity|telling the hero every minute detail of their plans]] and giving what he needs to figure out the flaw in them, something a supra-genius Time Lord can do pretty quickly.

* Dear God, the Borg. While dreaded and feared in ''[[Star Trek]]'' mythos, a combination of poor design, lack of creativity, inability to adapt, and lack foresight makes them absurdly easy to outsmart. A supercomputer is no good if it uses no firewall or antivirus, and the Borg takes such an analogy [[Up To Eleven]]. They never prepare for stealth-based viruses and sabotage, never learn from their defeats from such, and never seem to come up with new ideas on their own. They're unable to even ''see'' beings not registered as threats, meaning you could waltz right into one of their giant cubes, plant a nuclear bomb, and leave without being caught, so long as you made no threatening moves. Seven of Nine's parents lived and studied them ''right under their noses for two years'' before being caught, and they didn't even learn from ''that''. They also never bother to study the history of the races they assimilate; Picard was able to mow them down with a tommy gun in one episode involving the Holodeck, something that should have been the equivalent of an American soldier standing up to a Blitzkreig with a squirtgun. How they ever became powerful enough to be considered [[The Dreaded]] in the first place is a mystery. [[Catch Phrase| "Resistance if futile"]]? More like "Resistance is Fruitful".

:* Okay, let’slet's analyze this. Dukat is basically saying, “I"I tried to be friendly, but those ungrateful Bajoran terrorists had the audacity to try to liberate their people from the folks that enslaved them, and the other subjugated slaves still treated me like dirt." More rations? Of yes, thanks for giving back a few more crumbs of the rations you stole in the first place, and the fact that there even ''was'' child labor in those prison camps or a death rate you could reduce speaks volumes. Dukat's naïve attempt to convince his victims that he was a benevolent dictator while acting like a tyrant was the political equivalent of pissing into the wind.

** More recently{{when}}, the ally will usually at least try to wait until the ref's back is turned to do something. Of course, also recently, the ally will usually fail in their effort and end up getting their ass kicked.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** Don't forget diverting shock troops in extremely rare and strong armor, even by Space Marine standards, from a strategically important battle to take out an enemy propaganda station run by a dozen unarmed monks, then annihilating it from orbit while the shocktroopsshock troops are still inside. Chaos commanders seem to have a collective inferiority complex or something.

* The Skaven of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy'' are very much Stupid [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|Backstabbers]]. While this serves a useful purpose in ensuring [[The Social Darwinist|only the strong survive]], this isn't saying much since Skaven take the [[We Have Reserves]] and [[Zerg Rush]] approaches; on the other hand, their tendency to turn every minor engagement into a five-way leadership battle is pretty much the sole reason apart from sheer troop inadequacy that they haven't taken over the entire friggin' world. Seriously, in one of the ''[[Gotrek and Felix]]'' novels, Thanquol could have won by page 200 if he hadn't been ''sending the heroes to eliminate his rivals'' out of fear for his position.

*** Though she encourages a ''lot'' of the backstabbing and plotting, the problem is without her, they don't quite stop backstabbing as such. She at least keeps it from escalating into large scale bloodbaths or otherwise threatening their cities as a whole — via civil wars of large cohesive factions, cooperation with outside forces against their kin, unrestrained mass destruction, etc. Without a divine guidance specifically addressing this problem, the drowDrow would be inclined to walk closer to the edge of extinction - and, at least in ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'', explicitly ''did'', more than once! This is not unlike the tendencies of other elves despite their own divine guidance — which is naturally much more benign, but not helping with the persistent fatalist problem. With her, it's not all pretty, but they still have enough of an excess population (which is capped hard, as the drowDrow are a [[Terminally Dependent Society]] living in caves, after all) to waste in raids on others. So she steers them toward a ''less stupid'' sort of evil.

**** The Zhentarim can at least replace their casualties from the general run of humanity, which is how they survive having an internal casualty rate as high as they do. The drowDrow are a ''separate race'' as well as a political faction; if their fratricide damages their gene pool beneath the threshold of viability then they're done, because they damn sure ain't picking up any new drowDrow from elsewhere.

** And for that matter, demons are this. Their stupidity laced with insanity is the [[Order Versus Chaos]] Blood War between [[Hell Is War| Devils and Demons]] has been in stalemate [[Forever War| for Eonseons]], despite the fact that the demons of the Abyss outnumber the armies of Hell by almost a hundred to one. The devils live and breathe discipline, planning, and strategy; while the hordes of the Abyss can be explained in three words: "Scream and charge". It's telling that the Abyss and its demons are functionally infinite, so its armies in the Blood War are only the rare few who overcame their chaotic nature to the point that they could scream and charge ''at the enemy''.

* The ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' as a whole seems to always have a Stupid Evil faction for the players to fight against (or join). In ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade|Vampire]]'', we have the Sabbat, who want to rule over humankind openly, ignoring that the Camarilla, their opposing faction ''already'' basically rules the world. In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse|Werewolf]]'', we have the Black Spiral Dancers, who would really really like to help the [[Eldritch Abomination|Wyrm]] destroy the universe. And finally, for ''[[Mage: The Ascension|Mage]]'', we have the [[Omnicidal Maniac|Nephandi]], who want to help Demonsdemons/Thethe aforementioned Wyrm/Everyevery other otherworldly abomination destroy the universe [[For the Evulz|basically for the lulz]].

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' is a perfect example. Most evil actions fall into the Stupid Evil category. For example, you recover a wedding ring for a person who offered you 200 gold for it; the wedding ring is worth 30 gold in the pawn shop. The good option is to sell him his ring for 200 gold; the evil option is to murder him (and not get any money since he doesn't carry it on him). Almost every single morality choice in the game is of a similar vein.

* The textbook video game example is Morrigan, from ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins]]''. She's ''supposed'' to come off as merely practical and ruthless — but given that she actively suggests you screw over other people who you need to defeat the Blight, encourages betrayal and being a prick to people whose aid you need, and in general, just being a snarky asshole, she comes off as Stupid Evil. The most blatant example of this may be the fact that, as an apostate mage who has lived her life on the run from the Templars, she ''approves'' of helping the Templars kill off Ferelden's entire Circle of Magi... because they allowed themselves to be shackled by the Templars in the first place.

* Can be played straight, [[averted]] or even [[subverted]] in the first two ''[[Fallout]]'' games. While it's quite possible to go through the games killing nearly everything that breathes, many of the "evil" sidequestsside quests can be accomplished without wholesale slaughter or [[Kick the Dog|dog-kicking]] malice, and many of the "good" sidequestsside quests can be solved ''with'' needlessly violent acts as well. Need to get a hostage from the slavers? Don't bother negotiating a deal that benefits everyone, or seducing the leader. You can just kill them all! An [[Sword of Truth|evil-pacifist]] run isn't entirely impossible, just annoyingly difficult.

** ''New Vegas'' also featured ''Fallout 3''{{'}}s weird bits of random karma for killing certain NPCs. In particular before being patched, killing randomly encountered (fixed location, but they respawn) Fiends would give you something ridiculous like +100 Karma per kill. If you've spent the entire game as the sickest bastard in the Mojave, your first trip down the west side of outer New Vegas can turn you into a saint in as little as two shoot outs.

* ''[[Street Fighter]]'' hahas M. Bison. Not only does he aspire to [[Take Over the World]], not only does he routinely tell the hero that [[Soon I Will Be Invincible]], he also routinely betrays '''his own freaking underlings''', most of whom would be perfectly happy serving him if they continue being paid (Balrog) or if they get to keep fighting/killing (Sagat and Vega). Incidentally, Bison's lackeys usually turn against him and kill him in their (generally non-canon) endings.

* Wario occasionally. For example, the trouble he has to deal with in ''[[Wario World]]'' happens after he steals [[Big Bad| the Evil Black Jewel]]. Honestly, who'd be dumb enough to steal [[Obviously Evil| something like that?]] Well, [[Ask a Stupid Question| Wario, obviously.]] He even admits he had always been a little suspicious of the thing.

** In ''[[Star Wars: The Old Republic|The Old Republic]]'', Overseer Tremel will actually call you on this during one of the opening quests for the Sith Warrior if you decided to kill a spy that the Empire had taken prisoner instead of taking the light side points by sparing her life in return for her service to Imperial Intelligence. If you kill her, Tremel basically tells you to [[What the Hell, Player?|never waste someone who could be of use to you.]]

* [[Complete Monster|Colonel Volgin]] from ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' is this trope incarnate. When he captures Big Boss, and "[[Cold-Blooded Torture|interrogates]]" him, he actually manages to ''reverse interrogate'' him, as Big Boss is too busy being beaten half to death to say anything, and Volgin is busy disclosing the location of {{spoiler|The Philosopher's Legacy}}. Later, when he and Snake are preparing to fight to the death, Snake asks what that is exactly, and Volgin [[Just Between You and Me|tells him for no discernible reason]].

** Shao Kahn in ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' is ''obsessed'' with conquering other realms, and merging them into Outworld, so that (being the megalomaniac tyrant he is) he can not only cause devastation during his invasions, but exploit and oppress survivors for his own egotistical gain. He's treated as the personification of evil in the series. Problem is, as indicated in his ending in ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon|Armageddon]]'', he conquers everything in the universe, destroying all lands AND seemingly all life too. And with nothing else left to conquer, he is left alone forever... to essentially go mad with boredom.

* [[Mega Corp|The Umbrella Corporation]] in the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series. This group of [[Mad Scientist]]-slash-[[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] types were obsessed with manipulating DNA and creating biological weapons (“BOWs”"BOWs”) in order to market them to various military firms, only to run into some problems. Problem #1: These BOWs are unpredictable, unstable, and usually destroy whatever facility they’rethey're developed in. Problem #2: Said results of these BOWs are usually defeated and destroyed by one police officer. On top of that, they have a task force dedicated to cleaning up these accidents, but most of them are either eaten alive or infected. Problem #3, they ''never'' learn, never having any concern for repercussions of their experiments, even when the brunt of such repercussions come crashing down on their heads, and often come off as "evil for evil's sake". They'd nuke a school bus full of preschoolers if they thought it could be [[For Science!]], and that is clearly [[Not Hyperbole]]; they definitely would. Calling Umbrella “incompetent”"incompetent” would be an understatement. As noted above, the movie's incarnation stay true to this portrayal.

* Union Aerospace Corporation, from the ''[[Doom]]'' franchise. Okay, the Earth is in the middle of an energy crisis, so the “geniuses”"geniuses” at this Mega Corp discover an energy source on Mars that originates from Hell itself. (That’sThat's right, ''from Hell itself''.) Not only that, they decide to explore Hell itself (which is infested with demons, of course) while mining its resources and looting its artifacts. On top that, they knew one of their own scientists, Dr. Olivia Pierce, has started [[Religion of Evil| a devil-worshiping cult]] among members of the organization, and do nothing. Worst of all, after the demons are unleashed and the heroic [[Space Marine]] saves humanity from being wiped out, their idiotic CEO Samuel Hayden doesn’tdoesn't even thank him, and decides to continue research into the project. How dumb can you get?

* Cave Johnson from ''[[Portal]]'', another [[Posthumous Character]] whose own stupidity is the reason he's "posthumous". By his own admission, he always "trusted his gut" rather than thinking with his brain. As an industrialist and CEO of Aperture Science, his MO was to greenlight ''every single'' idea he thought up, no matter how absurd, ill-conceived, or outright ''dumb'' it sounded, and see if any of them panned out, and he claimed a thousand of these ideas were tested ''a day''. While he did manage to make some scientific breakthroughs like matter-manipulating gel, sapient AI programs, and of course, the portal gun, there were dozens of [[Epic Fail]]s per success, and he simply didn't ''learn''. To give one example of his insane experiments, Chell finds one recording intended for the ''second'' group of test subjects for a project involving injecting human subjects with praying mantis DNA, telling them the test was postponed indefinitely, but he now had another test for them - fighting the ''first'' group that was now an army of mindless mantis-men. Supposedly, Johnson died from kidney and lung failure due to "moon rock poisoning", and seeing as moon rocks were a main ingredient in the aforementioned gels, he was clearly [[Hoist By His Own Petard|Hoisted Byby His Own Petard]].

=== [[Visual Novels]] ===

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** All his Stupid Evil acts DO''do'' have a point though. {{spoiler|When he murders innocents for no reason, he gets to keep his inability to feel pain or be harmed.}}

* ''[[Homestuck|]]'': Jack Noir]] (the alpha version, anyway) recently{{when}} took a hard right into this trope via a [[Mythology Gag|Jail Break-like imprisonment sequence.]] He ends up beaten senseless by a gang of burly Prospitians.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In his regular editorial for the ''Role Playing Public Radio'' podcast, Tom Church explained that part of his hatred for the ''[[Star Wars]]'' RPG is the insistence of players on playing Sith while unable to grasp the concept of quiet, calculating menace that makes them such appealing villains in the first place. "Would you like to go out for some babies later this evening?" "Why yes, that would certainly hit the spot."

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** His stupidest move occurs in the special ''Miraculous World Shanghai'' where he uses the Akuma on Mei Shu, a Chinese guardian spirit far too arrogant to take orders from someone like him and far too powerful to be controlled. After becoming a Kaiju-sized demon with the intention of wrecking Shanghai, Hawk Moth tries ordering it to stop, only to be ''vaporize'' by the monster's [[Eye Beams]]. Almost a shame that Ladybug has to restore ''all'' the victims when she uses her [[World-Healing Wave]] to undo the damage.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'': The Flash, stuck in the body of Lex Luthor (don't ask), has to keep up the charade of being Luthor in front of a gang of supervillains. The problem is, all-around-good-guy Flash has no idea how to act like a bad guy, much less one as suave as Luthor, which leads to this exchange as he's walking out of the bathroom:

* Bullies tend to be [[Dumb Muscle]] types, but Flats the Flounder from the aptly -named ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "The Bully" emphasizes the "dumb" part. And he's ''pretty'' dumb. It's unknown why he's so dead-set on flattening SpongeBob, but he spends ''days'' trying to do so using [[Good Old Fisticuffs]], never seeming to realize that SpongeBob is, well, a sponge. After several days of this and it never sinking in that he's not hurting his victim much, Flats collapses from exhaustion.