Visionary Villain: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''But my dreams, they aren't as empty''
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Villains commit crimes for many reasons, usually petty and short sighted. Occasionally though, there are villains with a clear goal behind commiting their atrocities; some great, some terrible, all terrifyingly well executed. This is the Visionary Villain, he or she sees "the big picture", and has a clear head about [[Evil Plan|what they want to accomplish]] and [[Stock Evil Overlord Tactics|how to do it]] ''without'' juggling a [[Villain Ball]].
As an [[The Antagonist|Antagonist]], their morality can be [[Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness|anywhere on the scale]] from [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] to [[Complete Monster]]; all that changes is the motivation for wanting to achieve their goal. The common thread is that they have seen the state of the world and want to change it, whether into something better or worse varies. A sympathetic villain may want to [[Revenge|kill the people responsible]] for his [[Dark and Troubled Past]] and [[Freudian Excuse]] so it never happens to someone else, perhaps becoming an avenging angel of sorts. A [[For the Evulz|laughing monster]] of a [[Card-Carrying Villain]] on the other hand, may want to [[Take Over the World]] (or [[The End of the World as We Know It|end it]]) because she sees society as nothing more than a thin facade, and peeling it away will expose [[Humans Are
As with most villains, their watchword is [[Ambition Is Evil|Ambition]]. No matter how noble their intention, fundamentally they want to change things and [[Pride|think they know best]]. If they assemble a team or organization around themselves, expect them to give at least one [[New Era Speech]] to a less ambitious, clear sighted, or bright minion. Because of the great variety of Visionary Villains, [[I Control My Minions Through...|their style of leadership is often directly related to their goal.]] A charismatic [[Dark Messiah]] may gather followers and teach them [[Utopia Justifies the Means]], an [[Evil Overlord]] will field armies to realize his vision of a peaceful unified world, and a [[Mad Scientist]] will create [[When Trees Attack|Tree People]] not for [[For Science!|pure science]], but to replace a planet-killing humanity. The two powers all Visionary Villains share are a [[The Chessmaster|big]] [[Evil Genius|brain]] and [[Manipulative Bastard|silver]] [[Magnificent Bastard|tongue]].
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* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', both the motivation of Emperor Charles {{spoiler|and Marianne's [[Assimilation Plot]]}} and the motivation of [[Dark Messiah|Lelouch]]
* Fate Averruncus's organization in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''. To the point it's questionable whether his goal [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|is actually]] [[Anti-Villain|that bad]], and the protagonists are simply opposing the means he's using to bring about that goal.
** His true ultimate goal {{spoiler|is "saving" the Magical World (which will soon suffer complete magical depletion) through an [[Assimilation Plot]], and he progresses towards it: 1-without informing anyone but select coconspirators about the true plan, playing the rest as [[Unwitting Pawn
* [[Death Note|Light Yagami]], an example of a Visionary [[Villain Protagonist]].
* Ribbons of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' who sees himself as the [[A God Am I|benevolent god]] who lead humanity into a utopia {{spoiler|and prepare them for contact with aliens}}.
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** If {{spoiler|Madara}} is to be believed([[Consummate Liar|which is debatable]]) he's had his plan in the works for most of the century.
* Hattori from ''[[Nabari no Ou]]'' is portrayed as a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] who wants to [[Utopia Justifies the Means|rewrite history to fix the corrupt world]]. Thanks to his charisma, about half of the ''good guys'' are on his side at one point.
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh: SEVENS]]'', [[Big Bad|Otes’]] goal is in fact very similar to Yuga's, he [[Audience Surrogate| believes the eponymous game has become too complicated, rigid, and rules oriented]], and seeks to make it enjoyable for everyone again. However, unlike Yuga, whose solution is promoting a new offshoot of the game (Rush Dueling) Otes feels that the best solution is to eliminate the game entirely (by deleting the whole Duel Monsters system from corporate mainframes and destroying the Solid Vision system) and then rebuild from the ground up. Naturally, Yuga thinks he's nuts, comparing that idea to destroying an entire house in order to fix a cracked tile.
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Watchmen]]'': {{spoiler|Ozymandias slaughtered half of New York, killing millions, in an attempt to save the rest of the world from a nuclear apocalypse.}}
* [[X-Men|Magneto]], at his most [[Anti-Villain]], wants only to prevent mutantkind from undergoing the same persecution he did in WWII. Sometimes this means creating a private island / satellite for mutants, other times it means actively subjugating the human race to ensure they will never be a threat.
* The [[Villain Protagonist]] of the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' fanfic ''The Council Era'', a salarian known as Tyrin Lieph, dreams of uniting the galaxy as a singular utopia. His [[Worthy Opponent]] Halak Marr seeks to overthrow the Citadel and establish the krogan as a sole-surviving [[Master Race]]. Their conflicting visions eventually erupt into the Krogan Rebellions.▼
* Loki, [[Big Bad]] of ''[[My Little Avengers]]''. While he may appear to be doing things [[For the Evulz]] at first, it's eventually made clear that he has a vision of a world ruled by magic (preferably with him in charge, natch), and the entire plot is revealed to be one big [[Gambit Roulette]] dedicated to bringing this goal about. {{spoiler|When he's defeated and killed, he still manages to die happy, knowing that the magic released by his death will permanently mutate Equestria, bringing his vision to fruition.}}▼
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* Dr. Octavius in ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]] 2'' refuses to give up his dream of creating fusion-based electricity for "the good of mankind." Too bad his generator always explodes upon activation. And he plans on making an even bigger one when the first one blows up.
* M. Bison in the live action ''[[Street Fighter (film)|Street Fighter]]'' film wants to create a race of genetically-engineered [[Super Soldiers]] to wipe out all traces of race, nation and creed so that the whole world can live in peace under his rule.<ref>OF COURSE!</ref>
* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', everyone thinks that [[The Joker]] is "garbage who kills for money", or just a homicidal maniac who kills for kicks. However, he is adamant he has grander ambitions- he is out to give the city "a better class of criminal" and sees himself as heralding a new age of supervillainy, as well as working to expose the citizens of Gotham as [[Humans Are
** Not necessarily supervillainy as much as anarchy. He wants to tear away the veneer of civilization and watch everyone abandon the moral order they claim to value so highly.
{{quote|"I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve."}}
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'''Noah Cross:''' Oh my, yes!
'''Jake Gittes:''' Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can't already afford?
'''Noah Cross:'''
* [[Lex Luthor]] in the [[Superman]] films counts as this to some extent. Even if the ''goals'' of his plans (to make himself very rich and/or powerful,) are fairly generic, the sheer ''scale'' of what he attempts ([[Superman|causing the west coast of America to fall into the sea]] and [[Superman Returns|building new continents based on Kryptonian technology]]) is undeniably impressive.
== Music ==▼
* A variant on this trope: In [[The Protomen]]'s album ''The Father of Death'', Drs. Light and Wily work together on a massive automaton network, ostensibly so that everyone would be safe, secure, and not have to worry about dying on the job. {{spoiler|Of course, Wily's the one who ultimately gains control of the network, ruining Light's reputation in the process. Not to mention the fact that Light realizes that [[My God, What Have I Done?|creating the network was a mistake...]] }}▼
{{quote|"They've waited so long for this day / Someone to take the death away / No son would ever have to say / My father worked into his grave..." - Dr. Light, ''The Good Doctor''}}▼
* [[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]] music projects seem prone to this: one of Wily's goals as told by [[The Megas]] is to replace humans with robots, which he believes are superior.▼
▲== Fan Fiction ==
▲* The [[Villain Protagonist]] of the [[Mass Effect]] fanfic The Council Era, a salarian known as Tyrin Lieph, dreams of uniting the galaxy as a singular utopia. His [[Worthy Opponent]] Halak Marr seeks to overthrow the Citadel and establish the krogan as a sole-surviving [[Master Race]]. Their conflicting visions eventually erupt into the Krogan Rebellions.
▲* Loki, [[Big Bad]] of ''[[My Little Avengers]]''. While he may appear to be doing things [[For the Evulz]] at first, it's eventually made clear that he has a vision of a world ruled by magic (preferably with him in charge, natch), and the entire plot is revealed to be one big [[Gambit Roulette]] dedicated to bringing this goal about. {{spoiler|When he's defeated and killed, he still manages to die happy, knowing that the magic released by his death will permanently mutate Equestria, bringing his vision to fruition.}}
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** Given that there has never been a canonical life expectancy for Chiss, people will still be expecting Thrawn to show up long into the future.
* In the ''[[Everworld]]'' series, most of the villains are short-sighted hedonists who avert this trope, with the definite exception of {{spoiler|Senna Wales}}, who has [[Take Over the World|big plans]] for Everworld and very definite ideas of what {{spoiler|she}} is going to do to it.
* In the [[BattleTech]] novels,
** Hanse Davion fought several wars against the Draconis Combine and basically cut the Capellan Confederation in half. He always saw himself as striking against oppressive regimes run by madmen (Which was true, in the case of the Confederation. Debatable in the case of the Combine). He also saw himself, like many Successor State lords before him, as the fittest candidate for the 300-year vacant title of First Lord of the Star League. He was depicted as a scary man to be against, though with good intentions.
** Sun-Tzu Liao was willing to do terrible things, but his foremost goal was rebuilding the Capellan Confederation after Hanse broke it and Sun-Tzu's crazed mother all-but-destroyed the remnants. He was generally depicted as villain and very dangerous, but one who's position was understandable and not nearly as bad as some.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* On ''[[Heroes]]'', most of the [[Big Bad
▲== Music ==
▲* A variant on this trope: In [[The Protomen]]'s album ''The Father of Death'', Drs. Light and Wily work together on a massive automaton network, ostensibly so that everyone would be safe, secure, and not have to worry about dying on the job. {{spoiler|Of course, Wily's the one who ultimately gains control of the network, ruining Light's reputation in the process. Not to mention the fact that Light realizes that [[My God, What Have I Done?|creating the network was a mistake...]] }}
▲{{quote|"They've waited so long for this day / Someone to take the death away / No son would ever have to say / My father worked into his grave..." - Dr. Light, ''The Good Doctor''}}
▲* ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' music projects seem prone to this: one of Wily's goals as told by [[The Megas]] is to replace humans with robots, which he believes are superior.
== Tabletop Games ==
* Some leaders in ''[[Warhammer
==
* Seymour in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' wants to end the cycle of life and death on Spira... by killing everyone on the planet.
* Cyrus from ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]'', who wants to destroy the world and then re-create it as a world with no emotion, knowledge, or willpower, claiming that these things that make up "spirit" only lead to pain and conflict.
** N wished to free all Pokemon and create a world where Pokemon wouldn't be enslaved. A lot of Team Plasma shared that vision with him.
** In Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald are Teams Magma, and Aqua who both are motivated to do what they think is best for the world. By controling Groudon and Kyogre to make more land/water respectively.
* The ''[[Tales (series)]]'' tend to be rife with these villains as [[Big Bad
* {{spoiler|Kerghan}} in ''[[Arcanum]]'' might be the most well-intentioned and extreme extremist of all. {{spoiler|He's traveled beyond the veil of death and knows it as plain fact that the dead eventually do reach a state of perfect tranquility in death. Since he's all too aware of how much the living and the undead suffer, his grand scheme is to permanently sever the mortal ties of every soul in existence.}} He's quite insane, but there's nothing in the story that indicates that things wouldn't work out exactly as he'd foreseen if given the chance.
** In the end, you have the option {{spoiler|of joining him and helping him to kill every living thing in existence. Whether or not this is the ''bad'' ending isn't quite made clear.}}
* [[
** Sofia Lamb in the second game has opposite goals (the foundation of a collectivist society), but is probably even more evil than Ryan.
* [[Mass Effect|The Illusive Man]]. He dreams of a galaxy where humanity is safe and dominant. To accomplish this, all manner of [[Playing with Syringes|mad science]], assassinations, and [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulations]] are acceptable. He's sometimes described as being both the [[Humans Are Special|best]] and [[Humans Are
* [[Command & Conquer|Kane is probably most famous.]]
** Played with in that we never find out exactly what ''his'' vision (as separate from the visions he presents to his followers) is. Clearly, he has a plan, but it seems to result in wildly different goals between one game and another (exactly what is the connection between [[Body Horror|Divination]] and Ascension?).
* [[The Master (trope)|The Master]] in ''[[Fallout 1]]''. Believes that his Super Mutants are the natural evolution of mankind and the perfect solution to the irradiated, destroyed Wastelands of 22nd-century California.
** Caesar from ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''. He thinks that the [[After the End|post-apocalyptic earth]] is proof that democracy has failed, and sets out to unite what's left as a monothetic dictatorship, replete with slavery, crucifixion and institutionalized sexism (including legally-sanctioned ''rape''). At the game's beginning he's conquered Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado, and is poised to take Nevada.
* {{spoiler|Jacques the Aldersberg, the Grand Master of the Order}} in [[The Witcher]].
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* Redcloak, [[The Dragon]] from ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', is motivated by {{spoiler|a vision given to him by his God, of goblins being able to be equal to the other races and building their own proper society and civilization instead of scratching out a living in places none of the other races would want to live. And if one potential consequence of the plan to accomplish this is the unmaking of reality as it currently exists, well, it's all for the greater good, right?}}
** Tarquin as well. {{spoiler|He runs a conspiracy to control the three most powerful nations on the Western Continent in order to bring it to peace and himself to absolute power}}
* Weijuaru of ''[[Juathuur]]'' uses his position as
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has {{spoiler|Lord Snackleford}} feeding [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190104 his minions] some [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190327 juicy] utopian baloney. It's not clear how much of it he believes himself. Of course, his primary tool for achieving this turned out being on the receiving end of a [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190322 modified] Lucrezia's [[Me's a Crowd|"summoning engine"]] in an attempt to [[Powers Via Possession|absorb knowledge]] of an [[Cosmic Horror|extradimensional being]], so even if it worked perfectly, the whole plan is very near "trying to escape a madhouse via imaginary ladder" point either way.
== Web Originals ==
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* Although his vision is not clearly revealed, Chase Young from ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' fits this trope.
* Nerissa in the animated series and comic ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'', who [[Fallen Hero|betrayed her teammates]] and later attempted to conquer the universe, claiming to seek an end to all war and conflict.
* [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|Fire Lord Sozin]] wanted to "share [the Fire Nation's] prosperity with the rest of the world." This ended up involving the betrayal of his best friend, the invasion and colonization of the Earth Kingdom, the ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod|near-]])complete genocide of the Air Nomads, and raids against the Water Tribes. This "[[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Great March of Civilization]]" remains the Fire Nation's propaganda, but Sozin's grandson [[Big Bad|Ozai]] just wants to ''rule'' the world {{spoiler|-- even if it's nothing but ashes}}.
== Real Life ==
* [[Adolf Hitler]] and most other leading [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]], who contrary to early political and academic assertions that their entire movement was purely in pursuit of power for its own sake (a so-called "nihilist revolution"), were in fact very much motivated by their deeply racist ideology for initiating [[World War II]]. The [[Take Over the World|aggressive conquest of other nations]] and the industrialized murder of millions of people were ultimately supposed to secure complete domination of Europe for [[Nazi Germany]], and to expand the population of the
*
▲* ANY "Great" Villain is this. The other trait that Visionary Villain share asides from Big Brain and Silver Tongue is being a Loser, even if it's only in hindsight. If they won, nobody would dare call them a Villain.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Visionary Villain]]▼
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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