For the Evulz/Playing With

Basic Trope: A villain engages in evil purely for their own amusement.

• Straight: "No, I wasn't abused there. The only reason I blew up the orphanage I used to live in was for the sheer joy of destroying peoples' lives!"
• Exaggerated:
  • He's an Omnicidal Maniac Complete Monster, just because he can.
  • The villain is doing it literally for Evil's sake.
• Justified:
  • Let's face it. This character type is hard to justify from moral or philosophical grounds.
  • The villain is the Anthropomorphic Personification of evil, or otherwise made entirely and unrepentantly evil by magical means.
  • Alternatively, he's The Sociopath.
  • He's been a despicable person from the start and his mode of acting is compulsive by now, without him needing any better a reason.
  • The way he was raised has given him a sadistic personality disorder.
• Inverted:
  • See Well-Intentioned Extremist and Knight Templar.
  • For Great Justice
  • A hero does something kind because it's good.
  • Alternately, the villain builds an orphanage because he's kind.
  • Or, an Anti-Hero kills a puppy because it's against the law.
  • Doing something because it's the good thing to do.
  • A good guy doing something because it's against the law.
  • Or, y'know, doing something good for amusement.
• Subverted: A villain claims to be doing Evil for its own sake, but actually has much more mundane motives; to wit: for the money!
• Double Subverted:
  • A villain is captured, and explains the logical reasons for doing the horrible things he did... but, towards the end of his confession we find out his underlying goal: To maximize the amount of carnage and misery he causes.
  • "I don't even need this money; I'm loaded!"
  • A villain thinks s/he is acting from a more rational motive, but by thinking for a minute one can see s/he basically enjoys the jollies.
• Parodied: The villain goes on an orphanage destroying spree, as a cheery musical number plays, with the burning orphans as a chorus.
• Untwisted: Heroes assume that a villain couldn't possibly have done something just for the hell of it. Turns out the villain didn't have any deeper motives, after all.
• Deconstructed:
  • The work goes to length to show just how horrifically evil someone has to be to burn an orphanage for no reason.
  • It goes to show how insane and messed-up the villain is.
• Reconstructed: You remember those times when we'd just let loose with no care in the world, then enjoy the thrill of being chased or throwing ourselves in a brawl? Simpler times. Let's bring that back.
• Zig Zagged: They care for orphans deeply and love them all, but still burn orphanages because they love to see the flames! But they led all the orphans out first, and that orphanage was an unstable building that needed to be demolished. Setting fire to the bus all the orphans were on, however...
• Averted: A villain with a fairly logical motive, like money.
• Enforced:
  • The actor insisted on lots of cheesy lines so they could play a Large Ham, so the villain burns down orphanages and cackles madly while doing so.
  • The writers didn't feel like giving the villain a complex motive. That, or their show runs off Black and White Morality.
  • "How do we make the villain truly evil? Let's make him a sadist!"
• Lampshaded: Hero: "How does killing millions of people make any sense as a goal at all?" Villain: "Because it's fun!"
• Invoked: The villain doesn't set fire to the orphanage, but the heroes mention they know so little about him he may well do so.
• Exploited: A Magnificent Bastard with a grander scheme in mind sets a simple maniac up as a distraction for his enemies.
• Defied:
  • The villain is evil, vile and mad, and can stoop to any low. He has the chance to blow up the orphanage, but the hero taunts him into fighting him to give the orphans a chance to escape.
  • Alternately, the villain declares that he is not a maniac who does heinous things for his own amusement; he's either a Well-Intentioned Extremist, someone who feels Even Evil Has Standards, or someone who prefers to engage in Pragmatic Villainy. He may be at the brink of becoming this sort of villain, beginning to enjoy death and destruction, but stops himself before he actually kills someone/destroys something for no reason other than "I can." Instead walking away saying "I can, but I won't."
• Discussed: "How do I know he's either lying about why he did it or crazy? Sane people don't have goals like 'murder as many people as I can get my hands on'; there's always at least some claim to the moral high ground."
• Conversed: "Why does it seem like all of the villains in [this show] seem to lack a coherent motivation besides 'kill as many people as possible'?"
• Played for Laughs: A villain, obsessing over wanting to do as much as possible just for the sake of itself, steers far into Stupid Evil -territory.
• Played for Drama: A villain chases the pleasure of horrific evil, causing suffering to innocent bystanders, heroes, the closest ones to the villain and just about everyone.

---

Back to For the Evulz