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{{quote|''"For mine own good, all causes shall give way."''|''[[Macbeth]]''}} |
{{quote|''"For mine own good, all causes shall give way."''|''[[Macbeth]]''}} |
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| − | One of the nine alignments from the best-known [[Character Alignment]] system. Sometimes known as "True Evil". Their methods vary |
+ | One of the nine alignments from the best-known [[Character Alignment]] system. Sometimes known as "True Evil". Their methods vary — just as the [[Neutral Good]] character will ally with anybody to do what's right and nobody to do what's wrong, the Neutral Evil character will ally with anybody as long as it advances their own interests — ([[It's All About Me|and it ''is'' all'' ''about their own interests]]). Neutral Evil characters are intrinsically selfish people, regardless of whose side they are on, and as a [[Token Evil Teammate]], they are the most likely to sell out to the bad guy. |
| − | Some of the world-shaking ones may seek to tear down an old order, good or bad, to set up their own order |
+ | Some of the world-shaking ones may seek to tear down an old order, good or bad, to set up their own order — not because their way is better, or for the pleasure of tearing it down, but because they want to be in charge. They will do it using any means at their disposal. To a Neutral Evil character, honour, standards and keeping your word is all well and good, ''so long as it doesn't get in the way.'' If their opponent is honourable and decent, that's great ''because they can exploit it.'' They are very prone to saying, "[[I Lied]]". |
| − | While they are usually villains, they can also switch to the good guy's side for a while, if it's better for them at the moment. True [[Magnificent Bastard]]s of the Neutral Evil persuasion can sometimes [[Gambit Roulette|(with a little luck)]] lure other villains into an [[Enemy Civil War]], usually along the lines of [[Order Versus Chaos]] |
+ | While they are usually villains, they can also switch to the good guy's side for a while, if it's better for them at the moment. True [[Magnificent Bastard]]s of the Neutral Evil persuasion can sometimes [[Gambit Roulette|(with a little luck)]] lure other villains into an [[Enemy Civil War]], usually along the lines of [[Order Versus Chaos]] — playing [[Lawful Evil]] against [[Chaotic Evil]] — and cleaning up at both sides' expense. |
Neutral Evil types can come in a variety of different flavors: |
Neutral Evil types can come in a variety of different flavors: |
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* Type 1 characters are [[What Is Evil?|largely or totally amoral]] and commit evil for self-serving, but not necessarily malicious purposes. They tend to be in it for money and power but may eschew motives like revenge or sadism, viewing them as barbaric or simply unprofessional; that does not mean they'll always, or ever, stop their bosses, partners or lackeys from indulging in such behavior, but its not something they themselves are really into, though they may be prepared to [[Kick the Dog]] or perform [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] as a means to an end. Perhaps they are a [[Punch Clock Villain]], or maybe they believe there is [[Better Living Through Evil]], or perhaps they are [[Blessed with Suck]] and their talents happen to lend themselves to evil (like, say, a talent for [[Professional Killer|professional hits]]). They ''can'' do things [[For the Evulz]], but this is rare and will probably be to relieve boredom or because someone has earned their particular enmity, and not pathologically, though rarer and darker types will do horrific things because [[It Amused Me]] and [[Blue and Orange Morality|honestly not see anything wrong with it]]. This type is the most likely to pull a [[Heel Face Turn]] or fall into an [[Enemy Mine]] with [[The Hero]], but don't hold your breath or assume they cannot be a [[Complete Monster]]. Often form the ranks of [[Mooks]] or [[Elite Mooks]], if evil is just a job, but might be figures of authority or power who will commit crimes or do evil if they think it is advantageous to them. A type 1 will either not [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|understand the difference between right and wrong]], or understand but choose wrong anyway, [[Necessarily Evil|resigning themselves to a life of villainy]] or perhaps just not viewing the whole Good and Evil thing to be of any special importance in the first place. |
* Type 1 characters are [[What Is Evil?|largely or totally amoral]] and commit evil for self-serving, but not necessarily malicious purposes. They tend to be in it for money and power but may eschew motives like revenge or sadism, viewing them as barbaric or simply unprofessional; that does not mean they'll always, or ever, stop their bosses, partners or lackeys from indulging in such behavior, but its not something they themselves are really into, though they may be prepared to [[Kick the Dog]] or perform [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] as a means to an end. Perhaps they are a [[Punch Clock Villain]], or maybe they believe there is [[Better Living Through Evil]], or perhaps they are [[Blessed with Suck]] and their talents happen to lend themselves to evil (like, say, a talent for [[Professional Killer|professional hits]]). They ''can'' do things [[For the Evulz]], but this is rare and will probably be to relieve boredom or because someone has earned their particular enmity, and not pathologically, though rarer and darker types will do horrific things because [[It Amused Me]] and [[Blue and Orange Morality|honestly not see anything wrong with it]]. This type is the most likely to pull a [[Heel Face Turn]] or fall into an [[Enemy Mine]] with [[The Hero]], but don't hold your breath or assume they cannot be a [[Complete Monster]]. Often form the ranks of [[Mooks]] or [[Elite Mooks]], if evil is just a job, but might be figures of authority or power who will commit crimes or do evil if they think it is advantageous to them. A type 1 will either not [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|understand the difference between right and wrong]], or understand but choose wrong anyway, [[Necessarily Evil|resigning themselves to a life of villainy]] or perhaps just not viewing the whole Good and Evil thing to be of any special importance in the first place. |
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* Type 2 characters, in contrast, are [[Card-Carrying Villain|immoral and deliberately evil]]. They recognize the difference between right and wrong, at least superficially or that others adhere to it, and willfully and gleefully choose wrong. This does not make them [[Chaotic Evil]] as they have no problem working within a system or under someone else's thrall (for so long as it serves them) nor do they have any special desire to bring civilization crumbling down. For them, [[Evil Is Cool]] and [[Evil Feels Good|feels good]], and is the best, surest and probably the most fulfilling path to money and power, though they are much more likely than the other types to do things just [[For the Evulz]]. If you [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|cut them a check]], they'll either throw it back in your face, or take it and continue doing evil anyway, in one form or another. These guys fill the ranks of the [[Religion of Evil]] and sacrifice at the altars of [[God of Evil|wicked gods]], though usually on the understanding that they will be getting something out of it. Others are sadistic con artists who use a front of [[Villain with Good Publicity|benevolence]] to [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulate others]] for fun and profit. They might try to justify their actions with [[What Is Evil?]] or [[Above Good and Evil]], but it will be with a sly smirk or sneering contempt, though they are just as often [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Villains]] who revel being the bad guy. |
* Type 2 characters, in contrast, are [[Card-Carrying Villain|immoral and deliberately evil]]. They recognize the difference between right and wrong, at least superficially or that others adhere to it, and willfully and gleefully choose wrong. This does not make them [[Chaotic Evil]] as they have no problem working within a system or under someone else's thrall (for so long as it serves them) nor do they have any special desire to bring civilization crumbling down. For them, [[Evil Is Cool]] and [[Evil Feels Good|feels good]], and is the best, surest and probably the most fulfilling path to money and power, though they are much more likely than the other types to do things just [[For the Evulz]]. If you [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|cut them a check]], they'll either throw it back in your face, or take it and continue doing evil anyway, in one form or another. These guys fill the ranks of the [[Religion of Evil]] and sacrifice at the altars of [[God of Evil|wicked gods]], though usually on the understanding that they will be getting something out of it. Others are sadistic con artists who use a front of [[Villain with Good Publicity|benevolence]] to [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulate others]] for fun and profit. They might try to justify their actions with [[What Is Evil?]] or [[Above Good and Evil]], but it will be with a sly smirk or sneering contempt, though they are just as often [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Villains]] who revel being the bad guy. |
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| − | * Type 3 characters on the other hand [[It's All About Me|are egomaniacal]]; they believe that ''they'' are the good, or even [[The Hero]], and evil either doesn't exist or is whatever they don't like. These guys are often marked by grandiose [[Pride]] and though they might recognize that the rest of the world has different ethical standards from them, those standards [[Above Good and Evil|are for lesser mortals]] and they will obey them only when it is convenient to do so, and will break them whenever they think they can get away with it if it is to their advantage |
+ | * Type 3 characters on the other hand [[It's All About Me|are egomaniacal]]; they believe that ''they'' are the good, or even [[The Hero]], and evil either doesn't exist or is whatever they don't like. These guys are often marked by grandiose [[Pride]] and though they might recognize that the rest of the world has different ethical standards from them, those standards [[Above Good and Evil|are for lesser mortals]] and they will obey them only when it is convenient to do so, and will break them whenever they think they can get away with it if it is to their advantage — and since they are complete egomaniacs (and occasionally, [[Ax Crazy|completely insane]]), they often believe they can get away with anything and many of their crimes are incredibly risky and carry a high chance of getting caught, banking on [[Refuge in Audacity]], when they don't fall under [[Stupid Evil]]. Often elitist and smug with a grandiose sense of entitlement and self-worth, they often think [[The Hero]] thwarts their plans out of [[You're Just Jealous|jealousy]] or spite, or because they can't recognize how awesome they are or that they are so entitled. They treat the bulk of humanity with indifference if not utter contempt, even if if they regard themselves as a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], believing themselves to be the center of the world, perhaps sharing it with a handful of semi-worthy competitors and everyone else exists to serve their needs or glorify them. Others don't care about the common person at all except as means to an end, while some are simply the [[Misanthrope Supreme]] and will shut themselves off from the trash that is mankind; or, worse, take a [[Kill'Em All]] approach to [[Put Them All Out of My Misery]]. A Type 3 is fully capable of doing [[Kick the Dog|heinous]] or [[Evil Is Petty|petty]] things [[For the Evulz]] and can be extremely sadistic and vindictive; they just won't ''consider'' such acts to be evil because they feel they are entitled to do them, though they might mockingly draw attention to the fact that ''other'' people think this is villainous, or grudgingly acknowledge it as part of an [[Ignored Epiphany]] [[Heel Realization]]. This type can easily become a [[Tautological Templar]]. |
Neutral Evil can be the most dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil. They can also be a tough alignment to maintain. This is because you aren't evil (hopefully) and the goal of your team's quest usually isn't evil; thus, it's much harder to play as a Neutral Evil person consistently without accidentally slipping into [[True Neutral]] or even [[Neutral Good]] territory. Why are they so bad? They are willing to step on, betray, take advantage of, hurt, and kill other people to reach their goals and get what they want. The Neutral Evil have no moral qualms about hurting others to benefit themselves, and no particular preference to how they do it that makes their methods predictable. |
Neutral Evil can be the most dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil. They can also be a tough alignment to maintain. This is because you aren't evil (hopefully) and the goal of your team's quest usually isn't evil; thus, it's much harder to play as a Neutral Evil person consistently without accidentally slipping into [[True Neutral]] or even [[Neutral Good]] territory. Why are they so bad? They are willing to step on, betray, take advantage of, hurt, and kill other people to reach their goals and get what they want. The Neutral Evil have no moral qualms about hurting others to benefit themselves, and no particular preference to how they do it that makes their methods predictable. |
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* Some examples of [[The Caligula]]. (When not [[Chaotic Evil]]). |
* Some examples of [[The Caligula]]. (When not [[Chaotic Evil]]). |
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* [[Con Man]]: Those who aren't [[Chaotic Evil]] |
* [[Con Man]]: Those who aren't [[Chaotic Evil]] |
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| + | *Many villainous [[Combat Pragmatist|Combat Pragmatists]]. |
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* [[Cruella to Animals]] |
* [[Cruella to Animals]] |
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* Villainous versions of [[Deadly Doctor]], (under no form of oath, rule or any medical standards.) |
* Villainous versions of [[Deadly Doctor]], (under no form of oath, rule or any medical standards.) |
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Others, such as [[Complete Monster]] or the [[Big Bad]], can vary between [[Lawful Evil]], [[Neutral Evil]], and [[Chaotic Evil]]. |
Others, such as [[Complete Monster]] or the [[Big Bad]], can vary between [[Lawful Evil]], [[Neutral Evil]], and [[Chaotic Evil]]. |
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| − | Expect any Neutral Evil state to be [[Mordor]], and a Neutral Evil city the [[Wretched Hive]]. Neutral Evil characters are likely to be [[The Unfettered|Unfettered]]. If they are, they can also be the most lethal kind of villain, as the most extreme kind of neutral evil (''not'' [[Chaotic Evil]] like one might think) is what gave rise to the concept of the [[Omnicidal Maniac]] (though most Omnicidal Maniacs tend to slide into Chaotic Evil by the end). Many [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s are [[Neutral Evil]] [[Jerkass]]es in charge of [[Lawful Evil]] [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]] |
+ | Expect any Neutral Evil state to be [[Mordor]], and a Neutral Evil city the [[Wretched Hive]]. Neutral Evil characters are likely to be [[The Unfettered|Unfettered]]. If they are, they can also be the most lethal kind of villain, as the most extreme kind of neutral evil (''not'' [[Chaotic Evil]] like one might think) is what gave rise to the concept of the [[Omnicidal Maniac]] (though most Omnicidal Maniacs tend to slide into Chaotic Evil by the end). Many [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s are [[Neutral Evil]] [[Jerkass]]es in charge of [[Lawful Evil]] [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]] — it's easier to get ahead in business when you cheat. Unlike a [[Lawful Evil]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|CCE]] who'd [[Berserk Button|fly into a rage]] over somebody else's infractions, [[Neutral Evil]] sorts rarely care (as long as they themselves stay ahead) — a suitably [[Affably Evil]] [[Neutral Evil]] businessperson might even applaud a fellow cheater's "initiative." |
{{examples}} |
{{examples}} |
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== Anime and Manga == |
== Anime and Manga == |
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* Ryo Narushima from ''[[Shamo]]'' |
* Ryo Narushima from ''[[Shamo]]'' |
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| − | * Most characters in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' are of this alignment |
+ | * Most characters in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' are of this alignment — living in a world as violent as theirs, both a tolerance and an occasional willingness to do evil to come out on top is practically a necessity. Revy, Mr. Chang, Shenhua, Sawyer the Cleaner and Eda are the most prominent [[Neutral Evil]] characters. |
* The Godhand from ''[[Berserk]]'' (with the exception of Void, who is [[Lawful Evil]]), and many of their Apostles, who view humans as little more than toys for their own amusement. Griffith himself steps into this territory during his moment of depravity as Femto during the Eclipse. |
* The Godhand from ''[[Berserk]]'' (with the exception of Void, who is [[Lawful Evil]]), and many of their Apostles, who view humans as little more than toys for their own amusement. Griffith himself steps into this territory during his moment of depravity as Femto during the Eclipse. |
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* ''[[Dragon Ball]]:'' |
* ''[[Dragon Ball]]:'' |
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** Several of the antagonistic Hime become this later on in [[Mai-HiME]]. Their allegiances typically lie with themselves and they are willing to hurt others in order to advance their own agendas. |
** Several of the antagonistic Hime become this later on in [[Mai-HiME]]. Their allegiances typically lie with themselves and they are willing to hurt others in order to advance their own agendas. |
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** The [[Big Bad]] of the manga, {{spoiler|Sergay}} initially appears loyal to {{spoiler|the real Mashiro}} even after being exposed as a villain, only to dispose of her when she's no longer useful and attempt to destroy the world. |
** The [[Big Bad]] of the manga, {{spoiler|Sergay}} initially appears loyal to {{spoiler|the real Mashiro}} even after being exposed as a villain, only to dispose of her when she's no longer useful and attempt to destroy the world. |
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| − | * ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise |
+ | * ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise — again — is a good source for examples. |
** Famously Char's original alignment is still debated. Being evil without question, his balance of being a proud soldier but killing friends and superiors to revenge his father would put him in NE alignment. |
** Famously Char's original alignment is still debated. Being evil without question, his balance of being a proud soldier but killing friends and superiors to revenge his father would put him in NE alignment. |
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** [[Manipulative Bastard]] and [[The Chessmaster]] Paptimus Scirocco in ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]''. He will betray anyone and break any oath to fulfill his objectives, but can play along with his "superiors" for as long as needed. |
** [[Manipulative Bastard]] and [[The Chessmaster]] Paptimus Scirocco in ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]''. He will betray anyone and break any oath to fulfill his objectives, but can play along with his "superiors" for as long as needed. |
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* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': |
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': |
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** [[Sociopathic Soldier]] Zolf J. Kimbley goes along with the military's genocide in Ishbal, but chooses to keep the Philosopher's Stone they lend him to test it out, killing the people who know he has it. His loyalty to the homunculi is questionable at best, given that his primary motivation is to see whether they or humanity survive. {{spoiler|In the end, he betrays Greed in the first anime so that he can return to the military and Pride in the manga when the latter hypocritically goes against his idea that homunculi are superior to humans}}. He personally admits his views are at odds with society, and says that because he knows they are, he's gotten by through pretending to be normal. |
** [[Sociopathic Soldier]] Zolf J. Kimbley goes along with the military's genocide in Ishbal, but chooses to keep the Philosopher's Stone they lend him to test it out, killing the people who know he has it. His loyalty to the homunculi is questionable at best, given that his primary motivation is to see whether they or humanity survive. {{spoiler|In the end, he betrays Greed in the first anime so that he can return to the military and Pride in the manga when the latter hypocritically goes against his idea that homunculi are superior to humans}}. He personally admits his views are at odds with society, and says that because he knows they are, he's gotten by through pretending to be normal. |
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| − | ** Among the homunculi, Pride in the manga comes across this way |
+ | ** Among the homunculi, Pride in the manga comes across this way — he is really loyal to Father, but he likes senseless cruelty for its own sake a bit too much to qualify as [[Lawful Evil]]. |
*** [[Big Bad]] Dante was this in the first anime, arranging a conspiracy over the course of centuries whose ultimately goals essentially came down to achieving eternal youth for herself and screwing over those she had a grudge against. |
*** [[Big Bad]] Dante was this in the first anime, arranging a conspiracy over the course of centuries whose ultimately goals essentially came down to achieving eternal youth for herself and screwing over those she had a grudge against. |
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* Sniper from ''[[Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin]]'' is scheming to take control of the entire pack for purely selfish reasons, and will stop at nothing to realize his goals, going as far as killing his former allies if they stand in his way. He's seen betraying his allies and is more than once trying to start conflicts to weaken both sides so he can more easily take over. He holds little to no regard for his allies lives, and will abandon them as soon as they can no longer help him further his agenda. He also cheats and lies at his own discretion. |
* Sniper from ''[[Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin]]'' is scheming to take control of the entire pack for purely selfish reasons, and will stop at nothing to realize his goals, going as far as killing his former allies if they stand in his way. He's seen betraying his allies and is more than once trying to start conflicts to weaken both sides so he can more easily take over. He holds little to no regard for his allies lives, and will abandon them as soon as they can no longer help him further his agenda. He also cheats and lies at his own discretion. |
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== Fanfiction == |
== Fanfiction == |
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* In the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' roleplay, "The Council Era", krogan adviser Halak Marr classifies as a neutral evil, being that he is fully willing to outside the boundaries of law in order to further his cause of eliminating the rest of the galactic population, thus rendering the krogan as a [[Master Race]]. The Overlord that he used as an [[Unwitting Pawn]], on the other hand, was [[Lawful Neutral]], and his [[Worthy Opponent]], the [[Villain Protagonist]], is [[Lawful Evil]]. |
* In the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' roleplay, "The Council Era", krogan adviser Halak Marr classifies as a neutral evil, being that he is fully willing to outside the boundaries of law in order to further his cause of eliminating the rest of the galactic population, thus rendering the krogan as a [[Master Race]]. The Overlord that he used as an [[Unwitting Pawn]], on the other hand, was [[Lawful Neutral]], and his [[Worthy Opponent]], the [[Villain Protagonist]], is [[Lawful Evil]]. |
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| + | *Warren Weatherly and his infamous son-in-law and nemesis Augustus Raven from Scooby-Doo! Savage Retribution both count. The former cares primarily about power, but there's enough pure sadism and cruelty in his motivation to shift him here from [[Lawful Evil]] while Warren's infamous son-in-law Augustus seems to live his life as one giant act of pure sadism, selfishness, and cruelty. |
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| + | *[[Evil Matriarch|Janice Weatherly]], the infamous sister-in-law and archenemy of Warren, Kyle and Samantha Weatherly is driven by selfish and greedy desire for ultimate power and eternal life through [[Your Soul Is Mine|Your Soul is Mine!]]. In Scooby-Doo! Nightmare in Purple, she joins forces with the [[Chaotic Evil]] Principal Cinch in order to betray her second brother-in-law Kyle Weatherly (Samantha and Gary's older brother), raise an army of undead Imperial Japanese soldiers, and open a portal to the heavens in order to give Janice a steady supply of souls to feast on forever. But in the end, both Janice and Principal Cinch betray each other so they don't have to share ultimate power. Throughout the series, Janice is a [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bitch]] who will go to any lengths to survive and further her own ambitions without giving scant regard to anyone else. |
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== Film == |
== Film == |
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* [[The Matrix|Agent Smith]] was part of the [[Lawful Evil]] agents as part of the programme. After his [[Back From the Dead|return]] he seems to be neither part of the lawful nor chaotic elements of the matrix and is more in it for himself. |
* [[The Matrix|Agent Smith]] was part of the [[Lawful Evil]] agents as part of the programme. After his [[Back From the Dead|return]] he seems to be neither part of the lawful nor chaotic elements of the matrix and is more in it for himself. |
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* As debatable as...''[[True Art Is Incomprehensible|everything]]'' is in the film, one thing is for sure: by the end, [[There Will Be Blood|Daniel Plainview]] is only looking out for [[Villain Protagonist|Daniel Plainview]]. |
* As debatable as...''[[True Art Is Incomprehensible|everything]]'' is in the film, one thing is for sure: by the end, [[There Will Be Blood|Daniel Plainview]] is only looking out for [[Villain Protagonist|Daniel Plainview]]. |
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| − | * The mysterious biker in ''[[Raising Arizona]]'' is a [[Psycho for Hire]], much like Anton Chigurh in [[The Coen Brothers]]' later ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'' but seems perfectly willing to work for Nathan Arizona |
+ | * The mysterious biker in ''[[Raising Arizona]]'' is a [[Psycho for Hire]], much like Anton Chigurh in [[The Coen Brothers]]' later ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'' but seems perfectly willing to work for Nathan Arizona — as long as he gets to inflict as much pain as he wants and still collect a paycheck. |
* Michael Corleone by the end of the first [[The Godfather|Godfather]] film. Unlike his father, he considers selling drugs, breaking peace talks and offing family members to be viable options. |
* Michael Corleone by the end of the first [[The Godfather|Godfather]] film. Unlike his father, he considers selling drugs, breaking peace talks and offing family members to be viable options. |
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* Biff Tannen from ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'' is almost a textbook example of a [[Neutral Evil]] character who would do anything to further himself if he could. The only sort of moral sensibility in his personality is shown after {{spoiler|he gets beaten up by George}} in the first film, after which he reluctantly stops being a jerk towards him only because it's [[Dirty Coward|in his personality]]. That is not to say he has any moral standards, however, because when we see the 1985 as altered by {{spoiler|Biff getting the sports almanac}}, he's even worse, {{spoiler|even willing to kill and blackmail to maintain his status}}. |
* Biff Tannen from ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'' is almost a textbook example of a [[Neutral Evil]] character who would do anything to further himself if he could. The only sort of moral sensibility in his personality is shown after {{spoiler|he gets beaten up by George}} in the first film, after which he reluctantly stops being a jerk towards him only because it's [[Dirty Coward|in his personality]]. That is not to say he has any moral standards, however, because when we see the 1985 as altered by {{spoiler|Biff getting the sports almanac}}, he's even worse, {{spoiler|even willing to kill and blackmail to maintain his status}}. |
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* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'': The Death Eaters and Voldemort, who are content to work either within or outside of the system, whichever one best helps them achieve their evil goals. Specifically: |
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'': The Death Eaters and Voldemort, who are content to work either within or outside of the system, whichever one best helps them achieve their evil goals. Specifically: |
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** {{spoiler|Barty Crouch, Jr.}} definitely falls here. He is loyal to Voldemort and his goals above all else, and doesn't care how he has to achieve them. |
** {{spoiler|Barty Crouch, Jr.}} definitely falls here. He is loyal to Voldemort and his goals above all else, and doesn't care how he has to achieve them. |
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| − | ** There are a few other Death Eaters who could arguably fall here, but more likely fall into one of the other evil tropes. Fenrir Greyback makes some steps toward Neutral Evil in ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|Deathly Hallows]]'' but overall remains [[Chaotic Evil]], as his goal is still about being a sadist and turning kids into werewolves/killing them; he remains a [[Psycho for Hire]] on the fringes of the group, and seems to prefer it that way. The Malfoys are more [[Lawful Evil]]; they'll work against the system if they have to, but overall they overwhelmingly prefer being in positions of power, authority and respectability, closer to [[Lawful Evil]]. In Draco's case, {{spoiler|it's heavily implied that he fancies himself as a lot darker and more sadistic than he actually is, and isn't truly capable of the depth of evil required to be a Death Eater |
+ | ** There are a few other Death Eaters who could arguably fall here, but more likely fall into one of the other evil tropes. Fenrir Greyback makes some steps toward Neutral Evil in ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|Deathly Hallows]]'' but overall remains [[Chaotic Evil]], as his goal is still about being a sadist and turning kids into werewolves/killing them; he remains a [[Psycho for Hire]] on the fringes of the group, and seems to prefer it that way. The Malfoys are more [[Lawful Evil]]; they'll work against the system if they have to, but overall they overwhelmingly prefer being in positions of power, authority and respectability, closer to [[Lawful Evil]]. In Draco's case, {{spoiler|it's heavily implied that he fancies himself as a lot darker and more sadistic than he actually is, and isn't truly capable of the depth of evil required to be a Death Eater — making him more of a mild [[Lawful Evil]]}}. |
** The [[Snakes Are Evil|Slytherin House]] gets stereotyped here. Historically many dark witches and wizards made their name in this house, most students tend to be mean, arrogant and a bunch of bullies. But the truth is Slytherin has moulded the minds of many spectacular and gifted characters, the sheer devotion to a goal or dream is what this house really stands for. It may be rare to find a nice Slytherin, but being [[Dark Is Not Evil|good isn't entirely out of the question]]. |
** The [[Snakes Are Evil|Slytherin House]] gets stereotyped here. Historically many dark witches and wizards made their name in this house, most students tend to be mean, arrogant and a bunch of bullies. But the truth is Slytherin has moulded the minds of many spectacular and gifted characters, the sheer devotion to a goal or dream is what this house really stands for. It may be rare to find a nice Slytherin, but being [[Dark Is Not Evil|good isn't entirely out of the question]]. |
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* Nom Anor of the ''[[Star Wars]] [[New Jedi Order]]'' series was a little less fanatically devoted to his religion as his fellow Yuuzhan Vong, furthering his own agenda sometimes at the expense of others of his species. As a fellow Vong noted "Nom Anor is a consummate infidel. He thinks only of his own ambitions." |
* Nom Anor of the ''[[Star Wars]] [[New Jedi Order]]'' series was a little less fanatically devoted to his religion as his fellow Yuuzhan Vong, furthering his own agenda sometimes at the expense of others of his species. As a fellow Vong noted "Nom Anor is a consummate infidel. He thinks only of his own ambitions." |
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** Gollum- more so than when he appears in ''[[The Hobbit]]''- in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. While crazy as hell and not living like anything resembling a person anymore, he's more about weaseling out pity to save his life/obtain his precious than striking fear or making a point. Hence, the only living thing he appears to see as any kind of role model (and his alliance there is somewhat dubious) is the other, more formidable [[Neutral Evil]] of the series, Shelob. |
** Gollum- more so than when he appears in ''[[The Hobbit]]''- in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. While crazy as hell and not living like anything resembling a person anymore, he's more about weaseling out pity to save his life/obtain his precious than striking fear or making a point. Hence, the only living thing he appears to see as any kind of role model (and his alliance there is somewhat dubious) is the other, more formidable [[Neutral Evil]] of the series, Shelob. |
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** Shelob's mother Ungoliant and- particularly after he goes mad from eating a Silmaril- Carcharoth from ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. |
** Shelob's mother Ungoliant and- particularly after he goes mad from eating a Silmaril- Carcharoth from ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. |
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| − | ** Saruman. He had no scruples whatsoever and he had neither the aspirations of Sauron either |
+ | ** Saruman. He had no scruples whatsoever and he had neither the aspirations of Sauron either — he was completely self-centered and egotistical. |
* Milo Minderbinder from ''[[Catch-22]]'' is a war profiteer who takes contracts from both sides, including one to {{spoiler|blow up his own army base}} so he can sell his overstock cotton, which he also tries to get rid of by covering it in chocolate and making the other soldiers eat it. |
* Milo Minderbinder from ''[[Catch-22]]'' is a war profiteer who takes contracts from both sides, including one to {{spoiler|blow up his own army base}} so he can sell his overstock cotton, which he also tries to get rid of by covering it in chocolate and making the other soldiers eat it. |
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* Graendel, Moghedien, Lanfear, Asmodean, Aginor{{spoiler|/Osan'gar}}, and Ishamael{{spoiler|/Moridin}} of the <s> Chosen</s> Forsaken are all [[Neutral Evil]]. Surprisingly few of the other villains in the series are this alignment; a higher than usual amount of villains work within institutions, and, as such, there is a strong inclination towards [[Lawful Evil]] amongst the "lesser" villains. |
* Graendel, Moghedien, Lanfear, Asmodean, Aginor{{spoiler|/Osan'gar}}, and Ishamael{{spoiler|/Moridin}} of the <s> Chosen</s> Forsaken are all [[Neutral Evil]]. Surprisingly few of the other villains in the series are this alignment; a higher than usual amount of villains work within institutions, and, as such, there is a strong inclination towards [[Lawful Evil]] amongst the "lesser" villains. |
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== Live Action TV == |
== Live Action TV == |
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* Edmund [[Blackadder]] in his 3rd incarnation. |
* Edmund [[Blackadder]] in his 3rd incarnation. |
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| − | * [[Doctor Who|The Master]], particularly in the new series, whose motives seem to be an odd blend of revenge against the Doctor, and just because he can and it's a bit of a laugh. This would explain why he dances to pop music while his minions slaughter over half a billion people |
+ | * [[Doctor Who|The Master]], particularly in the new series, whose motives seem to be an odd blend of revenge against the Doctor, and just because he can and it's a bit of a laugh. This would explain why he dances to pop music while his minions slaughter over half a billion people — Evil is Fun. |
* In [[Whoniverse|the same universe]], [[Torchwood|Captain John Hart]]. He loves to cause chaos and hurt people because he's a [[Magnificent Bastard|cunning, sadistic bastard]], but he ''really'' enjoys it when he's in charge and there's something in it for him, as he heavily implied in the series 2 finale, "Exit Wounds," when he was coerced into being {{spoiler|Gray's [[The Dragon|Dragon]]}}. |
* In [[Whoniverse|the same universe]], [[Torchwood|Captain John Hart]]. He loves to cause chaos and hurt people because he's a [[Magnificent Bastard|cunning, sadistic bastard]], but he ''really'' enjoys it when he's in charge and there's something in it for him, as he heavily implied in the series 2 finale, "Exit Wounds," when he was coerced into being {{spoiler|Gray's [[The Dragon|Dragon]]}}. |
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{{quote| "You're so self-obsessed you thought I'd ''want'' to blow up your stupid city, when I could be experiencing seventeen simultaneous pleasures in the Lotus Nebula!" }} |
{{quote| "You're so self-obsessed you thought I'd ''want'' to blow up your stupid city, when I could be experiencing seventeen simultaneous pleasures in the Lotus Nebula!" }} |
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* ''[[The Phantom (comic strip)|The Phantom]]'' featured (in at least one story) a worldwide criminal organisation that, emulating vultures, kept an eye on catastrophes and the like and showed up to rob the helpless victims. It didn't even pretend to have a motivation or justification beyond easy gain at the expense of the weak. |
* ''[[The Phantom (comic strip)|The Phantom]]'' featured (in at least one story) a worldwide criminal organisation that, emulating vultures, kept an eye on catastrophes and the like and showed up to rob the helpless victims. It didn't even pretend to have a motivation or justification beyond easy gain at the expense of the weak. |
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* [[Dilbert|Dogbert]]. He can never seem to decide whether he wants to take over the world or become the richest being in it. [[Magnificent Bastard|So he's done both several times.]] |
* [[Dilbert|Dogbert]]. He can never seem to decide whether he wants to take over the world or become the richest being in it. [[Magnificent Bastard|So he's done both several times.]] |
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| − | * The King from ''[[The Wizard of Id]]''. "He who has the gold, makes the rules" |
+ | * The King from ''[[The Wizard of Id]]''. "He who has the gold, makes the rules" — the rules being do what he says, and don't make him mad. His dungeons are full of the wise and sensible who tried to give him honest advice and frank opinions. And [[The Napoleon|don't joke about his height]]. |
== Music == |
== Music == |
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* Examples from ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'': |
* Examples from ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'': |
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** [[Our Goblins Are Different|Goblins]] in the 1st and 2nd editions of the game were [[Lawful Evil]] and said in manuals to have a strict pecking order in their culture, but most of the time they were just played as screaming hordes. In 3rd edition, they were changed to Neutral Evil (though individual goblins can be any alignment, naturally). |
** [[Our Goblins Are Different|Goblins]] in the 1st and 2nd editions of the game were [[Lawful Evil]] and said in manuals to have a strict pecking order in their culture, but most of the time they were just played as screaming hordes. In 3rd edition, they were changed to Neutral Evil (though individual goblins can be any alignment, naturally). |
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| − | ** Daemons, also known as Yugoloths, are the Neutral Evil answer to the [[Lawful Evil]] devils and [[Chaotic Evil]] demons. They mostly work either as mercenaries in the war between the demons and devils (they don't care whom to slaughter) or as guardians for mortal summoners--for the right price. With that in mind, the more powerful Yugoloths see themselves as [[The Chessmaster]] and view mercenary work as a ploy to make every side dependent on them, and they believe that they can end the war and conquer the world on their own terms when they deem it fit. The distinction between the three groups of fiends is that devils want to own you, demons want to destroy you, and daemons only care about what they can gain from you. One sourcebook (''Evil'') that contains rules for summoning and bargaining with fiends naturally stresses how incredibly dangerous it is to deal with either demons or devils, as well as giving advice on how to do it |
+ | ** Daemons, also known as Yugoloths, are the Neutral Evil answer to the [[Lawful Evil]] devils and [[Chaotic Evil]] demons. They mostly work either as mercenaries in the war between the demons and devils (they don't care whom to slaughter) or as guardians for mortal summoners--for the right price. With that in mind, the more powerful Yugoloths see themselves as [[The Chessmaster]] and view mercenary work as a ploy to make every side dependent on them, and they believe that they can end the war and conquer the world on their own terms when they deem it fit. The distinction between the three groups of fiends is that devils want to own you, demons want to destroy you, and daemons only care about what they can gain from you. One sourcebook (''Evil'') that contains rules for summoning and bargaining with fiends naturally stresses how incredibly dangerous it is to deal with either demons or devils, as well as giving advice on how to do it — but about daemons it just says that there's no point in even trying. |
** [[Omnicidal Maniac|Tharizdun]] used to be filed under Neutral Evil; 4th edition basically asked, "If he wants to destroy everything everywhere, why isn't he [[Chaotic Evil]]?" and, failing to come up with an answer, shifted him over to CE. |
** [[Omnicidal Maniac|Tharizdun]] used to be filed under Neutral Evil; 4th edition basically asked, "If he wants to destroy everything everywhere, why isn't he [[Chaotic Evil]]?" and, failing to come up with an answer, shifted him over to CE. |
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** "End of All Things" was the defining characteristic of the extreme version of Neutral Evil until 4th Edition. To explain it one way, Chaotic Evil wants to rape and pillage along the way, and enjoys their work. The end of the everything is an incidental side effect to what they do. (Extreme) Neutral Evil just wants everything to cease save for themselves. "Watching the world burn" isn't as important as the world just burning, and the end results thereof. Taking an example from 2nd edition Yugoloth philosophy, Neutral Evil lacks the raw... [[Ax Crazy|passion]] that Chaotic Evil has. Usually. |
** "End of All Things" was the defining characteristic of the extreme version of Neutral Evil until 4th Edition. To explain it one way, Chaotic Evil wants to rape and pillage along the way, and enjoys their work. The end of the everything is an incidental side effect to what they do. (Extreme) Neutral Evil just wants everything to cease save for themselves. "Watching the world burn" isn't as important as the world just burning, and the end results thereof. Taking an example from 2nd edition Yugoloth philosophy, Neutral Evil lacks the raw... [[Ax Crazy|passion]] that Chaotic Evil has. Usually. |
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* ''[[Warhammer|Warhammer Fantasy Battles]]'': |
* ''[[Warhammer|Warhammer Fantasy Battles]]'': |
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** The Vampire Counts fit into this category by default, but mainly because there are several different types of vampires, with vastly different methods and mannerisms. While there are many who hide amongst the nobles of imperial cities, manipulating them from within, there are also several who are nigh close to hulking, degenerated beasts. This makes them range across the evil alignments more than any other evil army in the game. A perfect example of this is exemplified within the three Carsteins, with the [[Aristocrats Are Evil|courtly but corrupting]] Vlad being [[Lawful Evil]], the [[Ax Crazy|absolutely mad]] Konrad being [[Chaotic Evil]] and finally the [[The Chessmaster|manipulative]] Mannfred being [[Neutral Evil]]. |
** The Vampire Counts fit into this category by default, but mainly because there are several different types of vampires, with vastly different methods and mannerisms. While there are many who hide amongst the nobles of imperial cities, manipulating them from within, there are also several who are nigh close to hulking, degenerated beasts. This makes them range across the evil alignments more than any other evil army in the game. A perfect example of this is exemplified within the three Carsteins, with the [[Aristocrats Are Evil|courtly but corrupting]] Vlad being [[Lawful Evil]], the [[Ax Crazy|absolutely mad]] Konrad being [[Chaotic Evil]] and finally the [[The Chessmaster|manipulative]] Mannfred being [[Neutral Evil]]. |
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| − | ** The Greenskins |
+ | ** The Greenskins — that is, Orcs and Goblins. They are not similarly law-bound and disciplined like Dark Elves. They are simply a ravening horde living off robbing and plundering but not intending to wanton destruction for its own sake. Their society is based on the stronger bullying the weaker and the unscrupulous the gullible. They have two gods, Gork who is brutally cunning, and Mork, who is cunningly brutal |
* [[Manipulative Bastard]] [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]] Nicol Bolas from ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' nicely fits this alignment. |
* [[Manipulative Bastard]] [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]] Nicol Bolas from ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' nicely fits this alignment. |
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* The majority of the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Yozis]] in ''[[Exalted]]''. [[The Juggernaut|Malfeas]] is literally incapable of considering other points of view other than his own, and will not tolerate dissension from his absolute [[Asskicking Equals Authority|rule-by-power]]. The Ebon Dragon (when he's not being [[Chaotic Evil]]) is literally the principle of selfishness and vice, deception and betrayal being his very nature. If [[Evil Matriarch|Kimbery]] loves you, she considers you her personal property, and never forgives a slight-''ever''. Of course, we also have a couple semi-benign examples: [[Hall of Mirrors|Szoreny]] mainly cares about his own well-being, but is called the "kindest of the Yozis" [[Worthy Opponent|for a reason]], and [[And I Must Scream|Oramus]] just wants out of the prison the Solars made his wings into. |
* The majority of the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Yozis]] in ''[[Exalted]]''. [[The Juggernaut|Malfeas]] is literally incapable of considering other points of view other than his own, and will not tolerate dissension from his absolute [[Asskicking Equals Authority|rule-by-power]]. The Ebon Dragon (when he's not being [[Chaotic Evil]]) is literally the principle of selfishness and vice, deception and betrayal being his very nature. If [[Evil Matriarch|Kimbery]] loves you, she considers you her personal property, and never forgives a slight-''ever''. Of course, we also have a couple semi-benign examples: [[Hall of Mirrors|Szoreny]] mainly cares about his own well-being, but is called the "kindest of the Yozis" [[Worthy Opponent|for a reason]], and [[And I Must Scream|Oramus]] just wants out of the prison the Solars made his wings into. |
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* The ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]]'' series: |
* The ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]]'' series: |
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** Jon Irenicus. This being a ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' game, it is a part of his gameplay stats. He exemplifies an extreme version of the alignment in caring about nothing other than his own goals, displaying a horrifying lack of empathy. (Some versions of him in the game files are technically "[[Chaotic Good]]", but you can [[Complete Monster|kind of tell]] that's not right. It's apparently because they modified those files from Elminster's, because Elminster was ''almost'' as high in level as a mage. Scared yet?) |
** Jon Irenicus. This being a ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' game, it is a part of his gameplay stats. He exemplifies an extreme version of the alignment in caring about nothing other than his own goals, displaying a horrifying lack of empathy. (Some versions of him in the game files are technically "[[Chaotic Good]]", but you can [[Complete Monster|kind of tell]] that's not right. It's apparently because they modified those files from Elminster's, because Elminster was ''almost'' as high in level as a mage. Scared yet?) |
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| − | ** There's also [[Broken Bird]] Viconia deVir. She's having a hard time being unfairly persecuted at every turn for being a [[Always Chaotic Evil|drow elf]], but she also hasn't actually stopped thinking like drow usually do, merely switching from worshipping the drow goddess of frantic backstabbing and power-grabbing to a human goddess of cold self-interest and cynical denial of love and hope |
+ | ** There's also [[Broken Bird]] Viconia deVir. She's having a hard time being unfairly persecuted at every turn for being a [[Always Chaotic Evil|drow elf]], but she also hasn't actually stopped thinking like drow usually do, merely switching from worshipping the drow goddess of frantic backstabbing and power-grabbing to a human goddess of cold self-interest and cynical denial of love and hope — a remarkably small change. |
** A milder example from the first game is [[Handsome Lech]] Eldoth, a sleazeball womanizer happy to exploit women for all they're worth. |
** A milder example from the first game is [[Handsome Lech]] Eldoth, a sleazeball womanizer happy to exploit women for all they're worth. |
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** And Montaron is a Neutral Evil probable [[Psycho for Hire]]. |
** And Montaron is a Neutral Evil probable [[Psycho for Hire]]. |
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** Shinji Matou, a despicable [[The Casanova|Casanova]] who abuses his {{spoiler|adoptive}} sister Sakura and his Servant Rider, and will stop at nothing to win the Grail War, is also argued to be of this alignment. |
** Shinji Matou, a despicable [[The Casanova|Casanova]] who abuses his {{spoiler|adoptive}} sister Sakura and his Servant Rider, and will stop at nothing to win the Grail War, is also argued to be of this alignment. |
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** Ilya could fit if you mixed her alignment with [[It's All About Me]]. If you're on her side, wonderful! If not, she'll brutally murder you. She doesn't appear to have a conscience or good impulse control. |
** Ilya could fit if you mixed her alignment with [[It's All About Me]]. If you're on her side, wonderful! If not, she'll brutally murder you. She doesn't appear to have a conscience or good impulse control. |
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| − | ** Ilya's a difficult case to pin down, [[Freudian Excuse|for]] [[Jerkass Woobie|various]] [[Character Development|reasons]]. It's safest to say that she slides between the various neutral alignments |
+ | ** Ilya's a difficult case to pin down, [[Freudian Excuse|for]] [[Jerkass Woobie|various]] [[Character Development|reasons]]. It's safest to say that she slides between the various neutral alignments — [[Neutral Good]], [[True Neutral]], and [[Neutral Evil]] — based on the Route and storyline involved. |
** Kirei Kotomine bounces all over the scale over the course of the series. In Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and the anime adaptation he appears to be little more than a [[Chaotic Evil]] [[Complete Monster]], as he subverts the rules of the Grail War while posing as the referee, lets his Servant feed on the souls of orphans, and plans to unleash an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that will destroy the world, apparently just for shits and giggles. Heaven's Feel, however, goes deep into his motivations and lends him enough [[Lawful Evil]] traits to end up here instead. {{spoiler|Kirei was born with some sort of mental defect that only allowed him to take satisfaction from acts that others considered "evil", but he also possessed a conscience and recognized that those deeds were wrong. After trying to find satisfaction as a mage, a priest, and a loving husband, he finally cracked after his wife died and he realized he was more upset that he hadn't been able to kill her himself. His plot to unleash Angra Mainyu is a desperate bid to get some answers about his own existence, the fact that it will wipe out most of humanity is just a side-effect.}} He also [[Will Not Tell a Lie]] and holds to his duties as a priest when Shirou asks for his help with Sakura. |
** Kirei Kotomine bounces all over the scale over the course of the series. In Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and the anime adaptation he appears to be little more than a [[Chaotic Evil]] [[Complete Monster]], as he subverts the rules of the Grail War while posing as the referee, lets his Servant feed on the souls of orphans, and plans to unleash an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that will destroy the world, apparently just for shits and giggles. Heaven's Feel, however, goes deep into his motivations and lends him enough [[Lawful Evil]] traits to end up here instead. {{spoiler|Kirei was born with some sort of mental defect that only allowed him to take satisfaction from acts that others considered "evil", but he also possessed a conscience and recognized that those deeds were wrong. After trying to find satisfaction as a mage, a priest, and a loving husband, he finally cracked after his wife died and he realized he was more upset that he hadn't been able to kill her himself. His plot to unleash Angra Mainyu is a desperate bid to get some answers about his own existence, the fact that it will wipe out most of humanity is just a side-effect.}} He also [[Will Not Tell a Lie]] and holds to his duties as a priest when Shirou asks for his help with Sakura. |
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| − | * General Gismor from ''[[Drakengard]] 2'' is a selfish jerk who only cares about himself and getting as much power as possible. He might be the leader of the Knights of the Seal, but it is obvious that he couldn't care any less about the law, his underlings ({{spoiler|as he shows by almost killing Eris}}) or peace |
+ | * General Gismor from ''[[Drakengard]] 2'' is a selfish jerk who only cares about himself and getting as much power as possible. He might be the leader of the Knights of the Seal, but it is obvious that he couldn't care any less about the law, his underlings ({{spoiler|as he shows by almost killing Eris}}) or peace — he simply does what benefits him, and only him, the most. |
* Lobo of ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' is the leader of an underground criminal organization that is known to do many shady dealings, up to selling children (a rare commodity since birth rate is low in the game's setting) for anything (usually sexual slavery). |
* Lobo of ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' is the leader of an underground criminal organization that is known to do many shady dealings, up to selling children (a rare commodity since birth rate is low in the game's setting) for anything (usually sexual slavery). |
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* Fake Overlord Zenon and Super Hero Aurum in the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series. |
* Fake Overlord Zenon and Super Hero Aurum in the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series. |
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** [[Big Bad|Ha]][[Eldritch Abomination|za]][[Complete Monster|ma]] may also count as this or [[Chaotic Evil]], although because most of his heinous deeds are done purely [[For the Evulz]], he likely leans more into the latter. |
** [[Big Bad|Ha]][[Eldritch Abomination|za]][[Complete Monster|ma]] may also count as this or [[Chaotic Evil]], although because most of his heinous deeds are done purely [[For the Evulz]], he likely leans more into the latter. |
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* The Father from the fan-made ''[[King's Quest]]'' remake, and maybe the Black Cloak Society in general. They're too organized and methodical to be chaotic evil, as the lot of them engage in long term [[Plan|plans]] (Mordred and Alhazred's plans for Cassima, Mannanan's kidnapping and enslavement of young boys as servants), but they show little respect of laws or rules aside from how best to use them to further their ends. {{spoiler|The Father, in general, is rather pissed off that he isn't able to get the Crown of Daventry because of a stipulation left by Daventry's first king. He tries all sorts of torments on Graham and family to try and get around it, including cutting deals, sending spies, and assuming the guise of a "harmless" adviser to con his way into what he wants. Too bad for him Graham ain't falling for it}}. |
* The Father from the fan-made ''[[King's Quest]]'' remake, and maybe the Black Cloak Society in general. They're too organized and methodical to be chaotic evil, as the lot of them engage in long term [[Plan|plans]] (Mordred and Alhazred's plans for Cassima, Mannanan's kidnapping and enslavement of young boys as servants), but they show little respect of laws or rules aside from how best to use them to further their ends. {{spoiler|The Father, in general, is rather pissed off that he isn't able to get the Crown of Daventry because of a stipulation left by Daventry's first king. He tries all sorts of torments on Graham and family to try and get around it, including cutting deals, sending spies, and assuming the guise of a "harmless" adviser to con his way into what he wants. Too bad for him Graham ain't falling for it}}. |
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| − | * [[Psycho for Hire|Jerme]] from ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' seems to fit this alignment even though he is psychotic, being willing to serve [[Big Bad|Nergal]] as long as he didn't interfere with Jerme's interest |
+ | * [[Psycho for Hire|Jerme]] from ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' seems to fit this alignment even though he is psychotic, being willing to serve [[Big Bad|Nergal]] as long as he didn't interfere with Jerme's interest — killing people. |
| − | ** [[Evil Uncle|Lord Lundgren]] from the same game is an even better example. He tries to pass himself off as [[Lawful Evil]], but his actions |
+ | ** [[Evil Uncle|Lord Lundgren]] from the same game is an even better example. He tries to pass himself off as [[Lawful Evil]], but his actions — slowly poisoning his own brother; hiring assassins and more skilled soldiers to kill his grandniece, even if it means destroying relations with neighbouring territories; and marking said grandniece as an imposter and her knight escorts (loyal to Caelin) as traitors — are all done purely so he can inherit power for himself. |
| − | ** Also, Lord Darin showed signs of this, serving [[Big Bad|Nergal]] in exchange for a promise to become ruler of the world. This isn't entirely his fault though, and it's implied that Darin was originally [[Lawful Evil]] |
+ | ** Also, Lord Darin showed signs of this, serving [[Big Bad|Nergal]] in exchange for a promise to become ruler of the world. This isn't entirely his fault though, and it's implied that Darin was originally [[Lawful Evil]] — he was dissatisfied that Laus was not the centre of Lycia, but was still a loyal servant of the Lycian League until [[Evil Chancellor|Ephidel]] corrupted him. |
* Mister Burke from ''[[Fallout 3]]''. Nuking a peaceful town because ... well, we don't know why. But it's the thing he does. He just needs someone to push the button. |
* Mister Burke from ''[[Fallout 3]]''. Nuking a peaceful town because ... well, we don't know why. But it's the thing he does. He just needs someone to push the button. |
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** And by extension the player, should they accept to push the button for what amounts to pocket change. |
** And by extension the player, should they accept to push the button for what amounts to pocket change. |
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** Belueth the Calm from ''Storm of Zehir'' is type 1. She is an [[Stereotype Flip|amoral aasimar thief]] who believes only in the thief-god Mask and in the awesome power of money. |
** Belueth the Calm from ''Storm of Zehir'' is type 1. She is an [[Stereotype Flip|amoral aasimar thief]] who believes only in the thief-god Mask and in the awesome power of money. |
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* Several characters in ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'' fit under this alignment. |
* Several characters in ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'' fit under this alignment. |
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| − | ** Genevive Aristide, CEO of Armacham, is directly responsible for setting in motion the events of the first game, and her only subsequent desire is covering her own ass. She deliberately orders her own security troops to open fire on US military and government agents as well as "clean things up" by murdering everyone associated with Project Origin. Later on, she orders the destruction of the Origin facility, which involves effectively setting off a nuclear explosion in the heart of the city of Fairport. {{spoiler|(technically, the Point Man was the one who set off the reactor, but Aristide initially ordered the explosion)}} By the second game, she is desperately trying to contain Alma, subjecting people to [[Mind Rape]], brutal surgical procedures, and using the psychic members of team Dark Signal are bait to keep Alma distracted until she could trap both Beckett and Alma in a containment device |
+ | ** Genevive Aristide, CEO of Armacham, is directly responsible for setting in motion the events of the first game, and her only subsequent desire is covering her own ass. She deliberately orders her own security troops to open fire on US military and government agents as well as "clean things up" by murdering everyone associated with Project Origin. Later on, she orders the destruction of the Origin facility, which involves effectively setting off a nuclear explosion in the heart of the city of Fairport. {{spoiler|(technically, the Point Man was the one who set off the reactor, but Aristide initially ordered the explosion)}} By the second game, she is desperately trying to contain Alma, subjecting people to [[Mind Rape]], brutal surgical procedures, and using the psychic members of team Dark Signal are bait to keep Alma distracted until she could trap both Beckett and Alma in a containment device — but makes it clear that her only concern is keeping her job. |
** Harlan Wade was this while Project Origin was ongoing, showing utterly no remorse regarding the horrible things he was putting Alma {{spoiler|(his own daughter)}} and the Point Man and Fettel {{spoiler|(his grandchildren)}} through. He seems have shifted away from this by the end of the first game, however, and tries to atone for his acts by {{spoiler|letting Alma kill him}}. |
** Harlan Wade was this while Project Origin was ongoing, showing utterly no remorse regarding the horrible things he was putting Alma {{spoiler|(his own daughter)}} and the Point Man and Fettel {{spoiler|(his grandchildren)}} through. He seems have shifted away from this by the end of the first game, however, and tries to atone for his acts by {{spoiler|letting Alma kill him}}. |
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** Though we only see hints of his twisted nature in the first two games, Paxton Fettel is definitely this in the third. There's nothing in him but a desire for revenge, power, and to inflict suffering on others. He has his reasons, as his youth was one of the most screwed-up experiences imaginable, but that doesn't change the fact that he's flat-out ''evil''. He goes so far as to {{spoiler|kill and eat his ''own mother's ghost''.}} |
** Though we only see hints of his twisted nature in the first two games, Paxton Fettel is definitely this in the third. There's nothing in him but a desire for revenge, power, and to inflict suffering on others. He has his reasons, as his youth was one of the most screwed-up experiences imaginable, but that doesn't change the fact that he's flat-out ''evil''. He goes so far as to {{spoiler|kill and eat his ''own mother's ghost''.}} |
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** Speaking of shifty characters, Hermaeus Mora always gives off an [[Enigmatic Empowering Entity|untrustworthy impression]]. Though he craves the secrets of others, he's generous in dishing out power for a favor. But his ambition for taking knowledge and his demented realm of Apocrypha makes him anything but a good deity. |
** Speaking of shifty characters, Hermaeus Mora always gives off an [[Enigmatic Empowering Entity|untrustworthy impression]]. Though he craves the secrets of others, he's generous in dishing out power for a favor. But his ambition for taking knowledge and his demented realm of Apocrypha makes him anything but a good deity. |
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* Dutch Van Der Linde from [[Red Dead Redemption|''Red Dead Redemption'']]'' ''was quite an [[Even Evil Has Standards|upstart guy]], even for an outlaw gang leader. But overtime the pressure of running his gang, plotting heists and looking after those close to him became too much. Eventually [[Face-Heel Turn|he cracked]], betraying crucial characters leaving only {{Spoiler|John Marston}} to hunt him down. Which if you'd played the first game, doesn't all [[Redemption Equals Death|end well]] for both of them. |
* Dutch Van Der Linde from [[Red Dead Redemption|''Red Dead Redemption'']]'' ''was quite an [[Even Evil Has Standards|upstart guy]], even for an outlaw gang leader. But overtime the pressure of running his gang, plotting heists and looking after those close to him became too much. Eventually [[Face-Heel Turn|he cracked]], betraying crucial characters leaving only {{Spoiler|John Marston}} to hunt him down. Which if you'd played the first game, doesn't all [[Redemption Equals Death|end well]] for both of them. |
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| + | * ''Apex Legends ''has a variety of different characters to choose from. But no legend is more cold-blooded and villainous than [[Drunk on the Dark Side|Revenant]]. Even compared to [[Token Evil Teammate]] Caustic, Revenant is downright merciless. He hates practically [[Hates Everyone Equally|every other character]], viewing them less helpful and more of a meat shield for him to take advantage of. Worse yet, he's a literal killing machine who's whole artillery is to sneak and deceive his opponents. Top that all off, with the fact that he's [[Not Quite Dead|immortal]] and you're dealing with a living nightmare. |
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== [[Web Comics]] == |
== [[Web Comics]] == |
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* Royce from ''[[Heartcore]]'' is as neutrally evil as they come, and a total [[Jerkass|dick]] to boot. |
* Royce from ''[[Heartcore]]'' is as neutrally evil as they come, and a total [[Jerkass|dick]] to boot. |
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* [[President Evil]] and [[Magnificent Bastard]] Zexion of ''[[Ansem Retort]]''. |
* [[President Evil]] and [[Magnificent Bastard]] Zexion of ''[[Ansem Retort]]''. |
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* Angelique of ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' is mainly motivated by a desire to spite Kevin, even going so far as to take ownership of and try to liquidate his business to do so. Her status is even remarked upon in one crossword puzzle. Vin is similarly motivated by jealousy toward Rudy, although he eventually puts it behind him. |
* Angelique of ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' is mainly motivated by a desire to spite Kevin, even going so far as to take ownership of and try to liquidate his business to do so. Her status is even remarked upon in one crossword puzzle. Vin is similarly motivated by jealousy toward Rudy, although he eventually puts it behind him. |
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| − | * Eridan Ampora of ''[[Homestuck]]'' fame. He's selfish and [[It's All About Me|self-centred]]: when anything goes wrong, he takes the opportunity to [[Wangst|pontificate]] on how it affects him and wax lyrical about his many inadequacies |
+ | * Eridan Ampora of ''[[Homestuck]]'' fame. He's selfish and [[It's All About Me|self-centred]]: when anything goes wrong, he takes the opportunity to [[Wangst|pontificate]] on how it affects him and wax lyrical about his many inadequacies — solely to [[Incredibly Lame Pun|fish]] for compliments, of course. Give him one, and he ''will'' hit on you. When he's rejected by his former [[Love Interest]], .{{spoiler|he throws a fit, tries to murder her new boyfriend, '''succeeds''' in murdering ''her'', '''[[Moral Event Horizon|DOOMS HIS SPECIES TO EXTINCTION]]''', kills his self-professed "only friend" and then runs away to try and join the [[Big Bad]]}} |
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** [[Mulan|Shan Yu]] is perhaps the most subtle Disney villain around. His intentions are clear, without a [[Villain Song]] to highlight it. True he's quite underrated in the franchise, but that only adds to his badass reputation. He's sinister, cold-blooded and effective in his role and those eyes just scream bad news. |
** [[Mulan|Shan Yu]] is perhaps the most subtle Disney villain around. His intentions are clear, without a [[Villain Song]] to highlight it. True he's quite underrated in the franchise, but that only adds to his badass reputation. He's sinister, cold-blooded and effective in his role and those eyes just scream bad news. |
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** [[Pocahontas|Governor Ratcliffe]] glorifies Neutral Evil. He's extremely greedy and racist, ambitiously wiping his boots on the rights of natives just for a shot at fame. Worst yet, Ratcliff is merciless going as far as to shoot an enlightened, Chief Powhatan just to claim the gold that never existed. |
** [[Pocahontas|Governor Ratcliffe]] glorifies Neutral Evil. He's extremely greedy and racist, ambitiously wiping his boots on the rights of natives just for a shot at fame. Worst yet, Ratcliff is merciless going as far as to shoot an enlightened, Chief Powhatan just to claim the gold that never existed. |
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| − | * The Decepticon's (with |
+ | * The Decepticon's (with exceptions such as [[Lawful Evil|Megatron or Shockwave]]) from ''[[Transformers]] ''are the prime example of an entire group mostly under this alignment. They rather destroy an whole planet, than let the Autobots take charge. No matter where they go trouble isn't far behind, most Decepticons despise one another but some can get along [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|(or at least not trying to backstab one another)]]. |
** Most characters displaying traits of [[The Starscream]] (including [[Transformers|Starscream himself]] in all his forms) are Neutral Evil. Ironically, whenever ''[[Transformers Generation 1|G1]]'' or ''[[Transformers Armada|Armada]]'' Starscream did honestly bring up some issue of honor or rules, [[Lawful Evil]] Megatron berated him for even daring to respect Cybertron law. |
** Most characters displaying traits of [[The Starscream]] (including [[Transformers|Starscream himself]] in all his forms) are Neutral Evil. Ironically, whenever ''[[Transformers Generation 1|G1]]'' or ''[[Transformers Armada|Armada]]'' Starscream did honestly bring up some issue of honor or rules, [[Lawful Evil]] Megatron berated him for even daring to respect Cybertron law. |
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{{quote| '''Starscream:''' I was '''just''' raising a ''legal issue''.}} |
{{quote| '''Starscream:''' I was '''just''' raising a ''legal issue''.}} |
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** [[The Evil Prince|The same could be said]] for [[Big Bad|her father]] [[Complete Monster|Ozai]]. |
** [[The Evil Prince|The same could be said]] for [[Big Bad|her father]] [[Complete Monster|Ozai]]. |
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** Also, Admiral Zhao. The fucker tried to kill the moon. For no reason other than to stroke his own vanity. |
** Also, Admiral Zhao. The fucker tried to kill the moon. For no reason other than to stroke his own vanity. |
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| − | ** Fire Nation officers generally skirt between this and [[Lawful Evil]], though it's hard to tell from their lack of definite characterisation. The Warden of the Boiling Rock ''may'' count, as he is perfectly willing to drown himself and escaping prisoners in boiling water just to ensure he maintains the prison's 'no one escaped under my watch' ratio, but nonetheless "pulled some strings" to release his niece Mai from prison |
+ | ** Fire Nation officers generally skirt between this and [[Lawful Evil]], though it's hard to tell from their lack of definite characterisation. The Warden of the Boiling Rock ''may'' count, as he is perfectly willing to drown himself and escaping prisoners in boiling water just to ensure he maintains the prison's 'no one escaped under my watch' ratio, but nonetheless "pulled some strings" to release his niece Mai from prison — due to lack of specific information though, he may simply be [[Lawful Evil]] or even simply Neutral. |
| − | ** [[He Who Fights Monsters|Hama]] no longer cares about trying to restore her tribe as much as she cares about enacting vengeance upon the Fire Nation. She does this by imprisoning and torturing innocent peasants, and [[Evil Mentor|taking every measure possible to teach her pupil, Katara, Bloodbending]] |
+ | ** [[He Who Fights Monsters|Hama]] no longer cares about trying to restore her tribe as much as she cares about enacting vengeance upon the Fire Nation. She does this by imprisoning and torturing innocent peasants, and [[Evil Mentor|taking every measure possible to teach her pupil, Katara, Bloodbending]] — even if it means [[Moral Event Horizon|making Katara's brother, Sokka, and her friend/surrogate-little-brother/potential-love-interest Aang (who is the Avatar was well) almost kill each other in the process]]. Contrast this to [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Jet]], who had a similar alignment at first — being willing to drown an Earth Kingdom town just to drive away Fire Nation troops stationed there — but later [[Heel Face Turn|acknowledged the evil of his actions]] and shifted towards [[Chaotic Good]]. |
| − | * Amon from ''[[ |
+ | * Amon from ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' uickly became Korra's worst nightmare after balancing the power between Benders and Non-benders alike. He was very capable at succeeding his goals, to rid all benders of their power. Amon's own capabilites was all he needed to outmatch any bender, this alone made him ever more intimidating. |
* Selfish Eric Raymond from ''[[Jem]]'' fits in this slot better then Lawful Evil. At one point he outright admitted to {{spoiler|embezzling money from Starlight Records to personally fund The Misfits.}} |
* Selfish Eric Raymond from ''[[Jem]]'' fits in this slot better then Lawful Evil. At one point he outright admitted to {{spoiler|embezzling money from Starlight Records to personally fund The Misfits.}} |
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* Thailog, the [[Evil Twin]] of Goliath from ''[[Gargoyles]]''. |
* Thailog, the [[Evil Twin]] of Goliath from ''[[Gargoyles]]''. |
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Latest revision as of 02:09, 5 November 2023
 Quotes •  Headscratchers •  Playing With • Useful Notes •  Analysis •  Image Links •  Haiku • Laconic
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"For mine own good, all causes shall give way."
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One of the nine alignments from the best-known Character Alignment system. Sometimes known as "True Evil". Their methods vary — just as the Neutral Good character will ally with anybody to do what's right and nobody to do what's wrong, the Neutral Evil character will ally with anybody as long as it advances their own interests — (and it is all about their own interests). Neutral Evil characters are intrinsically selfish people, regardless of whose side they are on, and as a Token Evil Teammate, they are the most likely to sell out to the bad guy.
Some of the world-shaking ones may seek to tear down an old order, good or bad, to set up their own order — not because their way is better, or for the pleasure of tearing it down, but because they want to be in charge. They will do it using any means at their disposal. To a Neutral Evil character, honour, standards and keeping your word is all well and good, so long as it doesn't get in the way. If their opponent is honourable and decent, that's great because they can exploit it. They are very prone to saying, "I Lied".
While they are usually villains, they can also switch to the good guy's side for a while, if it's better for them at the moment. True Magnificent Bastards of the Neutral Evil persuasion can sometimes (with a little luck) lure other villains into an Enemy Civil War, usually along the lines of Order Versus Chaos — playing Lawful Evil against Chaotic Evil — and cleaning up at both sides' expense.
Neutral Evil types can come in a variety of different flavors:
- Type 1 characters are largely or totally amoral and commit evil for self-serving, but not necessarily malicious purposes. They tend to be in it for money and power but may eschew motives like revenge or sadism, viewing them as barbaric or simply unprofessional; that does not mean they'll always, or ever, stop their bosses, partners or lackeys from indulging in such behavior, but its not something they themselves are really into, though they may be prepared to Kick the Dog or perform Cold-Blooded Torture as a means to an end. Perhaps they are a Punch Clock Villain, or maybe they believe there is Better Living Through Evil, or perhaps they are Blessed with Suck and their talents happen to lend themselves to evil (like, say, a talent for professional hits). They can do things For the Evulz, but this is rare and will probably be to relieve boredom or because someone has earned their particular enmity, and not pathologically, though rarer and darker types will do horrific things because It Amused Me and honestly not see anything wrong with it. This type is the most likely to pull a Heel Face Turn or fall into an Enemy Mine with The Hero, but don't hold your breath or assume they cannot be a Complete Monster. Often form the ranks of Mooks or Elite Mooks, if evil is just a job, but might be figures of authority or power who will commit crimes or do evil if they think it is advantageous to them. A type 1 will either not understand the difference between right and wrong, or understand but choose wrong anyway, resigning themselves to a life of villainy or perhaps just not viewing the whole Good and Evil thing to be of any special importance in the first place.
- Type 2 characters, in contrast, are immoral and deliberately evil. They recognize the difference between right and wrong, at least superficially or that others adhere to it, and willfully and gleefully choose wrong. This does not make them Chaotic Evil as they have no problem working within a system or under someone else's thrall (for so long as it serves them) nor do they have any special desire to bring civilization crumbling down. For them, Evil Is Cool and feels good, and is the best, surest and probably the most fulfilling path to money and power, though they are much more likely than the other types to do things just For the Evulz. If you cut them a check, they'll either throw it back in your face, or take it and continue doing evil anyway, in one form or another. These guys fill the ranks of the Religion of Evil and sacrifice at the altars of wicked gods, though usually on the understanding that they will be getting something out of it. Others are sadistic con artists who use a front of benevolence to manipulate others for fun and profit. They might try to justify their actions with What Is Evil? or Above Good and Evil, but it will be with a sly smirk or sneering contempt, though they are just as often Card Carrying Villains who revel being the bad guy.
- Type 3 characters on the other hand are egomaniacal; they believe that they are the good, or even The Hero, and evil either doesn't exist or is whatever they don't like. These guys are often marked by grandiose Pride and though they might recognize that the rest of the world has different ethical standards from them, those standards are for lesser mortals and they will obey them only when it is convenient to do so, and will break them whenever they think they can get away with it if it is to their advantage — and since they are complete egomaniacs (and occasionally, completely insane), they often believe they can get away with anything and many of their crimes are incredibly risky and carry a high chance of getting caught, banking on Refuge in Audacity, when they don't fall under Stupid Evil. Often elitist and smug with a grandiose sense of entitlement and self-worth, they often think The Hero thwarts their plans out of jealousy or spite, or because they can't recognize how awesome they are or that they are so entitled. They treat the bulk of humanity with indifference if not utter contempt, even if if they regard themselves as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, believing themselves to be the center of the world, perhaps sharing it with a handful of semi-worthy competitors and everyone else exists to serve their needs or glorify them. Others don't care about the common person at all except as means to an end, while some are simply the Misanthrope Supreme and will shut themselves off from the trash that is mankind; or, worse, take a Kill'Em All approach to Put Them All Out of My Misery. A Type 3 is fully capable of doing heinous or petty things For the Evulz and can be extremely sadistic and vindictive; they just won't consider such acts to be evil because they feel they are entitled to do them, though they might mockingly draw attention to the fact that other people think this is villainous, or grudgingly acknowledge it as part of an Ignored Epiphany Heel Realization. This type can easily become a Tautological Templar.
Neutral Evil can be the most dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil. They can also be a tough alignment to maintain. This is because you aren't evil (hopefully) and the goal of your team's quest usually isn't evil; thus, it's much harder to play as a Neutral Evil person consistently without accidentally slipping into True Neutral or even Neutral Good territory. Why are they so bad? They are willing to step on, betray, take advantage of, hurt, and kill other people to reach their goals and get what they want. The Neutral Evil have no moral qualms about hurting others to benefit themselves, and no particular preference to how they do it that makes their methods predictable.
Keep in mind that the title "True Evil" isn't just a statement to these characters. It's definitely a fact when ethics and personality are involved, death is no stranger to these characters and if you don't play your cards right expect to be bumped off very quickly. Indeed Neutral Evil can not only be the most unforgivable alignment, but also the most corrupt and dangerous. Villains of this side, rarely get to see another day but their are always ways around it.
In Dungeons and Dragons, characters who are selfish above all else are Neutral Evil by default.
If you have a difficulty deciding which alignment a evil-aligned character belongs to, the main difference between Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil is not their devotion to their evil wishes, but the methods they believe are best to realize it:
- Even though there are some situations where they can't always use this method, Lawful Evil characters believe the best way is to have a specific, strict code of conduct, whether self-imposed or codified as a law. Their first impulse when making a moral decision is to refer back to this code; those with externally imposed systems (codes of laws, hierarchies, etc.) will try to work within the system when those systems go wrong. Depending on whether they are more Lawful or more Evil, they will either refuse to break the code even though it would hurt their evil objectives, or else break it only very reluctantly, and only when it would hurt their evil objectives if they kept their code.
- Neutral Evil characters are indifferent to Order Versus Chaos, and their only interest is in realizing their evil wishes. They will use whatever means will help in realizing their evil wishes, whether that means tearing down a code of laws, following a code of laws, creating an orderly society, causing the breakdown of justice, or staying away from society altogether. Their only goal is to realize their evil wishes, full stop.
- Most Chaotic Evil characters don't constantly break the law, but they cannot see much value in laws (or, for weaker-CCEs, do not see the value in laws that do not function solely to their depraved objectives). They believe that their own evil impulses are their best guides, and that tying themselves to any given code of conduct would be limiting their own ability to realize their depraved wishes. They do not get along with anyone who tries to instill any kind of order over the Chaotic Evil character, believing these people to be restricting their freedom; Chaotic Evil characters often focus very strongly on their own individual rights and freedoms, and will strongly resist any form of oppression of themselves.
Examples of Neutral Evil villains:
- The Alpha Bitch (when not Lawful Evil).
- The more self-centered Amoral Attorney
- Villainous versions of Beneath the Mask
- The more focused and less chaotic versions of the Blood Knight.
- The more villainous Byronic Heroes go here.
- Some examples of The Caligula. (When not Chaotic Evil).
- Con Man: Those who aren't Chaotic Evil
- Many villainous Combat Pragmatists.
- Cruella to Animals
- Villainous versions of Deadly Doctor, (under no form of oath, rule or any medical standards.)
- Many Dirty Cowards
- The Dragon, if not Lawful Evil
- Extreme examples of Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Evil Chancellors who use illegal means to gain power.
- The Evil Debt Collector
- The classic Evil Overlord when not Lawful Evil for example, Skeletor, Voldemort, Emperor Palpatine.
- Feminism (When done wrong.)
- Cases of Hero Syndrome (falls under Type 3)
- Knight Templars who aren't Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil (Type 3)
- Les Collaborateurs
- Mad Scientists that turn into Evilutionary Biologists
- Most Magnificent Bastards
- Most villainous examples of The Chessmaster
- Many Nietzsche Wannabes
- Most of the more amoral Professional Killers who are Only in It For the Money: Hitmen, most more sinister mercenaries, and most evil Bounty Hunters.
- Most Psychos For Hire, when they're not Chaotic Evil
- Can be either Red or Blue Oni, depending on personal preferences.
- The Religion of Evil
- Tragic Villains (Often with crueler, darker beginnings than Lawful Evil because sometimes life isn't fair.)
- Trolls (the truly malicious kind)
- Some Omnicidal Maniacs
- Many Card Carrying Villains
- Many Classic Villains
- The Vamp
- The "Ego" character in an evil Freudian Trio
- The Starscream
- Most organized Serial Killers
- The Sociopath: Those who aren't Chaotic Evil.
- The Barnum
- The Quisling
- Evil Poachers
- Evil Vigilante Men
- War for Fun and Profit
- Yandere (more severe cases than typical Chaotic Evil behaviour.)
Others, such as Complete Monster or the Big Bad, can vary between Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil.
Expect any Neutral Evil state to be Mordor, and a Neutral Evil city the Wretched Hive. Neutral Evil characters are likely to be Unfettered. If they are, they can also be the most lethal kind of villain, as the most extreme kind of neutral evil (not Chaotic Evil like one might think) is what gave rise to the concept of the Omnicidal Maniac (though most Omnicidal Maniacs tend to slide into Chaotic Evil by the end). Many Corrupt Corporate Executives are Neutral Evil Jerkasses in charge of Lawful Evil MegaCorps — it's easier to get ahead in business when you cheat. Unlike a Lawful Evil CCE who'd fly into a rage over somebody else's infractions, Neutral Evil sorts rarely care (as long as they themselves stay ahead) — a suitably Affably Evil Neutral Evil businessperson might even applaud a fellow cheater's "initiative."
Examples of Neutral Evil include:
When dealing with the examples of specific characters, remember that assigning an alignment to a character who doesn't come with one is pretty Subjective Tropes. If you've got a problem with a character being listed here, it probably belongs on the discussion page. There will be no Real Life examples under any circumstances; it just invites an Edit War.
On works pages: Character Alignment is only to be used in works where it is canonical, and only for characters who have alignments in-story. There is to be no arguing over canonical alignments, and no Real Life examples, ever.
Anime and Manga
- Ryo Narushima from Shamo
- Most characters in Black Lagoon are of this alignment — living in a world as violent as theirs, both a tolerance and an occasional willingness to do evil to come out on top is practically a necessity. Revy, Mr. Chang, Shenhua, Sawyer the Cleaner and Eda are the most prominent Neutral Evil characters.
- The Godhand from Berserk (with the exception of Void, who is Lawful Evil), and many of their Apostles, who view humans as little more than toys for their own amusement. Griffith himself steps into this territory during his moment of depravity as Femto during the Eclipse.
- Dragon Ball:
- Piccolo started off as the Big Bad, until Raditz first appeared and outmatched him. Piccolo decided to join Goku in defeating him only because Goku was as strong as or maybe even stronger than him, and to keep Raditz from taking over the world, which he planned on doing. Of course, in training Goku's son, Gohan for the other two Saiyans, he starts to diverge from his evil nature, leading to a full on Heel Face Turn when he sacrifices his life to save Gohan.
- Vegeta in the Namek saga. He spends most of the saga as a Villain Protagonist until joining Krillin and Gohan to fight the Ginyu Force. However, he's only joining them because they're the only other people who could possibly help them, and made it very clear that he was still planning on killing them and stealing the Dragon Balls. Of course, thanks to circumstances, he eventually goes through Heel Face Turn.
- Frieza is absolutely of this alignment. He is an utterly selfish Galactic Conqueror whose modus operandi is taking over a planet, cleansing it clean of life and selling it to the highest bidder; though he is the ruler of The Empire it doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than making him more money, glory and power. He is a Bad Boss of the worse sort who once blew up an entire world of his elite warrior race because he heard a rumour that they might become strong enough to defeat him, and his goal is to achieve Immortality so he can be the strongest in the universe forever.
- Death Note:
- Light Yagami falls into this late in the series. While his original motivation may have been to punish criminals and create a perfect utopia with himself as a god, by the end he's been reduced to merely killing the people that he personally dislikes.
- Mello fits this trope, as well. He is devoted to accomplishing the Lawful Neutral L's goals via his own methods (which include taking over the Mafia). Mello later transitions to a Chaotic Neutral, after meeting with Near.
- Misa, as well. She is willing to do anything to gain Light's trust and love to her.
- One could make a strong case for Ryuk falling into this category, as while many take his apathy towards the sides of the conflict for True Neutral, there's still the fact he dropped the titular Artifact of Doom into the human world purely For the Evulz, and at the end of the story, murders Light when it's made impossible for him to continue killing.
- Naruto:
- Sasuke Uchiha started out Lawful Neutral, became Neutral Good after becoming part of Team 7, going into True Neutral when he abandoned Konoha and sought out Orochimaru's help, but after Madara Uchiha told him the truth about the destruction of the Uchiha clan, and he subsequently attacked the Five Kage Summit, to exact revenge on the whole village of Konoha for his family's death, he firmly established himself as Neutral Evil.
- Zabuza Momochi was originally as cold and callous you'd expect from a villain of this type. He saw all ninja as tools for war and profit, even Haku who idolized him was no different. As his Heel Face Turn begun, Zabuza in the end was brought to tears from not only his selfishness. But also from witnessing the only person who cared about him die.
- Kakuzu, whose only goal is profit, and Sasori, who wishes to make as many puppets as possible to establish the immortality of his art, also fit this alignment.
- The Hidden Sound Village (Otogakure) is the only village that is, not actually made for habitants but instead a variety of secret labs, prisons and hideouts stocked with all manner of freakshows, Orochimaru experimented on. The only reason why this location hasn't been obliterated yet, is mostly to house valuable and likely forbidden research. Later on however, following the Heel Face Turn of Orochimaru , Otogakure gets established as an official civilization.
- Tobi and Kabuto Yakushi, as well. Madara Uchiha too.
- Vicious from Cowboy Bebop.
- Redda of Mon Colle Knights.
- Akihiro Kurata from Digimon Savers.
- Yujiro Hanma from Baki the Grappler. He wavers more between Chaotic Evil and Chaotic Neutral in the sequels. He is excessively cruel and the reasons for his cruelty are sometimes just as excessively flimsy, but he'll also stay out of the "good guys"' way if he doesn't feel like fighting them or even help if he's got personal stakes in their fights.
- Mai-Otome:
- Tomoe Marguerite has this alignment written all over her. She is extremely vicious and selfish, to the point of not caring who gets hurt or dies because of her schemes, and will either play by the rules or break them outright. It doesn't matter which, as long as she gets away with it and gets what she wants: Shizuru's love. She becomes increasingly Chaotic Evil as time goes on.
- Several of the antagonistic Hime become this later on in Mai-HiME. Their allegiances typically lie with themselves and they are willing to hurt others in order to advance their own agendas.
- The Big Bad of the manga, Sergay initially appears loyal to the real Mashiro even after being exposed as a villain, only to dispose of her when she's no longer useful and attempt to destroy the world.
- Gundam franchise — again — is a good source for examples.
- Famously Char's original alignment is still debated. Being evil without question, his balance of being a proud soldier but killing friends and superiors to revenge his father would put him in NE alignment.
- Manipulative Bastard and The Chessmaster Paptimus Scirocco in Zeta Gundam. He will betray anyone and break any oath to fulfill his objectives, but can play along with his "superiors" for as long as needed.
- Glemmy Toto from Gundam ZZ fits this alignment as well, considering he is The Starscream of the series.
- G Gundam has the secret main villain Major Ulube is planning to rule the Earth sphere with Devil Gundam. Putting him in lawful or chaotic is not really possible, so he's probably best left here.
- Wang Liu Mei from Gundam 00 will aid whoever can be useful to her goal of changing the world into a place that suits her desires, and elevate herself into an higher being akin to the Innovators, and at the same time will sacrifice anything or anyone she deems necessary. She has loyalty to no one but herself, not even to her own brother Hong Long, whose death only elicited the most minute emotional response from her.
- Muruta Azrael of Gundam Seed. A Complete Monster and Smug Snake whose desire is to slaughter every Coordinator in existence while gaining as much political influence and money as possible. His successor, Lord Djibril, started here, but devolved into Chaotic Evil as the events of the series turned against him. Djibril's Tykebombs, the Extended, are likely Neutral Evil as well: sure they're being forced into fighting, but Sting and Auel at least would cheerfully do it anyway.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
- Jail Scaglietti may be a Giggling Villain Mad Scientist, but unlike Precia, he's kept his sanity where it counts. He's not prone to abusing his minions for no reason for one, and he will happily play by the rules of his employers... that is, until he's deemed them too obstructive to his goals.
- It's argued by some fans that Precia, with her selfish desires that nonetheless were not actively thought up to cause death/destruction, plus her love of discipline (which implies a bit or order), fits this alignment better than she does Chaotic Evil. This topic has caused Flame War arguments.
- Bleach:
- Mayuri Kurotsuchi certainly counts in this area as a Mad Scientist of the worst caliber. Although he serves the Soul Society (and seems to have no interest whatsoever in the Big Bad's evil plan), he shows very little care for standards and is willing to bend (or outright break, if he can get away with it) the rules "For Science!". Mayuri is an example of an effective Neutral Evil character on the good guys team done right; all he wants is research, and will kill anyone he has to to get it and that's it. He won't backstab, didn't even backstab Urahara even when Urahara informed him that all that stood between him and being the leader of 12th Division was his own death, because Mayuri was getting what he wanted anyway. A curious case of an Affably Evil character who isn't Affably Evil.
- Grimmjow Jaggerjack. Yes, he is under Aizen's command, but he holds no loyalty to him beyond the fact that Grimmjow himself is not strong enough to take him down (which is a great irritation to said arrancar). He goes against orders on a number of occasions, including going so far as to break Orihime out of her prison and sealing Ulquiorra into a pocket dimension temporarily just so he can have his showdown with Ichigo.
- Big Bad Sosuke Aizen shows himself to be definitely this. He has freely admitted to being unbound by any type of honor, law, morality, or even decency. Everything, including (read: especially) his own underlings, are pawns used to achieve his own goals. Naturally, he believes this makes him the only viable candidate to become the world's new God. While he may have used the political system on his behalf for an unspecified amount of time, even years. He did not have a plan for bettering people or order, or society, it was just a selfish lust for power, and to become "God", not to rule, but because as he described it, the seat has been empty for a while, so he would take it, aka be the strongest being in existence. He has no loyalty to his minions, they are all basically dead at the end of his arc, some directly or indirectly because of him, he just views them as tools to further his ambition.
- The two most recent Big Bads, Kugo Ginjo and Shukuro Tsukishima qualify as well.
- Neuro from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro. His motives may benefit humanity in the short term, but this is somewhat spoiled by the fact that every time he saves humans from outside forces, he is essentially saving them in hope that they will kill each other some day, and create a puzzle. And yet, he's not actively Chaotic, either, preferring to manipulate law rather than destroy it.
- Abe no Kaii from Lone Wolf and Cub. Notable because he's the only major non-lawful character in the story, and his total inability to follow Bushido makes him stick out like a sore thumb.
- Enishi Yukishiro, the Big Bad of Rurouni Kenshin's Jinchu arc is willing to use anyone and anything to get his revenge on Kenshin for his sister's death. To him nothing else matters except that.
- Sartorius, The Dangerously Genre Savvy 2nd Big Bad from Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
- In Ranma One Half:
- Nabiki Tendo practically embodies the definition, as she employs Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil depending on convenience and entertainment, but others would argue that she more readily embraces Chaotic Evil. Egotistic, fickle, manipulative, dishonourable, sadistic, utterly amoral, willing to do pretty much anything for money, and completely uncaring who she hurts or how badly she hurts them in pursuit of it. Some of her more notable tricks have included selling Ranma off as a slave, framing him for rape, bankrupting her family to satisfy her own pride (or just buy some stuff she wants), becoming a willing accomplice in a gambling house that's swindling children, selling out anyone stupid enough to hire her, blackmailing anyone in love with her, and threatening Ranma's life so she can extort money from him. What makes things worse is that it usually only takes a few thousand yen for her to go overboard (she literally keeps a jar of 1-Yen coins, but can also make quite a profit from her blackmail victims, the sheer amount of risque images or prints she sells, and additionally invests in stocks), and she's the biggest Karma Houdini in the series.
- Shampoo dips mostly into this alignment in the manga, given her tendency to cheerfully employ manipulation, bullying, or brainwashing, and most notably her proclaimed philosophy of killing any obstacle in her path. However, she generally only employs it against romantic rivals, and only acts on it when she can get away with it without alienating Ranma (such as Akane having been kidnapped, so it would appear the kidnapper had done it), under desperate situations (the wedding), or in fighting situations towards women not sufficiently connected to Ranma (Nabiki, Hinako, Ukyo). She also opted to erase Akane's memory of Ranma in their first fight, but when this didn't work, tried to go through with it, and agreed to let Ranma handle Hinako rather then actually live up to the Kiss of Death. She can also manipulate or put Ranma through sadistic games for the fun of it, and has admitted herself that she will try to brainwash him into loving her if she comes across some rare magical item. In the anime, though, she falls more into Chaotic Neutral territory; many of her evil actions are toned down from the manga (for example, in the Love Pill Bracelet story, she doesn't try to interfere with Ranma's attempts to keep Happosai away from Akane) or even changed outright into something positive (being willing to let him go back to Akane, giving him a lift there, and giving him the Instant Nanniichuan after a little teasing in the anime, as opposed to having to be paralyzed, manipulated, get it stolen, and showing up to try and make the fight go sour in the manga), and she is generally given a more positive characterization.
- Kodachi Kuno may either be this or Chaotic Stupid. She has no moral qualms at all when something she wants is on the line. When Kodachi is first introduced to the series, it's revealed that she has an established practice of ambushing her potential challengers before the competition and beating them up. She also routinely uses paralytic and soporific poisons, on enemies, allies, and even family alike, has literally hunted potential "boyfriends" like animals since kindergarten, views normal people as "bugs", and was entirely willing to attack/potentially kill bystanders during a contest with a rival. It is very arguable that her rampant flamboyant insanity severely mitigates this however. In the anime continuity, she is shown to actually care about her family, has saved the Tendo family from bankruptcy, and can act perfectly normal and ladylike at times, so here she may be more Chaotic Neutral.
- Mousse, spends at least the first half of the manga series as vaguely Neutral Evil, dividing his time between work, begging Shampoo for a date, and trying to cut Ranma to ribbons (in the belief that this will impress Shampoo enough to fall in love with him). He is also not above kidnapping Akane or setting traps to gain the advantage, often neither thinks nor cares about potential harm to bystanders, and is quite willing to attack his rival when the latter is severely weakened (Hiryu Shoten Ha arc), or through unguarded subterfuge (Taro arc). He is incredibly loyal and dedicated towards Shampoo however, despite all the abuse that she heaps upon him, and does not actively try to kill anyone except Ranma. As the series progresses, though, he saves Ranma's life to return a favour, is no longer shown actually attempting to kill his rival, rescinds his most underhanded tactics, and in the final arc is shown as being unwilling to brainwash Shampoo into loving him when given the chance, so at this point he apparently manages to climb up to Chaotic Neutral.
- Fate Averruncus of Mahou Sensei Negima. It's currently unknown what his true goals are, but there isn't much he's not willing to do for it, including taking out multiple gate ports and framing Negi for it, petrifying * permanently* anyone he sees as an obstacle (including non-fighters like Nodoka and Konoka), kidnapping those he sees as crucial to his plans, and not-so-subtly threatening an entire city full of innocents when meeting Negi.
- One Piece:
- A Neutral Evil organization being served by the Lawful Neutral Marines; while the Marines run the gamut from Akainu's Lawful Evil to Smoker's Lawful Good, with a great many Lawful Neutral marines balancing it out, the World Government that commands the Marines has two goals and only two goals; remaining in absolute control of the world that has no choice except them or the pirates, and making sure that the many skeletons in their closet stay there. To this end, the World Government is a patron of the at least partially pirate-run Slave Trade, has civilians and children (pregnant women and babies not exempt!) massacred to keep their secrets under wraps or try to suppress a notorious pirate's bloodline. Worse, however, is that the World Government is fully willing to actually obstruct the Marines from doing their jobs if it serves their own ends, such as hushing up warnings that Impel Down was destroyed, releasing the worst criminals in the world out in massive numbers out of fear that it would hurt their reputation. Sengoku does not seem pleased when he realizes that the government he's responsible for protecting is a lot more interested in keeping its reputation clean than it is in protecting people from the various Complete Monster pirates now free to pillage and rape in secret.
- Quite a few of the lesser East Blue pirates like Bluejam, Alvida, Buggy, Kuro, Don Krieg & Arlong, some of the Seven Warlords of the Sea like Sir Crocodile, Gekko Moriah & Blackbeard Leans more on Chaotic Evil based off Marineford, though, at least Capone Bege of the Supernovas and those bureaucrats who use the system to their advantage like Wapol & Spandam all share the badge of Neutral Evil.
- Code Geass has Luciano Bradley, the Knight of Ten. He serves a Lawful Evil empire solely because it gives him opportunities to kill without consequences. More notable is V. V., who in spite of his goal he shares with his brother, Charles, to rid the world of lies, is deceitful in his goals, even towards Charles himself, most of all in that he murdered Marianne. After one lie too many, Charles takes V. V.'s code and leaves him to die.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Sociopathic Soldier Zolf J. Kimbley goes along with the military's genocide in Ishbal, but chooses to keep the Philosopher's Stone they lend him to test it out, killing the people who know he has it. His loyalty to the homunculi is questionable at best, given that his primary motivation is to see whether they or humanity survive. In the end, he betrays Greed in the first anime so that he can return to the military and Pride in the manga when the latter hypocritically goes against his idea that homunculi are superior to humans. He personally admits his views are at odds with society, and says that because he knows they are, he's gotten by through pretending to be normal.
- Among the homunculi, Pride in the manga comes across this way — he is really loyal to Father, but he likes senseless cruelty for its own sake a bit too much to qualify as Lawful Evil.
- Big Bad Dante was this in the first anime, arranging a conspiracy over the course of centuries whose ultimately goals essentially came down to achieving eternal youth for herself and screwing over those she had a grudge against.
- Sniper from Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin is scheming to take control of the entire pack for purely selfish reasons, and will stop at nothing to realize his goals, going as far as killing his former allies if they stand in his way. He's seen betraying his allies and is more than once trying to start conflicts to weaken both sides so he can more easily take over. He holds little to no regard for his allies lives, and will abandon them as soon as they can no longer help him further his agenda. He also cheats and lies at his own discretion.
- Some members of the Rozencreutz Orden from Trinity Blood, but most predominantly, the leader, Cain Nightroad.
- Doctor from Black Cat. The only Complete Monster in the series, who follows the Big Bad not to change the world, but to satiate his lust for knowledge.
- The Gankutsuou's version of The Count of Monte Cristo.
- Walter C. Dornez of Hellsing.
- Jerkass Woobie Depraved Homosexual Rune Kodaria and his Goth Doji Jealous from Karakuridouji Ultimo.
- Complete Monster Takao Hiyama, Enfant Terrible Reisuke Houjo, Manipulative Bitch Tsubaki Kasugano, Beastmaster Karyuudo Tsukishima and Vigilante Man Yomotsu Hirasaki from Mirai Nikki.
- Elfen Lied:
- The Unknown Man
- Director Kakuzawa, whose sole concern was wiping out humanity and creating a new race out of his own descendants.
- The Unknown Man
- The Caligula Delphine Eraclea from Last Exile.
- Sociopathic Soldier and Empty Shell Zaied from Full Metal Panic is this. As long as he's on the winning side he doesn't care who he works for or what they want him to do.
- The Band of Seven and Hakudoshi from Inuyasha.
- Also, Yura of the Hair.
- Shion Izumi from Gantz. He'll kill anyone to get back to the game, where he'll kill aliens and follow the rules or break them.
- Lady Jagara from Wolfs Rain.
- Ragyo Kiryuin from Kill La Kill.
- My Hero Academia: Despite being considered the second-greatest hero in Japan, Endeavor is a self-obsessed glory hound who abused his family so he could one day claim that his son surpassed his longtime rival All Might. Even his heroics seem motivated less by a desire to do good or enforce the law and more the possibility of bolstering his reputation. He later starts shifting away from this alignment after All Might loses the last of his power and leaves him at Number One, where he takes a long, hard look at himself and realizes just how horrible he's been.
- All For One the Bigger Bad is most definitely this alignment. He is the Arch-nemesis of All Might, willing to use other villains to exact his cause while he himself recovers in the shadows. Ironically, not too long after All For One's defeat, All Might himself was gradually getting weaker. While All Might stands for the light of justice, All For One contrasts as the darkness of villainy.
Comic Books
- Wonder Woman's archenemy Ares wants nothing other than endless war and he'll use any means to achieve it.
- Loki from both Marvel and DC comics. Lying, deceitful, manipulative, and cares less about power and glory than about making Thor and the other Aesir miserable and will engage in convoluted plans to make this possible.
- The Kingpin, one of the Marvel Universe's Magnificent Bastards, has no compunctions about ordering murder, kidnapping, or arson against anyone who tries to stand up to him, and is quite content to enrich himself off the victims of his criminal empire, but he'll also exploit whatever legal loopholes he can to make sure the long arm of the law can't catch him.
- His longtime associate and go-to Psycho for Hire Bullseye also fits, and serves as an example of a Neutral Evil character who is in it purely For the Evulz- he loves killing, pure and simple, both the challenge of a difficult kill and the sheer thrill of committing them. He gets paid a fortune as he is one of the worlds premier Career Killers but he barely spends any of it, and his oft repeated comment is that he has more money than even resident evil billionaire Norman Osborn (see below).
- Big Bad Gideon Gordon Graves of the Scott Pilgrim series. A Jerkass who's two goals are 1. Ruin Scott's life by manipulating the 6 other Evil Ex's and 2. Capture Ramona and keep her for himself, forever. The embodiment of malice, indeed.
- Marvel's Kang the Conqueror, while a builder of empires and a commander of armies, has shown to care little for their management and is obsessed with conquest, fighting, and warfare more out of a desire for the thrill it brings than any value he may place on them. Once he obtains something, he tends to lose interest in it, and battles The Avengers for the challenge rather than hatred. His dragon Baltag was Lawful Evil and turned on Kang when he made an exception to their code of honor in sparing a princess's life who had defied them in the past when Kang was in love with her. It has been shown that Kang will learn the value of statesmanship, proper management, and negotiation which will make him lean to more Lawful alignments, eventually becoming the Lawful Neutral Immortus.
- The Comedian of Watchmen is of this alignment. He works entirely for the US government, but this is shown repeatedly to be more of a means to satisfy his own bloodlust than out of a sense of devotion to his country.
- Doctor Sivana, Mad Scientist extraordinaire and archnemesis of Captain Marvel, has been described as a cross between Lex Luthor and the Joker in terms of persona. He always has some evil scheme that he's dead-set on, but he most decidedly does not play well with others.
- Lex Luthor himself has been fairly Neutral Evil since the day he was written. He uses his brilliant mind and vast financial resources in a ruthless quest for money and power, exploits the legal system for all its worth but has extensive criminal activities, and has repeatedly demonstrated he doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself, concerned about others only insofar as they can serve his own ends and how much they recognise how awesome he is. His single, overriding obsession is the destruction of Superman, because Superman dared to steal his thunder and glory by dint of his existence, and for that Lex is hell-bent on humiliating and killing him.
- Green Lantern villain Agent Orange, the keeper of the Orange Light of avarice, is practically the living embodiment of selfishness. He kills other ring-users and literally steals their identities, crafting Orange Lantern constructs in their image to be his slaves. His only motivation is to hold onto what he has and take ever more from others.
- Deadpool in his first appearances before turning (becoming) a Sociopathic Hero.
- In Ultimate Marvel, Deadpool goes from just plain screwy to racist, murdering, scumbag who hunts mutants on television for sport
- Sangreco from Mesmo Delivery It's implied that he may actually be a demon or an agent of the devil.
- Bluebeard and Goldilocks from Fables. Bluebeard lives comfortably in Fabletown and appears to be a legitimate citizen, but in secret, he hoards magic objects, blackmails his fellow Fables, and forces the leaders of the city to bow and scrape for his annual donations, up until Prince Charming kills him. Goldilocks presents herself as an idealistic revolutionary, but is really only concerned with gaining power as governments topple and people die around her.
- Wallenquist in Sin City is a simple business man that never takes anything personal... he just so happens to be The Don. The Roarks and Colonel almost fit this trope they have varying degrees of For the Evulz, resulting in them being a bit "purer" in their evilness.
- The Anti-Monitor, ultimate leader of the Lawful Evil Sinestro Corps. He started off completely conquering his home universe and made a chosen people who worshiped him as a God-King with some structure of rank (the Shadows and the Thunderers) and privilege. While his goal is often stated to be the destruction of every positive matter universe, his actual goal has always been to rule an anti-matter universe with the power provided from the destruction of the other positive matter universes. The Anti-Monitor has never been shown to use deception and always does what he says he is going to, even if it is limited "You will die." or "I won't kill you yet," and has even offered to generously reward the minions that serve him (Psycho-Pirate was offered control of a world, Hank Henshaw was offered oblivion) if they will help him meet his goal. However, he is completely solipsistic and kills inhabited planets in his universe to gain more power.
- The Joker can slide to this best shown with his insanity defense. Some early depictions of the Joker portray him as this, a criminal who is out for money and is just a little quirky in his use of gag-themed weapons. It was only in recent years that writers leaned him towards Chaotic Evil by emphasizing his insanity.
- Post embracing his supervillain lineage, Wesely of Wanted does plenty of things For the Evulz, including a rape, killing every person who ever slighted him, and killing an entire police station just for kicks. However, he gets along much better with the relatively restrained, Lawful Evil members of the Fraternity than he does with Mr. Rictus, who is For the Evulz as his sole motivation in life (i.e. Chaotic Evil). What's true of Wesley is also true of his father, the Killer, and his/his father's girlfriend, The Fox.
- Norman Osborn is neutral evil, fulfilling his needs by using both legal and illegal means, desiring mostly respect, money, and power, though hampered by his numerous mental health problems. When he is the Green Goblin, he becomes Chaotic Evil. When he presents himself as Iron Patriot he is Lawful Evil. But the most evil and effective of the three is prime Osborn's personality, which is not restricted by madness or rules.
- Doctor Doom will ally with almost anybody to advance his own goals. He's allied with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and pretty much every Marvel villain in existence with the exception of Red Skull (who even The Joker wanted nothing to do with).
Fanfiction
- In the Mass Effect roleplay, "The Council Era", krogan adviser Halak Marr classifies as a neutral evil, being that he is fully willing to outside the boundaries of law in order to further his cause of eliminating the rest of the galactic population, thus rendering the krogan as a Master Race. The Overlord that he used as an Unwitting Pawn, on the other hand, was Lawful Neutral, and his Worthy Opponent, the Villain Protagonist, is Lawful Evil.
- Warren Weatherly and his infamous son-in-law and nemesis Augustus Raven from Scooby-Doo! Savage Retribution both count. The former cares primarily about power, but there's enough pure sadism and cruelty in his motivation to shift him here from Lawful Evil while Warren's infamous son-in-law Augustus seems to live his life as one giant act of pure sadism, selfishness, and cruelty.
- Janice Weatherly, the infamous sister-in-law and archenemy of Warren, Kyle and Samantha Weatherly is driven by selfish and greedy desire for ultimate power and eternal life through Your Soul is Mine!. In Scooby-Doo! Nightmare in Purple, she joins forces with the Chaotic Evil Principal Cinch in order to betray her second brother-in-law Kyle Weatherly (Samantha and Gary's older brother), raise an army of undead Imperial Japanese soldiers, and open a portal to the heavens in order to give Janice a steady supply of souls to feast on forever. But in the end, both Janice and Principal Cinch betray each other so they don't have to share ultimate power. Throughout the series, Janice is a Manipulative Bitch who will go to any lengths to survive and further her own ambitions without giving scant regard to anyone else.
Film
- Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars. True, he created the Lawful Evil Empire, but he did so through careful manipulation of the system and various extralegal means, and the only real rule in the Empire is "don't piss off the Emperor". He can adjust even the most carefully-laid plans to fit a changing situation, but always keeps his goal in mind: POWERRRRRRRR! UNLIMITED POWERRRRRRRR!
- Supreme Leader Snoke soon takes over Palpatine's role. Fans theorise that he is a character either aforementioned in the franchise before, or a completely new villain with an immense connection to the Dark Side. Snoke is mysterious even towards his allies, his power is unknown but his influence to Kylo Ren may suggest darker secrets.
- Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity, who by her own admission is "rotten to the heart". Her best description would be the human version of a praying mantis.
- Harry Lime is an Affably Evil and charismatic example of this alignment.
- Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean sails the seas, recruiting any lost sailors into his crew so they can . . . sail the seas, recruiting any lost sailors into his crew. Sometimes though he'll execute them, depending on his mood (Chaotic behavior). However, he does engage in carefully worded agreements in order to recruit members of his crew (Lawful Evil). In this way Davy Jones appears to balance out to be Neutral Evil. He's less than pleased when he suddenly has to obey the rules of the Lawful Evil Lord Beckett.
- Carl Denham, the greedy filmmaker from King Kong.
- Col. Landa aka 'The Jew Hunter' from Inglourious Basterds would appear to be Lawful Evil but has a chaotic streak: choking von Hammersmark to death, letting Shosanna live on a whim and ultimately sells out Hitler to save his own skin and be richly rewarded by the US government, landing him here in Neutral Evil Land.
- The eponymous Strangers. They only chose Liv Tyler and the other guy to torment because they were home.
- Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. Keeping the rules, breaking the law, he doesn't care as long as it gives him an advantage.
- Yuri Orlov, the arms-dealing Villain Protagonist of Lord of War.
- Agent Smith was part of the Lawful Evil agents as part of the programme. After his return he seems to be neither part of the lawful nor chaotic elements of the matrix and is more in it for himself.
- As debatable as...everything is in the film, one thing is for sure: by the end, Daniel Plainview is only looking out for Daniel Plainview.
- The mysterious biker in Raising Arizona is a Psycho for Hire, much like Anton Chigurh in The Coen Brothers' later No Country for Old Men but seems perfectly willing to work for Nathan Arizona — as long as he gets to inflict as much pain as he wants and still collect a paycheck.
- Michael Corleone by the end of the first Godfather film. Unlike his father, he considers selling drugs, breaking peace talks and offing family members to be viable options.
- Biff Tannen from Back to The Future is almost a textbook example of a Neutral Evil character who would do anything to further himself if he could. The only sort of moral sensibility in his personality is shown after he gets beaten up by George in the first film, after which he reluctantly stops being a jerk towards him only because it's in his personality. That is not to say he has any moral standards, however, because when we see the 1985 as altered by Biff getting the sports almanac, he's even worse, even willing to kill and blackmail to maintain his status.
- Max Cady of Cape Fear uses both Lawful and decidedly un-lawful means against this target- at one point he successfully sues for a restraining order against the hero.
- Carl Showalter, one of the two main bad guys in The Coen Brothers' Fargo. He cares about himself above all else, and unlike his more unpredictable partner Gaear Grimsrud, is happy to work within the rules when he thinks that's what will benefit him the most. Unfortunately for him it turns out he's more Smug Snake than Magnificent Bastard.
- Frank Mc Cabe in Desperate Measures is a complete sociopath and multiple murderer who acts purely out of self interest. He never undergoes a Heel Realization due to his "It's All About Me" mentality, and it's heavily implied by the final scene that he escapes anyway. He does have one Pet the Dog moment with the boy with leukemia he took hostage who needs his bone marrow to survive. The boy is ready to give up and die because it seems there is no hope, when Mc Cabe tells him the only way to have hope in the face of death is to keep fighting and never give up.
- Dino Velvet and Eddie Poole from Eight Milimeter.
- Depraved Bisexual Catherine Trammel from Basic Instinct.
- Amanda Young and Mark Hoffman from the Saw franchise.
- Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2. He doesn't care about anyone ore anything except how to accomplish his goals of absolute power.
- Emperor Commodus as depicted in Gladiator.
- Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket is an infamous character for his abusive discipline and unrestrained lewd remarks. Even by drill sergeant standards, Hartman goes overboard in his treatments, not showing a lick of care towards even his own battalion. As the film begins climax, Hartman's attitude begins to take its toll on the young soldiers, leading to a period of most unfortunate events.
- Bane from The Dark Knight Rises was a beast of a villain. He was both immensely strong and intelligent enough to break not only Gotham but also Batman, both physically and philosophically.This interpretation of Bane was a firm believer of Liberation, that the power of the people (and criminals) were suppressed by the rich and political alike. Ultimately it was his forces that took over the city, dealing out merciless executions to those they felt deserved it most.
Literature
- Achilles from Orson Scott Card's Shadow series. He will do anything from betraying countries, kidnapping, and starting wars just so long as it means he'll get rid of those who saw him when he was weak.
- Lord Foul from Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is extremely evil and likes to use both lawful and chaotic tactics and minions to further his goals.
- Heathcliff, the Villain Protagonist & The Chessmaster of Wuthering Heights.
- The sea-witch from Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid. Unlike her Disney incarnation she has no interest in seizing the throne from the king of the sea and hence does not deliberately manipulate things so that the eponymous mermaid will fail to win the heart of the prince on becoming human: she just accepts the payment of her voice and turns her into one with a potion that has numerous painful side-affects, leaving the heroine to succeed or fail depending on what she does.
- Grendel and the dragon from Beowulf. (Grendel's mother less so, as she slots more into the category of Lawful Evil.)
- Nicolae Carpathia, Leon Fortunato and much of the Global Community of Left Behind become this. They are not Lawful enough to make a self-sustaining Evil Empire, and yet aren't Chaotic enough to completely disregard order and structure. People have rank and privilege, but the change-over rate is high. All of them lie continuously, oppress and back stab others while flattering their higher-ups, are willing to kill and torture without hesitation and with zeal and have no real overall goals other than to obtain and maintain their power. Their society eventually falls apart because no one is doing any necessary maintenance work, and yet Carpathia insists on continuous worship of himself and the obedience to his every whim.
- In a weird, passive sort of way, Cowslip and the others from his warren, since, whilst they care about enlarging their population, they will say nothing about the snares being hidden in the fields to any visiting rabbits, but are equally accepting of any of their own getting caught and will instantly behave as though anyone killed in that manner had never existed, scratching or killing any that talk openly about the snares or missing rabbits.
- The Dresden Files:
- Lara Raith is definitely amoral, and has no qualms about sacrificing innocents to achieve her ends (and hell, she survives by eating people's life force), but can alternately help the heroes maintain the balance of power, or threaten to send the entire world spinning off into anarchy, depending on what her agenda is at any given moment.
- Nicodemus walks the line between this and Chaotic Evil, while his wife, Tessa, is plainly Chaotic Evil.
- On the subject of Jim Butcher characters who will stab you in the back as soon as they get a good shot: Meet Lady Macbeth Invidia Aquitaine, of the Codex Alera. She turns on (or attempts to turn on) pretty much everyone over the course of the series, and by Cursor's Fury, you can all but hear the phrase "sudden but inevitable betrayal" going through everyone's heads.
- Harry Potter: The Death Eaters and Voldemort, who are content to work either within or outside of the system, whichever one best helps them achieve their evil goals. Specifically:
- Barty Crouch, Jr. definitely falls here. He is loyal to Voldemort and his goals above all else, and doesn't care how he has to achieve them.
- There are a few other Death Eaters who could arguably fall here, but more likely fall into one of the other evil tropes. Fenrir Greyback makes some steps toward Neutral Evil in Deathly Hallows but overall remains Chaotic Evil, as his goal is still about being a sadist and turning kids into werewolves/killing them; he remains a Psycho for Hire on the fringes of the group, and seems to prefer it that way. The Malfoys are more Lawful Evil; they'll work against the system if they have to, but overall they overwhelmingly prefer being in positions of power, authority and respectability, closer to Lawful Evil. In Draco's case, it's heavily implied that he fancies himself as a lot darker and more sadistic than he actually is, and isn't truly capable of the depth of evil required to be a Death Eater — making him more of a mild Lawful Evil.
- The Slytherin House gets stereotyped here. Historically many dark witches and wizards made their name in this house, most students tend to be mean, arrogant and a bunch of bullies. But the truth is Slytherin has moulded the minds of many spectacular and gifted characters, the sheer devotion to a goal or dream is what this house really stands for. It may be rare to find a nice Slytherin, but being good isn't entirely out of the question.
- Nom Anor of the Star Wars New Jedi Order series was a little less fanatically devoted to his religion as his fellow Yuuzhan Vong, furthering his own agenda sometimes at the expense of others of his species. As a fellow Vong noted "Nom Anor is a consummate infidel. He thinks only of his own ambitions."
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Evil Chancellor Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is pretty much the living incarnation of this trope. Throughout the series, not only does he use and then discard pretty much anyone he come into contact with, but he is also revealed to haveengineered a particularly brutal civil war that resulted in the deaths of millions for no other reason than to get back at his ex-girlfriend for dumping him. Seriously, what an enormous asshole.
- Cersei Lannister also qualifies. She may fancy herself as a Lawful Evil Evil Overlord, but she's really just a self-centered, power-seeking bitch.
- Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird. He sends an innocent man to his death and attempts to murder a child all out of sheer spite, bigotry, and selfishness. He's possibly the ultimate fictional example of the ordinary, everyday evil that any of us may well encounter.
- Tolkien was quite fond of these kinds of villains, it seems:
- Smaug the dragon from The Hobbit.
- Gollum- more so than when he appears in The Hobbit- in The Lord of the Rings. While crazy as hell and not living like anything resembling a person anymore, he's more about weaseling out pity to save his life/obtain his precious than striking fear or making a point. Hence, the only living thing he appears to see as any kind of role model (and his alliance there is somewhat dubious) is the other, more formidable Neutral Evil of the series, Shelob.
- Shelob's mother Ungoliant and- particularly after he goes mad from eating a Silmaril- Carcharoth from The Silmarillion.
- Saruman. He had no scruples whatsoever and he had neither the aspirations of Sauron either — he was completely self-centered and egotistical.
- Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22 is a war profiteer who takes contracts from both sides, including one to blow up his own army base so he can sell his overstock cotton, which he also tries to get rid of by covering it in chocolate and making the other soldiers eat it.
- Graendel, Moghedien, Lanfear, Asmodean, Aginor/Osan'gar, and Ishamael/Moridin of the
ChosenForsaken are all Neutral Evil. Surprisingly few of the other villains in the series are this alignment; a higher than usual amount of villains work within institutions, and, as such, there is a strong inclination towards Lawful Evil amongst the "lesser" villains. - Achimas Welde, a merciless assassin from Boris Akunin's novels The Winter Queen and The Death of Achilles.
- Thénardier of Les Misérables, a selfish, greedy scoundrel who exploits and abuses the main female characters, steals from the dead, cheerfully backstabs anyone he knows for the right price, and in the epilogue becomes a successful slave trader after getting away with his crimes.
- Yarol, the amoral Venusian from North West Smith.
- Some of the more vicious Redwall villains. Predominantly, Slagar, Vilu Daskar, Emperor Ublaz, Zwilt the Shade, Swarrt Sixclaw and Tsarmina.
- Curley from Of Mice and Men, a mean and violent bully who trained as a boxer just to prove he's tough. Though he's described to be shorter than your typical boxer, Curley wasn't afraid to pick a fight. However when he tried to deal with Lennie, it was Curley who'd pay the price.
- Jadis,The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe plays an especially cold-blooded role within the story. With Narnia trapped in an eternal winter, Jadus initially feigned kindness just to manipulate others. However when her true evil nature is revealed, Jadus would declare war and mercilessly kill whoever stood in her way to complete power.
Live Action TV
- Edmund Blackadder in his 3rd incarnation.
- The Master, particularly in the new series, whose motives seem to be an odd blend of revenge against the Doctor, and just because he can and it's a bit of a laugh. This would explain why he dances to pop music while his minions slaughter over half a billion people — Evil is Fun.
- In the same universe, Captain John Hart. He loves to cause chaos and hurt people because he's a cunning, sadistic bastard, but he really enjoys it when he's in charge and there's something in it for him, as he heavily implied in the series 2 finale, "Exit Wounds," when he was coerced into being Gray's Dragon.
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"You're so self-obsessed you thought I'd want to blow up your stupid city, when I could be experiencing seventeen simultaneous pleasures in the Lotus Nebula!" |
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- The Romulans of Star Trek seem to thrive in their Always Neutral Evil society.
- Doctor Smith from Lost in Space. Both the original tv show and the film, though in different ways. His main method of causing trouble is cutting a deal and selling out the other crew members to some Monster of the Week in exchange for wealth, power, or some luxury item or just a trip back to Earth. Needless to say he is a Dirty Coward. The film version is a Card-Carrying Villain who has chosen evil as philosophical choice. When his future self becomes a hideous spider-creature he now wants to rule the Earth and eat its inhabitants.
- Ares of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess is characterized much the same way as Wonder Woman's.
- Alex Krycek from The X-Files will work for a far-reaching conspiracy or a group of terrorists, with little concern for anyone but himself. He also willingly commits acts of violence, murder, and blackmail, all in the name of self-interest.
- As well as a character can fit an alignment in a show like Lost, Benjamin Linus is placed here pretty well. He's ultimately trying to have control of the Island and alter it to his benefit, and although he does join the Losties, he's ultimately using it as a means to an end, and killing whoever gets in his way. Until Season Six, where he begins to atone for his actions, becoming Neutral Good by the end of the series.
- Jubal Early of Firefly tries to paint himself as Lawful Evil, but River deconstructs his facade to reveal that deep down, he's just a sadistic bastard who took his job because he enjoys being paid to hurt people.
- Farscape:
- Scorpius is prepared to do just about anything to take revenge against the Scarrans and ensure the survival of the Sebacean people- in that order. This means that his numerous acts of murder, torture and psychological warfare are balanced neatly by his tendency to Pet the Dog or assist his enemies, should it serve his purpose.
- Rygel tends to be more neutral evil than not. While his conscience occasionally bothers him, those instances are few and far between. Generally he is selfish, willing to abandon or sacrifice his friends if the situation is convenience, and exploits or ignores laws as suits his needs. In general, Rygel will always do what's best for Rygel, and to hell with everyone else.
- Babylon 5:
- The Centauri race fits the "Asshole Alignment" to a tee save for Vir and Vir alone. Even he uses Magnificent Bastard methods to achieve his goals.
- Alfred Bester of the same universe would also fall into this category.
- In fact, both the Vorlon and Shadow races actually fit into this alignment once you've watched the entire story unfold. Both races use respectively lawful and chaotic means to force growth in the younger races. But in the end, their methods are purely incidental as their goal was always to keep the younger races growing and evolving. The evil part comes in later when their goal seemingly changes to control over the younger races like selfish parents dominating their own children.
- Vic Mackey from The Shield might not always appear Neutral Evil. After all, he takes care of his friends and family and, with one notable exception (Terry Crowley), only performs heinous actions towards violent criminals (or at least people he believes to be such). In the end, though, he throws his one remaining friend under the bus, frightens his ex-wife to the point that she seeks witness protection, and arguably drives a former friend to murder/suicide. So... yeah.
- Victor from Burn Notice seems to be headed this way. He has his motives and is methodical and careful, but his manic personality lends a level of chaos to what he does. He describes his motivations as being mostly revenge (and sympathetic) but also he had no real purpose besides that. He just wanted to hurt the people who killed his wife.
- Heroes:
- Arthur Petrelli seems to go here in how he chooses allies from both sides to help achieve his own goals and gladly turns against his own sons to get what he wants.
- Sylar also qualifies, as he is willing to work with anyone one minute and change sides the next to get what he wants...power.
- Samuel Sullivan passes himself off as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but in truth his goals are all based on a petty grudge against Muggles and he's even willing to kill his own True Companions if they turn against him just to get what he wants.
- Stargate SG-1: The entire Goa'uld race is as evil as you can get, so fit well into the Neutral Evil alignment. They're arrogant, egomaniacal, megalomaniacal, power-hungry without the slightest bit of sympathy or conscience. They'll backstab even allies if it is profitable, yet submit themselves against more powerful forces such as the Asgard. There are some exceptions among them though, most notably the Chaotic Evil Anubis and the Lawful Evil Lord Yu.
- Jim Profit.
- Deadwood:
- Cy Tolliver
- Al Swearengen. He regularly conspires to have innocents including a child killed to protect his own interests. He personally murders men without hesitation and even boasts that he could burn down the entire town if he wanted to. Although he does have a personal code of honour, it's also implied that he would remove the law and the system enforcing it if doing so increased his own prosperity.
- Sue Sylvester of Glee is a comic version of this trope; she is almost 100% evil on a show where most characters are pretty conflicted. The fact that she'll use any means necessary to take down Will and the glee club, whether that means going through the principal's authority or putting the elderly nurse in a coma, is frequently played for laughs. Later episodes push her more toward the "evil for the sake of doing evil" kind of Neutral Evil though, as it becomes clear that her cheerleading team may not actually need the money they'd get from the glee club being disbanded, and Sue may just love messing up Will's life for the hell of it.
- Ryan O'Reilly, resident Magnificent Bastard of Oz.
- In Battlestar Galactica Reimagined, a universe populated largely with Well Intentioned Extremists and Knight Templars:
- Number One (aka, John Cavil), stands out as easily the most selfish and egomaniacal villain in the entire series. Neutral Evil, for sure.
- Gaius Baltar (before Character Development) would definitely fall under this trope, as he lives only to serve himself and is utterly self-centered. When secure, he is a Smug Snake; when threatened or in danger, he becomes a sniveling coward. Perhaps his defining moment is when we first meet him: when he sees Caprica being nuked due to his unintentional efforts, he wails in fear; not because billions of people are dying, but because he will be blamed for it.
- Charles Logan of Twenty Four.
- The Ice Truck Killer/Brian Moser of Dexter. Unlike his eponymous fellow Serial Killer Killer and younger brother, Brian has no code and kills mostly for pleasure and encourages Dexter to do the same, starting with Deb.
- Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The entire gang, but especially Dennis, who will only do something if and only if in his best interests to do so.
- In The Cape, Peter Fleming, the Corrupt Corporate Executive in charge of Ark Corporation's expansion into Palm City. He has no particularly morals, ethics, or codes of honor and doesn't hesitate to use legal or illegal means to eliminate threats to his plan to seize complete control of the city. He is naturally opposed by his Neutral Good Foil Vince faraday, who is the series' titular superhero.
- Katherine Pierce of The Vampire Diaries. "Better you than I."
- Regina/the Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time is presented as completely selfish and indifferent to others' well being to the point that she was willing to sacrifice the one person the truly loved and her ability to love in order to guarantee that no one else would have a happy ending.
Newspaper Comics
- Lucy van Pelt from Peanuts.
- The Phantom featured (in at least one story) a worldwide criminal organisation that, emulating vultures, kept an eye on catastrophes and the like and showed up to rob the helpless victims. It didn't even pretend to have a motivation or justification beyond easy gain at the expense of the weak.
- Dogbert. He can never seem to decide whether he wants to take over the world or become the richest being in it. So he's done both several times.
- The King from The Wizard of Id. "He who has the gold, makes the rules" — the rules being do what he says, and don't make him mad. His dungeons are full of the wise and sensible who tried to give him honest advice and frank opinions. And don't joke about his height.
Music
- Voltaire has a song titled "When You're Evil" that pretty much alludes to this trope.
Professional Wrestling
- The Rock in all his Heel runs.
- Those with the Rich Bastard gimmicks such as "Million Dollar Man" Ted Di Biase and John Bradshaw Layfield.
- Edge is a pretty good example of Neutral Evil in action. Always calculating, always scheming, willing to play the numbers game when it suits him, willing to turn on anybody close to him when it suits him, and always, ALWAYS looking for a way to scratch, bite, and claw his way to the top... there's a reason they call him "The Ultimate Opportunist".
Radio
- As soon as he took over the role of main villain, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne from The Goon Show became this alignment. A fair number of plots ("Lurgi Strikes Britain" and "The Spanish Suitcase", for example) were based upon Grytpype pulling off a Zany Scheme to make a fat profit, and leaving Neddie to take the fall.
Tabletop Games
- Examples from Dungeons and Dragons:
- Goblins in the 1st and 2nd editions of the game were Lawful Evil and said in manuals to have a strict pecking order in their culture, but most of the time they were just played as screaming hordes. In 3rd edition, they were changed to Neutral Evil (though individual goblins can be any alignment, naturally).
- Daemons, also known as Yugoloths, are the Neutral Evil answer to the Lawful Evil devils and Chaotic Evil demons. They mostly work either as mercenaries in the war between the demons and devils (they don't care whom to slaughter) or as guardians for mortal summoners--for the right price. With that in mind, the more powerful Yugoloths see themselves as The Chessmaster and view mercenary work as a ploy to make every side dependent on them, and they believe that they can end the war and conquer the world on their own terms when they deem it fit. The distinction between the three groups of fiends is that devils want to own you, demons want to destroy you, and daemons only care about what they can gain from you. One sourcebook (Evil) that contains rules for summoning and bargaining with fiends naturally stresses how incredibly dangerous it is to deal with either demons or devils, as well as giving advice on how to do it — but about daemons it just says that there's no point in even trying.
- Tharizdun used to be filed under Neutral Evil; 4th edition basically asked, "If he wants to destroy everything everywhere, why isn't he Chaotic Evil?" and, failing to come up with an answer, shifted him over to CE.
- "End of All Things" was the defining characteristic of the extreme version of Neutral Evil until 4th Edition. To explain it one way, Chaotic Evil wants to rape and pillage along the way, and enjoys their work. The end of the everything is an incidental side effect to what they do. (Extreme) Neutral Evil just wants everything to cease save for themselves. "Watching the world burn" isn't as important as the world just burning, and the end results thereof. Taking an example from 2nd edition Yugoloth philosophy, Neutral Evil lacks the raw... passion that Chaotic Evil has. Usually.
- Additionally, a number of undead fit the Neutral Evil alignment, more by default than anything else contradicting other rules in having it (mindless or "animal" intelligence creatures normally don't have an alignment because they can't comprehend morality).
- Warhammer 40000 has a few candidates:
- The Dark Eldar may fall here for similar reasons to the drow.
- Slaanesh is the Chaos God who personifies selfishness, with its every thought and purpose bent towards self-satisfaction and new sensations. Its followers are the ultimate hedonists and take this trope to a self-destructive extreme, as pain, defeat and death are all considered new experiences to enjoy.
- T Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines, who follow Tzeenetch, could also qualify. Three things drive them (1) the desire to acquire more knowledge and arcane power for themselves, (2) the lust for vengeance against the Imperium for the destruction of their home-world of Prospero (particularly the Space Wolves), and (3) the need to justify themselves that they were loyal to the Emperor until the Emperor betrayed them. All arguably selfish desires, but still makes them one of the more nobler seeming of the Chaos Space Marines.
- The Necrons. They fight the Chaos Gods, by eradicating every lifeform in the Universe. The basic Necron units could be considered as Lawful Evil, or even Lawful Neutral, but their Gods, the C'Tan just want to eat the universe for their own satisfaction. They do have their distinct personalities and methods, however, which leads to varied alignments. The outsider, gone completely mad from the voices from the other C'Tan he has eaten, is most likely Chaotic Evil. The deceiver, far more methodical, but still very treacherous to the others of his kind, is Neutral Evil. The Void Dragon has presumably manipulated the Adeptus Mechanicus for over ten millennia as their Omnissiah, making him seem more Lawful Evil, while the Nightbringer has been known to spare those who pledge loyalty to it (and thereby agreeing to become a necron), putting him in a more lawful direction too. It should also be noted that the C'Tan are, in all respects, beings of anti-Chaos, thereby putting them in a more lawful perspective as a whole.
- Warhammer Fantasy Battles:
- The Vampire Counts fit into this category by default, but mainly because there are several different types of vampires, with vastly different methods and mannerisms. While there are many who hide amongst the nobles of imperial cities, manipulating them from within, there are also several who are nigh close to hulking, degenerated beasts. This makes them range across the evil alignments more than any other evil army in the game. A perfect example of this is exemplified within the three Carsteins, with the courtly but corrupting Vlad being Lawful Evil, the absolutely mad Konrad being Chaotic Evil and finally the manipulative Mannfred being Neutral Evil.
- The Greenskins — that is, Orcs and Goblins. They are not similarly law-bound and disciplined like Dark Elves. They are simply a ravening horde living off robbing and plundering but not intending to wanton destruction for its own sake. Their society is based on the stronger bullying the weaker and the unscrupulous the gullible. They have two gods, Gork who is brutally cunning, and Mork, who is cunningly brutal
- Manipulative Bastard Chessmaster Nicol Bolas from Magic the Gathering nicely fits this alignment.
- The majority of the Yozis in Exalted. Malfeas is literally incapable of considering other points of view other than his own, and will not tolerate dissension from his absolute rule-by-power. The Ebon Dragon (when he's not being Chaotic Evil) is literally the principle of selfishness and vice, deception and betrayal being his very nature. If Kimbery loves you, she considers you her personal property, and never forgives a slight-ever. Of course, we also have a couple semi-benign examples: Szoreny mainly cares about his own well-being, but is called the "kindest of the Yozis" for a reason, and Oramus just wants out of the prison the Solars made his wings into.
- The Vamp Roodaka of Bionicle.
- Munchkin pretty much enforces a Neutral Evil type of character for a chance at winning. Per the game's mechanics, you're able to benefit from forging (and betraying) alliances, helping (and backstabbing) your buddies, trading (and stealing) treasure, employing (and sacrificing) hirelings... Winning is all about selfish, flexible play.
Theatre
- Macbeth starts as a good man who arguably wouldn't have betrayed his king without the influence of the witches and his wife. But by the time he's had Banquo killed and Macduff's family slain... It's debatable if he's even a good man at the start, as he already seems to be pretty good at unseaming enemies from the nave' to the chops. Lady Macbeth, from the same play also fits Neutral Evil.
- Iago is another good example of the villainous Chessmaster of this alignment.
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Mrs. Lovett. A lot of her actions are done purely out of selfishness, such as baking murder victims into meat pies so she can make some money, but she really crosses the Moral Event Horizon when it turns out Todd's presumed dead wife had been alive the entire time, and she knew.
- The titular The Phantom of the Opera mixes Tragic Villain and Yandere tendencies to create one of the most iconic characters in modern theatre. His obsession with love and acceptance drove to dictate people, though he was twisted, The Phantom had a very poor childhood only able to give himself to the one he desires most.
Video Games
- Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda. In the earlier games, as Ganon, his only goal is to capture the Triforce through violence or subterfuge. In Ocarina of Time, he takes over as Hyrule's king, but his reign seems to consist mainly of reducing the countryside to a charred wasteland and eliminating just about everybody, not crushing them under his boot with ironclad laws, secret police, and other things you'd expect from a Lawful Evil overlord. The Gerudo under his command do seem to have a fairly regimented organization, but all his other minions are just unorganized monsters. In fact, he never seems to actually rule anyone, and the conquest of Hyrule is really just a stepping-stone towards obtaining the Triforce.
- The Baldurs Gate series:
- Jon Irenicus. This being a Dungeons and Dragons game, it is a part of his gameplay stats. He exemplifies an extreme version of the alignment in caring about nothing other than his own goals, displaying a horrifying lack of empathy. (Some versions of him in the game files are technically "Chaotic Good", but you can kind of tell that's not right. It's apparently because they modified those files from Elminster's, because Elminster was almost as high in level as a mage. Scared yet?)
- There's also Broken Bird Viconia deVir. She's having a hard time being unfairly persecuted at every turn for being a drow elf, but she also hasn't actually stopped thinking like drow usually do, merely switching from worshipping the drow goddess of frantic backstabbing and power-grabbing to a human goddess of cold self-interest and cynical denial of love and hope — a remarkably small change.
- A milder example from the first game is Handsome Lech Eldoth, a sleazeball womanizer happy to exploit women for all they're worth.
- And Montaron is a Neutral Evil probable Psycho for Hire.
- Testament from Guilty Gear just wants humanity gone. To that end, he tried to wake up Justice in the first game. Oh, he looks like he mellowed out after he found his Morality Pet Dizzy, but just look at his win quotes: his desire hasn't changed, it's just on the back burner out of love for her, since she's been taken in by the Jellyfish Pirates. (When Dizzy does die in one of his story mode endings in XX, he kills his way through the Jellyfish Pirates and goes right back to Kill All Humans.)
- However, if the right paths are taken, Testament has been taking steps to be more True Neutral, judging on how he did accept that he'll try trusting humans again and also at one point, decided to be serious in protecting the grove Dizzy used to reside as well as reminiscing the times that he respected his father Kliff Undersn. And even in the bad end, even after humans burned down his grove and he cursed them for it, Testament for once didn't go to a killing spree and chose to rest with the burnt grove forever.
- The Warcraft franchise:
- After his Face Heel Turn, Prince Arthas Menethil becomes the primal example of this alignment in the games. His only priority is to serve the Lich King as well as kill everyone he once cared for while grinning madly and throwing around bad one liners. Later he merges with his lord and they become a single Lawful Evil being.
- There's also Gul'dan, who created the Horde in the first place, not because he wanted to rule the orcs, but because a demonlord had promised him great amounts of demonic magic in return for annihilating another people off the face of the planet. After said demon doesn't show up to reward Gul'dan, he constructs a portal to another world to steal their magic instead. His sole goal was always personal power, for which he would cynically manipulate anyone to do anything as necessary.
- Sylvanas' Forsaken use the Horde to her advantage out of convenience, and are established to have no true loyalty to the Horde. They follow the Horde's rules when it's convenient while blowing it off completely when it isn't, and care only for themselves.
- Aria T'Loak from the Mass Effect series, is a ruthless leader of several mercenary bands, who kills anyone that gets in her way, does whatever she has to in order to maintain her power, and otherwise doesn't care what people do with their time so long as it doesn't involve pissing her off or interfering with her business. She gives Commander Shepard information on several missions that involve removing unwanted persons from Omega, because it furthers her own objectives, and even rewards Shepard with info on where to find valuable cargo, but otherwise does little to help him/her unless it also advances her goals.
- Some characters in Fate Stay Night that have the Neutral Evil alignment:
- Caster (Medea). True, she comes off sympathetic, with her screwed up life with Jason, and her desperate wish to be together with Kuzuki. But her actions to preserve the last one, namely trying to siphon all the mana of the people in the town without much care of their welfare or the Holy Grail rules, or goading Saber to her side, to name a few... well, just cements her as Neutral Evil.
- Assassin (Sasaki Kojiro). This one seems to be in name only, because Assassin does not actively act out like an evil asshole, but being a Blood Knight stuck at one place and engages in duels honorably. TRUE Assassin on the other side... [1]
- Shinji Matou, a despicable Casanova who abuses his adoptive sister Sakura and his Servant Rider, and will stop at nothing to win the Grail War, is also argued to be of this alignment.
- Ilya could fit if you mixed her alignment with It's All About Me. If you're on her side, wonderful! If not, she'll brutally murder you. She doesn't appear to have a conscience or good impulse control.
- Ilya's a difficult case to pin down, for various reasons. It's safest to say that she slides between the various neutral alignments — Neutral Good, True Neutral, and Neutral Evil — based on the Route and storyline involved.
- Kirei Kotomine bounces all over the scale over the course of the series. In Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and the anime adaptation he appears to be little more than a Chaotic Evil Complete Monster, as he subverts the rules of the Grail War while posing as the referee, lets his Servant feed on the souls of orphans, and plans to unleash an Eldritch Abomination that will destroy the world, apparently just for shits and giggles. Heaven's Feel, however, goes deep into his motivations and lends him enough Lawful Evil traits to end up here instead. Kirei was born with some sort of mental defect that only allowed him to take satisfaction from acts that others considered "evil", but he also possessed a conscience and recognized that those deeds were wrong. After trying to find satisfaction as a mage, a priest, and a loving husband, he finally cracked after his wife died and he realized he was more upset that he hadn't been able to kill her himself. His plot to unleash Angra Mainyu is a desperate bid to get some answers about his own existence, the fact that it will wipe out most of humanity is just a side-effect. He also Will Not Tell a Lie and holds to his duties as a priest when Shirou asks for his help with Sakura.
- General Gismor from Drakengard 2 is a selfish jerk who only cares about himself and getting as much power as possible. He might be the leader of the Knights of the Seal, but it is obvious that he couldn't care any less about the law, his underlings (as he shows by almost killing Eris) or peace — he simply does what benefits him, and only him, the most.
- Lobo of Soul Nomad and The World Eaters is the leader of an underground criminal organization that is known to do many shady dealings, up to selling children (a rare commodity since birth rate is low in the game's setting) for anything (usually sexual slavery).
- Fake Overlord Zenon and Super Hero Aurum in the Disgaea series.
- Adachi from Persona 4, who you learn later on is responsible for starting the entire mess in Inaba For the Evulz. While he is a police officer, he states that he merely became one to legally carry around a gun.
- Krew in Jak II Renegade. We are dealing with someone who lets Metal Heads into the city for a quick buck. He gleefully steals everything that catches his eye, and employs some very unsavory types. Oh yeah, and he's so far into the Villainous Glutton trope that he has to use an antigrav chair to get around.
- Hector from Dept Heaven series is a tough call between this and Lawful Evil.
- Most Ratchet and Clank Big Bads are this. Most notably is Drek, who plans to continue polluting his people's planets in order to receive the funds to continue destroying other planets to build a new one.
- Doctor Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series will ally with anyone and anything to get his way. He will release an Eldritch Abomination to crush Sonic one day, and form an Enemy Mine with Sonic to stop said Abomination the next. He seeks to tear down a functioning order to replace it with his own, and while he is Affably Evil, his standards really only rise so high as to prevent the world being destroyed so that he can rule it.
- Exdeath of Final Fantasy V. His primary goal is to use the power of the Void to create a world of monsters ruled by himself. However after he's partially absorbed by the Void that causes his motivation to change to erasing all existence, including himself, thus becoming a Chaotic Evil Omnicidal Maniac.
- Shadow from Final Fantasy VI. After all, even though he wouldn't enjoy it, he would still kill anyone for money, innocent or not. Until his Heel Face Turn. Said turn takes place over a significant portion of the game however, and by the end of it, he's only True Neutral, unlike the rest of the decidedly good heroes.
- Sephiroth of Final Fantasy VII once his personality settles after his Face Heel Turn. He starts out a "hero", being something like True Neutral, already with the beginnings of that indifferent attitude that goes much further later on. After the Heroic BSOD that sends him over the edge, he may go through a brief Chaotic Evil phase as he comes to hate humans and razes Nibelheim, but by the time of the game's main storyline, he emerges having found out what he truly is and having fully accepted it, and simply cares nothing for anything or anyone else, willing to destroy the Planet to become a god, without either hatred or regrets.
- In Dissidia Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, Sephiroth's motives continue to be so indifferently self-serving that he can't even be bothered to take evil's side in the main conflicts, instead focusing on tormenting Cloud.
- Makarov of Modern Warfare 2. "[He's] Fighting his own war, and he has no rules. No boundaries. He doesn't flinch at torture, human trafficking ir genocide. He's not loyal to a flag or a country or any set of ideals. He trades blood for money."
- Bernkastel from Umineko no Naku Koro ni. When she calls herself the cruelest witch in the world, she's not kidding.
- B.B. Hood/Bulleta from Darkstalkers. She's Evilly Affable and doesn't give a crap about anything but making money and killing any resident of Makai for her own profit and just for shits and giggles. It's even pointed out in the game due to her win quotes "I won't stop until every living thing in this world is dead. I hate poverty, this is what I do for a living"! Though her outward appearance suggests otherwise, she's a psychotic bitch.
- Jin Kisaragi in Blaz Blue after hearing about the Grim Reaper in Kagutsuchi switches from Lawful Evil to this, as he tried to not notice his allies that he left his post to do his own agenda. He fell hard to Chaotic Evil when he is confronted with either Noel or Ragna for... lots of personal reasons.
- These days, however, Jin has slowly moved away from his Neutral Evil self and at best, he can be called True Neutral, due to his lingering care to Tsubaki, but mitigated that he's still a little 'off' on Ragna and still a Jerkass to Noel. (although he dreamed to be a Neutral Good or Chaotic Good due to his hero complex).
- Also from Blaz Blue, Relius Clover. Think Shou Tucker but even worse. He turned his own daughter and his wife into Nox Nyctores, has tried to kill his son, and performs physical and mental torture on Tager and Makoto before killing them in their bad endings. Relius doesn't just Kick the Dog, he rapes the corpse and takes it's soul.
- Hazama may also count as this or Chaotic Evil, although because most of his heinous deeds are done purely For the Evulz, he likely leans more into the latter.
- The Father from the fan-made King's Quest remake, and maybe the Black Cloak Society in general. They're too organized and methodical to be chaotic evil, as the lot of them engage in long term plans (Mordred and Alhazred's plans for Cassima, Mannanan's kidnapping and enslavement of young boys as servants), but they show little respect of laws or rules aside from how best to use them to further their ends. The Father, in general, is rather pissed off that he isn't able to get the Crown of Daventry because of a stipulation left by Daventry's first king. He tries all sorts of torments on Graham and family to try and get around it, including cutting deals, sending spies, and assuming the guise of a "harmless" adviser to con his way into what he wants. Too bad for him Graham ain't falling for it.
- Jerme from Fire Emblem seems to fit this alignment even though he is psychotic, being willing to serve Nergal as long as he didn't interfere with Jerme's interest — killing people.
- Lord Lundgren from the same game is an even better example. He tries to pass himself off as Lawful Evil, but his actions — slowly poisoning his own brother; hiring assassins and more skilled soldiers to kill his grandniece, even if it means destroying relations with neighbouring territories; and marking said grandniece as an imposter and her knight escorts (loyal to Caelin) as traitors — are all done purely so he can inherit power for himself.
- Also, Lord Darin showed signs of this, serving Nergal in exchange for a promise to become ruler of the world. This isn't entirely his fault though, and it's implied that Darin was originally Lawful Evil — he was dissatisfied that Laus was not the centre of Lycia, but was still a loyal servant of the Lycian League until Ephidel corrupted him.
- Mister Burke from Fallout 3. Nuking a peaceful town because ... well, we don't know why. But it's the thing he does. He just needs someone to push the button.
- And by extension the player, should they accept to push the button for what amounts to pocket change.
- In the same series, Benny Gecko is a sleazy, opportunistic criminal who shoots you in the head the first time you meet him. Even after that, he lies to you time and time again, even when you break him out of slavery.
- Big Bad and Chessmaster Darth Traya from Knights of the Old Republic 2. Possibly the two Dragons as well, though Sion's loyalty seems to imply a more Lawful bent while Nihilus might lean more Chaotic.
- The Spy class from Team Fortress 2 fits the 'sneaky Jerkass' brand of NE to a tee--while being ostensibly polite and cultured, his MO is to disguise himself as enemy team members and backstab them and, when dominating players, shows the juvenile, pun-laden glee he takes in outwitting and murdering them.
- Bowser due to his strange on-again-off-again Villain Decay appears to fit this alignment moreso than any other. He's an unrepentant jerk who seems to love nothing more than trying to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and appears to have no actual cause for doing so beyond his personal pleasure.
- Evil Chancellor and Big Bad
RichardRICHAAAAAARD!! Hawk of Metal Wolf Chaos. Building a Wave Motion Gun on Alcatraz Island, unleashing a poison gas attack on Chicago, and wrecking up New York in a giant Spider Tank after turning against the most Badass Humongous Mecha-piloting President Action EVER (which may put him in the running for Stupid Evil). He's just that much of a bastard. - Kain fits here nicely. Magnificent Bastard, Sociopathic Hero, Evil Overlord. He's trying to save the world from decay, corruption, ruin, damnation, and demonic invasion, but he's trying to save it so that his vampire brethren can return to their rightful place as rulers of the world, and so that he can return to his rightful place as ruler of the vampires. A sadist who takes pleasure in stalking and killing, he has a capacity for Mercy Kill, and he never lies. In the end, his motives are selfish, but it just so happens that what is good for him is good for the world.
- Firebrand of Demon's Crest. He's a demon, so of course he's evil in all his appearances, but he's only out to take over the Ghoul Realm for his own sake using the powers of the Crests. In the previous Gargoyles Quest games, he's operating willingly under the orders of his king and thus fits Lawful Evil better; they're just going up against a bigger evil than themselves.
- The Practical Incarnation from Planescape: Torment probably qualifies as this. He has a clear goal in mind and doesn't act with the intent to sow evil or disrupt order, but he still tends to leave unspeakable suffering in his wake, to the point where some of his victims have endured centuries of torment thanks to his actions. At one point you can get a glimpse into his mind, and a Good-aligned protagonist goes nearly insane from seeing how cold and opportunistic he is.
- Alex Mercer. The original Alex Mercer, that is. Blacklight Alex grows a conscience and works to save people later in the game, but the human Alex Mercer was an uncontested straight-up Complete Monster who was willing to wipe out the entire human race just to spite the people who ultimately killed him.
- Xehanort's ultimate goal in all Kingdom Hearts games is to use the titular heart of all worlds to reshape the universe and become a god.
- Arcturus Mengsk from Starcraft. Throughout the series he has displayed both lawful and chaotic tendencies, but they are always incidental for his own personal gain and anything goes as long as it suits him. He used to be a terrorist using increasingly extreme methods to fight the corrupt and oppressive Terran Confederacy. After the Confederacy’s fall he formed and established himself as emperor of the equally oppressive Terran Dominion, once again using increasingly extreme methods to crush any opposition to his rule. His intentions may seem sound but deep inside he is just a narcissistic bastard. To quote the man himself:
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"I will rule this sector or see it burnt to ashes around me!" |
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- Gen from Street Fighter. Except for maybe Dorai and Chun-Li, he shows no attachment to anyone, and if you annoy him enough , he'll kill you without an ounce of remorse. The same goes for his victims during the time when he was an assassin.
- Gen seems to have shifted to at least True Neutral when he began training Chun-Li and decided not to be an assassin anymore when he was forced to kill someone in front of her. He may have fallen back to Neutral Evil when he contracted leukimia and decided he'd rather die in a deathmatch than a deathbed.
- While the villains from Tron and Tron: Legacy fall more into Lawful Evil, the three primary antagonists of Tron 2.0 fall into this category. It doesn't matter if they use lawful methods (a corporate takeover of Encom) or outright illegal ones (kidnapping Alan Bradley and threatening to kill him, using the Datawraiths to seize everything from state secrets to bank accounts). All Crown, Popoff, and Baza are interested in is power and control over other people.
- Arguably, all Grand Theft Auto protagonists until San Andreas fit this alignment.
- Ammon Jerro from Neverwinter Nights 2 is canonically a borderline Type 3, but he doesn't really fit any of the above categories well. Best way to describe him is Machiavellian: he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist of the He Who Fights Monsters variety, and is willing to do anything and everything it takes to protect his home city from an extraplanar abomination that nobody else believed existed.
- Belueth the Calm from Storm of Zehir is type 1. She is an amoral aasimar thief who believes only in the thief-god Mask and in the awesome power of money.
- Several characters in F.E.A.R. fit under this alignment.
- Genevive Aristide, CEO of Armacham, is directly responsible for setting in motion the events of the first game, and her only subsequent desire is covering her own ass. She deliberately orders her own security troops to open fire on US military and government agents as well as "clean things up" by murdering everyone associated with Project Origin. Later on, she orders the destruction of the Origin facility, which involves effectively setting off a nuclear explosion in the heart of the city of Fairport. (technically, the Point Man was the one who set off the reactor, but Aristide initially ordered the explosion) By the second game, she is desperately trying to contain Alma, subjecting people to Mind Rape, brutal surgical procedures, and using the psychic members of team Dark Signal are bait to keep Alma distracted until she could trap both Beckett and Alma in a containment device — but makes it clear that her only concern is keeping her job.
- Harlan Wade was this while Project Origin was ongoing, showing utterly no remorse regarding the horrible things he was putting Alma (his own daughter) and the Point Man and Fettel (his grandchildren) through. He seems have shifted away from this by the end of the first game, however, and tries to atone for his acts by letting Alma kill him.
- Though we only see hints of his twisted nature in the first two games, Paxton Fettel is definitely this in the third. There's nothing in him but a desire for revenge, power, and to inflict suffering on others. He has his reasons, as his youth was one of the most screwed-up experiences imaginable, but that doesn't change the fact that he's flat-out evil. He goes so far as to kill and eat his own mother's ghost.
- Ocelot in the Metal Gear series definitely qualifies as one. Yes, he serves under various villainous organizations, but he plays both sides almost flawlessly for his own agenda.
- Specter is a main antagonist of Ape Escape series and the focus of all the main series of games.
- The Children of Atom from the Far Harbour DLC of Fallout 4. This Religion of Evil proclaim that Far Harbour and everything radiation induced should inherently be there's alone. Those who would betray the children are killed for their disloyalty to their beliefs, converts even tried to talk followers into their fanatical religion. Confessor Tektus (the current leader) will even reward you for destroying Far Harbour, just to prove his religions severity.
- The Disciples care most about the "art" of killing their targets. They are shifty and snide about trusting others, but can work with anyone as long as blood is shed in return.
- The Vampires of the Volkihar Clan from the Dawnguard DLC of Skyrim see the world around them as one big hunting ground. Their leader, Lord Harkon is especially power-hungry, willing to step on anybody just to gain control over the sun. Even without Harkon, the Volkihar Clan are a shifty group viewing anyone weaker than them as prey.
- Speaking of shifty characters, Hermaeus Mora always gives off an untrustworthy impression. Though he craves the secrets of others, he's generous in dishing out power for a favor. But his ambition for taking knowledge and his demented realm of Apocrypha makes him anything but a good deity.
- Dutch Van Der Linde from Red Dead Redemption was quite an upstart guy, even for an outlaw gang leader. But overtime the pressure of running his gang, plotting heists and looking after those close to him became too much. Eventually he cracked, betraying crucial characters leaving only John Marston to hunt him down. Which if you'd played the first game, doesn't all end well for both of them.
- Apex Legends has a variety of different characters to choose from. But no legend is more cold-blooded and villainous than Revenant. Even compared to Token Evil Teammate Caustic, Revenant is downright merciless. He hates practically every other character, viewing them less helpful and more of a meat shield for him to take advantage of. Worse yet, he's a literal killing machine who's whole artillery is to sneak and deceive his opponents. Top that all off, with the fact that he's immortal and you're dealing with a living nightmare.
Web Comics
- Royce from Heartcore is as neutrally evil as they come, and a total dick to boot.
- Thief from Eight Bit Theater: A genocidal bigot who cares about nothing else but his own survival and making as much money as possible. It is generally shown that elves in the 8-Bit universe are Always Neutral Evil.
- Sarda ends up being this, being motivated by selfish desires with a slight sense of righteousness. Leans towards chaos when he screws with people's lives after little to no provocation, yet firmly believes that history cannot be changed.
- Bun-bun from Sluggy Freelance is Neutral Evil to the bone, never seeming to do anything that isn't directly in his own interest, and completely ignoring the interests of everyone else. He does enjoy violence for violence's sake, but even then he generally channels it towards people who annoy him. Of course, everyone seems to annoy Bun-bun to a certain extent.
- In The Order of the Stick, Tsukiko is an evil necromancer who resents the powers-that-be in Azure City telling her what not to do, but she's willing to work for Xykon, making and leading his undead Mooks. There's also Haerta Bloodsoak, and Linear Guild member Leeky Windstaff (who, as a druid, has to be Neutral Something).
- Lamika and Major Kohi from Blade of Toshubi. Advisor Toh is a tough call between this and Lawful Evil.
- Skoll of Cry Havoc falls here due to her propensity to disobey orders countered by her loyalty toward Karcharoth. Shes evil because, well she tortures and kills people for fun...
- In Our Little Adventure, Since Julie's Neutral Good it's highly likely her evil clone Umbria is Neutral Evil, seeing she's psychotic, manipulative and violent, but doesn't show any distain for the law.
- The Devil in Sinfest.
- President Evil and Magnificent Bastard Zexion of Ansem Retort.
- Angelique of Kevin and Kell is mainly motivated by a desire to spite Kevin, even going so far as to take ownership of and try to liquidate his business to do so. Her status is even remarked upon in one crossword puzzle. Vin is similarly motivated by jealousy toward Rudy, although he eventually puts it behind him.
- Eridan Ampora of Homestuck fame. He's selfish and self-centred: when anything goes wrong, he takes the opportunity to pontificate on how it affects him and wax lyrical about his many inadequacies — solely to fish for compliments, of course. Give him one, and he will hit on you. When he's rejected by his former Love Interest, .he throws a fit, tries to murder her new boyfriend, succeeds in murdering her, DOOMS HIS SPECIES TO EXTINCTION, kills his self-professed "only friend" and then runs away to try and join the Big Bad
Web Original
- Neopets: Snargan, a green skeith serving as the treasurer of King Skarl of Meridell, always uses Meridell's treasure to gamble in Double Or Nothing to try to win money from players for his own.
- RWBY: Initially, Torchwick held his position in this alignment. He was for the longest time, the main and most active villain within the series up until his supposed death. However not too long after, things quickly went dark and downhill. Bigger Bad Salem was revealed, little was spoke about her and even less she needed to do to prove how sinister she can be. I kid you not, even previous Big Bad Cinder is uncomfortable around her.
- Likewise Salem's Faction was formed to exert the villainesses' intentions. So far only Watts, Affably Evil Hazel, and Salem herself seem to do this trope any justice. The only two exceptions are Chaotic Evil Tyrian and the disgruntled but loyal Lawful Evil Cinder.
- LT.LICKME's The Watcher character is gaining reputation in the digital world as a sort of "Bully Hunter". But do not be deceived to think, that they are nothing but childish Trolls or law abiding citizens. Because to a degree their threats are real. The Watcher believes that to defeat a "Monster" you'd have to be the same, this way of thinking corresponds very closely to being Necessarily Evil.
Western Animation
- Characters usually fall under this alignment.
- Cruella de Vil. (Though she does fall into Chaotic Evil, during her Villainous Breakdown near the end.)
- Gaston turns into this alignment through the course of the movie, starting off as a Jerkass who is a little too used to getting what he wants, and slowly turns into a villain willing to blackmail his love interest into marriage and even tries to Murder the Hypotenuse to get to her, despite her not even wanting him! It should also be noted that he has several lovely fangirls who are just dying to get into his pants most of the time, and yet he still pursues a lady with no interest whatsoever in him.
- Scar is another good example: he's an underhanded schemer willing to have a child killed in order to become king. Yet when he gains said power, he abuses it and is more interested in keeping himself well-fed, entertained, and feared than in keeping any kind of law or order, but only lets the Pride Lands slide into desolation and chaos because of negligence rather than any Chaotic Evil ideals.
- Mozenrath from Aladdin: The Animated Series is pretty much the definition of Neutral Evil. He betrayed his master, the Evil Sorcerer Destane, and took his place as the most powerful sorcerer alive at the time and the ruler of The Land Of The Black Sand and its undead population. Throughout the series he has shown himself willing to harm, step on, or betray anyone and everyone to get what he wants. Being the most powerful sorcerer alive isn't good enough for him; he wants to go on to rule Agrabah and the rest of the Seven Deserts.
- Mother Gothel is definitely this alignment. She kidnapped an infant princess just to leech off her magical power like a parasite for many years. She pretended to be nice to Rapunzel, and even went out of her way to convince the poor girl she's her daughter. Unfortunately for her, the truth quickly slipped through her fingers which ended up revealing her real selfish and greedy nature. I guess in the end, mother doesn't know best after all.
- Shan Yu is perhaps the most subtle Disney villain around. His intentions are clear, without a Villain Song to highlight it. True he's quite underrated in the franchise, but that only adds to his badass reputation. He's sinister, cold-blooded and effective in his role and those eyes just scream bad news.
- Governor Ratcliffe glorifies Neutral Evil. He's extremely greedy and racist, ambitiously wiping his boots on the rights of natives just for a shot at fame. Worst yet, Ratcliff is merciless going as far as to shoot an enlightened, Chief Powhatan just to claim the gold that never existed.
- The Decepticon's (with exceptions such as Megatron or Shockwave) from Transformers are the prime example of an entire group mostly under this alignment. They rather destroy an whole planet, than let the Autobots take charge. No matter where they go trouble isn't far behind, most Decepticons despise one another but some can get along (or at least not trying to backstab one another).
- Most characters displaying traits of The Starscream (including Starscream himself in all his forms) are Neutral Evil. Ironically, whenever G1 or Armada Starscream did honestly bring up some issue of honor or rules, Lawful Evil Megatron berated him for even daring to respect Cybertron law.
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Starscream: I was just raising a legal issue. |
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- "Ancient Spirits of Evil..."
- Skeletor probably fits in here as well.
- Eric Cartman from South Park is definitely Neutral Evil. His goals may require chaos, or they may require everybody to follow the same pattern. Alternately his goal may require exploitation of a legal loophole, which he is fine with taking to the extreme. He will use almost any method to get his way. He idolises other manipulators (including Adolf Hitler) and has no preference for law or chaos as long as he can use either to his advantage. He usually uses people's fears to manipulate them into doing anything he says.
- The villain named Reality is loved for being Necessary Evil. He's very blunt and doesn't take the controversial shit that celebrities have been prone to do a lot. So instead of shrugging off like everyone else, he callously calls the stars out as liars and hypocrites.
- Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- The same could be said for her father Ozai.
- Also, Admiral Zhao. The fucker tried to kill the moon. For no reason other than to stroke his own vanity.
- Fire Nation officers generally skirt between this and Lawful Evil, though it's hard to tell from their lack of definite characterisation. The Warden of the Boiling Rock may count, as he is perfectly willing to drown himself and escaping prisoners in boiling water just to ensure he maintains the prison's 'no one escaped under my watch' ratio, but nonetheless "pulled some strings" to release his niece Mai from prison — due to lack of specific information though, he may simply be Lawful Evil or even simply Neutral.
- Hama no longer cares about trying to restore her tribe as much as she cares about enacting vengeance upon the Fire Nation. She does this by imprisoning and torturing innocent peasants, and taking every measure possible to teach her pupil, Katara, Bloodbending — even if it means making Katara's brother, Sokka, and her friend/surrogate-little-brother/potential-love-interest Aang (who is the Avatar was well) almost kill each other in the process. Contrast this to Jet, who had a similar alignment at first — being willing to drown an Earth Kingdom town just to drive away Fire Nation troops stationed there — but later acknowledged the evil of his actions and shifted towards Chaotic Good.
- Amon from The Legend of Korra uickly became Korra's worst nightmare after balancing the power between Benders and Non-benders alike. He was very capable at succeeding his goals, to rid all benders of their power. Amon's own capabilites was all he needed to outmatch any bender, this alone made him ever more intimidating.
- Selfish Eric Raymond from Jem fits in this slot better then Lawful Evil. At one point he outright admitted to embezzling money from Starlight Records to personally fund The Misfits.
- Thailog, the Evil Twin of Goliath from Gargoyles.
- Alejandro from Total Drama World Tour.
- Arguably Rusty Venture of The Venture Brothers, an utterly amoral scientist who has no standards for his creation (as shown by his using an orphan's heart to power one of his inventions) and shows little to no care for his sons (though the fact that he had a bunch of clones of them for backup may be part of this) and is generally recognized as a Jerkass by most everyone who knows him (Brock Samson himself considers Venture partly a Villain Protagonist, even if he's not exactly terrifying.).
- To be fair, the orphan was probably already dead. Well, except for the fact that his heart was still beating.
- Phantom Limb seems to fit this alignment as well. It's pretty common in the show's Crapsack World.
- Shego from Kim Possible. Granted, at times the writers have trouble deciding if she's Lawful Evil (She has no interest in taking over the world_ or Chaotic Evil (But she doesn't want to destroy it either), but most of the time she's evil for her own enjoyment.
- Lydia from Barbie and the Diamond Castle has supremely selfish reasons for becoming a villain: she wants to be the only muse and keep all music for herself.
- Equinox from Batman the Brave And The Bold. He was originally given his powers in order to serve as a True Neutral force and uphold the balance of Order Versus Chaos. Then he snapped and started "balancing" things in the most destructive manner possible. General Kafka's home village was destroyed? Allow Kafka to destroy an American city in retaliation. Gorilla Grodd's villainous scheming upsets the balance? Kill Grodd, and The Question, too. Balance!
- Slade and Blackfire from Teen Titans both count. The former cares primarily about power, but there's enough pure cruelty in his motivation to shift him here from Lawful Evil, while the latter seems to live her life as one giant act of pure selfishness (which is all the more evil in contrast to the rest of her species).
- Both Sideshow Bob and Fat Tony from The Simpsons qualify for this alignment pretty well, both being ultimately in it for themselves and working within or outside the law when it fits them. It should also be noted that both have tried redeeming themselves at various points, but gotten rejected at every attempt.
- Bob varies between outright criminal and leader (he was in charge of a dam-building project and the mayor of a small town in Italy). Fat Tony is a crime lord who is just as often seen cooperating with the police (who are too dumb to see through him) as well as evading them.
- Mr Burns is the franchise's most prominent villain for many iconic reasons. Springfield itself considers him one of the lowest of the low in terms of cruelty. He doesn't care for rules and law unless they especially benefit him only, nor would he cause chaos without a diabolical plot behind it. Ironically he's pitifully weak and is said to be ancient in age.
- Mr Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants developed into this, as he has no qualms breaking the law to make a quick buck.
- Plankton is another example.
- Vlad "Plasmius" Masters from Danny Phantom is supremely selfish in his motives for evil, though he himself doesn't seem quite capable of recognizing this- he doesn't care that Maddie is already Happily Married and doesn't want to be his wife, or that Danny doesn't want to be his surrogate son. Vlad wants it, and that's all that matters. Everyone else are just convenient pawns to help him accomplish this.
- The Weavils on Jimmy Two Shoes. Whether it's one of them or a group, they generally just do whatever profits them at the moment while being jerkasses about it. They seem largely indiffrent to Lucius' goal of spreading misery, as long as it doesn't harm them.
- Big Bad Phobos and The Dragon Cedric from WITCH.
- The (Utrom) Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003. Being both a respected philanthropist and a ruthless crime lord, in the end, it means nothing to him. All that matters is power and absolute immortality.
- The Boondocks has A Pimp Named Slickback.
- Carter Pewtershmidt from Family Guy makes a good example here. He's extremely selfish and prideful, flaunting his riches in front of the average folk, and would only care for people who are either on his level of fortune or family (with the exception of Peter, whom he detests immensely). A lot of puns revolve around Carter's age and how poorly he treats characters below him.
- Stan's schoolyard bully, Stelio Kontos from American Dad was paid by Steve to teach his own dad a lesson in bullying. As brutal as he is silent, Stelio doesn't care who hires him as long as he can kick some ass.
- Queen Chrysalis from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic deviates from the typical villain approach. Most MLP villains either get defeated and never return, or eventually find redemption. But Chrysalis is an exception, her spite and venomous scrounging for power has completely consumed her character. Even when offered forgiveness, Chrysalis slapped it away still believing she can succeed somehow.
- The Dazzlings from Rainbow Rocks are also worthy contenders. On the surface they seem like typical bullies, but with the hypnotic powers of a Siren. They revel in causing trouble, willing to turn everyone against each other just to feed off their negativity.
- ↑ was instead Lawful Evil