Board 8 > Best of the Trope Day 54: Tragic Villain

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yesterday's Results
Gary Oak - 13
Miles Edgeworth - 7
Seto Kaiba - 7
Vegeta - 6
Wolf O'Donnel - 5
Vergil - 4
Revolver Ocelot - 4
Shadow the Hedgehog - 2
Boyd Crowder - 2
Bass - 1
Meta Knight - 1
Sagat - 1
Goro Akechi - 1
Knuckles - 1
Paul - 1
Seifer - 1

Nominations
Ensemble Dark Horse
Iconic Sequel Character
Mix and Match Critters
Broken Ace
Intelligible Unintelligible
Relationship Voice Actor
Bedlam House
Adolf Hitlarious
Disposable Intern
Uncanny Valley
The Zeppo
Vacation Episode
Tear Jerker
Good All Along
Body Surf
Megaton Punch
Corpsing

Vote for UP TO THREE CHARACTERS/ETC. you think best embody the trope of the day (or just for your favorite characters that fit the trope). Feel free to change your vote, but if you do just specify who you're changing from and changing to. Try to include the source the character's from.

Feel free to nominate tropes for future days, preferably ones that have TV Tropes pages to make it easier. Day will end in 24 hours or so.
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Full Results
Fat Best Friend - Samwise Gamgee (Lord of the Rings)
Creepy Child - Wednesday Addams (The Addams Family)
Genre Savvy - Abed Nadir (Community)
Wrong Genre Savvy - Don Quixote (Don Quixote)
Enemy Outside - Piccolo (Dragonball Z)
Ascended Extra - Harley Quinn (Batman)
Final Girl - Ellen Ripley (Aliens)
The Adjectival Man - The Illusive Man (Mass Effect)
Adaptational Hero - Bigby Wolf (The Wolf Among Us)
Adaptational Villain - The Monster (Frankenstein)
Superpowered Evil Side - Yami Bakura (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Mad Bomber - Norman Osbourne/Green Goblin (Spider-Man)
Regretful Traitor - Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) / Boromir (Lord of the Rings)
Bare-Fisted Monk - Captain Falcon (Smash Bros.)
Sexy Priest - Kirei Kotomine (Fate series)
Butt Monkey - Jerry Gergich (Parks & Rec) / Luigi (Mario Bros.) / Toby Flenderson (The Office)
Eldritch Abomination - Cthuhlu (The Call of Cthuhlu) / Giygas (Earthbound)
Scapegoat - Sirius Black (Harry Potter)
The Heavy - Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Gentle Giant - Rubeus Hagrid (Harry Potter) / John Coffey (The Green Mile) / Iron Giant (The Iron Giant)
Older Than They Look - Eli (Let the Right One In)
Messianic Archetype - Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia)
Invincible Hero - Saitama (One-Punch Man)
Your Size May Vary - Bowser (Mario Bros.)
Mad Artist - The Phantom (The Phantom of the Opera)
Gentleman Thief - Joker (Persona 5)
Brilliant but Lazy - Sans (Undertale)
Monster Clown - Pennywise the Dancing Clown (IT)
The Fool - Inspector Gadget (Inspector Gadget)
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap - Wesley Wyndham-Price (Buffy/Angel)
Big Bad - Light Yagami (Death Note)
Eyes Always Shut - Brock (Pokemon)
Tomboy & Girly Girl - Chie Satonaka & Yukiko Amagi (Persona 4)
The Dragon - Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Nerd - Otacon (Metal Gear)
Innocent Flower Girl - Aeris Gainsborough (Final Fantasy)
Berserker - Guts (Berserk)
Beware the Quiet Ones - Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
Pint-Sized Powerhouse - Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender) / Kirby (Kirby)
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment - Pink Elephants on Parade (Dumbo)
Evil All Along - Matt Engarde (Ace Attorney)
Narm - All of Tommy Wiseau's "The Room"
You Are Who You Eat - Kirby (Kirby)
Crowd Song - Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
Unreliable Narrator - Leonard Shelby (Memento) / The Narrator (Fight Club)
Voluntary Shapeshifter - Animorphs (Animorphs)
Unexpected Character - Solid Snake (Smash Bros. Brawl)
Heterosexual Life Partners - Turk & JD (Scrubs)
And I Must Scream - Ted (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream)
Bedlam House - Arkham Asylum (Batman)
Abandoned Hospital - Brookhaven Hospital (Silent Hill)
Vacation Episode - Rugrats in Paris / Mr. Greg (Steven Universe) / Itchy and Scratchy Land (The Simpsons)
Goth Girls Know Magic - Raven (Teen Titans)
The Rival - Gary Oak (Pokemon)

Today's tropes is the Tragic Villain
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TragicVillain

A particular Deconstruction of the villain, a Tragic Villain is completely aware of their evil but takes little pleasure from it. Rather, they feel compelled to engage in evil due to circumstances beyond their control.

Or maybe a hero was forced to commit a necessary evil, and occasionally any kind of villainy against their will, and never forgave themselves, deciding they were now a villain beyond hope/not deserving of salvation or redemption, possibly becoming a Death Seeker in the process.
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Dutch van der lin red dead redemption
The boss mgs 3
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Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker)
Count Bleck (Super Paper Mario)
General Tor (Iji)
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Magneto
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John Kramer (Saw)
Maximillion Pegasus (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Michael Corleone (The Godfather)

HM
Ice King (Adventure Time)
Sandman (Spider-Man 3)
Twisty (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
Asgore (Undertale)
Goro Akechi (Persona 5)
Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
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This is not the trope I thought it was when I nominated it. I was thinking a hero turned into a villain through tragic or sympathetic circumstances, the example I had in mind being Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight.
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Nominate:
Artifact of Doom
Villain Song
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Underleveled posted...

This is not the trope I thought it was when I nominated it. I was thinking a hero turned into a villain through tragic or sympathetic circumstances, the example I had in mind being Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight.

That's definitely included within this! Harvey Dent is absolutely a good example of a tragic villain
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I took it as the sort of villain who does evil stuff with the justification of "I don't like doing this but I will anyway for the greater good" (hence Magneto), but I could be wrong
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DeathChicken posted...

I took it as the sort of villain who does evil stuff with the justification of "I don't like doing this but I will anyway for the greater good" (hence Magneto), but I could be wrong

That's also included in it

It's sort of a combination of one or more of
-Character forced into evil
-Character who becomes evil due to tragic circumstances
-Character who does evil because they think it's necessary
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Delita Hyral (Final Fantasy Tactics)
Jowy Atreides (Suikoden 2)
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Nox (Wakfu)
Dude just wanted to go back in time and save his family. He hoped to succeed and by extension it would mean all the bad he had done to get that far with his plan would vanish as well (even though he was told by the god of time that going back in time was impossible).

Turns out he actually WINS, beats the heroes, and goes through with his plan...only for it to turn out that all the resources he had gathered only allowed him to go back 20 minutes (granted he used a decent amount of his resources fighting the heroes gunning for him). Sure he had done the impossible and proved the god of time wrong, but to nowhere near the extent he was aiming for. He breaks down in tears as he glances around at all the damage and the army surrounding him before vanishing away from em. It is implied that he chose to die near the graves of his family.

Mr. Freeze (Batman Beyond / Batman)
Wanted to save his wife but some dickwad fucked him over and inflicted him with his condition. Batman Beyond shows he was stuck as a head in a jar for 50 years. When they do an operation and seemingly "cure" him, he sets out to atone for all the harm he had done. Soon enough they attempt to kill him (to cut their losses or something when it looked like the procedure had some drawback or something?) which leads to him going on a vengeful rampage against em. When the building he is in begins to crash down, Terry attempts to save him only for Mr. Freeze to comment that Terry was the only one who cared about him at this point. He seemingly allows himself to be killed.

There is also some other comic stuff I think where it turns out his wife had gotten better / was alive but was told that Mr. Freeze was dead by some jackass who took her for himself or something. Overall he had it pretty rough.

Dracula (Castlevania TV Series)
The people burned his wife at the stake after accusing her to be a witch. She was a doctor who healed the sick and managed to get Dracula to get in touch with his humanity and go out into the world again.

Understandably, Dracula was FUCKING PISSED. Even then, he gave the people one year to get the fuck out as he would rain down hell upon their asses for what they did. They don't heed this warning (because apparently a giant angry skull of fire yelling at you isn't enough of a red flag) and get BTFO hard a year later
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diego armando (ace attorney)
e2-5 villain (ace attorney)
macbeth
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Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War)

He pretty much epitomizes this trait. But man I gotta give a second nomination to:

Count Bleck (Super Paper Mario)

What an unexpectedly phenomenal villain.
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also like:

pegasus - but hard to see him as tragic when his backstory is dumped after his death
michael corleone
harvey dent
dr freeze (gotta be the best batman TAS series, right?)
the boss (mgs3)
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Riddler (DC Comics)
Venom (Marvel Comics)
William Birkin (Resident Evil)

HMs:
Lizard (Marvel Comics)
Sniper Wolf (Metal Gear)
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SeabassDebeste posted...

pegasus - but hard to see him as tragic when his backstory is dumped after his death

Yeah it was weird he went from being 100% evil to tragic in one scene

great character though
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I feel like this is not a good definition of "tragic villain". (I know you didn't make it, just saying)

I'm having trouble putting into words how I view the term, but like as I see it someone like Kuja is a good example of a tragic villain, but he doesn't really fit that definition at all. Also this definition seems to open the door to antagonists who are not really villains.
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I'll officially vote

Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)
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Lotso (Toy Story 3)
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The Boss
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Orsted (Live a Live)
The Boss (MGS3)
Diego Armando (Ace Attorney)
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Travant (Fire Emblem 4)
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michael jordan (shut up and jam gaiden)

The Boss (MGS3)
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The Boss (MGS3)
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Does Sephiroth fit this category?
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The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 3)
Raoh (Fist of the North Star)
Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)

Mr freeze (batman)
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Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)
ASGORE (Undertale)
Shylock (The Merchant of Venice)

So many good options, picking 3 is tough!
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Aw man there are some brutally sad examples of this trope, such as Ice King. I'll have to think about this one.
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Nominate: Lethal Chef
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Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)

Yagami Light (Death Note)
Walter White (Breaking Bad)

ScareChan posted...

Does Sephiroth fit this category?

I don't know enough about him to say tbh
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Definitely The Boss
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Villain protagonists qualify right?

ShatteredElysium posted...

Villain protagonists qualify right?

probably
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The Boss
Thanos
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Handsome jack (borderlands 2)
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Seymour Guado (Final Fantasy X)
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up
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Ice King (Adventure Time)
Otto Octavian (Spiderman 2)

might vote for a third later
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Nier (Nier)
Lelouch (Code Geass)
Arthas (World of Warcraft)

There's so many good ones for these because it's so broad so I tried to pick one for different aspects of it. Some never know they are the villain, some know it but do it for a good cause and some are former heroes who get corrupted. But there's more than that too.

Ghaleon (Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete)
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Mr. Freeze
Goro Akechi (Persona 5)
Van Grants (Tales of the Abyss)
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Jesse Pinkman (Breaking Bad)
Michael Corleone (The Godfather)
Carrie White (Carrie)
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Samara (The Ring)

that counts I think
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ooh Carrie's a good one
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