Board 8 > Most Evil Fictional Character: Luca Blight vs. Patrick Bateman

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Homelander/Yawgmoth match is still going on, but I have somewhere to be this morning so I'm going to post this one a few hours early.

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Welcome to the 2023 edition of Most Evil Fictional Character, a single-elimination tournament to determine the most evil fictional character of all time!

Here's the bracket:

https://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=477621&tclass=

And here's the discussion topic:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80568652

And here are the rules:

-First and foremost, YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT. The reason for this is that these topics encourage a lot of discussion and debate, and it helps me to distinguish a vote from simple discussion if all votes are bolded. So, I state again, ALL VOTES MUST BE BOLDED FOR THEM TO COUNT. I reserve the right to be lenient in early topics if people just aren't getting it, but for the most part, IF YOUR VOTE ISN'T BOLDED, IT WON'T COUNT.

-You must vote for which of the two characters you honestly believe to be the more evil of the two. You can determine this via any method you like, use your own morals and judgement, read all the arguments made to determine your choice, or however you choose to make your pick, but you must only vote for the one you truly believe is the most evil. This isn't a death battle, or a popularity contest. You're voting ONLY for the most evil character out of the two choices presented.

-While on that subject, remember that because this isn't a death battle or a fighting tournament, do your absolute best to consider the two characters as if their power levels were equal (either the weaker character brought up to the level of the strongest, or vice versa, or both if you want to consider both possibilities). Therefore, just because, for example, one of the characters blew up a planet and the other one merely kicked a puppy, doesn't necessarily mean the planet killer is more evil than the puppy kicker. Consider the characters as if they have the exact same capabilities and what they might do in that scenario.

-You can make any arguments, debates, etc. you want in this topic. Discussion is STRONGLY encouraged, a fun debate about which of the two characters is most evil is exactly what these topics are for. Just don't make it personal, no insults or flaming, keep things civil even if you disagree. Also, no vote rallying, if you want to encourage people to vote for your character you need to at least make some semblance of an argument as to why, even if it's just "Character X did (really dastardly thing), I can't believe no one's voting for them!"

-Voting will continue for exactly 24 hours after the post is made. If there's a tie, there will be a new 24 hour topic. This will continue indefinitely until a winner is determined.

-YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT.

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The following write-ups will contain untagged SPOILERS for Suikoden II and American Psycho. Proceed at your own risk!

LUCA BLIGHT

Luca Blight is a major antagonist in Suikoden II.

Known for his unmatched cruelty and bloodlust, Luca is referred to as the "Mad Prince"; the source of his anger resulted from an attack on the Highland royalty's entourage by ruffians. Luca was traveling with his mother, Sara, and father, Agares, when they were attacked by a group of ruffians. Luca's father fled in fear, leaving Luca and his mother to their mercy; Sara was raped repeatedly, while Luca was forced to witness the ordeal. He would later discover the ruffians were hired by Muse, and has since developed a profound hatred to the Jowston Alliance and his father, Agares, the incompetent King of Highland. Luca gains military control over the Highland Army when Agares steps down to take responsibility for the ceasefire signed with Jowston. With his newfound power, Luca instigates another war with Jowston and uses the Beast Rune, beginning a plot that involves massacring the entire Unicorn Youth Brigade and blaming the incident on Jowston. He rapidly attacks and conquers the city-states of Jowston and successfully conspires with Jowy Atreides to assassinate Agares. The collaborative efforts of Leon Silverberg, Shu and Jowy bring about his downfall at the hands of the New State Army. Luca appears as a cruel and sadistic psychopath with utterly no redeeming or even tragic qualities. Every one of his killings is always followed by a purely evil laugh. He is tyrannical to the Highland Kingdom by gaining control over the military power of the Highland Army. In this regard, Luca can be described as a "berserker" type of character. He is quenching his bloodlust, as seen when he fatally kills a scared woman after forcing her to act like a pig when he burned the village in Ryube. He is also shown to be selfish and treacherous, such as when he betrayed his own father, Agares Blight, during his assassination with Jowy by poison as part of his revenge for leaving him and his mother in fear during the attack in Jowston, and also in the aforementioned incident with the woman in Ryube, as he implied he'd spare her only if she behaved like a pig. He seems to be aware to a degree of his truly depraved and vile nature, as when dying, he openly brags about being the true face of evil.

vs.

PATRICK BATEMAN

Patrick Bateman is the protagonist of the novel and film American Psycho.

Bateman, at the beginning of American Psycho, is a 27-year-old specialist in mergers and acquisitions at the fictional Wall Street investment firm of Pierce & Pierce and lives at 55 West 81st Street, Upper West Side on the 11th floor of the American Gardens Building. In his secret life, however, Bateman is a serial killer murdering a variety of people, including colleagues, the homeless, and prostitutes. His crimesincluding rape, torture, necrophilia, and cannibalismare graphically described in the novel. Although Bateman often claims that he is devoid of emotion, he also describes experiencing moments of extreme rage, panic or griefbeing on the "verge of tears"often over trivial inconveniences such as remembering to return videotapes or trying to obtain dinner reservations. He publicly espouses a philosophy of tolerance, equality, and "traditional moral values" because he thinks it will make him more likable, but is in fact virulently racist, homophobic, and antisemitic.Bateman kills more or less indiscriminately, with no preferred type of victim, somewhat targeting any woman and man who gets in his way, and no consistent or preferred method of killing. Throughout the novel, he kills men, women, animals, and, in one instance, a child. Bateman murders women mostly for sadistic sexual pleasure, often during or just after sex. He kills men because they upset or annoy him or make him feel inferior. In the case of the child, Bateman wished to see if he would enjoy it but found it unsatisfactory since the child's death would not affect as many people as an adult would. Periodically, he matter-of-factly confesses his crimes to his friends, co-workers, and even complete strangers just to see if they are actually listening to him. They either are not, or they think that he is joking.

Bateman's killing feels chiefly motivated by perceived slights (that usually don't exist because he's insane)

Luca on the other hand seems like he actually finds a sort of prestige in his body count and power and revels in the very act of being evil regardless of whether his victim has done anything to him

I think if you swap their worlds Luca isn't content to be a serial killer and uses his Wall Street connections to get money to do something much greater in scale.

Ambition counts.

Luca Blight

Gets the nod from me.

Bateman

Do not read the novel if you are squeamish, in a big fan of horror and even I got shivers at some of the shit Bateman does that was too explicit and graphic to show in the movie

Luca Blight

He murders children of his own country to start a war with the City States, intent on killing every last man, woman and child that lives there. A woman begs for her life, and he tells her to act like a pig, she does so, and then he kills her anyway. He delights in killing children. The war he started lives on after his death, and he relishes in that fact. And let's not forget that he delights in staring into the fearful eyes of a five year old girl just before he's about to kill her (only stopped by the place nearly blowing up). He left nothing but destruction in his wake.

After thinking on it I have to go with Luca. I think the unreliability of Patrick as a narrator lets him down here.

Oh and I have to say, having not played Suikoden 2 but having heard a lot of raves about Luca Blight as a villain and the stuff he does looking back on it all now he comes across as very 90s edge. Alas this is most evil not best written!

LightningStrikes posted...

Oh and I have to say, having not played Suikoden 2 but having heard a lot of raves about Luca Blight as a villain and the stuff he does looking back on it all now he comes across as very 90s edge. Alas this is most evil not best written!

True, if it was best written, we wouldn't have to enduring remembering the travesty that was Hatred a few days back :p

Also putting a vote in for Luca for reasons that you and Lopen have stated.

LightningStrikes posted...

Oh and I have to say, having not played Suikoden 2 but having heard a lot of raves about Luca Blight as a villain and the stuff he does looking back on it all now he comes across as very 90s edge. Alas this is most evil not best written!

I don't think it's fair to judge how well written a character is, without experiencing them.

Yeah I fully admit this is not a complete opinion. Welcome to changing it if I ever play the game. Was just an off-the-cuff observation really. However to be clear I have seen the scenes everybody talks about.

Execution is everything when it comes to monsters.

Luca because, like Lightning said, Patrick's too unreliable of a narrator

Luca appears as a cruel and sadistic psychopath with utterly no redeeming or even tragic qualities.

Luca's father fled in fear, leaving Luca and his mother to their mercy; Sara was raped repeatedly, while Luca was forced to witness the ordeal.

*press x to doubt*

Patrick Bateman

Sympathetic origin story of a child doesn't necessarily make them any less evil imo.

Lopen posted...

Sympathetic origin story of a child doesn't necessarily make them any less evil imo.

Oh, no, definitely not! I love me some Luca Blight but I was just disagreeing with the notion that he didn't have any tragic qualities. I think his origin is a good example of a tragic villain.

My vote was independent of that. I just think Bateman is more evil.

If they switched worlds, Id imagine Luca would be similar to Batman Who Laughs.

Impressive, very nice. Let's see Luca Blight's feats.

Because of Patrick's mental state, it's ambiguous which or how many of his crimes are real or imagined, although even if he hasn't actually killed anyone, he certainly has a depraved mind. On the other hand, Luca doesn't have that issue. He might not be quite as twisted as Bateman, but he's definitely done everything we see him do.

Hardest one for me yet, but I'll give Patrick Bateman a slight edge for being a Wall Street finance-bro.

Really tough match. Both are solid choices.

I think I'll go Bateman because I think it's easy to factor in scale as a win for Luca, but upon inspection of individual intentional evil deeds, I'm leaning Bateman.

Hmm yeah this is rough as based on talks so far, Luca's antics are more wide reaching while Bateman's can be more individually screwed up. Still, the whole potential unreliable narrator by design aspect for Bateman combined with Luca seeming to just be far more into his own evil shenanigans make me lean towards him currently.

Luca Blight

luca for sure imo and i am a huge fan of american psycho along with suikoden ii