Board 8 > Most Evil Fictional Character: Light Yagami vs. Captain Vidal

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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 Death Note and Pan's Labyrinth! Proceed at your own risk!

LIGHT YAGAMI

Light Yagami is the villain protagonist of the anime and manga Death Note.

Light Yagami was a Japanese high school senior who found a Death Note, a mysterious notebook that would kill anyone whose name was written in it. Initially skeptical of its abilities, Light tested the notebook on two criminals. After realising that it worked, Light decided to use the notebook as a murder weapon to eliminate all crime and create a utopia with only the law-abiding people he accepts and make himself the proclaimed God of this new world. In addition, he was being accompanied by the notebook's original owner, the Shinigami named Ryuk. Throughout his journey, he globally became known as "Kira" (a mysterious figure who anonymously murdered criminals) and continued his work for the next few years, while trying to evade capture. Obsessed with his goal, he used and even murdered a lot of innocent people. Light is an unfeeling sociopath who is only driven by his immense hatred of criminals and is ready to do anything in order to become nothing less of a living deity. He has a self-centered personality, as he created the identity of Kira in order to lead a cult devoted to himself, even though his followers were unaware of him being their savior. He even planned to kill unhealthy or lazy people once he became a God in order to build a strong, disciplined utopian society based on a eugenics ideology, even though he did not hold supremacist views. He is an extremely clever, psychopathic, and sly master manipulator who can easily act as an innocent and friendly individual in public who would never kill someone, while secretly killing dozens or hundreds of people each night. He was able to convince Misa that he cared about her and that he was grateful for everything that she'd done for him when he only thought of her as a pawn which he'd kill once she outlived her usefulness. He was also able to fool Takada, a much more clever woman, into being his queen and thinking that he loved her, when it turns out, like Misa, he only thought of her as a pawn, as seen he killed her without hesitation when the opportunity arose to kill Mello and to prevent her from revealing any secrets about Kira. A criminal mastermind, he often elaborated unbelievably complicated schemes to compensate for his lack of henchmen, involving pretty much nearly everyone around him. He is also shown to be a sadist; though he is not explicitly aroused by the act of giving death, he is sometimes shown smiling devilishly, hinting at his vicious tendencies. Such an instance is seen when he kills Naomi: after she prepares to commit suicide, Light mockingly tells her that his father's cellphone is available while smiling, solely doing this for pleasure. He also could barely contain his laughter during his final confrontation with Near when he thought that everyone in the room would die, demonstrating the sadistic pleasure he took in their deaths and his would-be victory.

vs.

CAPTAIN VIDAL

Captain Vidal is the primary antagonist of the film Pan's Labyrinth.

Captain Vidal the son of a famed commander with the same name who died in Morocco, who believes strongly in fascism and was assigned to root out any anti-fascist rebels. Later one night, Vidal's cruelty and sociopathic nature is revealed when he brutally and mercilessly murders two innocent farmers, a father and son, who had been detained on suspicion of being rebellious allies. In truth, the men were hunting rabbits but Vidal refused to allow them to finish their story, instead mercilessly beating the son's face in before killing the father and almost killing one of his own men in the process. Vidal becomes increasingly vicious and aggressive, torturing a captured rebel and then killing the doctor who euthanized the tortured prisoner to stop his pain. Vidal catches Ofelia tending to the mandrake root, and Carmen throws it into the fireplace, where it then begins to writhe and scream in agony. Instantly, Carmen develops painful contractions and dies giving birth to a son. Vidal eventually discovers that his maid Mercedes is a spy, and he captures her and Ofelia as they attempt to escape. Ofelia is locked in her bedroom, and Mercedes is taken to be tortured; however, she frees herself, injures Vidal with a knife, and flees into the woods. The faun returns to Ofelia and gives her one more chance to prove herself. He tells her to take her baby brother into the labyrinth. Ofelia steals the baby after sedating Vidal; although enduring massive blood loss and disoriented, the evil and treacherous man continues to chase her through the labyrinth while the rebels attack the mill. The faun tells Ofelia that the portal to the underworld will open only with an innocent's blood, so he needs a drop of her brother's blood. Despite her hatred towards Vidal, Ofelia refuses to harm her brother, and the faun leaves Ofelia to her choice. Around the same time, Vidal arrives and takes the baby away from Ofelia, then pulls his gun and fatally shoots her to death.

Ooh, this is a good one.

I think Ill go with Light here because I actually think his fascism goes perhaps even further than Vidals when you consider what his end goal is.

Vidal

At least Light's descent into darkness began as an earnest desire for good. He didn't test it on "two criminals," he stopped them from raping a woman by doing so

trdl23 posted...

At least Light's descent into darkness began as an earnest desire for good. He didn't test it on "two criminals," he stopped them from raping a woman by doing so

This is where my mindset is. Light at least initially had arguably understandable intentions of killing objectively bad people before getting corrupted by his own power and ego

Vidal never had anything close to good intentions

Vidal

Vidal

Light is a hero tbqh

vidal. definitely agreeing with sentiments here that light at least started out with good intentions.

Yeah leaning Vidal for similar stated reasons for now. Light started out focused on killing really bad people (like stopping that one woman from getting raped and taking out dangerous evil people) and got more screwed up later on (his ego pissing match with L, taking out whoever went after him, and potentially planning on expanding his kill list to include whatever his definition of "lazy people" was). Still, despite his crazy god complex and everything else, he always wanted to create a utopia at least.

Vidal on the other hand seems to have no sort of potentially redeeming factors like that based on his description and what others are saying.

Is there an argument that since Light isnt evil when he gives up the Death Note hes only evil with it?

Captain Vidal

This is a tough one. But I think Vidal would've only used the Death Note for his own selfish gain. I think he would've done a lot worse with it than Light.

PerfectChaosZ posted...

Is there an argument that since Light isnt evil when he gives up the Death Note hes only evil with it?

I'd say no. It's not like possessing it (initially) made him instantly more evil. No one else that gets one even changes at all, for better or worse. It allowed him to go down that path but he did so willingly every step of the way. Even "good Light" recognizes that the people Kira was initially killing is exactly who he'd choose.

Vidal

TC Id like to suggest, if possible, to include a picture of each character somewhere in the OP. Love the write ups.

vidal

light is a much more complex character than 'just straight up evil', vidal is just straight up evil.