Board 8 > Most Evil Fictional Character: BOB vs. Art The Clown

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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.

-

The following write-ups will contain untagged SPOILERS for Twin Peaks and the films of Damien Leone, particular the Terrifier films.

BOB

BOB is the primary antagonist of Twin Peaks.

BOB is an interdimensional entity who feeds on pain and sorrow. An inhabiting spirit, he possesses human beings and then commits acts of rape and murder in order to feast upon his victims. Bob is an interdimensional entity from the Black Lodge, a realm which exists on an alternate plane of reality. While "possessing" humans, he commits horrible crimes to elicit pain, fear, and suffering in those around him. During his investigation of Laura Palmer's murder, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper first learns of Bob's existence in a vision, in which he encounters another entity named Mike. In this vision, Cooper learns that Bob was in life a serial killer who raped and murdered young women, with Mike as his accomplice. Mike eventually repented, removing his left arm in order to be rid of the tattoo that he shared with Bob. At the beginning of the second season, one of Bob's intended victims, Ronnette Pulaski, awakens from a coma induced by her torture at Bob's hands, at which time she identifies Bob as Laura's killer. Cooper and the Twin Peaks Sheriff department canvass the town with wanted posters of Bob. Leland Palmer, Laura's father, identifies the man in the poster as "Robertson", and says that he lived near his grandfather and used to taunt Leland when he was a child. It is later revealed that Bob is, in fact, possessing Leland, and has been "possessing" him ever since Leland first met him as a child at his grandfather's house. Under Bob's influence, Leland sexually abused his own daughter for years, and finally murdered her. Leland is also under Bob's control when he murders Leland's niece Maddy Ferguson, who looks just like Laura. Upon learning the truth, Cooper lures Bob into a trap by tricking Leland into allowing himself to be questioned. Under interrogation, Bob takes control and taunts Cooper before forcing Leland to bash his head repeatedly into the wall, sustaining fatal injuries. Cooper sees a vision of Bob taunting him shortly after Josie Packard has a sudden heart attack as he tries to arrest her. It is implied that Bob caused the heart attack by flooding her body and soul with terror, literally frightening her to death.

vs.

ART THE CLOWN

Art the Clown is the antagonist of several horror films and shorts.

Art the Clown made his debut appearance in the short film "The 9th Circle", which follows his pursuit of a young woman named Casey in an empty train station on Halloween night. Art abducts Casey and brings her to a satanic cult for a sacrifice to Satan. Art's second appearance was in the short film "Terrifier", where he stalks and torments a young woman who witnesses one of his murders at a gas station. The character made his feature-film debut in All Hallows' Eve, which incorporates the prior two short films as segments on VHS tapes that the film's protagonist Sarah watches with the children she's babysitting on Halloween night. Art enters the real world and murders the children for a terrified Sarah to find. Art's second feature-film appearance was in the slasher film Terrifier (2016). In Terrifier, Art inhabits the fictitious Miles County and pursues partygoer Tara Heyes and her sister Victoria on Halloween night. After killing Tara, he targets Victoria, the lone survivor. She fights against Art until he runs her over with a pickup truck and eats half of her face off, leaving her disfigured. Art is a vile, dangerous, and demented killer clown who has a penchant for viciously slaughtering nearly anyone he comes across, with his preferred method of killing and torture being mutilation. Art possesses various supernatural abilities as well, which he uses to induce fear upon his targets. He is shown to be an extremely dedicated serial killer, stopping at nothing until he has finally cornered his victims, who he continually chases down, terrorizes and stalks, before either killing in a slow, violently sadistic manner, or, as shown in some cases, sparing their lives, only so that they have to live with the trauma he has exposed them to. He always (silently) laughs when his targets are in peril, and is very theatrical when hunting down and killing them, oftentimes performing his kills in an animated, comedic manner.

BOB

He has both the sadism and the larger scale evil.

BOB

I always dock points for monsters who have to be monsters to keep existing, but jesus fucking christ

Bob

Art is usually finished with his victims quickly. With Leland, Bob stayed for years. Made him molest and murder his own daughter. While he does feed off of 'garmonbozia', even the other residents of the realm of pure evil from which he comes want him destroyed.

This is kind of an incredible matchup since (Terrifier spoilers) it feels like Art is slowly turning into a Bob-like entity as the movies continue.

Gotta give this to Bob though, I feel like he's every bit as bad as Art and is further along on his journey of evil to boot.

trdl23 posted...

I always dock points for monsters who have to be monsters to keep existing, but jesus fucking christ

This is usually my train of thought too. Does Bob need to do what he does to survive? Is his existence dependent on doing what he does? He sounds like a significantly worse version of Pennywise.

Dancedreamer posted...

Bob

Art is usually finished with his victims quickly. With Leland, Bob stayed for years. Made him molest and murder his own daughter. While he does feed off of 'garmonbozia', even the other residents of the realm of pure evil from which he comes want him destroyed.

This is interesting though. That first part is horrific, and that second part makes it seem like he is doing something "extra". Why exactly do they want him destroyed?

There is no reason to assume that BOB needs to eat the garmonbozia (pain and sorrow) to exist, he is hoarding it to himself but the other lodge entities dont die or starve when he does this. I think they just like it. Its a treat for them. What is certain is that its not his primary purpose, he went to Earth basically as a force of darkness to corrupt the world by spreading evil through violence and abuse. He is a cosmic force of evil as well as being very cruel.

As for why the other lodge residents want him destroyed oh boy. Twin Peaks lore is deliberately very ambiguous and difficult to figure out. There are multiple different entities trying to kill BOB and for different reasons. The fireman (also known as the giant) is not from the realm of pure evil but from a realm of pure good and is basically trying to counteract BOBs evil. On the evil side there is BOBs old partner Mike, who saw the face of God and cut off his arm to turn to good, and supposedly wants to stop BOB for that reason. However the movie implies that he may actually still be evil and just want the garmonbozia for himself although The Return seems to suggest otherwise. Either way his arm became a separate entity that is also trying to stop BOB, and he definitely does seem to just want the garmonbozia for himself. In all cases its basically because he is too evil for the other entities to allow to continue to exist.

Xiahou_Shake posted...

This is kind of an incredible matchup since (Terrifier spoilers) it feels like Art is slowly turning into a Bob-like entity as the movies continue.

Gotta give this to Bob though, I feel like he's every bit as bad as Art and is further along on his journey of evil to boot.

yeah when I saw this matchup I thought "this seems like it would be a close one a few years from now"

still also voting for bob

Oh interesting. Thanks for clarifying!

Yeah, this is a blowout then. Bob

BOB based off comments