History ForTheEvulz / Literature

[[AC:General]]
* Organizations with essentially the same motives as ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'''s The Party are a recurring element in the satirical horror novels of Creator/BentleyLittle. ''The Store'' is about a UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}}-esque retail chain that goes far out of its way to be as oppressive and cause as much unnecessary suffering as it can; ''The Association'' is about a homeowner's association that does the same; ''The Policy'' is about an insurance company that does the same.

** In ''Mere Christianity'', Lewis offers a theological {{deconstruction}} of the trope: It is possible to do good simply for the sake of doing what is right, but nobody does evil simply for the sake of doing what is wrong; evil deeds are merely the pursuit of some good in the wrong way. Even sadists don't commit cruel acts just because they are bad, but because they gain pleasure from them; but seeking pleasure is not bad in and of itself, only the way they get it is bad. "Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness."
* Edgler Vess from Creator/DeanKoontz' ''Intensity'' is a self-proclaimed homicidal adventurer, who loves to kill just for the sheer intensity of it. Vassago from another Koontz novel ''Literature/{{Hideaway}}'' kills people so he could be reincarnated as one of the demon princes in Hell (it's not clarified what he would gain from it). As a matter of fact, simply every villain in every Creator/DeanKoontz book ever written.
* Creator/StephenKing
** Those responsible for the Dome in ''Literature/UnderTheDome''. They're compared to children torturing ants.
** Randall Flagg in ''Literature/TheStand'' and his other roles in the Stephen King universe. He's not really seeking out anything concrete with his actions: he just likes spreading chaos and misery. He'll enjoy some of the fruits of being an all-powerful sorcerer, but he mainly just likes mucking things up.
** The title character of ''Literature/MrMercedes'' enjoys causing death and destruction on a large scale for his own personal amusement.
** In ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', Sue Snell speculates about [[AlphaBitch Chris Hargensen]]'s motivations and comes to the conclusion that she just wanted to destroy Carrie White for its own sake.

* The protagonists of ''Literature/The120DaysOfSodom'', as well as many of the men in the prostitutes' stories, like to rape, torture, murder, financially ruin, and otherwise harm innocent people, for pleasure. His other books feature protagonists' with this motive as well, although sometimes they will also give a more philosophical rationale to support it, though usually that still boils down to cruelty, murder etc., for its own sake, just with some "justifications" like "[[TheHedonist pleasure is good no matter what]]" or "[[WhatIsEvil morality is an illusion]]".

* The protagonist of ''Literature/TheBlackCat'' starts hurting people and animals around him For the Evulz or, as he himself puts it: in the "spirit of [[BoldInflation PERVERSENESS]]". Poe's perverseness is an odd supposed psychological motive (but perhaps related to negative suggestion) that goes a step further than For the Evulz, inspiring not just morally wrong acts harmful to others, but any kind of irrational and wrong acts even just harmful to oneself; inspires one to do anything they shouldn't just because they know they shouldn't. The protagonist hangs his pet cat, ''because'' he knows that it's just about the worst thing he could possibly do.

* ''Literature/ChristCloneTrilogy'': When Decker asks TheAntiChrist ([[spoiler:Christopher Goodman]]) why he does what he does when he knows he's going to lose, the reply is: "Because it feels so good to twist the nose of God!" The same Antichrist later muses how an eternity in [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Hell]] will be tolerable in the knowledge that he tricked millions of people to join him there so he can listen to their screams forever, [[spoiler:[[MoralEventHorizon including his own parents]]]].
* ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'': Alex likes to kill, beat up and rape people for his own enjoyment. One could say that [[AssholeVictim he certainly deserves the treatment he gets]] after being brainwashed.

* In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', eleven of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles' 12 older brothers frequently abuse him out of [[EvilIsPetty sadistic cruelty]]. The FakedKidnapping prank is one seriously cruel example, as they trick Hans -- [[WouldHurtAChild who was only four years at the time -- into believing that a "King Gotya" has "kidnapped" one of his brothers and would only "release" him on the condition that Hans ''run around the entire royal castle three times in just his underwear''. It's implied that this prank even caused Hans to end up in major trouble, despite the older brothers being the ''real'' culprits.
* Dr. Mabuse, who was inspired by Literature/{{Fantomas}} (see below). In addition to spreading fear, however, Mabuse wants to destroy the world... and laugh maniacally over the rubble.
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', the villain has a slave who is magically compelled to obey him. One would assume that poor slave wants to break free and do a HeelFaceTurn, but no, apparently it is the other way round and the villain keeps the sadistic urges of the slave in check, who would torture random people for the evulz, while the villain has a more thought-out plan.
* The Order of the Blackened Denarius from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' are explicitly stated as being out to inflict as much chaos, death, and destruction as possible, and are responsible for inciting numerous plagues, wars, and other disasters. Shagnasty, if anything, was even worse than the Denarians, deliberately striking out at hapless bystanders and opponents far too weak to hurt it, simply to show off how much pain it could inflict. However, both of these examples might have ulterior motives beyond the Evulz. It's noted that the Denarians gain power through the pain and suffering of others, and Skinwalkers like Shagnasty draw strength from the fear others feel for them -- doing horrible, nasty things increases this fear, and thus the Skinwalker's power.
* Literature/{{Fantomas}}: the valuables he steals is just an added bonus, what he really enjoys is to spread fear.
* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' has a cast full of characters that fight for various ideals but the EvilDuo of Ryunosuke Uryu and the Gilles des Rais do what they do for the sake of their MadArtist streaks and for the sake of evil. Gilles des Rais manages to humanize this trope somewhat in that the death of his beloved Joan of Arc broke him so much that he snapped and became a serial killer to cope with the pain, but eventually and slowly began to love killing by the time he's summoned into the nineties when the story takes place, [[spoiler:though in death, he realizes he never should have become a serial killer and lived ForTheEvulz]]. Ryunosuke on the other hand just loves killing and always has, and worse than that, loves killing children and turning [[MadArtist peoples' bodies into art]]. Ryunosuke technically has an ideal in that he loves death, even [[spoiler:being happy at his own death]] but he fully admits that he knows what he is doing is considered evil and loves it. Worse than that, he thinks God should like him for it since God must be amused by both the "heroes and villains" in the world.
* Creator/RobertSilverberg's short story "Flies", in ''Literature/DangerousVisions'', deals with a man [[DeityOfHumanOrigin who is given God-like powers]], and uses them to torture people, for his own amusement.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'', Vogon poetry is considered the third-worst in the galaxy. The Vogons' first attempts at composition were a blundgeoning attempt to prove themselves as a properly evolved and cultured race, but now they do it out of sheer bloody-mindedness. One Vogon explicitly states he writes poetry simply because hearing it hurts people and bring his cold, heartless exterior into sharp relief.
* Jonathan Teatime in the novel ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'': "People say I'm the kind of person who would just as soon kill you as look at you, but that's not true. I'd much rather kill you."

* C.W. Saturn in Literature/MiracleMonday, much to Superman's bewilderment.
* Croup and Vandemar from ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'' appear to have this motivation. They kill people horribly on a professional basis, and are quite proud of this. For recreation, they kill people even more horribly. Croup also eats works of art.

* Carcer from ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' is "The sort that joins up for the looting, and that you end up hanging as an example to the men". He's possessed of a pair of shoulder demons, in competition with each other.

* The protagonists of the Marquis de Sade's ''Literature/The120DaysOfSodom'', as well as many of the men in the prostitutes' stories, like to rape, torture, murder, financially ruin, and otherwise harm innocent people, for pleasure. His other books feature protagonists' with this motive as well, although sometimes they will also give a more philosophical rationale to support it, though usually that still boils down to cruelty, murder etc, for its own sake, just with some "justifications" like "[[TheHedonist pleasure is good]] [[TheUnfettered no matter what]]" or "[[WhatIsEvil morality is an illusion]]".
* In Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', a member of the Inner Party admits that unlike the older totalitarian movements of the early 20th century such as the Nazis and Communists, who still clothed their rhetoric as fighting for a utopian cause, the Party of Oceania is openly nihilistic and completely unapologetic that it isn't looking forward to improving the world, only seeking [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans power for the sake of power]], [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans oppression for the sake of oppression]]. Notably, this is the same reason why the nameless prole woman sings: just for the sake of singing.
* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', Keifer Porter is too stupid to have any long-term plan or reason for his sadistic behaviour, he just enjoys causing pain. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that some greater mind was behind his more rational evil deeds]]
* Alex from ''Literature/AClockworkOrange''. This guy likes to kill, beat up and rape people for his own enjoyment and one could say [[AssholeVictim he certainly deserves the treatment he gets]] after being brainwashed.
-->"I know what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong."
* In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', eleven of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles' 12 older brothers frequently abuse him out of [[EvilIsPetty sadistic cruelty]]. The FakedKidnapping prank is one seriously cruel example, as they trick Hans, [[WouldHurtAChild who was only]] ''[[WouldHurtAChild four years at the time]]'', into assuming a "King Gotya" has "kidnapped" one of his brothers and would only "release" him on the condition that Hans ''run around the entire royal castle three times in just his underwear''. It's implied this prank even caused Hans to end up in major trouble, despite the older brothers being the ''real'' culprits.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': The series has some minor villains, who seem to be along just for their own sick pleasures. The worst ones would be the huge rapist knight Ser Gregor Clegane (among countless other atrocities sickening in nature), the inhumanly cruel outcasts in the Brave Companions, aka the Bloody Mummers, sadistic Ramsay Snow/Bolton who has torture, rape, flaying and hunting women on his resume, among other atrocities and the heartless boy-king Joffrey Baratheon, who practically revels in his power and prefers to make people fear him. This is deconstructed, as performing senselessly evil acts doesn't work in the long term, [[spoiler:Joffrey executing Ned Stark starts a war with the North]], and the evil acts of many of the worst characters come back to bite them (the Bloody Mummers are being hunted down for their atrocities).
* In the ''Literature/{{Abarat}}'' series, Christopher Carrion enjoys walks on his island full of gallows, releasing unnamed horrors from the deeps of the ocean, and torturing people by allowing his own nightmares to feast on their fear.
* Inverted in ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine''. The bad guys always act out of self-interest, ideology, or pure hedonistic lust. The ''protagonist'' is the one who, for shits and giggles, escalates conflicts almost compulsively. So far this includes "escalating" a verbal argument into a lethal fight, a skirmish with an [[OurOrcsAreDifferent ogrillo]] tribe into ethnic cleansing, and a minor political conflict into ''a civil war''. (And the bad guys ''are still worse''.)
* In ''Literature/AlexAndTheIronicGentleman'', [[spoiler: Charles]], the villain of the train, admits that their demonstrations of [[spoiler: the life-sucking machine]] are mostly motivated by their desire to "scare the bejesus" out of Alex. Their other actions are also motivated by enjoyment of being evil.
%%* Most of the villains in ThomasBerger's Arthurian novel ''ArthurRex''.
* In ''Literature/AwakeInTheNightLand'', the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s of the titular Night Land torment and kill the humans out of sheer malice. They explicitly state that "malice needs no justification".
* Venandakatra the Vile in the Literature/BelisariusSeries seems so evil that one wonders if the writer was doing a whimsical exercise in how to create the most evil villain. He takes a slave for the express purpose of deflowering her, when he's not busy raping pre-adolescent and adolescent girls; demands that people be impaled on short stakes so they take longer to die, as they don't protrude far enough into the body cavity to cause rapid death; and looks forward to having the Mahaveda cult priests skin their victims and make them into flesh-sack fetishes as his trophies. Even his own dynasty is put off by him, but grudgingly admit he is good at keeping the Maratha rebels in line.
* Organizations with essentially the same motives as ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'''s The Party are a recurring element in the satirical horror novels of Creator/BentleyLittle. e.g. ''The Store'' is about a UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}}-esque retail chain that goes far out of its way to be as oppressive and cause as much unnecessary suffering as it can; ''The Association'' is about a homeowner's association that does the same; ''The Policy'' is about an insurance company that does the same.
* The protagonist in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheBlackCat'' starts hurting people and animals around him For The Evulz or, as he himself puts it: in the "spirit of [[BoldInflation PERVERSENESS]]". Poe's perverseness is an odd supposed psychological motive (but perhaps related to negative suggestion) that goes a step further than For The Evulz, inspiring not just morally wrong acts harmful to others, but any kind of irrational and wrong acts even just harmful to oneself; inspires one to do anything they shouldn't just because they know they shouldn't. The protagonist hangs his pet cat, ''because'' he knows that it's just about the worst thing he could possibly do.
-->One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; hung it ''because'' I knew that it had loved me, and ''because'' I felt it had given me no reason of offense; hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin — a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it, if such a thing were possible, even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.
* In James Beauseigneur's ''Literature/ChristCloneTrilogy'' when Decker, the viewpoint character, asks TheAntiChrist ([[spoiler: Christopher Goodman]]) why he does what he does when he knows he's going to lose, the reply is "Because it feels so good to twist the nose of God!" The same Antichrist later muses how an eternity in [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Hell]] will be tolerable in the knowledge that he tricked millions of people to join him there so he can listen to their screams forever, [[spoiler: [[MoralEventHorizon including his own parents]]]].
* As recounted in his ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'', a young Augustine and his friends stole pears from a stranger's property and threw the pears away. They didn't need or use the pears, they had nothing against the pear, nor did they have any ideological reason to do so. The only reason they did it was for the sake of doing what was not allowed.
-->''"I had no motive for my own wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself."''

** In ''[[Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy Perelandra]]'', {{Satan}} himself is this. While he has real (and deeply [[OmnicidalManiac malicious]]) ambitions, when he can't move directly toward them he's just as happy torturing small animals or tearing up the turf, so long as he can hurt something. When Venus!Eve is around he's eloquent, logical, and persuasive, but when she's not one of his favorite pastimes can be summed up by this exchange: "Ransom. Ransom. ''Ransom''. Ransom." "What?" "Nothing. ... Ransom."
** Averted in ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters''. The preface to later editions notes avoidance of "the absurd fancy that devils are engaged in the disinterested pursuit of something called Evil (the capital is essential). Mine have no use for any such turnip ghost. Bad angels, like bad men, are entirely practical. They have two motives. The first is fear of punishment.... Their second motive is a kind of hunger."
** Averted again inside the letters themselves, which deal with the attempts by a devil to tempt a man to damnation from within C.S. Lewis' own eschatology. Screwtape, a senior devil, advises his junior Wormwood that big, bad, horrible evil is not the best option. He wants the petty, small, low-grade denial of Grace and Salvation - just enough to damn a man, but not enough to make him willful and defiant enough to repent.
--> "It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

* While Nyarlathotep from Creator/HPLovecraft's Franchise/CthulhuMythos often works to fulfill the wishes of the Outer Gods or release the [[SealedEvilInACan Great Old Ones]], a lot of the times he seems to be messing with mankind for no other reason than his own amusement. In "Nyarlathotep", he seems to be destroying the world without any actual motive. In ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'', his goal is apparently to snatch off the earthly gods from their scented revels in the glorious sunset city purely to screw with them. Also, in spite of apparently sending Carter off to achieve this goal, he betrays Carter for no apparent reason other than, again, to be a real dick. The ways of the Outer Gods are essentially beyond human comprehension. In "The Dreams in the Witch House", he appears as a black-skinned {{expy}} of {{Satan}}. He's even worse in other authors' appropriations of the character.
** While Nyarlathotep may have had a reason to return the Gods of Earth to Kadath (that's where they're supposed to live), him sending Carter to accomplish the task for him and subsequently betraying him serves no point other than being a dick. Especially since in the end it's revealed he's powerful enough to return the Gods to Kadath with no effort at all.
* In L. Don's ''Literature/DrawingAVeil'' when Ellie and Amina are walking to school and find a bird's nest with a chick in it lying on the ground. While Ellie ponders how to save it, Amina simply steps on it and grounds it beneath her boot. When a shocked Ellie asks her why she killed it Amina just smiles.
* Carcer from the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld''. "The sort that joins up for the looting, and that you end up hanging as an example to the men". Possessed of a pair of shoulder demons, in competition with each other.

* In [[Creator/JorgeLuisBorges Borges]]'s ''Deutsches Requiem'', the Nazi murderer zur Linde tortures a Jewish poet [[DrivenToSuicide until he kills himself]] purely For the Evulz; indeed, it seems that zur Linde thinks that by destroying David Jerusalem, he can destroy whatever goodness remains within himself, and that's what he deliberately sets out to do. At the end, zur Linde is actually happy that Germany is being defeated and destroyed, because he believes it will lead to a world of pure violence, warfare, and cycles of domination, and that's worth the death of both himself and his nation.

* The Order of the Blackened Denarius from ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' are explicitly stated as being out to inflict as much chaos, death, and destruction as possible, and are responsible for inciting numerous plagues, wars, and other disasters. Shagnasty, if anything, was even worse than the Denarians, deliberately striking out at hapless bystanders and opponents far too weak to hurt it, simply to show off how much pain it could inflict.
** Both of these examples, however, might have ulterior motives beyond the Evulz. It's noted that the Denarians gain power through the pain and suffering of others, and Skinwalkers like Shagnasty draw strength from the fear others feel for them - doing horrible, nasty things increases this fear, and thus the Skinwalker's power.

* In ''Literature/HellsChildren'' by Andrew Boland a race of aliens travel light years to wipe out all life on earth. Their motivation for this, they were bored.
* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'''s [[BigBad Borborygmus Gog]], a MadScientist, once knew that an experiment would [[GoneHorriblyWrong backfire catastrophically]] and [[spoiler: create a WorldWreckingWave that would [[ApocalypseHow kill all life on a planet]].]] He ''knew'' what would happen, and convinced the scientist who'd pull the trigger that it was a harmless experiment. It can't have been ForScience, because he ''knew'' and besides this destroyed their massive lab. He just wanted to see it. He explains to the Emperor that he believed the results would aid his weapons research. It's never made clear whether they were or if it was just an excuse to justify the wasted resources.
* Literature/HarryPotter
** Bellatrix Lestrange always seems to have way too much fun killing people, breaking their stuff and [[spoiler:torturing innocent people into insanity]]. Much more obvious in her [[Film/HarryPotter movie portrayal]], where she spends quite a bit of her screen time laughing maniacally. Even more obvious near the end of ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half Blood Prince]]'', [[spoiler:where while all the other Death Eaters are just calmly leaving the castle after Dumbledore's been killed, she decides to [[http://youtu.be/4V2wYYknlbk?t=3m36s cause as much destruction as possible,]] clearly enjoying herself.]]
** The werewolf Greyback. He takes to infecting ''small children'' because he thinks they will be more likely to join his cause if they are infected young. He claims motives such as overthrowing the wizards, but most of his actions are purely for the fun of destroying people. According to [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ the Harry Potter Lexicon]], all Dark creatures (including werewolves) harm people for the sake of harming people, not for survival like normal animals. Greyback is unique because he hurts people in his human form.
** Most Umbridge's actions in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' are understandable (though obviously disproportionate) when viewed through the lens of her [[MyCountryRightOrWrong fanatical loyalty to the Ministry]], but her imposition of a lifetime Quidditch ban on Harry, Fred and George is all down to her wanting to [[EvilIsPetty hit them where it hurts]].

-->'''Littleton''': Blood is not really filling without death, is it?
* In ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'', "Zala's" real (though unstated) motive for running a ring of sex-traders seems to be that he's simply a misogynistic sadist who enjoys dominating and hurting women. Even TheDragon thinks that the sex-trade is too high-risk for its mediocre profits and that they ought to do something else. This also seems to be his main reason for [[spoiler: horrifically abusing Lizbeth's mother (playing cruel mind games and beating her into permanent brain damage), and it's clear from the manner he draws on ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections that he relishes making life difficult for the people who have to bail him out.]]

* In ''Literature/TheNightAngelTrilogy'', one of the most dangerous Wetboys out there is Hu Gibbet. While he can be considered a PsychoForHire, the main reason he does his work is because he enjoys it: working for the criminal organization that basically runs the city from the shadows lets him kill often, without having to worry about getting pursued by law enforcement. The thing is, he really, really, REALLY enjoys killing people. Especially when it comes to large groups of people. Shortly before [[spoiler: he is killed,]] he is genuinely concerned that he has been given a contract larger than any he has ever been given before. He's worried that he might enjoy himself so much that he might get sloppy and miss a few of the targets, which is the ultimate no-no for a wetboy.
* There needs to be a special place here for Quinn Dexter, the central villain of Creator/PeterFHamilton's ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy''. A cunning, vengeful [[ReligionOfEvil Satanist]] that was cast out of his coven and exiled on a fresh colony many light-years from Earth for being [[EvenEvilHasStandards too devout]]. He gets possessed by a soul returning from the dead, only for him to eventually scare the possessing soul sh*tless and re-assert control of his body while maintaining the RealityWarper abilities that possession brings. From there, it's a jolly journey back to Earth to exact terrible vengeance on his former boss, gathering up followers and bringing slow, agonizing destruction to entire planets as preparation for [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ending the Universe]]. Because, hey... that's what {{Satan}} would want.
* An awful lot of misbehavior in the Literature/{{Nightside}} series, from heinous torture of innocents to the merely rude, is attributed to the "just because he/she/it/they could" motive.

* BKR of ''Literature/RodAllbrightAlienAdventures'' certainly counts. His plan to create a MergedReality between our world and Dimension X, and then his plan to disrupt space-time so time itself will stop, would have effected him just as it did everyone else. His ArchEnemy Grakker explicitly says that he ''knows''' that he would also be affected, but as long as he can hurt other people, he just doesn't care.
* At the end of the ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', [[spoiler:it is revealed that Desmond Tiny's plan - fortunately foiled by Darren - involved magically fathering both Darren and Steve and giving the Vampaneze the fire coffin (so that they could find the Vampeneze Lord) and the Vampires a special stone that would help them in their hour of need (made from the brain of a dragon). He then manipulated events to ensure that Steve and Darren both went to see the Cirque du Freak, paving the way for Darren to eventually become a Vampire Prince and Steve to become the Vampaneze Lord. He then pits the two against one another, insisting that the vampires only have three chances to kill Steve before he overthrows the Vampires and later tells them that whichever boy won - Darren or Steve - would become the Lord of Shadows and kill all of their friends. When the vampires used the stone gift to create more vampires, it would create a new breed of violent ones.]] The reason he did all of this? He looked into the future and saw that things were going to be too peaceful for his liking, so he set the stage for a lot of chaos to amuse him.
* Creator/StephenKing
** Those responsible for the Dome in ''Literature/UnderTheDome''. They're compared to children torturing ants.
** Randall Flagg in ''Literature/TheStand'' and his other roles in the Stephen King universe. He's not really seeking out anything concrete with his actions: he just likes spreading chaos and misery. He'll enjoy some of the fruits of being an all-powerful sorcerer, but he mainly just likes mucking things up.
** The title character of ''Literature/MrMercedes'' enjoys causing death and destruction on a large scale for his own personal amusement.
** In ''{{Literature/Carrie}}'', Sue Snell speculates about [[AlphaBitch Chris Hargensen's]] motivations, and comes to the conclusion that she just wanted to destroy Carrie White for its own sake.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TerraIgnota''. Mycroft claims that [[spoiler:he brutally killed the entire Mardi bash' of seventeen people]] to prove that someone could be evil for evil's sake, solving that philosophical debate once and for all. However, Mycroft's true motives were a little more complicated [[spoiler:and included preventing a world war]].

* ''{{Literature/Timeline}}'': Robert de Kere, who kills people out of simple enjoyment.
* The sadistic serial killer in Creator/SpiderRobinson's novel ''Literature/VeryBadDeaths'' exemplifies this: He inflicts horrible cruelties upon his victims because he enjoys it. He derives the same sense of satisfaction from cruelty than most people get from kind ones.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': Okay, so we know that Sol wants to [[spoiler:use the Three's powers to gain control over all cats living around the lake and eliminate belief in [=StarClan=],]] but [[spoiler:his manipulation of the Twolegplace cats]] doesn't have ''anything'' to with his plans, and was seemingly done for the hell of it. Plus, he doesn't seem that committed to his goal, doesn't approach it with much urgency, and seems to get ''way'' too much enjoyment from messing with the main characters' minds.

* In Micheal Butterworth’s 1977 sci-fi horror novel ''Literature/ThePsychomorph'' a young girl has the ability to morph into a variety of insects. While she is in one of her insect stages, she is spotted by another woman who, knowing full well that the insect is a girl, deliberately steps on and crushes the girl beneath her boot. The woman smiles cruelly as she grinds the creature beneath her boot.
* Shayla throughout the ''Literature/TheWrathOfAmbar'' series hurts people simply because she enjoys being cruel and seeing others suffer. She is motivated by her lust for blood and power.
** In one of her first scenes, she deliberately steps on Gul's hand and crushes it until she hears bones crack from under her boot heel. Gul is barely older than a toddler at this point.
** Her sadism isn't just reserved for humans. When a slave girl's pet kitten makes the mistake of getting to close to Shayla, she nonchalantly raises her foot and steps in stride on to it, simply because it was in her way.
* In the {{novelization}} of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Moff Jerjerrod the commander of the second Death Star plans to blow up Endor for this reason, when the Death Star is about to be destroyed.
-->There seemed to be little he could do at this point. Except, of course, destroy Endor — he could do that. It was a small act, a token really — to incinerate something green and living, gratuitously, meanly, toward no end but that of wanton destruction. A small act, but deliciously satisfying.
* ''Literature/InCryptid'': Within the first couple pages of the short story "[[VillainEpisode Balance]]", [[BewareTheMindReader Eliza]] kills two people and permanently warps another's mind for sheer amusement. And that's a pretty basic day for her.
* ''Literature/SecondApocalypse''
** The Inchoroi are a fantastically depraved species of spacefaring monsters whose sole purpose has become to get their evil jollies off and find a way to escape damnation. They describe themselves as "a race of lovers."
** One of the Inchoroi's "[[OrganicTechnology weapon races]]" is the sranc, a species of dog-sized humanoids who are programmed to be solely motivated by a literal lust for carnage.

* In the {{novelization}} of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Moff Jerjerrod the commander of the second Death Star plans to blow up the Endor for this reason, when the Death Star is about to be destroyed.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': The series has some minor villains, who seem to be along just for their own sick pleasures. The worst ones would be the huge rapist knight Ser Gregor Clegane (among countless other atrocities sickening in nature), traitorous child-murderer Theon Greyjoy, the inhumanly cruel outcasts in the Brave Companions, aka the Bloody Mummers, sadistic Ramsay Snow/Bolton who has torture, rape, flaying and hunting women on his resume, among other atrocities and the heartless boy-king Joffrey Baratheon, who practically revels in his power and prefers to make people fear him. This is deconstructed, as performing senselessly evil acts doesn't work in the long term, [[spoiler:Joffrey executing Ned Stark starts a war with the North]], and the evil acts of many of the worst characters come back to bite them (the Bloody Mummers are being hunted down for their atrocities).

* BKR of ''Literature/RodAlbrightAlienAdventures'' certainly counts. His plan to create a MergedReality between our world and Dimension X, and then his plan to disrupt space-time so time itself will stop, would have effected him just as it did everyone else. His ArchEnemy Grakker explicitly says that he ''knows''' that he would also be affected, but as long as he can hurt other people, he just doesn't care.

* Venandekatra the Vile in the Literature/BelisariusSeries seems so evil that one wonders if the writer was doing a whimsical exercise in how to create the most evil villain.

* In the {{novelization}} of ''Film/TheReturnOfTheJedi'', Moff Jerjerrod the commander of the second Death Star plans to blow up the Endor for this reason, when the Death Star is about to be destroyed.

* The protagonists of the Marquis de Sade's ''Literature/The120DaysOfSodom'', as well as many of the men in the prostitutes' stories, like to rape, torture, murder, financially ruin, and otherwise harm innocent people, for pleasure. His other books feature protagonists' with this motive as well, although sometimes they will also give a more philosophical rationale to support it, though usually that still boils down to cruelty, murder etc, for its own sake, just with some "justifications".

* Creator/RobertSilverberg's short story "Flies", in ''Literature/DangerousVisions'', deals with a man [[AGodAmI who is given God-like powers]], and uses them to torture people, for his own amusement.

* The protagonist in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''The Black Cat'' starts hurting people and animals around him For The Evulz or, as he himself puts it: in the "spirit of [[BoldInflation PERVERSENESS]]". Poe's perverseness is an odd supposed psychological motive (but perhaps related to negative suggestion) that goes a step further than For The Evulz, inspiring not just morally wrong acts harmful to others, but any kind of irrational and wrong acts even just harmful to oneself; inspires one to do anything they shouldn't just because they know they shouldn't. The protagonist hangs his pet cat, ''because'' he knows that it's just about the worst thing he could possibly do.

* In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', eleven of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles' 12 older brothers frequently physically abuse him out of sadistic cruelty. The [[FakedKidnapping fake "ransom note"]] prank is one seriously cruel example, as they trick Hans, [[WouldHurtAChild who was only]] ''[[WouldHurtAChild four years at the time]]'', into assuming a "King Gotya" has "kidnapped" one of his brothers and would only "release" him on the condition that Hans ''run around the entire royal castle three times in just his underwear''. It's implied this prank even caused Hans to end up in major trouble, despite the older brothers being the ''real'' culprits.

* The protagonists of the Marquis de Sade's ''Literature/The120DaysOfSodom'', as well as many of the men in the prostitutes' stories, like to rape, torture, murder, financially ruin, and otherwise harm innocent people, for pleasure. His other books feature protagonists' with this motive as well, although sometimes they will also give a more philosophical rationalization to support it.

* In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', eleven of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles' 12 older brothers frequently physically abuse him out of sadistic cruelty. The "ransom note" prank is one seriously cruel example, as they trick Hans, [[WouldHurtAChild who was only]] ''[[WouldHurtAChild four years]]'' [[WouldHurtAChild at the time they pulled this prank]], into assuming a "King Gotya" has [[FakedKidnapping "kidnapped"]] one of his brothers and would only "release" him on the condition that Hans ''run around the entire royal castle three times in just his underwear''. It's implied this prank even caused Hans to end up in major trouble, despite the older brothers being the ''real'' culprits.

* Carcer from the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/NightWatch''. "The sort that joins up for the looting, and that you end up hanging as an example to the men". Possessed of a pair of shoulder demons, in competition with each other.

* Jonathan Teatime in the novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'': "People say I'm the kind of person who would just as soon kill you as look at you, but that's not true. I'd much rather kill you."

* The protagonists of the Marquis de Sade's ''Literature/The120DaysOfSodom'', as well as many of the men in the prostitutes' stories, like to rape, torture, murder, financially ruin, and otherwise harm innocent people, for pleasure. Many characters in his other books qualify as well.

* The protagonists of the Marquis de Sade's ''Literature/The120DaysOfSodom'', as well as many of the men in the prostitutes' stories, like to rape, torture, murder, financially ruin, and otherwise harm innocent people, for pleasure.

* In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', eleven of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles' 12 older brothers frequently physically abuse him out of sadistic cruelty. The "fake ransom note" is one seriously cruel example, as they trick Hans ([[WouldHurtAChild who was only]] ''[[WouldHurtAChild four years]]'' [[WouldHurtAChild at the time they pulled this prank]]) into assuming a "King Gotya" has [[FakedKidnapping "kidnapped"]] one of his brothers and would only "release" him on the condition that Hans ''run around the entire royal castle three times in just his underwear''. It's implied this prank even caused Hans to end up in major trouble, despite the older brothers being the ''real'' culprits.

* In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', eleven of Prince Hans's 12 older brothers frequently physically abuse him out of sadistic cruelty. The "fake ransom note" is one seriously cruel example, as they trick Hans ([[WouldHurtAChild who was only]] ''[[WouldHurtAChild four years]]'' [[WouldHurtAChild at the time they pulled this prank]]) into assuming a "King Gotya" has [[FakedKidnapping "kidnapped"]] one of his brothers and would only "release" him on the condition that Hans ''run around the entire Southern Isles castle three times in just his underwear''. It's implied this prank even caused Hans to end up in major trouble, despite the older brothers being the ''real'' culprits.

* In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', eleven of Prince Hans's 12 older brothers frequently physically abuse him out of sadistic cruelty. The "fake ransom note" is one seriously cruel example, as they trick Hans into assuming a "King Gotya" sent a "ransom note" stating that one of his brothers was [[FakedKidnapping "kidnapped,"]] and that "King Gotya" would only "release" him on the condition that Hans ''run around the entire Southern Isles castle three times in just his underwear''. It's implied this prank even caused Hans to end up in major trouble, despite the older brothers being the ''real'' culprits. He was only ''four'' years when they pulled this nasty prank.

* The vampire [[Literature/TheVampireChronicles Lestat]] from the novel by the same name and others by Creator/AnneRice. When asked why he is so cruel, Lestat simply states that he likes it and enjoys it.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': The series has some minor villains, who seem to be along just for their own sick pleasures. The worst ones would be the huge rapist knight Ser Gregor Clegane (among countless other atrocities sickening in nature), the inhumanly cruel outcasts in the Brave Companions, aka the Bloody Mummers, sadistic Ramsay Snow/Bolton who has torture, rape, flaying and hunting women on his resume, among other atrocities and the heartless boy-king Joffrey Baratheon, who practically revels in his power and prefers to make people fear him. This is deconstructed, as performing senselessly evil acts doesn't work in the long term, [[spoiler:Joffrey executing Ned Stark starts a war with the North]], and the evil acts of many of the worst characters come back to bite them (the Bloody Mummers are being hunted down for their atrocities).