History Main / ObviouslyEvil

* ''DynastyWarrior'''s Dong Zhuo, who viewed honour as an outdated custom, duty as useless and he only cares about his gold, women and land. He is fat, has a diabolical evillaugh, has a sword that has shark teeth along the blade and is heavily armored and is generally difficult to defeat. In more than a few games, he even says, "If I can fulfill my ambitions, I can burn down a capital city... or two... OR THREE!!" In Real Life, he might just be even worse.

** On Chile, the saliva strings attached to an open mouth are often called "The Mumm-Ra".

-->'''Amelia:''' <thinks hard for a few moments> Both of you!

Compare BlackAndGreyMorality, VillainousFashionSense.

*** The reason you're more likely to trust somebody who looks like Batman than somebody who looks like the Joker is ''because'' of Batman and the Joker.

->''"Did I mention I'm the villain? No? BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE TO."''\\
-- '''TheNostalgiaCritic'''

->''"Why don't you just draw a [[DastardlyWhiplash twirly mustache]] on her and get it over with!"''\\
-- '''{{Linkara}}''' [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/5273-amazons-attack-1-and-2 On Circe]]

When a work of fiction indulges in Obviously Evil[[TradeSnark ®]], every villain will be a CardCarryingVillain, usually ColorCodedForYourConvenience in shades of [[DarkIsEvil black]] and red. There won't be any {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s, [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]] or pretty much anything that doesn't accept and accentuate its evilness. If you see anybody that might seem to be a shade of grey on the side of the villains, it will usually basically be a [[TokenGoodTeammate hero with a slight bit of behavior modification to work with the villains]] (and an inevitable HeelFaceTurn coming up during {{Sweeps}}). If the villainous group is a governing body, it will always be an [[TheEvilEmpire Evil Empire]] with a ZeroPercentApprovalRating. There aren't any [[PunchClockVillain Punch Clock]] {{Mooks}} that just accepted the job because it's work, but instead AlwaysChaoticEvil FacelessGoons that act like miniature versions of the main villain and provide no guilt whatsoever when they get killed by the truckload.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience

** Given that he's [[spoiler:the head of a military dictatorship,]] it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he's not the nicest guy in the world. His evilness was never the biggest surprise about him anyway; that would be [[spoiler:his being a homunculus.]]

*** TECHNICALLY no; "fuhrer" is usually translated from German as "watcher," under the implication of "one who watches over a project/group/country." And Amestris' overall visual style and naming conventions was based around a WWI-esque Germany (only with pseudo-magical Alchemy.)

* Sort of subverted by the [[MonsterClown jolly Joker]] in ''{{Batman}}'', who is colourful (altought in purple and green) where Batman's costume is more akin to that of a traditional villain.

** Gaston of ''Film/{{Beauty and the Beast}}'' is a rare subversion of this trope in Disney.

** If Disney plays this trope straight then you should see QuestForCamelot and TheFearlessFour, both distributed by WarnerBrothers. At least Disney villains try to be subtle.
* The live action Disney film ''A Kid in King Arthur's Court'' gives us Lord Velasco, who in turn gave us the NostalgiaCritic quote at the top of the page. When a character is first introduced as the king's trusted and loyal adviser, and ''the very first shot of the movie that he's in'' shows him as a tall dark man with black robes, a black horse, black hair with white streaks, a sinister smile, and ominous background music, it's just insulting to our intellegence. He's like Jafar, except ''he's not hypnotizing the king,'' so the king really has no freaking excuse for trusting him.

* Most ''StarWars'' villains might as well be waving large signs reading "HI! WE'RE EVIL!" Darth Vader? He has a very large black suit, a menacing cape, and [[TheFaceless a face-concealing helmet]]. Stormtroopers? Not only is the name [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything taken directly from the Third Reich]], but their [[GasMaskMooks helmets]] come with a predesigned grimace. Darth Maul? Let's see, red and black tattoos, bad teeth, yellow eyes, a fine crest of horns on his head... looks just a bit demonic, wouldn't you say? (The rest of Maul's race in the ExpandedUniverse don't look so bad, but using lots of tattoos, especially red and black ones, is an old Sith tradition). And the name "Maul" doesn't exactly help. Palpatine? After ''Revenge of the Sith'', he has not only the standard Sith bad teeth and evil eyes, but he also wears black robes all the time. General Grievous? Distinctly skeletal. Count Dooku? While not ''that'' obviously evil, he was played by Christopher Lee. Lee has played, in past, [[LordOfTheRings Saruman]], CountDracula and FuManchu, all of them bad to the bone, making it rather hard to see him as anything ''other'' than a villain, especially when he wears pitch black at all times.

* Played with with Timothy Dalton's character in ''HotFuzz.'' Something about the smile, the moustache... and the relentless lampshading!

** Don't forget they actually had the nerve to do something as diabolical to [[DesignatedVillain get ''funding'']] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous for their research]]!

* The Russians in ''RedDawn'' - murdering high school students, raping, evil eyes, evil moustaches... [[NiceHat evil hats]].

* In the first DungeonsAndDragons film, the villains Profion and Damodar (though laughably so) are very much ObviouslyEvil, but the wizard's council doesn't seem to realize it.

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*** Probably also subverted with Voldemort's teenage appearance: handsome, slim, well-groomed, polite - in stark contrast to certain of his peers, which becomes a plot point.

* The Harkonnen in [[{{Dune}} Dune]] are sodomites, love wanton slaughter, their leader is an obese glutton who cannot move without technological aids, their homeworld is a [[CrapSackWorld cesspool of pollution]] and so on.

* Lord Zedd from ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers''. He appears to be made of exposed muscles partly covered by gleaming metal skeleton-like plating; he wears long metal claws over the ends of his fingers; his face is a skull-like metal mask with a fang-filled Glasgow smile and the two eye sockets merged into a red, [[XMen Cyclops-like]] visor; what appears to be his ''brain'' is exposed where his scalp should be; he has creepy plastic tubing with... something... flowing through it running up and down his limbs; and he wields a magical staff with a giant razor-edged Z on it. He is, in fact, '''bad.''' [[SarcasmMode No, really?]]

* Daleks from ''Doctor Who''. Come on.

** Who are, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesomely]], ''less'' overtly vicious, sadistic, cruel... and for that manner, ''[[CrossingTheLineTwice funny]]''... than Angelus, Angel's [[strike:CompleteMonster]] MagnificentBastard alter-ego.

* [[MassEffect Saren Arterius]]... more cybernetic parts than is necessary? Check. Chalk-white scale plates as opposed to the usual Turian gray? Check. Cold blue glowing cybernetic eyes? Check. More spiky-faced than you usual Turian? Yep...

* All of the Sith in KnightsOfTheOldRepublic and the sequel are pretty disturbing-looking (except for maybe Visas and Darth Bandon). The shot with Malak without his mechanical collar? Darth Nihilus, whose BlackSpeech is so evil it doesn't get subtitles?

* [[FateStayNight Zouken Matou.]] He looks like some sort of deformed little troll man and has jetblack eyes. Plus he manages to talk in a sinister fashion all the time - despite not having any audible clues - even before you realize that he is not the world's friendliest, cheeriest grandfather. The rest of the cast pretty much averts (Medea) and subverts (Berserker) this though.

--> Did we mention he's a [[EvilChancellor Chancellor]]?

* "President" John Henry Eden in ''Fallout 3''. His accent is suspiciously British (Because his voice actor is ALEX THE DROOG) It sounds extremely sinister, and his messages about the Enclave have the undertone of "If you get in our way, you'll be zapped with laser rifles."

[[folder:{{Webcomics}}]]

* ''ReBoot'' manages to play this straight, [[SubvertedTrope subvert]], [[InvertedTrope invert]] '''and''' [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this trope with the strange tolerance [[CityOfAdventure Mainframe]] and its guardian Bob gives towards viruses. In the world of computers, viruses can't help but obey their evil programming, which is why [[TechnicalPacifist Bob doesn't like killing them]], but wishes to reprogram them. But the two viral strains in Mainframe are far too powerful for Bob to ever capture or control, and he won't call for help, so the city endures two years of chaos before it goes too far. (And THAT'S ''before'' the series starts. )

* Subverted in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' with the character of Prince Zuko. In the first two episodes he is established as the DesignatedVillain, ColorCodedForYourConvenience sporting ShouldersOfDoom with nearly half his face covered in [[GoodScarsEvilScars a rather horrific burn scar]]. But by the end of the series, he [[CharacterDevelopment ends up]] [[spoiler: becoming the {{Troubled But Cute}} {{Sixth Ranger}}]].

---> "...he's so clearly the odd one out — a brutish hulk amongst his clean-looking fellow knights — that I'm amazed he was even in the running to be a knight at all. I'm not one to the judge by appearances, mind you, but it's obvious this surly guy is bad news."

** What's more baffling about Ruber is that at the beginning of the movie, he seems to be putting no effort at all into hiding his evil nature. When he starts acting up against Arthur, the knights' remarks suggest that this is typical behaviour for Ruber.
** This point is also made in TheNostalgiaCritic [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/17979-quest-for-camelot review]].
** The Critic also noted how Gary Oldman has a tendency to play ObviouslyEvil characters - in a previous review, the Critic continuously pointed out how clear it was that Oldman's character of [[LostInSpace Doctor Smith]] was evil and yet no one seemed to notice.

* Some of the real nasties in OnePiece can be pretty obvious in their appearance. Apart from the hook hand, Crocodile looks like a mob boss. Akainu simply seems more realistically drawn. Blackbeard is a big, fat, ugly guy missing some teeth. Gecko Moria is an obese, chalk white demon creature with horns, no chin and a neck about triple the length it should be, with razor sharp teeth and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an odd resemblance to a balloon animal.]] On the other hand, Warden Magellan is probably a subversion since despite his highly demonic appearance, he's practically a hero antagonist: he just wants to keep the world safe from some nasty, ''nasty'' pirates.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grepherevil_2209.JPG
[[caption-width:295:[[SarcasmMode Clearly a good guy.]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/obviouslyevil.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:I dunno guys, he seems pretty legit to me.]]

* How anyone in [[ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]] could ever trust Roose Bolton, lord of the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dreadfort]], is shocking. The man's sigil is a flayed man, he comes from a family with a long standing tradition of [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel skinning their enemies alive and wearing their skins in battle]], he always speaks in a CreepyMonotone and his favorite pastime is getting leeched. Granted, everyone finds him a little unsettling but still, he's relied upon to perform extremely important roles several times. [[spoiler:Trusting him never turns out well]]

* How anyone in [[ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]] could ever trust Roose Bolton, lord of the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dreadfort]], is shocking. The man's sigil is a flayed man, he comes from a family with a long standing tradition of [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel skinning their enemies alive and wearing their skins in battle]], he always speaks in a CreepyMonotone and his favorite pastime is getting leeched. Granted, everyone finds him a little unsettling but still, he's relied upon to perform extremely important roles several times.

** Averted, however, with Saruman, who retains his "white wizard" garb throughout the film, which, original.

* The Necromancer of the WhateleyUniverse. Nobody has a name like that unless he's Obviously Evil. Then he goes for the evil cloak over the hideous armor that's part cybernetics and part chitinous inhuman organics, ''plus'' the obligatory skull facemask. And he has a team that based on monsters: Lycanthros (a super werewolf type), Vamp (a girl with vampiric powers), the Arch-Fiend, Nightgaunt, and Lady Darke. It goes without saying that he is not petting any puppies.

-- '''[[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses The Nostalgia Critic]]'''

-- '''Linkara''' [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/5273-amazons-attack-1-and-2 On Circe]]

** This point is also made in the [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Nostalgia Critic]] [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/17979-quest-for-camelot review]].

Fiction that employs this is almost always {{Anvilicious}} to a fault, being the most extreme example of BlackAndWhiteMorality. Compare BlackAndGreyMorality.

** ''Played Straight:'' Megabyte and Hexadecimal are ''destructive'' and look the part. Megs is in all secondary colors, Hex is red and black and both are riddled with SpikesOfVillainy, talons and sharp teeth. Bob ''really'' hopes to convert these two... Somehow... Note that [[spoiler:both manage AffablyEvil moments, but Megabyte's are just moments where there wasn't anything evil to do and Hexadecimal seems to get the excuse that she is mentally unstable and her HeelFaceTurn was more Bob really, really wanting to convert her than her deciding to do good.]]

** Dr. Regal takes this to ridiculous levels in his introduction. BeardOfEvil? Check. Monocle? Check. Extremely polite? Check. [[SmugSnake Smug Grin]]? Check. Mentioned as being from "[[AirstipOne Nation Z]], the infamous military country"? Check.

* In the MegaManBattleNetwork series, DarkChips (evil battlechips which [[TheCorruption slowly corrupt your Navi and sap your hit points if you use them]]) truly ''look'' evil, with glowing purple icons and scary-sounding, robotic descriptions such as "USE LARGE SWORD AND SLICE".