Karolina: ...My parents can't really be a part of this. They might be eccentric, but they're not evil. They don't even eat meat!
Gertrude: Well, neither did Hitler.
Gertrude: Well, neither did Hitler.
— Runaways
An evil character who does not eat meat.
For some Evil Vegetarians, vegetarianism might be explicitly connected to their villainy. These characters will usually be members of an Animal Wrongs Group or might even be a Straw Vegetarian. For other Evil Vegetarians, vegetarianism might be mentioned but is not explicitly connected to their villainy. This might be done by the writer to highlight a contrast between the character's evil deeds and his refusal to harm animals. Or just to highlight the irony for someone bloodthirsty. Also this means that whoever is this and hurts animals is even more loathsome since they are also hypocritical.
The Ur-Example may be Cain from the Bible, who planted vegetables and offered them as sacrifices, then murdered his brother when God accepted Abel's offering of animals over his. This trope is also likely influenced by Adolf Hitler's vegetarianism, even though he only pretended to be a moral vegetarian - his doctor made him cut out meat for health reasons relatively late in his life.
This character may serve as a subversion of Virtuous Vegetarianism. As eating meat is considered manly in many cultures, the Evil Vegetarian might be related to the Sissy Villain trope. Eating meat can also be seen as barbaric, so this might also overlap with Wicked Cultured. Not necessarily a Straw Vegetarian, though it's possible for a character to be both.
See also Straight Edge Evil, Hitler Ate Sugar, So Was X.
See also Xenophobic Herbivore for the non-human animal equivalents.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
Comic Books
- In most Batman continuities, the eco terrorist Poison Ivy is depicted as a vegetarian. Though she's just as ready to feed people to her plants as she is to eat the plants herself.
- In The Boondocks, Huey is such a paranoid Conspiracy Theorist that he pretty much ruined Thanksgiving one year, claiming to anyone who would listen that the FDA was lying about the quality of poultry, port, and beef, then describing in vivid detail what happened to victims of Chinese bird flu, swine flu, and mad cow disease. (Granddad finally decided to go vegan, but after saying grace warned him of the spanking he'd get if nobody got sick from eating turkey.)
- Runaways:
- Karolina denies her parents are evil, mentioning that they're vegetarians. Gert points out that Hitler was a vegetarian, too.
- Also from the same series is Maneater, who was Exactly What It Says on the Tin and one of the most brutal crime bosses in early 20th century New York... until Nico Minoru magically turned him into a vegan. There's no indication that the spell made him a better person, so presumably, he just became an evil vegan crime boss.
- Todd Ingram, the 3rd Evil Ex from the Scott Pilgrim series is a vegan — thus, he garnered "vegan Psychic Powers"... But he loses his vegan powers when he breaks his vegan diet with gelato.
- Teen Titans villain Godiva is a mercenary assassin who is also a health nut. At one point, she shoots one of her employees for eating a sandwich with red meat in it.
- Ozymandias from Watchmen, is a vegetarian and a mass murderer, though more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist than evil. The trope is discussed when Nite Owl expresses surprise that the character was capable of mass murder because he is a vegetarian. Rorschach replies that Hitler was a vegetarian.
Fan Works
- Due to his canonical Straight Edge Evil tendencies and Foreign Culture Fetish for the Air Nomads, this is a fairly common interpretation of Zaheer from The Legend of Korra; for example, it's stated outright in The Grasping of Earthly Tethers
and implied in a million miles of fun.
Films — Live-Action
- Dr. Arnim Zola from Captain America: The First Avenger. Possibly. He could be lying to avoid eating a steak he suspects is drugged. He's evil either way.
- The villain of Enemies Closer, Xander (Jean-Claude Van Damme), is the leader of a group of criminals, a trained killer, and an environment-conscious vegan, stemming from a childhood incident when his grandmother made dinner out of a turkey he loved as a pet.
- The villainess of Leonard Part 6 is a vegetarian, who plans on brainwashing various animals into killing people who try to hunt them. In fact, her entire organization is vegetarian, and so fanatically vegetarian that mere contact with meat burns their skin.
- Inui Banjin from Rurouni Kenshin is a vegetarian. Granted, he's certainly Affably Evil (he offers a brief prayer for a chicken that was offered to him during a Mid-Battle Tea Break), but he's still a villain.
- True to the comics, one of the Evil Exes in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was a vegan whose powers were based on a vegan diet. Of course, if he stayed with his diet, that is.
- The goblins from Troll 2, bizarrely, combine this with I'm a Humanitarian by eating victims they've turned into trees.
Literature
- A strange example from the Artemis Fowl series. Some members of the Extinctionists are vegetarians because they hate animals so much. They won't eat meat or fish but they'll enjoy cutting it up.
- As mentioned above, Cain from The Bible. It's specifically mentioned, however, that his "sacrifices" were the castoffs, meaning he was keeping the best for himself instead of giving the top of his crop to God like he was supposed to (the first, and best 10%), which is why it was rejected. God would accept fruit, vegetables, and grains, but only if it was actually a sacrifice.
- Possibly Lord Felmet in Wyrd Sisters; for his first breakfast as King of Lancre he sends back the traditional sausages, bacon, smoked fish and black pudding in favour of oatmeal and a runny boiled egg, and there's a later reference to the kitchens having to make vegetarian sausages, but it's not elaborated upon.
- In The Facts of Death, all ten main members of the Decada organization are strict vegetarians. Knowing this fact helps James Bond to deduce one member's identity, and thwart an attack against a high-profile politician.
- Darken Rahl from the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. He refused to eat meat but when he saw a man mistreat a horse, he cut open the horse and drowned the man in its entrails, sobbing over how someone could be so cruel to animals. He also has no problem killing and cannibalizing humans for magic (though he does find it gross), and is a rapist and monster generally in all sorts of ways.
- "Two Jars of Relish" by Lord Dunsany takes this to the point of parody: the police suspect the murderer because he's a vegetarian, which they take as proof positive that there's something wrong with the man. It might or might not even be true, given that he disposed of the body by eating it.
- In Chinese Wuxia novels, Manicheans are often stereotyped as this for a slogan that got mistranslated centuries ago as 食菜事魔, i.e. "Eat vegetables and serve evil".
Live-Action TV
- In Black Lightning (2018), ruthless crime boss Tobias Whale claims his longevity is the result of his vegan diet, although he's indicated that he's fond of caviar, and the claim was possibly a cover-up for the Longevity Serum that he takes. On the other hand, his henchman Todd Green is vegan.
- The serial killer from the Cold Squad episode "Dead End" was a vegetarian, and at one point complained that the "morons" (the prison staff) kept "giving me meat."
- In Doctor Who, Daleks only eat vegetable matter (according to the 1960s Dalek comics). This is hinted at in the episode "The Daleks" when they promise the Thals "quantities of fresh vegetables", and the food gift prepared for them from the Daleks' stock is entirely vegetable-based. This likely is a direct reference to Hitler, as the Daleks are A Nazi by Any Other Name, but is Justified by the state of life on Skaro in the story — the neutronic war has made life in general extremely scarce (vegetable farming is more energy-efficient than livestock farming), and what we see of the animals are either made out of living metal or are unreasonably dangerous monsters. "Into The Dalek" undid this — by the Time War, Daleks actually feed off liquefied protein from the ashes of people they exterminate. The characters even get soaked in it at one point, including a woman whose brother got exterminated by the thing.
- Freddie Lounds in Hannibal is a mild example, an unscrupulous reporter who surprises Hannibal with her vegetarianism. She avoids the usual problem with Hannibal's otherwise excellent food by this; it's indicated that even Hannibal's vegetable dishes usually have a human element to them, but thus forced to improvise a main meal for her she gets it "clean".
- Iron Fist (2017). After gaining the power of the Iron Fist, Davos proceeds to slaughter his way through every criminal in the city. His henchman suggests they take a break to get something to eat.
Chen: I know this great place over on Mulberry that does an incredible veal rollatini with black truffle glaze—
Davos: I don't eat meat. Killing animals for sustenance is a disgrace.
Chen: Of course you don't. (mutters) You're just a vegetarian that kills people. - Luke Cage (2016): Misty Knight's partner Rafael Scarfe always orders vegetarian when he and Misty take meals at their desks, and he's on Cottonmouth's payroll.
- In Moon Knight (2022), Arthur Harrow is a vegan. He is also an avatar of Ammit and a cult leader who believes in killing all evil people even if they haven't done anything yet.
- One villain on the short-lived RoboCop: The Series was Dr. Cray Z. Mollardo; a paranoid Mad Scientist, psychopath, and prima donna, who also happened to be a vegetarian.
- In one of the Sapphire and Steel stories, we learn that the future society does not eat meat. Later it's revealed that they don't eat meat, not out of concern for animals, but because they consider all animals unclean. And they couldn't eat animals anyway, because they killed them all. The society (which we only hear about, through time travelers from it) isn't explicit, but it seems to be repellent.
Professional Wrestling
- Rivals Bryan Danielson ("The World's Toughest Vegan") and Austin Aries ("The Most Valuable Vascular Vegetarian") are evil vegans, though neither is evil because they are vegans — Bryan Danielson will quickly point out how his refusal to eat meat makes him more manly than you. In WWE it went to new levels with him preaching about the evils of animal products and condemning the audience for stuffing their faces with trash. Aries, on the other hand, is a mustached machismo who likes to maim opponents and steal their girlfriends, forcibly abducting them if necessary...and just happens to be a vegan. Aries makes no allusions to the fact he is anything but an ass, he just doesn't like animal products.
- Bryan's late 2018 Face–Heel Turn where he ditch "Yes Man" gimmick into an evil environmentalist heel gimmick by proclaiming himself as "The Planet's Champion" in an episode WWE SmackDown Live as fitting to his gimmick in his fourth reign as WWE Champion, he threw the standard WWE Championship title belt in a garbage can (bemoaning the fact it was made from leather) and introduced a new custom belt, dubbed the "Planet's Championship", featuring the same design as the standard belt, but made from "entirely sustainable materials" (such as the strap being made from hemp and the center and side plates carved from wood of a naturally fallen oak tree)
- Radiant Rain of the Minnesota turned International Home Wrecking Crew. Her dislike of meat is rooted in a noble cause. Her dislike of those targeted by her army (operating when Rain was having a psychotic episode), The Age Of The Fall (an organizations of dishonorable "misfits" against the American healthcare system opposed by fellow vegans Danielson and Aries), La Legion Extanjera (foreign invaders of AAA), Valkyrie (a entitled gang protected by an Army of Lawyers)... are not.
Video Games
- Monika in Doki Doki Literature Club! mentions that she stopped eating meat in order to reduce the carbon footprint as one of the several topics she talks about during randomized dialogue in Act 3. The fact that she explicitly mentions she doesn't do this out of compassion for animal lives ties in with her personality and what she had done to the other characters.
- The aptly named virmen in World of Warcraft are a barbaric tribe of rabbit-like creatures in Pandara who are obsessed with vegetables, mostly carrots. Intentionally made annoying and disgusting, they raid farms to steal vegetables, jewelry, and occasionally kidnap townsfolk.
Webcomics
- In a Nodwick strip, the heroes invade the Temple of Elemental Evil, and are surprised to find mushrooms, tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions growing in well-tended gardens in the Earth Temple. Artax quickly recognizes the mushrooms as a type used in potent mind-control potions (and is thus not surprised to find them here) and claims the other vegetables are there because "it's a little known fact that evil cultists are vegetarians." (Well, possibly. The cultists were scheming to make pizza using the mushrooms, sell them, and brainwash customers, so it's possible Artax simply didn't want to admit he had no idea what they were for)
- Every vegan character in Vegan Artbook is a morally bankrupt scumbag who has no qualms about murdering non-vegans in nasty ways, if they don't find it more fun to constantly torment them instead (as is the case with recurring antagonists Cuntons and Sean). The kicker is the vegans're the "good guys" of the comic.
Web Original
- In College Saga, the Big Bad Diculous aims to kill off non-Vegetarian humanity. Fortunately, he's weak against meat.
- Played with by CollegeHumor in this video. A death row inmate asks if going vegan for her last meal will make up for her crime note , and the prison guard stresses in no uncertain terms that it will not.
Western Animation
- One of the villains on Johnny Test is Dark Vegan, a Darth Vader Expy who provides vegetation for his home planet by taking them from other worlds, turning them all into desolate deserts overnight.
- In Rabbit Fire, Elmer Fudd is a vegetarian, only hunting Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck for sport. This isn't true in all cartoons, though. In one appearance, he prepares steak for himself, only for a bear to steal it (and then burn his mouth on the tabasco sauce).
- Spongebob Squarepants: When SpongeBob manages to extort three wishes from the Flying Dutchman he uses his last wish to turn the Dutchman into a vegetarian, as he was going to eat him, Patrick, and Squidward afterwards. Then, while the trio are celebrating, they notice that they've been turned into fruits and they're in a giant blender.
