Discussion Main / FauxAffablyEvil

I dunno, I have a feeling somebody's got a trope name-changing fetish.

If it needs a name change, I say Comedic Monster would git more.

^ Comedic Monster would have fit before it was redefined. Now, it's about characters who pretend to be Affably Evil, which is exactly what the new name means.

I liked Evilly Affable better myself.

The new name seems a little artistically bankrupt. If anything, it just cheapens the Affably Evil trope.

So does anyone have anything good to say about the name change? I personally think Evilly Affable was more distinctive and fits most of the entries better (like the Joker, who isn't really faux polite so much as just fun to watch).

Agreed. I vote to change back.

^^This description belongs to Laughably Evil.

Laughably Evil isn't quite the same thing. Laughably Evil is a character who's funny while being evil. While the Joker is certainly a case of Laughably Evil, not all Evilly Affable (by the old definition) characters are Laughably Evil.

For example, Palpatine when in full-Sith mode is arguably Evilly Affable but he's not exactly comedic. It's just that, as Plinkett put it in his review (and I'm paraphrasing), he's so into being evil that it's hard not to find it fun to watch, a sentiment Mc Diarmid has also shared when talking about playing the character. He's a Complete Monster, but somehow, that doesn't make him unpleasant from the safe perch of the audience.

Another example might be Doctor Robotnik / Eggman from the Sonic The Hedgehog series. While in some incarnations the character is definitely comedic, this doesn't hold true for every form; sometimes, he's just admirably committed to being completely maniacal.

And for a third and final example, I'll pull from the page itself the quote about Konstantin Baeyko in Alpha Protocol: "Alpha Protocol has Konstantin Brayko, a brutal Russian mob boss who is a rather sadistic and brutal individual, but ends up more entertaining than disgusting due to a strange obsession with the 80s and just how plain loopy he is."

None of these three examples are "Faux Affably Evil" (i.e., pretending to be polite and courteous) and all three are arguably not Laughably Evil either. Hence, the need for an Evilly Affable article.

We could add a real life section. People with psychopathy/sociopathy/Antisocial Personality Disorder are the manifestation of Faux Affably Evil/Evily Affable.

^ Not necessarily.

I also vote to just make the title evilly affable and eliminate the "faux" title. At what point can we just do that?

Maybe a villain can be legitimately Affably Evil to some, but only faux to others?

First, Stepford Smilers aren't necessarily evil at all, and whether evil or not, Stepford Smiler character don't "fake" being nice- it's more like they have this pleasant front but serious mental problems.

Then how is it different from Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, since both are unpleasant characters with "nice" facade? And to expand, how do we know whether the niceness is facade or not?

Why isn't this in the examples?

Sorry, but we don't redefine based on bad examples. We get rid of bad examples. It was changed because the trope as previously defined was not distinct enough from Laughably Evil. The trope has been redefined and renamed so of course there are going to be some examples that fit the previous trope instead of the new one. Besides, it was never about genuinely nice characters, the earlier one was supposed to be amusing while being evil, but not nice.

It's fine now. The Playing With section disappeared because the trope was renamed, but I brought it back. (Yes, I just responded to myself, so you'd know the issue was taken care of.)