History Main / CardCArryingVillain

While the trope can result in an entertaining villain, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools they can also be cheesy or shallow.]] 80s kid's shows made a lot of these, where the villain referred to themselves as evil. Writers apparently believed that the children watching [[ViewersAreMorons wouldn't be able to define the bad guy]] unless he was blowing up cities or poisoning lakes ForTheEvulz. It also reveals a condescending belief that children are unable to understand that evil people usually [[ObliviouslyEvil don't consider themselves evil]]. Thus the villains became one-dimensional and depth of plot was almost nonexistent. In works that are aimed at older audiences and/or uses GreyAndGrayMorality for its other villains, a Card-Carrying Villain has a good chance of ending up as a BaseBreakingCharacter or even TheScrappy.

While the trope can result in an entertaining villain, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools they can also be cheesy or shallow.]] 80s kid's shows made a lot of these, where the villain referred to themselves as evil. Writers apparently believed that the children watching [[ViewersAreMorons wouldn't be able to define the bad guy]] unless he was blowing up cities or poisoning lakes ForTheEvulz. It also reveals a condescending belief that children are unable to understand that evil people usually [[ObliviouslyEvil don't consider themselves evil]]. Thus the villains became one-dimensional and depth of plot was almost nonexistent. In works that are aimed at older audiences and/or uses GreyAndGrayMorality for its other villains, a Card-Carrying Villain has a good chance of ending up as TheScrappy.

While the trope can result in an entertaining villain, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools they can also be cheesy or shallow.]] 80s kid's shows made a lot of these, where the villain referred to themselves as evil. Writers apparently believed that the children watching [[ViewersAreMorons wouldn't be able to define the bad guy]] unless he was blowing up cities or poisoning lakes ForTheEvulz. It also reveals a condescending belief that children are unable to understand that evil people usually [[ObliviouslyEvil don't consider themselves evil]]. Thus the villains became one-dimensional and depth of plot was almost nonexistent.

Surprisingly, a Card-Carrying Villain occastionally has one "[[EvilVirtues redeeming]]" quality as far as villains go: [[AtLeastIAdmitIt They're honest.]] They will not hide the fact that they're the villainous scumbag, they will not deceive you that they were worthy of some sympathy by being a misguided WellIntentionedExtremist, [[EvenEvilHasStandards that's just]] [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]]. This may make them more obvious targets for the heroes to gun down, but they will not hide behind sweet talks (unless it's meant to showcase a FauxAffablyEvil personality), and sometimes lies would hurt more than a blatant assault. They are also not self-righteous at all.

* MoralMyopia: Where the villain decries the evil acts of others while ignoring or rationalizing their own.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[LiteralMinded Actual villain business card not required]].]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2f7c6497_da3b_4747_bd55_c1185137d0c0.jpeg]]

[[quoteright:274:[[Webcomic/CheckerboardNightmare https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cardcarrying.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:274:You don't want to read his [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate doctoral thesis.]]]]

[[noreallife]]

While the trope can result in an entertaining villain, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools he can also be cheesy or shallow.]] 80s kid's shows made a lot of these, where the villain referred to themselves as evil. Writers apparently believed that the children watching [[ViewersAreMorons wouldn't be able to define the bad guy]] unless he was blowing up cities or poisoning lakes ForTheEvulz. It also reveals a condescending belief that children are unable to understand that evil people usually [[ObliviouslyEvil don't consider themselves evil]]. Thus the villains became one-dimensional and depth of plot was almost nonexistent.

* Mercury in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', unlike the rest of the villains, is not personally invested in Salem's plans and has fun trying to crush the protagonists' emotionally. When Emerald asks why he joined Salem, his response is that 'it was meant to be'. However, [[spoiler:Tyrian deconstructs this, stating because Mercury grew up badly abused, he is now too afraid to walk away from his life of pain and violence]].

* Mercury in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', unlike the rest of the villains, is not personally invested in Salem's plans and has fun trying to crush the protagonists. When Emerald asks why he joined Salem, his response is that 'it was meant to be'. However, [[spoiler:Tyrian deconstructs this, stating because Mercury grew up badly abused, he is now too afraid to walk away from his life of pain and violence]].

* Lord Komatsu, the BigBad of the second arc of the ''Manga/InuYasha'' ContinuationFic ''Fanfic/BeyondTomorrow'', fits this to a T. When his daughter Arina demands to know how he could possibly cause harm to someone as pure as [[OriginalGeneration Hanyuu]], his word-for-word response is:

* Most villains from ''Fanfic/TheCalvinverse'', really.
** Evil Calvin from ''Fanfic/RetroChill'' is a rather glaring example.
** Dr. Brainstorm of ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' is a HarmlessVillain who gleefully follows several cliche MadScientist tropes.
* ''Fanfic/CodePrime'': When C.C. calls Megatron "[[YouMonster a monster, a demon, and the Devil incarnate]]" after she witnesses his [[spoiler:Dark Geass]], Megatron simply asks her if she is only realizing this ''now''.

* In ''Harry Potter and the Evil Summer Vacation'', villains and villain wannabes had a magazine called ''Evil Monthly''. Hermione mentioned having read an article in it about the conference Harry had mistakenly attended that summer and when he asked her what she was doing with it, she replied [[TakeThat "I'm sure you know that both my parents are dentists."]]
* Justified in ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy''. Satan Girl is Kara Zor-El's duplicate, her dark side's embodiment. Evil, unfettered desires and impulses is literally everything she is made of, so it's perfectly reasonable for her delighting in doing evil things or killing and destroying just because she can.

* At one point in ''WebAnimation/JoJosBizarreAdventureOneCartoonistsDream'', DIO calls himself "bottomless evil personified." Then there's [[LegionOfDoom the villains' epilogue]]...

* ''[[FanFic/LegolasByLaura legolas by laura]]'' features orcs who refer to themselves as "us all the bad guys".
* In ''Fanfic/TheLionKingAdventures'', when Nala tells Timon and Pumbaa that they are evil, Timon replys "Who cares? Evil makes the world go round".
* In ''Fanfic/MassEffectHumanRevolution'', Jules Leng almmost gleefully admits to rape when Adam confronts him.
* Titan from ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic''. He introduces himself as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Emperor of Chaos and Nightmares]], but most of the time does nothing besides [[OrcusOnHisThrone gloat on his throne]].

* ''FanFic/OjamajoDoremiRiseOfTheShadows'': All of the villains know they're evil and revel in it. Special mention goes to ''Evil'' Rin, if her name is anything to go by...

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' fic ''Fanfic/QueenOfAllOni'', Jade, after her FaceHeelTurn, openly identifies as being evil, as does practically every other villainous character.
* ''Fanfic/RomansEmpire'': It's a story about organized crime, so most of the main characters won't deny that they're not good people. However, two examples stand out.

* Indus from ''Fanfic/TeamLVDR'' is a dark example. He’s a faunus trafficker, and he enjoyed every second of it.

* ''[[FanFic/HTFTheStranger The Stranger]]'', a ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' fanfic, has the MadScientist BigBad scam innocent people into [[FateWorseThanDeath trapping them in a virtual reality where he has total control, forcing them to die over and over]]. He openly admits to the protagonist that he is SickAndWrong, but all he wanted was to [[GodhoodSeeker fulfill his dream of playing God]], and he doesn't believe he brought any harm to his captives since their memories are frequently reset.
* Queen Celesia from ''Fanfic/TwilightSparklesAwesomeAdventure''.
* The Brotherhood's top brass in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/2170677 The Zero Context Series]]'' are card-carriers by and large, being antagonists for antagonism's sake.

[[caption-width-right:274:[-You don't want to read his [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate doctoral thesis]].-] ]]

[[caption-width-right:274:[-You don't want to read his [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate PhD]] thesis.-] ]]

[[caption-width-right:274:[-You don't want to see what his [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate doctorate]] entails.-] ]]

[[caption-width-right:274:[-A scene from ''Webcomic/CheckerboardNightmare's'' concept for a new comic book.-] ]]

* NobleDemon: A villain who makes no bones about that fact, but will generally do less [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]].

* AboveGoodAndEvil: When a villain dismisses morality as a meaningless concept.

* BeingEvilSucks: When a villain becomes ashamed of their evil actions and leaves the dark side.

%%Most of the RealLife evil people may or may not fall under this trope, given that there's no other way they could declare that they are proud to do god knows how many bad things. Given that this is a villain trope, and not to mention, would be asking for a FlameWar. Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment notwithstanding.

* CompleteMonster: A villain who is pure evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. A Card-Carrying Villain can easily be this if their actions are PlayedForDrama and emphasize their love of evil by committing [[MoralEventHorizon particularly terrible deeds]].

* CompleteMonster: A villain who is pure evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. A Card-Carrying Villain can be this if they are played 100% seriously and take their [[EvilFeelsGood love for evil]] to an [[MoralEventHorizon extreme level]].

# ''[[TheCorrupter Corruption]]'' — the Villain wants to [[TheCorrupter turn other people Evil]]. Give in to TheDarkSide!