History Main / NoCureForEvil

* Used in ''Warcraft I'' and ''II''. The Horde didn't have healing powers, but they made up with necromancy and an invulnerability spell. In the expansion set for [=WC2=], all orc heroes had three times more health than their alliance counterparts, since if they died you lost the mission.

** Warcraft III averts this, the Undead side having between Death Coil, Unholy Aura, Vampiric Aura, Cannibalize, and in the expansion Essence of Blight more potential ways of healing its troops than any other.

** Subverted in the original [[FinalFantasyI Final Fantasy]]. ''Most'' of the foes that the Light Warriors face off against indeed cannot cure themselves. So when [[BigBad Chaos]] randomly uses ''the best healing spell in the game'', it comes as quite a shock.

The reason is simple: healing abilities are almost exclusively used to help others, which means that any use of such powers is almost inherently seen as selfless or kind. As such, the BigBad can't exactly cast "Cure Critical Wounds" to heal his mooks and still seem really Bad. Likewise, {{Antihero}}es are likely to lack healing magic or powers. Another reason for this happening, at least in video games, is that an enemy with healing powers [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality can get annoying very quickly]]. This is especially true for bosses, whose HitPoints generally far outstrip the player's; several of [[ThatOneBoss the most annoying bosses]] have healing powers.

*** That was mostly to stick it to Redcloak for not being more effective at dealing with O-Chul, Xykon claimed "At least he had the gall to raise the alarm" whereas Redcloak just teleported away when it looked like he was going to bite it (keep in mind, death is usually cheap, with a bit of diamond dust and a mid-level cleric being all it takes to bring someone back, and they just took over an entire city, which is stated to be a major trade hub, so some of that stuff would of been around somewhere.)

This trope has nothing to do with actually "curing the evil". For that see HeelFaceTurn. Contrast with GoodPowersBadPeople, for villains who not only get "good" powers, but use them for evil.

** In ''Allegiance'', Mara Jade is the Emperor's Hand, a sort of all-purpose Force-Sensitive agent with some training. An ally of hers is horribly wounded and slowly dying, and she's helpless to do anything but try to take him to a medical capsule. The narration states that the Emperor has taught her techniques to heal herself with, but nothing she can apply to someone else.

** In addition, some Sith possess the ability to keep grievously injured beings alive for far longer than should be possible, but don't seem to possess true healing powers. Note the Emperor in Revenge of the Sith, who was able to keep Anakin alive long enough for him to be cyborged but did nothing to repair his extensive burns. Darth Sion from Knights of the Old Republic 2 is this power taken to extremes- sheer force of will is the only thing keeping his broken body alive, and ''boy'' is it doing a good job.
*** ShadowsOfTheEmpire went into this slightly more. For a brief point it went into Darth Vader's POV where it was stated that he could heal himself with the power of the dark side, except the moment it began working, Darth Vader instinctively felt positive and let go of the hate needed to fuel the power.

*** ShadowOfTheEmpire went into this slightly more. For a brief point it went into Darth Vader's POV where it was stated that he could heal himself with the power of the dark side, except the moment it began working, Darth Vader instinctively felt positive and let go of the hate needed to fuel the power.

----
<<|EvilTropes|>>
<<|TabletopGames|>>
<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

** Averted in three separate cases in [[{{KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep}} Birth By Sleep.]] The first case, one of the final bosses, can heal because he's [[spoiler: taken control of one of the main character's bodies]]. The other two, the [[spoiler: Vanitas Remnant]] and The Mysterious Figure, serve as the games' superbosses and have some creative ways of healing: the former will automatically heal himself to full health if you use Curative magic on yourself (although Potions and Spells that attack as well as heal, such as Faith and Salvation, don't trigger the healing), whilst the latter can either use Restore Barrier to heal some of his health if your attack lasts for too long, or can actually ''turn back time to before you hit him'' to undo the damage and smack you around a few times.

** [[spoiler:Pain/Nagato]] is something of a DoubleSubversion, as he had a healing power that could work on anyone, but didn't use it for anything but ([[PeoplePuppets sort of]]) self-generate until after his HeelFaceTurn.

** [[spoiler:Pain/Nagato]] is something of a DoubleSubversion, as he had a healing power besides self-regeneration, but didn't use it until after his HeelFaceTurn.

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
* [[SpiderMan Symbiotes]] do have the power to heal people, but some things need permanent bonding. [[spoiler: Faced with dying of cancer or becoming one with his symbiote Eddie Brock [[TakeAThirdOption chose suicide]].(Someone got to him in time)]]
** In ''SpiderGirl'' it heals May after [[spoiler: a weapon has been driven into her chest and out the other side]], but by that point it's [[HeelFaceTurn not remotely evil]].
* Averted in StarWarsLegacy; Cade's healing power which can heal almost anything insanly fast and bring back the recent dead, is a DarkSide power: it works by forcing the Living Force into a person rather than working with it.

The reason is simple: healing abilities are almost exclusively used to help others, which means that any use of such powers is almost inherently seen as selfless or kind. As such, the BigBad can't exactly cast "Cure Critical Wounds" to heal his mooks and still seem really Bad. Likewise, {{Antihero}}es are likely to lack healing magic or powers. Another reason for this happening, at least in video games, is that an enemy with healing powers can get annoying very quickly. This is especially true for bosses, whose HitPoints generally far outstrip the player's; several of [[ThatOneBoss the most annoying bosses]] have healing powers.

** Also lampshaded in the first game during the late game boss fight with [spoiler: Riku] where during some of his moves, he says "Heal this!"

Just as Good characters aren't allowed to have [[BadPowersBadPeople Bad Powers]], Evil characters are not allowed to have Good powers -- or, more specifically, [[HealingHands healing powers]]. In short characters on TheDarkSide are generally incapable of using powers, skills, spells, or abilities that would serve to restore or protect rather than destroy.