History ObviouslyEvil / Literature

* We know James of ''Literature/Twilight2005 Twilight]]'' must be evil, because he's the only one of the vampires who is described as having a nondescript face, rather than being [[BeautyEqualsGoodness unbelievably beautiful]]. Also, he and his companions are dirty and dressed in worn clothing, rather than wearing designer labels all the time like the good vampires.

** All of the main villains from the original trilogy are like this -- their names alone are tip-offs. The first book's Warlock Lord is an undead tyrant in a BlackCloak who rules over [[{{Mordor}} the Skull Kingdom]]; the second book's Demons are, well, ''Demons'' are and presented as a ravening, hateful horde of AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters; the third book's Mord Wraiths are basically an entire organization of mini-Warlock Lords, down to sharing his fashion sense.

* We know James of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' must be evil, because he's the only one of the vampires who is described as having a nondescript face, rather than being [[BeautyEqualsGoodness unbelievably beautiful]]. Also, he and his companions are dirty and dressed in worn clothing, rather than wearing designer labels all the time like the good vampires.

* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' has some interesting examples. [[{{Satan}} Morgoth]] and [[TheDragon Sauron]] were both shape-shifters, and could take any form they chose. Sauron would in fact take on pleasing forms. Morgoth however (once he finally did become a GodOfEvil) decided he ''liked'' having an obviously evil form, and used it so much he got [[ShapeShifterModeLock stuck in it]]. After Sauron destroyed Númenor, he was punishing by being rendered unable to take a pleasing form ever again, so he took an obviously evil form by default. This trope is justified in Tolkien's Middle Earth, where evil has a really noticeable corrupting influence on everything it touches. This is why many of the villains in the Middle Earth stories tend to be so obvious.

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* If ''The Grand Ellipse'' is any indication, ThoseWackyNazis have created a new version of this trope. The villainous empire of Grewzia is full of tall blond guys, everyone from it is habitually punctual, and its national language consists mostly of hard consonants. This society is ''not'' an {{expy}} of the Nazis, and beyond appearances has almost nothing in common with them--this stuff's just our cue that they're bad, bad people.

** All of the main villains from the original trilogy are like this- their names alone are tip-offs. The first book's Warlock Lord is an undead tyrant in a BlackCloak who rules over [[{{Mordor}} the Skull Kingdom]]; the second book's Demons are, well, ''Demons'' are and presented as a ravening, hateful horde of AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters; the third book's Mord Wraiths are basically an entire organization of mini-Warlock Lords, down to sharing his fashion sense.
** Subverted in the SequelSeries ''Literature/TheHeritageOfShannara''. The first few [[TheHeartless Shadowen]] the protagonists run into are horrible monsters, leading to the impression that ''all'' Shadowen are like that. Except it doesn't work that way. The obviously evil Shadowen are actually the ''weakest'' ones, who lacked sufficient control of their magic to stop it from mutating them. The most powerful Shadowen--like [[BigBad Rimmer Dall]]--can pass themselves off as ordinary humans almost flawlessly, until they choose to reveal themselves.

** Rorge and Biter. Where to start... One looks like the noseless, string-haired, homeless junkie out of your worst nightmares. The other like a huge, pale, pock-marked, teeth-filed-to-points Fester Adams, with none of the charm or intelligence you'd hope for. Both engage in RapePillageandBurn as well as ImAHumanitarian -- in the ''open''.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Played with in ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum''. The old Count von Magpyr LooksLikeOrlok and acts like a CardCarryingVillain, but is ''not'' a main villain; in fact he actually ''helps'' the witches against his descendants, new-style vampires who don't play fair. The witches credit him with being a WorthyOpponent in his day and his obvious evilness being the reason he was allowed to keep coming back to life; if vampires all started ditching their weaknesses they would be so overpowered people wouldn't put up with them and ''would'' find a way to make them DeaderThanDead.

** Euron Greyjoy seems to enjoy invoking this trope. He looks like a stereotypical pirate, complete with an eyepatch, his sigil is essentially the eye of Sauron with added CreepyCrows, and sails a ship with a blood-red hull crewed by deformed mutes and sorcerers. In sample chapters for ''The Winds of Winter'' he ups the ante with a crown made of shark teeth and a suit of [[BlackAndRedAndEvilAllOver red and black]] armor.

* Since most of the villains in ''Literature/TheKingdomKeepers'' series are Disney villains, it's natural this trope is in effect. Special mention goes to the new character Jez, who has pale skin, black hair, and her name is short for [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Jezebel]]. To Finn's credit, he does begin to suspect her...

** The Boltons have a [[FlayingAlive flayed man]] as their sigil and live in a place called [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace the Dreadfort]]. One looks a lot like Vlad the Impaler, another like Gilles de Rais on acid. On top of that, they display the family trait of having the [[CreepyBlueEyes creepiest pale, barely blue-grey eyes]] imaginable. They also happen to wear armor that has screaming faces and exposed muscles styled onto it. Yeah; nice guys.

* The Harkonnen in ''Literature/{{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.

%%* Smasher Sullivan in ''Literature/TheSecretRiver''.

* In [[Creator/DanteAlighieri Dante]]'s ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]'', the Malebranche is a group of [[DarkIsEvil pitch-black demons]] with [[GoodWingsEvilWings bat's wings]] and names that all mean "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast evil]]." They gnash their teeth, curse, and eagerly prepare their pitchforks to stab people with, a get-up that telegraphs so much malice that even the {{Hypocrite}}s lower in {{Hell}} know not to trust them. Unfortunately, pagans like Creator/{{Virgil}} never got the memo about demons being evil and so he trusts the Malebranche until they're hunting him down.
* Invoked in ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle''. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Sinistrad]] is an EvilSorcerer who is tall and gaunt, with pale skin, [[BaldOfEvil no hair]], and a fondness for [[BlackCloak black robes]] (the latter, admittedly, because [[ColorCodedWizardry that's what a wizard of his stature wears]] regardless of their morality). He knows the odds are pretty stacked against anyone mistaking him for a good guy, so he goes the other way and deliberately plays to the stereotype, complete with changing his name to "Sinistrad" in the first place, all so most people end up assuming that this walking cliché can't be for real and he can't ''possibly'' be as bad as he makes out. [[spoiler: He's worse]].

* Played with in ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum''. The old Count von Magpyr LooksLikeOrlok and acts like a CardCarryingVillain, but is ''not'' a main villain; in fact he actually ''helps'' the witches against his descendants, new-style vampires who don't play fair. The witches credit him with being a WorthyOpponent in his day and his obvious evilness being the reason he was allowed to keep coming back to life; if vampires all started ditching their weaknesses they would be so overpowered people wouldn't put up with them and ''would'' find a way to make them DeaderThanDead.

** Subverted, however, with [[spoiler:Snape, who spends the whole series wearing black, being mean to the heroes and in general acting like a typical villain. He turns out to be a good guy, albeit one who happens not to like the protagonists and has ''really'' complicated motives]].

** Subverted in the SequelSeries ''Literature/TheHeritageOfShannara''. The first few [[TheHeartless Shadowen]] the protagonists run into are horrible monsters, leading to the impression that ''all'' Shadowen are like that. Except it doesn't work that way. The obviously evil Shadowen are actually the ''weakest'' ones, who lacked sufficient control of their magic to stop it from mutating them. The most powerful Shadowen- like [[BigBad Rimmer Dall]]- can pass themselves off as ordinary humans almost flawlessly, until they choose to reveal themselves.

* We know James of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' must be evil, because he's the only one of the vampires who is described as having a nondescript face, rather than being [[BeautyEqualsGoodness unbelievably beautiful]]. Also, he and his companions are dirty and dressed in worn clothing, rather than wearing designer labels all the time like the good vampires.
* If ''The Grand Ellipse'' is any indication, ThoseWackyNazis have created a new version of this trope. The villainous empire of Grewzia is full of tall blond guys, everyone from it is habitually punctual, and its national language consists mostly of hard consonants. This society is ''not'' an {{expy}} of the Nazis, and beyond appearances has almost nothing in common with them--this stuff's just our cue that they're bad, bad people.

* The Harkonnen in ''Literature/{{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.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' President Snow is described as having Snake-like eyes and the smell of roses and blood.
* The Boltons in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' have a [[FlayingAlive flayed man]] as their sigil and live in a place called [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace the Dreadfort]]. One looks a lot like Vlad the Impaler, another like Gilles de Rais on acid. On top of that, they display the family trait of having the [[CreepyBlueEyes creepiest pale, barely blue-grey eyes]] imaginable. They also happen to wear armor that has screaming faces and exposed muscles styled onto it. Yeah; nice guys.
** Rorge and Biter. Where to start... One looks like the noseless, string-haired, homeless junkie out of your worst nightmares. The other like a huge, pale, pock-marked, teeth-filed-to-points Fester Adams, with none of the charm or intelligence you'd hope for. Both engage in RapePillageandBurn as well as ImAHumanitarian -- in the ''open''.
** Averted, however, with the Lannisters. Tyrion Lannister is by far the most ethical one (at least at the start of the series) but is hideously deformed, in contrast to his brother and sister, who are evil but very attractive.
* Zahhak in ''Literature/TheShahnameh'' is an oppressive ruler with brain-eating snakes coming out of his shoulders.
** He only ''got'' the brain-eating snakes after he took over, since it was a result of the [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Ahriman]] that let him take over. Presumably he was a little less obviously evil beforehand, though since he was an [[EvilChancellor Evil Vizier]] you never know.

* Played with in ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' where the overlords, Aliens who arrive to govern Earth, make much ado about not showing themselves to Humanity until it is 'ready' because they would and do indeed appear obviously evil. The ultimate analysis of significance of their appearance at the end of the book is somewhat ambiguous.
* ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'': EvilOverlord Gothon wears armor that makes him look like a demon.
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' has some interesting examples. [[{{Satan}} Morgoth]] and [[TheDragon Sauron]] were both shape-shifters, and could take any form they chose. Sauron would in fact take on pleasing forms. Morgoth however (once he finally did become a GodOfEvil) decided he ''liked'' having an obviously evil form, and used it so much he got [[ShapeShifterModeLock stuck in it]]. After Sauron destroyed Númenor, he was punishing by being rendered unable to take a pleasing form ever again, so he took an obviously evil form by default.
** This trope is justified in Tolkien's Middle Earth, where evil has a really noticeable corrupting influence on everything it touches. This is why many of the villains in the Middle Earth stories tend to be so obvious.
* The Vitalizer in "Literature/ClockpunkAndTheVitalizer" is described as wearing [[EvilWearsBlack all black]] save for a gray mask with menacing-looking features. Along with his condescending, destructive behavior, there's really no ambiguity.
* All of the main villains from the original ''Literature/{{Shannara}}'' trilogy are like this- their names alone are tip-offs. The first book's Warlock Lord is an undead tyrant in a BlackCloak who rules over [[{{Mordor}} the Skull Kingdom]]; the second book's Demons are, well, ''Demons'' are and presented as a ravening, hateful horde of AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters; the third book's Mord Wraiths are basically an entire organization of mini-Warlock Lords, down to sharing his fashion sense.
** Subverted in the SequelSeries ''Literature/TheHeritageOfShannara''. The first few [[TheHeartless Shadowen]] the protagonists run into are horrible monsters, leading to the impression that ''all'' Shadowen are like that. Except it doesn't work that way. The obviously evil Shadowen are actually the ''weakest'' ones, who lacked sufficient control of their magic to stop it from mutating them. The most powerful Shadowen- like [[BigBad Rimmer Dall]]- can pass themselves off as ordinary humans almost flawlessly, until they choose to reveal themselves.
* Invoked in ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle''. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Sinistrad]] is an EvilSorcerer who is tall and gaunt, with pale skin, [[BaldOfEvil no hair]], and a fondness for [[BlackCloak black robes]] (the latter, admittedly, because [[ColorCodedWizardry that's what a wizard of his stature wears]] regardless of their morality). He knows the odds are pretty stacked against anyone mistaking him for a good guy, so he goes the other way and deliberately plays to the stereotype, complete with changing his name to "Sinistrad" in the first place, all so most people end up assuming that this walking cliché can't be for real and he can't ''possibly'' be as bad as he makes out. [[spoiler: He's worse]].
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by the protagonist in ''Literature/{{Somewhither}}'':
-->And, just on principle, I was not helping any group that called itself [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Darkest Tower]] against places called [[NamesToTrustImmediately Great Golden City and Land of Light]]. That was a no-brainer. I mean, get serious. Suppose you were from another world and came to ours circa 1940 and you saw an SS officer in his [[EvilWearsBlack black uniform]] with the silver [[SkeletonMotif skulls]] on his collar, and he said he wanted to exterminate some folks called [[NamesToTrustImmediately The Chosen People from some place called The Holy Land]], who would you think the bad guy was?

* We know James of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' must be evil, because he's the only one of the vampires who is described as having a nondescript face, rather than being unbelievably beautiful. Also, he and his companions are dirty and dressed in worn clothing, rather than wearing designer labels all the time like the [[BeautyEqualsGoodness good vampires.]]

* The Boltons in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' have a [[FlayingAlive flayed man]] as their sigil and live in a place called [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace the Dreadfort]]. They wear armor that has screaming faces and exposed muscles styled onto it.

* ''Literature/ADeadlyPresence'': Most of the animals from the Red Book are endangered because of a hunter who doesn't need food anymore.