History StupidEvil / VideoGames

* In the game ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon DS'', to marry the Witch Princess, the player has to ''kill 50 animals'' (which cost a lot of money to acquire, and then make the player a lot of money in return), ''litter in the road'' and ''poison the stew pot at a festival'' (which makes everyone else in the valley hate you, naturally), and ''pass out from overwork 100 times'' (which costs time and money, again, as passing out will cause you to go to bed immediately and lose half of your gold). Surely there are easier ways to prove that she's evil besides making you play the game horribly to make her like you?

*** Bhaal, god of murder, was AxCrazy [[TheFriendNobodyLikes even by the other two's standards]]. In [[HijackedByGanon every single game]] he serves as the GreaterScopeVillain with his EvilPlan essentially being "[[OmnicidalManiac kill everything]]", even though all he'd be doing is empowering Myrkul. Plus his followers have a bad case of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, as a ReligionOfEvil centered around being a PsychoKnifeNut doesn't offer many alternatives.

** The setting's GreaterScopeVillain, the Dead Three, suffer from this big-time. They're [[GodOfEvil Gods Of Evil]] [[DeityOfHumanOrigin who were once men]], and as a consequence they have a very mortal way of thinking as they come across more like hoodlums DrunkOnTheDarkSide.

** Introduced in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'', Orin the Red, the [[PsychoKnifeNut Chosen of Bhaal]]. [[spoiler: Orin is a Bhaalspawn who not long before the start of the game attacked the previous Chosen, [[TomatoInTheMirror The Dark Urge]] (and if not playing as them, killed them) for no apparent reason other than Bhaal favored them over her. This resulted in a case of NiceJobFixingItVillain. The disastrous consequences of her betrayal are so readily apparent that Gortash openly considers her a liability and will ''always'' attempt to ally with the PlayerCharacter no matter how zealously they've opposed the Absolute, simply because even ''they'' would be more reliable.]]
** The setting's BigBadTriumvirate, the Dead Three, suffer from this big-time. They're [[GodOfEvil Gods Of Evil]] [[DeityOfHumanOrigin who were once men]], and as a consequence they have a very mortal way of thinking as they come across more like hoodlums DrunkOnTheDarkSide.
*** Bane, [[WarGod god of conquest and tyranny]], used to encourage infighting among his followers to promote his SocialDarwinist tenets, but eventually adopted PragmaticVillainy, as evidenced by how Gortash conducts himself in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII''. However, the same cannot be said of his underlings, as they fail to realize their engineers ''[[KickTheDog need their eyes and hands to work]]''.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** Exdeath in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''. In the second act, he comes across as a competent if theatrical adversary -- commanding an army and winning, tricking the heroes into releasing him, and getting a party member KilledOffForReal. Unfortunately, the third act started with him gaining the power of the Void, which theoretically allows him to end all existence -- his ultimate goal. He then proceeds to use this power mainly to teleport to the heroes' location and sling insults at them. He potshots various areas of the map into vanishing, but only does this to settlements which have no value, like Bartz's birthplace and [[KickTheDog the Moogles' village]], in order to upset the heroes -- passing over destroying the castle where the only weapons capable of defeating him are stored, or the city containing an army that's been fighting him ever since he emerged. He pulls a BadBoss on his underling Gilgamesh, who [[BunnyEarsLawyer was fairly successful at slowing down the heroes, despite his quirky personality, despite his failure to actually stop them]], but still finds the time to pick a fight with a turtle and lose.

*** KOTOR's BigBad, Darth Malak, heavily suffers from this. Everyone you talk to says he's little more than a lunatic that does nothing but throw the endless fleet the Star Forge provides him with at the enemy, and he lives up to that, since the first time we see him, he orders an orbital bombardment to level an entire planet just because he was impatient about his army's progress with looking for one Jedi. It is even shared by other Sith, who regard him as an embarrassment and failure, stating that the circumstances under which he betrayed his master, Revan, was unbecoming of a Sith Lord, as it was just an act of sheer opportunism and not a show of strength. This is a rare case where being Stupid Evil makes the villain ''more'' threatening, not less. The fact that Malak is such a psycho and now has access to the [[NightmarishFactory Star Forge]] means that there isn't anything holding him back from nuking the galaxy into a new dark age.

** Talking of the Legion, the Omertas family are this, with their hat being that while the other families are fairly reasonable or manage to hide their evil, they just blatantly commit serious crimes with only the barest veneer of running their casino. They make it into this trope in that their main questline is discovering that they decided to not-so-secretly ally with the Legion, ostensibly under the pretense of getting back at Mr. House. This is despite the fact that the Legion has a penchant for slavery, a zero-tolerance attitude towards crime, and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness a habit of murdering or assimilating their allies.]] Indeed, if you check their stats, you'll find that the leaders of the Omertas all have a 3/10 in Intelligence.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has probably the dumbest idea when you have the fight between your party member Samara and her [[AntagonisticOffspring evil daughter]] Morinth. A very high-score Renegade has the option of siding with Morinth over Samara and having her take her place in your crew. While this doesn't have any huge repercussions for the player, as Morinth is completely loyal and doesn't betray you (unless [[TooDumbToLive you]] decide to seduce her), it's still an incredibly dumb idea from a logical standpoint. Samara is a justicar [[PrinciplesZealot fanatically devoted to her code]] and has sworn her on her life to aid you (until the oath expires, which you can plan for ahead of time), Morinth is a {{serial killer}} that had just tried to murder you for fun. You have no reason to trust Morinth and every reason to trust Samara, so there is really no practical reason for Shepard to side with Morinth except if you are intending to get Morinth's special ability Dominate for you to use and your subsequent playthroughs.

** Introduced in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'', Orin the Red, the [[PsychoKnifeNut Chosen of Bhaal]]. [[spoiler: Orin is a Bhaalspawn who not long before the start of the game attacked the previous Chosen, [[TomatoInTheMirror The Dark Urge]] (and if not playing as them, killed them) for no apparent reason other than Bhaal favored him over her. This resulted in a case of NiceJobFixingItVillain. The disastrous consequences of her betrayal are so readily apparent that Gortash openly considers her a liability and will ''always'' attempt to ally with the PlayerCharacter no matter how zealously they've opposed the Absolute, simply because even ''they'' would be more reliable.]]

*** Bane, [[WarGod god of conquest and tyranny]], used to encourage infighting among his followers to promote his SocialDarwinist tenets, but eventually adopted PragmaticVillainy, as evidenced by how Gortash conducts himself. However, the same cannot be said of his underlings, as they fail to realize their engineers ''[[KickTheDog need their eyes and hands to work]]''.

*** Myrkul, GodOfTheDead. Cruel and [[EvilIsPetty petty]], in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' he makes the mistake of [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu crossing a god far older and much more powerful than him]], ensuring that even an evil-aligned PlayerCharacter will ruin his plans.

** Introduced in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'', Orin the Red, the [[PsychoKnifeNut Chosen of Bhaal]]. [[spoiler: Orin is a Bhaalspawn who not long before the start of the game attacked the previous Chosen, [[TomatoInTheMirror The Dark Urge]] (and if not playing as him, killed him) for no apparent reason other than Bhaal favored him over her. This resulted in a case of NiceJobFixingItVillain]].

*** Bane, [[WarGod god of conquest and tyranny]], used to encourage infighting among his followers to promote his SocialDarwinist tenets, but eventually adopted PragmaticVillainy. Yet in ''Baldurs Gate III'' his followers don't understand the meaning of the word, as they fail to realize engineers ''[[KickTheDog need their eyes and hands to work]]''.

*** The Sith on Korriban are little more than a bunch of violent bullies with force powers. Even one of the masters is actively encouraging hypothetical decisions like [[YouHaveFailedMe executing a loyal subordinate for an explicitly minor and insignificant mistake]], or [[TheStarscream backstabbing a competent superior to take his place]], despite the implication that he does a far better job than you could ever do. His answer to the logical counterargument that a capable commanding officer is a valuable asset to the Sith and killing him would be counterproductive? FORCE LIGHTNING! One of the disciples actually switches sides after realizing that he just signed up because he likes bullying people and ended up with a bunch of freaks that do a far better job.

*** [[TheEmpire The Reconstituted Sith Empire]] suffers from this greatly prior to ''Shadow of Revan''. Incompetence rules since it's directly controlled by The Sith who, as mentioned above, fully support mindless scheming, backstabbing and internal power struggles, almost all of the class stories turn into fighting your fellow Imperials. But the fault isn't just with the Force Users in the Empire, since the Imperial military policy seems to encourage [[EvilIsPetty actions and campaigns being launched out of spite.]] Taris for example, a radioactive dump that was destroyed by Darth Malak 300 years prior, has an obscene amount of Imperial troops and Sith committed to destroying the recolonization efforts, during a full scale war. Every character involved in the Taris storyline sees no logistical problem with this. It's not a coincidence that most of the [[EnsembleDarkHorse fandom's favorite characters]] are Sith with just enough common sense to realize that this is utterly unsustainable.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow" has the Special Tactical Anti-Gang Unit or STAG. Near the endgame, a zombie virus they were carrying for some inexplicable reason gets unleashed' and one option for a final boss threatens to frame the Saints for domestic terrorism. This is wholly unnecessary since anyone doing a 100% run of the game has committed domestic terrorism (going on killing rampages with and without a tank, an assassination mission has you killing an elderly woman for speaking out against gang violence, and threatening to murder a TV personality for trying to drum up support for STAG). The battle with the Saints and the Syndicate repeatedly into paramilitary conflicts with armed choppers and other military vehicles. And the Syndicate has access to genetically modified superhuman monsters. STAG's main flaw is that they go into Stupid Evil territory trying to prove to the people that the Saints and Syndicate are a threat.

** [[spoiler:His EstablishingCharacterMoment of killing a prison warden who wanted a significant cut of Avery's treasure (Rafe and the Drake brothers had been keeping the warden [[LockedOutOfTheLoop out of the loop]]) is needlessly vindictive, borderline suicidal, and results in [[spoiler:Sam's NearDeathExperience and subsequent incarceration. No wonder neither of the Drake brothers wanted to keep working with him after that. Given his wealth and connections, Rafe could have easily arranged for Vargas to be killed after leaving the prison]].

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'''s Corypheus is a textbook example of this. His goal as stated by the writers and, in between gloating about all the evil things he plans to do, Corypheus himself: become a god. How? Acts of overt evil for its own sake that unite his enemies and turn his allies against him. Then again, Darkspawn are AlwaysChaoticEvil, Magisters are mostly [[SmugSnake smug bastards]], and Corypheus is ''both'', so it probably isn't much of a surprise that he's a grandiose prick who wants to make Thedas into a monument to his ego.

** The textbook video game example is Morrigan, from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. She's ''supposed'' to come off as merely practical and ruthless -- but given that she actively suggests you screw over other people whom you need to defeat the Blight, encourages betrayal and being a prick to people whose aid you need, and in general, just being a snarky asshole, she comes off as this instead. Most telling is her support for the option to invoke the Rite of Annulment on the tower mages despite she herself being a mage who hates templars; she justifies it with some SocialDarwinist code philosophy which really falls flat and devolves into nothing but engaging in MiseryPoker. Even if you don't support the mages or yet to form your stance about the mages, a pragmatic player can justify that having mages during the FinalBattle can help fend off legions of darkspawn who will stall the Warden on their way to Fort Drakon, especially against larger enemies like ogres and will criticize the templars' inability to control the situation without resorting to Rite of Annulment. Generally, she really just seems to enjoy whichever course of action results in the most people being killed without regard for the overarching consequences of those actions, even if she joins the Warden because of Flemeth's agenda. This is actually PlayedForDrama, however, since she is a byproduct of Flemeth's abuse and her disconnection from society, her SocialDarwinist mentality is due to thinking what most animals should think (which also reflects to her Shapeshifter specialization), but it can't be applied fully as she engages into society throughout her journey with the Warden. Thankfully, she gets better in ''Inquisition''.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow has the Special Tactical Anti-Gang Unit or STAG. Near the endgame, a zombie virus they were carrying for some inexplicable reason gets unleashed' and one option for a final boss threatens to frame the Saints for domestic terrorism. This is wholly unnecessary since anyone doing a 100% run of the game has committed domestic terrorism (going on killing rampages with and without a tank, an assassination mission has you killing an elderly woman for speaking out against gang violence, and threatening to murder a TV personality for trying to drum up support for STAG). The battle with the Saints and the Syndicate repeatedly into paramilitary conflicts with armed choppers and other military vehicles. And the Syndicate has access to genetically modified superhuman monsters. STAG's main flaw is that they go into Stupid Evil territory trying to prove to the people that the Saints and Syndicate are a threat.

** ''VideoGame/SaintsRow has the Special Tactical Anti-Gang Unit or STAG. Near the endgame, a zombie virus they were carrying for some inexplicable reason gets unleashed' and one option for a final boss threatens to frame the Saints for domestic terrorism. This is wholly unnecessary since anyone doing a 100% run of the game has committed domestic terrorism (going on killing rampages with and without a tank, an assassination mission has you killing an elderly woman for speaking out against gang violence, and threatening to murder a TV personality for trying to drum up support for STAG). The battle with the Saints and the Syndicate repeatedly into paramilitary conflicts with armed choppers and other military vehicles. And the Syndicate has access to genetically modified superhuman monsters. STAG's main flaw is that they go into Stupid Evil territory trying to prove to the people that the Saints and Syndicate are a threat.

*** [[TheEmpire The Reconstituted Sith Empire]] suffers from this greatly prior to ''Shadow of Revan''. Incompetence rules since it's directly controlled by The Sith who, as mentioned above, fully support mindless scheming, backstabbing and internal power struggles, almost all of the class stories turn into fighting your fellow Imperials. But the fault isn't just with the Force Users in the Empire, since the Imperial military policy seems to encourage [[EvilIsPetty actions and campaigns being launched out of spite.]] Taris for example, a radioactive dump that was destroyed by Darth Malak 300 years prior, has an obscene amount of Imperial troops and Sith committed to destroying the recolonization efforts, during a full scale war. Every character involved in the Taris storyline sees no logisitical problem with this. It's not a coincidence that most of the [[EnsembleDarkHorse fandom's favorite characters]] are Sith with just enough common sense to realize that this is utterly unsustainable.

* While Bishop Manfroy in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' is mostly a pretty clever archvillain, he has one positively ''massive'' moment of this. He's managed to kidnap Julia, local MysteriousWaif and the only person who can wield the Tome of Naga, which is the only thing that can penetrate the defenses of his otherwise NighInvulnerable boss, Julius. Julius immediately suggests killing her, which would be utterly trivial for either of them, and since she's the only person left alive with [[SuperpowerfulGenetics Major Blood of Naga]], it would end Naga's line of descent forever and turn the legendary Tome of Naga into a paperweight. But then Manfroy has a better idea: keep Julia alive, but throw her at the good guys, now BrainwashedAndCrazy, so that the heroes have to fight one of their closest friends! Needless to say, killing Manfroy ([[AntiClimaxBoss which isn't very hard]]) will end the brainwashing and return Julia to normal, at which point she can then swing by Manfroy's base and pick up the Tome of Naga and proceed to kill Julius in about two rounds. When she shows up, a [[OhCrap terrified]] Julius spends some of his last words calling Manfroy a complete idiot.

** [[spoiler:His EstablishingCharacterMoment of killing a prison warden who wanted a significant cut of Avery's treasure (Rafe and the Drake brothers had been keeping the warden [[LockedOutOfTheLoop out of the loop]]) is needlessly vindictive, borderline suicidal, and results in Sam's near-death experience and subsequent incarceration. No wonder neither of the Drake brothers wanted to keep working with him after that.]]
** [[spoiler:Turning his back on Nadine after forcing her to come with him into the booby trapped ship despite her warnings not to go into it and then [[WrongGenreSavvy giving her a gun to boot when they find the Drakes]]. [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal Unsurprisingly, she quickly turns on him and leaves him to die in the cargo hold]].]]
** [[spoiler:At the climax, Rafe forces Nate into a duel to the death despite the fact that ''they are both locked in a burning room on a sinking ship'', they will probably die if they waste time instead of trying to escape, and Nate doesn't even care about the treasure anymore and just wants to leave with his brother. This mistake costs Rafe his life, and even if he had managed to kill Nate, [[PyrrhicVictory he wouldn't have made it out with the treasure alive]].]]

* Can be played straight, {{averted|Trope}}, or even {{subverted|Trope}} in the first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games. While it's quite possible to go through the games killing nearly everything that breathes, many of the "evil" sidequests can be accomplished without wholesale slaughter or [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] malice, and many of the "good" sidequests can be solved ''with'' needlessly violent acts as well. Need to get a hostage from the slavers? Don't bother negotiating a deal that benefits everyone, or seducing the leader. You can just kill them all! An [[Literature/SwordOfTruth evil-pacifist]] run isn't entirely impossible, just annoyingly difficult. In ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', the most ideal ending for New Reno, where it stops being a WretchedHive and becomes somewhere you'd actually want to ''live'', is gained by wantonly killing everyone save the Wrights (and not becoming a made man with the Wrights, since this will lead to the Wrights using the military tech in the Sierra Army Base to create a military dictatorship). Or you can simply use cloak and dagger tactics to eliminate the heads, each being a case of being HoistByTheirOwnPetard (each New Reno head has a way to die without pissing off their fellow family members). However, [[EarnYourBadEnding killing all four heads]] will lead to the city being destroyed by the EvilPowerVacuum.

** Introduced in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'', Orin the Red, the Chosen of Bhaal. [[spoiler: Orin is a Bhaalspawn who not long before the start of the game attacked the previous Chosen, a character named The Dark Urge (and if not playing as him, killed him) for no apparent reason other than Bhaal favored him over her]].

*** Myrkul, GodOfTheDead. Cruel and [[EvilIsPetty petty]], in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' he makes the mistake of [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu crossing a god far older and much more powerful than him]], ensuring that even an evil-aligned PlayerCharacter will likely ruin his plans.

*** Bane, [[WarGod god of conquest and tyranny]], used to encourage infighting among his followers to promote his SocialDarwinist tenets, but eventually adopted PragmaticVillainy. Yet in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' his followers don't understand the meaning of the word, as they fail to realize engineers ''[[KickTheDog need their eyes and hands to work]]''.

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'''s Corypheus is a textbook example of this. His goal as stated by the writers and, in between gloating about all the evil things he plans to do, Corypheus himself: become a god. How? Acts of overt evil for its own sake that unite his enemies and turn his allies against him. Then again, he is a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil darkspawn]].

** OG Loc asked CJ to ruin Madd Dogg's career to boost his own, even though it didn't really matter if he had Madd dog's rhyme book; his lyrics were still terrible regardless. He also got himself in legal trouble trying to get street reputation but even his criminal record is so pathetic compared to what real gangstas do, and ultimately went to jail simply for unpaid traffic tickets. Then when Madd Dogg found out, he ends up being confronted by both him and CJ over his theft of the former's rhyme book.

** Carl "CJ" Johnson to a degree counts as this because, despite being the most moral of the ''GTA'' protagonists, he's also done some pretty heinous stuff of his own too; for instance, he killed the DEA and witnesses of Tenpenny's corruption that would've ended his reign of terror, even after Mike Toreno was protecting Sweet in jail. He also killed construction workers who insulted his sister Kendl, killed an innocent valet to frame another for drug possession, destroyed a dam to shut down Las Venturas' power grid instead of bribing a dam engineer to shut it down for the heist and stole a crane helicopter instead of stealing vaulted money vans or buying vans and painting them with money van disguises.

** Catalina deserves special mention; she was a terrible lover and heist partner, treated CJ more as a slave than a person and [[HisOwnWorstEnemy is her own fault they failed in their heists with her explosive temper]].