Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / AcademyOfEvil

Go To

1%%%
2%% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread.
3%%
4%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
5%%
6%%%
7
8[[quoteright:340:[[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capture1_1.jpg]]]]
9[[caption-width-right:340:"And tomorrow, we'll be learning about 'DEF': Destruction, Extortion and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking French Accents]]."]]
10
11->''"I didn't spend six years in evil medical school to be called 'mister', thank you very much."''
12--> -- '''Dr. Evil''', ''[[Film/AustinPowers Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me]]''
13
14This is a school that teaches their students how to be better villains. There will be courses on mayhem, [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord extortion]], use of [[BadPowersBadPeople powers]] for [[GoodPowersBadPeople evil]], money laundering and many other topics. Usually the school will be a strictly evil institution that is staffed entirely with {{Sadist Teacher}}s and directed by the Principal / BigBad. Despite this rigid order much of the rules have two big caveats: MightMakesRight, and the teachers won't punish cheating -- rather, they'll punish ''[[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught getting caught]]'' because [[DoWrongRight it's a sign of sloppy work]].
15
16Presumably, such a school is funded by graduates tithing back money to the principal, though he or she may get funding from parents who enroll their children because they [[VillainousLineage want their kids]] to [[LegacyCharacter follow their evil jackboot-steps.]] Then again, the school may act as a talent agency / crime ring and hire out students as mercenaries, or use them to commit crimes.
17
18To be fair, DarkIsNotEvil, and the Academy Of Evil may just be suffering from a bad reputation. In this case it will at worst be teaching the [[GreyAndGrayMorality Off-Grey]] [[TheDarkArts Arts]] and fomenting {{ambition|IsEvil}} and {{guile|Hero}} in the student body. Speaking of which, expect it to have a near [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership Darwinian social scene]] that makes most prisons seem like a SugarBowl. The AlphaBitch won't just badmouth you, she'll have her GirlPosse cut you up and sell you for parts to the MadScientist-in-training.
19
20If there is a good-aligned WizardingSchool, NinjaSchool, or SuperheroSchool, expect them both to be [[RivalDojos rivals]]. May overlap with AllGhoulsSchool, although they're more likely to be DarkIsNotEvil. This will most likely be where villains get their {{Morally Ambiguous Doctorate}}s. See also ThugDojo for a martial arts school that trains its students to be amoral MightMakesRight type villains.Most often it is a subtrope to BoardingSchoolOfHorrors only differing from other subtropes in that it openly advertises and promotes its immoral teachings while a lot of other boarding schools of no lesser horrors keep up a facade of respectability and decency. Also a lot people who are there at least feel at home and it is of no horror to them.
21----
22!!Examples:
23
24[[foldercontrol]]
25
26[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27* The eponymous institution in ''Manga/HollowFields'' is a school for mad scientists, with courses in graverobbing, building machines of destruction, and so forth.
28* Duel Academia from ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' trains its students to become ChildSoldiers who [[WarForFunAndProfit partake in genocide for fun]] and act as a personal army for Professor Leo Akaba.
29[[/folder]]
30
31[[folder:Asian Animation]]
32* In ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', the monsters have a school where they learn how to be proper monsters. There always seems to be a lack of funding, though...
33[[/folder]]
34
35[[folder:Comic Books]]
36* Creator/AlanMoore did a ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' gag strip based on one of these for [[ComicStrip/FlashGordon Ming-style]] SpaceOpera bad guys.
37* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
38** The situation in [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]] is so dire that at times Batman's veteran rogues decided to teach the less experienced inmates the in-and-outs of their trades ForTheEvulz, effectively turning the place into an impromptu school for evildoers. Founder Jeremiah Arkham himself described it as "The Ivy League of Insanity". During her StartOfDarkness, Batgirl's enemy Knightfall went so far as to get herself committed to Arkham on purpose so she could [[FromNobodyToNightmare learn how to be a supervillain]] and D-lister [[HarmlessVillain Condiment King]] is said to have [[TookALevelInBadass upped his game]] after Poison Ivy taught him about how to turn plants used in condiments into poisons.
39** St. Hadrian's Finishing School for Girls in ''ComicBook/{{Batman Incorporated|2010}}'', which is run by the international TerroristsWithoutACause group Leviathan and trains its pupils to become spies, assassins and depraved seducers. After Batman and an undercover Stephanie Brown took it out, it was restarted by Spyral, and trained its pupils to become spies, assassins, and depraved seducers for ''good causes'', under the new headmistress [[spoiler:Kathy Kane (the Silver Age Batwoman, recently retconned back into continuity)]].
40* In ''Black Hood Comics'' #9, criminal mastermind Markov starts a school for (adult) criminals, teaching them how to fight barehanded, how to evade police capture, etc. He does so out of a simple desire to improve the local criminal landscape, having found the crooks he'd met up to that point clumsy and stupid.
41* In ''ComicBook/DeadlyClass'', students are the sons and daughters of fine important figures such as KGB/CIA/FBI agents, {{gangbangers}}, neo-Nazis, African warlords, and South American drug cartels, just to name a few.
42* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': The Dark Judges are shown to have taken over their version of the Academy of Law during the destruction of their planet to teach the trainees how to best execute citizens.
43* Oft mentioned in ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational'' is the Manga Khan School of Melodrama, which teaches students how to ''talk'' like a villain.
44%%* Villain Academy in ''Manga/SentaiSchool''.
45* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
46** Any institution run by [[Characters/MarvelComicsTaskmaster Taskmaster]] is this -- he first came to prominence running schools for henchmen of other supervillains. Later, during ''ComicBook/DarkReign'', he was in charge of [[ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative the Initiative]] for a while. He's so good at what he does that the government sometimes hires him to train their operatives, including a replacement ComicBook/CaptainAmerica.
47** Xavier's School for Exceptionally Wayward Youth in ''ComicBook/XMenNoir'' is a reform school... but Professor X teaches his students how to be better criminals rather than actually reforming them. He insists this is a ploy to gain their trust so they will gradually open up to him and therapy can begin in earnest. In reality, he is developing and studying them to prove his theory that sociopathy is the next stage of human behavioral evolution.
48** ''ComicBook/XMen'':
49*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsEmmaFrost Emma Frost a.k.a. the White Queen]] used to be headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy -- a front for the Hellfire Club that produced the Hellions, rivals to the then-Xavier Institute student body, the ''ComicBook/NewMutants''. When Emma had her HeelFaceTurn, the Massachusetts Academy became a SuperheroSchool, the front for ''ComicBook/GenerationX''.
50*** In ''ComicBook/NewXMenAcademyX'', the Hellions are another "house" within the Xavier Institute, but still kind of villain-y and rivals to the New Mutants team.
51*** The Hellfire Academy in ''ComicBook/WolverineAndTheXMenMarvelComics'' is kind of like the Massachusetts Academy only ''completely insane''.
52* ''ComicBook/StarWarsDoctorAphra'': During the ''And the Enormous Profit'' arc, Aphra ultimately sells the [[MacGuffin Rur crystal]] to the "Shadow University". Though they are not shown doing anything particularly evil, the fact that they were included on the attendance list to Aphra's AuctionOfEvil and the fact that the morally grey Aphra says she admires them imply that they are this. They also threaten to expose Aphra's cheating and get her doctorate revoked again if she does not sell the Rur crystal to them. The Shadow University returns during the ''Fortune and Fate'' arc, in which we learn that they really do operate like a normal school (complete with peer-reviewed dissertations), and where it's reiterated that they have no problem buying clearly stolen artifacts from people like Aphra.
53[[/folder]]
54
55[[folder:Fan Works]]
56* ''Fanfic/TheVictorsProject'':
57** The Career tribute schools in District One (District Academy for Excellence in Youth Development or simply DAEYD) and Two (the Institute a.k.a. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Murder High]]) teach children to kill other children in the name of money and honor, and those children have an unfair advantage over the other district children.
58** Downplayed with the training camps in District Four, as the tributes who train there do so in case they're reaped or someone who is sick/disabled is reaped (so they can volunteer for them). They're also observed to not be as AxCrazy compared to One and Two.
59[[/folder]]
60
61[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
62* The school seen in the ''Cannon Fodder'' segment of ''Anime/{{Memories}}'' seems to only teach material applicable to designing, building, and launching bombs. The whole city is in a ForeverWar against an enemy who might not even exist, so this is the totalitarian government's way of cementing their control over the next generation. Of course, the kids (and possibly the teachers) don't consider it evil, since they've never known anything else.
63[[/folder]]
64
65[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
66* From the ''Film/AustinPowers'' movies: Dr. Evil did not spend six years at Evil Medical School to be called "Mister", thank you very much.
67* ''Film/TheKarateKid'': Cobra Kai is essentially a Dojo of Evil.
68* The eponymous school in the 1960 film ''Film/{{School for Scoundrels}}'' teaches how to be a nasty manipulative person, but without ever breaking any rules, because [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught rule-breakers risk being caught]]. [[BasedOnAnAdviceBook Based on a series of spoof self-help books]].
69* Royal Pain plans to turn ''Film/SkyHigh2005'' into one of these, turning the students, faculty and alumni into babies and then raising them anew as supervillains. Even before that, the school already has villains, as evidenced by Speed and Lash.
70* The titular school in ''Film/StTrinians'' is more an academy of anarchy, but there are classes in various forms of lucrative crime and how to avoid arrest in foreign countries. The students and teachers do seem to be chaotic neutral rather than actually evil.
71[[/folder]]
72
73[[folder:Folklore]]
74* ''Myth/TheScholomance'', from Romanian mythology, is a hidden school underneath [[{{Uberwald}} Transylvania]] with {{Satan}} for a headmaster. Students here learn Main/TheDarkArts, including the power to control the weather, but the Devil then keeps one of the students as the class's 'tuition' before releasing the others.
75[[/folder]]
76
77[[folder:Literature]]
78%%* Creator/JTEdson's ''Literature/BlondeGenius'': Bekinsop's Academy for the Daughters of Gentlefolk.
79* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Played with with the [[MurderInc Assassins' Guild School]]; while it does still teach the art of assassination, is also considered a prestigious academy for gentlemen and, as of recently, ladies. Another Academy of Evil is discussed in ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', though it may not actually exist:
80-->''Of course, all [[EvilChancellor Grand Viziers]] talk like that all the time. There's probably a school somewhere.''
81* ''Literature/DoomValleyPrepSchool'': The titular school is a well-respected institution and ranked #2 in the world for creating first-rate evil overlords, dark wizards, warlords, politicians, assassins, lawyers, and other careers that involve grabbing the world by the throat and taking what you want. It doesn't just teach students to be evil, it teaches them how to be successful at whatever they do. And they'll make sure students learn or die trying.
82* ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'': Dracula is mentioned to have studied at the "Scholomance" -- presumably the same one from the Folklore section above. Freda Warrington's [[Literature/DraculaTheUndead1997 unofficial sequel]] has the now-abandoned Scholomance play a big role in the plot.
83* ''Literature/TheCircle2011'': The witches are told straight out that their school is a place of evil, [[spoiler:and much of the bad stuff in the novel happens there]].
84* ''Literature/EndersGame'': Battle School is on the very dark side of morally ambiguous. On the one hand, they're training commanders to attack an alien race that once attacked them. On the other hand [[spoiler: they plan the complete genocide of the aliens and consider students killing one another an acceptable part of their training]]. The eventual sequels cast Battle School in a different light, showing that while it's quite deliberately teaching "evil values" to many of the students, it's doing so for their ''weaknesses'': the institution was founded to deal with far more important and long-term problems than an unfortunate kerfuffle with an alien race, and a number of its students were destined even before their enrollment to become problems. Battle School is actually finishing them to look really good to their sponsors upon graduation... and then ''fail miserably'' (and in the meantime, using them to help finish the other students in other directions).
85* The ''Literature/EvilGeniusTrilogy'' sends its protagonist, the SociopathicHero Cadel, to the Axis Institute, which includes courses like "Poisoning" and "Forgery". This is probably one of the most {{deconstructi|on}}ve uses of this trope in literature; the institution was founded despite violating in-universe suspension of disbelief of its founders that the concept was workable either as an ideal for education or a for-profit business, and it mostly exists by virtue of being {{invoked|Trope}} by an in-setting narrative expecting it to exist. It also directly conflicts with an arguable message of the series as a whole: that social systems intended for good, even while corrupt, employed by the negligent and uncaring, and actively exploited by the evil, still tend to end up providing people with better lives than they could seize for themselves through selfish acts.
86* ''Literature/ForgottenRealms'': The dark elven city of Menzoberranzan has one, most elaborated on in R. A. Salvatore's ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' novels (but also appearing in Elaine Cunningham's Liriel novels and the ''Literature/WarOfTheSpiderQueen'' series). Tier-Breche (usually simply called "The Academy") is divided into three sub-schools, Melee-Magthere (for warriors), Sorcere (for wizards) and Arach-Tinillith (for the clergy of [[GodOfEvil Lolth]]). Considering its two functions are to train the students to lethal efficiency in their particular discipline and firmly induct them into a ReligionOfEvil, it's a very scary place. Since the main hero Drizzt is a warrior, his education mostly takes place in Melee-Magthere -- and it's ripe with backstabbing, KlingonPromotion and things like using children to bait monsters for students to practice on. And yet Drizzt's mentor [[DefectorFromDecadence Zaknafein]] adamantly insists that he goes there, because apparently Sorcere ''is even worse''.
87* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
88** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', it's noted that Durmstrang, the Eastern European school, has the reputation as this among the eleven great Wizarding schools of the world. Even though they don't accept muggleborns and teach Dark Arts, it's {{downplayed|Trope}}. They have one particularly infamous former pupil, Dumbledore's old "friend"/arch-nemesis Gellert Grindelwald, but [[EvenEvilHasStandards they had to draw the line and expel him when he crossed a line]], whereas a school that really played this trope straight would probably have nurtured him. We do meet Durmstrang alumni who are definitely not evil and take a hard stand against evil (Viktor Krum comes to mind right away) and this isn't shown as being very odd. It's also noted in some supplemental information that the school has gone through a bit of a renaissance after trying to rehabilitate after the fall of Voldemort.
89** Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has this reputation; nearly all of the Death Eaters came from Slytherin. It basically becomes a grooming platform for future Death Eaters once Voldemort comes to power.
90** When Hogwarts is taken over by the corrupt Ministry of Magic in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'', it is bent to Voldemort's will. Students are taught the Dark Arts, Muggle Studies is made compulsory and taught with a bias against Muggles, and corporal punishment is put into use. It doesn't work on the students except for [[BlackShirt Slytherin House]]. However, all of this stops after Voldemort is killed and the Second Wizarding War ends.
91* The House of Reform in ''Literature/TheHauntingOfDrearcliffGrangeSchool'', rivals to the eponymous ExtranormalInstitute, and described as "a whole school of Wrong 'Uns. Lobelia Draycott probably gave out end of term prizes for the most inventive crimes."
92* The eponymous [[FunWithAcronyms Higher Institute of Villainous Education]] in the ''Literature/HIVESeries''. This is very nearly [[DuelingWorks dueling]] with the ''Literature/EvilGeniusTrilogy'' above. Whereas the Axis Institute will sacrifice nearly any amount of practicality for the sake of more evil, the H.I.V.E. is dedicated primarily to the personal empowerment of its students and their natural talents, and secondarily to the survival of supervillainy as a lifestyle choice. This means ButNotTooEvil: ensuring its graduates are happy also means ensuring they know when to stop for their own benefit, and the institution and its better students actually seem to get into EvilVsEvil situations more than the heroes of the setting. (Basically, the philosophical difference is that H.I.V.E. believes in getting more for yourself in absolute terms, and looks down on the kind of villainy that values "having it ''all''" more -- self-elevation versus forcing the world to rest of the world to lie down so you can still see over their heads.)
93* The Luciferian Academy in ''Literature/TheJeremiahSchool'' is one where its students are taught how to dabble in "the unholy arts" that the Bible warns God's people against. Its headmaster is Lucien Morgenstern, who is responsible for killing Peter Stone's parents, and three of its students (two wizards and a witch) are evil expies of Harry, Ron, and Hermione from ''Franchise/HarryPotter''.
94* Lawless Academy in ''Literature/{{Lawless}}'' is a school for criminals.
95* In ''Literature/RogueSorcerer'', the Tower is an academy for Sorcerers who use blood magic to control murderous demons.
96* Naturally, ''Literature/TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil'' focuses on a school that lives up to this and to HeroAcademy. At the end of the series the main characters resolve to keep the school running to preserve the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil that the previous schoolmasters had thrown off.
97* In ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'', it's mentioned that {{Hell}} has a Training College for young devils, run by a demon named Slubgob. They study such courses as sexual temptation ("a subject of considerable tedium", complains Screwtape) and [[AWolfInSheepsClothing disguising oneself as an Angel of Light]].
98* There is a "[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Academy Shadow Academy]]" in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', as a Dark Side counterpart to the Jedi Academy.
99%%* The Nightmoore Academy of Creator/FrankPeretti's ''Veritas Project'' series.
100* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has Mesaana opening a lot of those during [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas the Age of Legends]], and its pupils were ''not'' dedicated to idle cackling.
101* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'' features the mythical [[Myth/TheScholomance Scholomance]], which as usual is depicted as an underground school where magicians learn to cast evil spells. The protagonist is a good witch who infiltrates the school in order to redeem herself for having been beaten by its pupils earlier, but after she finds out that she's unable to leave, she's forced to find a way to survive the inhuman lessons (and murderous classmates) and to progress through the curriculum without being corrupted by the evil all around her.
102[[/folder]]
103
104[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
105* ''Series/AlexRider2020'': Malagosto, Scorpia's training centre for assassins, where "classes" include hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, and infiltration planning. This is actually played straighter than it was in ''[[Literature/AlexRider Scorpia]]'', with all students being orphaned {{Tyke Bomb}}s in their mid twenties at most, rather than experienced former special forces personnel, [[spoiler:with Alex's age being an outlier]], as was the case in the books.
106* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': A Season 5 episode reveals that HYDRA operated at least one secret facility that served as a boarding school for children born into the organization. It's shown that [[WellIntentionedExtremist Brigadier General Hale]], [[EvilutionaryBiologist Wolfgang Von Strucker]], and [[TheMole Jasper Sitwell]] were all students there in the same class.
107* There are two that show up in ''Series/Charmed1998'', both called simply the Academy. They focus on turning humans into demons.
108* The Armed Brain Army Volt in ''Series/ChoujuuSentaiLiveman'' are a cult of super-geniuses who entice promising university students into joining with the offer of obtaining more knowledge. Granted, there isn't anything inherently evil about most of the super-science they teach (and it's pointed out several times that if they really wanted to, the students/executives of Volt could [[CutLexLuthorACheck use their research to better the world instead]]), but the students of Volt are actively encouraged to give up their humanity in the pursuit of more knowledge.
109* ''Series/OddSquad'': The Season 3 episode "Mr. Unpredictable" introduces Villain University, which is a school where potential villains go to learn about villainy. Orla and Oswald go undercover as villains in order to find out more about the titular villain, who attended Villain University.
110* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': The episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E8StraightAndNarrow Straight and Narrow]]" features a school where students are implanted with a mind control chip. One of the classes features assassination as a viable business practice for getting rid of the competition.
111* ''Series/TheThundermans'': Max Thunderman wants to go to one of these, but the premise of the show is him keeping up the {{Masquerade}} in a suburban public school.
112[[/folder]]
113
114[[folder:Roleplay]]
115* The play-by-post roleplay ''Roleplay/DestineEnormity'' has [[MeaningfulName SIN Academy,]] where the city's overlords indoctrinate the city's children.
116* In the quest ''Roleplay/WarhammerFantasyDividedLoyalties'', a Necrarch vampire has set up a "College of Necromancy" in Sylvania, complete with students wearing Black robes to ape the colored robes of the Colleges of Magic. Proof of this college is all that's needed to convince the Emperor and Supreme Patriarch to unleash the Empire’s Battle Wizards on Sylvania.
117[[/folder]]
118
119[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
120* The Bleak Academy in ''TabletopGame/ChuubosMarvelousWishGrantingEngine'' exists beyond the edge of the world; many of the darker characters have studied there.
121* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', devils are LawfulEvil outsiders created from mortal soul shells, in a gruesome process that strips the damned soul of its memories and original personality. To help them (re)learn how to infiltrate and manipulate mortal society, promising devils are sent to Offalion, an academy of sorts on Baator's squalid layer of Maladomini. Here, senior baatezu put together half-ruined mock-ups of Material Plane locales like marketplaces, temples and palaces, to run intricate scenarios and simulations that prepare devils for upcoming missions. Success means a devil can be sent off on assignment to continue climbing Hell's hierarchy, while failure may lead devils to be demoted into a lower form of baatezu. Sometimes mortals are conscripted to take part in the scenarios as advisors or even wild cards, and those who do so have a chance to learn about the devils' plans for the Material Plane.
122** In ''Volo's Guide to Monsters'', it's mentioned that the LawfulEvil Hobgoblins have their own WizardingSchool, despite previous editions having them eschew magic entirely as weak or "elf-like". Being a ProudWarriorRace though, the aptly named Academy of Devastation focuses entirely on [[BlackMage evocation magic]] to serve in warfare.
123** In ''TabletopGame/WaterdeepDungeonOfTheMadMage'', Level Nine is Dweomercore, the academy started by [[EvilSorcerer Halaster]] to train up potential new apprentices. Players have to contend with the other students jockeying for Halaster's favor, and can potentially disrupt everything by taking out the headmaster [[spoiler:an arcanolith posing as Halaster]], or devote themselves to spreading dissent among the student body before descending to the next level of Undermountain.
124* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'': In response to the heroic Claremont Academy of Freedom City, the villain Taurus launched the villainous equivalent: the Shadow Academy. 3rd Edition adds the Elysium Academy in Sunset Hill, in the West Coast setting of Emerald City; publicly, Elysium is a boarding school for the children of Sunset Hill's residents,who were denied entry into the exclusive Malory College. Privately, it's the West Coast extension of the Shadow Academy [[spoiler:(the residents of Sunset Hill ''are'' retired supervillains, after all; when Taurus reached out with an offer to expand the Shadow Academy, the local baddies jumped at the chance to stick it to Malory College)]].
125[[/folder]]
126
127[[folder:Video Games]]
128* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'':
129** While Byrgenwerth College started out as a regular college of some type, one day they discovered the hidden Pthumerian Tombs below the city of Yharnam. It was their decision to crack open the "Tomb of the Gods" that inadvertently started the city's descent into madness, and it ''was'' a demented former student that started the blood craze (leading to the Vilebloods). The evil part comes in when it's revealed in ''The Old Hunters'' DLC that Byrgenwerth sent Hunters and students to sack a fishing village that was home to a local EldritchAbomination and apparently killed everyone there. Eventually, they split into several factions, the largest of which being the Healing Church. Their decision to keep investigating alternate ways of understanding the Pthumerians' mastery of magic aside from Old Blood (the Fishing Hamlet massacre, research on Insight) brought them into conflict with the Healing Church, and spelled doom for everyone involved. In the modern day, Byrgenwerth is abandoned aside from the dead and the insane. The implication is that most students went their separate ways once the Healing Church started to take off.
130** The School of Mensis is a heretical offshoot of the Healing Church, which as previously mentioned splintered from Byrgenwerth. It is, bar none, the most malevolent faction of the game, having no issue with kidnapping people to serve as fodder for their rituals. Their land has been twisted into an expanse of mountains bearing countless screaming faces, rising above a sea of fog. Their headquarters serve as a prison for an EldritchAbomination and an incubator for another.
131* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'': The Dark Academy certainly appears to be this kind of place, being a perpetually gloomy and rainy schoolhouse crawling with poltergeists and demons that features ghastly phenomena like bloody hand prints that follow you along the wall as you pass through a room. You never get to see the place teaching anything, but as it features witches and mandragoras as enemies and "[[FrankensteinsMonster The Creature]]" as the level boss, it's safe to assume witchcraft and mad science are on the curriculum.
132* ''VideoGame/ChoiceOfGames'' offers ''Grand Academy for Future Villains'', in which you're attending the school that teachers evil masterminds and would-be despots, and is aware of the genres they're being sent to.
133* [[TropeNamers The Academy of Evil]], from ''VideoGame/CrashTwinsanity'', a private school that literally teaches students to be evil, for the sake of being evil. The series' antagonist, Dr. Neo Cortex, studied here, while his niece was thrown out and had to continue her studies at the Evil Public School.
134* The Institute of Evil, Nether Academy, is the setting of ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice''. It's literally a school in ''hell'', where demons go to learn how to be properly evil (by their [[PokeThePoodle generally awkward]] standards). Since ''Disgaea'' demons run on BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad, the students they consider honor students are the ones who never attend class or do their homework, while the delinquents are the ones who maintain 100% attendance (even though the teachers rarely bother showing up), and give ''themselves'' homework (which they always complete) since the teachers won't. They also pick up litter. Oddly, the so-called "delinquents" are the only ones who ever get to graduate from the academy, since they run off the same standards as any other school in that regard... In fact, [[spoiler:the previously mentioned delinquents are the first ones to ever graduate, which amounts to be KickedUpstairs. You see, the Academy's objective is to make the students remain paying the tuition for all eternity]]. The UpdatedRerelease ''Absence of Detention'' introduces a rival school, Majin Institute, which is dedicated to training students to become Majins (one of the strongest type of Demon in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' universe). [[spoiler:It's a SuckySchool that has yet to produce a single Majin and currently only has seven students ''total'' who are nowhere close to Majins.]]
135* The Sith Academies on Korriban and Malachor V in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords The Sith Lords]]'', respectively. The former encourages backstabbing and killing your fellow students and even teachers to gnaw your way to the top. The Korriban academy has been rebuilt and reestablished by the time of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. It's not notably less evil than it used to be, as Sith Warrior and Inquisitor player characters can attest. For starters, it's possible (even encouraged) for each of them to be the SoleSurvivor of their training cadre.
136* ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'': Big Boss runs a child soldier military, outright declaring his pride in creating a cycle of retaliation and death that will ensure the darkest parts of war survive to the modern ages. But given the sheer level of his charisma and military prowess in building his PMC, and the capabilities of his archrivals, it's implied that he was training up the next generation of Millitaries Sans Frontieres, an international infiltration and shock trooper army, to harass and terrorize the world whenever it got complacent enough to send good soldiers into the meat grinder for fun and profit, or when secret organizations attempt to enslave the world ''again''.
137* The Edgewood Home for Lost Children in ''VideoGame/OurDarkerPurpose'' is a twisted school where the use of arcane demonic rituals and plain physical violence between students are supported by the Administrator, while acts of kindness (like [[PetTheDog saving still-living critters]] from the Cafeteria) are frowned upon and ridiculed... as well as punished.
138* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'': The Umbrella Management Training Facility is what it sounds like: an ornate, mansion-like university of sorts owned by [[EvilInc Umbrella]] to train prospective employees, managers and scientists for future employment, as well as instill within its students fanatical loyalty to the company. Said education does indeed involve Umbrella's signature [[MadScientist unethical experiments]] with viruses among others. Additionally, it's situated in the Arklay Mountains of Raccoon City, not far from Umbrella's main Arklay Laboratory. And yes, there is a hidden lab underneath the facility as well, run by a mad scientist (James Marcus) to boot, and to give you an idea of what kind of madmen this place churned out, series supervillain Albert Wesker got his start here alongside G-Virus creator William Birkin, to say nothing of James Marcus using the students as guinea pigs in his twisted experiments. Pretty much the only nice thing to be said about the place is [[EqualOpportunityEvil they'll take anyone regardless of race, gender, or creed]], according to a file found in the ruins of the joint. The school was shut down at some point, and when plans to reopen it were made, they were just as soon scrapped by both the resurrected James Marcus going on a rampage and unleashing the T-Virus in it, and when Birkin set off the facility's self-destruct system, destroying it.
139* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Scholomance is a school for necromancy that trains aspiring cultists and minions of the Scourge.
140[[/folder]]
141
142[[folder:Webcomics]]
143%%* Evil University in ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}''.
144%%* ''Webcomic/{{EVIL|2016}} (the Elite Villain's Institute of Learning)'' is a combination of this and WackyCollege.
145* The defunct webcomic ''[[http://madaboutu.keenspot.com/ Mad About U]]'' was set in a university for mad scientists.
146* In ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'', the evil wizard Ildomir went to a school for wizards called the Heractium Dark Arts Academy.
147[[/folder]]
148
149[[folder:Web Original]]
150* Silas University in ''WebVideo/CarmillaTheSeries'' is an evil university, as described in its student handbook. Which at DoorStopper length (700 pages), [[ActionSurvivor Laura Hollis]] failed to read.
151%%* The RoundRobin story ''Literature/DarkHeartHigh'' uses one as a setting.
152* In the world of ''Literature/NocteYin'', there are Evil Academy and HeroAcademy, as well as their rival schools.
153* In ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', an academic organization known simply as "The Academy" is the scientific force behind an empire spanning a full third of the known world, with a specialization in [[BioPunk biological modification]]. Weapons projects are first in line for funding, students are subtly encouraged to backstab and sabotage each other, and the Academy has anyone who they suspect knows Academy science when they shouldn't assassinated.
154* Naturally, the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' has one: the deVille Academy, a world-class education establishment where the meanest, nastiest, and sneakiest street urchins and gutter rats whom the proprietors can find get turned into master thieves, spies, torturers, and assassins. They have a rivalry with both [[NinjaSchool Yama Dojo]] and the titular SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy, but are much less pleasant about it than the Devil Dojo are -- they tend to see the ninjas as insular and outdated, while they view the Whateley students as overblown buffoons who would be lost without their powers (with a fair amount of justification in both cases). However, their love of their own sneakiness leads to one of the training mission teams, who up to then had been leading everyone else around in circles, being outwitted themselves by InsufferableGenius [[OverlordJr Jobe Wilkins]].
155[[/folder]]
156
157[[folder:Western Animation]]
158* The Huntsclan Academy in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', where students are taught how to slay dragons and to be overall [[FantasticRacism racist]] {{Knight Templar}}s.
159* ''WesternAnimation/CarmenSandiego'' has V.I.L.E. Academy, where said villainous organization trains new generations of super-criminals. The title character was a student there, having been raised there from infancy, but escaped and went rogue after [[HeelRealization realizing]] that they were the bad guys.
160* The ''WesternAnimation/CoolMcCool'' episode "College of Crooks" has such a school, consisting of [=McCool=]'s regular roster of villains (the Owl, the Rattler, Hurricane Harry, Jack-in-the-Box, Dr. Madcap and Greta Ghoul). Their initial assignment is to get rid of [=McCool=].
161* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/DogCity'' has mob boss Bugsy attempt to turn a regular school into this.
162* ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'' feature a humorous advertisement for a school for villains, showing a teacher pointing at the black board and reading, "[[EvilLaugh Ah... ha... ha... ha... ha...]]"
163* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' has the titular character shutting down the M.A.D. Acedemy, which is one of these. Then, in [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget2015 the 2015 version]], we have Evil U, which is also one of these.
164* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz intends to open one in "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbSwissFamilyPhineas Swiss Family Phineas]]". He tries to drive laundromats bankrupt so he can turn them into school buildings.
165* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} in the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E15HomieTheClown Homie the Clown]]", in which TheMafia takes over Krusty's ClownSchool and the new instructors encourage students to commit crimes.
166-->'''Mafia Goon:''' Kids these days have a lot of money, so after you perform, you might consider robbing 'em!
167* Hexley Hall in ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'' is shown to have rather naughty students that pick on any non-wizards.
168* ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'':
169** "[[Recap/SonicBoomS1E8Eggheads Eggheads]]" involved Eggman running an impromptu version of this after brainwashing Sonic's friends into evil geniuses like himself.
170** "[[Recap/SonicBoomS2E35MisterEggman Mister Eggman]]" revolves around Eggman running to college to get his degree in Evil Science after learning he failed to get the last two credits required.
171* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', there is the H.I.V.E. ([[Literature/HIVESeries not this one]]), which originally trains super-villains to work as mercenaries, its star pupils being Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth, used by Slade in a very early episode. Later, in the third season, the school plays a much bigger part of the plot, with Brother Blood as the BigBad of the storyline and headmaster of the school. It's really not all that different from a regular high school (there's a Sadie Hawkins dance, regular lunchroom, etc.) -- the only thing different is the subject matter. After Blood's defeat, the school is defunct, but Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth form a team called the H.I.V.E. Five, which [[OneExtraMember eventually gets six members]] and joins the Brain's Brotherhood of Evil.
172* Perfecto Prep from ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' is the rival school of ACME Looniversity, and its students serve as the [[EvilCounterpart evil counterparts]] of the Tiny Toons, trying to outdo them at everything, especially sports, even resorting to cheating to ensure that they don't lose.
173-->''O Perfecto Prep, the perfect school,\
174where winning is our only rule,\
175there is no team we cannot beat,\
176because, you see, we always cheat!''
177* ''WesternAnimation/VillainousCartoonNetwork'': Black Hat has one of these under his name and image, fitting for the greatest villain in the entire Creator/CartoonNetwork multiverse. Miss Heed and Dr. Flug both studied here in their youth, and apparently villains from other Cartoon Network (including [[WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball Nicole Watterson]] before mellowing out) shows taught or learned here.
178* {{Subverted|Trope}} with Cloud Tower, a boarding school for witches in ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub''. Despite its dark atmosphere, the school has nothing more than your standard academic rivalry with the protagonists' Alfea Academy. Most witches from the institution, such as Headmistress Griffin, are [[DarkIsNotEvil mischievous at best]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold mild jerks at worst]]. In fact, recurring antagonists the Trix get ''expelled'' from the school early on precisely because of their evil behavior.
179[[/folder]]

Top