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| 6 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 9 | %% Please do not add any established Complete Monster candidates in this entry, they are mutually exclusive with one another as a CM is required to have an established motivation. |
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| 12 | %% Image moved to Feral Villain per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1646641231002035400&page=1 |
| 13 | %% Previous threads: |
| 14 | %%%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions63 |
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| 18 | ->'''Anubis:''' Silence! Now, after 5000 years of waiting, I'm going to challenge you to a children's card game! And then I'll destroy the world!\ |
| 19 | '''Yami:''' Why would you want to do that?\ |
| 20 | '''Anubis:''' What?\ |
| 21 | '''Yami:''' What's the point in destroying the world? What do you ''gain'' from it?\ |
| 22 | '''Anubis:''' ... I don't understand the question. |
| 23 | -->-- ''[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged]] [[TheMovie Movie]]'' |
| 24 | |
| 25 | %% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab. |
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| 27 | The Generic Doomsday Villain is an overpowering antagonist with no clear motive or plan behind their actions. They're one of the most basic story villains possible. The reason that they're so generic is that they are a FlatCharacter with a minimum of characterization. Their EstablishingCharacterMoment is generally the most development that they get, designed to show the audience what sort of threat that they're facing. The character may or may not provide an explanation of their EvilPlan, but their overall goal is some sort of ApocalypseHow, providing the "doomsday". At the very least, they plan on destroying the people within the town/country that the heroes are from. |
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| 29 | When part of a recurring work, this character is forced into one of two outcomes: they either remain a StaticCharacter who has almost nothing aside from "[[OmnicidalManiac I want to destroy everything]]", or they become a DynamicCharacter and lose their "generic" quality. Of course, Administrivia/TropesAreTools, and some writers intentionally make these characters flat to highlight their unhealthy psyche. In some situations, they may be a SilentAntagonist and barely tell the audience anything at all. Often the other characters won't be able to bother with the ''why'', and know they just have to stop the villain at all costs. In other stories, they are flat because they are more of a super-powered RightHandAttackDog and/or a GreaterScopeVillain being used by a villain with proper characterization and motives. An EldritchAbomination is likely to be this; a godlike entity who's motives are a complete mystery, and who never speaks in an identifiable human language, with this being done to make them inhuman and scary. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | This type of villain is especially common for video games, as they exist more as obstacles for the players to defeat than characters to interact with. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Contrast with CompleteMonster, who may not have a plan at all, but does have plenty of characterization and an established motivation, and FeralVillain, where the character has no sapience with which to have characterization. Compare and contrast HiddenAgendaVillain, which can turn into one of these if poorly written. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[noreallife]] |
| 36 | ---- |
| 37 | !!Examples: |
| 38 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 41 | * ''Anime/BikiniWarriors'': Deathgeld is the InUniverse FinalBoss and leader of the monsters who wants to TakeOverTheWorld, making him the main enemy that the four heroines must defeat. Not much of him is known beyond this, as the series is a non-serious spoof of JRPG games. From what little is seen of him, he's basically your typical DemonLord. |
| 42 | * ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': |
| 43 | ** Diablomon in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': ''[[Recap/DigimonAdventureMovieOurWarGame Our War Game]]'' suddenly appeared out of the blue as a [[MillenniumBug Y2K]] bug and sets out through the internet to launch a nuclear warhead onto Odaiba to start World War III. However, he demonstrates little in the way of personality or motive and doesn't even speak, being treated more as an obstacle for the Digidestined to defeat. |
| 44 | ** Demon (Daemon in English) from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', who comes into the plot with no explanation, and is so powerful that the heroes can only seal him away. He has absolutely no personality, and his contribution to the plot is only as an "obstacle." |
| 45 | ** Mephistomon from a ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' movie wanted to destroy the world for no particular reason. The closest thing to a motive we get for him is Omnimon stating he was spawned from an Apocalymon that ''also'' wanted to destroy the Earth, presumably for the same reason as the one in ''Adventure'' (if it wasn't the same one). |
| 46 | ** Belphemon from ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad'' due to him have almost no dialogue. [[BigBad Kurata]]'s goal is revive and use him as a weapon to TakeOverTheWorld, and it's mentioned that Belpemon [[OffstageVillainy almost destroyed the Digital World in the past]]. But Belphemon himself only has dialogue when he briefly takes control from Kurata, which implies him to be nothing more than a villain who causes destruction for no reason. |
| 47 | ** Most of the villains in ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' never say a single word and what little word the few spoke reveal very little about them. Special mention to this trope has to be Yggdrasil whom despite being stated as the BigBad of the series and is responsible for Meicoomon's corruption, he never appeared in the anime at all and is stated to be defeated off-screen by Homeostasis. All that we know of him is that he wants to destroy humanity, but we don't know ''why'' he wants do it particularly given that fact that the [[UngratefulBastard same humans saved the Digital World numerous times]]. |
| 48 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has [[spoiler:Princess Kaguya Otsusuki, the final villain of Naruto after hijacking Madara]] who is merely characterized as the source of all Chakra, an [[InformedAbility "unstoppable"]] PhysicalGod that even the sage fears, the one responsible for the Uchiha's corruption and being almost literally nothing more than an obstacle for Team 7 to defeat and seal. We don't even know the reason for [[spoiler:Kaguya]] to [[spoiler:invoke the Infinite Tsukuyomi and turn everyone into White Zetsu. We do, however, get the briefest glimpse of a lamenting mother buried somewhere in her mind, but she's a power-mad, raging psycho more than anything]]. [[AdaptationExpansion This is one of the few instances where the anime's filler was seen as a necessity even by viewers, since it actually fleshed them out more as a character]]. |
| 49 | * ''Anime/PrettyCure'': |
| 50 | ** Bottom and Black Hole of the second and third ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars'' movie series. They were practically the same villains: monstrous ancient evils seeking to obtain the MacGuffin of that movie by resurrecting previous QuirkyMinibossSquad members and giving the girls a hard time so he could take over/destroy the world. They're also powerful enough to wipe out the collective teams (knocking them back into human form in the case of Black Hole) that they HAVE to use their movie-only SuperMode to defeat them. On the other hand, Fusion, the BigBad from the first movie and ''New Stage'', seems to have a bit more personality, isn't seeking any sort of MacGuffin, fights the girls on his own and just wants to unite the world as a HiveMind. |
| 51 | ** Most of the villains in ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'' were this, with almost no characterization besides being evil. It was in the other seasons that the villains began to get backstories. |
| 52 | * The [[EldritchAbomination witches]] in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' come off this way at first, being TheSpeechless and MadeOfEvil. The FinalBoss, Walpurgisnacht, just shows up to wreck the city and leaves just as suddenly; she doesn't even fight the magical girls if they don't attack her first. Her only purpose is to be so powerful as to provide the reason for [[spoiler:Homura's [[GroundhogDayLoop endless time loops]]]] and Madoka's temptation to become a MagicalGirlWarrior even after she finds out it means to be BlessedWithSuck. However, this trope gets a bit subverted when you [[TragicMonster learn more about them]], with extra materials even hinting at motives for how they think they're "helping" people. Furthermore, [[spoiler:each witch was once a Puella Magi, so they must all have a story to tell as to who they once were. What that story is is left up to the imagination.]] |
| 53 | * The titular dragon from ''Anime/RageOfBahamutGenesis'' is much less of an actual villain and more of a force of nature enacting its apocalyptic rage, with no characterisation beyond the threat of its supreme power (read: nuking countries and deities [[TheJuggernaut without the need to move around]]). It serves mainly as a SealedEvilInACan and GreaterScopeVillain; Beelzebub, a Demon Lord who seeks to unseal Bahumut and has [[BloodKnight more personality]], is the direct BigBad, [[spoiler:with Gilles de Rais, also with [[TheSociopath more personality]], as TheManInFrontOfTheMan]]. |
| 54 | * ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': |
| 55 | ** Broly slipped into this over the course of his movie trilogy. His debut in [[Anime/DragonBallZBrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan movie 8]] painted him in a somewhat tragic light for being born with more power than he could handle, feared by King Vegeta (who tried to kill him ''as an infant'') and even his own father (who forced a RestrainingBolt crown on him) as well as having a handful of BadassBoast dialogues to the Z-Fighters. His return in [[Anime/DragonBallZBrolySecondComing movie 10]] hits him hard with {{Flanderization}} and TookALevelInDumbass where his backstory isn't mentioned at all and he has no dialogue or personality besides his irrational hatred for Kakarot. After he was [[KilledOffForReal put down for good]], [[Anime/DragonBallZBioBroly movie 11]] introduced Bio-Broly, who was nothing more than a malformed clone to give the heroes something to fight while [[GreyGoo the inanimate culture fluid floods the lab]]. Mind you, the notoriously {{Power Level|s}}-obsessed ''DBZ'' fanbase has [[BreakoutVillain embraced Broly with open arms]] since his first appearance. His canonical appearance in ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' more or less undoes this, almost completely reworking him into one of the ''most'' fleshed-out and sympathetic villains in the franchise. |
| 56 | ** In canon there is Kid Buu, the original incarnation of Majin Buu. Unlike the ObliviouslyEvil Fat Buu and the brutish and sadistic Super Buu, Kid Buu is barely sapient, never speaks, and has absolutely no objectives besides [[OmnicidalManiac killing as many people as possible in as little time as possible]]. While the others could be reasoned with or exploited, or had some level of restraint, Kid Buu simply blows up whatever planet he's standing on and flies off to find another and do it again. The heroes have to lure him to the Planet of the Kais to fight him just because it's the only planet he can't oneshot. |
| 57 | ** Bojack, hailing from [[Anime/DragonBallZBojackUnbound the ninth film]], has practically no origin at all, other than that he was a {{Space Pirate|s}} the Kais sealed away some time ago. He and his crew get freed, show up to kill the protagonists because they might stop him from taking over the universe... and that's about it. He has no ties to any prior antagonist, no enmity with the protagonists, and no given reason for him being as strong as he is (including a completely inexplicable transformation). The [[AllThereInTheManual Daizenshuus]] end up providing most of the details about him, such as the name of his race and a little of his history, but even then, it never goes beyond "he's really really evil." |
| 58 | ** From ''Dragon Ball Z'' [[Anime/DragonBallZFusionReborn movie 12]] there is Janemba. His initial form, similar to the above mentioned Majin Buu, is ObliviouslyEvil but appears even less intelligent with the mind of an infant. In his OneWingedAngel form, like Super Buu, he's outright evil, but unlike Buu he never talks and just destroys things, only existing to force a FusionDance between Goku and Vegeta. Like Broly, however, he proved one of the more popular movie villains for his transformation's unique design and equally unique RealityWarper powers, and he at least has an excuse for his nature: he's a hapless underworld intern who was at ground zero of a chemical leak (read: [[MadeOfEvil pure evil extracted from Hell's denizens]]). |
| 59 | ** Hirudegarn from [[Anime/DragonBallZWrathOfTheDragon movie 13]]. Essentially a copy of Kid Buu in the form of a {{kaiju}}, he is a giant monster who causes destruction because... because he does. |
| 60 | ** Androids 13, 14, and 15, of [[Anime/DragonBallZSuperAndroid13 movie 7]], have no characterization whatsoever outside of "[[KillerRobot they were programmed by Doctor Gero to kill Goku]]", and the latter two (and the former, in his SuperMode) [[FlatCharacter don't even have any dialogue]] outside of repeating the words "[[SayMyName Son Goku.]]" It's particularly obvious given that they're [[{{Expy}} designed to resemble]] the Androids in the series, who were generally [[AntiVillain pretty fleshed-out]]. The English dub did its level best to try to give them some character, mostly through accents and FillingTheSilence. Hatchiyack, another KillerRobot with a similar backstory, is no less paper-thin. |
| 61 | ** Yixinglong/[[DubNameChange Syn/Omega Shenron]], of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', is a bit of an odd case of this, in that he does have sort of a "reap the whirlwind" motivation, but it really doesn't actually factor into anything he does. Like a lot of ''Franchise/DragonBall'' villains, he's MadeOfEvil, he's very powerful, and his goals are simply to destroy things. This applies to basically all the Shadow Dragons bar Nuova, but the others at least had personality quirks to set them apart, while Syn... not so much. |
| 62 | ** ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'' starts out with some quirky villains seeking to revive the Red Ribbon Army, but the climax focuses on their ultimate weapon [[spoiler:Cell Max]], who was prematurely released and simply acts as a rampaging, mindless monster not unlike Bio-Broly. |
| 63 | * ''Manga/FairyTail'': Oración Seis is mostly composed of [[MadeASlave former slaves]] with {{Tragic Dream}}s who [[spoiler:eventually undergo a HeelFaceTurn]], but the Guild Master Brain is a fairly shallow antagonist just seeking to cause general disarray. He has a SuperpoweredEvilSide who relishes in being an OmnicidalManiac with no purpose, which ironically gives him more of a personality. |
| 64 | * ''Anime/FirstSquad'': Baron von Wolf is a bloodthirsty knight who carries out campaigns of murder because... he's evil. The movie explains next to nothing about his character, just that he's some guy leading an army of undead warriors resurrected by ThoseWackyNazis. |
| 65 | * ''Manga/KurokosBasketball'': ''Extra Game'' (or ''Last Game'') has Team Jabberwock who are incredibly arrogant and ridiculously racist, which is pretty much the only thing that defines them other than being very talented (read: NBA level) streetball players. Telling everyone in Japan on live television that they shall quit playing basketball is pretty extreme, especially since Team Jabberwock only played one official match with a university team. Neither Nash nor Silver are given any backstory despite being the prominent bad guys of the mini-story and their three teammates are just there as secondary mean guys. This is probably ''because'' it's a mini-story. |
| 66 | * Most antagonists in ''Manga/OnePunchMan'' are rampaging monsters out to kill and destroy or at best conquer. It's even suggested that monsters are AlwaysChaoticEvil in such a way that this normal for them. There's also the occasional MadScientist or the like who ''creates'' rampaging monsters without much better motivation. Antagonists with actual motivations do exist, but they're a tiny minority. Of course, in the case of this series, the overwhelming antagonists are there mostly for the RunningGag that no matter how overwhelming to everyone else, they're no match for the ComicallyInvincibleHero protagonist. |
| 67 | * ''Manga/YuGiOh'': |
| 68 | ** From the anime only Doma/Waking The Dragons arc we have the Orichalcos God/Great Leviathan. It is a GodOfEvil that mind controlled Dartz, the arc's BigBad, into wanting to destroy the world. Why? Because it just does and unlike Zorc, it doesn't even have any dialogue with Dartz getting the bulk of the screen time in the arc, with his goal being to bring about the Orichalcos God's return. When it does appear, it's little more than generic evil {{kaiju}} that causes destruction, because reasons, than an actual character. |
| 69 | ** Anubis in ''Anime/YuGiOhTheMoviePyramidOfLight''. No reason is given for why he wants to destroy the world. If there is a reason, it's just that [[EverybodyHatesHades a god of death is supposed to end life]]. |
| 70 | ** The Dark Signers in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' generally avert this by being {{Tragic Villain}}s resurrected by the [[EldritchAbomination Earthbound Immortals]] for UnfinishedBusiness... and then there's Demak. His backstory is nonexistent, he has no personality beyond his unexplained animosity toward the Signers, and he only seems to exist as an obstacle to Ruka obtaining her Ancient Fairy Dragon. Even when he's brought BackFromTheDead alongside several other Dark Signers at the end of the arc, he's never heard from again. |
| 71 | [[/folder]] |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder:Audio Plays]] |
| 74 | * In ''AudioPlay/EvangelionAfterTheEnd'', a SelfParody of the anime series ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', the cast discusses how to {{retool}} their show to appeal to a wider audience. It is then pointed out that the Angels, the show's {{monster|OfTheWeek}}s, could have alienated the audience since the show offered no clear answers to where they come from or what their goal is. They eventually come up with introducing the "Black Space God", an [[AliensAreBastards evil alien]] whose only motivation is to KillAllHumans, and having the Angels turning out to be his generic {{Mooks}} all along. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 78 | * The Shadow From Beyond Time of ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' fame has one notable character trait, its utter hatred of Robo. Beyond that, it's your bog standard EldritchAbomination out to consume all of existence across all of time. Ironically, the lack of personality ''is'' what makes it interesting, as it really hammers home how alien and utterly wrong this thing is, especially in the context of a sixty-five-percent grounded sci-fi series. |
| 79 | * The ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' villain [[Characters/BatmanBane Bane]], much like Doomsday, started off as this, existing sorely to break Batman's back in ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' and get beaten by ComicBook/{{Azrael}}. That said, unlike Doomsday, Bane's backstory was given in his debut one-shot, ''Batman: Vengeance of Bane'', and he was eventually given an identity outside of ''Knightfall''. |
| 80 | * ''ComicBook/CivilWarII:'' The "Celestial Destructor" that various superheroes face in issue 2, which is rampaging around New York for no adequately explained reason. It's given a small LampshadeHanging in the ''New Avengers'' tie-in, where some characters theorize it is literally just the concept of "generic space monster" made manifest. |
| 81 | * [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]] got hit with this treatment during his first appearance in the ''ComicBook/New52'' relaunch with ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague2011''. He was basically speechless during the first arc he appeared in, only regaining his characterization later on. It's rather odd that his first appearance seemed to expect new readers to already know who he was, given that the entire point of the ''New 52'' relaunch was to get rid of the massive continuity that was believed to be keeping new fans from getting into DC Comics. |
| 82 | * ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': Mangog is an extremely powerful and unstoppable monster who doesn't have a characterisation beyond having the hatred of a billion billion beings and that he wants all Asgardians dead. |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': The Griever is a vague cosmic entity who wants to destroy the universes that Reed and Franklin Richards created after the destruction of the multiverse. She has no real personality and is just a force they have to fight which forces them to stop making universes. |
| 84 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' has ''tons'' of these guys. If the GLC aren't battling an [[EvilCounterpart evil Lantern Corps]], you can bet they're battling some zero-personality cosmic butthole like [[TheGrimReaper Nekron]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Relic]], or [[DimensionLord the Anti-Monitor]]. |
| 85 | * These pop up now and then in ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}''. Unusually, they are treated by the writer with all the gravity they deserve -- very little. One notable one was vanquished by all the guest stars and supporting characters in the series working together while the series protagonist, Mark, was unavailable. It was a CrisisCrossover reduced to the B-plot of one or two issues of one title. |
| 86 | * The aliens from ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' story "Goliath". While their use of a LivingShip vaguely implies that they may be some kind of {{Evil|Luddite}} SpaceAmish, no actual explanation is ever given for why they are attacking the Machines (who they do not even try to communicate with) by bombarding the Earth with asteroids (which also kill a ton of humans, so they obviously do not care about liberating them). |
| 87 | * ComicBook/{{Onslaught}} was more powerful than anything in ''ComicBook/XMen'' history, [[CrisisCrossover took nearly all the Marvel heroes to beat]], had no overarching plan other than "blow shit up" and existed solely to set up ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn'', which was later retconned back anyway. Onslaught did have a backstory as a psychic entity born from the combined mentality of [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor X]] ([[ProHumanTranshuman mutants and humans should co-exist]]) and [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] ([[SuperSupremacist mutants should rule over humans]]). So he wanted to turn everyone in the world (and later the universe) into a hive mind with himself in control. However, many of the details behind his character were scattered amongst various Marvel comics titles (requiring someone to read all the comics tied into the Onslaught saga for all the details), or [[AllThereInTheManual crammed into a book released solely as a summary for the Onslaught saga]], [[WordOfGod complete with notes and information on what was planned for the saga from the writers themselves]]. For some, Onslaught's Generic Doomsday Villain nature made the writers' attempts to focus on Onslaught's plan changing from "kill all the humans so mutants can prosper" to "kill everyone in the world for no reason" much less dramatic that it was intended to be. |
| 88 | * ''ComicBook/TheScrameustache'': Zirka, the mysterious alien who allied with the Kromoks to conquer Aktarka. No further reason is given as to why he wants to invade the planet. |
| 89 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Spidey's equivalent to Doomsday would probably be Morlun, a villain introduced by Creator/JMichaelStraczynski [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski during his run]], who had almost no real backstory to speak of, and his exact nature was never revealed. Morlun's personality was pretty bland as well, since he really only wanted to "eat" Spidey and stated that it wasn't personal. For some unfathomable reason, this was the first time a villain had ever made Spider-Man angry, even when guys like the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus had kidnapped, murdered or otherwise threatened his loved ones. It was not until ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse'' that his backstory, personality and motivation were established. |
| 90 | * ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DCComics}}'' featured one of these in the form of Brimstone, an Apokoliptian behemoth that combined this trope with AttackOfThe50FootWhatever. An artificial monster created from a "techno-seed", Brimstone believed itself to be a fallen angel that had to cleanse the earth of "false gods" (read: superheroes) but aside from this delusion had no character at all to speak of. In its death throes the beast called for [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]], who callously dismissed it as unworthy before revealing to his henchman Desaad that the only reason he'd even created it in the first place was to "[[ForTheEvulz remind the humans they are never far from my thoughts]]". |
| 91 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': |
| 92 | ** [[TropeNamers Appropriately]], [[Characters/SupermanDoomsdayCharacter Doomsday]]. His sole reason for being was the eponymous event in ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman''. While previous Superman villains were usually really smart guys or evil robots or alien warlords or [[BrainsEvilBrawnGood some other intelligent type to contrast Supes' super-strength]] (along with the rest of his SuperpowerLottery), Doomsday was just raw unstoppable rage on wheels with no agenda outside destruction and couldn't be reasoned with. Most of his depth comes from the backstory in later comics; Doomsday was established as a "guinea pig" that became both {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le through [[AdaptiveAbility adapting to withstand what defeated him]] and [[EnemyToAllLivingThings bloodthirsty]] for [[FreudianExcuse dying so many times to get that]]. In essence Doomsday is [[FeralVillain just a primitive, animalistic being]]; something which does not leave much space for personality. (In fact, the moment he gained a personality, he also inherited fear, which allowed Superman to defeat him almost effortlessly.) |
| 93 | ** ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s Xenon is pretty similar to Superman's Doomsday. He came out of nowhere, and nothing or almost nothing is known about his past or motivations. What is known, though, he hunts and kills "Supergirls". In ''ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns'' he trapped, tortured and nearly killed the original Kara Zor-El, an ''[[PhysicalGod Earth-One Kryptonian]]''. |
| 94 | ** ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'' has the Infinite Monster, an enormous humanoid monster who accidentally fell to the Earth through a dimensional gap and stomped a path of destruction through USA soil. Its name, species, home universe and goals are not known, and most likely the damage it caused was accidental instead of unintended. Nonetheless, it it was so sturdy and heavy that it could not be harmed or ''moved'' by a Silver Age Kryptonian. |
| 95 | ** In the beginning of ''ComicBook/TheComingOfAtlas'', a weirder-than-usual humongous monster is rampaging through Metropolis. Unknown name, unknown species, unknown origin, no apparent motivations (is it even sentient?), and it disappears from the story as soon as it is curbstomped by Atlas. Its sole reason for existing seems to be hype the new villain Atlas' up. |
| 96 | * The ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersMegaseries Transformers: Stormbringer]]'' series turns the Decepticon Thunderwing into the "force of nature" variation of this trope. After he creates his "polydermal shell", the grafting process goes awry, burning out all of Thunderwing's sapience and higher brain functions, which causes him to become ultra-powerful, and go on a rampage across war-torn Cybertron, forcing both Autobots and Decepticons to temporarily ally to try and halt its advance. In the end, Thunderwing is only stopped when Cybertron swallows it whole, a process which only hastens the planet's death (which Thunderwing himself saw coming and the polydermal grafting procedure was an ill-conceived attempt to try and weather the storm it would bring, ironically turning him into the final nail in Cybertron's coffin). |
| 97 | * ''ComicBook/TheTransformersUnicron'': The titular Unicron has at times been this trope. In some stories, he's a malevolent calculating monster while in other stories he's a world-destroying threat with no major characterization. In the comic, he's reimagined as a super-weapon gone wrong; consuming and absorbing planets to wipe out all Cybertronian civilization. Many characters InUniverse try and ascribe intention and emotion to him, but Unicron is presented by the story as a force of nature obeying old programing |
| 98 | * The 2013 run of ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' gives us Matthew Malloy, an all-powerful mutant and the main menace in the "Last Will and Testament of Charles Xavier" story arc. Malloy's creator Creator/BrianMichaelBendis was clearly ''trying'' to avoid this by giving him a [[FreudianExcuse sympathetic background]], but said background was only revealed by other characters and Malloy himself had zero personality to speak of, making him fall into this anyway. One of the first things Bendis had him do was inflict TheWorfEffect on [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]], one of the most powerful mutants in the entire X-Pantheon, just to show the reader how badass he was. But his lack of any rational personality left the X-Men unable to reason with him, and the storyline ended with them dispatching Malloy via RetGone because that was literally ''the only option'' they had left. |
| 99 | [[/folder]] |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 102 | * The Evil Scintist from ''[[Fanfic/PeterChimaerasDigimonTrilogy DIGIMON SAVEZ THE WROLD!!1111]]''. He is only described to have created a machine that could destroy the world which is what Digimon, the main character, has to prevent. No motivation on why he wants to destroy the world has been given. |
| 103 | * ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'': Titan. He has great power and wants to destroy Unicornicopia so he can spread chaos and destruction over reality, [[ForTheEvulz just because]]. His dialogue is dripping in [[LargeHam clichés]] and there is nothing unique about his appearance at all. Being StupidEvil and going with the first Saturday morning cartoon plot his minions come up with doesn't help matters. |
| 104 | ** Those villains that show up in the sequels are no better, following the ''same'' strategy of sending out a MonsterOfTheWeek so they can conquer the world for no real reason other than they want to. This is due to the StrictlyFormula writing style of author Dakari King Mykan, who has said in author's notes that he hates creating complex villains and storylines. |
| 105 | * Invoked in ''FanFic/HopeOnADistantMountain''. Since the events of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' were an UnwinnableTrainingSimulation in this universe, the Mastermind (the avatar of the AI in charge of writing narratives) really did have no motive except to torture the students and Makoto specifically, because the purpose of the simulation was to test their behavior under intense psychological stress, and its difficulty settings were maxed out. Under these circumstances, a consistent characterization would've been a ''weakness'' for the Mastermind (since the player could predict and exploit it), so when they finally appear in person, their behavior is chaotic and incoherent because they're only putting up the barest facade of ''not'' being an [=AI=] used to administer sadistic tests. |
| 106 | * Sben from ''[[http://kleinerkiller.deviantart.com/gallery/41037509/Minecraftia-Saga Yognapped]]''. He has no goal in the first installment other than completely tearing [[WebVideo/YogscastMinecraftSeries Minecraftia]] to the ground and framing [[LetsPlay/{{Yogscast}} Simon and Lewis]] for it. The Alpha Griefer, another BigBad, [[LampshadeHanging calls him out]] on being nothing more than a murderous monster [[spoiler:in a confrontation that ends with Sben taking a bullet to the back]]. When [[spoiler:he comes back in the third installment with [[CameBackStrong unmatched speed and strength]]]], he becomes more of a tragic character. |
| 107 | * The Black Tower in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone''. No one knows who's in it or why it's having its evil minions (who are themselves pretty one-dimensional) try to kill the gods and take over C'hou. They just know they have to fight it. |
| 108 | * In ''Fanfic/EquestriaAcrossTheMultiverse'', [[EvilKnockoff Metal]] [[ThePsychoRangers Twilight]] is a justified and deconstructed example. One of several mechanical doubles of the heroes built to defeat them by the [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome invading Flim Flam Brothers corporate empire]] (namely the one glimpsed in "The Cutie Remark"), she acts like a SmugSuper and is very dedicated to defeating Twilight (or rather whatever Twilight is in front of her at the time) and being better than her… but when questioned by Twilight ''why'' she acts that way, genuinely can't come up with any actual motivation. Twilight then realizes Metal Twilight is essentially an unknowing slave to her creators, despite being the only one of her series to be sapient. [[VillainousBreakdown Metal Twilight doesn't take this realization well.]] |
| 109 | * ''Fanfic/VoltesVVersusVoltronTheGodaikinWars'' (''Anime/VoltesV''/''Anime/{{Voltron}}''): Paul the Imjad. The only backstory we get on him is that he belonged to a group of mages, until one day he suddenly decided to be evil.. Apart from that, all we know about him is that he wears robes, he wants the destruction of Anime/{{Voltron}}, and likes listening to Music/TearsForFears. Oh, and he wants to TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 110 | * ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' likes to poke fun at this trope whenever possible. |
| 111 | ** As Yami repeatedly points out, Anubis doesn't really have much characterization or motivation outside of being some unexplained evil force that must be stopped or else it'll destroy the world. |
| 112 | ** Marik was this initially. Yami had trouble trying to figure out why Marik wanted him dead, to which Marik just chalks it up to him simply being evil. He became a subversion later on when he was given an actual backstory and motivation (a vague one but still) for his dastardly deeds. |
| 113 | ** Many members of the Rare Hunters, Marik's henchmen, are depicted and subsequently mocked as such. In fact, Yami was even able to thwart one member because being a generic villain with no actual backstory made his plans easy to predict. |
| 114 | [[/folder]] |
| 115 | |
| 116 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 117 | * In the backstory of ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'', there was a band of violent horsemen raiding the town that Alma lived in. This forced Alma and her husband, as well as many of their neighbors, to run away in search of a safe place to live. This in turn led to Alma's husband being killed, and the miracle which gave the Madrigal family their magic house and gifts, but the horsemen themselves are given no personality or motivation for their actions. Even their faces are perpetually hidden in shadow during flashbacks. The most one can get in the way of context is Colombian history, but thanks to the ambiguity of when the film is set and the country's violent history there are ''multiple'' civil conflicts such a band of raiders could've come from, with varying motives in each. |
| 118 | * ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternEmeraldKnights'': Krona is a powerful {{Energy Being|s}} that tried to destroy the Universe in the past for no apparent reason and is returning to do it again. He never speaks, he just exists to be an obstacle. The anthology format doesn't have time to make him anything else, but it's particularly noticeable since Kilowog's and Laira's stories were able to carry the emotional weight that Krona's lacks completely. |
| 119 | * The [[OurTitansAreDifferent Titans]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', [[SadlyMythtaken compared to the intelligent proto-gods they were in actual Greek myth]], are basically depicted as nigh-mindless, destructive {{Elemental Embodiment}}s who only care about destruction (and getting revenge on Zeus, who [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned them]] for causing destruction). Because of this, [[EverybodyHatesHades Hades]] is the BigBad of the film, having more solid motivation and personality than them, whilst the Titans are merely his attack dogs. |
| 120 | * The Druun from ''WesternAnimation/RayaAndTheLastDragon'' are basically mindless spirits of evil whose only goal is to petrify anything they come across, so they're more like violent corruption than actual characters. The story, therefore, centers more on the conflict caused by their presence than the Druun themselves. |
| 121 | * Arthur from ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'' is just a generic virus designed to find insecurities in a program and replicate them to cause the program to crash. He's got no personality and mainly exists to be a plot device in the big climax. |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 125 | * ''Film/TheABCsOfDeath'': |
| 126 | ** "B is for Bigfoot": The homeless man shows up and kills a couple for no apparent reason, leaving a little girl they're babysitting alive for the same. |
| 127 | ** "K is for Klutz": There is no explanation for how the turd comes to life, nor does it speak to show any personality. It just shows up, refuses to go down the toilet, and rams its way through the woman that made it, killing her. |
| 128 | ** "R is for Removed": The doctors keeping the man hostage and forcing him into surgeries are never given an explanation for why they want the film strips his body makes. We never even learn what's on them. |
| 129 | ** "T is for Toilet": The toilet just comes to life for no reason and massacres the protagonist family. [[spoiler:Of course, it is a child's nightmare, so having no logical reason for the horror fits.]] |
| 130 | *** The [[spoiler: rest of the]] [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts]] in the sequel, ''GhostBurger'', do nothing except kill anyone trespassing in their haunt. [[spoiler: What is seen of the afterlife also suggests that they are not, nor ''[[TheSoulless have]]'' [[OurSoulsAreDifferent spirits]] despite their [[RessurectiveImmortality]], raising more questions.]] |
| 131 | ** "U is for Unearthed": The vampire is awakened and immediately goes on a killing spree until it's put down. Judging by the fact that it only speaks in streaks and growls, it might not even be sentient. |
| 132 | * ''Film/AmericanCyborgSteelWarrior'': The cyborg exists entirely to be an ImplacableMan pursuing our heroes, with absolutely no characterization beyond such. He doesn't even get a name. |
| 133 | * While the nameless evil entity that acts as the antagonist of ''Film/TheAmityvilleHorror1979'' does display some amount of cunning and sadism in regards to the ways that it torments people, by and large it comes off as more of a nebulous force than an actual being; its origins are indistinct, it very rarely assumes any kind of physical form, its existence appears to revolve solely around terrorizing and killing people ForTheEvulz, and its dialogue never amounts to anything more sophisticated than short, generic threats like, "GetOut". While a few of the later films, like ''[[Film/AmityvilleIIThePossession The Possession]]'' and ''[[Film/AmityvilleTheAwakening The Awakening]]'', did try to give the evil force some semblance of character, most of them just default to it being an indeterminate "thing" that may not even be a singular entity, but rather a case of IAmLegion. |
| 134 | * ''Film/BloodCult'': The cult are committing murders to make a body for their god, who then do... Something. The only cultist with any more motive than that is [[spoiler:Tina, who is mad at her father for neglecting her]]. |
| 135 | * ''Film/BloodReaper'': It's never explained why Jubel Fishman has spent decades silently killing people in the woods, nor do we get any facial expressions or body language to provide a personality. Even the song about him only really talks about him living in the woods and committing murder. |
| 136 | * ''Film/BloodWasEverywhere'': The killer is never named, nor is his face shown. He just shows up, commits a series of gory murders, and vanishes without a trace. |
| 137 | * ''Film/BloodsuckersFromOuterSpace'': The Lifeforce just kinda shows up one day and starts turning people into vampires. It doesn't even get a corporeal form, much less a personality. |
| 138 | * ''Film/TheCatcher'': No real reason is ever given for why Johnny is killing people, we're simply left to assume that his father's abuse has made him hate baseball ''so much'' that he feels compelled to murder anyone who plays it. |
| 139 | * ''Film/CiaranTheDemonHunter'': The demons seem to exist entirely to cause chaos for no stated reason. [[spoiler:The only one that does get characterization is the one that possesses Ciaran.]] |
| 140 | * The New Order in ''Film/{{Cobra}}'', run by the [[BigBad Night Slasher]], is a murder cult that draws its membership from all walks of life. They are willing to do anything for the Night Slasher up to and including slaughtering a small town to help [[HeKnowsTooMuch get rid of a witness]] and her protectors. However, while the Night Slasher reveals himself to be TheSocialDarwinist near the end, none of his followers have any lines explaining why they devote themselves to a SerialKiller. The best we get is prattling on about "the New World" the Night Stalker wants to create without even the little elaboration he gives in his MotiveRant. They appear to exist just to be an army of psychotic {{mooks}} that CowboyCop Lt. Cobretti must kill to get to the bad guy. |
| 141 | * ''Film/TheDark1979'': The Mangler is an alien who crash-lands to Earth and immediately starts killing one person a night and projecting visions to psychics for no apparent reason. |
| 142 | * ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'': |
| 143 | ** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' has Lex Luthor bringing Doomsday to life because he figured this "Kryptonian abomination" could defeat Superman -- "If man won't kill God, the Devil will do it!". And all the beast does is try to destroy anything in his path, providing an excuse for Supes, Batman and Wonder Woman to join forces. |
| 144 | ** The Incubus from ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'' has no real motivation, just acting as the muscle for his sister, the Enchantress. [[TheQuietOne He doesn't say much]], and his characterization extends to caring about his sister. |
| 145 | * ''Film/DeadBeforeDawn'': The Ash Demon is an incorporeal force that is freed from prison and immediately starts zombifying the populace with no rhyme or reason behind it. |
| 146 | * ''Film/DeathStopHolocaust'': The masked killers are never identified or unmasked, nor is there any explanation for why they're doing this or how they have so much control over the town. |
| 147 | * ''Film/Dracula1931'': Dracula's brides show up in one scene to attack Renfield, are warded off by Dracula because he needs him, and are never seen again. They get no lines or body language beyond stiff movements. |
| 148 | * In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', the Elder Vampire gives almost no reasons for his stated goal of conquering the world (though he does suggest that part of it is to get revenge on the one who betrayed him and another is simply that he has very little else to do for all eternity). Mehmet, likewise, acts like a dick to Vlad for very little reason. He even states at one point that he sees very little value in Wallachia. |
| 149 | * ''Film/{{Dread}}'': The guy who killed Quaid's parents basically just shows up, butchers them, spares Quaid for no apparent reason, and vanishes from the story. He exists entirely to give the BigBad a FreudianExcuse. |
| 150 | * ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'': The Mimics are an alien race which crashed down on Europe one day and immediately started slaughtering every human in sight in a hostile AlienInvasion. No one knows what their motive is because they never attempt to communicate and for the most part just act like savage animalistic monsters, making even their sapience rather ambiguous. The only thing that matters to the story is that they're trying to exterminate mankind and have the means to do so (via equally unexplained [[SaveScumming time manipulation abilities]]). |
| 151 | * Galactus in ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'' is basically just a formless PlanetEater [[{{Cumulonemesis}} cloud]] who wants to devour all planets with the afromented Silver Surfer as a herald for the the former's arrival. |
| 152 | * While even the most generic {{slasher movie}}s give an explanation for their killers' motives to murder people, ''Film/FinalExam'' has none of that. The killer in that film is just some guy with a knife who slaughters college students. He doesn't even have a name. |
| 153 | * ''Film/FrankensteinsBloodyTerror'': As we never learn of Imre Wolfstein's human personality, his entire characterization is a ravenous werewolf who attacks everything he sees. |
| 154 | * ''Film/FrostbiterWrathOfTheWendigo'': The Wendigo is an AncientEvil who shows up, wrecks things, eats people, and is defeated by TheChosenOne. It never speaks or does anything but commit random acts of violence. |
| 155 | * ''Film/FromParisWithLove'': The leader of the muslim terrorist cell receives no characterization beyond being an imminent threat for Reese and Wax to take out. He only appears for a few moments, doesn't have any dialogue, or even a ''name''. [[spoiler:Caroline]] just describes him as "a man who opened my eyes to his faith". |
| 156 | * Gozer the Destroyer from ''Film/Ghostbusters1984''. He seems to be called "the Destroyer" because that's all humans really know about him: that he destroys things whenever he comes to Earth. Exclusive only to the first film as ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'' has him given a clear nasty personality in contrast. |
| 157 | * The werewolf that is stalking Brigitte in ''Film/GingerSnaps2Unleashed''. While fans have speculated that it may be Jason from ''Film/GingerSnaps'', there is no actual indication of this in the film itself, and WordOfGod has cast doubt on the theory. It is just a mysterious rampaging beast who is only there to give the story (which otherwise revolves around Brigitte's attempts at retaining her sanity while trying to suppress her lycanthropy) a flesh and blood antagonist who is a direct physical threat (in contrast to secondary villain Ghost, a schemer who relied entirely on manipulating others to get her way). |
| 158 | * Simon Moon, the [[TheBrute Brutish]] SerialKiller in ''Film/HeroAndTheTerror''. The eponymous "Terror" barely appears onscreen, doesn't talk, and is never given a motive. They throw in a brief exposition scene where a psychologist speculates about a FreudianExcuse, but since Simon doesn't speak [[InformedAttribute it's never clarified either way]]. It's also said that Simon is actually incapable of higher thinking, so presumably he doesn't even understand that what he's doing is wrong, but what's important is that he's "pure evil" and Norris has to stop him. He could essentially be replaced with a shark and the movie would have been no different for it. |
| 159 | * ''Film/HighNoon'': [[BigBad Frank Miller]]. He was arrested by [[TheHero Sheriff Will Kane]], was let go from prison five years later, and [[RageAgainstTheLegalSystem is coming to kill Kane]]. That is literally all there is to him. One of the gang members that is waiting for him is Miller's brother, but Miller doesn't treats him any different from the rest of the gang, [[spoiler:even when he's the first guy to buy it in the final fight]]. His OffstageVillainy is not even given any detail, so there's no explanation why half the town think he deserves a hero's welcome and the other half are scared shitless of him (either way, [[UngratefulTownsfolk they won't help Kane]]). |
| 160 | * The invading aliens in ''Film/IndependenceDay'' only barely manage to avoid completely falling into this trope. Only one attempt at diplomacy is managed, which ends in failure and the revelation that they're simply a race of AlwaysChaoticEvil PlanetLooters comparable to locusts. |
| 161 | * ''Film/ItsMyPartyAndIllDieIfIWantTo'': Jacob Burkitt was a rich businessman who snapped one day for no reason, started abusing his kids, eventually murdered them and killed himself and now haunts his old house. His expression never changed, nor does he speak. He just kills. |
| 162 | * ''Film/JackO'': Jack-O is a {{justified|Trope}} example, as it is a demonic automaton controlled by an EvilSorcerer and has no personality of its own. It just shows up and kills whomever its boss tells it to. |
| 163 | * ''Film/JugFace'': The Pit is an EldritchAbomination who demands sacrifices in return for healing people and kills random people when it doesn't get them. It is rather picky, and will reject victims to be tormented ghosts for all eternity, but no explanation is given as to ''how'' it chooses its victims. It's never even really ''seen'', only appearing in POV shots. |
| 164 | * Russel Van Pelt in ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'' pursues the protagonists to get the Jaguar's Eye for himself, but no reason is given what he wants to do with it. Justified since he's solely created to be a generic threat to inconvenience the heroes and make [[TrappedInAnotherWorld the video game the kids got sucked into]] challenging to {{win|ToExit}}. He cannot even truly be said to be the BigBad. That would be [[ItCanThink Jumanji itself]]. |
| 165 | * ''Film/KeeperOfSouls'': There is no explanation for why the cult are making sacrifices to the Keeper of Souls, nor why the Keeper wants them to. |
| 166 | * ''Film/LethalWeapon4'' opens with Riggs and Murtaugh having to stop an unnamed armored maniac from burning and shooting everything up. No reason is given for his behaviour, but it sure provides an exciting ActionPrologue. |
| 167 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 168 | ** Surtur in ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' has no real motivation or characterization besides boasting about his purported destiny to destroy Asgard, something that he has no apparent reason for wanting to do aside from it [[BecauseDestinySaysSo being his destiny]]. In fact, fulfilling his destiny would effectively be killing himself. This is entirely accurate to the original myths, as mentioned below. He's something of a [[ParodiedTrope parody of this trope]], as Thor actively makes fun of his claims and makes no attempt to take him seriously, [[TheComicallySerious much to Surtur's annoyance]]. [[spoiler:Surprisingly, he ends up being a major plot device later on, as destroying Asgard turns out to be necessary [[SummonBiggerFish to defeat the]] ''[[SummonBiggerFish actual]]'' [[SummonBiggerFish main villain]].]] |
| 169 | ** The Elementals in ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' are big, flashy monsters that destroyed Mysterio's [[TheMultiverse alternate Earth]] and are threatening to do the same to the MCU's Earth, but they're more forces of nature than actual characters. [[spoiler:In fact, this is an InvokedTrope, as Mysterio and his SFX crew wanted to come up with an "Avengers-level threat" that he could defeat as part of his plan to use EngineeredHeroics to become Earth's next superhero, and were relying more on spectacle than complexity.]] |
| 170 | ** The Dweller-in-Darkness in ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' is the ultimate threat in the film, a soul-eating demon that once laid waste to Ta Lo before it was sealed away by the [[DragonsAreDivine Great Protector]] centuries ago. But its motives don't go beyond the desire to eat souls, [[spoiler:and the only personality it ever seems to display is mimicking the voices of loved ones to trick people into freeing it. In a sense, it's less of a character and more a manifestation of the destructive path Shang-Chi's father is taking after the death of his wife]]. |
| 171 | ** Gargantos in ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' doesn't display any personality or intelligence of Shuma Gorath, its comic book counterpart. Instead it's merely treated as a mindless monster under the control of the BigBad that the heroes swiftly kill after just a brief bout. |
| 172 | * ''Film/TheMidnightMeatTrain'': It's never explained why the Elders choose to eat people when they're canonically older than mankind, nor why they're satisfied with the conspiracy's sacrifices. |
| 173 | * ''Film/P51DragonFighter'': Asazuka the Destroyer, the one male amongst the dragons, who regularly reincarnates and goes on civilization-destroying rampages. [[spoiler:Like the other dragons, he's basically a wild animal, and only appears for a brief final battle before being killed.]] |
| 174 | * ''Film/AQuietPlace'': The Death Angels are [[LightningBruiser incredibly fast, extremely strong, have indestructible armoured skin]], and arrived on Earth one day and just started killing every living thing that makes a sound. What they are, where they came from, and why they're so aggressive is never explained or even hinted at. Notably, despite the fact they seem to have only basic animal sentience at best, they never eat anything they kill. |
| 175 | * ''Film/RawheadRex'': Rawhead Rex loses the sadism of the book and is just a rampaging monster who was sealed away long ago and rampages again when released. |
| 176 | * ''Film/ReignOfTheGargoyles'': Volthorn the Horned King, a god summoned by pagans to avenge their persecution who betrayed them and went on a rampage with his gargoyles for no reason. |
| 177 | * Ivan Drago from ''Film/RockyIV'' has a punch that could crumple metal, about five short lines, and no apparent motivation other than [[ForeignWrestlingHeel being]] [[RedScare Russian]] and wanting to be the best. Compared to ''Film/RockyIII'''s Clubber Lang, who wasn't exactly deep but had a lot of [[BoisterousBruiser personality]], Drago kind of sticks out. Notably, we're told his punch strength (2000 psi) multiple times, but we know almost nothing about his backstory. It wasn't until ''Film/CreedII'' that Drago gets more characterization, surprisingly transforming him into one of the most humanized and tragic characters in the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' franchise. |
| 178 | * ''Film/ScaryOrDie'': No explanation is given as to where the were-clown that turned Emmett in ''Clowned'' came from; given the nature of Emmett's transformation, it might not even be sentient. |
| 179 | * Done in ''Film/SevenSamurai'' with the bandit gang raiding the peasant village, as the film focuses entirely on the Seven, the villagers and their experiences working together to stop this persistent threat. Thus, the most we see the bandits do on camera is attack the village, except for a brief scene where their nameless leader kills two of them for desertion. None of them [[FlatCharacter get much characterization]] or more than five minutes of screentime, so the audience must infer why they keep raiding the village long after the Seven make it harder to do. {{Averted|Trope}} in TheWestern adaptation ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960'', where the bandit leader gets a name along with [[AdaptationExpansion more characterization and screentime]], including an earlier confrontation with the Seven where he speaks his mind, and the bandits' motives for continuing to raid the village are explicitly revealed late in the film when one of the Seven sneaks into their camp. |
| 180 | * ''Film/TheSeventhCurse'': Old Ancestor, the demon god of the Worm Tribe, who basically only shows up to collect sacrifices and battle the heroes. He doesn't even speak, only roars. |
| 181 | * Russ Thorn in ''Film/TheSlumberPartyMassacre'' has no personality, or backstory that would give him some sort of motivation for the things he does. He's just some psycho who killed people in the past, got locked up, escaped and is now killing again. |
| 182 | * ''Film/SSDoomtrooper'': The Doomtrooper is a ravenous monster that only knows destruction, tantamount to a living gun pointed at the Nazis' enemies.. Despite being formerly human, we never learn of its previous personality either. |
| 183 | * Shinzon from ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''. His reasoning seems to consist of "Well, I'm the villain of this movie, so I guess I better [[MindRape mentally rape Troi]] and [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy Earth]]." The extreme actions that actually relate to his supposedly well-intentioned goals occur entirely in the opening minutes of the movie: as he was raised by the Remans, he understandably doesn't like their status as the warrior-SlaveRace of the Romulan Empire. But when he assassinates the entire Romulan Senate and installs himself as the new dictator... ''he's already solved all the Remans' problems.'' At that point his only real explanation for wanting to destroy Earth is to prove the Remans' superiority over the Romulans and show the galaxy that their Romulan empire is not to be messed with which is somewhat unclear. For a poorly explained reason (to prove to everyone that the Remans are to be taken seriously), he has a super battleship way more advanced than every ship it comes up against. He also got a planet-destroying superweapon from... somewhere. Like a few other entries, Shinzon's backstory was fleshed out more in the (usually non-canon) novels that reveal his original reasoning, why he's trying to destroy Earth, where he got the snazzy ship and where that superweapon came from. |
| 184 | * The titular alien from ''Film/TheThing1982'' is an example where [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools the trope can enhance the film's horror atmosphere]]. Its motivations are never explained, nor are intentions. If it's hostile, or simply acting in self-defense, or has [[BlueAndOrangeMorality some other motive that doesn't even make sense to us]] is never made clear, since the film focuses on the people desperately trying to stop it, and [[NothingIsScarier it's all the more frightening for it]]. |
| 185 | * ''Film/WeAreStillHere'': It's never explained where the Darkness came from or why it demands sacrifices. It's just an EldritchAbomination that traps souls in an AndIMustScream state. |
| 186 | * ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005'': The invading aliens are never elaborated on beyond their apparent desire to conquer Earth and even their reasons for invading another world are never revealed. This was actually done deliberately for effect. [[WordOfGod The creators]] decided to reveal little about the aliens' motives and characteristics in order to invoke a feeling of them being comparable to a force of nature. |
| 187 | * ''Film/TheWitchesHammer'': The Souls of the Damned are a trio of spirits who empower a vampiric organization to open a portal to their realm and bring HellOnEarth for reasons that are never explained. They spend the movie discussing their plan and occasionally berating or killing a goon for failing. |
| 188 | * ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace: The Movie'' has evil wizard Giselle, who gets zero context for why she got trapped in a parrot's body other than her abusing her powers. Then when she finally becomes human again, we still don't find out much about her, and [[AntiClimaxBoss she gets taken down in less than five minutes.]] She's less of a character and more of a PlotDevice. |
| 189 | * ''Film/{{Wrestlemaniac}}'': El Mascarado is a {{justified|Trope}} example, being a LivingWeapon created to wrestle. Being created for a combat sport, all he knows is violence, and he kills anybody he can get ahold of. |
| 190 | * You like the destruction they cause, but don't much care about them? Sounds like a C-list {{Kaiju}}. The better ones [[MonsterIsAMommy have]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge some motivation]] and/or [[TheWoobie are oddly sympathetic]], but the ones that never appeared in more than one movie are pretty much this. Whether it's a bad trope, of course, depends on how cool the destruction is. The [[Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzilla original Mechagodzilla]] is a justified case: it's a robot built for destruction, and thus doesn't have a personality besides being programmed to follow orders and come up with the best plan to win a fight. |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 194 | * Rodney Casares from the Peter Clines book ''Literature/ExHeroes''. He randomly turns up with the power to control the zombies, to survive the zombification with his own intelligence intact, and with enhanced physical abilities and stature he never had in life. The most that's ever explained about him is that he used to be a random gangbanger and that he was one of the first victims of the disease, but he is otherwise completely unique and exists for no reason other than to present a massive threat to the main cast. |
| 195 | [[/folder]] |
| 196 | |
| 197 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 198 | * In ''Series/AgentsOfShield'', Hive accuses Gideon Malick of being one of these when Malick expects to be rewarded for devoting his life to "the higher power" of freeing Hive. Hive points out how Malick has billions of dollars to his name, countless people who obey his every whim, a life of luxury, a loving daughter, and so much political and economic influence that he's effectively [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections above the law]], in other words literally ''everything'' a person could possibly want in life, and then asks what he ''really'' hopes to gain from summoning an entity like Hive to Earth. |
| 199 | -->'''Malick:''' Together we are supposed to take over the world.\ |
| 200 | '''Hive:''' And what does that look like to you? You have $9.2 billion. The influence that comes with any object of desire can be yours. That's not enough? What can I give you that you couldn't have before? |
| 201 | * The Bruha from the ''Series/BaywatchNights'' episode "Hot Winds." While all of the other paranormal entities that were featured in Season Two of the show had some semblance of character, the Bruha, despite appearing to be sapient, never spoke or emoted, or showed anything in the way of a personality. We also never get an origin or even a motive for it, it is simply an "evil spirit of the wind" that set about trying to destroy Los Angeles after being freed from where it was trapped centuries ago by Native Americans. |
| 202 | * The Space Mafia in ''Series/BlueSWAT'' are a group of aliens who want to conquer Earth. ''Why'' they want to do so never really gets explained. Granted, it's not like most villains in the ''Series/MetalHeroes'' series have complex motives, but most at least had some plan for what to do once they've taken over. The Space Mafia doesn't even have that, not helped by the fact that they change goals from "take over Earth" to "smash meteor into Earth" midway through. |
| 203 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 204 | ** The [[GodOfEvil First Evil]] wants to spread evil all over the world, because it's MadeOfEvil and thus it likes evil. This gets bonus points for being an InformedAbility; we are told repeatedly it cannot be fought directly, and yet does very little in the onscreen villainy department. |
| 205 | ** Earlier episodes of ''Buffy'' play with the trope quite a bit. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E13TheZeppo The Zeppo]]", the generic villains are never given enough screen time to explain their motivations as that's part of the joke. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E11Doomed Doomed]]", like most of the show's baddies, they're a metaphor for something else. |
| 206 | ** Ditto the Beast from season four of ''Series/{{Angel}}''. His status as this becomes a plot point, when they realize he's not smart enough to have come up with his plan on his own, and is serving someone else. |
| 207 | ** The Judge from "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E14Innocence Innocence]]" is an ancient demon with the power to burn the humanity out of people, which is lucky as burning the humanity out of people is pretty much all he seems interested in doing. The rest of the time he just kinda sits around, waiting to destroy the world while more interesting villains hog the spotlight. |
| 208 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': The... [[NoNameGiven entity]] from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight Midnight]]" is given ''no'' explanation whatsoever; we don't even know what it looks like. Along with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink Blink]]", the episode [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools is widely regarded as]] [[NothingIsScarier one of the most terrifying in the history of the series]]. |
| 209 | * The Night King in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', to the extent that the army of the undead are often compared to climate change, in being an overwhelming force that slowly becomes worse and worse while humans are distracted by ultimately meaningless power struggles. He has no motivation beyond killing humans and [[spoiler:is ultimately destroyed without the audience ever really learning anything about him]]. |
| 210 | * Arthur Petrelli from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' is a conscious attempt to avert this, with him stealing Peter's PhysicalGod powers and ''not'' using them to cause wanton destruction. Though his lack of motivation or any real plan land him into this trope anyway. He existed to steal Peter's power, and as soon as he did that, he faded into the background and sat around waiting for [[spoiler:Sylar to kill him]]. |
| 211 | * ''Franchise/KamenRider'': |
| 212 | ** Practically every CrisisCrossover movie has this type of villain. If it's a two-Rider crossover, the villain might have some kind of specific motive, but most films involving multiple Riders will simply have all of their various monsters and villainous organizations gather into a LegionOfDoom and fight for the generic cause of evil. |
| 213 | ** Gamedeus from ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' is a justified example: he's the FinalBoss of ''[[TheMostDangerousVideoGame Kamen Rider Chronicle]]'' and once he spawns, begins attacking and causing a pandemic...and that's about it. Unlike the other Bugsters, he has no real motivation and his personality consists of 'generic FinalBoss banter' and 'recycle sound clips from the previous Bugsters while using their powers'...because that's ''exactly'' how he's programmed. He was created to be the FinalBoss and programmed to behave exactly as he does. Also, unlike his fellows, he both lacks any pre-existing character to get a personality from and has only existed for a very brief period of time, making him less a character and more a program being run. In total Gamedeus only appears for a single episode before being absorbed and turned into a power-up for the human BigBad. |
| 214 | ** Kamen Rider Ginga from ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' is a GalacticConqueror for...reasons that are never given, seemingly only showing up so Woz can use some of Ginga's essence to create the [[TransformationTrinket Ridewatch]] that gives him his SuperMode. He doesn't give any reasons for why he does what he does, and we don't even learn his civilian identity. Like Gamedeus, Ginga appears to be a deliberate pastiche of the trope, as the story arc he appears in is a reference to the infamous BolivianArmyEnding of ''Series/KamenRiderKiva''. |
| 215 | ** ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'': The Ark is a case of a preexisting villain degenerating into this. It's first introduced as wanting to wipe out humanity because [[WellIntentionedExtremist it believes them to be a threat to the planet]], but when it's finally recovered and given a physical body, it's suddenly become an OmnicidalManiac that feeds on malice and just wants to kill everything without any explanation why, and spends the rest of the series going on rampages that don't seem to have much of a goal other than to destroy things at random.[[note]]The fan explanation for this is that it went insane during the years it spent isolated and trapped, but this doesn't make much sense as the Ark began as a systems administrator AI that doesn't have the same level of sentience or complexity a [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot HumaGear]] does, and as such it likely doesn't even have the capacity to go insane.[[/note]] |
| 216 | ** Asmodeus, the BigBad of ''Film/KamenRiderSaberPlusKikaiSentaiZenkaigerSuperheroSenki''. While he is given a brief backstory that ties him into the lore of ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'' (he's a former member of the [[TheOrder Sword of Logos]] who [[FallenHero went rogue]]) zero explanation is given for his motives and why he wants to destroy the Kamen Riders and Super Sentai. Or how he's able to shape-shift into a dragon. |
| 217 | * ''Series/MidnightMass2021'': The Angel. The closest thing we get to a backstory is that Monsignor Pruitt encountered it in Damascus. While it’s clearly sapient enough to go along with the Evil Plan, it is never explained what the Angel would get out of turning the inhabitants of Crockett Island into vampires, as it’s only real interest seems to be feeding. We also never get insight into its personality like we do [[AffablyEvil Father Paul]] or [[HolierThanThou Bev Keane]]. |
| 218 | * The demon Belial from the ''Series/RelicHunter'' episode "Set in Stone." We never learn anything about him (like how and why he was on Earth) and while he did wear clothing and wield a sword, those were the only indications at all that he was even sapient. He otherwise just acted like a rabid animal, doing nothing but snarling and growling while attacking everything in sight, "friend" and foe alike. The episode was a SealedEvilInACan story, and one of those ones where the living being that constitutes the sealed evil could be replaced by something inanimate like a curse or a (super)natural disaster, and next to nothing would change. |
| 219 | * The Replicators from ''Series/StargateSG1''. Since most of them are machines made out of Lego blocks, they have no personality whatsoever. [[GreyGoo All they do is multiply]]. And they just. Won't. Stay. Dead. Though this changed when the show introduced the Human Form Replicators (including the [[Series/StargateAtlantis Asurans]]), which actually had personalities and in some cases became recurring characters. Some were even somewhat [[AntiVillain sympathetic]]. |
| 220 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'': |
| 221 | ** Dai-Satan, the ultimate evil of ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' hasn't shown any motivation for his deeds. In fact, he doesn't even have lines to say and is only seen laughing menacingly in the background whenever he appears |
| 222 | ** ''Series/TokumeiSentaiGoBusters'' has the villain of [[Film/TokumeiSentaiGobustersReturnsVsDobutsuSentaiGobusters its second solo movie]]. Azazel is a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere with no connection to [[BigBad Messiah]] and just wants to destroy the world because... uh, because... we'll have to get back to you on that one. He basically exists to kick off a plot that isn't much about him, much like the {{Trope Namer|s}}. As tongue-in-cheek as the whole film was, you're probably ''supposed'' to laugh at this guy who comes out of nowhere calling himself "Azazel the Great Demon King" and trying to destroy the world because he's evil and that's what evil guys ''do.'' |
| 223 | ** It seems that dinosaur themed ''Sentai'' series really have a thing for this sort of villain, as Deboth from ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'' also has no personality outside of wanting to make humanity go extinct. That is when he can speak, as he spends most of the time either dormant or in a bestial form that's unable to speak at all. |
| 224 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': |
| 225 | ** Dark Spectre from ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' is one of the only examples of this trope in the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise as he just shows up, wants to take over the galaxy and does not have a personality. Most other villains are given a personality and motivation, so it comes off as odd when even the MonsterOfTheWeek had a personality, while the GreaterScopeVillain did not. |
| 226 | ** Omni the Magnificence from ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' spends the entire series offscreen and only shows up near the endgame, displaying no personality whatsoever. |
| 227 | * ''Franchise/UltraSeries:'' |
| 228 | ** Gatanothor from Series/UltramanTiga is a GodOfEvil who destroyed the world millions of years ago and seeks to do the same again for… reasons. The Giants of Darkness from [[Film/UltramanTigaTheFinalOdyssey aren’t much better, as they’re simply Giants of Light who turned evil… because of geting an unspecified ambition of conquest.]] |
| 229 | ** While Series/UltramanZ was praised for its heroic character, the villain Celebro was maligned for not really having much to him than “blows up planets for shits and giggles”. He meets the hero all of once across 25 episodes, with most of his interactions with others being with Juggler. |
| 230 | [[/folder]] |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[folder:Mythology and Religion]] |
| 233 | * Surtr, the fire giant who is responsible for the end of the world in Myth/NorseMythology, is probably the UrExample. He doesn't appear in any myths except the one that tells of Ragnarok, where he and his armies invade Asgard, he kills Freyr and [[SetTheWorldOnFire engulfs the world in fire]], and even that myth gives him little description or characterization. Still, while he may not appear, he is referred to in numerous other tales of both the ''Literature/PoeticEdda'' and the ''Literature/ProseEdda''. And he's hardly the only giant lacking character depth. In addition, since Surtr doesn't appear until [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the story of Ragnarok]], this could also make him a good example of LastEpisodeNewCharacter. |
| 234 | [[/folder]] |
| 235 | |
| 236 | [[folder:Professional Wrestling]] |
| 237 | * Prior to the Wrestling/AttitudeEra/Wrestling/MondayNightWars, the "generic doomsday villain"-type storyline was used heavily in the World Wrestling Federation to build up a heel wrestler toward a world title shot against Wrestling/HulkHogan. Villains such as Wrestling/KingKongBundy, Wrestling/BigBossMan, [[Wrestling/TheOneManGang Akeem/One Man Gang]], [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Earthquake]] and others spent would spend several weeks on TV beating up jobbers and mid-card wrestlers before their big match against Hogan ... and invariably they would all lose. [[note]] Even Wrestling/TheUndertaker took a rare pinfall loss to Hogan in the fall of 1991, prior to winning the title.[[/note]] The outcomes of these matches became so predictable it was as though these fearsome bad guys were simply generic bad guys who, after screwing with Hogan, weren't so big and bad after all. |
| 238 | * Between 2002-2006 in Wrestling/{{WWE}}, it was incredibly hard to sum up Wrestling/TripleH's character beyond "World Champion", "Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon's husband", and "sledgehammer aficionado". Oh, and "Complete {{Jerkass}}." |
| 239 | [[/folder]] |
| 240 | |
| 241 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 242 | * ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' has [[StrawNihilist the Cult of Transcendence]] come close to this trope. Their basic goal is to 'uplift' humanity into a proper Mythos race, an existence without concern for order, compassion, pain or pleasure. They do this by subtly sabotaging human society and corrupting people anyway they can. They're oddly philosophical about it, too. Deconstruction or Reconstruction? Either way, their entry lampshades the fact that their basic lack of humanity means they act like this trope, and do not care if they win or lose, which is what makes them so dangerous. |
| 243 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 244 | ** Leviathan, from the supplement Elder Evils, is a serpent made of the leftover chaos of the world. If it wakes up, the world will cease to exist. Interestingly enough, it's ChaoticNeutral, not evil - destroying the world is simply what it ''does''. The campaign layout provided has the "good ending" condition being putting it back to sleep, not killing it, as it's literally thousands of kilometres long and hence not capable of being fought by human-sized characters. Besides, killing it might cause it to destroy the world in its death throes. And if that didn't happen, its death might still irreparably damage the balance of order and chaos and destroy the world anyhow. |
| 245 | ** Also from Elder Evils is [[UndeadAbomination Atropus]], the [[GeniusLoci World]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Born Dead]]. Best described as an undead planet, featuring canyons and valleys forming the vague shape of a screaming, skeletal face. The book gives it a potential backstory as either a Primordial, the figurative afterbirth of the universe, or what remains of the Prime Mover, original creator of everything, but it certainly acts as a force of nature in the narrative. Merely its arrival causes plagues of undeath to wash across the world, the dead rising from their graves faster than heroes can slay the. In the end, the best thing the players might accomplish is fighting an aspect of its sentience (what little there is), and have an actual God come in to finish the job. And even then, the book suggests that even Divine Intervention might not be enough to finish it of, suggesting that the only way to permanently kill it would be to throw it into the Positive Energy Plane. |
| 246 | ** The Tarrasque. It's a gigantic, kaiju-like reptilian beast that wakes up, wrecks [=and/or=] eats everything, and then goes back to sleep. Wizards of the Coast [[MultipleChoicePast have never committed any one backstory to canon]], but most of them are variations of an extinct civilization conjuring a destroyer through forgotten magic. |
| 247 | ** Tharizdun is an odd case of this, in that he ''knows'' he's one. He's a god who is simply a SealedEvilInACan that wants to destroy all existence. Unfortunately for him, no other god wants this to happen, and so they work together to ensure he stays locked up, and even his worshippers are rare, secretive, and crazy; {{Straw Nihilist}}s at best and {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s at worst. Because Tharizdun recognizes that nobody else wants to unmake the universe, the majority of his plans are actually carried out by various front organizations that try to TakeOverTheWorld while unknowingly advancing Tharizdun's own goals. |
| 248 | * The BigBadEnsemble of the ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' tend to be treated similarly, but then again, the manifestation of any of them was explicitly a sign of the apocalypse. |
| 249 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': |
| 250 | ** The Necrons were introduced as a faction of [[SkeleBot9000 skeletal androids]] with [[OmnicidalManiac a grudge against organic life]] and that was pretty much all they did: kill without any sort of personality, [[TheVoiceless much less dialogue]]. Their 5th Edition codex, however, [[RetCon added a more detailed backstory]] to the army (albeit one very similar to ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'''s Tomb Kings), so while the average Necron warrior might be [[SoullessShell a mindless drone]] [[CameBackWrong after so many millennia of being repeatedly killed and repaired]], the ruling caste consists of actual characters with quirks and motivations beyond "kill all humans". As always, there's debate whether the new background is better or worse than the Necrons being a race of mysterious, silent killers. |
| 251 | ** The Tyranids to an extent. They're a HordeOfAlienLocusts that shows up, eats everything on a planet and uses the bio-mass to make more Tyranids to repeat the process on the next world. Certainly dangerous, certainly terrifying, but they're essentially animals. The most nuance to their backstory is the suggestion that they're attacking our galaxy because something ''even worse'' is chasing them. |
| 252 | [[/folder]] |
| 253 | |
| 254 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 255 | * All the {{Big Bad}}s in the ''VideoGame/{{Aveyond}}'' series have rather vague motives for doing what they do. Why does Ahriman want to destroy the world? Why does the Snow Queen [[spoiler:or rather, Heptitus,]] want to freeze the world? Why does Gyendal want to enslave the humans? Why does Qetesh wants a Mist Wraith sacrifice? Well, because reasons, and that's all you'd get from them. |
| 256 | * The FinalBoss and ultimate threat of ''VideoGame/BattleMoonWars'' is [[spoiler:a devil]]. Yeah, that's it. Doesn't help that it's quite the GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere. They could have at least given it ''a name''. Also, as the game is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, it also falls victim to "More powerful than anyone they've faced before!" Syndrome. |
| 257 | * ''VideoGame/CTwelveFinalResistance'' has the [[BigBad Alien Leader]]. He has five lines in the game, most of which are him telling Vaughn that the aliens can't be stopped. It's never revealed in the game why he invaded Earth, why he's turning humans into cyborgs, why he's exterminating humans, etc. He's just doing it because...plot. Contrast this with Major Dan Carter, who, despite having limited screentime, established himself as being a slimy, smug henchman who willingly and shamelessly sided with the aliens just to prolong his own life. |
| 258 | * The Federation of The Americas from ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts''. Throughout the entirety of the campaign, they appear to have no overall goal other than destroying the US and murdering American civilians seemingly [[ObviouslyEvil just to remind the players that they're the bad guys]]. The only named character on their side who has more than two lines is Gabriel Rorke, [[BrainwashedAndCrazy who isn't evil due to motivation]]. |
| 259 | * The GreaterScopeVillain TrueFinalBoss [[spoiler:aliens]] in the [[Platform/Nintendo64 Nintendo 64]]'s ''Chopper Attack''.[[note]]''Wild Choppers'' in Japan.[[/note]] At least the terrorists are given a TakeOverTheWorld motive; the [[spoiler:aliens]] only seem to attack just for the hell of it. |
| 260 | * Lavos from ''Videogame/ChronoTrigger'' fits for only being a (mostly) [[NonMaliciousMonster non-sapient]] PlanetaryParasite that CameFromTheSky, and after millenia feeding, woke up and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroyed the planet]]. Despite driving the plot, it's only a giant tick/parasite GreaterScopeVillain the protagonists will face once [[TakeYourTime they feel ready]]. The villains looking to use it for power (such as Magus the Fiendlord or the Queen of Zeal) are the ones given personality. ''Videogame/ChronoCross'' diverges by [[spoiler:making the aftermath of Lavos' defeat enable it to become a full-on EldritchAbomination [[OmnicidalManiac bent on obliterating all of existence]]]]. |
| 261 | * The GLA in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals''. While most villain factions in ''Command & Conquer'' has some fleshing out to explain their motives, even if said motives are being hungry for power, GLA's explanation, fighting back foreign imperialism, doesn't even make sense given that all they attempt to do in the story is cause destruction and don't show regard for human life in any shape or form. The fans didn't mind this much, given that China and America's characterization was almost as shallow, and the game having [[ExcusePlot such a bare bones story]] meant the GLA's lack of characterization was more a result of how little effort was put into the story than anything else. |
| 262 | * Ogura is one in his first appearance in ''VideoGame/DensetsuNoStafy'', in contrast to the next two games. He doesn't display any clear motivations behind his villainous actions other than simply wanting to conquer Pufftop. |
| 263 | * While most bosses in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' have either at least a bit of personality, or engaged in banters with Dante, all of the bosses in the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry2 second game]] (sans [[BigBad Arius]] and [[TheQuietOne Trismagia]]) have neither any personality nor speak any line whatsoever, including the FinalBoss Argosax. Essentially, they're just another enemy for Dante and Lucia to defeat. |
| 264 | ** Argosax the Chaos is stated to be the ultimate Demon King (before it was later retconned so that it shares the role with Mundus) that was once defeated and sealed away by Sparda and in the present day, Arius' plan was to unseal it in order to gain true power. However, unlike Mundus, we don't know anything about it's backstory such as how it came to strong enough to compete with the former even with the Qlipoth Fruit or what their own domain was like and upon its resurrection, it doesn't speak nor display any visible personality even after unveiling its True Form but instead merely challenges Dante to a fight before being KilledOffForReal, never to be heard from again aside from a supplementary novel upon the release of the fifth game. |
| 265 | ** And then there's Urizen from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', who's actually a [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype deconstruction]] of this trope. He first appears as a brutal monster, seeking power for its own sake, and yet other than that, he doesn't have any other motivation. Contrast that with Dante, who outright states that just fighting for the sake of something (like protecting his friends from Urizen, for instance) is what makes him more powerful than Urizen could ever be. And the reason for Urizen's single-minded obsession with power? [[spoiler:He's actually the [[EnemyWithout disembodied demonic half]] of Vergil, possessing all of his power but none of his humanity (which went on to become V), and since Urizen doesn't know what to do with all that power other than gain more of it, he's basically a mindless brute. Also, due to being split from Vergil, he's slowly dying, which is why [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport he has to hook himself up to the Qliphoth to survive]], though even then he's still strong enough to curbstomp both Nero and Dante when they first fight him.]] |
| 266 | * The Archdemon and darkspawn of ''Franchise/DragonAge'' are a rampaging force of nature, but they frame a backdrop for more complex and nuanced character conflicts, and only after confronting the antagonists native to Fereldin can the player wrap up the overarching invasion-of-evil epic. The darkspawn are partly motivated by the need to [[ImAHumanitarian eat (often people)]] and [[spoiler:reproduce, by abducting women and transforming them into broodmothers]]. They gain more depth in ''Awakening''; one faction of the "Awakened" wants to awaken the rest of the Darkspawn and create a place for themselves in the world, though they are hampered by BlueAndOrangeMorality. Another faction follows an insane DeathSeeker who resents her new sapience because it cuts her off from the song of the Old Gods. |
| 267 | * You play as one in ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper''. You're an undefined evil entity with no backstory, characterisation or even features, other than a disembodied hand. You command hordes of monsters and invade the surface kingdom for no apparent reason other than that they're good and happy and you hate that. |
| 268 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'''s early installments tended to feature these, with GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere final bosses with absolutely no characterisation beyond this appearing after you kill them. They got a lot less common after the appearance of Kefka from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' and the popularity of the relatively well-developed Sephiroth from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', but still show up after that point, often because of GrandfatherClause nostalgia or TroubledProduction problems. |
| 269 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' has Cloud of Darkness, who wants to destroy everything because she's dark, and therefore opposes light, the force the heroes represent. No other motivation or personality traits are established, she simply appears as the final boss after the previous villain is defeated. |
| 270 | ** ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasyOperaOmnia'' actually draws attention to this, calling it out in regards to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'''s antagonist known simply as The Emperor. The heroes refer to him as "generically evil" and a "mwahaha-type of villain", but go on to posit that is what makes The Emperor so dangerous. He doesn't have a tragic backstory or reason for committing atrocities, The Emperor simply wants to rule the world and then all worlds because he is of royal lineage, and therefore [[DivineRightOfKings has divine right to rule above all others]], as well as the divine right as king to be above morals and mercy. |
| 271 | * ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' has the GreaterScopeVillain Velezark, an evil Chaos Dragon who seeks to destroy everything for no clearly defined reason. |
| 272 | * The Shivans in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' seemingly exist just to be a nigh-unstoppable force for the Terran-Vasudan Alliance to repeatedly bash their heads against in a desperate attempt to defeat, with no reason yet given (and with the ultimate fate of the series, likely never will) for their actions (then again, the Shivans aren't exactly the talkative sort.) |
| 273 | * The Unbound in late ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' were designed to spread a wave of equal-opportunity devastation over the world, with the expectation that the Shapers would be caught off-guard and demolished while the Rebels bunkered down and waited it out. By the last game, they're everyone's problem. |
| 274 | * ''VideoGame/GuildWars'': |
| 275 | ** Nightfall, Warmarshall Varesh wants to wake a dark god and its legion of demons, unleash Torment upon the world, and bring about eternal night and suffering because... hmm. |
| 276 | ** The elder dragons in the ''VideoGame/GuildWars2''. They are [[PhysicalGod gods]] that wreck destruction because, because... |
| 277 | * Happy Chaos in ''VideoGame/GuiltyGearSTRIVE'' noticeably stands out as being this compared to other more nuanced villains in the series such as [[TragicMonster Justice]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist That Man/Asuka R. Kreutz]] and even [[AIIsACrapshoot Ariels/the Universal Will]]. Compared to them, he's just some asshole who wants to cause chaos simply becauses [[ItAmusedMe it amuses him]]. Granted, [[spoiler:most of that could be chalked up to being sealed away within the [[EldritchLocation Backyard]] for ages with half of I-No's power within him, while [[GoMadFromTheIsolation being driven mad]] by all the perfect knowledge that the place had granted him, but still...]] |
| 278 | * ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': [[AIIsACrapshoot HADES.]] Despite being described as fully sentient it has little in the way of personality, only existing to carry out its sole function of exterminating all life on Earth. What level of cunning and deceit he does display turn out to be [[spoiler:on the advice of Sylens]]. If anything, this makes it more horrific; it can't be reasoned with, only bound or destroyed. |
| 279 | * ''VideoGame/JimmyAndThePulsatingMass'' |
| 280 | ** The Pulsating Mass, the eponymous villain, appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and doesn't display any coherent motivation for engulfing the world aside from hating Jimmy. [[spoiler:This makes a lot more sense after you learn that it's Jimmy's mental representation of his terminal cancer -- a non-sapient threat obviously wouldn't have a coherent motivation.]] |
| 281 | ** Similarly [[spoiler: Mr. Cat, on account of [[SilentAntagonist not speaking]], has unclear motives for kidnapping, raping, and brutally murdering Cordelia Mouse ([[WouldHurtAChild a little girl]]). It’s possible that he’s a pedophile and is definitely a {{Sadist}} but he gets little further characterization.]] |
| 282 | * ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' has the Aurum, a HordeOfAlienLocusts that "are created from, and return to, nothing." They have no characterization yet are presented as such serious threat they require ''all'' the warring factions to do an EnemyMine to stop them. |
| 283 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 284 | ** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', Shan Yu is portrayed as this. Unlike in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', he's more MonsterOfTheWeek than BigBad, gets very little screen time to establish a character, displays no notable personality traits beyond being a fearsome evil warrior, has no motivation for why he's invading China using the Heartless, and doesn't even have a ton of ''lines'', only having ''two'' short lines of dialogue in cut scenes ("ATTACK!" and "Now you'll bow to me!"), with the rest of it being BossBanter. |
| 285 | ** [[spoiler:Prince Hans]] from the ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' version of [[WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}} Arendelle's]] story. While the movie explained his motivations, in the game he only made two non-speaking appearances and is stated by Sora to have a great darkness within him. But the world neither explains why he wants to kill Elsa, nor why his darkness is great enough to spawn a giant wolf Heartless. Even after said Heartless was defeated and subsequently [[spoiler:Hans {{d|eathByAdaptation}}ied with no fanfare or mention]] his motives and presence remained unexplained in the game proper. |
| 286 | * Several of the villains in the ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' series, like [[VideoGame/KirbysAdventure Nightmare]], [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2 Dark Matter]], [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3 Zero]], [[VideoGame/KirbyCanvasCurse Drawcia]], and [[VideoGame/KirbyMassAttack Necrodeus]] are this, since they're the villains attacking Kirby's home planet with little revealed motivation or characterization to go with it. |
| 287 | ** ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'' actually ''averts'' this with [[spoiler:Fecto Elfilis. Through their missing half, [[MadeOfGood Elfilin]], it proves that they are actually capable of doing good, yet they actively ''choose'' to be evil and conquer planets for their liking.]] |
| 288 | * ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': |
| 289 | ** Onox in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Seasons]]'', unlike Veran in ''Ages'', displays very little personality beyond destruction ForTheEvulz. He only appears in three scenes, and one is in the game's intro, and he's never shown doing much to waylay the player. |
| 290 | ** Bellum in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', who despite being a massive threat to the seas and [[spoiler: stealing the Ocean King’s life force]], seems to be only as intelligent as a wild animal and gets little screen time to boot. |
| 291 | ** Malladus from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'' is this for similar reasons. He doesn't have any personality, and his purpose seems to be that of a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute of Ganon to get around his death beforehand. It doesn't help that he has almost no screen time and only a few speaking lines. However [[TheHeavy Chancellor Cole]] and [[TheDragon Byrne]] have greater screen time and characterization to make up for it and the game’s story places greater emphasis on the heroes than the villains so it evens out. |
| 292 | ** Ganon may be this depending on the game, often when he [[HijackedByGanon hijacks the plot]] and thus doesn't have much time to get any characterization. ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' gives a reason for this: [[spoiler:As the incarnation of Demon King Demise's hatred for Link and Zelda, he literally exists solely to plague the two as long as reincarnations of them exist]]. In ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', Ganon has been plaguing Hyrule for so long that that [[MotiveDecay his character and personality has literally been reduced to this]]. No trace of the thief king Ganondorf remains -- merely the hatred and malice incarnate of a demon. |
| 293 | * The villain of ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'', Lord Vortech, is a being who wants to merge all dimensions together to create one perfect dimension. We never learn why he wants to do this. There were plans to make him a playable character, but they were cancelled. |
| 294 | * Odio in ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' is a reincarnating force of destruction. At any point in time there would be a hero to rise up, Odio will manifest during that time, causing terror, death, and annihilation, and directly oppose the hero. Odio will always bear a similar-sounding name that fits with that time period (such as Ode Iou for [[JidaiGeki feudal Japan]] or O. Dio for [[TheWildWest mid to late 19th century America]]), making him easy to spot for the player, but the idea is that while the heroes may consistently defeat Odio, it will always rise up again in some other time. [[spoiler:Subverted in the last chapter, which reveals that he's actually the mind of FallenHero Oersted, who has [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds very well-defined motives]]. The reason he opposes the protagonists is because he takes umbrage at their [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids idealism]] and wants to prove a point to himself.]] |
| 295 | * [[TheDragon Omega]] of ''VideoGame/MegaManZero3''. He's a Reploid simply programmed to kill and cause nothing but destruction, and essentially just a weapon to be used by [[BigBad Dr. Weil]] to further his goals. [[spoiler: And what [[TheHero Zero]] was originally intended to be by his creator, [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Dr. Wily]].]] |
| 296 | * ''VideoGame/MissionImpossible1990'': The Sinister Seven is a terrorist group who kidnapped Dr. O to get his knowledge of the [=US=] Defense system, with the goal of forcing the launch of US nuclear missiles in order to start World War 3 and destroy the world. No reason is given as to why they want to accomplish this, with the closest being the 'final boss' simply stating "This world should disappear!" |
| 297 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'' the ultimate BigBad is the divinity called the Leveler. His modus operandi consists of, at regular intervals, take over the body of the hero who killed his last incarnation, resurrect and corrupt other heroes of ages past, and then try once again to destroy all life on the planet and rule over the dead lands. Why? It's not really explained. |
| 298 | * ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' features several incarnations of [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil Arfoire]] across various continuities and dimensions, but the [[VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaMk2 Hyperdimension incarnation]], an EldritchAbomination known as the Deity of Sin, is a barely sentient beast who only seeks to destroy everything. She spends the story rooted to [[{{Mordor}} Gameindustri Graveyard]] while the heroes try to prevent her revival and then come up with a way to defeat her when that doesn't work. [[VideoGame/MegadimensionNeptuniaVII Zerodimension Arfoire]], while having [[LaughablyEvil much more personality]], still seeks to destroy everything, even at the cost of her own life, for reasons she can't properly define when questioned by Adult Neptune. [[spoiler:In fact, she was created by the game's RealityWarper BigBad, based on the latter's memories of the aforementioned Deity of Sin.]] |
| 299 | * ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'': |
| 300 | ** The plot is kicked off by an alien invasion that ends with humankind, overwhelmed by the aliens' machine armies, fleeing to the moon and using androids to fight a proxy war on their behalf that's lasted for millennia. What was the motivation for the invasion? [[spoiler:Who knows! By the time you encounter the aliens, they've been dead for a long time, killed at the hands of their own machine lifeform creations after they GrewBeyondTheirProgramming, and whatever the motivation for the invasion was died with them. Adam says that the aliens were so simple that they had more in common with ''plants'' than humans, so it's quite possible they never even had a real motivation in the first place.]] |
| 301 | ** Grun seems like this at first; [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever a 1000 meter tall kaiju-sized machine lifeform]] that suddenly appears out of the ocean and threatens the lives of every android and machine lifeform nearby with its massive EMP blasts. In Route A, the only thing you learn about it is that it was submerged in the ocean by the machine lifeforms that created it because it attacked everything indiscriminately, but in Route B [[spoiler: you learn that it's a good-natured machine who simply DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength]]. |
| 302 | * ''VideoGame/NosferatuTheWrathOfMalachi'': |
| 303 | ** The Count is an unnamed vampire monarch who never speaks. His goal is to revive the ancient Malachi so that he can lead the vampires and other evil otherworldly creatures in taking over the world. He's given no real personality at all and his goal is only told through the other characters. |
| 304 | ** Malachi himself is defined only by his threat level, being an incredibly powerful vampire who plagued the world long ago, and is now being released by The Count to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. He only appears at the very end as the FinalBoss, and like The Count, he does not speak. |
| 305 | * [[spoiler:Erebus]] from ''VideoGame/Persona3: The Answer'' fits this role, thanks to being [[spoiler:the AnthropomorphicPersonification of mankind's will to die, and is thus utterly incapable of thinking of anything but killing people. His sole purpose is to come into contact with Nyx to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt not out of malice but to fulfil what he sees as humanity's wish]]. |
| 306 | * Dark Force of the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' series is a chaotic monster sealed within some sort of containers as the "Pandora's Box" which corrupts and attacks people who find it. |
| 307 | ** [[spoiler:Profound Darkness]] in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'' is [[spoiler:a one-upped version of Dark Force, coming out of nowhere while being described as an origin of evil itself]]. |
| 308 | * ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave'' has BigBad Sulphur, who isn't so much a character as he is a plot device needed to move the story along. He has no backstory, no explained motivation, no personality, and doesn't even talk. |
| 309 | * ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'' has Maligula, the game's GreaterScopeVillain. Most her BossBanter talks about spreading death and destruction with no real motive to it. [[spoiler:Justified, as Maligula is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Lucrecia's PTSD manifesting as a CardCarryingVillain who would rather revel in her own evil than confront the overwhelming guilt of accidentally murdering her sister and countrymen. Lucrecia is a complex and sympathetic character, but Maligula can't be because she's not a real person.]] |
| 310 | * ''VideoGame/RainbowSixSiege'' has the White Masks, TerroristsWithoutACause taken to the absolute extreme. Who are they, what are they fighting for, where did they come from, and what is their end goal? None of it is ever explained, nor are any clues given to their ideologies, considering they [[HatesEveryoneEqually they attack completely indiscriminately]], are all cloaked in masked uniforms which hide their appearance, and have totally random warfare methods. Really, their only purpose is to be a designated antagonistic force for players to fight against, since the game is [[ExcusePlot extremely light on plot]] to begin with. |
| 311 | * ''VideoGame/RavenswordShadowlands'' has Ul'Thok, the BigBad. He never says anything when you fight him, and it's never even explained what exactly it is that he plans to do once he returns to Tyreas. |
| 312 | * ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' features NEO Umbrella as the villains. Their ultimate goal is to unleash a massive [=B.O.W.=] called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast HAOS]] that will infect the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt entire planet]] with a deadly mutating virus, purely for the sake of "plunging the entire world into chaos". |
| 313 | * ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa3'': The Oblivion is an {{Expy}} of the Cloud of Darkness from the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' example posted above. It's the personification of the destructive power of the Abyss that seeks to return everything to the void via sheer obliteration. It's treated more as a force of nature rather than an actual character. |
| 314 | * ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'': If a girl makes a wish upon [[ArtifactOfDoom the Skull Heart]], but is impure of heart herself, then the Skull Heart [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor twists her wish]] and [[DemonicPossession takes possession]] of her, turning her into one of the titular Skullgirls. Though the girls who suffer this fate may retain their will and personality for a time, they eventually [[DeathOfPersonality lose themselves]] and become {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, at which point [[PersonOfMassDestruction their full power is unleashed]] and this trope comes into effect. |
| 315 | ** The current Skullgirl, Marie Korbel, has managed to retain her own personality through force of will for quite a while (though she's starting to show signs of slipping) and is hence regarded as the weakest Skullgirl ever[[note]]and even then, she's still a PersonOfMassDestruction capable of feats such as tearing a skyscraper off the ground with a pair of disembodied skeletal hands, as seen in the background of the Rooftops Assault stage[[/note]]. The game's story revolves around the playable characters trying to put her down (and get their own chance at making a wish upon or destroying the Skull Heart) before she succumbs to this trope and becomes a real problem for everyone involved. |
| 316 | ** By contrast, the previous Skullgirl, Queen Nancy, rapidly succumbed to this trope after wishing upon the Skull Heart to end the war between her nation and its neighbours, and she subsequently became the most powerful Skullgirl in recorded history, necessitating the nations to put an end to their war just so they could focus all of their militairy might on putting her down before she destroyed the world. |
| 317 | ** There's also Double, a shapeshifting creature that serves the Skull Heart. She has no given reason for doing this... or, for that matter, doing much anything. All anyone really knows is that the Skull Heart comes with a side of horrible monster-nun who serves as the Skullgirl's sidekick [[spoiler:unless said Skullgirl shows compassion or restraint, in which case she kills them. She also gives the Skull Heart to unsuspecting women in circumstances where they're likely to make a wish without thinking.]] |
| 318 | * ''VideoGame/{{Something}} series'': |
| 319 | ** Ballser in ''Something''. In fact, the scenario describing the game does not even mention his name at all. |
| 320 | ** The Evil Guy in ''Something Else''. The introduction just shows his invasion of the Bears' world and his kidnapping of the Bear Elder. |
| 321 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 322 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' has [[FinalBoss the Biolizard]], the [[FlawedPrototype prototype]] UltimateLifeform. It's barely mentioned prior to its appearance, and has no dialogue. It simply appears to serve as a boss while attempting to carry out [[VillainousLegacy the will of its creator Gerald Robotnik]] and acts more as an extension of Gerald's vengeance than an actual character. |
| 323 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' has the "Flames of Disaster" Iblis. It is a mindless magma monster who has ravaged the BadFuture, driving Silver to go back in time in an attempt to prevent his rampage from ever occurring. [[spoiler:He is actually one half of a PhysicalGod, with the other half Mephiles taking all the intelligence. Said PhysicalGod Solaris is also an example; while it ''was'' subject to experimentation in the past, it's not portrayed as having any sort of sapience, and seems to only start wrecking spacetime upon its revival just because it can.]] |
| 324 | ** Dark Gaia from ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', an EldritchAbomination in the center of the planet. Since the beginning of time, it periodically emerges to wreak havoc on the world, then return to slumber, rinse, wash, repeat. Its role in the story is simply yet another weapon unleashed by Eggman that inevitably goes out of his control. |
| 325 | ** The Time Eater from ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' is another EldritchAbomination harnessed by Eggman [[MyFutureSelfAndMe and his past self]]. It came from ''somewhere'' out in space, and simply serves as a living weapon for Eggman to manipulate history to his liking. |
| 326 | * ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': |
| 327 | ** The Dark Star, the GreaterScopeVillain from ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'' that [[BigBad Fawful]] wants to release. While seemingly unknowable and [[EldritchAbomination eldritch]], it shares the same generic traits with other villains of its kind. |
| 328 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle'' has [[spoiler:the Megabug. A sapient virus created as a result of a dimensional rift created when [[VideoGame/RavingRabbids the Rabbids']] time travelling washing machine teleported to the Mushroom Kingdom, the Megabug appears to desire nothing more than to destroy both universes, absorbing the power of the Rabbids the heroes defeat to do so. [[TheVoiceless It does not speak]], nor does it clearly display any form of sapience, resulting in a terrifying creature with no clear motives]]. |
| 329 | ** ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'': The ArcVillain of Chapter 7, the Crystal King, isn't even mentioned until he is nearly reached, and is never given a goal for serving Bowser (unlike with the other bosses' clear gains). |
| 330 | ** Bowser himself gets hit by this trope in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', where he only makes a total of two appearances while having absolutely no dialogue or characterization, as opposed to the LargeHam, LaughablyEvil BoisterousBruiser he is known as in [[VideoGame/PaperMario both]] [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi of]] the Mario franchise's [=RPG=] subseries. |
| 331 | * Many bosses in ''VideoGame/StellaGlow'' have motives and reasons for why they do what they do, including the final boss, Eve. The TrueFinalBoss, Cartesia, is an amalgamation of humanity's negative energy that welcomes despair and defeat, and attempts to kill the party as they escape simply because she can. |
| 332 | * ''VideoGame/{{Sunman}}'': Spectre has no real motive and just seems to be destroying the city for fun. |
| 333 | * ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': |
| 334 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'': Tabuu is the BigBad of ''The Subspace Emissary'' campaign and offers zero personality quirks (in a world where the [[HeroicMime characters don't talk but express their personalties and plans through their actions]]) or motives behind his EvilPlan of turning the world into Subspace within the story mode itself. Subverted with supplementary material provided by both the trophies and the Dojo which elaborates on his character somewhat, explicitly stating him being the embodiment of the Subspace itself and thus unable to leave his dimension. |
| 335 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'': Galeem is the biggest threat in the game and offers little to no personality, and its reason for trying to recreate the universe isn't known. [[TheVoiceless Galeem also cannot speak]], which makes it eerie when certain characters do in the opening cutscene. [[spoiler:Dharkon follows Galeem with this, and shows that [[EvilVersusEvil they have a hatred of each other for unknown reasons.]]]] |
| 336 | * ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'' has several fascinating villains, and two of the available {{Big Bad}}s, the Masked Mage and the Dark Majesty, at least have some tragic backstories that make us sympathize with them somewhat, but perhaps the most glaring villain here besides Goremand (who was even worse in terms of cruelty and villainy anyway) has to be the Dragon Lord, who has no real motivations for his plan to become god of the world other than because he wants to "bring havoc and ruin to the world and usher in a new age of darkness" ForTheEvulz. What makes things even more eerie is that very little is known about him other than that he worked behind the scenes during the Pedda war and that he fought against then-prince Richard and his knight Loki, recalls a faerie that died during their fight with him, and mainly orchestrates various war crimes committed by his CoDragons, the Crimson Wizard and the Darkshine Knight (the former [[spoiler:was unable to learn magic and traded in half of his life-force to him for untold amounts of magical power]], and the latter [[spoiler:was actually Loki himself brainwashed by him into serving him, with his power being the only thing keeping him alive]]). |
| 337 | * ''VideoGame/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors'': Dr. Tongue. He's a mad scientist who has unleashed an army of monsters unto the world. His reasons for doing so are never given, be it to TakeOverTheWorld or ForTheEvulz. Done intentionally, as the game is a giant throwback to horror clichés, and he's just there to be the villain. |
| 338 | [[/folder]] |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 341 | * In ''WebAnimation/DusksDawn'', the [[NoNameGiven nameless]] villain's motivation is never really explained. He's just doing... evil, well... because he's evil. |
| 342 | [[/folder]] |
| 343 | |
| 344 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 345 | * Almost all the villains in ''Webcomic/AxeCop'' [[ShapedLikeItself are evil and do evil things because they're bad guys]], so just about any one of the powerful villains bent on [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]] or whatever is automatically a Generic Doomsday Villain. |
| 346 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'''s Jack Noir ends up becoming this. Starts out with a good bit of personality, but once he takes over as BigBad he just starts wrecking things for no real reason. WordOfGod describes his personality as basically being buried beneath his power, and describes him as akin to a raging dragon. A later scene from Jack's perspective clarifies it further: once he's gained enough power to become the Big Bad, he's just become ''[[VictoryIsBoring bored]]''. Most of his evil acts have just been him trying to come up with something to do with his new power. It's justified, seeing that Jack's entire purpose is to be a game construct and [[DragonWithAnAgenda give players of SBURB a questline to take down the Black Queen]]. And then his rampage across the trolls' session was out of UnstoppableRage after [[spoiler:Jade dies again]]. |
| 347 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The Snarl is not a major player in the story, but ready to obliterate everything if it ever gets loose. At least that's the original story we heard about it -- there are reasons to question whether this story is complete, or accurate. |
| 348 | [[/folder]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 351 | * ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': |
| 352 | ** [[EldritchAbomination The Entity]]/[[spoiler:Missingno]] is somewhat of a deconstruction. When its plan is revealed to be to simply [[AssimilationPlot assimilate everything in existence]], Linkara calls it out on having such a simple and generic motive, [[spoiler:and the Entity [[VillainousBreakdown suffers from an existential crisis]]]]. [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath Thanks to Linkara]], the Entity eventually gets a motive: to find out what happens when [[spoiler:an Outer God ''[[DrivenToSuicide dies]]'']]. |
| 353 | ** In-universe, this is what Linkara considered Batman in the Elseworld ''ComicBook/CatwomanGuardianOfGotham'' storyline to be, someone who wants to kill the hero "because he's the villain". He considers this trope to be the worst kind of villain. |
| 354 | * Discussed by ''Website/TheEditingRoom'' in ''Film/XMenFirstClass: [[http://www.the-editing-room.com/x-men-first-class.html The Abridged Script]]''. Creator/RobertDowneyJr makes a cameo and points out in full SarcasmMode that supervillains would likely have ''something'' in their lives that would make them rethink blowing up Earth. |
| 355 | * {{Parodied|Trope}} by ''Blog/HowToWriteBadlyWell'': [[http://writebadlywell.blogspot.com/2010/05/make-your-villain-genuinely-evil.html Make Your Villain Genuinely Evil.]] |
| 356 | * The Vionnators in ''WebVideo/JuukouTokusouDinnovator'' seem to only exist to oppose the protagonists. Who they are, where they came from and what their goals are beyond defeating the Dinnovators are never really delved into. |
| 357 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': |
| 358 | ** The reason why the Foundation [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/eldritch-application refuses to take]] WebOriginal/{{Zalgo}} as SCP. |
| 359 | --->'''"The Director":''' You're overpowered, you don't have a hook, and quite frankly, you're boring. |
| 360 | ** For a straighter example, there's SCP-682 from a different author, a reptilian monster whose sole defining characteristics are "Hates everything" and "Cannot be killed ever". Unusually for this trope, 682 has become an EnsembleDarkhorse despite his lack of motive. |
| 361 | * ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' has the terrible wrath of the Endbringers, who are steadily destroying humanity for no apparent reason with regular, devastating attacks on population centers and stress points: [[NoConservationOfEnergy Behemoth]], [[MindOverMatter Simurgh]], and [[MakingASplash Leviathan]]. |
| 362 | ** [[spoiler:Played with later, when it's heavily implied (though not outright stated) by Tattletale and Scion that Eidolon inadvertently [[InvokedTrope created]] them out of a need for "worthy opponents." They exist for the same reason in-universe that many of the examples on this page exist out-of-universe: simply to pose a powerful challenge to the hero.]] |
| 363 | * ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'': The Good Boy and his minions, the Strangers, are explicitly stated to not have ''any'' reasons for wanting to destroy everything, because if they did have a reason, that reason would be a thing and therefore they would have to destroy it. |
| 364 | [[/folder]] |
| 365 | |
| 366 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 367 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': GOLB is the GreaterScopeVillain of the whole show; acting as the embodiment of chaos itself [[spoiler:and the source of the Mushroom Bomb that lead to Ooo becoming what it is]], he's easily one of the most powerful beings in the series. [[spoiler:Come his grand return]], GOLB doesn't express any sort of character, motivation, or even basic sapience. He just floats in the air as his breath creates monsters, acting like more of a force of nature that the heroes must overcome, rather than an actual character. |
| 368 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The second season gives us [[GodOfEvil Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and chaos]]. Every 10,000 years he and his [[EvilCounterpart Good Counterpart]], Raava, fight to decide the fate of the uniworldverse; if he wins, he wipes out humanity. In the meantime, he goes around [[TheCorrupter corrupting]] spirits. There's not much else to him. |
| 369 | * D.A.V.E. in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' is a {{deconstruct|edTrope}}ion. While he believes himself to be a human imprisoned inside a computer, he's actually a robot programmed by Dr. Hugo Strange with the memories and abilities of Batman's worst foes for the sole purpose of giving Batman a challenge; to this end, he proceeds to easily curbstomp Batman and steals ''all'' of Gotham's money just to commit the ultimate crime. He's defeated when Batman asks him about his origin, at which point he realizes that he has no actual motivation or purpose beyond fighting Batman, which distracts him long enough for Batman to ([[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman quite ruthlessly, actually]]) kill him. |
| 370 | * ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': |
| 371 | ** [[EvilOverlord Pariah Dark]], being an obscenely powerful ghost out for world domination, but without a terribly interesting personality. However, the MadeForTVMovie he appeared in featured major roles from a lot of the more interesting RoguesGallery members (such as [[ArchEnemy Vlad]], [[HunterOfMonsters Valerie]], [[MagicKnight Fright Knight]], and [[EgomaniacHunter Skulker]]), so it all evened out. |
| 372 | ** Nearly ''all'' of the third season villains were generic TakeOverTheWorld villains with little difference between them apart from appearances, voice, and powers (IE: Nocturne and Vortex). |
| 373 | * Parodied with Evil the Cat in ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'', whose master plan is to destroy the universe. When finally asked [[AndThenWhat what he plans to do after that]], he has to think about it for a moment before finally settling on "Gloat, I suppose. Cackle wickedly among the ashes, that sort of thing." |
| 374 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Veteran Guy", Peter and his friends are court-ordered to safeguard people on Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale, where they end up fighting a band of frat boys planning to carry out a terrorist attack with absolutely no explanation as to why. |
| 375 | * ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': PlayedForLaughs with Professor Mystery (while also humorously deconstructing HiddenAgendaVillain and NoNonsenseNemesis): he is so driven to keep whatever reasons he has for being a villain a mystery that the OWCA agent assigned to stop him, Peter the Panda, is just fed up of dealing with him and decides to switch to fighting Doof because Doof loves to explain why he does what he does (as absurdly petty as it is sometimes). The result is represented in a fashion similar to a relationship with one member deciding to two-time the other. |
| 376 | * ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': |
| 377 | ** Doomsday basically keeps his role of catalyzing other characters' stories (despite ''speaking full sentences now!''). He showed up for the sole purpose of starting a fight and then getting lobotomized to show how dangerous the [[KnightTemplar Justice Lords]] are. In the second appearance, to challenge the heroes' own morality (he's mightily destructive. He's totally unrepentant about it and pretty much told us point blank he'll never stop. How do we stop him for good but observe [[ThouShaltNotKill our rules]]?) In the end he's banished to the Phantom Zone, which Batman treats as no different than a death sentence. In his second appearance, he is retroactively given a backstory, albeit a retcon that ties him into the Cadmus myth arc. The creative team basically gave Doomsday a backstory purely to lampshade this entire trope as hard as they possibly could. Doomsday is a cloned Superweapon designed by Cadmus specifically for killing Superman. That's it; he has no motivation or goals or desires other than killing Superman, and can't be reasoned with or made to stop. The show basically made the character exactly what he is in the comics to the point of criticism. And Doomsday himself even with his AdaptationalIntelligence decides to push through with it; he is who he is, and doesn't care why. |
| 378 | ** The show's version of Brimstone, a superweapon that went berserk for no identifiable reason other than to give Green Arrow a reason to join the league. |
| 379 | ** Most of the henchmen assembled in the third season, simply because there's way too many of them for them get much characterization. |
| 380 | * ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes2006'': Imperiex from the second season, who launches a full-scale invasion of the galaxy because... he's power-hungry. |
| 381 | * ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'': Many one-shot villains are like this. Ender, who existed to "end" things, and Gurrkek the Planet-Killer really fit the bill, however. |
| 382 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': King Sombra is built up as being a huge threat to the Crystal Empire, and is also revealed to have set up an intricate security system to prevent anypony from getting the Crystal Heart in the past. Other than that, however, his characterization is nonexistent, especially in comparison to the show's previous and later villains, and there is barely any backstory for him to speak of -- his role in the episode itself is simply to be a looming threat on the horizon for everyone to be scared of. This isn't helped by him [[TheSilentBob speaking very little]] and not having any meaningful interaction with the other characters. This is {{averted|Trope}} with his [[BackFromTheDead return]] in Season 9, where Sombra gets a chance to actually interact with the cast and [[EvilIsHammy show off]] [[SmugSnake his personality]] when he's not a formless mass of smoke growling and snarling. The [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW IDW comics]] also greatly expand his character and backstory, though the comics are considered LooseCanon. |
| 383 | * ''WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite'': The King of Shadows, the first villain in the series, was a horror with no backstory who ruled Rainbowland in the past and brought darkness to the land. He was a mysterious shadowy figure with no real character beyond being dark and terrifying. He had no real motivation for trying to darken the land and was KilledOffForReal at the end, ensuring we never learned more about him. |
| 384 | * ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': In "The Birth of Evil Part 1" we see a gigantic black mass that the gods Odin, Ra, and Rama fought millions of years ago. It is nothing but a mindless force of destruction with no real intelligence, just an organism with the intent to consume everything in its path. Ironically, the Emperor's attempt to destroy said evil is what gave it intelligence and a name: [[spoiler: Aku]]. |
| 385 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': [=ManBearPig=] isn't given any characterization other than he's presented as an unstoppable destructive force that destroys without reason [[spoiler:and is proven to be real by Season 22]]. {{Justified|Trope}}, as he is an AllegoricalCharacter for climate change, an environmental disaster. |
| 386 | * Emperor Dark from ''WesternAnimation/StarcomTheUSSpaceforce'' is defined solely by his desire to [[TakeOverTheWorld Take Over the Universe]]. We never learn his real name, his origin, how he assembled his army, or even why he wants to rule over everything, as all of his scenes consisted of him either solemnly tinkering in his laboratory or dismissively issuing orders (often in the vein of, "Okay, go do that") to his far more fleshed out Commanders (almost all of whom appeared to resent and want to overthrow him simply because of how completely lackadaisical he was). Since everything was done by his henchmen, often of their own accord, he could be removed from the show entirely, and very little would change. |
| 387 | * The [=DiC=] ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' cartoons mostly have {{Card Carrying Villain}}s, but one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld1991'' features Wizenheimer, who goes out of his way to ''directly admit that it is only in his nature to be evil''. |
| 388 | * A few of the ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'' villains fall into this, most notably the Titanium Chef, who wants to spread chaos throughout the world for no other reason than he has [[TomeOfEldritchLore a book that tells him how]]. |
| 389 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'', Volcanus, the fire demon, who never even spoke, just woke up and made a beeline for the nuclear power plant. |
| 390 | * ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': |
| 391 | ** The Puppet King from early into Season 1 was one such villain. It is not explained how he came to be or why he wanted to control the Teen Titans' bodies as his personal army and destroy their souls. He basically just seems to be carrying out this plan for the sake of it so that the episode could have an antagonist, and he had no real personality aside from "creepy, high-and-mighty bad guy." |
| 392 | ** Most of the more mindless secondary villains (Cinderblock, Plasmus, Overload, the Chrysalis Eater, Cardiac and the like) in the show seemed to be wreaking havoc [[ForTheEvulz just 'cuz]]. It doesn't help that the show had a general aversion to origin stories. |
| 393 | [[/folder]] |
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