The only man you'll call "Grand Moff" and still be intimidated by.
Teatime's mind was like a fractured mirror: all beautiful facets and rainbows but, ultimately, also something that was broken.
— Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
The Evil Genius is a standard character in
The Evil Army. They're usually rather high-ranked, commonly below
The Dragon but above the
Quirky Miniboss Squad. They are almost exclusively male except in fiction that either has an
unusually high female ratio or a female motif for its villains. The Evil Genius is obviously intelligent, and is the one in charge of the
Wave Motion Gun or shipping the nukes into the country or resurrecting the
Ancient WMD or what have you. This character is usually the one that will demonstrate to the
Big Bad how to use a particular
Mac Guffin. They're usually a
Mad Scientist, a
military tactician, a specialist in a particular field (such as computers or electronics), or has ties to
The Government (or a combination), so they're in the best position to deliver the goodies to the
Evil Overlord. In medieval fantasy settings, this role is often played by an evil strategist, rogue/spymaster, or a dark wizard (provided they aren't also the
Big Bad).
Prone to being
Bad Boss'd when the
ridiculously circuitous plan inevitably
fails or if they are
no longer needed and viewed as a liability.
The
Evil Genius is part of the
Five Bad Band dynamic, the
Evil Counterpart to
The Smart Guy. An
Evil Genius who is also the
Big Bad will frequently be
The Chessmaster and maybe even a
Magnificent Bastard. They can also show up as members of
Quirky Miniboss Squads, but then are usually made significantly less effective by virtue of their quirkiness.
Not to be confused with the
Diabolical Mastermind simulation game
Evil Genius, which has
its own page. Nor
the books by Catherine Jinks, which involve a
School For Scheming aimed at creating these.
Examples
Anime
- One Piece makes occasional mention of the Gorousei's Evil Genius, Dr. Vegapunk. He is one of the most speculated-upon characters in the manga. Apparently, he's a pioneer in the fields of robotics and Devil fruits, having created a cyborg with Devil fruit powers (Kuma), multiple copies of said cyborg that absorb Devil fruit powers of others, and figured out a way for inanimate objects to "eat" Devil fruits.
- To a lesser extent, Gecko Moria's right hand man Dr Hogback, a surgeon of legendary skill who assisted Moria in creating a zombie army.
- Uno of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who is known as the second brain of Jail Scaglietti and acts as Mission Control for the Numbers. Jail himself easily qualifies as Big Bad variation.
- John Smith (no, that's not an alias) from Mai-Otome, with a dash of Mad Scientist thrown in.
- Princess Kycilia Zabi, the Lady Of War from Mobile Suit Gundam who also was the Zabi family member in charge of Newtype research.
- Shader in Chrono Crusade serves as the Sinner's main techie. Aion, the Big Bad, has elements as this as well, considering he's a bit of a chessmaster.
- Herr Doktor in Hellsing is the evil genius for Millennium.
- Hakase in Mahou Sensei Negima probably would have played this part in Chao's evil army if not for the fact that Chao was also an Evil Genius of an even higher degree. Still, this was essentially her role in that she was the one overseeing the ritual to remove the world's Weirdness Censor, not actually taking part in the battle.
- Professor Nanba (or is it Kimba?) is the Evil Genius who gives Butch and Cassidy orders in Pokemon.
- Subversion: Kururu, who lives and breathes Evil Genius, is with the good guys.
Comic Books
- The Cyborg Superman builds all of the technology used by the Sinestro Corps, including the Manhunter robots who recharge yellow rings and the space station they used as a base.
- Darth Maladi from Star Wars Legacy is both a Sith alchemist and the head of Sith Intelligence. She's generally portrayed as one of the most cunning Sith characters in the comic, but seems to enjoy her schemes and experiments more for their own sake than from the hope of doing anything constructive with them.
Mythology
Webcomics
- Girl Genius is crawling with them. Even some protagonists, on a few occasions.
Film
- A very frequent minion type in the James Bond series.
- Dent to Dr. No
- Kronsteen to Klebb
- Ling to Goldfinger
- Kutze to Largo
- Osato and later Metz to Blofeld
- Hai Fat to Scaramanga
- Mortner to Zorin
- Boris to Trevelyan
- Gupta to Carver
- Arkov to Renard
- Popov to Graves
- There are occasional subversions: Whitaker, Khan, Kananga, Drax, Kristatos, and Le Chiffre were all the "main brains" in their operations as well as the leaders, and Sanchez had what is nearly a parody of one named Joe Butcher. Stromberg has four, all of whom he kills early in the film to cover his tracks.
- Jumba Jookiba from Lilo And Stitch likes to call himself this, although both the "evil" and "genius" parts are debatable to a certain extent.
- He actually is a genius; when Spike made him 99% stupid, the remaining 1% was still enough to cook up all sorts of weird gizmos.
- And he was even smarter as an "evil genius child prodigy!" (As in, a de-aged Jumba was able to do things with a computer adult Jumba couldn't).
- Theo in the first Die Hard fills the role to some extent, though Hans Gruber himself is without a doubt an evil genius in his own right.
- Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars could count, as he has the Death Star, is a strategist with his own doctrine, and is below The Dragon Darth Vader
- The Doctor in GI Joe The Rise of Cobra. At the end of the film, he reveals he is the Big Bad, Cobra Commander
Videogame
Western Animation
Web Original
