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"To instill fear is to instill order. Our order."
Lawful Evil comes in two flavours. The first is an evil villain who either believes in keeping order at all costs, or that it's much easier to become ruler of the world by exploiting the existing system than by tearing it down and starting anew. If the villain is supreme ruler of their realm, then they are probably either Lawful Evil or The Caligula. This is the canonical alignment of devils in Dungeons And Dragons.
Lawful evil can be the most dangerous alignment because it represents methodical, intentional, and frequently successful evil.
The second type is a baddie with a code of honour that prevents them from doing truly heinous things. The second type tends to either perform a Heel Face Turn or suffer death by redemption. These tend to be reliable allies in an Enemy Mine situation where alignments would fizzle out.
A variety are evil characters who don't care if what they do is "heinous" or "horrible", but who will always follow certain rules. Such characters are, for example:
A gangster who would kill anyone who crosses him—except, say, kids, and never forget a favour he owes; or a psycho who hunts people for fun but always gives a fair warning: or a villain whose word is absolutely binding; or any kind of evil character that might deliver a Hannibal Lecture that borders on Mind Rape but Will Not Tell A Lie. Or a character who does, without flinching, anything their master orders them to do, anything, because their one rule is absolute obedience. Still, turning hero is the farthest thing from any of these characters' minds.
An Obstructive Bureaucrat may be Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil, depending on how much they enjoy what they do. A Lawful Evil bureaucrat will take perverse pleasure in strangling the heroes with red tape and burying them in as much paperwork as possible, while a Lawful Neutral version will simply insist that everything has to be done by the book.
The first type includes characters such as the:
Characters of the second type include:
Examples
When dealing with the examples of specific characters, remember that assigning an alignment to a character who doesn't come with one is pretty subjective. If you've got a problem with a character being listed here, it probably belongs on the discussion page.
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- Arguably, Kira from Death Note. He's certainly got his own plans for the world, including a rigid social structure and oppressive laws, all punishable by death (note). He starts out pretty much Lawful Good, following his father's example, until he finds the Death Note and goes Jumping Off The Slippery Slope. Though some argue he became Neutral Evil later on.
- Yotsuba is of this alignment, especially since in the manga, it is revealed that they like what Kira is doing because a peaceful world (even one ruled by fear), is good for business, and they, especially the Kira among them (Higuchi) have no qualms about killing business rivals.
- In contrast of many pirates in One Piece being Chaotic Good, but still labeled as villains, World Government is a good example of this, although there are some Lawful Neutral (Smoker) and even Lawful Good (T-Bone) members.
- Of particular note are the members of CP9, who are professional assassins hired by the World Government. Though some of them really push the limits of what can be defined as Lawful Evil.
- Griffith from Berserk, using the system to grab hold of as much power as he can, no matter who has to suffer. Dips into Neutral Evil during his Complete Monster moment, but then pulls back into Lawful for a turn as a Dark Messiah.
- Lucemon of Digimon Frontier, who thought people were unable to properly rule themselves, and that the world would have been a much better place if he decided everything for everyone. He even had his "thought police" in the form of the Royal Knights.
- Big Bad Sosuke Aizen in Bleach.
- White Haired Pretty Boy Nagi from Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome. He plays with people's emotions like a six-string guitar, but rarely ever attempts to physically harm anyone still useful to him.
- Gihren Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. Both in the series itself and among fans, he's commonly known as "the Universal Century's version of Hitler".
- Haman Kahn from ZZ Gundam qualifies as well.
- Char Aznable, the single most popular character in the franchise, probably started out Lawful Neutral. However, in Char's Counterattack, he has given in to his disillusionment about mankind, has turned Lawful Evil and has become a Well Intentioned Extremist who wants to realize his father's dream by dropping Axis on Earth and forcing humanity to live in space. He freely admits he's committing an act of evil, but sees it as necessary for the future of mankind. Oh, and he has no problem manipulating the people next to him, especially Nanai and Quess, into being loyal to him.
- Shifting focus to the Cosmic Era, Gilbert Durandal from Gundam SEED Destiny, a Well Intentioned Extremist as well, whose plan consisted of creating a society where people's future and standing in society was determined by genes. Word Of God insists he was right, but his actions (among which, trying to wipe out countries who rejected his Destiny Plan with a Wave Motion Gun) speak otherwise.
- Gundam 00 Big Bad Ribbons Almark sees himself as God and wants to turn all of humanity into Innovators in order to bring about eternal peace, however he has no problem using orbital death rays or mind controlling his subordinates in order to stamp out opposition.
- The Anti-Spirals from Gurren Lagann are Lawful Evil take to logical extremes. They seek to protect the universe from the dangers of Spiral Power and to do this they are willing to exterminate any race that contains that power.
- Yagyu Retsudo from Lone Wolf And Cub. He wants to wipe out the Ogami family, come out on top, and sacrifice as many of his friends and family as he needs to, but he wants to do it by the book. He has no problem doing horrible things to innocent people, but he hates doing dishonorable things.
- Frieza of Dragon Ball Z is perhaps the only villain in that series to qualify as lawful evil, as he's the only villain who has a purpose bigger than proving his strength by beating the heroes and killing things. In this case, Frieza is the long-time ruler of the galaxy, putting down insurrections by destroying planets and cowing the gods themselves (though the Dragonball gods aren't necessarily anything to write home about).
- Alucard, the Villain Protagonist and Heroic Sociopath of Hellsing enjoys slaughtering his opponents with sadistic glee even if their innocent pawns, however he must first get the command of his master Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing in order to do so.
- Danzo in Naruto, who wants to turn Konoha into a militaristic state with himself as dictator, and is willing to see it destroyed to take power. Homura and Koharu, his accomplices in orchestrating the Uchiha clan massacre, also count. Pain's goal of establishing world peace by creating and using a forbidden jutsu to destroy an entire country also counts.
- The Demon Lord Vearn from Dai No Daibouken is the textbook example of type I. Another main villain Hadler is an interesting case in that he starts out as type I (Evil Overlord) and moves to type II (Worthy Opponent) later on.
- Chairman Keel of SEELE in Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Gendo Ikari to a lesser degree.
- Emperor Charles zi Britannia and Prince Schneizel el Britannia of Code Geass
- In the manga version of Yu Yu Hakusho, it is revealed that King Yama is of this alignment, despite initially being Lawful Neutral, as he released captured demons to attack humans as a justification for maintaining the barrier on Demon World and to portray the Spirit World as being the defenders of humanity. Sakyo, the main antagonist of the Dark Tournament arc, also qualifies, as while he wants to open a portal to the Demon World that will allow powerful demons into the human world, he dislikes foul play and is willing to honor his agreements, including betting his life on Toguro's victory- and honoring his end of the deal when he loses the bet.
Comic Books
- Alignment? Bah! Doom does not fit into your pathetic categories!
- Superman's archfoe Lex Luthor, given his constant manipulation of the Metropolis legal system to keep himself out of hot water, not to mention his vast network of supervillain contacts.
- The Iron Man villain, the Mandarin, fits both examples of Lawful Evil. He's an Evil Overlord through and through, but he also has a very strict code of honor. On one occasion, he destroyed one of his martial arts students for cheating by trying to drug him in a training session, and on another gave his word that he would stop hindering the activities of Stark Enterprises if Iron Man defeated him in single combat. When Iron Man triumphed in their eventual battle, the Mandarin fulfilled his promise and cleared the way for Stark Enterprises to set itself up in Hong Kong.
- The DCU's uber-Big Bad Darkseid is Lawful Evil in its purest form. His goal is to rule the entire universe by finding the Anti-Life Equation, which would destroy the free will of everyone except him. One blogger called him "the god of fascism."
- Former Green Lantern Sinestro seeks to bring order to the universe. And what better way to do that than through fear?
- The Assassin group in Fate Zero (this includes Fate Stay Night's True Assassin) are all Lawful Evil. True, they follows the order of the group, they do it proudly and it involves lots and lots of killing.
- Newspaper comic example: Catbert, Evil Head of Human Resources, from Dilbert walks the fine line between this and Neutral Evil; he spends his entire life making people miserable through new rules.
Film
- Darth Vader, and The Empire more generally, in Star Wars.
- Emperor Palpatine probably fits the definition of Lawful Evil better than Vader, since he's the actual politician guy, while Vader does his dirty work.
- Dr. Evil of Austin Powers, right down to attending Evil Medical School.
- Michael Corleone from The Godfather. He began as either Lawful Neutral or True Neutral but moved steadily towards evil.
- The Operative from Serenity, who ruthlessly pursues anyone or -thing which threatens the perfect utopia he hopes to build, even if it means slaughtering entire worlds or murdering children. To his credit, he never claims that what he does is right or just, only necessary, and freely admits that he's a monster who has no place in the utopia he dreams of.
- Eden Fletcher is a bad bad man.
- The Master (no, not that one) would approve of this alignment.
- Peter Creedy in the V for Vendetta movie adaptation (more than in the comic book) comes across as a textbook Lawful Evil character.
- Harry Waters from In Bruges. That fucking motherfucker sticks to his fucking principles.
- Charlie Prince in the 3:10 to Yuma remake is a trigger-happy, murderous bastard, but his loyalty and devotion to his boss Ben Wade are impressive - he goes to almost superhuman lenghts to rescue him. With maybe a slight hint of subtext.
Folk Lore
Literature
- The Auditors from Discworld who have repeatedly tried to exterminate all life on the Disc (and in one case Earth) to leave a more orderly Universe. Really, Death says it best:
Death: Down in the deepest kingdoms of the sea, where there is no light, there lives a type of creature with no brain and no eyes and no mouth. It does nothing but live and put forth petals of perfect crimson where none are there to see. It is nothing but a tiny yes in the night. And yet... And yet... It has enemies who bear it a vicious, unbending malice, who wish not only for its tiny life to be over but also that it had never existed. Are you with me so far?
Susan: "Well, yes, but-"
Death: Good. Now, imagine what they think of humanity.
- In fact, Lawful Evil is the alignment of choice for many Discworld villains: Trymon, Vorbis and Lilith Weatherwax most clearly.
- Evil Harry Dread in the Discworld novel The Last Hero selects his guards for stupidity and designs his dungeons to facilitate escape, all out of a sense of professional ethics and playing-the-game; he betrays Cohen and the Silver Horde at the first opportunity for exactly the same reason.
- Havelock Vetinari at one point describes himself this way to Samuel Vimes, citing that Good really can't plan—especially for when the Lawful Evil empire gets overthrown.
- Voldemort is a tough pick. While he does run the Death Eaters, he never seems to have much hand in their operations besides ones directly related to himself. A good example is the last book, most of which he's abroad, searching for the Unbeatable Wand. It's either Lawful or Neutral Evil for him.
- Professor Moriarty - "The Napoleon of Crime".
- "Gentleman Johnnie" Marcone from The Dresden Files, a control-freak crime lord who keeps such an orderly rule over Chicago's criminal underworld that the authorities actually prefer having him there, rather than several rival gangs constantly fighting it out. He also has a definite sense of honor and obligations, and is a prime example of Even Evil Has Standards.
- The government of Oceania from the George Orwell novel 1984 (The most common inspiration for the first kind in modern Western literature).
- Sauron. Possibly a surprise to those who are only familiar with The Lord Of The Rings (by which era he has undergone considerable canon Villain Decay and Motive Decay towards Chaotic Evil) but in the beginning, according to Word Of God, he only followed Morgoth out of the desire to build a rigidly ordered empire, quite the opposite of Morgoth's motivations. The character of Saruman in The Lord Of The Rings is in many ways a reflection of Sauron's original reasons for turning evil, and the contrast with present-day Sauron is meant to highlight how futile those desires for order are, as evil always ends in chaos.
- Lord Tywin Lannister from A Song Of Ice And Fire. His son Jaime probably also fits, up until his Heel Face Turn.
- And considering how things are going, Sansa Stark may end up here as well, thanks to the lessons of Littlefinger.
- Evil? Maybe. Lawful? Unlikely. This is Littlefinger, the ultimate pragmatist teaching.
- The devils in The Screwtape Letters are a group of scheming bureaucrats who have quite a few rules in Hell to better manipulate each other with.
- King Gasam, in John Maddox Roberts's Stormlands series, who seems to be somewhat based off of Genghis Khan.
Live Action TV
- Kai Winn, the Bajoran spiritual leader for most of the run of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, is pretty thoroughly Lawful Evil, with a bit more emphasis on law and a little less on evil. Then, she becomes a little more thoroughly evil and a little less thoroughly lawful...and finally becomes a pretty solid lawful and a pretty solid neutral.
- Cardassian society from Star Trek, with its heavy undertones of Fascism is a good example of a strongly Lawful Evil state.
- Daleks and Cybermen.
- Dexter Morgan of Dexter. He's a murderous sociopath with no illusions about what he is, but, as he stated in the first episode: "I have standards."
- Roscoe P. Coltrane's factory specs call for Lawful Evil alignment, but danged if, no matter how often ol'Cooter has him up on the alignment jig an' how many shims he uses, he just keeps on driftin' out to Lawful Stupid. Must be all those hard landings, gol'durn it!
Professional Wrestling
- WWE's Triple H is often referred to as "The Cerebral Assassin" for the way he manipulates the system, his opponents, and anybody whose head he can get inside to maintain his position on top of the mountain. He's at his most comfortable when he's surrounded by "friends" who help him carry out his plans, but no matter what happens, he is always out for himself and his own betterment in the end.
Close Professional Wrestling
Real Life
Tabletop Games
- The Imperium of Man, Craftworld Eldar, Tau Empire, and Necrons of Warhammer 40000 all lean towards this end to varying degrees-the first three vary between Lawful Evil and Lawful Neutral, while the last are so enigmatic that no one's sure where they fall, but Lawful Evil seems to fit them the most.
- Hobgoblins in Dungeons And Dragons are just as brutal as orcs, but have a regimented society and cooperative spirit that makes them doubly dangerous.
Video Games
- Greyfield, from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. He maintains control of his army through threats and manipulation.
- Sister Miriam Godwinson, Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri's religious nutbar, relies on a strict interpretation of certain Biblical passages. Arguably Lawful Neutral—she's not completely evil or backwards—she acknowledges in her game quote that any evil that exists in, for example, new forms of media isn't created by that media—but she's a definite Knight Templar, especially as the game goes on over hundreds of turns. This Troper does not want to know how she deals with heretics.
- Chairman Shen-Ji Yang is another example of Lawful Evil. His faction is called the Human Hive, which should tell you everything you need to know about his opinion of such dangerously destabilizing ideas as "freedom" and "individuality".
- NiGHTS' Evil Twin Reala is also his exact opposite in alignment: utterly loyal to the evil Wizeman, not to mention dirty, cruel and insidious.
- In Megaman NT Warrior's Stream season, we have Slur, Duo's right-hand-woman. Utterly and unswervingly loyal to her master, she despises humans, considering them a cancer to the universe, and thinks they deserve to be exterminated for their evil. Unlike Duo himself, she obviously takes cruel delight in handing out punishment and killing those who go against her master's word.
- Prince Laharl from Disgaea, as a Card Carrying Villain who knows the importance of a good Evil Laugh, definitely starts out at this but gravitates towards Lawful Neutral as the game progresses.
- Vulcanus is also Lawful Evil
- This troper would debate that Laharl is Lawful Evil. Though he is fundamentally an Affably Evil demon either way (as are most of the characters in the Disgaea series), this troper thinks that Neutral Evil or even Chaotic Evil describe him better. He is a selfish, self-centered character who firmly believes that might makes right (and, naturally, that he is the strongest in the Netherverse- which is why he is the one who should rule) and will throw any rule out the window if it impedes him. Lying, cheating and stealing- there's no (petty) crime that he won't commit. Simply barging into various Nether Nobles' houses in order to steal every last valuable they have in order to pay for the Prinnies, for example.
- The Begnion senators in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and especially Radiant Dawn fit the description of the first flavor to a T (excluding Sepheran). They're genocidal, greedy, ruthless, and collectively wield power over the most influential nation in the continent. Their only hindrance is the more benevolent empress who is politically above them, but they can still get away with, say, enslaving an entire war-torn nation by hiding their actions and shifting blame to subordinates.
- Their alignment (and fitting the first description) are, of course, derived from the goddess they serve. Wanting to keep the order at all costs, the "Good" goddess Ashera that they serve is willing to statue-ize every living thing on the planet to stop the war they're caught up in. The only exceptions were the followers of Ashera (the aforementioned senators) and the ones under the protection of Ashera's Chaotic Good counterpart "Evil" goddess Yune (the party members). This alignment mix was to prove that Chaotic isn't always evil and Lawful isn't always good.
- Kil'Jaeden the Deciever
 ◊ in Warcraft. In addition to being a big-time master in chess, he seems to be pretty much the only demon in the universe who gives minions second chances to further his plans rather than just kill everyone who fails him like the common Bad Boss.
- Kel'Thuzad◊, the right hand of the Lich King. While the Dark Lord's alignment kind of fluctuates from time to time, good old Kel stays the same ever since swearing his soul to the master of death. In Warcraft III, his Lawful Evil poses a nice comparison to Arthas' Neutral Evil.
- Several people from Final Fantasy usually Type I
- Emperor Mateus Palamecia from Final Fantasy II who is so evil that upon being killed descends into hell, and becomes the ruler of it.
- Golbez from Final Fantasy IV who uses Baron to collect the crystals. Rubicante is Type II
- Rubicante is practically the personification of Type II. While evil, he still insists that you fight at the peak of your abilities (fully healing your party), insists that he feels horrible for what a colleague did to an enemies parents, and then advises said enemy that he should calm down, as fighting mad will simply cause him to make stupid mistakes.
- Emperor Gestahl from Final Fantasy VI
- The Shinra Corporation from Final Fantasy VII is a Lawful Evil electric company that runs the world.
- Queen Brahne the fat evil Emperess who plans for World Domination in Final Fantasy IX
- Also Edea from VIII, alongside the general Gelabadian government.
- X has his own evil government, hiding important secrets from the people. And Seymour is an excellent example for someone using the system to gain power for mischievous plans.
- And of course The Evil Empire in XII, especially main villain Vayne and Mad Scientist Dr. Cid.
- Doctor Eggman/Robotnik (Whatever you prefer, please stop whining), the arch-enemy of Sonic The Hedgehog. Generally Affably Evil with a recent tendency towards Enemy Mine scenarious, and basically a gentleman, but also a Card Carrying Villain with plans to establish an 'Eggman Empire'. His Archie comics version is decidedly less affable, but carries many of the same traits.
- Imperator Ix, the Big Bad of Chronicles, is also of this alignment.
- Kane of Command And Conquer fits this to the letter.
- Saren Arterius in Mass Effect ("Is submission not preferable to extinction?").
- Possibly, Goenitz in The King Of Fighters.
- The majority of Organization XIII in Kingdom Hearts are either this or Lawful Neutral (with a few exceptions like Chaotic Evil Larxene). In Chain of Memories, Axel turns this trope on it's head by killing one of the Org's founding members as a ploy to join Marluxia and Larxene in their plan to take over the Organization, only to sabotage their efforts by freeing Namine. And later removing another Org member just to cover his tracks. What makes him Lawful Evil instead of Chaotic Evil was that he was commanded by Xemnas to do it. Who says Lawful Evil can't be creative?
- The instruction booklet for Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin explicitly states that Death is Lawful Evil.
- In Overlord, your Evil Chancellor Gnarl advises you to be this, stating that being Ax Crazy and slaughtering everyone in your way is not good for long-term world domination since you will need servants for your empire. He also justifies helping others by saying that they will usually owe you. Still, the decision is all up to you as a player and he does delight in acts of particularly vicious evil.
- Akuma/Gouki, from Street Fighter, is a definite type II. A ruthless and vicious martial artist who has killed a number of people with his bare hands... but only in one on one duels to the death, with his intentions firmly declared beforehand.
- Baron Praxis from the second Jak And Daxter game.
- Count Vigor in the third and Daxter.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has Manfred Von Karma and Damon Gant, both of whom used every tactic from deception to murder to gain and maintain control of the legal system. Shelley De Killer is an example of the second type: a ruthless assassin who takes his contracts very seriously and is a man of his word.
- Lord Recluse is an Evil Overlord who rules his island nation with an iron first, but privately relishes a chance to get blood on his hands.
- Hector from Dept Heaven series is a tough call between this and Lawful Evil. He's at the top of Asgard and his ultimate desire was to rule over the world as god.
- Canderous in Knights Of The Old Republic prefers to operate within the Mandalorian rules of war, but has no particular objection to vaporising urban centres in order to achieve an objective. He doesn't like it, but nor does he feel any particular distaste for it. Throw in the way that you can only gain influence with him in KOTOR II by being a ruthless bastard, and you get a pretty solid Lawful Evil.
- Prince Maximillian in Valkyria Chronicles is the ruler of The Empire and overall Big Bad of the game who invades the main characters' nation. However he's also a strict follower of the rules of war and has an officer of his court-martialled for war crimes.
- Very common in the Wild Arms series.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Mandy from The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy.
- Megatron in almost all of his incarnations, especially Beast Wars, G1 and Transformers Animated.
- Lockdown from Transformers Animated is also Lawful Evil - after all, a well ordered system is so much easier to exploit - but it is very obvious that he prefers to work for the Decepticons, because Evil Pays Better.
- The Clock King, a villain from Batman The Animated Series, who did everything according to his own by-the-minute schedule every single day. The one time he didn't...er, things didn't go so well.
- Most of the villains from Kim Possible are Lawful Evil, since they do follow the traditions of villainy. Often lampshaded due to the fact that it is this very tradition that lets Team Possible come out of the traps alive.
- The Venture Brothers: parodied/deconstructed with the Guild of Calamitous Intent.
- Brock Samson himself might fit into this category. He's certainly willing to follow out brutal and vicious orders, but at the least has a few standards that he adheres by (never killing women or children) and has occasionally called out Neutral Evil Rusty Venture on some of his more questionable actions.
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