Basic Trope: A character has evil powers, ergo they will be evil.
- Straight: Bob can reanimate the dead, so he becomes a villain.
- Exaggerated: Bob's power source is the pain of tormented kittens. He is an Omnicidal Maniac.
- Downplayed: Bob, a Poisonous Person, is a misanthropic Jerkass, but an occasional ally to the heroes.
- Justified:
- Bob's power has some arbitrary rule so that it can only be used for evil purposes, and he must use them regularly or he will die.
- Bob's power has some subtle influence over his soul or mind that makes him more easily carry out the evil actions than had he never developed the power.
- Powers are shaped by one's personality. Bob was always a rotten bastard, and his powers developed accordingly.
- Inverted: Good Powers, Good People. Bob is The Hero and is a Plant Person with a Green Thumb
- Subverted: Bob uses his zombie army to protect the innocent.
- Double Subverted: The innocents aren't really innocents, but turn out to be villains. Bob was aware of that all the time.
- Parodied: Bob finds a book about practical jokes. He bursts into an Evil Laugh.
- Zig Zagged: Bob is a user of the Heel–Face Revolving Door, who uses his powers for good or for evil (and he hit the power jackpot, using powers from the Morality Kitchen Sink), depending on his mood.
- Averted:
- There are no superpowers which could be interpreted as good or evil.
- Bob's power doesn't match his personality, either if he's a good person or bad person.
- Gray-and-Gray Morality makes it impossible to tell which Differently Powered Individual is good or bad.
- Enforced: Bob has satanic powers. The Christian Moral Guardians would never allow him to not be a villain.
- Lampshaded: Alice wonders why nice guy Bob became a dick the moment he became able to raise zombies.
- Invoked: A Super-Empowering villain gives random people evil powers expecting that they will fight the good guys for him.
- Exploited: People with powers having an "evil vibe" to them are monitored by the good guys, so that they can react immediately when they turn evil.
- Defied: Despite having the power to raise zombies, Bob is still determined to remain as good and heroic a person as possible, often helping out at orphanages whenever he can.
- Discussed: "Just because Bob was born with necromantic powers doesn't mean that he is a bad guy. Give him a chance."
- Conversed: "No way! I've never read a story where the necromancer isn't the bad guy."
- Deconstructed: Bob has the ability to command The Legions of Hell but commands them to defect from their masters in Hell and join his crusade to conquer Earth. This prompts their masters to attack Earth and, more specifically, Bob. There are countless victims as the Demon Lords and Archdevils and the forces of Bob hold an all out war against each other. Bob's abilities are too unrefined to control the much more complex forces of Evil, and everyone Bob ever knew or cared for is tortured to know more about Bob. Including his Morality Chain.
- Played For Laughs: Bob is constantly using his evil powers to do evil things, but when people call him out, he plays the Fantastic Racism card, accusing them of discrimination.
- Played For Drama: Society notices that evil people almost always have a certain type of powers. Therefore, any individual found with a power potentially evil is incarcerated immediately, if not killed outright. This causes many super-powered beings to rise up against the government, further perpetuating the belief that bad powers make bad people.
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