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Comic Books
"I can't take no more of this grief! No social life, no civilian life, no life... PERIOD! Nothing other than being the Scorpion... and being the Scorpion STINKS!"
— The Scorpion, Spider-Man
Darth Maul: What could you hate enough to destroy me?
Darth Vader: Myself.
Darth Vader: Myself.
— Star Wars Tales #9, "Resurrection"
Luke: I found knowledge. All the things father knew so well. The ability to control others, to destroy others if he chose.... if I choose. Ben warned me. Yoda warned me. "Once you start down the dark path forever will it dominate your destiny..." but I had to do it Leia. I had to know what happened to our father! I had to know why he chose the dark side.
Leia: And now you know what happened to our father... it's time to come home, Luke.
Palpatine: Do not listen to her! Listen to the voice of the Dark Side! Your power is immense!
Luke: No! The powers of control and destruction weren't the only things I found in the dark side, Emperor... I also found great isolation and sadness... I found fear. These are the feelings my father felt... the feelings even you feel, in your moments of darkest triumph.
Leia: And now you know what happened to our father... it's time to come home, Luke.
Palpatine: Do not listen to her! Listen to the voice of the Dark Side! Your power is immense!
Luke: No! The powers of control and destruction weren't the only things I found in the dark side, Emperor... I also found great isolation and sadness... I found fear. These are the feelings my father felt... the feelings even you feel, in your moments of darkest triumph.
Film — Animated
Mr. Snake: I'll give Marmalade this. At least he sees the world for what it is: a place where some people are scary, and some people are scared.
Mr. Wolf: Oh yeah?! Well I'm tired of being scary! I'm... I'm tired of being an outcast!
Mr. Wolf: Oh yeah?! Well I'm tired of being scary! I'm... I'm tired of being an outcast!
Vanellope: What is the big whoop about that crummy medal anyway?
Ralph: The Big Whoop? Well, this may come as a shock to you, but in my game, I'm the bad guy and I live in the garbage.
Vanellope: Cool.
Ralph: No! Not cool. Unhygienic, and lonely, and boring. And that crummy medal was going to change all that.
Ralph: The Big Whoop? Well, this may come as a shock to you, but in my game, I'm the bad guy and I live in the garbage.
Vanellope: Cool.
Ralph: No! Not cool. Unhygienic, and lonely, and boring. And that crummy medal was going to change all that.
Film — Live-Action
"We live in an era of fraud in America. Not just in banking, but in government, education, religion, food, even baseball... What bothers me isn't that fraud is not nice. Or that fraud is mean. For fifteen thousand years, fraud and short-sighted thinking have never, ever worked. Not once. Eventually you get caught, things go south. When the hell did we forget all that? I thought we were better than this, I really did."
— Mark Baum, The Big Short
"No, you listen. You turned out to be exactly who I thought you were. I never pretended to be somebody else. It's been me all along. And it was me who was hurt in front of everybody. Look, I didn't come here to yell at you, okay? I know what it feels like to be afraid to show who you are. I was. But not anymore. And the thing is, I don't care what people think about me... because I believe in myself. And I know that things are gonna be okay. But even though I have no family, and no job, and no money for college... it's you that I feel sorry for."
— Samantha, A Cinderella Story
"Guess it's not a good day to be a bad guy, huh, Skank?"
— Eric Draven, The Crow (1994)
"This life... follows you. It clings to you. Infecting everyone that comes close to you. We are cursed, you and I."
— Viggo Tarasov, John Wick
"How'd we get into the sex-crime business anyway? My brother Saul, a plumber, makes twice as much money as I do and gets three weeks' vacation, too."
— Weasel, The Last House on the Left
"Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you."
— Cady Heron, Mean Girls
"It's not easy being mean."
— Constantine, Muppets Most Wanted
"Let me explains something to you kid. What I do, running around stealing shit, that may sound great when you're 15 years old, but it sucks just a little bit when you're 35, you got no family, no house, I've got a partner who's a 56 year old alcoholic who can't figure out why they took Happy Days off the air, and then I got to turn on the TV every day and see kids like you, one after another on these talk shows, you got everything, opportunities up the ass, you got a family to come home to, and what do you do? You sit around, and you bitch and you moan, because things don't go your way. Well, you know what kid, welcome to the real world where most times, things don't go your fucking way."
— Gus, The Ref
Literature
"There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it, I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp, and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape. But even after admitting this, there is no catharsis; my punishment continues to elude me, and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing."
— Patrick Bateman, American Psycho
Yoda: I want... I want a rose.
Dooku: Be serious.
Yoda: Serious am I! Another rose, make for me!
Dooku: The dark side springs from the heart. It isn't a handbook for cheap conjuror's tricks.
Yoda: But like this trick, do I! The trick that brings the flower from the ground. The trick that sets the sun on fire.
Dooku: Be serious.
Yoda: Serious am I! Another rose, make for me!
Dooku: The dark side springs from the heart. It isn't a handbook for cheap conjuror's tricks.
Yoda: But like this trick, do I! The trick that brings the flower from the ground. The trick that sets the sun on fire.
"How rewarding can your job be if you spend forty hours a week hammering away at people who are already hurting?"
— Dave Ramsey's Complete Guide to Money, on why the crueler of the bill collecting agencies have such high employee turnover
Corran Horn: You don't get it, do you? You've already lost and you're continuing down that losing path. Haven't the last four thousand years taught you anything?
Exar Kun: I know more than you could ever hope to learn in four thousand years or forty thousand years.
Corran Horn: That may be. But I know the one thing you don't. You're never going to win. You destroy those who oppose you, and what does that leave you?
Exar Kun: The faithful.
Corran Horn: From among whom arises a rival. You have a schism.
Exar Kun: And I destroy the heretics.
Corran Horn: Yes, you do. And again and again that cycle repeats itself and you let it go on because you've forgotten the most fundamental truth of reality: Life creates the Force. When Kyp destroyed Carida, he diminished your power. When you destroyed Gantoris, you diminished your power. You're a predator over-grazing your prey, but you can't stop because the dark side fills you with this aching hunger that will never be satisfied.
Exar Kun: I know more than you could ever hope to learn in four thousand years or forty thousand years.
Corran Horn: That may be. But I know the one thing you don't. You're never going to win. You destroy those who oppose you, and what does that leave you?
Exar Kun: The faithful.
Corran Horn: From among whom arises a rival. You have a schism.
Exar Kun: And I destroy the heretics.
Corran Horn: Yes, you do. And again and again that cycle repeats itself and you let it go on because you've forgotten the most fundamental truth of reality: Life creates the Force. When Kyp destroyed Carida, he diminished your power. When you destroyed Gantoris, you diminished your power. You're a predator over-grazing your prey, but you can't stop because the dark side fills you with this aching hunger that will never be satisfied.
— I, Jedi
"Abashed the Devil stood
and felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely; saw, and pined
His loss."
and felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely; saw, and pined
His loss."
Ned: You're screwing the villains. It's not really one fight after another.
Mrs. Yamada: Being a villain is hard.
Weaver: One in twenty might make it in the long run. If they're lucky, if they're good, if they have friends they can count on.
Reynard: Pat yourself on the back a little more.
Weaver: I wasn't satisfied doing what I was doing, as a villain. I switched sides by choice. Think about that. Even after all of that, after everything I had, even though I felt pretty good, spending all of that money on helping people in my neighborhood, being front page news, I gave it up.
Mrs. Yamada: Being a villain is hard.
Weaver: One in twenty might make it in the long run. If they're lucky, if they're good, if they have friends they can count on.
Reynard: Pat yourself on the back a little more.
Weaver: I wasn't satisfied doing what I was doing, as a villain. I switched sides by choice. Think about that. Even after all of that, after everything I had, even though I felt pretty good, spending all of that money on helping people in my neighborhood, being front page news, I gave it up.
— Weaver explains this trope to middle-schoolers, Worm
"Mr. Heathcliff, you have nobody to love you; and, however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery! You are miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil, and envious like him? Nobody loves you — nobody will cry for you when you die! I wouldn't be you!"
— Catherine Linton, Wuthering Heights
Live-Action TV
"I think when one has been angry for a very long time, one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable, like old leather. And, finally, it becomes so familiar that one can't ever remember feeling any other way."
— Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Wounded"
"In the old days, it would not have been my style to make an alliance. I would have slaughtered my neighbors in battle. But... then you wake up and you think, 'I've got no neighbors. What if I want to borrow something?' I'm ready to make a change."
— Nandor, What We Do in the Shadows (2019)
Music
Theatre
"You'd think killing people might make them like you, but it doesn't. [Beat] It just makes people dead."
— Voldemort, A Very Potter Musical
Video Games
"Welcome. I am Ballos. Ages ago, in fear of enduring further punishment, I allowed my magic to run wild... its power soon became such that not even its master's hands could control it. As I looked on, unable to quell its fiery rage, it took from me my loved ones, my children, my dearest wife... their cries of agony soared above the flames. Unable to avert my eyes, I merely gazed upon the spectacle... laughing... Jenka sealed me away, but my magic yet rages out of control even now. Long, long have I waited... waited for the one who would subdue my magic's fury... now, kill me! Or I... shall kill YOU!"
— Ballos, Cave Story
The Courier: How about I go find dear Daniel and shake the information out of him?
Joshua Graham: There are many reasons why that would be a bad idea. I will illuminate three. First, do not believe that because Daniel is a missionary that he is incapable of, or unwilling to defend himself. Second, if you harm Daniel or any of the Sorrows or Dead Horses, I will find you. Make no mistake, God willing, you will not leave this valley. Lastly, making war against good people is bad for the soul. This may not seem important to you now, but it's the most important thing I've said.
Joshua Graham: There are many reasons why that would be a bad idea. I will illuminate three. First, do not believe that because Daniel is a missionary that he is incapable of, or unwilling to defend himself. Second, if you harm Daniel or any of the Sorrows or Dead Horses, I will find you. Make no mistake, God willing, you will not leave this valley. Lastly, making war against good people is bad for the soul. This may not seem important to you now, but it's the most important thing I've said.
— Fallout: New Vegas: Honest Hearts
Proxy: I hate being him [Darth Vader].
Starkiller: I think he does too.
Starkiller: I think he does too.
Player Character: What kind of life have you lived with the Force flowing through you? Was it worth living?
Darth Sion: It... it was not. No matter how many I killed... there was no end to the pain... the blades the Force tore through my flesh.
Darth Sion: It... it was not. No matter how many I killed... there was no end to the pain... the blades the Force tore through my flesh.
"Villains are BAD GUYS! No one likes bad guys. Not even bad guys like bad guys!"
— Pearl, Splatoon 2
"Hngh... In a way, I admire what you have, Protector. All these years driven by vengeance, surrounded by hateful people? I've lived a lonely life."
— Asra Nox, Starbound
Neku: Hey, your wings are gone!
Beat: Huh? ..... Oh yeah. Guess they are.
Neku: You don't care?
Beat: About what? That Reaper crap was lame, yo. I was gettin' sick a' how they ran things. The good guys suit me better.
Beat: Huh? ..... Oh yeah. Guess they are.
Neku: You don't care?
Beat: About what? That Reaper crap was lame, yo. I was gettin' sick a' how they ran things. The good guys suit me better.
Webcomics
Web Original
writing-prompt-s: "In a game with no consequences, why are you still playing the 'Good' side?"
raphaeliscoolbutrude: Because being mean makes me feel bad.
raphaeliscoolbutrude: Because being mean makes me feel bad.
— Tumblr
Western Animation
Sasha: No. Enough with the plans. And the schemes. I'm done.
Grime: What? But you love schemes! Lies, manipulation, backstabbing, it's like your thing! Since when have you cared?
Sasha: Since I saw the consequences.
Grime: What? But you love schemes! Lies, manipulation, backstabbing, it's like your thing! Since when have you cared?
Sasha: Since I saw the consequences.
—Amphibia, "Turning Point"
"Waspinator sick of being evil! Sick of being Predacon! And Waspinator especially sick of getting blown to scrap all the time! So... Waspinator QUIT!"
Jade Chan: Don't you three know when to quit?
Finn, Ratso and Chow: [simultaneously] We quit!
All of the heroes: Huh?
Ratso: We're tired of never making money!
Chow: We're tired of being enslaved by dragons, wizards, and floating demon heads!
Finn: But most of all, we're tired of getting our butts kicked! By you.
Ratso: Yeah! It hurts.
Finn, Ratso and Chow: [simultaneously] We quit!
All of the heroes: Huh?
Ratso: We're tired of never making money!
Chow: We're tired of being enslaved by dragons, wizards, and floating demon heads!
Finn: But most of all, we're tired of getting our butts kicked! By you.
Ratso: Yeah! It hurts.
Miscellaneous
"Stop thinking of the Dark Side as some pathway to power. That's the Emperor lying to you. It's destructive. Darth Vader is miserable. He lost everything. He has no one in his life, absolutely nothing until his son comes back and says, 'I love you'. Other than that, his life is a wreck... that's not the way to live your life. I see a lot of adoration. I get that the bad guys are cool. But they are evil. You really don't want to be them!"
