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The Sociopath / Western Animation

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Indeed, The Sociopath even permeates Western Animation...

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     A-J 
  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Eustace Strych is manipulative, uncaring, abusive, unapologetic, narcissistic, and overall cruel to everyone around him without even a shred of remorse. He even suggested mounting Jimmy's head on a pike.
  • Adventure Time:
  • Allen Gregory: Richard DeLongpre thinks very highly of himself and lives solely to satisfy his immediate whims, something best shown in his relationship with Jeremy. He had a wife and children until Richard stalked him and tore his family apart, giving Jeremy no choice but to give in to his advances and become his Trophy Husband, treated like a Sex Slave at best, and utter trash at worst. If that weren't enough, Richard also feels entitled to a big position in his father's company despite doing nothing to deserve it, and threw temper tantrums until he was eventually Kicked Upstairs. In one episode, he happily admits to his son that he aims to be as much of a deceitful, underhanded slimeball as he can get away with, and only considers being honest as an absolute last resort.
  • American Dad!:
    • Roger Smith freely admits this of himself and provides near-constant displays of Comedic Sociopathy. One episode involving a Journey to the Center of the Mind showed that he does, in fact, have a conscience in the form of Jiminy Cricket... which was caged and dying of neglect.
    • Barry, one of Steve's best friends, has certainly shown shades of being this when particularly off his medication and a rather intelligent as well as highly functional example at that.
  • Amphibia: Season 3's "The Core and the King" reveals that Andrias's father King Aldrich Leviathan, proves himself to be even worse than his son. Aldrich is an Abusive Parent who only cares about conquering worlds and killing populations for their resources and grooms Andrias into becoming the ruler Amphibia deserves while distancing himself from his two best friends, turning his son into the monster he is today. Even centuries after Aldrich's passing, he lives on as a part of the Core manipulating Andrias from the shadows, and eventually violently possesses Marcy Wu because they realized how smart she was.
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Master Shake fits all the criteria for antisocial personality disorder. He has no regard for any person but himself, is completely indifferent to other people's feelings toward him, seeks gratification at the expense of others, has an inflated opinion of his own intelligence and charisma, and never thinks about anything beyond short-term gain.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Fire Lord Ozai doesn't have love for anybody. Not his son, Zuko, his daughter, Azula, his brother, Iroh... he doesn't even bat an eyelid when admitting he banished his own wife as punishment for the assassination of the previous Fire Lord, which she did to protect her son! It's even implied he couldn't love himself, only a pathological desire for dominance and personal glory to compensate for his ego insecurities.
      Ursa: After all these years, I finally see you, Ozai. You're just a small, small man trying with all your might to be big. Your heart is so small, you've no room for your son, or your daughter, or your brother... or even yourself.
    • Azula is a Manipulative Bitch, a pathological Consummate Liar ("Azula always lies..."), and a Control Freak. Subverted since not only she fails to demonstrate pathological need for stimulation or lack of impulse control, but also she reveals aspects sociopaths don't have. She has No Social Skills, harbors self-loathing out of belief that her Missing Mom considered her a monster, seeks to please her father no matter the cost, and suffers from a massive Villainous Breakdown triggered by the betrayal of her closest friends and her father. It's also confirmed by Bryke's word in Sozin's Comet: The Final Battle that she could have turned better in a healthier environment.
  • Beavis And Butthead:
    • It is revealed in the episode "Refuse Service" that the school psychologist has diagnosed Butt-Head as a sociopath because of his cruelty and Lack of Empathy for others. Being the idiot he is, he just laughs it off.
    • Coach Buzzcut has no control over his temper, manipulates others into doing what he wants, and is willing to beat any of his students to near death for no reason whatsoever.
  • Ben 10:
    • Kevin 11, and when the Time Skip Sequel Series shows had him become good, first Kevin's Evil Counterpart Darkstar and then the evil alien Aggregor came around to fill the void. Ultimately, it's revealed that for Osmosians like Kevin and Aggregor, using their powers to absorb energy (which Kevin did as a kid, and Aggregor still does) induces a sociopathy-like state. Kevin stopped absorbing energy before Alien Force began, which was what allowed him to regain his sanity.
    • Alien Force introduces Argit, a Con Man who Kevin used to work with. He only cares about himself and money, and will use and betray anyone to get it; Gwen once described him as the kind of guy who would "sell his mother for lunch money", and Kevin confirms he actually did just that. Best shown in "Andreas' Fault"; he takes advantage of Andreas' innocence to get him to work for him, and after Andreas sacrifices himself to save Argit and Ben's team, Argit is more concerned with the money he lost in the process and honestly doesn't seem to understand why Kevin would be disgusted with him.
      Argit: Sometimes, I just don't get you, Kevin!
      Gwen: No, you wouldn't.
    • Omniverse gives us Malware. A mutated Galvanic Mechamorph appropriately described by Ben as a total psychopath. Before his upgrade, Malware started out feeding on other Mechamorphs to sustain himself. Arrogant and devoid of any moral compass, he even had the gall to claim that they deserve to be destroyed. When he finally got his upgrade, he became even worse. One episode had him attempting to murder a busload of innocent children to make a quick escape from Ben. Then the Showdown 2-parter revealed that in the past he destroyed Feedback, one of Ben's alien forms, solely to hurt the boy out of spite. Then he proceeds to top that by destroying his own homeworld.
  • Big City Greens: Chip Whistler definitely fits the bill, since he doesn't care about anyone except for himself and has tricked and deceived people for his own personal gain. Chip refuses to let go of the past and fails to learn from his mistakes, since he continuously tries and fails to take out the Greens, even though they haven't done very much to justify it. He openly admits that he likes being mean to kids, and when given a position of power, Chip uses it to run people out of their homes and built his store above the Green's house purely out of spite. When Chip's plans finally get ruined once and for all, his last resort is to straight up try to kill the Greens and anyone near them. It's safe to say that someone like him should not be roaming the streets of Big City.
  • Bojack Horseman: While the show's themes (depression, happiness, life, fame, futility, cruelty) and its characters thrive on White-and-Grey Morality at best (rarely) and Grey-and-Grey Morality at worst (mostly), quite a lot fits the criteria to the point of occasionally shifting its stance to Black-and-Gray Morality.
    • Hank Hippopopalous, a stand-in for Bill Cosby, David Letterman, and every Hollywood scumbag with godhood delusion and narcissism, has an affable vibe and calm demeanor toward everyone which doesn't stop him from revealing in private how stuck in his own orbit he is. Even then, that's just the tip of his depravity with his mask covering a complete lack of regard toward anyone not in his circle of connections or whoever dares stand in his way. It can go further with his well-webbed self-denial of his cruel actions even if he's quite conscious about the pain he causes: long as he has a career, he can do as he pleases and no one else has to get hurt...if they stay in line and don't threaten his livelihood. Mostly a high-functioning case, Hank's nastier side can show up when there are people who aren't buying into his personal truth in which he'll resort to giving them a warning through thin-veiled threats and personally parading his victim as a coated good gesture.
    • Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale zig-zags through this profile, as she would do, really: She meets most of the criteria to qualify, except she's far too calculating and cautious to count. Her hysterical fits and desire for cheap thrills, even with how she intentionally screws up every mission she has just for the sake of seeing violence erupt, does see her tip-toe through the edges. There's also her twisted sense of empathy and "warrior" honor. Plus, she's hilarious.
    • The father and son of the chicken slaughterhouse Gentle Farms (chicken themselves) have their own takes: the patriarch is superficially charming, has a good sense of acceptable behavior, and has no qualms over his farm's business, grooming his kid to follow his every command and carry on the family business, even in shooting trespassers. The son, a budding example, has normalized this and sees nothing wrong with this behavior, even if he sometimes questions if it's good or moral to do so.
    • Joseph Sugarman, patriarch of the Sugarman family, Beatrice's father, Butterscotch's boss and BoJack's grandfather, is a complete evisceration of the Standard '50s Father: his deep belief in old-fashioned values has made him devoid of any sort of empathy for his family, describing emotions as "woman's feelings" and happy that he can suppress his. Consequently, he's shown to have been willing to harm his family and abuse them emotionally and physically if he deemed it necessary to keep them safe (e.g. his wife Honey's lobotomy, conditioning Beatrice to occupy a woman's place in society and destroying her psyche in any way he could, giving Bea reasons to harm her son BoJack turning him into the screwed-up horse seen in the present.)
    • Jeremiah Whitewhale spends his days buying up every company he can, to the point that he's managed to buy out Disney of all companies. He then treats his workers horrendously, executing one and leaving his body on a warehouse floor for taking too many breaks. He openly laughs at the thought of anybody stopping him, managing to buy enough politicians to legalize murder committed by rich people. In fact, he encourages people to spotlight his atrocities, because his shareholders are also sociopaths and it convinces them that he'll do anything for profit.
  • The Boondocks has a decent number of villainous characters who could probably qualify for this trope. Given what kind of show this is, their antisocial behavior can be depicted as anything ranging from hilarious to horrifying (or both).
  • Brickleberry:
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Zarm checks most of the boxes. He's completely devoid of any affection for other beings, though he does regularly start a scheme by pretending to be benevolent. However, once the scheme has destroyed everything for the victims, he moves on to do it all over again. Ma-Ti distrusts him from the start, initially saying that his heart is "empty" and ultimately stating that he doesn't have one. Most of the time, he doesn't use his physical power, but he doesn't have to, given his nasty skill at bringing out the worst in people. He's also quite smug (though admittedly he's a very tough opponent for anyone to handle) and oblivious to his incoming doom until the last few minutes of the entire scheme blowing up in his face. Furthermore, he refuses to admit that he wastes time whenever he tries to destroy Earth and should probably focus his attention elsewhere — that would mean admitting Gaia, Cap, and their five kids are a problem for him.
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog:
    • Katz is one of the characters on the show who best fits the criteria for antisocial personality disorder: he's self-centered, smug, extremely ruthless, thinks he's above everyone else, extremely sadistic when he wants to be, is very open to killing for fun, and is absolutely devoid of any kind of remorse, empathy, or morals.
    • Mad Dog is a realistic take on a Domestic Abuser. A more low-functioning sociopath, Mad Dog keeps Bunny in line by threatening her and Kitty and pretends to feel remorse for yelling at her, only to then bury her up to her neck in dirt.
  • Cyberchase:
    • The Hacker is a self-centered cyborg whose main characteristic is his massive ego. The Hacker has such an inflated sense of self-importance, this often impedes his plans. He has also shown instances of manipulation such as when he tricked some denizens of Cyberspace into helping him escape the Northern Frontier or convincing another denizen that the number zero was worthless. Funnily enough, the Hacker actually has a heart disc that enables him to feel empathy for others, but it ends up falling out when the Cybersquad tried to insert it into him.
    • Ledge is a highly intelligent cyborg practically spewing artificial charm. In his first appearance, he creates a device which transforms the citizens of Sensible Flats and nearly succeeds in hackerizing the entirety of the Cybersquad. Much like the Hacker, Ledge is also arrogant about his capabilities, but the only difference between him and Hacker is that he puts more thought into his schemes.
  • Danny Phantom:
    • Vlad Plasmius, Danny's Arch-Enemy. He has all the traits listed on the main page, and his "love" for Maddie is shown to be shallow and mostly for her beauty; he tries his best to repress her strong personality and forcibly forge her into a "model wife" in the bad timeline where he marries her.
    • Dark Danny. He feels no emotion, single-handedly caused an apocalypse, and ruthlessly manipulated all the people who loved his past self, to their horrible deaths to ensure he would exist as he did.
  • Darkwing Duck: Negaduck, the evil twin of Darkwing Duck, is the leader of the Fearsome Five and uses an electronic wall to isolate St. Canard from the rest of the world. He then defenestrates Darkwing via a trap door and captures Gizmoduck, Morgana, Neptunia, and Stegmutt. When the Justice Ducks defeat him, Negaduck threatens to use a remote to collapse the wall on itself, nearly killing all of St. Canard and himself in the process. When Darkwing visits his home of the Negaverse, he is offered the chance to help free it by the Negaverse versions of Megavolt, Quacker Jack, Bushroot, and Liquidator, but refuses until he is hugged by Negaverse Gosalyn. He then says that in this world, there never was a Darkwing Duck to defend St. Canard or a Drake Mallard to be a father.
  • DC Animated Universe:
  • Drawn Together: Almost the entire main cast fits this description, excluding (usually) Foxxy, Xandir, and Wooldoor.
    • Spanky Ham is the perfect example. He is unempathetic, unpleasant, obnoxious, sadistic, greedy, and manipulative. He also lies to and puts others in terrible situations for his own convenience.
    • Captain Hero is also not far behind. He frequently lacks empathy, shows no remorse when committing horrific acts, has had a problematic childhood, and even rapes his own parents.
  • Eddy's Brother from Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show. Let's see: lack of empathy, even for their own family (to Eddy), and is incapable of remorse. And where does all this transpire? Where does this guy live? A trailer at an amusement park. Yes, the implication is obvious: he gets to torment kids every single day. His whole life is just getting off on bullying those smaller and younger than him.
  • Family Guy:
    • Although he has become a nicer person over the seasons, Stewie Griffin in the early seasons fit the criteria for antisocial personality disorder very well: he rarely showed any kind of remorse, guilt, or conscience; he possessed a violent demeanor, a penchant for mistreating Brian whenever he could, and constantly enjoyed subduing and threatening others under the facade of being a harmless baby. He was also incredibly self-centered, selfish, and didn't hesitate to kill or torture someone if it brought him closer to his goals. However, over time he softened his maliciousness, and as the years passed he learned empathy towards others. Then there's the fact that he has fought antagonists much worse than him, making him a Sociopathic Hero.
    • Brian Griffin, at least in recent years, follows a lot of the symptoms of sociopathy, such as superficial charm and good "intelligence", unreliability, untruthfulness, and insincerity, a lack of remorse or shame, poor judgment and failure to learn by experience, etc.
    • Glenn Quagmire gleefully takes advantage of multiple women, plenty of which are only high schoolers. He also firmly believes himself to be on the moral high ground when comparing himself to Brian.
    • Carter Pewterschmidt is a firm believer in money being the deciding factor of a person's worth and has nothing but contempt for people of a lower social station than himself, frequently antagonizing Peter by having him do demeaning and oftentimes dangerous tasks. He lacks empathy, best exemplified whenever he pretends to adopt an orphan only to speed away in his car. In one episode, he even discovers the cure for cancer but is unwilling to distribute it to the general populace.
    • Jeff Fecalman, Quagmire's sister's abusive boyfriend from "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.", is a low-functioning example. He has no control over his temper and treats his girlfriend Brenda as a possession instead of a person. The gang resolve to stop his abuse of Brenda and decide to take him to the woods to kill him, but he turns the tables on them, knocks out Peter and Joe, and beats Quagmire within an inch of his life, seemingly choking him to death. Then it turns out Quagmire survived (since he chokes himself for sexual pleasure), and rams Jeff into a tree, killing him.
  • Final Space:
    • The Lord Commander is a psychotic overlord who wishes to use Mooncake as a means of opening a portal to Final Space. The Lord Commander commits several murders throughout the series — and in one instance has his top lieutenants execute their own children as a display of loyalty — and his first impulse when dealing with a problem is to torture or kill the obstacle, maybe even both. The Lord Commander expresses zero empathy towards any other living being in the universe-best exemplifying it when he tried to release the Titans, knowing full well that they'd destroy reality, just to get a chance at becoming a god.
    • Invictus is a satanic figure who, for reasons unknown, poisoned the Titans and attempted to destroy everything. After being locked in Final Space for millennia, Invictus attempts to escape and is indirectly responsible for the Lord Commander's evil.
    • Werthrent, a Snake God worshiped by Ash Graven's people, devours his worshipers and keeps them in a pocket dimension where they suffer in emaciated, zombie-like forms.
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has a lot of characters who are jerkasses who often border on Ax-Crazy territory. But the character who fits this trope the most is Mac's older brother Terrence. He takes great pleasure in bullying Mac in the most horrifying ways possible and would even go as far as to put him in great danger, such as shoving him (as well as his other friends) inside the box of the Extremeasaur to get zapped by said monster! Needless to say, it's a mystery how such a kind-hearted kid like Mac could put up with such horrible bullying at the hands of such a horrible teenager for so long.
    • Bendy is another example of this despite being downplayed. Instead of admitting he caused trouble, he feigns innocence by crying Crocodile Tears , which he used to manipulate/trick Herriman and Frankie into siding with him and show absolutely no remorse for the trouble he causes or any of his other actions. Even worse Bendy gets away with all his heinous acts, especially using Bloo’s toothbrush to clean the toilet while lying about how it was “his own” toothbrush and flooding and destroying the Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.
  • Futurama:
    • Zapp Brannigan. Not all sociopaths are moustache-twirling maniacs; it is a mental disorder, not a sign of evil, and Zapp displays the classic signs. He lusts for power and women, with no care for the distress he might cause others in his pursuit of these goals. He's shamelessly manipulative, as he will deliberately inspire pity in others to gain their assistance, which he will then take advantage of. Of course he's also charming when he wants to be, at least in the pursuit of sexual conquests. He's vain — his incompetence doesn't stop him from pursuing power even though he can't actually do his job. He's an exceptional liar, shamelessly blaming others when he fails — and indeed believing it himself, even convincing our heroes that he can and will change if they help him, and then not making the slightest attempt. And of course, he places a value of exactly zero on any life other than his own, even that of Kiff, his 'friend'. Perhaps this is best seen in a combination of how he treats his own troops as pure cannon fodder, and the way he manages to keep his own job despite his regular displays of gross incompetence and stupidity.
    • It's a good idea to compare Zapp to Bender, who, while clearly showing signs of Addictive Personality Disorder, Kleptomania, and Narcissism, shows that he has over the course of the show, learned the lives of others do have value and finds his own life less enjoyable when they are absent. Unlike a Sociopath, he cannot simply replace one friend with another, and most importantly, when those friends are unhappy, feels bad that they are unhappy.
      Morgan Proctor: He was a bad robot.
      Fry: No, he was a bad friend!
  • Gargoyles:
    • Word of God describes the villain Jackal as a sociopath (his sister Hyena, by contrast, is a psychopath). Both of them are Ax-Crazy Psychos for Hire who enjoy doing mercenary work for the sake of violence. In fact, Jackal is so crazy and merciless, that he willingly gets himself possessed by the spirit of a death god so that he could try to exterminate all life in the world (though fortunately he failed).
    • Thailog, the evil clone of Goliath, is a much more sane (though no less ruthless) example of a sociopath. The only things he cares about are money and himself. He starts a very fake romance with fellow villain Demona, tricking her into loving him despite the lack of genuine affection on his part; and he twice backstabbed her as soon as he no longer wanted or needed her around.
    • Dr. Anton Sevarius has no shred of morality, scruples or empathy when preforming experimentation on living human subjects. seeing everyone as either means to get money or as guinea pigs for said experiments, and shows no guilt or remorse for the lives he ruined.
    • The first Hunter Gillecomgain is a heartless killer who slaughtered the Gargoyles to near extinction, murders Macbeth’s father by Duncan’s orders, treated his own wife like she was nothing, had no loyalty to his king, and had no problem tormenting Macbeth by using the woman he loved as a human shield.
    • Lord Constantine III manipulates Lady Finella who was in love with him, into helping him murdering King Kenneth in order to steal his throne, imprisons or executes any who reject his rule, and proceeds to threaten the gargoyle eggs to force Princess Katharine into marrying him.
    • Proteus is a sick and sadistic individual who finds pleasure in tormenting his victims and is willing to destroy his homeland and people before making his escape.
  • Gravity Falls:

     K-S 
  • The Title Character of Kevin Spencer. He regularly breaks the law just because, looks out only for himself most of the time, and is able to manipulate people into thinking he's on their side when he wants something from them. A good example would be how he pretended to be nice to his dad in order to lure him into a false sense of scrutiny, before ratting him out to the cops and collecting a reward.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Unalaq has a superficial charm which he uses to put a rift between Korra and her father, as well as Korra and Tenzin so he can become Korra's spirituality teacher. He fakes caring about his brother Tonraq (Korra's father), Korra herself, and Eska and Desna while things are going his way and honestly seems surprised when people object to his fleet taking over the Southern Water Tribe. And when all of his pretenses are stripped away, he becomes a cruel, absolutely heartless man who cares for absolutely no one. Not even his wife in the North, nor his son and daughter. All he cares about is his power and increasing it, to the point of releasing the equivalent of Satan himself, Vaatu and then merging with it to become the equivalent of the Antichrist. To this end, if he has to kill a 11-year-old girl or even his own niece, he doesn't care.
    • Earth Queen Hou-Ting. Reviewing her key personality traits is like reading through a sociopath diagnostic checklist: superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self, pathological lying, a penchant for manipulating others to achieve her own ends, an absolutely astonishing lack of empathy or remorse for any of her actions, and an insatiable lust for dominance and importance that drives her every move. She has no qualms whatsoever about sacrificing those closest to her if it suits her purposes.
  • Lilo & Stitch: The Series has Experiment 627, an Earth-born experiment with all of Stitch's powers and then some, and with none of his weaknesses. He loves causing destruction, cares nothing for the direct or collateral damage he causes, and uses Stitch as his punching bag throughout his debut For the Evulz. Jumba even says that he was specifically designed to be incapable of pulling a Heel–Face Turn, unlike his cousins.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
  • Moral Orel:
    • Clay Puppington is revealed to be a self-loathing alcoholic who shoots his son Orel in the leg during a hunting trip and later proclaims that he was glad that he shot him. He tries to invoke reactions from other people regardless if it ends with him being despised out of a desperate need for stimulation; he lacks empathy and remorse for any of his actions; and before his true nature was revealed, he acted like the stereotypical 1950s father as seen in television.
    • Cecil Creepler, Moralton's ice cream man who tries to get Orel's friend Doughy into the back of his van. He's later revealed to a prolific Serial Rapist who assaulted eight women, one in particular being Ms. Sculptham.
    • Miss Censordoll is a Knight Templar who has a knack for burning books and later takes advantage of Clay's Oedipus Complex to get what she wants.
  • My Little Pony 'n Friends:
    • Squirk from "The Ghost of Paradise Estate" was the original ruler of Dream Valley back when it was a lake, and in the third episode sings a musical number reveling in his cruelty. He has just about recovered the Artifact of Doom that gave him his power, and during the song is seen Kicking the Dog all over the place, apparently simply to make up for lost time. And whatever he's done to his sidekick Crank's mind, Crank can't seem to realize he will only ever get abuse from Squirk.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Discord is a sadistic Reality Warper who utilizes magic-assisted psychological warfare to Mind Rape the mane cast, and wastes little time in turning Equestria into a chaotic hellhole For the Evulz. His later Heel–Face Turn is effected by making him realize that having friends means you have to consider how they will feel about your actions, something he apparently had honestly never considered, and the rest of his Character Development in the series amounts to learning empathy and how to manage healthy relationships with others.
    • Lord Tirek from "Twilight's Kingdom" feels no sympathy for anyone he hurts as long as he gets his way and will manipulate anyone he pleases to serve his ends. He is very manipulative, a chronic liar, has Lack of Empathy, shows no remorse for his actions, and is a Narcissist as well.
    • Starlight Glimmer from "The Cutie Map" has a nasty combination of paranoia and is focusing on removing the cutie marks of other ponies (their very life's essence) purely to advance her version of a perfect society, demanding everyone else live by her rules while not following them herself, manipulative, and maintains an outward image of benevolence but won't hesitate to physically hurt or mentally torture dissenters. Most telling, when revealed as a hypocrite, she accuses others of ruining her life and ends her appearance by twice refusing to admit any wrongdoing, still convinced it was her victims who rebuffed her generosity. It takes literally seeing how her actions in taking revenge cause The End of the World as We Know It in one Bad Future that she finally surrenders and makes a Heel–Face Turn, and it's shown in multiple episodes afterwards she has problems connecting with others on a personal level, preferring to use magic as a "quick and easy" method to solve her friendship problems and has problems properly reading social cues.
    • Ex-Wonderbolt, current Washout and Rainbow Dash's rival Lightning Dust is possibly the most blatant example in the series. Her entire MO is to be the best at everything she does and to win, which has her putting not just her own well-being at risk but the well-being of others, most notably Rainbow's friends in "Wonderbolt Academy" and Scootaloo in "The Washouts." The last example almost seems like she intended to put Scootaloo in peril just to spite Rainbow.
    • As seen in "Rarity Investigates," Wind Rider, a retired Wonderbolt (and Frame-Up artist, according to Word of God), goes to great lengths to preserve his flight record. He seems positively unconcerned that Rainbow Dash considered him her primary idol and thus the main reason she wanted to be in the Bolts.
    • As evidenced by her background appearances through the eighth season, the two-part "School Raze" cements Cozy Glow's status as a master manipulator, using her innocent appearance and voice to deceive others into befriending her exclusively for her ends. In this case, she believes not in Power of Friendship but friendship as power.
  • The Owl House:
    • Amity's mother Odalia is extremely controlling of her children and makes it apparent she cares more about her social status. This becomes most obvious near the end of the series when it's revealed that she is complicit in Belos' plans to enact genocide under the mistaken belief that she would be spared and granted untold riches while also completely failing to grasp why her family would see anything wrong with it. And when Alador all but divorces her for her crime, she brushes it off saying that she'll just have to find "a more competent business partner".
    • Emperor Belos, the absolute ruler of the Boiling Isles, arrived fifty years ago claiming to be able to speak to the Titan serving as the main setting. He claimed that the witches were performing magic incorrectly and established the coven system as a means of controlling the populace. Those wild witches that refused to conform were sentenced to petrification-an irreversible fate. He later has Lilith Clawthorne work for him under the promise that he would heal the curse that she put on Eda, but reveals later on that not only was he not going to cure Eda, but he was going to have her publicly petrified to serve as an example of those who go against him. Season 2 goes even further when he is revealed to be Philip Whittebane, one of the first human visitors to the Boiling Isles: he's able to put up a facade of charm and trustworthiness when it suits him, demonstrated when he lathers Luz and Lilith with compliments (which unnerves the latter due to how familiar the arrangement felt) only so he could use them as sacrifices for his betterment. He had done this dozens of times to have an entire mound of damaged palismen.
  • The Powerpuff Girls:
    • Princess Morbucks is one of the characters on the show who best fits the criteria for antisocial personality disorder, even more so than Mojo Jojo. She is frequently shown to be incapable of displaying any kind of empathy, integrity, or conscience; possesses unbridled selfishness, inordinate self-worth, commits crimes to satisfy her greed and selfishness, enjoys hurting the titular Powerpuff Girls whenever she can, and is incredibly manipulative, haughty, and loses her temper when things don't go her way (poor self-control). What makes Morbucks exceptionally sociopathic is that, unlike the vast majority of the show's recurring villains, she doesn't have a tragic background or a Freudian Excuse for her actions, she just does what she does out of greed and fun.
    • Him. Despite being an evil entity that is possibly Made of Evil, he is cold, calculating, Machiavellian, embodies much more hate and evil than the rest of the recurring villains of the show (even more than Morbucks), is an exceptional manipulator, has enough charm to manipulate girls into mind games, and what's worse, he doesn't have an excuse for his actions. He just does what he does because he enjoys it. And while he does seem to care about the Rowdyruff Boys, he does so in his own twisted way and the emotions he's displayed are very short-lived, which is very common in sociopaths.
    • The one-shot villain Dick Hardly, from the Season 4 episode "Knock it Off". He puts on a very weak facade of superficial charm despite being incredibly unpleasant and petty, possesses high self-perception, lies for personal gain and gratification, deceives and manipulates for personal gains; He's selfish, self-centered, and not empathetic. He's also a womanizer, which is quite typical for sociopaths/psychopaths to opt for casual and trivial relationships. Not to mention the utter cruelty he shows towards his clones. His sociopathic personality is undoubtedly enhanced at the end of the episode, where he attempts to murder the Powerpuff Girls in front of Professor Utonium while promising to enslave him for the rest of his life.
    • Subverted with Mojo Jojo. Like most sociopaths, he's a narcissistic and charismatic megalomaniac, is incredibly aggressive and violent when things don't go his way, considers himself to be evil, is fully aware of his wickedness and what he is, and will take a long time as he can to destroy any obstacle that gets in his way. And has no problem committing murder if necessary. He's also an exceptional manipulator when he sets his mind to it. That said, before his transformation he was a regular animal, as Mojo gained sociopathic traits thanks to being exposed to the Chemical X and his tragic background, which is seen in more detail in The Movie, and on more than one occasion he has shown redeemable traits. In many ways, Mojo is an interesting case of someone who acquired sociopathic/psychopathic traits thanks to his experiences, without possibly being so.
  • Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon": Although Ren wouldn't qualify as such in the first show due to his moments of emotional vulnerability, Adult Party Cartoon highlights certain sociopathic traits in him. He frequently verbally and emotionally abuses Stimpy, even more so than in the previous show, and seems to enjoy doing as much harm as he can. He is also incredibly self-centered, sadistic, and sexually promiscuous, very common traits seen in sociopaths.
  • Samurai Jack:
    • Despite being a demon that is literally made of pure evil, Aku has the classic traits of a psychopath. He is exceptionally adept at putting on a good facade of trust; He is entertaining, bombastic, and funny (superficial charm), he possesses an inordinate attitude of superiority and grandeur, destroys cities and commits crimes to satisfy his sadism and tendency to boredom, is a pathological liar who frequently deceives and manipulates for personal gain or even For the Evulz; He's incredibly aggressive with things related to his ego, and perhaps most importantly: he possesses an incredibly high criminal versatility, with atrocities that could take up more than one sheet, which is quite common in sociopaths/psychopaths.
    • The High Priestess from Season 5 subjects her seven daughters to intense Training from Hell and sees them only as pawns in her plan of killing Jack. Even Aku himself is shocked to learn that she drank his essence of her own volition.
    • The Dominator decimates a village and robs it of its children so he could painfully brainwash them into subservience. When Jack and Ashi come to intervene, he tries to slowly electrocute Ashi to death.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Mayor Jones. Initially, it just seems like a case of Comedic Sociopathy not too uncommon in modern-day cartoons, but it becomes more evident as the season goes on that he's not the Jerk with a Heart of Gold/Tsundere that Fred believes him to be deep inside, as well as the fact that he may know more than he lets on about the show's Myth Arc and is more ambitious than we think. By the end of the first season, it turns out that he's a Manipulative Bastard. It later turns out that he wasn't always this way, largely due to the Curse of Crystal Cove, as suggested in flashbacks, seen by his mental good side, and version of him in the fixed timeline show.
  • The Simpsons: Sideshow Bob. He meets all the criteria of a sociopath. He is ruthless, manipulative, intelligent, sadistic, and deeply obsessed with killing a 10-year-old boy.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Dr. Julian Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) staged a coup against the king of Mobotropolis and took over. He roboticizes several of the Mobians against their will; spends every waking hour trying to kill Sonic the Hedgehog and the Freedom Fighters; abuses his henchmen and his nephew Snively; and in the finale, tries to wipe Mobius of all life.
    • Dr. Robotnik in Sonic Underground is particularly merciless and is willing to imprison, roboticise and kill any and all who oppose him in the slightest, not to mention he has banned music as an additional measure to suppress freedom. He has successfully enslaved the planet.
  • South Park:
    • Eric Cartman is a perfect example of a sociopath with particularly poor impulse control. First of all, he displays a Lack of Empathy for any living person, nor has he ever shown any feelings of guilt for anything. His list of crimes is vast, but he has committed them frequently just to alleviate boredom or for an immature personal gain. When he thought he was dead and a ghost, he endeavored to atone for his sins, but only did so to stop being a ghost — he didn't consider he might otherwise go to Hell. He showed no sympathy for the suffering Butters went through for helping him, and once he realized he hadn't been a ghost, he considered all these acts of atonement a waste of time. Cartman has one exception to his otherwise total lack of empathy; he doesn't like it when somebody hurts his mother. Regardless, Cartman manipulates and bullies her mercilessly himself, so he effectively thinks of her as a possession of his, rather than somebody with feelings.
    • Mr. Garrison could rival Cartman in terms of this. He has no sense of respect for others' well-being, has murdered and raped people, and nuked Canada while being President all without feeling any shred of remorse for his atrocities.
    • Saddam Hussein, from the earlier seasons, was also this. He's a charismatic manipulator who manipulates Satan, God, and an entire country into doing whatever he wants, is an emotionally abusive boyfriend to Satan, murders innocent people, and taking kids away for their adopted families, all while expressing no remorse for these crimes.
    • Mickey Mouse. While he is capable of pulling off the act of being a charming family-friendly guy, he actually cares little for anyone, including his own employees, and only views people as a way to make money.
    • The Big Bad of Season 19 Leslie Meyers could be seen as a high functioning example. She is capable of faking numerous emotions to manipulate people and is superficially charming, but she's actually very unfeeling and devoid of any real emotions. She also isn't afraid to get violent, as shown when she remorselessly beats up handicapped kid Jimmy Valmer, and shows no concerns that her scheming could possibly lead everyone in South Park to become homeless as her race of sentient ads takes over their town.
    • Lennart Bedrager, one of the Big Bads of Season 20, could qualify as a sociopath. He attempts to intentionally cause World War III for no other reason than his own amusement.
    • Heather Swanson. He falsely labels himself as transgender to participate in the women's sport solely to beat them, and labels anyone who calls him out a transphobe to gain public sympathy.
  • Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
    • Despite heavy censorship, the show still managed to make their version of Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage, into a bonafide psychopath, portraying him as a Laughing Mad Bomber, who cackles with glee at the possibility of vaporising a city block — himself included — in his first appearance. He shows no remorse for his actions, and after becoming Carnage is downright eager to get back in action and start stealing souls for Dormammu (an Omnicidal Maniac who will consume the souls of everyone in the world if he is unleashed). He displays no regard for human life (least of all his own) and goes out of his way to injure anyone who tries to help him, including his psychiatrist, Ashley Kafka.
    • Herbert Landon is the second biggest example of the series behind Carnage. He's a remorseless and genocidal Mad Scientist whose first appearance on the show had him attempt to wipe out all mutants. When that failed, he became the Kingpin's henchman and willingly engaged in such atrocious actions as turning Alistair Smythe into a Cyborg and performing experiments on Felicia Hardy. He even seems worse than his boss in a certain regard, as he questioned why the Kingpin would help Spider-Man even in an apocalyptic scenario.
    • Jason Macendale, aka the Hobgoblin, is a money-obsessed psycho who sees everyone else as disposable pawns. Hammered in when Felicia asks if he ever really loved her; Jason is genuinely unsure and replies that he loves superficial things about her, such as her wealth and beauty.
  • Sponge Bob Squarepants:
    • Sheldon Plankton is shown to have enough superficial charm to influence others to achieve his goals (such as SpongeBob himself and his own family in "Plankton's Army"), is megalomaniac, self-centered, possesses an attitude of superiority and grandiosity, constantly lies and manipulates to achieve his goals, lacks remorse or guilt, tends to victimize himself or show false emotions to get away with it, is prone to violence when he loses his temper, has unpremeditated, thoughtless behavior, never learns from his mistakes, and has a large criminal record: conspiracy, theft, sabotage, identity theft, fraud, espionage, embezzlement, bribery, and even attempted murder. His sociopathic traits are even more enhanced in the first film, where he carries out an elaborate scheme to steal the krabby patty formula, turns Bikini Bottom into a fascist dystopia, and even attempts to murder Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob and Patrick. In the show; however, Plankton is a highly functional example, as there have been instances where he has been pragmatic.
    • Mr. Krabs is another example. He puts money above everything else (including his own daughter), manipulates others (including his own employees) to get his way, disregards the well-being of others, has poor impulse control, is prone to psychotic outbursts, does not learn from his mistakes, and even has a sadistic streak.
  • Squidbillies:
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks has (former) Ensign Peanut Hamper, an Exocomp who in her first appearance was more a Jerkass and Dirty Coward than anything else, choosing to abandon her post rather than accept a (admittedly very dangerous) mission for which she was ideally suited to save the Cerritos. Only in her second appearance did it become apparent that she is a full-blown sociopath. She is a remarkably realistic portrayal, despite being a robot, especially in her inability to foresee the consequences of her lies and manipulations. She ends up outing herself, which lands her in the Daystrom Institute's Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage facility.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil has Toffee who exhibits artificial charm with a knack for casual manipulation as evidenced by him tricking Ludo into hiring him. He is highly intelligent in his planning. When he gets Star to destroy her wand, Toffee expresses no concern for his fellow monsters who would get caught in the explosion, and he had no remorse for any of his actions. According to the creator, Toffee was more akin to Magneto in his goals for monster supremacy, which we see in some flashbacks, but that vanished over the years as revenge and hatred consumed him.

     T-Z 
  • Slade from Teen Titans (2003) may be one of the most realistic examples in a children's show, and a lot if his behaviour is a clear allusion to a child predator. He's a ruthlessly cold-blooded Manipulative Bastard to extremes, taking an obsessive interest in tormenting all the heroes (especially Robin). The first season has Slade forcing Robin to become his "apprentice" and partner-in-crime, in hopes of making the boy just as sick and twisted as he is, and threatening to murder all of his friends if he refuses. He later tries to do something similar with Terra in the next season, exploiting her emotional insecurities to trick her into becoming his new apprentice, and is (somewhat) more successful at turning her evil.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): The Utrom Shredder is one of the most depraived adaptaions of Shredder ever seen. He is an arrogant, remorseless, vengeful, cold and ruthless Utrom who will do anything to destroy his enemies: orchestrating wars across the galaxy, mutilating and experimenting on subjects and followers, and even willing to destroy all of reality in the multiverse to finally rid himself of his hated enemies.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): The Shredder, hands down. He's completely arrogant, remorseless, vengeful, cold, and ruthless, and there's virtually nothing he won't do and no low he won't stoop to to destroy his enemies, especially Splinter, up to and including supporting the Kraang's invasion of Earth and allowing the Triceratons to destroy the planet outright. He openly admits he doesn't give a damn about the human race, and is utterly incapable of taking responsibility for anything he does, bending over backwards to use Splinter as The Scapegoat for just about everything that goes wrong with his life or the chaos he himself causes.
  • Total Drama:
    • Mike's Split Personality Mal who shows no remorse whatsoever over leaving Cameron to die or trying to hit Zoey over a cliff, and is evil just for the fun of it.
    • Scarlett is also one who would have killed the entire cast without a second's hesitations if she hadn't been stopped.
    • Scary Girl is a low-functioning sociopath. She has a cheerful and bright facade, which hides a truly sadistic and deranged personality, enjoys hurting others, has no impulse control, and an astounding Lack of Empathy for the fellow campers' well-being.
    • The biggest sociopath of the entire show would have to be its host, Chris McLean. He regularly and blatantly puts the cast in danger, often with a huge smile on his face; seems to be more concerned about ratings, popularity, and his life of luxury than the safety of the contestants; and even betrays his best friend Chef whenever it amuses him to do so, or whenever he's bored.
    Chris: "After my involuntary year-long "vacation", I really need to be in a familiar environment, surrounded by the people I love... to hurt."
  • The Transformers: In almost all series, Megatron/Galvatron is sociopathic. He is utterly callous to everyone and everything, throwing it aside the second it stops being beneficial and caring only about improving his position. He crosses the Moral Event Horizon casually, his only consideration being how it will affect him and his long-term plans. However other examples include:
    • Starscream, whenever he shows up. He ticks all the standard boxes and is also a Dirty Coward, a traitor, and a Narcissist. Significantly though, he cannot grasp why he is not as respected as Megatron, believing that it should be enough simply to be in command, rather than Megatron's many accomplishments in both battle and (to a lesser extent) politics.
    • Beast Wars: Tarantulas. Add to him a nasty sadistic streak bordering on fetishistic and a love of toying with people.
    • Transformers: Prime gives us the Ax-Crazy Airachnid. She is an Egomaniac Hunter who enjoys killing endangered species for fun. Or making them endangered.
  • Jonas Venture, Sr. from The Venture Bros. fits this trope like a glove. Beneath the charming adventurer-scientist persona he is very callous and self-centered, having no problem with dragging his son along on dangerous escapades, blackmailing one of his teammates with a sex tape, rebuilding said teammate as a cyborg then throwing them away when they can't handle it, and getting a bunch of children hooked on hallucinogenic drugs.
  • Wander over Yonder: Lord Dominator. Despite being a dorky teenager, it's clear she is completely heartless, and utterly ruthless about conquest. If her minions fail in their duties, she has no problem throwing them into space and letting them burn up in the atmosphere like someone disposing of an old appliance. And then there are her motivations, revealed near the end of the second season: she doesn't want to rule the galaxy, but rather destroy it, for her own personal entertainment, as she finds suffering and destruction fun. As soon as she's finished with one galaxy and can no longer derive the stimulation she craves, she moves on to the next. She doesn't understand concepts like friendship, sacrifice, and morality, totally rejecting Wander's offer of redemption in the series finale, and is left to live out the rest of her days depowered and alone.
  • Miss Power from WordGirl counts. She manipulates the entire town into bullying each other, she teaches WordGirl to mock the other villains, she throws Mrs. Botsford into jail for a disagreement they had, she severely beats up WordGirl, and she tries to kill Dr. Two-Brains. This was all her plan to Take Over the World. Also, she's one of the few villains in the show that do not have any redeeming qualities.
  • Most of the bad guys in X-Men: Evolution have shades of this. The Brotherhood is primarily filled with narcissistic and amoral mutants who, despite often being said to be more 'sympathetic' than normal, they're anything but when you take a good look at it. Pietro was self-caring and allowed a train of bystanders be derailed and let it crash into one filled with fuel. Blob kidnapped Jean and showed incredibly creepy, rapist vibes, as well as other violent behavior. Avalanche was aggressive and violent, and while he looked rather sympathetic in the second season, a number of things made it look like he was faking the nice guy persona he had during that season. Of the Acolytes, Pyro and Sabretooth are the closest we get to textbook Sociopaths in a show for kids; the two attempted murder, enjoyed their work, and are the definition of why mutants may be a risk. Averted with Colossus and Gambit; the former a good guy forced to work for bad people, the latter a Card Carrying Villain with some redeeming qualities.


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