Does Not Illustrate: Dark Lord On Life Support

I thought the God-Emperor from Warhammer40000 was one of the few examples of Black-and-White Morality in the Black-and-Gray Morality setting. Man in the Machine, yes, but how does he qualify as a Big Bad or Evil Overlord?

Here's one of Darth Vader◊ without the upper part of his helmet, as a possible replacement.

edited 6th Mar '13 8:12:11 PM by justanid

Precise context is utterly irrelevant.

He looks like a Big Bag (since he's a freaking black skeleton), he's clearly on life-support... I think it illustrates the trope quite well.

He looks more like a decrepit old man than a black skeleton.

The Emperor wasn't exactly the nicest guy out there. He would easily qualify for Dark Lord status in any other setting.

Good Is Not Nice, he's listed as an example on Big Good & Crystal Dragon Jesus, and his character page seems to point towards Well-Intentioned Extremist. I feel as if I'm missing something.

edited 6th Mar '13 11:32:44 PM by justanid

The point is he doesn't VISUALLY look evil.

Vader doesn't look like he's needing the support as obviously as the current. And without his mask he's much less iconic, and just looks like a guy in a black space suit. It relies entirely on recognising him as Vader.

Both have flaws, but I think the current illustrates more parts of the trope better.

Vader looks more like a generic Cyborg to me. Current with all the supply pipes is more like Life Support.

Good example, but that's always been one of my least favorite renditions of the God-Emperor. I've always thought this◊ and this◊ were better, both depiction-wise and art-wise.

Better art for sure, but he looks very very dead in the first. (Might be just me, but biology 101 tells me if your head is nothing but a skull odds are you are deader than disco).

Second I am meh on. He still looks like there's not much life to support, but its better.

edited 7th Mar '13 4:19:09 AM by Ghilz

That's more accurate that the current. His body, in 40K canon, is basically a withered corpse that has only the barest traces of life left in it, just enough to anchor his psyche. The flavor text at the start of every Imperium-centered novel actually describes him as a "rotting carcass".

Also, I get "dark lord" off those pics much more clearly than the current, due to the throne, sword, and other accoutrements.

edited 7th Mar '13 5:54:09 AM by Willbyr

Vote for 9.2.

My only objection being that the Emperor isn't a dark lord or a villain unless you're looking at it From a Certain Point of View.

Just for fun, how about Hitler?

The problem is you need to know 40k to know that. He looks very dead in both images. Combined with him not really being a Dark Lord in the traditional sense, it's a bad picture.

I like that.

edited 7th Mar '13 6:38:28 AM by CobraPrime

Hmmmm...that's not bad.

With all the scrubbing of Real Life examples from villain tropes, I kind of don't want that image.

It's not a rl example, that's a media example that does play the trope straight, only using a historical figure.

I know that didn't actually happen. I just think it goes contrary to our Real Life villains policy, since it still depicts someone people recognise as a Real Life person. But that's also why I said "kind of". Had it been a straight Real Life image, I'd have completely rejected it.

Had it been an actual real life image I'd have been absolutely terrified.

I still think the original is fine. He looks suitably sinister to me. Like I said, he looks like a black skeleton, which... look villainous.

Whether or not he's an actual example is utterly irrelevant, but I guess I'm in the minority for thinking he looks evil.

edited 7th Mar '13 8:07:01 AM by Larkmarn

... The OP's pic is Darth Vader...

Er, the original picture. Sorry, my bad.

And not being an example is not irrelevant. Just like an image should work without you having seen the work, knowing the work should not cause the image to not make sense and be confusing.

I still think he looks like a decrepit, diseased old man, rather than a bLack skeleton.

My first thought when I saw the trope name was this image.◊ May not be as good as the other images, but I just thought I'd throw it up here.

While not being an example isn't an automatic removal, it is nice if the image can be an actual example. So no harm in looking around for another image.

I really like that one.