Subpages cleanup: Complete Monster

Overall...I don't think Dan is heinous enough by standards here. While he's nasty, his fellow subordinates include people with enormous succeeded and attempted body counts. Dan doesn't quite have the bloodshed to match with them.

Read the FAQ through, and would like to suggest it cover Dead Fic, Cut Short, and Take Our Word for It.

Have to agree with Lighty here. Dan is a PRICK, but overall, he's just not heinous enough compared to other low level villains like himself.

Also, quick update, but one of my reserved comics on the Discussion Dates page, E.V.I.L. Heroes, has finished its run. Anyone who wants details for the potential discussion in two weeks is free to PM me.

Also, coolio, I've been mentioned in an official capacity by a mod. I feel cool now.

edited 23rd Mar '17 3:41:04 PM by Ravok

Cover them how?

So the season finale of Legion (2017) airs next Wednesday. We may have a candidate. Is anyone prepared to write an effortpost for discussion on April 12th?

(Not volunteering myself.)

EDIT: Never mind, saw the schedule. Looks like that's new.

edited 23rd Mar '17 5:03:25 PM by speyeker

Yup, I'm handling discussion. If you wanna discuss it or some such, we can PM.

Nah, that's OK, I just wanted to make sure it was taken care of. I'll participate in the discussion here. :)

I now know about that schedule linked to in the topic's description, so I won't ask about this stuff again (unless I don't see something there that should be there). :P

edited 23rd Mar '17 5:13:24 PM by speyeker

Dan due to a lack of heinousness for Jo Jo mooks. However, I's definitely vote him up if he didn't have them to compete with.

So recently I've been thinking about re-writing Donald Rumsfeld's entry for the Alternate History story Fear, Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail '72. The current write-up is thus:

• President Donald Rumsfeld is a dictator who doesn't care about his own people's well-being. Since taking office, Rumsfeld has destroyed all forms of "welfare" and any regulations on business, causing the poor immense suffering and the workers extreme hardship—and borderline enslavement—along with wanton destruction of the environment. He imprisons or murders critics of his regime on a regular basis, used massive voter fraud and other illegal actions to win the 1984 election, and directly supports the regime of the aforementioned Magnus Malan, along with other right-wing regimes like Israel and Chile, with military and economic assistance. Rumsfeld supports terrorism in Northern Ireland simply because the UK voted for a Labour government. Rumsfeld later crossed the Moral Event Horizon when "Liberty Legion" officers were ordered to kill soldiers wounded on the battlefield in order to save the costs of caring for them. He's also trying to weaponize AIDS and exploited the aforementioned flu outbreak to spread anti-Chinese racism and get more votes in the election. Finally, he also invaded Cuba in order to distract Americans from their domestic problems, rather than to remove a dictator or help the Cuban people.

The proposed re-write:

• President Donald Rumsfeld is a dictator who turns American society into a dystopian nightmare. Since taking office, Rumsfeld has turned the American economy into an oppressive kleptocracy, causing Many Americans to be held in slave-like conditions and causing wanton destruction to the environment. He subverts the vast majority of American's rights, rigging the 1984 election in his favor, imprisoning people on trumped up charges, institutionalizing them for having "nervous breakdowns", and on occasions outright murders them for speaking out against his regime. Rumsfeld creates the SS style "Liberty Battalions" to assault and brutalize protestors of the regime. Rumsfeld also actively courts racism, removing civil rights legislation in order to suppress minority voters and spreads anti-Chinese racism in the wake of an influenza pandemic as part of a fear mongering campaign. In foreign policy matters, Rumsfeld directly supports the regime of the aforementioned Magnus Malan, along with other right-wing regimes like Israel and Chile, with military and economic assistance. Rumsfeld supports terrorism in Northern Ireland simply because the UK voted for a Labour government, and actively works to cause chaos in other parts of the globe as part of a twisted vision of creating an "American Century" at the expense of all other nations. Rumsfeld also started a war in Cuba out of a cynical attempt to distract the American people from their domestic concerns, during which he committed a gratuitous amount of war crimes. These crimes include allowing Liberty Battalions to torture, murder, and rape Cuban civilians at their leisure, ordered soldiers to execute Cuban prisoners to avoid the associated costs in handling them, and treating the soldiers under his command as expendable, going so far as to have wounded soldiers murdered as a cost cutting measure. A cruel and petty tyrant, Rumsfeld earns the nickname of "America's Lesser Mao".

Thoughts?

EDIT: That is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Is it too much?

edited 23rd Mar '17 7:46:39 PM by ThePest179

Several candidates from that... thing have come through here. I'd never heard of it before but it sounds overly grimdark and stupid.

Oh I can assure you that it is. It's hard to take seriously at times.

I have a candidate: Alfredo Grossi from The Stendhal Syndrome.

Who is he and what does he do?

Alfredo is a Serial Rapist, and the Disc-One Final Boss of the film. The movie starts with the protagonist, a policewoman with Stendhal Syndrome named Anna Manni, visiting a museum before being called to the scene of one of his victims. The woman has been raped and killed. We hear that he has raped 15 women, killing the last two. Despite knowing his identity, the police haven't been able to find him yet. Alfredo turns out t have met Anna at the museum earlier, and he follows her to her apartment and rapes her. Alfredo knocks Anna out and takes her to his car where he rapes and kills another woman. Anna manages to escape, but by the time she returns with other officers, Alfredo has left. Alfredo rapes and kills an eighteenth woman, before finding out where Anna has moved to. Alfredo let her escape him so that he could recapture and rape her again at a later date. Anna's boss leaves two officers to guard her apartment when they realize he will try to recapture her and knows where she is, thinking this could give them the opportunity t set a trap for him. However, Alfredo somehow manages to murder the two cops in their squad car, and breaks into her apartment. Alfredo takes her to his hideout, where he rapes her again. After he leaves, she works on freeing herself, succeeding as he returns. The two fight, and Anna gets her gun. Alfredo tells her to read him his rights, but she just shoots and kills him, dumping his body in the river. Anna is not charged with shooting him and dumping him in the river (probably because he was such a bastard that they decided to let her get away with it), and the cops just search the river for him to see if he's truly dead. While the search goes on, Anna meets and soon falls in love with Marie, a young French art student. Soon, it is discovered that Alfred is indeed dead, but Anna was so traumatized by the two rapes she experienced that they, combined with her Stendhal Syndrome, drove her insane. As a result, she developed a Split Personality that manifested itself as Alfredo telling her to kill people. This results in Anna murdering Marie, her psychologist, and her ex boyfriend, fellow officer, and friend Marco. The police arrive on the scene and ultimately arrest her after she wanders the streets.

Heinousness?

Alfredo rapes 18 women, killing 4 of them. Anna was raped on two different occasions. He also murders two police offices.

Anna murders four people, but the first (Alfredo) was... well, yeah. It's telling that, while they don't know at first if he really died, the police don't even bother charging Anna with anything at all after she shot him and dumped him in the river instead of arresting him when he asked to be read his rights. The other three were done when she was completely insane, and she shows remorse for it. It's his fault she ended up like that, and while I know that was unintentional on his part, he did know about her Stendhal Syndrome, so he knew that she wasn't completely sane to begin with. Obviously he didn't expect her to become a killer, but he should have known that she was going to have lost a great degree of sanity after two rapes, assuming he didn't plan on killing her after the second one.

Redeeming features?

Well, he didn't start killing his rape victims until #14. I don't think letting the first thirteen live is really a redeeming quality though, especially since he still raped them.

edited 23rd Mar '17 6:25:46 PM by bobg

to Alfredo Grossi.

Are the first fifteen rapes off stage villainy?

edited 23rd Mar '17 6:35:00 PM by MGD107

We don't see the first 14, but there is enough to establish a pattern. We see the corpse of the 15th woman and are told he raped her before he killed her. We see him rape Anna twice, and we see him rape and kill two more girls onscreen. We also see the corpses of the two cops he killed. Not that it matters, the murders of the two cops, the two rapes done to Anna, and the rapes AND murders of the three other women would be enough anyway.

edited 23rd Mar '17 6:41:13 PM by bobg

Oh I agree he counts. I was just curious.

Alfredo. Dan, doesn't quite pass the Jojo heinous standard even if he is pretty nasty.

I was thinking of proposing him myself but hadn't finished the film. It's not an easy watch, I can assure you. He also has this creepy thing where he makes himself out to be this romantic pursuer, but it's more horrifying than mitigating and just makes him a sick man playing a game to keep and torment our protagonist forever.

Alfredo, a sickening creep.

to Alfredo Grossi.

I also have someone I want to make a re-write for someone. Serrator A candidate that I proposed long ago and got approve.

Here's what the write up looks now:

• Serrator is first introduced as an Nighlok unknown to many, even Master Xandred himself, but soon gets Xandred’s attention by wiping out his army of Moogers, and then Serrator promises to help Xandred with his goal of flooding the Earth with the Sanzu River. Serrator then gives the Rangers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown every time they meet, and forces people on an island to fight each other. When Xandred's Co-Dragons, Octoroo and Dayu, grew suspicious of Serrator, he tries to kill them and in the process revealed he only feigned loyalty to Xandred to steal Dayu's Harmonium and use it for his own plans. A furious Dayu ^note earlier Serrator promised to give back her Harmonium once he is done fixing it attacks Serrator only for him to reveal that he was the one who caused all of pain and agony she and her lover, Deker, had to suffer throughout their eternal lives 200 year ago when their house caught on fire. Serrator appeared before Dayu and, seeing how badly the fire affected Deker makes a deal with Dayu to save Deker's life, but at the cost Dayu loosing her humanity and spending an eternity in the Netherworld. Dayu accepted, but when Serrator revived Deker, he took away his memories and turned him into human/Nighlok hybrid forced to walk the earth for all of eternity, while Dayu must be forced to remembered the deal she made that would forever ruined their lives. Serrator shows no remorse, enjoying in the fact that it cause Dayu so much suffering, and may have been the one who started the fire in the first place. Eventually, everyone, heroes and villains alike, learned that all of his attacks were in a pattern that would cause the Earth to crack causing the Netherworld to flood the Earth. His goal was to rule both worlds, not caring about the billions of lives in both worlds lost in the process.

Here is What I am proposing.

• Serrator serves as a Mysterious Nighlok whose presence shifts the series into a much darker tone. Introducing himself by giving the Rangers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and wiping out an army of Moogers sent by the aforementioned Master Xandred, he offer his services for the latter acting as his Dragon-in-Chief and organizing several unsavory schemes; One of scheme include forcing people on an island to fight each other to the death. When Xandred's Co-Dragons, Octoroo and Dayu, grew wary of his loyalty to Xandred, he reveals to have only served Xandred because his plan to flood the Earth with the Sanzu River, just happened to had been aligned with his own plan while admitting to betraying him once he has outlived his usefulness. Serrator also admits to Dayu to have cursed her and Deker 200 year ago when their house caught on fire. In that time Serrator made a deal with Dayu to save Deker's life, but then tricks her by taking away his memories and turning him into human/Nighlok hybrid forced to walk the earth for all of eternity while taking away her humanity and forcing her to remember what he had done for all eternity, something that Serrator still takes great joy from even now, along with the implication of having started the fire in the first place. Eventually, he would reveal to all of his plan to cause the Earth to crack and the Netherworld to flood it, serving as an attempt to take over both worlds, completely uncaring about the of lives lost in the process, human and Nighlok alike. Only loyal to himself, Serrator serves as amongst the most dangerous adversary that both heroes and villains had ever faced.

How does it look?

edited 23rd Mar '17 7:20:28 PM by G-Editor

Yeah, it's the heinous standard issue. Jo Jo is no lighthearted anime, you have to be bad with a capital B.A.D. to count, and Dan doesn't cut it.

To add context to my downvote: JoJo has a high heinous standard and even as a smaller villain, Dan still has to compete with the likes of J. Geil, a serial rapist of young girls and child killer; as well as Angelo, who has a history of violent crime including genital mutilation and spree killings. In the face of similarly-levelled villains, Dan just doesn't stand out to me.

Alfredo

Pest: Draft page please. It's 300 words, so it's fine.

Alfredo. Would this be the first CM from a work by Dario Argento?

No. He also did The Card Player.

Time to bring up the candidate from The Vampire Diaries eighth and final season. Just in time for the new and possibly final season of The Originals. This season features a new candidate as the primary Big Bad and two returning antagonists as part of the Big Bad Ensemble in the last few episodes.

To explain what's going on this season, I'm gonna have to explain the synopsis previous seasons second half.

Some context

Season seven had a time skip over its story; the initial season (which featured Julian as the Big Bad) followed months after season six, but half way through, there was a three year Time Jump (in which Rayna Cruz and an organization called the Armory, run by the St. John family function as sometimes antagonists sometimes allies).

In this Time Jump, Damon has put himself to sleep; Bonnie has been briefly institutionalized and developed a romantic relationship with Enzo; Caroline, who in the first half found herself pregnant with Alaric and Jo's twins (long story), is now helping Alaric raise the now three year old Lizzie and Josie. Enzo finds himself working with the Armory when he discovers he's related to the St. John family. Elena is still in her supernaturally induced coma. Stefan has rekindled his relationship with Valerie and they have been traveling together before Stefan has to confront his feelings for Caroline. While Rayna Cruz has been a thorn in everyone's side, there is a Greater-Scope Villain introduced in the last few episodes in Sybil.

Late in season seven, the Armory's leader Alex St. John seeks to open a vault that goes deep underground, because years ago, her sister Yvette was trapped within the vault and she believes Yvette to be alive as she hears her voice in the vault. Using Bonnie's magic, they are able to open the vault only to find Yvette's unrecognizable corpse. Because Bonnie made another promise to the other St. John sister Virginia, to make sure whatever is in the vault never gets out, Bonnie magically locks the Armory building while Alex and her men are slaughtered by the monster that was in there with them.

When it's discovered that since Bonnie been taking magic suppressing pills, it's also discovered she will die if she stops taking them. Damon and Enzo work together to help Rayna Cruz hunt down the vampires who escaped from Hell, and even make a deal with the Armory for help. Damon, Enzo, Stefan, Matt, Alaric and some of the Armory's men are able to finish the list. Rayna holds her end of the bargain and transfers her everlasting life essence to Bonnie, dying in the process. Unfortunately this also means she inherited the rest of Rayna's curse, such as amplified aggression and the instinct to kill vampires, especially those she "marks", which even more unfortunately includes her friends. The good news is the means to end the curse and save Bonnie is to destroy the last remains of the eight witches who created the curse. The bad news is that it's in the magically sealed Armory building with a then unknown monster on the loose. Caroline and Alaric use Lizzie and Josie (who inherited uncle Kai's magic siphoning abilities) to remove the magic blocking the Armory, and the Salvatore brothers go inside. Damon destroys the body of the last everlasting freeing Bonnie from the curse. The season seemingly ends on a pretty positive note with Damon and Bonnie rekindling their friendship, Stefan getting back together with Caroline (while Caroline will still help Alaric parent Josie and Lizzie).

Of course things quickly go south when Damon is lured into the vault thinking he heard Elena's voice in it. Enzo, having previously been told of the monster in the vault goes to rescue Damon. In the vault Enzo see's Damon behaving strangely. Damon says "It only hurts for a second" before a pair of decayed hands reach out from behind Enzo and grab his head. The seasonal cliffhanger to bridge season eight is the characters vowing they will save the enslaved Damon and Enzo from their new master Sybil, making it clear that what Damon and Enzo do under her influence falls to Sybil herself.

Now, Sybil herself was originally on my to do list but despite being a peice of work herself, she was disqualified early in season eight. That said, in the first episode of season eight, it is established that Sybil (and her later introduced surrogate sister Seline) are sirens, which in this lore are combined with the succubus. It's also established they are connected to Hell and serve a certain someone. Now let's talk their master...

Who is he ?

The devil only in title. He's not a Fallen Angel. He's not a demon. His name isn't even referred to as Satan or Lucifer, or any other name attributes we to him. His name is Arcadicus or Cade as those who knew him called him. He's the Big Bad for the bulk of the season and franchise wide Greater-Scope Villain.

Cade was the first known psychic from three thousand years ago and thus predates the Mikaelson's by two thousand, and Silas by one thousand. He was a man who was well respected and loved by his people, and was considered a wise spiritual guide, using his psychic powers to emphasize with the people around him, until one day he over stepped his bounds (I'll explain in his Freudian Excuse section) and was executed by those looked up to him. He was bound, stoned and burned alive. In his last moments he saw something in people he never had before; evil, and with it he sought retribution. With his dying scream he set loose a psychic blast so powerful that it created a spiritual dimension for him to rule over and feed on the souls that become imprisoned in his domain. According to Cade himself, this is when his true self emerged.

This dimension would go on to be called Hell. This ain't the personal Hells that Rayna's dagger places people, nor is it the prison worlds created by witches. This Hell is supposed to be the real deal.

What does he do ?

In addition to the aforementioned creation of Hell in the name of revenge, Cade supposedly got revenge on those who wronged him - his entire village - but they where not enough. Some time later, it's explained that psychics where forbidden and any children who had psychic abilities where taken from their families and exiled to an island. When Sybil was a girl, such a fate befalled her, but she was not alone on the island. She befriended another girl, Seline, who became a surrogate sister to her. In their early days, Seline encouraged Sybil to use her powers to lure ships to the island, only to result in the ships crashing and whatever goods they had to be spoiled. Seline would tell Sybil that she'd hunt wild boar to provide meat, but eventually Sybil finds a cave where she discovered the real reason why Seline was luring sailors; cannibalism. Disgusted, Sybil throws herself off a cliff and was barely alive when she hit the ground. Seline finds her and begs God to save her sister...only it wasn't God who appeared to them. Cade reveals himself to Seline and says he can save Sybil and provide immortality, eternal youth and beauty. The catch ? They would become Siren's, and devour the flesh of their victims and collect the souls of the souls of the damned for him. And so begins the story of the Sirens...

Now if you remember when I brought up Markos from season five, there was an afterlife dimension called The Other Side, a purgatory like existence reserved solely for supernatural creatures (werewolves, vampires, witches, supernaturally empowered humans, etc). When Markos and his followers slowly destroyed the Other side, it's denizens where hurled into a dark void of oblivion. Save for those who where lucky enough to escape back to life (the main cast who ended up dying to stop the Travelers, and some friends they pick up) and those who had to earn a spot in Heaven (Bonnie's grandmother, and Stefan's friend Lexi) and the two who ended up in Kai Parker's prison (Damon and Bonnie). Those who where unlucky however included Katherine Pierce and Silas (who were previous villains), Matt's sister Vicki and countless other souls. Back then it was believed to be a simple result of an afterlife being destroyed, but with Cade's later introduction provides an explanation for this then unknown phenomena; Cade was on a reaping spree.

Fast forward to season eight and we see the fruits of his servants labour; Damon and Enzo have been enslaved by Sybil and are bringing her people to be devoured. They have killed and sacrificed eighty seven people across the west coast and all those souls go to Cade. BTW it turns out cheating on ones lover is bad enough to warrant being sacrificed. Enzo has plenty of resistance against Sybil's influence but is still ultimately Sybil's puppet before Sybil has Enzo turn off his humanity. Damon has it worse; Sybil repeatedly Mind Rapes Damon at the slightest resistance, replaces Elena and Bonnie in Damon's memories, and seeks to destroy all of Damon's emotional connections by forcing him to try to kill his friends and loved ones. Not only that but it turns out Sybil forced Damon into the Despair Event Horizon by giving him a glimpse of Hell and convinced him that no matter what he does to atone, his soul will never be saved and is destined for Hell. The closest chance he has is to pledge himself to Cade. Sybil says the best shot Stefan has to save his brother is to go to Hell and kill the devil. This "No redemption" thing doesn't just apply to Damon either but Cade's entire philosophy; there's a character Georgie in the first few episodes who accidentally killed someone in a hit and run, was otherwise a good person and was remorseful about it, and when Seline kills her, do you think that saves her ? Nope, her soul is reaped to Cade.

Now Sybil is soon subdued, and Enzo is also taken in and freed from her influence shortly after. Damon however is still on the loose and since he was more severally mind raped, and isn't so lucky. Sybil still controls Damon from her cell in the Armory, using him to find an item and plans to continue to force Damon to severe his emotional ties. It's around this part where you ask "Where is Seline in all of this ?" Well, it's kind of hard to be a parent when you are working on discovering the origins of an ancient being and trying to save two friends from enslavement. To help with that, Alaric hired a nanny to help look after Josie and Lizzie while he and Caroline are working. She's cute, funny, sweet, the girls like her, she seems to like them, oh and she's also Seline. During a day at the fair, Seline helps the girls win a dead goldfish, and gets them to help give it a funeral as an activity. Unbeknownst to the girls, who are unaware they have magic, there are other bodies buried in a secluded spot along with the fish and the activity is part of a summoning ritual for Cade. It doesn't take long for Caroline and Alaric to realize they hired a siren as a nanny, Adult Fear ensues as they rush home and find no sign of the girls or Seline. What they do find is a little kids drawing of the two girls with their names written beside them, Seline with her name written beside her, and a man with the name Cade written beside him.

Also Damon is briefly captured and sedated by Stefan and Caroline until they can find a way to help him and Sybil also escape and frees Damon before fleeing, further drawing out this fucking arc even longer.

The girls abduction is reported to the police and an amber alert is called. Damon and Sybil meet up with Seline and the girls, and it's revealed Seline intends to offer the girls to Cade. She wants Cade to take Josie and Lizzie as their replacements, do the Sirens work in their stead and thus be free of Cade. With the knowledge that there's wiggle room from the devil, Damon tries to think of a plan to get them all freed from Cade and Hell, and it turns out the means to summon him, is with a few corpses and a body of water. They arrive at a run down hotel with a pool and a thuggery hangout. Stefan also gets a message to come to the hotel alone. By the time Stefan arrives, Seline leads the girls in the summoning ritual, the sacrificial murders being done by Sybil to control the hotels guests into trying to kill Stefan to trick him into killing them in self defence. Damon has a plan of his own; he and Stefan take the deal in the girls place, thinking of it as a Get Out of Hell Free Card. In any case, Cade is summoned and the sirens explain the deal to him. Cade is intrigued and playfully asks the girls what they want, offering him his guidance. Stefan enters and says he accepts the deal in the girls place. Stefan's one condition is that he spends his last twenty four hours with Caroline.

The next episode is the mid season finale and a Christmas special in which Stefan hosts a dinner with Caroline, inviting Alaric, the twins, Matt and Matt's father Peter Maxwell. Damon and Sybil arrive uninvited and things are naturally very awkward, but no fight breaks out as the twins are there. When Damon is alone with Stefan, he knocks him out and Stefan ends up in a dark version of the world; Cade's "waiting room". Cade meets with Stefan to discus their partnership, saying he intends to show Stefan why he's perfect for the job. Cade takes Stefan into flashback about a century ago to a time where Stefan had his humanity tuned off and he was known as the Ripper of Monterey, specifically a time Stefan blocked from his memory in which he massacred an entire work camp on Christmas. Cade declares he already had his sights on him way back then, showing him the chaos he caused, stating that Stefan's remorse means nothing to him. It's revealed that Past!Stefan encountered Seline in the aftermath, who intended to feed on him, but saw remorse in him, so used her power to alter his mind, saving him from Cade's wrath. Cade takes Stefan on one more stop, the high school moments before he met Elena. Cade passes off Stefan's meeting and relationship with Elena as the worst thing Stefan has ever done for putting this innocent girl on a dark path and that's exactly what Cade has in mind for Stefan. Cade explains his agenda to Stefan; seek good people, those who could go to heaven, and corrupt them. It is the innocent souls Cade wants the most. Cade says if he doesn't agree to serve him, he will eventually take the girls. Stefan agrees to to the deal, that he will turn his humanity off in Cade's service, but for one year only, and then Cade will release him and Damon. Cade is amused and says that the Ripper of Monterey won't be satisfied with on year in this line of work. When Stefan awakens, he spends his last seven minutes with Caroline. Stefan soon meets up with Damon, before they leave town together as Stefan turns his humanity off.

After the mid season break, another time jump is used. A year has passed with Damon and Stefan serving out Cade, killing people and giving their souls to him. Bonnie has since moved to Paris, Alaric taking the girls on a self imposed witness protection, and Caroline is doing a journalist job back in Mystic Falls, where she finds Sybil has taken a job as a teacher at the high school and was the one who called Caroline to back to town. Matt has been working part time with the Armory and it was learned that there is a weapon created from the fires that killed Cade, called the Staff of Arcadius, which was discovered earlier in the season and can be used against his servants. After a year of service it would appear Damon's own humanity is beginning to surface, keeping a necklace that reminded him of Elena on his person despite his denial. Stefan on the other hand is becoming more and more feral as the Ripper once again. Meanwhile, it turns out that centuries ago, one of Matt's ancestors, Ethan Maxwell was creating a church bell, enchanted by witches as a way to combat the Sirens, but it was incomplete, needing the staff of Arcadius in order to work. Years ago, Peter Maxwell got rid of the bell not realizing its significance, so Sybil begins searching for it, only to find Seline stole it off.

Sybil calls Stefan and Damon back to Mystic Falls as Damon has the third piece of the bell - the Striker - and Seline plans to use it to kill Sybil as a means of atoning as she sees herself as partially responsible for Sybil. Damon and Stefan arrive at the Mystic Falls Founders Beauty Pageant, with Bonnie and Caroline also in attendance. Sybil notices that Damon is thinking about Elena and getting his humanity back and tries to brainwash him again, but Damon resists her. This isn't a good sign to Stefan and Sybil, playing devil on his shoulder while Caroline encourages Damon to focus on those feelings. Damon seemingly gives Sybil the Striker only to strike-her over the head with it, saying that Elena and her capacity for forgiveness still has more influence on him then Sybil or Cade. On contrast, Stefan decides to leave Damon and continue Cade's work, stabbing his brother and leaving him to die. Stefan reveals he fed the pageant girls his blood in order to kill and turn them into vampires as a means to corrupt them to Cade, before Caroline is forced to stab him. When Stefan regains consciousness, Caroline wants to try to help get him out of his deal, but it's revealed Cade's deal changed; rather than one year it ends when Stefan thinks he's ready.

So the good news is Damon has denounced his deal with Cade, the bad news is when Sybil gave him back his humanity causing everything he has done to flood back to him, rendering him catatonic. Bonnie and Caroline find him and have Sybil take them into his subconscious to snap him out. Since Cade wants to claim more souls, it's revealed that when the bell was originally created, the sirens modified it so it can be used to open the gates of Hell by ringing it twelve times by a member of the Maxwell family. Stefan compels Matt to ring the bell, the plan to sacrifice Mystic Falls to Cade. Luckily Damon snaps out of his catatonic state and manages to stop Matt on the eleventh strike. At the end of the episode though, when Sybil and Seline are in a restaurant together, Cade enters and reveals that the bell rang enough to summon him. Cade then says he will be taking things from here, before lighting them on fire.

The next episode opens with Cade going to a coffee shop where he has a conversation with one of the workers before revealing said worked having an affair with his bosses wife, starting a fight between the two as he leaves. Cade later approaches Damon, who was keeping Stefan in a dungeon until they could find a way to fix him too. Cade isn't to happy with Damon's Heel–Face Turn, and cuts to the chase; regardless if he's got his humanity/emotions/morality intact, Damon will kill and sacrifice 100 people or kill Caroline. Damon doesn't anyone, but Cade finds Damon and admits he knows that Damon is planning to kill him and demonstrates that it's a moot point by setting himself on fire and even ripping his heart out. Damon talks with Caroline and she comes up with a plan to use the vampire cure against Cade to turn him human and kill him. Cade enters the bar that night and begins killing people. Once everyone flees, Cade reveals that he made a similar proposal to Stefan to kill a hundred people or kill Elena; Stefan picked option B and tracks her down to a house upstate New York where Bonnie is protecting her. Bonnie collects Elena's cured blood in a needle to use against Cade, but Stefan arrives and kills Enzo. In retaliation, Bonnie injects the cure into Stefan, rendering him human.

The next episode begins with Bonnie completely inconsolable, and Stefan now deeper into remorse than he's ever been before - y'know due to being a full human and everything he did catching up to him - and is arrested. Cade enters the Salvatore house where he says that now that Stefan's human the deal is off and he's decided to kill him and claim his soul. But Cade offers another deal, that Damon hands him a journal written by Matt's ancestor Ethan. Interestingly, Matt has been having nightmares which turn out to be Ethan's memories.

Matt is put into an hypnotic state to induce these memories which depicts the following; Ethan Maxwell creating the bell and having a conversation with one of Bonnie's ancestors, Beatrice, when Sybil approaches them. Sybil takes Ethan into her cave where Seline arrives and we see the modifications of the bell. When Ethan is brainwashed to not tell anyone of the modifications, the local witches arrive for the bell ringing. As Ethan begins to ring the bell, it begins to glow as Hellfire is summoned and the witches burn to death. The hellfire would have destroyed Mystic Falls had the witches not ritualistically sacrificed themselves to stop the fire. The sirens say that the blood of those witches are on Ethan's hands and the only way to save his soul is to summon Cade and kill him. Beatrice reluctantly has Ethan locked up, but Ethan reveals he knew how to kill Cade, writing the means to do so in code in his journal (if you're asking why he just doesn't tell people, well that's part of the brainwashing the sirens did).

Damon gives Cade the journal and Cade burns it before leaving. Luckily, Damon tells Alaric that he already figured out how to kill Cade, getting his hands on a crystal dagger that was a relic of his original death, made from his bones and created by fire. When they decide to kill Cade, previous villain Kai Parker enters the room, but more on that when I reach his update.

The next episode has Bonnie try to find a way to contact Enzo despite not being a practicing witch (although she has psychic powers). Bonnie finds Cade at a coffee shop asking if she can get Enzo out of Hell, and Cade shows off his powers by giving Bonnie a vision of Enzo; he's not in Hell yet but Cade is trying to claim his soul through Bonnie. As it turns out Bonnie used a psychic blast like Cade did thousands of years ago and created a dimension as well and that's where Enzo is. Cade is also peeved that Kai is out and about. Meanwhile, the now human Stefan ended up getting shot and Cade appears as he begins to bleed out, encouraging him to die, but Stefan manages to wake up, although believes his relationship with Caroline won't work in the long haul. Kai is also freaked out when he knows Cade is onto him, and later abducts Elena in her coffin before using his powers to drain Damon's life.

The next episode picks up with Cade resurrecting Damon and telling him to find the dagger. As it turns out Kai offered Elena to Cade, but stole the dagger to keep himself safe. Once the Salvatore brothers subdue Kai and get their hands on the dagger, they come up with a plan to kill Cade once and for all, with Stefan wanting to be the one to do so. They are also under the impression killing Cade will destroy Hell itself. Cade calls the brothers to meet him at a river and Stefan finds Elena's coffin in a cave behind a waterfall, where Cade approaches him and demands Stefan to hand over the dagger. As part of the plan, Alaric begins ringing the bell to weaken Cade, and Stefan begins beating and cutting Cade but before he can deal the killing stab, Alaric is distracted by Josie and Lizzie. Cade begins to fight back, beating Stefan down and preparing to cut his throat before Damon enters. Cade tells Damon he can leave with one soul; Stefan or Elena's, before setting Elena's coffin on fire. Since Bonnie has a psychic link to Elena, she senses Elena is in trouble and goes to help. Cade begins giving Damon a breaking speech to force him to choose. Stefan offers his own soul but Cade kicks Stefan's face in response - it has to be Damon's choice. Damon chooses himself, and Cade breaks a piece off of the coffin as a makeshift stake. Damon stabs himself, but as Cade prepares to take his soul, Bonnie arrives and the two have a psychic duel. It appears Cade is one the winning side, but while he's distracted, Stefan jumps in front of him and runs him through with the dagger. Cade coughs out a "Go to Hell" and Stefan replies "You first" as Cade begins to burn up and explode.

And with that, the devil is dead.

...only it turns out that they didn't destroy Hell. If anything Hell is under new management, in the hands of a previous villain who has a bone to pick with the Mystic Falls gang...Katherine Pierce (although I say that Silas would've been more appropriate but what are you gonna do ? Hell -pardon the pun- I think Kai would've been better suited and honestly thought that's how it was gonna play out). Considering that Hell is destroyed in the series finale, if the epilogue and Cade's death is any indication my impression is the innocent souls Cade had claimed would ascend into Heaven, while the wicked are simply destroyed like Cade was.

Redeeming Qualities or Freudian Excuse ?

Much like Lucien Castle, yes he has a reason he turned evil in the first place and was a very different person a couple or so millennia ago than he is now. The question being does he stop being a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and if he does, when ?

In his mortal life, Cade was loved and respected to his community, was described as Nice Guy and for the most part used his psychic powers to emphasize with his people. He wore a smile on his face and was regarded as a wise counselor. In fact his first scene shows him using his psychic powers while playing an guessing game with a boy in his village. He also had a sense of morality as in his flashbacks when he noticed one of the elders having "forbidden" thoughts to a younger woman, he immediately confronts the man and offers to "quell" his urges by going into his mind. That's what lead to his betrayal.

It was said Cade overstepped his bounds with his powers. He was betrayed and killed by the very people who looked up to him and the ones he loved. So pretty much he unjustly betrayed and executed for trying to do something right and according to Seline's story the creation of Hell was brought about by his Despair Event Horizon.

But then he subverts being a Tragic Villain with a smile on his face.

Nowadays in Cade's new personality is very different. As the devil, long after he took his initial revenge, he lacks any of his original optimism and empathy, to the point that he takes delight in death and suffering. He has no qualms about dragging people into eternal damnation, regardless of how small their "sins" are or if where otherwise good people. It's also made clear that he tortures these souls eternally. I can't really call him embittered by his first death because most of the time he's in Smug Snake mode. In fact we only time he looses his cool is when the Salvatore brothers try and succeed in killing.

He doesn't want to simply punish and feed off the wicked for their crimes, but actively seeks to corrupt the innocent into evil, leaving their souls for him to reap. He also developed a love for evil as he tells Stefan he had his eyes on him for his past as The Ripper, referring to the Monterey incident as a "masterpiece", which is why Cade wanted Stefan to serve him; that and the fact that Stefan can "corrupt" people just by being around them, using Stefan's relationship with Elena as an example.

This pretty much takes away any Well-Intentioned Extremist or Knight Templar arguments that could've been applied to him. Cade is someone who just plain old loves evil. He loves human death and suffering. He loves the corruption of the innocent. Hell, he was eager to turn three year old girls into his new servants and says he has the patience to wait and get them eventually.

Now as far as personal relationships go, the only meaningful ones he had where with his people, but considering that they betrayed him, and according to legend, they where the first people he dragged into Hell, that's all been out the window for thousands of years. With his servants, he sees them as little more then foot soldiers; Seline and Sybil, served Cade for three thousand years before he decided they are disposable and burns them to death. Similarly to the Salvatore brothers who he wants because he's In Love with Your Carnage. When he interacts with Josie and Lizzie, he wants to turn them as well, and presumably would give them the same treatment.

One thing to note is the episode where he is introduced is the only time he's painted in a sympathetic light. It's almost as if the show forgot about his Freudian Excuse. I think it has to do with the episodes script being rewritten (I got a look at some earlier scripted lines from his flashback sequences, and in those drafts his old personality was closer to his newer one).

It should also be noted that by Cade's own admission, he true self emerged after his execution. In other words, as far as he's concerned, his new personality was his real personality.

Heinous standard ?

One again, in this show and its Darker and Edgier spinoff, the amount of truly pure characters can pretty much be counted on a single hand. And season eight becomes especially dark, partially with its redemption theme and partially by Cade and the Sirens mere presence.

First things out of the way is the protagonists, especially the vampires, often take a dip in the evil morality pool themselves, and the vampire protagonists are at their absolute worse when they turn off their humanity switch; once again it's a "switch" vampires can turn on and off that erases their emotions and sense of morality. They behave impulsively, predatory, and just plain Stupid Evil (and in Stefan's case as The Ripper, borderline animalistic). You can usually tell when a vampire turned the switch off by their behaviour, if you where alone with one, you'd have to be the most oblivious knob in the room to not see that something is off with them. On The Vampire Diaries itself, the humanity switch is usually used when the protagonist does something heinous (with a few exceptions; Elena helping kill an Original vampire, or Damon holding and carrying out a murderous vendetta towards a vampire hunter family) as a way to say they can't really be held personally responsible for their actions because they wouldn't do these things with their emotions/morality intact and thus are not themselves when they do it. As established, it is a power/resource exclusive to vampires. Think of it like the souless/ensouled vampires on Buffy.

Personally I think True Blood handled the Always Chaotic Evil of vampirism better as the protagonists could at least still be held accountable.

The humanity switch is relevant in this discussion because it's something that Cade and his Siren's use against Damon, Enzo and Stefan. Sybil used her powers to warp Damon and Enzo to her will. The show repeatedly makes it clear that Damon and Enzo, are not/would not/do not want to serve Sybil of their own volition and she is using Mind Rape to warp them. In this case, Sybil didn't just wanted Damon to turn his humanity off, she wanted to take it to its extremes and mold Damon into the worst he can be. In the earlier episodes Damon states that he doesn't want to serve Sybil, and does show the slightest resistance against her, and all Sybil has to do is sing a few verses, alter a few memories and Damon is back to being her puppet. She proceeds force Damon to sever his emotional ties and turn him into a willing servant of Cade's and install an Angelus type personality into him.

And then there's the Sirens themselves. Sybil and Seline have spent three thousand years going about brainwashing and cannibalizing people and sacrificing their souls to Cade. They look for the damned and when they can't find em, they corrupt them. Seline was bad herself prior to her transformation, having lured sailors to their deaths and use their corpses to feed herself and an unwitting Sybil. And that's when they where children/young teenagers. Ironically Seline becomes the "good" siren as she develops remorse over the centuries and wants out of Cade's service. It's also shown that Seline does genuinely care about Josie and Lizzie as shown during her tearful goodbye to them when she wipes their memories of her (interestingly this comes up AFTER she her plan to make them Cade's servants goes up in smoke). Sybil on the other hand, becomes especially bad developing a sadistic streak about it, and even a sexual predator type personality (at one point after killing one of her victims, she appears to be making out with a woman's corpse...unless she was just eating her mouth first). Sybil also tries to make Damon the absolute worst he can be through brainwashing and my impression was she had a crush on Damon and wanted him to be the "perfect" boyfriend (especially given how he erases his memories of Elena and his friendship with Bonnie and replaces them with her). If your asking if she's remorseful like her sister, not exactly is my answer. The best I can describe it is, she doesn't regret what's she's done, only what she has become. For her predatory Card-Carrying Villain personality, she does at one point lament that she didn't have a choice in the matter, and when Damon gives her a "Reason You Suck" Speech about her and her past, she gets vulnerable. Both times she has tears in her eyes.

Which ultimately brings us to Cade, as the above description of the Sirens tie back to him as Seline and Sybil's evil are an extension of his own; the sirens are something he created for the purposes of serving him. Two girls that he warped into flesh eating monsters, to corrupt and kill in his name and sacrifice all their victims souls to him. This makes Cade indirectly responsible for Damon and Enzo's enslavement and Mind Rape in season eight as well as Damon's final corruption. On top of that Cade wishes to do the same to two innocent toddlers. And hurting children is considered a special kind of evil in this franchise, where if a character even attempts attempts to do so, they seldom live past the season, and none of the protagonists do so...until it was revealed that children where the last victims of the Ripper of Monterey AKA Ripper!Stefan before he snapped out of it. And again, as the Ripper, Stefan wasn't himself, he remorseful of that incident (among everything else the Ripper did) and suicidal about. Something Stefan thought he couldn't possibly do until Cade revealed it to him...which is exactly the kind of brutality Cade was looking for in a servant.

When we compare Cade to the VD CM villains we've got Markos, who is responsible for destroying an entire afterlife dimension, leaving those souls in Cade's hands; Kai Parker, who is not only a repeat attempted child murderer (and if missing person posters in his prison world are anything to go by his first victims where between 8 and 12 years old) wipes out and entire community of witches including children; Julian who single handedly wipeout an entire coastline in a day, forces a pregnant woman to miscarry, and becomes a vampire Caligula; Monique Deveraux, who despite being small fry, has serious hard on for killing a newborn baby for the Ancestors; Francesca Guerra, who uses mob and even terror tactics in her bid to take over New Orleans; Lucien Castle, who becomes an Eviler than Thou counterpart to Klaus Mikaelson, hunts the werewolves of Louisiana down to near extinction, attempts to wipe out two thirds of the vampire race just to satisfy his hatred for a handful, and attempts to hand over New Orleans to the Ancestors (think tyrannical entitled spirits of witches who kill and torture to get their way, and get still offended when someone stands up to them).

Another thing to point out is Cade brings different kind of heinousness to the Vampire Diaries table; not merely mass murder or torture, but inflicting mass damnation. I think this is also a case of two villains sharing something in the heinous standard as it was revealed Cade is the force dragging souls to Hell in season five, when Markos destroyed the Other Side. Cade has reaped all those souls and more into an eternity of being fed on and tormented. And once again, he doesn't just want to do this to the wicked, he wants to take those who wouldn't miss the pearly gates by an inch and make them miss them by miles.

Damon and Enzo where puppets to Sybil, while Sybil and Seline are puppets to Cade.

Conclusion

At one point in his life Cade was a good person and became evil when he was unjustly betrayed and executed. However, Cade also claims his "true self" emerged upon his death. I think due to a rewritten script for his introduction, he was originally gonna be seen as Tragic Villain or played as a Knight Templar or WIE who simply seeks punish the wicked, but all of his later appearances he drops all such pretences and is just a Card-Carrying Villain who desires the death and suffering of wicked and the innocent (and according to his loose definition of wicked, having to potential to be evil makes you evil in on itself). He doesn't even seek to destroy evil, just people in general, as Cade openly embraces evil, as I reiterates his In Love with Your Carnage regarding Ripper!Stefan. Cade is responsible for three thousand years of death and corruption, and in those has been dragging souls into Hell. Again, he's not motivated by a desire for justice or revenge but a desire to see everyone suffer. He openly mocks the idea of remorse or redemption and wants to corrupt and steal innocent souls as they are the souls he wants most. Even if you where to argue that at one point he may have seen himself as a figure of justice, but Cade himself is well aware that he is a case of He Who Fights Monsters, and is outright proud of it. He is also responsible for using his power to warp people into being his servants such as turning two adolescent girls into succubi like sirens, is eager to do the same to two toddlers.

Kai Parker Update

As stated in Cade's effortpost, Kai Parker came back from the dead this season and I still freakin love this guy! Kai is just one of those villains that you want to see more of, and Chris Wood is clearly having a blast playing him. See unlike Theo Raeken, he's at least entertaining when he's subverting Draco in Leather Pants. Watch one clip of him and you'll see what I mean or check out his character Twitter account.

Anyways, enough fanboy gushing.

As it turns out, Kai managed to escape Hell around the same time Cade was summoned and is eager to celebrate, but notices he can't eat or physically feel anything. To his relief though, he still has the power to kill. As it turns out, Kai has one foot on Earth and the other in Hell, so Kai is not completely alive. Kai approaches Damon and Alaric when they first plot to kill Cade, and he asks for their help to fully resurrect him in the face off all he's done. They want to kill him at first, but Kai says he can awaken Elena, so Damon decides to keep him around for now. Under his watch of course. In that same episode, Kai finds out he's bleeding excessively and realizes he's "fading". When Kai learns of the Sirens and how the Salvatore brothers worked for Cade, he comes up with the idea to kill for Cade in exchange for being kept alive, to no apparent effect. Damon suggests he try to redeem himself to save his soul, saying he can start by waking up Elena. Damon takes Kai to Elena's coffin, where true to fashion, Kai rejects the chance to redeem himself, siphoning the life out of Damon and disappearing with Elena.

The next episode has Kai giving Elena to Cade, but keeping the dagger as insurance. Cade revives Damon to find the dagger, and Damon gets Stefan up to speed. Stefan finds Kai enjoying himself at a karaoke bar singing "Knocking on Heavens Door" by Bob Dylan. Stefan talks to Kai about the dagger, and Damon sneaks behind him, breaking Kai's neck. Now that they got the dagger, they also take Kai to be locked up in the Armory.

As it so happens, the girls powers are acting up and Kai tries to talk to Caroline about it. See, Josie and Lizzie are siphons like Kai and their powers are acting up due to the amount of supernatural activity and artifacts in the Armory, which Kai demonstrates by breaking out of his cell and breaking Caroline's neck. Kai decides to pick up where he left off and try to kill the girls. Kai follows them around the Armory with an axe, hacking up their bed when he thinks they're under it. The girls hear him coming and call Alaric on his phone while he was ringing the bell. Kai also calls Alaric to gloat about what he's gonna do, and follows the girls trail into the sirens cave, where Alaric gets the jump on him with a mace. Kai manages to kick Alaric down and prepares to kill him, before Caroline sneaks up behind him and breaks his neck.

After Cade's death, Kai wakes him chained to a chair. As opposed to being eaten by dogs in a dungeon, he's in an empty karaoke bar with Bonnie talking to him, explaining they are putting him in a new prison world that she and the girls help create; An eternity with Kai alone with his thoughts and a song he hates (Two Princes by Spin Doctors). It's at that point Kai reveals that Cade's death didn't destroy Hell, but left a power vacuum filled by Katherine Pierce.

Unfortunately this is where Kai's story ends (I say unfortunately only because I think he should've got a better send off as a villain). Katherine remains the final antagonist of the series, with a plot to destroy Mystic Falls and get revenge on the protagonists. She resurrects Matt's mother to try to ruin Stefan and Caroline's wedding, as well as bringing Vicki back to ring the bell. She has the Salvatore brothers house blown up, and Bonnie having a near death experience after saving the girls from the resulting fire, almost resulting in Elena awakening as per Kai's curse. In the finale, Matt has the town evacuated, and Katherine has Elena's body hidden. Stefan finds her in a boiler room but it turns out Kai previously put a spell that trapped them in a room. They come up with a plan to save Mystic Falls with Damon staying behind to kill Katherine and Bonnie using all her strength to destroy the Bells power, summoning the spirits of her grandmother and all the witches who where destroyed by Hellfire. Stefan injects Damon with his cured blood, and allowing himself to burn to death with Katherine as Hell is destroyed. In the aftermath Elena finds Stefan in her coma dream before he ascends into Heaven with his friend Lexi.

The series ends with Elena awakening and is greeted by Bonnie, having found a way to undo Kai's spell. After reuniting with her friends and the now human Damon, Elena gives Caroline Stefan's final message; that he will love her forever. In the epilogue we get Bonnie moving on with her life with Enzo's ghost by her side; Alaric, with Caroline's help, opens a school for "gifted" children using the Armory; throughout this sequence we the the spirits of the main casts loved ones watching over them. Elena returns to Mystic Falls after finishing med school and seeing the spirits of her dead family; and the closing shot of Damon arriving at his house and hugging what appears to be Stefan's spirit.

@79629 Like, one of the questions states that we do not add characters from anything still in progress, because we would rather wait to see what the writers will do rather than put anyone up only to have to take them down later. However, I would hope that that doesn't apply to something that has clearly been abandoned.

As for Take Our Word for It, what I mean is that the villains' actions might not be shown onscreen (for example, so as not to fetishize or sensationalize rape or abuse), but there is an abundance of evidence for what he does. For example, he might abduct a preteen girl, and the next time we see her, she could have been turned into a cyborg under someone else's full control, or all alone while bound naked and lacerated to a wall. Or, we might see various devices that, while not in use, are clearly his possessions and designed to inflict all manner of harm.

edited 24th Mar '17 4:21:58 AM by SeaRover