History Main / BeingEvilSucks

* Angel Dust seems to revel in being a promiscuous, drug-using gangster/porn star in the pilot of ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'', but the ''Addict'' video has him reflect on how much his afterlife actually ''sucks''; his boss exploits him and is heavily implied to rape him, and sex has become a job and just isn't fun any more. He signs up for the titular hotel not just for the free room, but because it promises to help him break his addiction and make a real life for himself.
** Sir Pentious realizes this in the official release. After constantly losing a one-sided rivalry to Alastor and being made into an easily expendable pawn by the Vees, he realizes that being an Overlord of Hell is not as cracked up as he thinks it is. He signs up with the hotel [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe because Charlie was the first person to show him any kindness]].

* In the episode "[[Recap/StaticShockS2E6BadStretch Bad Stretch]]" of ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'', The redeemed Rubberband Man shows this. Before he was a banger with his older brother. But years of getting into trouble meant he had enough. When the Big Bang happened and any chance of getting revenge blows up in his face, he did time and became a good guy. However, his brother Ebon comes in and tries to bring him back but he refuses. Why? Because every time he gets caught up in one of Ebon's schemes, he ends up in trouble. And now that he has a better life, him becoming a gangbanger will ruin that and for him, it cannot happen

** [[Characters/SouthParkEricCartman Eric Cartman]] himself would be hit by this. While his evil tendencies have given him momentary successes now and then, they do nothing to benefit Cartman in the long run while his horrible personality causes him to be despised by everyone, including his own friends. This is shown at the end of the "Post Covid" duology, Cartman would grow up to be a homeless, lonely, and miserable alcoholic in a future where he remained evil, while a previously timeline showed him having a much happier life if he decided to reform.
* As mentioned above in the Film section, in keeping with the franchise's overall theme of the DarkSide never being worth it in the long run, Darth Maul is hit ''hard'' by this in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. A combination of [[AbusiveParents Darth Sidious]] and Maul's own evil actions cause him to lose his mother, his brother, his homeworld, and everything he ever worked for. The trauma of his brother's death affected him deeply, and he attempts to make Ezra his ReplacementGoldfish but [[EvilCannotComprehendGood is baffled and frustrated by his refusal to abandon his friends]]. At the end of his life, he can only bitterly confirm that the Sith took everything from him and his only hope is that Sidious will someday be defeated. He dies declaring that [[TheChosenOne Luke]] will one day "avenge" him and Obi-Wan, [[EvilCannotComprehendGood failing to grasp]] that Obi-Wan's plan isn't for Luke to take revenge for the Jedi, but only to bring about their return. Thus while Obi-Wan peacefully passes and becomes one with the Force later on, Maul dies still tortured by sorrow and rage.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': The Dark Hand Enforcers originally had no problems being criminals, but after several seasons of getting caught up in demonic plots and getting nothing for it, they become rather sick of it all.

* An example of Being AmbiguouslyEvil Sucks in ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', where the title character is a rare AntiVillain example of IJustWantToBeNormal.

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'': [[spoiler:This turns out to be how Thor feels about his role as Odin's hatchet/hammer man. He drowns his guilt over committing genocide in alcohol, which in turn makes him genuinely dangerous to his loved ones, which just makes him even more miserable. And to make matters worse, [[AbusiveParents Odin]] actively encourages him to remain a self-loathing drunkard because if Thor ever thought he ''could'' become anything other than a violent brute, he'd do it and stop being Odin's enforcer- as seen when Kratos empathizes with Thor over both being parents and persuades him to be a better person for his daughter Thrud]].

If Bob is wise, he will [[HeelRealization come to understand]] that [[GoodFeelsGood true happiness]] can only be achieved through ThePowerOfLove or ThePowerOfFriendship (though he is equally likely to declare he's [[IveComeTooFar gone too far.]]) [[EvilIsEasy Anybody]] can ''cross'' the MoralEventHorizon or [[BeyondRedemption be declared not worth forgiveness]], but the aftermath [[LonelyAtTheTop looks pretty bleak]]. Nobody wants to be Bob's friend, he has nothing to show for his career in evil, and in indulging his worst impulses, created a [[CrapsackWorld world]] that he himself is not satisfied with- VictoryIsBoring, after all. Perhaps he has a FreudianExcuse, perhaps he thought that RevengeIsSweet and that TheVillainMustBePunished beyond all else, but since his FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse and JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope is easy when your [[ThePowerOfHate fuelled by hatred]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he became a reflection of]] [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis what he sought to destroy]], and the only thing that remains is the [[MoralityChainBeyondTheGrave sense of disappointment from the mortuary of his own design]]. What ever his crime was, it [[LonelyAtTheTop alienated his allies]], and the only people left are amoral [[OpportunisticBastard opportunistic bastards]], not to mention all the [[TheStarscream Starscreams at every corner]]. And through it all his soul has become so deadened that not even EvilFeelsGood anymore -- in fact, he doesn't even ''remember'' how to feel happy.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'': After killing Mufasa and usurping his throne, Scar finds that [[VictoryIsBoring the power doesn't bring him nearly as much joy as he'd hoped.]] His vanity and short-sightedness lead him to quickly turn his newly-conquered territory into an uninhabitable wasteland, and he's haunted by the knowledge that his subjects will never respect him the same way they did his brother. By the time of his climactic confrontation with Simba, [[SanitySlippage the stress has driven him to the brink of madness]].

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* ''Film/AmericanHistoryX'': The ArmorPiercingQuestion that prompts Derek's HeelFaceTurn: "Has anything you've done made your life any better?" He explains his reasoning to his brother later: "And I kept asking myself all the time, how did I buy into this shit? It was because I was pissed off, and nothing I ever did ever took that feeling away. I killed two guys, Danny, I killed them. And it didn't make me feel any different. It just got me more lost and I'm tired of being pissed off, Danny. I'm just tired of it."

If Bob is wise, he will [[HeelRealization come to understand]] that [[GoodFeelsGood true happiness]] can only be achieved through ThePowerOfLove or ThePowerOfFriendship (though he is equally likely to declare he's [[IveComeTooFar gone too far.]]) [[EvilIsEasy Anybody]] can ''cross'' the MoralEventHorizon, but the aftermath [[LonelyAtTheTop looks pretty bleak]]. Nobody wants to be Bob's friend, he has nothing to show for his career in evil, and in indulging his worst impulses, created a [[CrapsackWorld world]] that he himself is not satisfied with- VictoryIsBoring, after all. Perhaps he has a FreudianExcuse, perhaps he thought that RevengeIsSweet and that TheVillainMustBePunished beyond all else, but since his FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse and JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope is easy when your [[ThePowerOfHate fuelled by hatred]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he became a reflection of]] [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis what he sought to destroy]], and the only thing that remains is the [[MoralityChainBeyondTheGrave sense of disappointment from the mortuary of his own design]]. What ever his crime was, it [[LonelyAtTheTop alienated his allies]], and the only people left are amoral [[OpportunisticBastard opportunistic bastards]], not to mention all the [[TheStarscream Starscreams at every corner]]. And through it all his soul has become so deadened that not even EvilFeelsGood anymore -- in fact, he doesn't even ''remember'' how to feel happy.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Aku shows that this trope can apply for those who are Made of Evil. Being an entity of pure malevolence, he literally needs to do things in the most evil way possible, no matter how [[StupidEvil obviously inefficient they would be]]. This causes him to prolong his feud with Jack for ''five exhausting decades''.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'': While playing as an evil character does allow you some shortcuts in the campaign, as well as skip several boss battles, evil characters tend to lose more than that they gain, compared to their heroic counterparts. A few examples are that several party members refuse to work with you, several quests yielding nice rewards are blocked off and you also get fewer allies in the final battle. There are also several companion characters with branching paths in their stories. Usually, their evil path is the least fulfilling for them:
** [[AmnesiacHero The Dark Urge]] [[spoiler:becomes forever bound to [[TheAntichrist his father]] the GodOfEvil Bhaal's will if he doesn't reject him, and his only options are to become an OmnicidalManiac, kill himself to try to escape his wrath, or end up [[DemonicPossession possessed]] and become a prisoner in his own body [[AndIMustScream that can only watch helplessly as he kills his loved ones]]]].
** Astarion [[spoiler:wants to hijack his [[IHateYouVampireDad former master]] Cazador's DealWithTheDevil to become a Vampire Ascendant himself. Doing so requires him to sacrifice 7000 souls. If you persuade him into abandoning this plan, he thanks you for stopping him and becomes a happier person overall. If he does use the ritual, he becomes a cruel and powerhungry being who'll never be satisfied.]]
** Shadowheart's aspiration is to become one of GodOfEvil Shar's Dark Justiciars. If she abandons this path, she[[spoiler: can potentially reunite with her missing parents and settle down on a nice homestead with loads of animals and you, if you romanced her]]. If she does pursue this goal, she does seem happy at first, but [[spoiler:becomes more emotionally distant and isn't allowed to continue any romantic relationships. She also kills her own parents and is then glad Shar removes any memories of them, thinking Shar protects her from pain, while Shar is actually the one behind most of it.]]
** Lae'zel wants to be recognized by her GodEmpress, who in reality is a megalomaniac [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]] that consumes her subjects once they've [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived their usefulness]]. If not talked into a better path she [[KilledOffForReal meets the same fate in the epilogue]] [[spoiler:after having killed her people's [[RightfulKingReturns only hope for the future]]]].
** Gale starts out a friendly, ChaoticGood AbsentMindedProfessor but his FatalFlaw was [[AmbitionIsEvil his ego, which has led him astray in the past]] despite his good intentions. If the PlayerCharacter talks him into a FaceHeelTurn, he goes off in search of an ArtifactOfDoom that's laid low everyone who's tried to harness it before [[spoiler:and succeeds, at a terrible cost. In the epilogue it's shown he [[DeityOfHumanOrigin becomes the god of ambition itself]], and becomes a JerkassGod [[HeWhoFightsMonsters no different than the ones he criticized]], eternally compelled to try to elevate his own station and trapping himself in an IronicHell. Things are even worse for him if the PlayerCharacter didn't complete his questline and steal the tome he needs for his research, as he [[HoistByHisOwnPetard doesn't survive the attempt]] and is rendered DeaderThanDead, with his VirtualGhost lamenting that he lost everything over his vanity]].