History Main / ForTheEvulz

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'': Doctor Destiny's Diner of Death. A supervillain armed with the King of Dreams's ruby wandered into a diner full of perfectly ordinary people, and spent an issue just ''breaking'' them. When he briefly freed his victims from his control, one of them demanded to know why he was tormenting them this way. His answer? "Because I can."
* ''ComicBook/SupremePower'' villain Redstone's reasons for killing: "Because I can, because I'm good at it, and because I like it." He was once a "normal" serial killer, motivated by misogyny and feelings of powerlessness… But once he got his powers, he became inhumanly vicious and ruthless.
* [[ComicBook/{{Empowered}} Willy Pete]]. What else is there to say about a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]] who doesn't even need to eat at all, but just happens to like the taste? (Plenty, actually, but the {{squick}} doesn't need to be mentioned here.)

* Cletus from ComicBook/TheAuthority:
-->"I didn't get involved in this because I'm some cackling super-villain who gets off on hurting people or anything."
-->Cletus: "Hell, ''I'' did."
** Kaizen Gamorra from the very first Creator/WarrenEllis arc. When asked why he orders his armies to invade major cities, he answers that Gamorra -nation is built on terrorism, because ''Terror is its own reward''. In addition, just before his KarmicDeath thanks to Midnighter, he whines: ''I just wanted to have some fun.''
* [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]] villain Prometheus had this exchange with ComicBook/LexLuthor during "World War III", the last arc of Creator/GrantMorrison's run on ''JLA''.
--> '''Lex Luthor''': [[CutLexLuthorACheck You could make yourself very wealthy patenting some of this equipment, Prometheus.]]
--> '''Prometheus''': Money isn't what motivates me. If I want something, I just take it. I'm in this for the buzz.

* Even before he became a vampire, [[spoiler:Skinner Sweet]] of ''ComicBook/AmericanVampire'' was fond of committing needless atrocities in his outlaw career. [[spoiler:Hattie Hargrove]] is also perfectly happy with slaughtering people, but she could be (partly) explained as insane.
* Nearly all depictions of Franchise/{{Batman}}'s arch-nemesis, ComicBook/TheJoker.
** Example: In one issue of ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', [[ComicBook/TwoFace Harvey Dent]] has reformed and is starting a romance with his lawyer Grace Lamont. Joker hints to Harvey that Lamont is dating Harvey's friend Bruce Wayne, and is just seeing Harvey out of pity. Then he gets his assistant Harley Quinn to leak to a newspaper that Lamont is planning to marry Bruce and delivers the newspaper to Harvey. One breakdown, jailbreak, attempted murder and broken heart later, Batman asks the Joker why he caused such a horrible disaster. His response?

Most people have logical motivations for their actions, so by extension most villains have logical motivations for (morally) reprehensible actions and intentions. {{Ambition|IsEvil}}, [[KnightTemplar zeal]], {{greed}}, {{pride}}, [[DrivenByEnvy envy]], {{lust}}, [[UnstoppableRage wrath]], [[DirtyCoward fear]], {{love|MakesYouEvil}}, [[ThePowerOfHate hatred]], [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain bigotry]], {{revenge}}, [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery misery]], [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]], [[TheResenter resentment]], [[ItsAllAboutMe selfishness]], [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds anguish]], [[MisanthropeSupreme misanthropy]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist good intentions]], [[DarkAndTroubledPast a troubled]] [[FreudianExcuse childhood]], [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans the desire for utopia]], [[VisionaryVillain and other warped "ideals"]] can all drive people to evil in ways that we understand and may be familiar with. If a villain's motivations can just be understood, they can [[KirkSummation be reasoned with]] -- sometimes.

** The lich Xykon, the BigBad, is simply out to be as evil as possible, and often goes out of his way to commit atrocities just 'cause it's fun. The result is the bizarre twist of [[strike:AffablyEvil]] FauxAffablyEvil.

** Airachnid is the most vile of all of the Decepticons. While most of the other Cons follow Megatron because they believe in his cause, Airachnid only joined the Cons because it allowed her to indulge in her {{Sadism}}.

** ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has Kirei Kotomine, playing this trope straight in the "Fate" route but [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructing]] it in the "Heaven's Feel" route. He ultimately aims to [[spoiler: empty the contents of the Holy Grail, an ArtifactOfDoom containing a tangible form of all of man's evil upon the world]]. This would have unleashed horrific amounts of death and destruction upon humanity. When the AllLovingHero confronts him about his motives, this is Kotomines's summed up answer: "Just as some people find music or art entertaining, [[{{Sadist}} I can only find amusement in watching other people suffer]]". In "Heaven's Feel", Kirei's backstory shows that [[spoiler: he is perfectly capable of understanding the nuances of right and wrong and has, in fact, on several occasions tried to live a good life (becoming a priest, specializing in healing, trying to have a family)]]. However, time and time again he was unable to get any pleasure from life. This is ultimately subverted, seeing he's [[spoiler: pissed for having been born evil while being fully aware of how deviant he is]]. Turning this something closer to a RageAgainstTheHeavens. ''VisualNovel/FateZero'' explores Kotomine's slow realization that EvilFeelsGood, aided by [[spoiler: Gilgamesh]].

* Kirei Kotomine, the BigBad of the Fate route in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', was going to [[spoiler:empty the contents of the Holy Grail, an ArtifactOfDoom containing a tangible form of all of man's evil upon the world]], causing untold amounts of death and destruction. When the hero asks him why he's doing it, he replies with a speech that can be summed up as: "Just as some people find music or art entertaining, I can only find amusement in watching other people suffer".
** The Heaven's Feel scenario [[spoiler:turns this into a DeconstructedTrope by giving us Kotomine's backstory and showing just what sort of twisted and tormented person he is: Kotomine is perfectly capable of understanding the nuances of right and wrong and has, in fact, on several occasions tried to live a good life -- by for instance becoming a priest specializing in healing and trying to have a family -- while at the same time being utterly unable to get any pleasure from life unless he's causing (or simply observing - he's not picky) someone pain and suffering. He is fully aware of just how deviant this makes him and he considers his birth to be a 'mistake'. This in fact turns his motives into a subversion. What he is truly aiming for is something close to a RageAgainstTheHeavens]].
*** A more fitting and non-deconstructed example within the same series would be [[EvilOldFolks Zouken Matou]], the BigBad of the Heaven's Feel route. To put his actions into perspective, even the aforementioned example above has a problem with this guy and considers him a bastard. In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', Zouken chose to act for the evulz over being able to wish for anything, even admitting to abusing [[AbusiveParents his own son]] just because he enjoys seeing him suffer.

* Anything relating to [[Franchise/TouhouProject yukkuri abuse]] tends to revolve around monsters of humans who delight themselves in causing harm and death towards defenseless head-like creatures just because they can. Then there's [[RootOfAllEvil the factory]], which all yukkuri are naturally afraid of. They say it won't let them "take it easy", but it's way more sinister than that. There are even yukkuri shops people can go to select their "victim" on some works.

-->'''Paul''': Why? Why would you think ''any'' of this was a good idea?\\
'''Carl''': Probably because I'm a dangerous psychopath with a long history of violence.\\
'''Paul''': ...oh.\\

[[caption-width-right:350:"It's not about the money. It's about sending a message: ''Everything burns''."]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"It's not about money. It's about sending a message: ''Everything burns''."]]

* Dev-Em the Daxamite creates all sorts of chaos and mayhem on the Earth's moon for his own sick pleasure in the 30th century during the ''ComicBook/TimeAndTimeAgain'' story arc in the Franchise/{{Superman}} comic book titles in 1991, culminating in activating bombs that would destroy the moon. Superman and the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} arrive on the scene to stop Dev-Em, but although they manage to do so, they only postpone the moon's destruction until the Linear Man shows up to resume the countdown to send Superman back home to his own time.

** [[TheStoicSound]][[CreepyMonotone wave]]'s original toy bio mentions that the other Decepticons hate his guts because he uses his ability to 'read' electrical impulses (basically making him the Transformers equivalent of a mind-reader) for petty blackmail. Why? Because as Megatron's [[TheDragon right-hand bot]] and [[VenitariJobSecurity invaluable member of the faction]], he '''can'''.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2009-02-08 Satan, peeved at having to restore two succubi, decides it's time for some gratuitous mean-spiritedness.]] (He had difficulties bringing back Fuschia.)

* ''ComicBook/SupremePower'' villain Redstone's reasons for killing: "Because I can, because I'm good at it, and because I like it." He was once a "normal" serial killer, motivated by misogyny and feelings of powerlessness... But once he got his powers, he became inhumanly vicious and ruthless.

* The ComicBook/RedSkull. As a teenager, he tried to woo a Jewish girl and murdered her after she rejected his creepy advances. He realized that he enjoyed it more than anything else. Everything he's done since are attempts to relive that moment of dark bliss. Conquering the world with the Cosmic Cube, abusing his lovers and his daughter, eating an apple in front of a starving child...as long as he's hurting or killing someone, he's happy.

-->Had other interests...

* During Mike Knox's short run in WWE, he attacked Rey Mysterio multiple weeks in a row. When asked what he had against Rey Mysterio, he said he didn't have anything against Mysterio. He was then asked why he kept attacking him, to which Knox replied ''Hm... I don't know. I guess I don't really have a reason.''

* In a Creator/JohnMulaney routine, he describes attending a WildTeenParty during high school hosted at the house of a hated teacher while the latter was away. It went predictably horribly wrong, and the next day, John talked to the teacher's son who was freaking out not so much because of the horrible destruction to the house itself but by the disappearance of some vintage photographs of his grandmother. Since John [[WhatDidIDoLastNight barely remembers what happened]], he feared that he was somehow responsible... until a few years later, while staying at a friend's house, said friend ended up showing him a secret room ''filled'' with photos stolen from similar parties. A flabbergasted John gave a BigWhy prompting the friend to reply "[[KickTheDog Because it's the one thing you can't replace]]".

** And ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' had [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Constant Drachenfels]]. His idea of a really funny joke involved pretending to reform, and luring many of the Empire's nobility to a feast at his castle...laced with paralyzing poisons, so that they starved to death with a feast spread out before them.

** The Crassus estate actually has an insane asylum for all their family members who were unable to use their money and power to fix themselves up from all the rapes. Their estate has a wing with a coterie of Invictus in it, as well... This family is doomed.

--> "He's a completely different breed from anyone else; [[FantasticRacism Creed]], [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the F.O.H.]]… even [[TakeOverTheWorld Doom.]] I didn't understand it, the first time I came here… but Joker is true evil; the kind that doesn't exist for wealth, or for power, or for any goal; he's the kind of evil that exists simply because it ''wants'' to exist."

* All the {{Mad Scientist}}s in ''WesternAnimation/{{Igor}}'' are of the traditional sort, loving evil for its own sake. But the prize goes to [[spoiler:the king, who created a weather-controlling device that cast the entire country under permanent storm clouds, destroying the citizens' livelihood, and then suggested they all turn to mad science to make the country successful again.]] Okay, and... ''why'' did he do this, again?

* Sid from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' spends most of his free time thinking up ways of torturing toys for a quick laugh, including, but not limited to, tearing them apart and switching their pieces together. Sid only seems this way to the audience and the toys—who are aware that he is doing this to sentient beings—but as far as he and any human in the movie is concerned, he just has a creepy hobby. He does wreck his sister's toys and delights in her horror at the monstrosities he creates, but bullying your sibling isn't exactly "evil."

** ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': In an alternate version of the DCU, the Joker's main reason to nuke Metropolis, link the trigger to Superman's wife Lois, and trick the Man of Steel into killing him was that since he was getting tired of losing to Batman, he decided to go on "easy mode" by preying on an even more vulnerable target. Joker even thinks it was as good as "beating a puppy to death with a kitten." [[TheBadGuyWins It's so effective]] that the Clown Prince of Crime managed to psychologically break Superman after giving him a [[BreakingSpeech nasty lecture]]. To him, [[StrawNihilist it doesn't matter at all if he was killed as a consequence]], as the fact that he is laughing maniacally as Superman kills him says it all. On top of that, Joker's death becomes the catalyst for the ''Injustice''-verse becoming a CrapsackWorld.

[[caption-width-right:350:"It's not about money. It's about sending a message: ''Everything burns''."[[note]]Pictured: A giant pile of burning cash extorted from gangsters. Not pictured: the corrupt banker tied up on top of the pile of burning money, or the Chechen gangster hauled off to be cut into pieces and fed to his own dogs.[[/note]]]]

* Most agents of the Wyrm in ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' don't have a whole lot of motive for what they do. A fair amount of the Pentex book is scary not because of the malevolence on display, but because most of it seems to have no motive at all beyond "yay Wyrm".

* ''Series/CobraKai:'' In stark contract to most of the other antagonists, this is Kyler's motivation. A JerkWithAHeartOfJerk that loves to KickTheDog (no less [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown when they're disadvantaged]]) any chance he gets.