History Main / VillainByDefault

-->--'''[[WebVideo/BumReviews Chester A. Bum]]''', [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/bum-reviews/31211-x-men-first-class reviewing]] ''Film/XMenFirstClass''

* ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' movie featured a CorruptCorporateExecutive, although their big game hunter Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite!) was rather sympathetic, and if a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IauEY2XoMR8 deleted scene]] had been left in, (3:16 in), he would have been a full out [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. The novel had someone who wanted to do animal testing, and considered that dinosaurs would be the perfect test subject - they already went extinct, so who's going to argue?

* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'' and most fantasy media, Necromancers (Or {{Necromantic}}s) invariably abuse their powers for fun and profit. Even though it's a player accessible subclass of the Wizard, it's rare to see a "good" necromancer.

** Likewise in the ''Warcraft'' universe, at least until the new ''WorldOfWarcraft'' expansion pack, which will let players play renegade death knights (necromancer-warriors).

** Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''. Necromancers there are innately Neutral, and, in ''Diablo II'', are on the side of the heroes and a PC option because the demons have no respect for the Balance of Life and Death, indiscriminately killing people and animating the dead. It's also implied that all magic ''except'' necromancy is innately corruptive and risks turning its user evil if they aren't cautious.
** Also averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''; Doctor Orpheus, a necromancer, is one of the ''least'' evil characters on the show.
* Quite simply ''everyone'' in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. When every major race in a setting is listed in ScaryDogmaticAliens, you know you're not looking at a happy galaxy.
** And it's not only human POV. For example, Eldars consider humans childish and ignorant at best while sharing humanity's views on other aliens.

* People who are [[InsaneEqualsViolent psychotic]] (liable to UnfortunateImplications)

* Especially if the hero is poor or common-born, there is a tendency that AristocratsAreEvil and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the rich]] are often this way (also UnfortunateImplications)

* Slavers and slave-owners

[[AC:Meta]]
* If the protagonist of any media is a cop, people from InternalAffairs are always portrayed as being stupid, hypocritical, corrupt, or just plain evil. Even if the protagonist really ''is'' a DirtyCop.
** And, don't expect local, state, and federal police bodies to get along, especially if there is a jurisdiction conflict. If a protagonist belongs to one of those forces, the others will be shown as resentful and obstructive (smaller force) or arrogant and dismissive (larger force).
* The US in any BananaRepublic setting (especially if the work in question is [[CulturalCringe made in the US itself]]), given the hypocritical stance they posed during the ColdWar as they manipulated politics in the South Americas to suit the numerous corporations who performed neo-Colonialism on the BananaRepublic for their own personal gains.

* Being a comic book universe with a lot of BlackAndWhiteMorality (as most comic book universes have), the heroes of the ''GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' have faced off against a metric buttload of bad guys who were villains by default. Corrupt lawyers, gangsters, bikers, hit-men, big game hunters, [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-nazis]], [[CorruptCorporateExecutive evil businessmen]], white supremacists, satanists, various other cultists, voracious aliens, terrorists of every stripe and creed. And of course your average supervillain is in it for the greed and the breaking things. The number of villains that introduced shades of gray could be counted on one hand.

* If the protagonist is a criminal and meant to be sympathetic, on the other hand, you can expect the cops in general to be a mix of BadCopIncompetentCop, with the few ''good'' cops of the bunch being either InspectorJavert or the SympatheticInspectorAntagonist, if they're not on the protagonist's side.

** {{Eberron}} [[AvertedTrope averts]] it partially, the main elven religion, the undying court, is based on necromancy and yet it's main alignment is NeutralGood.

** When the Unseen University hires a necromancer as a professor he is contractually obligated to do small evil things on a regular basis since necromancy is considered evil magic. He is actually a pretty nice guy.
* The Stormwings in TamoraPierce's [[TortallUniverse Tortall books.]] Their very nature is to desecrate bodies on the battlefield, and they feed on human fear, so they are universally hated by nearly all humans, and most other creatures. Only one of them, Rikash, gets enough CharacterDevelopment to qualify as an AntiHero.
** Eventually, this trope gets deconstructed. This trope applies to several of the Immortals in the Tortall universe, and Daine is prone to just shooting them on sight. It's pointed out to her repeatedly that it's not necessarily ethical to hate someone for their nature.

* You can pretty much count that any non-human robot in the ''MegaManX'' and ''MegaManZero'' series are down-and-out Mavericks, no exceptions; they're always either infected by TheVirus, criminally insane, or just plain fed up with humanity and aren't going to take it, anymore. Of course, this could also be considered a case of demonization; several Mavericks have called out the main characters as hunting them with little provocation, simply because the humans are paranoid and don't need a reason to point at a robot not doing what they think they should be doing and calling them "Maverick". And then they die at the protagonists' hands, anyway.
** Although, the animal Reploids of Mega Man Zero were evil, they weren't considered Mavericks. You're playing on the side of the Mavericks, the bosses are fighting for humanity.

--'''[[WebVideo/BumReviews Chester A. Bum]]''', [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/bum-reviews/31211-x-men-first-class reviewing]] ''Film/XMenFirstClass''

->''...And there's this Nazi, who's a bad guy! Why is it that Nazis are always the bad guys?''\\

-->''...And there's this Nazi, who's a bad guy! Why is it that Nazis are always the bad guys?''\\

* Federal officers of any kind on the various ''LawAndOrder'' shows. The only exception this troper can remember was a cameo by the woman from ''InPlainSight''.

* Intentionally averted in ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', at least the comic book. AlanMoore initially intended to write his Nazi antagonists as straight-up cardboard villains, as per typical views of Nazis, before reflecting that Fascists are people, too, who usually have reasons for their actions a little more complex than [[ForTheEvulz evil for evil's sake]]. Usually that they're pathetic losers who have become control freaks to hide their issues. Adam Susan is sexually frustrated and gets off on his MasterComputer, for example. Inspector Finch is a SympatheticInspectorAntagonist because his experiences in the riots that preceded the fascist government persuaded him that tyranny was better than chaos - so he helped them hunt down minorities because that was what they demanded in exchange for a stable government. The result is lots of GreyAndGrayMorality. The movie, however, plays the trope dead straight - except for Finch, who not only abandons fascism, but in the end permits V's final act of terrorism out of disgust for the government.

* The Abh from ''CrestOfTheStars'' subvert this trope (though they seem to embrace it at first). They have an interstellar empire acquired through conquest and they ban space travel for everyone but the Abh, claiming it's all for good reason; i.e., trying to prevent a vast and destructive conflict.

* Serial killers

* Racial supremacists (unless they have a ''really'' good FreudianExcuse)

* Soldiers, who are often portrayed as either as explicitly this or as a NobleProfession, depending on setting and often on the author's politics. When the former, they will either be AxeCrazy or faceless mooks. Of course, what side they are on will also be a huge factor. In the majority of post-Vietnam media, soldiers on either side who participate in combat missions are portrayed as an example of GreyAndGreyMorality.

*** Its predecessor ''Morrowind'' was a bit more reasonable with it. Necromancy was a widely shunned and ''regionally'' illegal (for religious reasons) on pain of death branch of magic that was practiced by a few minor [=NPCs=], few of which really qualifies as "evil" (the ones that were tended to be bandits). Oh, and practically every tomb has a few skeletons guarding it, and nobody cares. Of coarse the undead were members of the family (that the tomb belongs too) who [[AllThereInTheManual were people not looked upon favorably by their family in life bound to this duty in the afterlife]] (for the purposes of Morrowind law, Dunmer ancestral magic [[InsistentTerminology doesn't count as necromancy]]).

* ''TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' movie featured a CorruptCorporateExecutive, although their big game hunter Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite!) was rather sympathetic, and if a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IauEY2XoMR8 deleted scene]] had been left in, (3:16 in), he would have been a full out [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. The novel had someone who wanted to do animal testing, and considered that dinosaurs would be the perfect test subject - they already went extinct, so who's going to argue?
** By way of contrast, the original ''JP'' movie had a ''good'' hunter (technically a game warden), who died in a HeroicSacrifice, as well as a kindly grandpa [=CEO=] - although he was, admittedly, TheMillstone, and in the original book he was a standard Villain by Default instead, who outright states that he would never run any business that helps people, as people tend to get upset when you charge them high prices for something they really ''need''. That's why he is building a theme park, because he can charge any amount he wants to. He makes a whole speech about how helping people is bad. He also ripped off the computer programmer, which gives the programmer another reason to betray him, which leads to the disaster. He also represents someone who is an intentional fool, someone who refuses to deal with inconvenient ''facts''. He's much more sympathetic in the movie.

* The titular monsters from ''{{Bats}}'' were genetically engineered by a "mad" scientist. When asked why he would create such a creature, his response basically sums up the premise of this trope: "Because I'm a scientist! [[ScienceIsBad That's what we do!]]"

* [[PaedoHunt Paedophiles]]

Naturally, whenever a group is cast as Villains By Default without additional justification there will be a part of the audience that's going to [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation disagree with the assessment]]. This is particularly true of works that are [[PanderingToTheBase subtly or unsubtly pandering to one "fashionable" prejudice or another]], or that are aimed at very specific audiences. This is where ValuesDissonance will kick in: a work created by a fundamentalist Christian might have a "sinful" person (stripper, alcoholic, what-have-you) as an irredeemable villain, whereas a work by someone who despises Christians will want his/her audience to assume that ''Christians'' are the evil ones.

* Elmer Fudd from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' is usually a classic "evil" hunter, albeit a stupid one.

* Intentionally averted in ''VForVendetta'', at least the comic book. AlanMoore initially intended to write his Nazi antagonists as straight-up cardboard villains, as per typical views of Nazis, before reflecting that Fascists are people, too, who usually have reasons for their actions a little more complex than [[ForTheEvulz evil for evil's sake]]. Usually that they're pathetic losers who have become control freaks to hide their issues. Adam Susan is sexually frustrated and gets off on his MasterComputer, for example. Inspector Finch is a SympatheticInspectorAntagonist because his experiences in the riots that preceded the fascist government persuaded him that tyranny was better than chaos - so he helped them hunt down minorities because that was what they demanded in exchange for a stable government. The result is lots of GreyAndGrayMorality. The movie, however, plays the trope dead straight - except for Finch, who not only abandons fascism, but in the end permits V's final act of terrorism out of disgust for the government.