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Evil Cannot Stand Cuteness

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The horror!

"Oh, you couldn't begin to imagine the depths of my suffering there. I spent most of my days strung up like a damned pupating moth trapped over a field of delicate little flowers where angels, fairies, and enchanted stuffed animals lived. They played songs and danced asinine jigs as if their only care in life was when they would get their next warm, fuzzy hug! Instead of ruling the universe with an iron fist, I was serenaded by teddy bears!"

There are many shorthands to show just how evil bad guys are; they may take great pleasure in their evil actions, do their plotting in not very lit areas, strive To Create a Playground for Evil, adorn their costumes with skulls and bones and put wicked cool spikes on everything including their weapons, their Booby Traps, their toasters, etc.

When you have such characters who seem to live and breathe evil in the edgiest, most on-the-nose manner to the point of having a Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad mentality, it's only appropiate to have them steer clear of everything remotely "good" as if it were toxic waste. And what's funnier than the image of someone like Lord Murderskull gagging at the sight of a Sugar Bowl the same way a kid reacts towards broccoli?

Anything that comes across as adorable or saccharine, such as sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, puppies, unicorns, choo-choo trains, and everything else that comes out of a Sugar Bowl can be expected to provoke a wide range of negative reactions from many Obviously Evil villains, Jerkasses (often the card-carrying kind), and cynics. Edgy, spike-wearing fiends usually harbor intense hatred towards the saccharine, and will not hesitate to grab a bat and beat a sack of kittens to death on sight, or at the very least make their lives miserable with dreaded finger pokes of evil. Sometimes, they may initially look charmed by said sack of kittens... right before bringing down the bat.

In other cases, villains may find cuteness just as completely revolting as people would normally find canned cheeseburger to be, (Yes, canned cheeseburger exists, and we suggest you don't Google images of it for the sake of your sanity and stomach contents) or even have a crippling phobia of it, running away screaming like they just saw a tarantula skittering towards them. For those unfortunate enough to live in a Sugar Bowl, whether out of circumstance or as a Cool and Unusual Punishment, such an Ironic Hell can completely drive them into insanity. While this trope is generally Played for Laughs, serious examples of this trope may lead to a Sugar Apocalypse in an attempt by the villain to turn the place into something more palatable, such as a Crapsack World.

This trope tends to go hand-in-hand with Kick the Dog when establishing how evil a bad guy is; everyone knows puppies make people happy, which makes them Evil's favorite critters to squish in front of horrified onlookers, because Evil hates seeing people happy more than it hates puppies, And That's Terrible.

Among other reasons for bad guys' general aversion towards the saccharine: Evil Is Cool, so anything cute threatens to undermine the villain's cool, villainous appearance and make them look lame. The variety who consider being "evil" a part of their identity, especially these guys, will do everything in their power to prevent this, and deviating from their ways by falling under the influence of cuteness may lead to being told, "If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!"

Sub-Trope of Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad, and a common characteristic of Cartoonish Supervillainy. If the "cute" is directly weaponized to fight evil, see Care-Bear Stare and Super Cute Superpowers. If evil is repulsed merely by the presence of cute, see Allergic To Good and Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth. If something is so saccharine that even non-evil characters are sickened by it, see Sickeningly Sweet.

Compare Fun-Hating Villain and The Grinch. Contrast Cute Is Evil, The Fake Cutie, and Sugary Malice. See also Real Men Hate Sugar.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Deadman Wonderland, sociopathic Fake Cutie Minatsuki is greatly perturbed when she finds herself petting an armadillo.
    "You little fucker, why are you not uncute?"
  • Dragon Ball: Frieza is a tyrannical, absolutely sadistic Evil Overlord who enjoys massacring entire races and feeling superior to those he conquers. His ironic, personalized Hell after he died on Earth in Resurrection 'F' has him trapped in a cocoon hanging off a tree, surrounded by fairies, pixies, and stuffed animals dancing, singing, and frolicking all around him for eternity (at least until his henchmen bring him back to life, again). Predictably, he absolutely hates his punishment, and the scene is so saccharine it makes him want to tear his eyes out and traumatizes him long after he escapes from Hell. It's also the reason he forgoes his wish for immortality in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • My Little Pony: The Movie (2017): When the Storm King invades Canterlot, one of the first things he does is complain about how cute the appearance of the castle is, on account of it clashing with his big, bad powerful guy image.

    Literature 
  • Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Pasta and Parties: Referenced with a statement of the opposite and this trope by Beth, that "Nobody bad likes flowers", and "My gramma's neighbor's the meanest old cuss there ever was, and he hates flowers!"

    Live-Action TV 

    Puppet Shows 
  • Fraggle Rock: Exploited when Wander McMooch, an evil toad who works as a Con Artist, captures Philo and Gunge, attendants to Marjory the Trash Heap. When the Fraggle Five come to the rescue, it turns out that McMooch hates Fraggles because they're so "disgustingly lovable". Philo and Gunge immediately use this to their advantage.
    McMooch: [holding up Philo and Gunge] Well, it seems I have your disgustingly lovable friends at bay!
    Philo: That's what he hates about 'em?
    Gunge: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
    Philo: Yeah!
    [They begin smothering McMooch with kisses.]
    Gunge: Hey, we love ya! We're showering you with affection!
    Philo: Yeah, McMooch! You're our newest and bestest pal!
    Gunge: If we can't love Marjory, then we're gonna love you!
    Philo: Yeah!
    McMooch: [to the Fraggles] Take them! They're worse than Fraggles! Just leave me alone! [Drops Philo and Gunge.]
  • The Jim Henson Hour: Subverted in a sketch where Space Guy (Louie Anderson), a Jerkass space captain meets Commander Bunny (Bean Bunny) and his fellow bunnies from the planet Cuteron, who want to be friends. When Space Guy retorts, "I'll see you as rabbit stew first, hairball!", Commander Bunny responds by using his Cute Ray on him. Despite Space Guy's efforts to resist the effects of the Ray, he finds himself giggling, thinking about balloons, and turning into a bright pink bunny.
    Space Guy: [in bunny form] Hi, I'm Pink-a-Boo, the cutest, cuddliest, most pink-a-liciously wonderful person in the universe!
    Commander Bunny: [aghast] Pink-a-Boo?
    Space Guy: Will you be my friend?
    [The other bunnies run off, horrified.]
    Commander Bunny: [looking at the Cute Ray] Maybe I set it too high!

    Video Games 
  • Dragon Ball Fighter Z: Though he refuses to speak of it, its implied that Cell suffered the same Ironic Hell Frieza did. He seems to have handled it better than Frieza, but there's no question he is uncomfortable with the torment he suffered. When Goku asks what Hell is like, Cell describes it as full of sorrow and misery, as well as... other things. When pressed for more answers, he just grimly urges Goku to use his imagination.
  • Horizon Forbidden West: After Sylens captured and contained HADES, he tortures it by showing an endless simulation of bunnies in a meadow. This is such a Brown Note for HADES, it's all but completely corroded by the time Aloy catches up.
  • In South Park: The Stick of Truth, Paladin Butters is an aggro tank with a passive ability that makes enemies more likely to attack him instead of you. This ability is explained as him being so cute and innocent that the enemies can't help but want to beat the shit out of him.

    Web Animation 

    Western Animation 
  • In the "International Super Spy" special episode of The Backyardigans, Uniqua's character, the Lady in Pink, sings about how evil she is by listing all her horrible traits, including the fact that she doesn't "even like pie."
    "Who's the girl who never plays nice,
    and wishes that all rubber duckies would sink?"
  • Exploited in Darkwing Duck. In "Just Us Justice Ducks", Negaduck attempts to disguise himself as Darkwing Duck while in S.H.U.S.H. HQ. During the inevitable Spot the Imposter moment, Darkwing pretends to see a "fuzzy wuzzy bunny". Negaduck gives himself away by pulling out a shotgun and blasting away at the supposed bunny.
  • Fairly OddParents: The Yugopotamians are introduced as an evil alien race with interest in things like violence and garbage. However, they are absolutely afraid of anything cute and cuddly. Justified as these things are biologically toxic to them.
  • The belicose Omicronians of Futurama are this. Quoth Lrrr, "THIS CONCEPT OF WUV CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!"
  • Phineas and Ferb: Self-proclaimed evil-scientist Doofenshmirtz hates... well, a lot of things. One lyric from "I Really Don't Hate Christmas" states:
    I hate puppy dogs and kittens
    I hate flowers in the spring
    Heck, I even hate the sunshine, and the birdies when they sing.
  • The Quack Pack Halloween Episode "The Boy Who Cried Ghost" had Donald Duck and his nephews scare off the monsters by disguising themselves as cute things. Huey, Dewey and Louie make use of cute animal costumes they were stuck with earlier in the episode, while Donald pretends to be a baby.
  • Gargamel from The Smurfs (1981) hates springtime because that's when the birds come back from migration, the flowers bloom, and there's more sunshine. He also thinks the Smurfs themselves are disgusting.
  • Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants considers himself to be a Card-Carrying Villain who gags at the sight of cuteness. When he enters Spongebob's brain in one episode, everything there is too cute for him to stomach.
  • When the Butt Witch first emerges in Twelve Forever, her first reaction to seeing the Endless Island's Sugar Bowl nature is to wince in disgust, her dialogue implying that it was originally a Crapsack World that she—an Emotion Eating Humanoid Abomination Made of Evil—ruled over before Twelve turned it into the Never Land it is now.
    Butt Witch: THIS IS REPULSIVE! Wrong! This is all wrong! What a horribly tacky place this has become! Everything is so trivial... and cute!
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (2012): Seems to be the case with Juggernaut, if his reaction to Squirrel Girl's "army" is any indication.

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Freeza's adorable Hell

Monstrous space tyrant Freeza is condemned to an eternity of cuteness.

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