To-do list:
- The basic definition of this trope is evil that is so horrifying, powerful, incomprehensible, etc that it cannot be clearly shown on-screen, as for when they it is built up so much, anything shown to the audience is a letdown. Remove any examples that confuse it with other villain tropes, such as Big Bad or Greater-Scope Villain.
Original post
Ultimate Evil is a trope that has gone through various kinds of misuse for many reasons. The basic definition of this trope is evil that is so horrifying, powerful, incomprehensible, etc that it cannot be clearly shown on-screen, as for when they it is built up so much, anything shown to the audience is a letdown.However, this trope has been misused in a variety of ways. One particular problem leading to misuse is the trope's name. Although there exists a explanation at the bottom of the page description that this trope is not about being a Big Bad, Greater-Scope Villain, or the like, it still gets misused a ton because of its name. It doesn't describe the trope at all. There has been lots of misuse of a result of not understanding the exact classifications of the trope and that the evil needs to be unseen the entire time.
Here is my wick check (this is my first-ever wick check, so sorry if it's not super good), with usage being organized into various categories:
A. Evil that cannot be clearly shown on-screen because of how horrifying, powerful, incomprehensible, etc it is. It cannot be shown because the audience's expectations has been built up so much that anything shown would be a letdown.
1. Characters.Glitchtale (the bit about them being the Greater-Scope Villain can be cut though)
3. A Wrinkle in Time (third usage)
7. Characters.Inspector Gadget (assuming you don't count crappy action figures...
)
8. Characters.Angel Wolfram And Hart
11. Pineview Drive
B. The evil is shown off-screen for a while, but is eventually shown on-screen. (I left whenever they arguably made up to expectations or not out of this.)
1. Characters.The Legend Of Spyro
2. Characters.Ninjago (second usage)
3. Characters.John Dies At The End
4. Characters.The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody
5. Characters.Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated Antagonists
7. Characters.Over The Garden Wall (yes, the character that literally provides the page image. However, their true form is shown extremely briefly, so I'm not sure if this counts.)
8. Characters.Pony Dot Mov (listed as a subversion)
C. The evil is a Big Bad, Greater-Scope Villain, or the like. This includes evil entities, as well as objects that serve an evil role. (Note that for some of these examples, it was left unclear whenever they were this from the initial wick, so I had to gain additional context by looking though the works.)
1. Characters.Bright (from what I can tell, The Dark Lord is never actually seen in the flesh, but this still seems to be misuse)
2. Characters.Ninjago (first usage)
3. The Darkness
4. A Wrinkle in Time (first usage)
5. Frogger
8. The Elder Scrolls: Daedra (I'm unsure if these "ultimate evils" ever actually come into involvement of the plot or not, but from the way it's used, it seems to be used to describe a Greater-Scope Villain)
10. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
11. Mortal Engines
12. Lone Wolf
13. Supernatural.Tropes E To L
14. Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!
15. Recap.Samurai Jack S 5 E 10 CI
16. Characters.The Fifth Element (ZCE, but seems to be this)
17. Characters.Violinist Of Hameln
18. Gravity Soul
19. Desperation
20. Axelay
D. Zero-content examples.
E. Mixed usage.
1. Characters.Bone (unseen in the main series besides a pair of glowing "eyes", but he takes the form of a giant locust in the prequel comic Rose to contact Rose in her dreams.)
2. Characters.Code Lyoko (Has no definite shape apparently, but he is represented by a symbol, does take somewhat of a physical form in the real world as a "massive billowing cloud of slimy, black smoke", and apparently makes a physical appearance as a teenage boy in the novels)
F. Uncertain about usage; this includes examples where it could potentially be C but I couldn't find context elsewhere.
1. A Wrinkle in Time (second usage)
The results are:
Category A: 11/50
Category B: 8/50
Category C: 20/50
Category D: 6/50
Category E: 2/50
Category F: 3/50
Confusion about what the trope's name means seems to be a huge problem, with a majority of the wicks coming from that, so the trope definitely needs a rename. Unseen Evil is already a redirect for the trope, and I don't know why it isn't the trope's actual name.
For the definition of the trope itself's idea, here are some ideas:
- Keep the definition how it currently is: evil that is so horrifying, powerful, incomprehensible, etc that it cannot be clearly shown on-screen, as for when they it is built up so much, anything shown to the audience is a letdown
- Expand and alter the definition of the trope; make it so evil that is unseen for a significant amount of time still count, and also make it so that the reason why the evil is not shown onscreen is to make their actions seem more powerful and ominous. This would exclude the part on whenever the audience thinks the evil lives up to their expectations or not when it is seen.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Sep 5th 2022 at 2:13:52 PM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Double posting because I disambiguated Ultimate Evil between Unseen Evil (the new name), Big Bad, and Greater-Scope Villain earlier due to how it was being misused. I'm going to add The Man Behind the Man as well, because I didn't think to earlier.
Edit: Done. My arms still hurt due to fatigue and muscle pain from being sick, so I'm still taking a break from dewicking.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 17th 2022 at 4:17:24 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
This one's finally done, so locking up.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Crown Description:
The former page action crowner voted to not expand the trope's definition to include examples where an antagonistic force is obscured or off-screen for the most part, but is eventually shown clearly on-screen. However, it turns out that the trope's definition allowed examples like that in the first place, if you read its description. With how this aspect has always been present, do you want to keep the definition how it currently is, or add the restriction?
Yeah, I worked on some of them earlier. I'm saving the Characters/ namespace for last.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.