Old Complete Monster cleanup thread
Welcome to the Complete Monster proposal thread! This is the thread where new Complete Monster examples are vetted, approved, and written up. If you're looking for the general cleanup thread (for cuts, rewrites, expansions, and the like), please go here
Important: Before suggesting any new examples, please read the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List; if you have any questions, the odds are high they are answered there. Additionally, please check here for the earliest date a work can be discussed (usually two weeks from the U.S. release date) and whether the work has already been reserved by another user.
Here is how the process works:
- If you have a candidate to propose, you can simply come right in and propose them! If the character's run is brief, such as a single issue of a comic book, then a simple summary of their actions and any potential redeeming qualities will be enough; for longer-running candidates, an effortpost (EP) might be helpful for organizing the proposal. An EP is not outright required, but please be mindful that if a post becomes too clunky and unorganized, it can be very hard for other people to follow.
- After the proposal, there will be a 72-hour discussion and voting period, where people may ask questions and vote on the candidate. The number of upvotes must outnumber the downvotes by at least five for the character to be considered "approved".
- Three days after the proposal has been made, if the character has been approved, you may post the writeup (the text to be posted on the trope page itself) on the thread and send it to the drafts page. Your candidate will soon be added to the CM subpage. If the work has a page, you should add your candidate to the relevant YMMV page. Voila! It's that simple!
Outside of this process, we do have a few ground rules:
- To keep the thread moving at a reasonable pace, there are some restrictions on when a proposal can be made. There should only be a maximum of four EPs posted both per page and per hour to ensure that nothing gets lost in the shuffle; additionally, each individual troper should only be proposing or writing up characters from a maximum of three works at a time (from initial proposals to end of their voting period). If your proposal would fall outside of either of these guidelines, we'd like to ask you to please wait until they would fit within; feel free to type them up on an outside document, and then when the time comes, you can just copy, paste, and post!
- No plagiarism of any kind. This is a very serious matter site-wide, as the website could get in actual legal trouble over this; as a result, this can very quickly lead to mod intervention. This can take many different forms:
- Direct plagiarism, i.e. wholesale copying. This is not only the easiest to find, but is also the most likely to warrant quick moderator intervention. To be clear, quoting in some places is perfectly acceptable, but it has to be very clear you're quoting from something else and it cannot be anything longer than a sentence or two - if you're quoting an entire work summary from Wikipedia, no one is going to believe you've actually consumed the work, so even if you cite your source, your candidate will be downvoted anyway.
- Self-plagiarism. Even if you can prove that you wrote the same text in both places, the site itself can't contain any of the duplicated text. If you already wrote something once before, it's not too hard to write it a second time.
- Using another site's work as a template for a proposal. Just because you don't copy and paste something directly doesn't mean it's any harder to detect if you're basing parts or all of your proposal on text someone else wrote. To be clear, this doesn't violate site rules and won't lead to mod intervention, but just like if you directly plagiarize, no one will believe you've consumed the work if you're clearly basing your proposal on something else. This thread largely operates on the honor system, and tweaking someone else's work to pass it off as your own is one of the fastest ways to lose trust.
- Don't delete an EP unless you intend to swiftly repost it. We know that there are reasons why you might want to delete an EP, especially if it's being downvoted - rejection is hard, even in a low-stakes environment like this. However, deleting it renders the current discussion null and void, makes it impossible to reference the discussion in the future and can confuse tropers who didn't read it before the deletion. If the issue is temporary (such as formatting problems or a post getting overlooked as the thread moves on), then deleting and quickly reposting the EP is a valid option, but to fully retract an EP, please use the [[strike:]] markup instead.
- Votes must be for specific candidates, meaning no blanket voting (i.e. "yes to everyone I missed").
- If you are the first person to downvote a candidate, please provide an explanation of why when you do so. We're here for discussions above all, and a hit-and-run downvote doesn't facilitate anything.
- 'If a work is already reserved by another user , please don't comment on the work or any potential characters worth discussion before the discussion date. We know how exciting it is when a work has a keeper that you're waiting to talk about, but it's not fair to the person who reserved the work who is just as excited to lead the discussion to see the discussion getting spoiled before they get to do it. On the other hand, if the reservation only has one name attached, shoot them a PM - they may be down for a collaboration, which will get you in on the fun as well!
- Please keep the thread on-topic. While discussing the trope is fun and we encourage people to enjoy it, questions like "who's your favorite CM" are off-topic and can lead to thumps. That's the kind of question to take to people's PMs if they're willing. Similarly, while we encourage friendliness and familiarity with other users, posts should always have some kind of thread-relevant purpose; for instance, if you want to wish someone a happy birthday, feel free to, but if it's the only thing in the post, it's off-topic and needs something else alongside it. Again, though, while we strive for a friendly atmosphere, this is not Facebook; life updates are fun, but unless they have some kind of impact on your thread participation, please do not bring it here - we have Yack Fest
for that.
- Please refrain from asking anything along the lines of "How Did We Miss This One?" In almost every case, the answer is simply "No one thought about it before". This Is a Wiki where everyone has different interests, and the fact that people missed a particular candidate, even one that seems like a textbook example of a trope or a character who is particularly iconic in pop culture, means absolutely nothing. The question is disruptive, has a simple and consistent answer, and provides nothing to any discussion.
- If you are suspended from parts of the website, it is still possible to participate!
- For users who are suspended from editing the wiki, you still have full access to this thread. You can propose candidates and write them up with no issues whatsoever; while you will have to ask someone else to post the entry to the relevant pages once it is done, all write-ups are considered thread-approved - as in, done by consensus - and thus doing so does not violate any rules regarding meatpuppeting.
- If you are suspended from the forums, your participation is limited but not impossible. It is still possible for a forum-suspended user to assist in creating the write-up for a character who has already been approved; as previously mentioned, write-ups are inherently considered a consensus-based edit and thus not tied to any one particular user. However, you can not assist in the proposal of a character; as a proposal is based around the forum rather than the wiki, doing so with a forum suspension qualifies as meatpuppeting.
- Please keep all discussions "in-house".
- What other wikis use for CM equivalents is irrelevant here.
- Please be wary of using other wikis, Fandom or otherwise, as sources of information. They are just as fallible as a site like Wikipedia in regards to accuracy because they can be edited by any user, just as this site can.
- Do not attempt to force a communication with an author in an attempt to gather evidence or settle a debate; besides the fact that this is a YMMV trope and thus author intent has variable weight depending on the circumstance, doing so may cross the line into drama exportation, which is prohibited site-wide.
If you would like to use an EP for your candidate, here's the general format. This format does not have to be followed exactly, but these are the main topics that need to be covered:
What is the work?
This is a brief summary of the work you're going to discuss. We don't need a full plot summary here, just however much we need to understand going into the discussion — it can even be as simple as quoting the summary on the work's page.
Who is the candidate and what have they done?
This is essentially the character's biography — who they are, their story, the crimes they commit, and, preferably (though not required), what happens to the candidate at the end. It does not have to include every single thing they ever do — for some villains, we'd be here all day if that was the case — but it should include the highlights of their journey.
Any redeeming qualities? Freudian Excuse?
This is where any potential redeeming characteristics or tragic backstory should be discussed. Do they have a tragic past? Do they show that Even Evil Has Standards or Even Evil Has Loved Ones? Maybe a Pet the Dog moment or two? This is where these should be discussed in full. Not every potential redeeming moment is a clear-cut disqualifier, but we should hear of any potential issues to ensure the character is discussed in full.
Are they bad enough?
A Complete Monster has to be particularly vile by the standard of the work they appear in. Therefore, you should look at what the character does compared to similar characters in the same work. This takes into account things like:
- Their resource level (a human Serial Killer can't stand up to an alien Omnicidal Maniac, but they can be bad by the standard of other human serial killers)
- The amount of time they have to work with (such as a one-shot character versus long-running antagonists)
- The quantity vs. quality of their crimes compared to others (someone with a lower victim count but far more visceral and personal crimes could be considered as equally bad overall as someone with a higher body count but less horror involved)
Essentially, this section is an analysis of the kinds of villainy shown in the work and an explanation of why this particular character's villainy stands out within it.
Final verdict?
This is where you post your final conclusion on the character in question. You can continue elaborating on your reasons or even just say a simple "yes" or "no"; at this point, we've heard everything we need to hear.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This thread tackles very serious and dark matters on a daily basis. We will be discussing things like murder, rape, torture, human trafficking, crimes against children, and in particularly dark cases, several of these issues at the same time. We keep a lighthearted air, but all candidates carry the general assumption that these are awful individuals committing disgusting crimes. We ask that if you participate, you do so with the requisite seriousness such dark topics require; exclamations of how gross something is, whether serious or sarcastic, are disrespectful to the topics at hand, and if you cannot handle such topics, please do not participate.
And that's everything you need to know. Welcome to the thread!
Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 12th 2024 at 3:13:36 PM
Any more votes for Ratar-o
only 43 and Genitor have comented on him.
@ACW: Regarding Fontaine, his reactions to when the families are killed are literally just him brushing it off as “an unavoidable accident”. Even if he didn’t intend for them to die, the game places the blame on Fontaine, expressly showing a total lack of remorse.
Fontaine may not have planned or intended for the families to die, but he didn’t care when he found out. When his partner makes a bigger deal about the mess this will cause them, Fontaine bluntly tells him to stop making a scene.
Fontaine doesn’t even show concern up until Ira’s last phone call, where the latter is now out of Fontaine’s control. He’s not even that concerned about the bad publicity the fires caused, only now that they can be traced back to him.
"It's like...a cliff, and if I do it, I'm just gonna...fall." "I think we're already falling."I'll say yes to Ratar-o if only barely and Ishmael, but no to the Ripper.
I'm also going with a no on Fontaine. In many ways, Monroe is just as equal in the scheme and neither intended there to be anyone in the houses or for Ira to go on a killing spree. Not to mention one of the other men in on the plan is a pedophile caught sleeping with a twelve year old.
Edited by LoreDeluxe on Jan 20th 2023 at 3:10:26 AM
Think you're tough because you made it through Lord of the Rings? Real men survive The Silmarillion.I don’t think it is exacly fair to compare Grune and Ratar-o. Grune is heavy for first aprt of the series and second in command of powerfull sorcerer with technology that can reduce, alredy technologycaly city of Avista hellples. Ratar-o is one episode guy who has nastist instance of Direct slavery in the show, lacking millitary power and technology, except his blades that could take him anywhere on Grune or Mumm-ra’s level. I think that that with pretty clear of what world will look if he gets his hand on the sword of Plundar are more than enought.
Also to point out this show isn’t nearly as bleak or overly dark as this keeps would have you believe. Thundera seems to mostly be content with having best territories and being seen as strongest, not to say that they are not guilty of crimes agains other races.
Except Mumm’ra and Ratar-o there is only one other villain who engages in slavery. And most of one shot threats are either wild anymals who attack heroes or simply standard or even misguided badies.
Edited by EmperorGeode on Jan 20th 2023 at 3:14:46 AM
Hmm, I'll solidify an abstain for Fontaine (heh). You've convinced me not to vote no, but not enough to vote yes.
Fontaine just doesn't have the sexual violence and pure sadistic malevolence in his crimes to make me despise him as much as Garret or Mc Affee.
Think you're tough because you made it through Lord of the Rings? Real men survive The Silmarillion.Yeah if anyone could count from Way Of The Water it’s that Whale Hunter.
My sandbox of EPs and other stuffLate yes to Ares. I legitimately expected when I became aware Ares was to be reevaluated that there was a flashback in Ragnarok(admit to never having played the God of War games due to their exclusivity, moreso aware of what went on in that series via Tvtropes and youtube videos) that established him as worse than Odin since I had some doubts about Ares given how pre-Mellowing Kratos and Odin both fucked over the heinous standard into the next dimension and felt that "there's gotta to be some big flashback reveal in Ragnarok"....while there was no such flashback in Ragnarok, turns out if you take a look at the prequel games from a different angle he does enough to stand out on his own.
Does his novel counterpart now do anything to warrant a separate entry or should that be cut?
Edited by xie323 on Jan 20th 2023 at 4:04:49 AM
@Lord: Except Ira doesn’t go on a killing spree. The only people he kills after his psychotic break is literally Fontaine himself and thugs sent to kill him, and (to his knowledge) Elsa.
As for Monroe, while he may be the leader of the the SBF, he’s a lot more hands off than Fontaine who is the one who gets his hands the most dirty. And even if they didn’t intend for the families to be killed, it’s repeatedly shown that Fontaine doesn’t care.
As far as the pedophile in on the SBF, that’s one victim that we know of. While Fontaine has multiple murders and deaths directly tied to him, which includes that of children (which again, he doesn’t care about), and becomes one of the biggest drug distributors in LA behind, selling supplying Cohen with a “drug” that’s shown to be especially lethal to the average junkie, causing multiple overdoses.
Not to dismiss pedophilia, but in my book, that’s a drop in a bucket compared to some of the greater crimes in the game.
Edited by Beast on Jan 20th 2023 at 3:41:08 AM
"It's like...a cliff, and if I do it, I'm just gonna...fall." "I think we're already falling."Intent matters so much in cases like this when a candidate is indirectly responsible for horrible things. The intent for mass murder clearly wasn't there for Fontaine and, as the Administrivia states, candidates can hold nothing back. If Fontaine had outright ordered Ira to burn the houses down despite knowing people were in there, or even if he had shown some measure of pleasure or sadistic glee at the news. Compared to a torturous sexual sadist like Mason or smaller criminal that produces pedophilac rape snuff films, Fontaine simply doesn't disgust me enough for me to call him this trope.
Think you're tough because you made it through Lord of the Rings? Real men survive The Silmarillion.Fontaine doesn’t have to be this twisted sexual sadist to spice him up; his characterization is that of a cold blooded sociopath. Plus we have plenty of examples of commit Accidental Murder, but don’t care, which would be the case for Fontaine.
"It's like...a cliff, and if I do it, I'm just gonna...fall." "I think we're already falling."

Definitely want to read about this Avatar keeper once I've seen the movie.
Edited by futuremoviewriter on Jan 20th 2023 at 2:42:00 AM