During the investigation of recent hollers in the Complete Monster thread, it's become apparent to the staff that an insular, unfriendly culture has evolved in the Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard threads that is causing problems.
Specific issues include:
- Overzealous hollers on tropers who come into the threads without being familiar with all the rules and traditions of the tropes. And when they are familiar with said rules and traditions, they get accused (with little evidence) of being ban evaders.
- A few tropers in the thread habitually engage in snotty, impolite mini-modding. There are also regular complaints about excessive, offtopic "socializing" posts.
- Many many thread regulars barely post/edit anywhere else, making the threads look like they are divorced from the rest of TV Tropes.
- Following that, there are often complaints about the threads and their regulars violating wiki rules, such as on indexing, crosswicking, example context and example categorization. Some folks are working on resolving the issues, but...
- Often moderator action against thread regulars leads to a lot of participants suddenly showing up in the moderation threads to protest and speak on their behalf, like a clique.
It is not a super high level problem, but it has been going on for years and we cannot ignore it any longer. There will be a thread in Wiki Talk
to discuss the problem; in the meantime there is a moratorium on further Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard example discussion until we have gotten this sorted out.
Update: The new threads have been made and can be found here:
Please see the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List before suggesting any new entries for this trope.
IMPORTANT: To avoid a holler to the mods, please see here for the earliest date a work can be discussed, (usually two weeks from the US release), as well as who's reserved discussion.
When voting, you must specify the candidate(s). No blanket votes (i.e. "
to everyone I missed").
No plagiarism: It's fair to source things, but an effortpost must be your own work and not lifted wholesale from another source.
We don't care what other sites think about a character being a Complete Monster. We judge this trope by our own criteria. Repeatedly attempting to bring up other sites will earn a suspension.
What is the Work
Here you briefly describe the work in question and explain any important setting details. Don't assume that everyone is familiar with the work in question.
Who is the Candidate and What have they Done?
This will be the main portion of the Effort Post. Here you list all of the crimes committed by the candidate. For candidates with longer rap sheets, keep the list to their most important and heinous crimes, we don't need to hear about every time they decide to do something minor or petty.
Do they have any Mitigating Factors or Freudian Excuse?
Here you discuss any potential redeeming or sympathetic features the character has, the character's Freudian Excuse if they have one, as well as any other potential mitigating factors like Offscreen Villainy or questions of moral agency. Try to present these as objectively as possible by presenting any evidence that may support or refute the mitigating factors.
Do they meet the Heinousness Standard?
Here you compare the actions of the Candidate to other character actions in the story in order to determine if they stand out or not. Remember that all characters, not just other villains, contribute to the Heinousness Standard
Final Verdict?
Simply state whether or not you think the character counts or not.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 31st 2023 at 4:14:10 AM
Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button
By the way, I want to alter the Higashi writeup somewhat:
- Eiichi Higashi was the man directly responsible for turning Reina into the Big Bad. As the president of the sketchy talent agency Omega, Higashi had numerous young girls taken from the streets to be pimped out, sold and exploited for himself and his clients. One of these girls was Reina, who had an innate talent as singer and good looks, which he abused by trying to manipulate her and force her to do dirty deeds for potential associates. Whenever Reina resisted or had an emotional breakdown, Higashi would worsen his abuse, yelling and beating her down. This eventually drove Reina to suicide, which he tried to take advantage of for publicity. By the time Reina's spirit came back and killed him, Higashi had done this to dozens of other girls. Higashi may have been a mere human, but he was far more vile than any supernatural horror.
Saying he is the man solely responsible for her past is kinda untrue, since Tokimassa also kinda warped Reina into becoming a Vengeful Ghost. But Higashi is the guy who essentially killed her, which is when she underwent her transformation. Also, I put everything in past tense because he is a Posthumous Character- by the time of the actual narrative, he is dead.
Speaking of Higashi, I also have a quote for him:
- T-that monster...how many girls did Higashi pass around and abuse before she murdered him?—Detective Ayami Ito upon learning of Eiichi Higashi's physical, verbal, and sexual abuse of Reina, Tokyo Dark
Kinda short, I know, but I think it gets the job done.
Edited by MasterN on Mar 3rd 2020 at 10:09:23 AM
One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.Yes to the last three candidates.
Here's April's writeup :
Unrequited Love
(archive
): April, also known as Aoibheann and Nyarlathotep, was the tyrannical queen of the Fair Folk. Enjoying causing chaos for her own amusement, Aoibheann manipulated humanity, elves, leprechauns and fairies into fighting each other. When her lover Eoghan turned against her and killed her alongside 3 other heroes, Aoibheann swore revenge on him and his descendants, keeping her word by manipulating innocent virgin men into causing historical disasters in Ireland. Implied to have driven innocent men insane in the present day by seducing and luring them in a museum's Irish Mythology exhibit, April attempted to do the same thing with Darren Monaghan and killed his mother, his best friend and his best friend's wife when Darren refused. Kidnapping Darren's brother Paul, April told Darren to bring her 30 children to sacrifice to Azathoth if he wanted to save Paul. April planned to use these sacrifices to revive her body, and then give the entire world to Azathoth to eat, while she and Darren's soul rules on its remains. While her love for Eoghan was once genuine, it's now twisted to an obsession with him and Darren and a desire to want them all to herself.
Edited by GeorgieEnkoom on Mar 3rd 2020 at 7:01:52 PM
J’m’arrête pas tant qu’j’vois pas des lignes sur les moniteurs (Not stoppin 'til I see Flatlines)'Yes' to Hitler and U....U'du....uhhh that guy!
Next up from me and probably my last for this batch, some of you may recall a bit of a James Spader binge of candidates I proposed awhile back. Well, there was one more candidate I almost proposed, but ended up neglecting due to a few possible issues I had with him...but looking back, I don't think those issues hold up, so let's talk him.
What's the work?
Shadow of Fear is a really...really...really bad 2004 thriller starring Matthew Davis, Aidan Quinn, and James Spader in leading roles, with Lacey Chabert in a minor role for some damn reason.
Our film focuses on Harrison French, a down on his luck business-y guy who accidentally does something terrible, tries to fix it terribly, meets a terrible person, and gets sucked into a terrible situation of terrible circumstances.
All in a terribly long 90 minute film that feels more like 3 hours. Bless you, Spader, for making this somewhat watchable.
Who is he?
William J. Ashbury Jr. is, as comes naturally when you're played by James Spader, a suave, smarmy bastard, an Amoral Attorney with his fingers in everyone's pie and his hands around everyone's throats.
Ashbury offers his services to many people, promising to make any and all of their problems disappear, no matter how severe they may be. All he asks for in return is....well, we'll find that out together.
What has he done?
As I said, Ashbury offers his services to powerful folks, from businessmen to Congressmen. Able and willing to use his vast string of connections to make any problem disappear, Ashbury helps these special "clients" get away with something wrong they have done...in return, Ashbury forces them to join a little 'social club' of his own design, where they meet together on Tuesday ("No exceptions!") to discuss their current state of things.
Ashbury's schtick? He makes you repeat your offense. Over, and over, and over again. Likened to a father punishing his son for smoking by making him go through a whole pack of cigarettes in a day, Ashbury blackmails his clients with their own 'sins,' forcing them to repeat said sins countless amounts of times.
Cheat on your wife? Ashbury forces you to continue sleeping with your mistress and sneaking around on your wife, even if you hate being with said mistress.
Evade taxes? Ashbury forces you to continuously cook books and alter tax papers for years to come.
Steal something valuable? You'll have to steal things for the rest of your life.
The men who fall under Ashbury's 'control' are perpetual nervous wrecks, driven to alcoholism and self-loathing to try to deal with the endless nerve-wracking anxiety of the things Ashbury makes them do, unable to ever back out lest Ashbury ruin their lives by revealing not only their original wrong-doing, but all their repeats of it as well. Another thing Ashbury seems to do regularly...target the women in the lives of the men he controls. In one scene, we see one of Ashbury's victims chugging alcohol frantically, trying desperately to control his emotions from the fact that Ashbury is right across the room behind a closed door, having sexual relations with the man's daughter. This is treated as a regular occurrence, with several of the men noting that it's a routine "atonement" ritual as Ashbury calls it, literally banging women who are close to his puppets just so he can rub it in their faces that they can't do anything to stop him.
All this? Ashbury's been at for decades. Now, for the plot of the movie...the very...very strange plot of the movie.
Our, ah, "hero" Harrison French accidentally kills a man while driving intoxicated through the rain at night. Panicking, Harrison covers it up, ultimately being approached by Ashbury, whose father-in-law is one of Ashbury's current victims, who promises Harrison he can make this problem "disappear." Tricking Harrison into further incriminating himself, Ashbury pulls some strings to make everyone believe the man Harrison killed with his car was Harrison's drug addict brother-in-law Chris, causing Harrison's wife Wynn and her entire family immense emotional distress while Ashbury truthfully takes Chris, stores him somewhere and supplies his drug habit.
With Harrison now completely in his grip—with Ashbury framing a homeless man then disappearing him as the actual killer of "Chris"—Ashbury starts moving in on Wynn, waiting until she's intoxicated at a party before luring her to his bedroom and putting the moves on her, though luckily Harrison arrives and convinces Wynn to leave. A slightly annoyed Ashbury then reveals to Harrison that Chris is actually alive, and Ashbury is planning to drop him off in the middle of town tomorrow. Ashbury then reveals that Harrison has to do exactly what everyone else in the "club" does—repeat his crime over and over again, with Chris being his first chosen target by Ashbury.
Ordering Harrison to kill Chris lest Ashbury reveal the truth and get him locked up, Ashbury is pleased when Harrison seemingly follows through and kills Chris, only for Harrison to not show up to the latest "club meeting" Tuesday ("No exceptions!"). Pissed off now, Ashbury decides to drive over to Harrison's wife and reveal to her Harrison's crimes just to torment her and punish Harrison for "missing a meeting."
Harrison stops Ashbury in the road, confronting him alongside an alive Chris, revealing they had tricked Ashbury so as to incriminate him. When Harrison taunts Ashbury that he doesn't have the moxy to actually hurt them personally, Ashbury whips out a gun and shoots Harrison through the leg, remarking with shock "You question my resolve? That was it? That was your trump card? THAT'S what you were betting your life on?!" before preparing to shoot and kill the both of them.
Luckily, Harrison and Chris alerted police detective Scofield to their location, who shows up and confronts Ashbury...Ashbury smugly reveals knowledge of the detective's past just to throw him off, so he can then try to shoot the man dead, only for Scofield to get off the first shot, killing Ashbury and saving Harrison and Chris's lives.
Movie then ends on a weird implication that Harrison might take up control of Ashbury's club but then again this whole movie was fucky so I'm not gonna even pretend to understand that ending.
Freudian Excuse or other redeeming features?
Mmmm ..I don't think so. Ashbury acts friendly and jovial to everyone, pretending to be a righteous man who wants to just 'punish the sinful' and be a 'friend' to his victims all at once, with his victims even believing Ashbury is only doing it as a sick comparison to a father who forces his son to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes to sway him from smoking.
But in truth? Ashbury happily brags to Harrison in private that the men under his sway are nothing but a "collection," with him downright giddy that he gets to "add a murderer" to it. Ashbury is an egomaniacal nutjob who gets his kicks on controlling people and tormenting them, and despite how affable he pretends to be, Ashbury doesn't hesitate to fly into a pissy rage when Harrison doesn't make one of his meetings and tries to ruin his life and the lives of his loved ones out of spite.
For as nice as he may behave towards people not even under his control, like Wynn, Ashbury won't hesitate to torment and screw with her and even come onto her while she's intoxicated all just to hurt Harrison.
Heinousness?
Ashbury's a strange case for a candidate...he has zero actual confirmed murder on his hands, and his attempted bodycount is pretty much 3 (Harrison, Chris and Scofield), and it's this that partially contributed to my initial dismissal of him.
Nonetheless, upon reflection, I think Ashbury's got a unique enough rapsheet to count. Offering to help guys get out of a single wrongdoing, only to then blackmail them into repeating it over and over again—even something as creepy as banging a mistress who they've grown to hate—with full detail put on how much the men suffer. On top of targeting the women in their lives just to torment them, bragging that he can now make Harrison repeat his 'sin' over and over (which is murder), and trying to kill Harrison and Chris when they sufficiently get in his way, I think Ashbury's bad enough.
Final Verdict?
Weird, weird movie, and Ashbury's equally weird personality almost comes off as genuinely Affably Evil sometimes, but there's an explicit amount of time put into showing Ashbury to be a controlling, downright sadistic ass whose first reaction when things don't go his way is to fly into a pissfit and nearly murder Harrison, so I don't think anything is really keeping him from this trope. Keeper for me.
No! That is NOT Solid Snake! Stop impersonating him!
Ashbury.
Fun fact: The writers of this stinker would later go on to write Iron Man 1, Punisher: War Zone, Transformers: The Last Knight, and Men in Black: International. They’re also co-writers on the new Morbius movie and are writing Masters of the Universe.
So yeah, quite a resume.
Edited by therealjackieboy on Mar 4th 2020 at 12:17:52 PM
It's Spooky Month!Agreed with Mir and Kylo, and here I thought Amoral Attorney villains were boring and repetitive.
to Ashbury.
I found this on the main page of Body Rides.
- Complete Monster: Rasputin, being a brutal serial killer. Vince Conrad may be this to even a greater degree, since he saved that monster from death in the past and enabled his further crimes.
Since this is a Richard Laymon novel. Lighty what do you think. Are these dudes worth a look.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Joker.
Hitler
U'tlun'ta.
Ashbury.
Here's someone new from Something Scary.
For those who don't know Something Scary was a web animation series I brought up earlier this year that tells short animated horror stories; these range from Urban Legend or Creepypypasta readings, true crimes stories, dark fairy tales or folklore from round the world, and finally, original stories.
One of their newest original stories is called "The Monster Who Mocks'', which focuses on an unnamed kid who was sent to a strict bootcamp for delinquency. Wanting to escape he encounters a creature wearing his face dubbed The Mimic, who says it can give them both what they want.
What is the Mimic ? What does it do ?
Okay as mentioned above The Mimic is a shapeshifting Humanoid Abomination lurking in the woods just off of a military school boot camp. Our protagonist is a kid sent to said military school for his history of being a prankster, and quickly gets tired of how strict they are. The kid decides to pull a prank on the school by sneaking out during exercise and scary everyone with a monstrous voice over announcements. The kid is found out immediately and forced through an all night discipline, when he hears an inhuman shriek coming from the woods, where he spots the Mimic. The Mimic tells the kid it's been watching him and can give them both what they want if he accepts it's deal. The kid nods as the Mimic shapeshifts into his form before disappearing into the woods.
From there a series of pranks occur throughout the school over the course of several days. Each day they pranks are heralded by the Mimic roaring over the microphones, and the kid keeps getting in trouble over them. These pranks turn out to be more deadly and dangerous than what the kid usually does through, such as cutting climbing ropes, or collapsing obstacle courses. The kid soon has enough, and one night, arms himself with a hatchet to go confront the Mimic in the woods...only to get knocked out upon coming face to face with it.
When the kid comes too during daybreak, he see's smoke coming from the school. He returns to see the entire place collapsing in flames; slaughtered and wounded instructors and students, left right and center. The survivors all flee and beg in terror at the sight of the kid, while the Mimic emerges from the wreck of the school, having assimilated body parts of several of its victims. The Mimic mockingly thanks the kid by stating they now both got what they wanted; the kid is rid of the school, and the Mimic got to feed, and now they are both "free". The story ends with the Mimic walking off into the woods while the kid looks on in disbelief.
Redeeming Qualities or Freudian Excuse ?
Nada. One might be tempted to question agency due to it being a literal monster, but it clearly speaks to the protagonist, shows that it has a human understanding. And it displays a crafty or sadistic personality whenever it speaks, or does anything really.
Heinous Standard
Only villain in this particular story and it slaughters and cannibalizes a military school full of instructors and cadets.
'Something Scary isn't a continuity based series, and each story is its own independent story taken from folklore, Creepypastas, etc. Even their "original" stories are fan submitted. Point is, there really isn't any "competition" when it comes to these stories.
"It's like...a cliff, and if I do it, I'm just gonna...fall." "I think we're already falling."Okay I would like to explore a potential cut of one of my own cannidates. Brainiac from Justice League/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The reason is not for any redeeming qualities I might have missed, because the only real potential one with Alpha is subverted in the final image of the comic where it's revealed he's taken over his body and making it clear that before that he had no problem with killing Alpha if he goes against him. No I'm just not sure he's Heinous enough.
Looking back at a lot of what he does is shared with Zedd and not that unique for the franchise. What originally set him apart was two things this is the comic continuity (Which even then it doesn't make much sense in that continuity) and he has done this to many other worlds which we see evidence of. But I am not sure even that is enough for him to stand out. I'm not saying that we have to cut right out, but I just want to discuss it a bit more.
However if he stay I'm wondering if we should make him a duo with Zedd. Who I could expand on what he does if you want, but then offcurse we run into the problem of me not having read his other appearances, but even then from research they seem to controdict each other.
And even then the destroy of the other planets is solely Brainiac. And he has a few more personal villain moments then Zedd. Like bragging about killing Krypton while trying to kill Superman with Kryptonite, and taking over Cyborg twice, both times making him attack his friends and making it clear he wants to dissect him the final time. And a lot of Zedd does in the comic is only possible because of Brainiac.
I guess what I'm trying to say with this rambling post is that I am not very proud of my original EP and want to see if this is worth mentioning. Or of I made a mistake proposing him originally.
Edited by Bullman on Mar 4th 2020 at 7:56:46 AM
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

Huh, another story about Hitler getting reincarnated?
to him and the vampire god.
Edited by TheMadCr0w on Mar 3rd 2020 at 1:27:58 PM