About: Driven to Villainy   Sponge Permalink

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Sometimes, your villain isn't the Mad Scientist who wants to poison the city, or the Corrupt Corporate Executive who wants to control the world, or the greedy bank robber who's on a crime spree. Sometimes, your villain's just an average guy who's brought into villainy against their own will or control. This isn't Mind Control or possession, this is a truly insane villain, but here, it's because they've been warped by events around them, and forced into villainy by forces outside their control. A broken shell of a human being, the only thing left is insanity.

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  • Driven to Villainy
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  • Sometimes, your villain isn't the Mad Scientist who wants to poison the city, or the Corrupt Corporate Executive who wants to control the world, or the greedy bank robber who's on a crime spree. Sometimes, your villain's just an average guy who's brought into villainy against their own will or control. This isn't Mind Control or possession, this is a truly insane villain, but here, it's because they've been warped by events around them, and forced into villainy by forces outside their control. A broken shell of a human being, the only thing left is insanity.
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  • Sometimes, your villain isn't the Mad Scientist who wants to poison the city, or the Corrupt Corporate Executive who wants to control the world, or the greedy bank robber who's on a crime spree. Sometimes, your villain's just an average guy who's brought into villainy against their own will or control. This isn't Mind Control or possession, this is a truly insane villain, but here, it's because they've been warped by events around them, and forced into villainy by forces outside their control. A broken shell of a human being, the only thing left is insanity. To alter an old saying: "Some people are born into insanity, others have insanity thrust upon them." While their villainous actions have no excuse, their cause for becoming villains was entirely (or mostly) out of their hands. It's actually pretty rare to find a villain who is truly blameless in their origin, though it does happen. Even origins that lament the cruelty of fate, like The Joker's in The Killing Joke, eventually reveal that the origin is still largely due to the character's choices anyway. Indeed, a villain who is fed up with abuse by others or out for revenge is still making the active choice to be villainous, and if it is still clear that the villain made the choice to be evil themselves rather than have it made for them, then they're not exactly broken, just enraged to the point of vengeance. However, the trend seems to be that, the more arbitrary their fall into villainy seems to be, the more psychotic they become, as those screwed by the world become angry at the world, and seek to inflict their new madness on everyone. The end result of being Driven to Villainy is not a good person forced to do evil, but a legitimately evil villain, tragically warped by things they never had any control over. A Sub-Trope of Anti-Villain. Compare Freudian Excuse. Such a character may become a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. See also From Nobody to Nightmare. Examples of Driven to Villainy include:
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