Basic Trope: A villain engages in evil purely for their own amusement. * Straight: "No, I wasn't abused there. The only reason I blew up the orphanage I used to live in was for the sheer joy of destroying peoples' lives!" * Exaggerated: * He's an Omnicidal Maniac Complete Monster, just because he can. * The villain is doing it literally for Evil's sake. * Justified: * Let's face it. This character type is hard to justify from moral or philosophical grounds. * The villain is the Anthropomorphic Personification of evil, or otherwise made entirely and unrepentantly evil by magical means. * Alternatively, he's The Sociopath. * He's been a despicable person from the start and his mode of acting is compulsive by now, without him needing any better a reason.