Should An Evil Protagonist Save The World?

[Bald-san]

I started to have this thought because it’s hard for me to understand if an Evil Protagonist should even have that option. A lot of stories give karma to evil deeds and bad karma can’t go unpunished. If they ‘win’ in the end then that just makes the whole story morally questionable.

I’ve seen stories where the ‘Evil Hero’ is either a misunderstood goth or an antihero, but it’s not the same. Heroes tend to fight ‘Evil’ so if they are selfish and malicious, then what sort of theme is that supposed to invoke and make us feel?

You would feel bad for the misunderstood and antiheroes, but Evil Protagonists rub people the wrong way. Even if they do a good deed at the end of the story, I’m sure that would give a tonal whiplash from what they read until that point.

Anyone have any recommendations or examples of evil protagonists like that? And not the NTR ones because those don’t make any sense to me (since thats more being scum than outright villainy that causes countless deaths).

Definitely want to look into that.

It always depends on the goal, for example if the villain just want to have the Krabby Patty formula, it's obvious that they will be using all of their knowledge to save a world from a threat that can destroy it but if their goal is to make the world's existence miserable because they have been betrayed by its inhabitants that they just wanted to protect before, then maybe they could destroy it.

 

[Valmond]

Sure they can. You can easily have an ends justify the means type of guy that destroys humanity to save the planet or something.

The witch speaks from experience?

 

[Deleted member 84247]

The witch speaks from experience?

I'm evil!

 

[CrimsonGenius]

Well… they do live in the world and thats where all their stuff. They may hate the villain for arbitrary reasons.

 

[Okram]

I started to have this thought because it’s hard for me to understand if an Evil Protagonist should even have that option. A lot of stories give karma to evil deeds and bad karma can’t go unpunished. If they ‘win’ in the end then that just makes the whole story morally questionable.

I’ve seen stories where the ‘Evil Hero’ is either a misunderstood goth or an antihero, but it’s not the same. Heroes tend to fight ‘Evil’ so if they are selfish and malicious, then what sort of theme is that supposed to invoke and make us feel?

You would feel bad for the misunderstood and antiheroes, but Evil Protagonists rub people the wrong way. Even if they do a good deed at the end of the story, I’m sure that would give a tonal whiplash from what they read until that point.

Anyone have any recommendations or examples of evil protagonists like that? And not the NTR ones because those don’t make any sense to me (since thats more being scum than outright villainy that causes countless deaths).

Definitely want to look into that.

If the domination/conquest is the main goal, then what would be the point of letting the world be destroyed? Most would not wanna rule over a pile of ashes. If the goal is complete annihilation, then it would depend. What does the villain get from it if he does it, and what does someone else doing it deprive him of?

I'm evil!

Sure, you are En-Chan. Very evil.

 

[LilRora]

One topic that I've seen brought up in some stories is an entity that is obligated to kill or destroy for some reason, and keeps maintaining and saving the world as its obligation will be impossible to fulfill if the world is destroyed. Another thing that is worth considering is that something that is considered evil can be a powerful driving force for civilization to develop.

Evil, however, is subjective. In most of those and similar cases, while the protagonist may be evil from a specific point of view, merely the fact they save the world will most likely make them morally ambiguous at the very least.

 

[Placeholder]

> If the goal is complete annihilation, then it would depend. What does the villain get from it if he does it, and what does someone else doing it deprive him of?

Loss of agency - they suffer an injury to their self-regard if someone else does it first.

 

[Rezcore]

Not so much saved... as under new management