The criteria for what makes a character The Ultimate Evil (TUE for short).
Overview
Three important aspects that makes this character The Ultimate Evil are:
- The Most Powerful – Simply put, this villain is one of the most powerful in the story or franchise they are from. Either they are as powerful as one-man army or commands the power of an army.
- The Most Dangerous – They are the most dangerous villain the story. They are capable of causing and wreaking a lot of havoc with the powers they possess.
- The Most Evil – They are the most evil in the franchise they appear from. If the story they are from has other pure evil villains or near pure evil villains, then these villains would be one of the most evil.
Criteria
- The villain is extremely heinous and evil. They are likely to be Pure Evil or Near Pure Evil: since these villains are not redeemed and are the most evil in their setting. In other cases, Inconsistently Heinous villains or Flawed Embraced Evil villains can fall under this.
- The ultimate title goes to the most influential villain in the franchise and the one who is the biggest threat in the entire franchise. If a story has a Big Bad and Bigger Bad, it is likely going to go to the Bigger Bad. Exceptions to this would include arc villains who caused widespread destruction and meet the other parts of the criteria.
- The villain has large access to resources and powers. The villain may be in charge of an army or a large and powerful organization. If not, the villain can easily create one or has the power equal to an entire army, the one-man army.
- The villain has been built up throughout the course of the story to be the most dangerous villain the heroes would have to face. This build-up went on for a long duration of the series. Even if they haven't been built up, when they do appear they present an unprecedented challenge to the heroes and change the tone of the story.
- The villain was behind causing mass destruction in some capacity due to their powers, abilities, or influence.
- The villain rarely has any comedic moments to their character.
- A single story can only have one villain that can fall under this since this is "The" Ultimate Evil. There are some exceptions where a story has two Big Bads on the same level with the same level of resources in which case there can be two of these villains simultaneously.
- This applies to single characters not groups.
- They present a threat on a large scale: usually on a global, galactic, universal, or multiversal scale. Rarely would fall under being anything below this like regional scale or local scale.
- There is a level of symbolism to the character. The character represents something bigger than themselves according to the narrative or any context clues in the story. This may not always be the case for every The Ultimate Evil villain.
Differences
While these categories and concepts may overlap with The Ultimate Evil, these are not the same exact concepts.
- The Ultimate Evil ≠ Big Bad: While this is a common requisite, if there happens to be a Bigger Bad, then they would likely be invalidated from being The Ultimate Evil since the Bigger Bad in many cases are likely going to be the more powerful, dangerous, and evil than the Big Bad.
- The Ultimate Evil ≠ Bigger Bad: While these overlap greatly with being the most powerful and most dangerous, if they are not the most evil, then they may not qualify. Bigger Bads may be redeemed.
- The Ultimate Evil ≠ Pure Evil: While Pure Evil villains already cover 'The Most Evil' and 'The Most Dangerous' aspects to The Ultimate Evil, if they are not the most powerful and they don't have widespread influence, then some of these characters cannot count.
- The Ultimate Evil ≠ Satan: It is common for The Ultimate Evil to overlap with this stock character, however, if they are not the most evil within their respectful story, they cannot qualify.
- The Ultimate Evil ≠ Supreme Being: This is not always the case as the Supreme Being may not be the most evil character in the franchise and may be morally gray.
Would Not Qualify Under Most Circumstances
Circumstances where characters would not qualify in most cases. However, there are exceptions to these characters qualifying for TUE.
- Minions: A TUE villain cannot fall under minion. This means that they are working for someone else. In most cases they would not qualify. Only exception is if they started out as a minion before gradually becoming a threat to others around them.
- Pawns: A TUE villain cannot fall under pawn. TUE villains are not supposed to be used by another as it shows that whoever is using them has power over them. Only exception to this is if the villain started off as a pawn before breaking free of their manipulation and claiming power for themselves.
- Right-Hands: A TUE villain cannot fall under right-hand, as that means they are working for a bigger, more powerful and more influential villain than them, the only exception to this is if they manage to work past being a right-hand and become a major threat.
- Extremists: A TUE villain cannot be a well intentioned extremist as that goes against the idea of them being The Ultimate Evil, the only exception to this rule is if their intentions are not entirely for the good of the setting.
- Tragic: A TUE villain cannot be too tragic as it goes against the idea of them being considered The Ultimate Evil. Exceptions can be made if their tragedy isn't focused on heavily and their heinous actions overshadow their more sympathetic side.
- Comic Relief: A TUE villain needs to be the most serious threat in their own story so usually a full-on comic relief won't count, but this depends on the specific situations: as already said, the villain needs to be the most serious threat in their own story, meaning that if a villain is fully comedic they could still potential qualify if they meet the rest of the criteria and if the other eventual villains in the same story aren't more serious than them.
Would Not Qualify Under Any Circumstances
Circumstances where characters cannot qualify for TUE. These characters cannot be TUE due to not meeting the criteria.
- Insufficiently Heinous: A TUE villain cannot fail the heinous standards of their work, as it directly goes against the idea of being the ultimate evil. A part of them being 'The Most Evil' means that they stand out as such and cannot fail to stand out to another character.
- Redeemed Villains: A TUE villain cannot redeem themselves, as the whole point of them is that they are one of the most evil villains in their work. When the character is redeemed, it means they choose not to be evil any longer which goes against them being TUE.
- Anti-Villains: While they can be the most heinous depending on the work, their very nature goes against the idea of a TUE character being one of the most evil.
- Villains by Proxy: Shares the same reasoning as Anti-Villains.
- On & Off: A TUE character can never be On & Off as it goes against the idea of the character being The Ultimate Evil of the work.
- Grey Zoned: TUE characters are never grey zoned, they are unambiguously evil and only fall into the Evil alignment.
Notes
- If a franchise has a TUE villain (that is PE) along with other Pure Evil villains, it does not mean that the TUE villain is the most evil among the PE villains. A Pure Evil villain cannot be more evil than another Pure Evil villain. It means that TUE villain has the most resources and power compared to other Pure Evil villains.