The most gratuitous "I am evil" scenes...

[nikolai]

Particularly in fantasy fiction, with its good vs. evil plotting, there's a need to demonstrate for the reader the evilness of the enemy. This leads to "I am evil" scenes; which often do nothing to further the plot but show the reader just how gratuitously evil the villains are.

Care to share any examples?

A very, very minor spoiler for The Dragonbone Chair follows.

I've been reading this book, which is okay. But, near the beginning the priest Pryrates, who was flagged as evil since his stage entrance, stamps on a puppy, killing it, for absolutely no reason (other than spelling out to the reader exactly who's on the wrong side).

 

[takyris]

Wow. Among my writer buddies, "kicking a puppy" is slang for going over the top to show that your dude is evil. In a parody piece I wrote, I had a bad guy kick a puppy and then offer drugs to a small child in the same sentence and got howls of derisive laughter.

The most gratuitous I can think of offhand was one sentence (that I can remember offhand -- there were certainly others in there) from Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule". It's describing the lieutenant bad guy:

His skin was as smooth as the chests of the young boys he favored.

I appreciate knowing that our lieutenant is an evil character, but a one-sentence categorization as a child molester is possibly a bit, well, gratuitous.

 

[Datt]

Not from a book but from the new Battlestar miniseries.

The Cylon woman looks down at a baby and then while it's mother isn't looking kills it. No reason why, shouldn't have even been there, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Mark]

Particularly in fantasy fiction, with its good vs. evil plotting, there's a need to demonstrate for the reader the evilness of the enemy. This leads to "I am evil" scenes; which often do nothing to further the plot but show the reader just how gratuitously evil the villains are.

Care to share any examples?

Davis Warner (as "Evil") blasts his own minion (who was also previously turned into a dog) after his usefulness has expired...

 

[Kai Lord]

Spoiler for a small art-house film called Return of the Jedi:

Early on Jabba the Hutt tries to molest one of his dancers, when she resists he has a giant monster eat her alive. Talk about harsh....

 

[Wombat]

Davis Warner (as "Evil") blasts his own minion (who was also previously turned into a dog) after his usefulness has expired...

"But if you're all powerful," ask Soon-To-Be-Dead Minion, "why are you trapped here?"

(shuffling minions, look of anger on Supreme Evil)

KABLOOIE!

(pop goes the minion)

"A good question," says Supreme Evil

 

[Kai Lord]

Thulsa Doom also had a pretty good "I am evil" scene at the beginning of Conan the Barbarian, and Mola Ram's heart ripping scene in Temple of Doom was one of the most talked about establishing scenes of 1984.

 

[Krieg]

/snip/a small art-house film/snip/

They really need a "soda coming out the nose" or "spitting soda on the monitor" smiley!!

ROFL!!

 

[ergeheilalt]

In the Dirk Pitt Novel "Trojan Oddessy" by Clive Cussler (a good book btw). An bad gal kills a good gal and then carves an image of a Celtic running horse into her abdomen. No reason - just establishes the fact that the bad guys are really the bad guys.

Erge

 

[Altalazar]

How about in Robin Hood - where the Sherriff shouts out "No more kitchen scraps for the beggars and CALL OFF CHRISTMAS!"

But really, I've always hated those "I am evil" type scenes. It always seemed so gratuitous and it makes me think I've watching a movie with a one dimensional villain and script. I mean, ok, in Time Bandits, it worked - because he was pure evil, and it was almost tongue-in-cheek.

But in other movies, it just takes me out of the movie. NO ONE is pure evil. Only cartoon villains, and even then, the best of them are not.

It just makes the whole plot unbelievable. I mean - if villains went around randomly killing henchmen, for instance, they'd soon find themselves alone - because no one would want to work for them.

The best villains - the believable ones - are the ones with shades of grey. The villains who, but for a slight change of circumstances, would be heroes. Who perhaps could be heroes. But ok, I guess I'm getting off topic here.