User blog:Jester of chaos/Pure Evil Proposal: General Morando

Original:

Here's a really heinous character that I'm proposing to be Pure Evil. This one is General Morando from the TV show known as 3 Below, the second installment to the Tales of Arcadia trilogy. Although only Part 1 of 3 Below has been released, this character has become so diabolical there's no point in redeeming him now.

CHARACTER'S TRAITS
(Does the character have a define personality? Or is it a one-dimensional character such as a mindless destroying beast?) General Morando is not one-dimensional. He's a sadistic and cold-blooded tyrant who is very clever, and enjoys hurting others. He is also motivated by envy and a hunger for power, as he wants to overthrow King Fialkov and Queen Coranda as the ruler of the alien planet Akiridion-5.

HEINOUS STANDARDS
(Does the character commit acts that are extremely heinous and unforgivable? Does the character stand out from the rest of the villains featured in the story they are part of?) Ah, this one, he certainly passes. Let me go over it in detail. Morando was exiled from Akiridion-5 for trying to overthrow the King and Queen. However, he also knew of Varvatos Vex, who was an Akiridion commanding officer whose family was slaughtered by the Zaron Brotherhood, a group of three bounty hunters who work for Morando. As such, Morando promised Varvatos that if the latter lowered the shields, Morando would not hurt anyone. The weak-minded Varvatos betrayed the King and Queen by doing so, but Morando did not keep his end of the bargain, and harmed the Akiridions anyway, which is when Varvatos saw the error of his ways and is now trying to make up for his treachery by swearing to protect Aja and Krel (the two main protagonists of 3 Below and children of the King and Queen).
 * General Standard: The first heinous standard. At first, he doesn't seem heinous enough, but as Part 1 progressed, it's shown he goes far and beyond to pass this.

Morando also forces his alien species, the Akiridions, to worship him instead of having hope that the King and Queen will come back. This is shown since one of Morando's bodyguards lies that the King and Queen are dead, and orders an Akiridion child to worship Morando or be slaughtered, saying that there is only one warning, and there are no second warnings; he was probably ordered to do this by Morando since the latter does not want anyone to have hope that he will, one day, be overthrown.

What else does Morando do? He speaks through his evil robot, Omen, and threatens the leader of the Zeron Brotherhood, Alpha, with Omen grabbing him by the neck. Morando threatens Alpha, saying that if the latter fails on his mission, he will suffer, and that the latter now answers to Omen now. Alpha nods in fear, knowing the consequences of what Morando will do to him if he fails on his quest. Morando does not do this because he's remorseful for what he did to Varvatos; it's out of sheer ire, cruelty, and malice. Last, but certainly not least, he has the entire Akiridion citizens watch Aja as she is cornered by Omen so the latter can brutally kill her, who has been programmed to hunt down Aja and her brother, Krel. All of the aforementioned acts are enough to push Morando beyond a generic tyrant. Morando passes all three heinous standards, so he is a surprisingly dark dictator, especially for the type of media he's from, which can be viewed in the Story Type criteria.
 * In-Story Standard: The second heinous standard. In the first installment of the Tales of Arcadia trilogy (Trollhunters), Morgana, an evil wizard who existed before the creation of humans and trolls, counts as Pure Evil because she craves world chaos, forced a once-heroic troll named Angor Rot to become her slave and servant, uses a made-of-evil troll named Gunmar as a pawn, and tries to torment her former mentor, Merlin, to his death. However, I strongly believe General Morando from the second installment (3 Below) also counts as Pure Evil because he has already taken over an entire planet and all of his people, by putting the King and Queen in stasis through his armies, and forces the citizens of the planet to worship him through fear and intimidation. Plus, while Morgana is from the wizard race and uses dark magic, Morando is in his own category because he's from an alien race and uses advanced technology.
 * System Standard: The third heinous standard. It's because of Morando that Akiridion-5 is ruled under a dictatorship, and Morando is the said dictator.

MORAL EVENT HORIZON
(Has the villain crossed the Moral Event Horizon?) Yes; Morando has crossed the Moral Event Horizon at least four times, all of which take him to being a super-egregious tyrant. They can all be seen in the Heinous Standards criteria.

INDIVIDUAL CAPABILITY
(Does the villain use every resource they have at their disposal to cause a maximum of evil?) Ah, yes. Morando is using each and every one of his resources to get what he wants; he's holding nothing back. He uses his knowledge and advanced weaponry to program Omen into becoming a killer robot, his deceit to manipulate Varvatos Vex to lower the shields so he can infiltrate Akiridion-5, and his authority and command of troops to rule the entire planet as a tyrant.

MORAL AGENCY
(Does the villain have an agency over their actions, and can distinguish right from wrong?) Yes. General Morando is an alien, but he has a clear moral agency. His race, the Akiridions, can distinguish right from wrong. King Fialkov, Queen Coranda, Aja, Krel, and Varvatos Vex (as a redeemed villain) are all Akiridions, but they have chosen good over evil. Morando chooses quite the opposite: evil over good.

ONLY INDIVIDUALS
General Morando is an individual being, so he definitely passes this criteria.

NO REDEEMING QUALITIES
(Is the villain completely devoid of any altruistic quality?) Morando has zero mitigating factors. He's not honorable either, as he promised Varvatos Vex that if the latter lowered the shields for Morando to return, no one would be harmed. However, he deliberately broke said promise, as he enslaved the entire planet of Akiridion-5 by putting the King and Queen in stasis.

NO SYMPATHY
(Is the villain completely unsympathetic and unforgivable with no Freudian excuse?) Yes. Definitely. No tragic backstory for Morando or anything like that; he's just a power-hungry tyrant driven by sadism and envy.

SCREEN TIME
(Are the villains' worst acts on-screen?) Yes; Morando's worst acts are all shown on-screen. His first crossing of the MEH (when he manipulated Varvatos into lowering the shields) was shown in a hologram.

WORST
(Is the villain the worst, or at least one of the worst characters in the story?) While Morgana is an evil wizard, General Morando is the most evil member of the Akiridions, ruling them as an evil despot in his twisted views of law. He's one of the worst judging by this.

STORY TYPE
(Is the story "normal", or purposefully over-the-top appalling? In which case, the Heinous Standards would be so high that it would be almost impossible to have a Purely Evil villain in the story.) The Tales of Arcadia trilogy is both an urban-fantasy and a science-fantasy TV franchise aired by Netflix, and it's family-friendly. Since Morando is a surprisingly dark character for this type of media and is taken completely seriously, he easily passes this criteria, as a family-friendly series wouldn't usually have a tyrant forcing others to worship him, having an entire population watch an overpowered freedom fighter be killed brutally by a robot programmed to be evil, or manipulating others to lower their shields with a false promise just to deliberately break his promise so he can go berserk and enslave the entire world he is from.

CONCLUSION
In my book? An easy and permanent keeper.