Thread:Jester of chaos/@comment-1672596-20161008195800/@comment-1672596-20161008204909

EvilLamp wrote: here's the deal, upon becoming a Sith all delusions are pretty much lost (with some rare exceptions) - the whole creed of the Sith is "being evil", remember that evil entities do not really label themselves evil but they aren't delusional either.. Sith know what they do is basically wrong but they justify it by saying they are exploiting weakness to gain power.. Sith in general are like the hardcore Nazis, they know that their basic ideals are not morally sound but they utilize them because they "work" for whatever agenda they have..

no credible villain actively says "I'm a bad guy, I like evil - mwahahaha" - however many will try and justify doing horrific things, doesn't really mean they think they are making the world a better place.. they just reach a little "unfettered" spot in their mind that shields them from the moral burdens of what they do..

a normal person mugs an old lady and feels horrible about it, a delusional person mugs an old lady and feels they did her good by showing her the follies of life (or to "toughen up") - an evil person mugs an old lady and feels neutral about it (because they don't feel bad, nor do they feel they did right.. they simply did it because they needed the money or whatever.. and mugging was the easiest means to get it).

at its roots, most (realistic) evil is Opportunistic.. plain and simple.. Actually, people who are fully aware they are evil and enjoy doing evil are actually realistic, even if they are admittedly rare. Just ask Marquis de Sade. He made no secret to being evil at all or that he enjoyed being that (I'll even quote the incriminating statement: "Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change." And you can find it here: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/imperious-choleric-irascible-extreme_in/346903.html). I can also cite Karl Marx, who made pretty explicit he wanted to reenact the Reign of Terror in France and make it even more bloody, and he even freely acknowledged they'd be listed as beasts as a result and made clear he didn't care at all.

And heck, Red Skull? He was meant to be a caricature of the Nazis, cartoonish supervillainy in other words, and yet, as his entry in TVTropes put it:

"[...]the Skull's espionage exploits match those of both SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich and his close colleague SS-Brigadeführer Walther Schellenberg, while his cruelty, sadism, ruthlessness and physical appearance match the lesser known SS-Oberführer Oskar Dirlewanger. It can be said the reality of the Reich surpassed the imagination of Marvel Comics writers."