Thread:Jester of chaos/@comment-27729149-20150602022947/@comment-27560932-20150827030748

Overused or not, tragic villains can be good if the tragedy is done right, and make them three-dimensional, interesting characters you don't know whether to root for or against. Mr. Freeze is an excellent example of this trope. What isn't good is when the tragedy is half-assed. The reason why so many bloody characters manage to become CMs nowadays in spite of their "excuse" is because frankly those excuses are pathetic. This can be discussed, like in Lotso's case, but otherwise, tyou said it best; simply because they had abusive parents or were bullied doesn't make them sympathetic. In fact, it doesn't even serve to justify their evil. I have a feeling amateur writers try to give monstrous villains excuses to make them more "realistic" when really all they're doing is making them even less realistic. You're not going to turn into a genocidal warmonger just because your hamster died, are you? You might as well play your villains straight and just make them irredeemable, because with the amount of half-assed excuses nowadays I'm finding Monsters more interesting.