User blog comment:Ngh93/What REALLY makes a villain a Complete Monster?/@comment-5933172-20150327004625/@comment-27560932-20150327011752

That's the thing. Lotso's excuse isn't valid. He invalidated his own excuse in the same way as someone like Syndrome or Koba, and that's why he's allowed to be a Monster.

Still, despite my tight restrictions, I will admit TV Tropes isn't always right. Characters like Syndrome, Sykes, the Shadow Queen, Jeff Fecalman, and Tomoo I personally consider Monsters, and others like Carter Burke and Eddy's brother (sort of) I've honestly debated, even if they were all disqualified by one means or another. Yet there's still a lot of Monsters that they approve and I don't; I don't consider Steele, Greyfield, Barkis Bittern, Dylan Gould, or a good chunk of the villains listed on the fan works section to be Monsters, and I intend to get them removed someday.

What irks me about some people is how people consider a single crossing of the Moral Event Horizon or actions that are only slightly worse than the typical standard villainy. A crossing of the Moral Event Horizon is by definition going to make a character vile, but people confuse "irredeemable" and "irredeemable while also fitting the criteria needed." Even borderline heinousness (ala Gutt as listed in the blog post) is tricky to differentiate from the special brand of heinousness a Monster present. These characters are Complete Monsters for a reason, and why so many people let characters slide past it is beyond me. It's not meant to be an inclusive trope and is very hard to properly deal with. Of course, I realize that this trope is YMMV on its home website and the same characters I see or don't see as Monsters will differ from another (I don't consider Herman Varick, Christine Hargerson, Aku, Smaug, Ghetsis, and a hell lot of other villains to be Monsters while others do) but you can't just slap this trope on any villain who goes beyond standard villainy. This is something that unfortunately a lot of users are guilty of.

I'd talk more about my thoughts on the Monster, but I have ranted on about this trope and plan on analyzing it later, so I'll keep it down to a minimum.