Thread:AustinDR/@comment-1762629-20141205075204/@comment-1762629-20141206065124

In terms of heinousness, a character has to be definition be beyond the Moral Event Horizon; to succeed as a Monster, one by nature has to commit several acts that put them beyond the MEH. It's hard to truly describe that, as Complete Monster is a twisty and malleable trope with a lot of varied characters tagged under it. One also has to be, in relation to your question, ''heinous by the standards of the story. ''This means a potential Complete Monster has to commit acts that are despicable in light of the nature of the media they are presented in. For example, in a grimdark, incredibly terrifying world like Berserk or Warhammer 40,000, who's standards for heinousness are incredibly high (pillaging, demons, rape, mass-murder by even the heroes) and if one has wants to be a Complete Monster in that world, they have to stand out even by the standards of the universe they are in, regardless of how bad it is. Even by Warhammer's brutal standards, someone like Fabius Bile still stands out, due to the fact he is settled by nothing less than the deaths of billions, setting him out compared to the Orks and the Chaos Gods, who are all horrible, yet not to the extent of Bile, who isn't even at their level of power. Something lighthearted, like Pokemon, has much lower standards for their evil, on the other hand. The protagonists in that universe are always pure and good, any anti-heroes slowly soften over the course of the story, and any villains, if they don't reform themselves, are often pretty generic and simple in their evil. Therefore, it takes much less to stand out, yet still be irredeemably evil enough and far over the MEH to qualify for the general heinous standard needed for being a Complee Monster. Kodai and J wouldn't even make a blip on Warhammer's evil scale (though Purple Eyes might feel right at home) but they're still generally evil enough, especially by the standards of their own universe, to qualify as a Complete Monster.

CM is a variable trope, as are the candidates and the universes within. Mayhaps this clarified something, or perhaps it only served to confuse you further?