Sadists are people who feel joy at seeing their victims suffer, either physically, mentally, or both. This kind of cruelty is also known as "schadenfreude" (from "schaden" = "injury"; "freude" = "joy"), though that term generally refers to cases where the sadist derives pleasure from pain inflicted by something other than themselves.

These villains can be delusional, for example, if they convince themselves that their enemies must suffer and take enjoyment in doing so.

Notes

• Do NOT add ANY sadomasochists (who also take pleasure out of inflicting pain unto themselves) under this category, no exceptions.
• Villains who commit acts such as destruction, for example, or commit crimes such as poaching for fortune, torture, mutilation, rape, cannibalism, snuff film making, etc. without deriving any joy from it, then they do not qualify. A villain must show clear signs of enjoyment while causing pain to others in order to qualify (though many of the villains who commit the aforementioned crimes can indeed, very well be sadistic).
• Villains who simply give off creepy smiles without being outwardly sadistic or enjoying anyone's pain (e.g. Cartoon Cat) also do not qualify.
• Being a sadist does not always mean that the character is Chaotic Evil and vice versa. In fact, it is also possible for Neutral Evil and Lawful Evil villains or even characters with Lawful Neutral and Chaotic Neutral alignments to be sadists too.