Char Aznable has declared Scapegoat is to be renamed to Scapegoats for the following reason(s): Plural Please discuss it on the talk page for this article. "I told you I am not Casval, I am Char Aznable." |
“ | Tyrion: I'm guilty of a far more monstrous crime: I'm guilty of being a dwarf! Tywin: You're not on trial for being a dwarf. Tyrion: Oh, yes I am! I've been on trial for that my entire life! |
„ |
~ Tyrion Lannister lashing out at his father for his lifelong poor treatment of him due to being a dwarf. |
“ | Back in Gimmelshtump in the depths of my childhood, my parents were expecting a brand new baby girl. My mother spent months knitting pretty dresses. Unfortunately, the baby turned out to be a boy, and because we were out of material, I was forced to wear those same dresses for an entire year, drawing mockery and scorn from my manly classmates. | „ |
~ Heinz Doofenshmirtz recalling his childhood. |
A scapegoat is a villain who is punished much more than they would actually deserve. By definition, they are the polar opposite of Karma Houdinis, and therefore, the two categories can never overlap.
Just being a "bad guy" and having bad intentions is rarely enough to suffer such a punishment, which must be given according to acts. Some villains, however, are submitted to retribution that can be very harsh, cruel, or even unfair, thus occasionally winning over the audience's sympathy to an extent, as their punishment outweighs the crimes they committed.
The very definition of a scapegoat is an individual framed for something done by someone else, although scapegoats also include:
- Villains whose fates are so horrific that the audience (and sometimes even the heroes) feels pity for them (e.g. President Haltmann having his soul deleted, the Wicked Witch of the West melting after getting water thrown onto her unintentionally, Devo being cut to pieces by Polnareff, Arthur Reeves being driven insane by the Joker, Scuttlebutt being drowned in an underground river, Kraid being imprisoned and tortured by Raven Beak, Jason Carver being ripped in half by Vecna's gate, René Belloq having his entire head explode after looking into the Ark of the Covenant, Mika Misono is being bullied so harshly by other Trinity students who had nothing to do with the wrong she did, Prince Arctic being forced to disembowel himself, Vic Hoskins being mauled by Delta, Penguin getting brutally stabbed in the throat by Harley Quinn, Daniel DeVorn being sacrificed to SCP-106, Mrs. Lovett getting thrown into a furnace to die a slow agonizing death, or Ben Ravencroft being dragged by his witch ancestor into the latter's spellbook, when the latter's being re-banished, and said book being burned shortly afterwards, presumably killing him), yet some villains are so awful that not even their horrific death makes them scapegoats (e.g. Chief McBrusque drowning in the river alongside Scuttlebutt, Walder Frey's TV version having his throat slit after eating a pie made out of two of his sons, Barty Crouch Jr. having his soul sucked out by a Dementor, Carnage getting eaten by his own father Venom or the Horned King being stripped down to the bone and then incinerated by the Black Cauldron).
- Villains who are subjected to some horrendous torture as a way of karma that they did not deserve (e.g. Theon Greyjoy, Jeff Fungus, Hexadecimal and Patolli).
- Villains that have horrible lives that almost never improve or even get worse (e.g. Hansel & Gretel, Carrie White, Tyler Down, Jesse Pinkman, Lucy, Andrew Detmer and Rampage).
- Minions and Right-Hands that are often unfairly abused, betrayed and/or killed by their master, either for failure or because they've outlived their usefulness (e.g. Lefou by Gaston LeGume, Bad Cop by Lord Business, Fidget by Professor Ratigan, The Egg Bois by Sir Pentious, several Makuta by Makuta Teridax because he does not need their competition for power, The Baker's Dozen by Big Jack Horner when all of them carelessly died in his journey to the Wishing Star, Shazam by Superman after he realized that the regime had gone too far, Lady Nagant by All For One to punish her failure knowing she would reform or Kamek who was mistreated by Bowser before ultimately being thrown under the bus once the Mario Bros. get the Power Star), unless the minion or right-hand deserves it for committing heinous crimes (e.g. Brixton Lore by Eteon Director, Lord Commander by Invictus, Hugo Strange by Ra's Al Ghul, Nute Gunray by Emperor Palpatine because he was serving him out of greed rather than out of true loyalty, Shang Tsung by Shao Kahn and Krogan by Drago Bludvist because Krogan also mistreats his minions and kills them for their failures).
- Tragic villains who, in the end, suffered more than they made others suffer or whose tragic past outweighs the extent of their crimes (e.g. Gollum, Rameses, Strange Supreme, Severus Snape, Joker (2019), Saori Joumae, Aubrey Davis, Daki, Spider-Carnage, Savitar, Mystique, Kratos, Kiritsugu Emiya and Darth Maul). However, it doesn't apply to villains whose heinous crimes outweigh their tragedies to be excused (e.g. Kai Chisaki, Bradford Buzzard, Captain Vidal, Doma, Montgomery de la Cruz, Mother Miranda, Dawn Bellwether, PAL, Randall Boggs, Eri Nakamura, and Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear).
- Remorseful villains who wanted to redeem themselves, but their chance was either rejected or they died before they could do so (e.g. Gríma Wormtongue, Siren, Kokushibou, Jordan Cross, Thor (God of War), Ethan Seed, Vince, Ben Ravencroft, Peter Pettigrew's original version and Jamal Elliot).
- Incompetent villains, whose defeats (recurring or otherwise) are often humiliating and degrading and they did nothing to warrant it (e.g. Disney's Captain Hook, Dr. Neo Cortex, Plankton, Shredder (TMNT 1987), Master Kohga, DuBois' Men, Tiger Soldiers, and Lord Betrayus).
- Comedy and Cartoon Villains who are defeated or punished in a slapstick manner, but brutally (e.g. Beast-Man, Bebop and Rocksteady, Kurokuma, General Reginald Skarr, Harry and Marv and the 1996's version of Cruella De Vil).
- Villains who are constantly revived and killed over again even if they didn't do anything that bad (e.g. Lifty and Shifty, Waspinator, Jason Voorhees and The Koopalings).
- Anti-villains who intend to do good and never resort to dirty tactics, but just go about it the wrong way (e.g. Rinne Sonogami, Penelope Graves, AUTO, the Brain, Dwayne LaFontant, Magneto and Sage).
- Affably Evil villains who only wanted to get along with the heroes, or other particular characters, but are disrespected, scolded or badly admonished for doing so, even if they never did anything that particularly bad (e.g. Herb Overkill, Bane and Jango Fett).
- Jerks or otherwise not very antagonistic villains who constantly have to put up with the protagonist's annoying behavior, stupidity, arrogance, etc. or just evil teachers with an unteachable student (e.g. Perfectionist).
- Insecure villains who wanted to make friends in the first place, but people are too scared and/or disgusted by their looks, which drove them to villainy in the first place (e.g. Frankenstein's Monster, Salvatore Moreau, Tippy Tinkletrousers, King Poseidon, Killer Croc and Nabnab).
- Protective villains which in the past, they supposed to have a person that they care about, but when the person died, they became evil, and they decide to do anything for bringing them to life or to take them back so that they can be happy again (e.g. Oswald Whistler and Nox).
- Villains by Proxy who never wanted to be villains in the first place, yet still get punished for their evil actions anyway (e.g. Jack Baker, Marguerite Baker, Cletus, Collin, and Keenie, Brute Boris, Dave, Roxanne Wolf and Rob).
- In Love villains who are regularly cheated or abused by their crush, yet keep protecting and taking care of them out of devotion (e.g. Harley Quinn who is abused by the Joker, Dodge who is betrayed and deceived by Kinsey Locke or Kiyomi Takada, who's more than a disposable pawn of Light Yagami's plans).
- Possessed/Brainwashed villains who instead of snapping out of their influences, had to be killed in the end (e.g. Quirinus Quirrell was possessed by Lord Voldemort and had to be killed by Harry Potter's mother's sacrificial protection, Queen Sectonia was brainwashed due to looking into the dimensional mirror too much and had to be killed by Hypernova Kirby, Cujo was brainwashed due to being bitten by a rabid bat and had to be killed either with a baseball bat or the sheriff's gun by Don Trenton, Sean Fifield had to be burned after he got mutated and lost control of his own actions by the black goo, the Aurora Unit 313 falling under terminal corruption by a Phazon virus to be used by Dark Samus and Samus Aran had to destroy it and Eden Hawkins was possessed by a demonic entity and eventually dropped headfirst into a hole, completely unprovoked, by Frederick Gideon).
- Juvenile Delinquents who despite being too young, are still killed or imprisoned (e.g. Aggie Prenderghast, Lizard (Earth-65B), and The Collector), unless they deserve it for committing heinous crimes (e.g. Zhan Tiri, and Henry Evans).
- Villains who, in spite of doing absolutely nothing to warrant it, became a damned soul (e.g. Tai Lung, Laura Barns, Mrs. Mayberry, and Kaecilius).
- Villains who are just wild predators acting by their natural instinct who, despite this, are killed or are brutally wounded regularly (e.g. Cretaceous and Maelstrom, SCP-096, Snowballs the Ice Monster, King Shark, and Blue Aardvark) unlike other Villains that take sadistic pleasure with their prey (e.g. It, Indominus rex, One-Eye, Red Death, Dag and The Beldam).
- Imprisoned villains who are incarcerated in horrible prisons which there is no exit, that they actually don't deserve (e.g. Vector Perkins gets permanently stuck on the Moon solely due to his incompetence and Morfin Gaunt who, despite he was a horrible man, didn't deserve to being imprisoned and die to Azkaban for a crime he did not commit).
- Suicidal villains that committed suicide because they thought it was the solution, when in reality they didn't have to die (e.g. Misa Amane fallen from a building after hearing about Light's death, Private Gomer Pyle shoots himself in the mouth after killing Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann, Lamplighter immolated himself due the weight of his actions, Seojin Cheon, who understood her wrong doings out of genuine remorse and has decided it's too late for her redemption so she has ended herself and/or Chuck McGill, who burned himself alive after being pushed out of HHM, destroying his relationship with Jimmy McGill and having a mental breakdown); many of these villains are Tragic, Remorseful or Cowards, plus some of them sacrifice their lives in order to protect and/or save their loved ones (e.g. Humpty Alexander Dumpty and Jesse Kane).
Notes[]
- Certain villains must be qualified for this category if they face at least three, four, or numerous defeats from TV shows and/or video games (e.g. Bowser, Robbie Rotten, Ice King, and Zim). However, this rule doesn't apply to other villains that too far with their actions and/or are not On & Off (e.g. Ganondorf, Ridley, Andross, Joker and Frieza)
- Just because a villain is tragic, insecure, honorable, affable, an anti-villain, an extremist, protective, grey zoned, on & off, mischievous, remorseful, incompetent, a villain by proxy, receives a fate that's played for sympathy or all does not automatically mean they're a scapegoat, as some of their villainy may outweigh their fates (e.g. El Macho, Barty Crouch Jr., Henry J. Waternoose III, Sephiroth, Azula, several incarnations of Dr. Eggman, Zod, Prince Hans, Thanos, Twisted Alice, Bryce Walker, Tomura Shigaraki, Charles Muntz, Graviton, Bill (Tarantinoverse), Eric Cartman, Zurg, Superman, Eveline, Koba, Johan Liebert, Yokai, Evil Morty, Simon Laurent, Makima and CatNap).
- A villain does not automatically qualify as a scapegoat if their comeuppance is justified and well-earned, and their crimes far outweigh their feelings for sympathy, no matter how excessive their punishments were, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT PURE EVIL (e.g. Ernesto de la Cruz, Envy, Aku, Jafar, Gaston LeGume, Oogie Boogie, Audrey II, Big Jack Horner, Madame Gasket, DOR-15, Kai the Collector, Hou-Ting, Malty S. Melromarc, Eddy's Brother, Captain Gutt, Chester V, Bradford Buzzard, Lord Shen, Ursula and Hopper).
- Likewise, While it's common for villains that are abused, killed or used as a pawn by villains that are much more evil to qualify as a scapegoat (e.g. Akaza, Giygas, Princess Hilda, Count Bleck, Mr. Tweedy, Spyglass Pirate), this is not always the case as some may go too far in their villainy (e.g. Count Dooku, Patrick Hockstetter, Boss Wolf, Orin Scrivello, Percy Wetmore, Mukuro Ikusaba and Preston Northwest).
- /!\ Pure Evil villains will NEVER qualify as they are in their normal senses, display no redeeming qualities and the acts they do are always taken seriously. Therefore, basically every defeat and/or death they get are equal to what they have done and their defeat or death, regardless of brutality, is warranted. Often, their actions are so vile and loathsome, that the fate they've earned is nothing compared to what they did to their victims. That said, there are at times where they start out as a scapegoat due to abuse, torture, etc. (e.g. Freddy Krueger, The Ink Demon, Porky Minch, King Boo, Captain Vidal, Red Skull (Marvel) and Lord Voldemort) before becoming devoid of any sympathy, and instead they will only go onto pawns, inconclusive, deceased, presumed deceased, imprisoned, Karma Houdini and/or outcasts categories instead.
- Just like their heroic counterpart, many start off as scapegoats due to their tragedies, but when some redeem themselves, they may rise above their tragedies and get better lives, preventing them from being scapegoats any longer (e.g. Darth Vader, Noodle Burger Boy, Dagur the Deranged, Megamind, Felonious Gru, AAARRRGGHH!!!, Philomela Sargant and Haggar) unless not all of their tragedies have been resolved (e.g. Heinz Doofenshmirtz because while his insecurities have finally been fulfilled, he still carries the large burden of his tragic past and Mandarin who finds redemption in the eyes of his son but still had to die cruelly).
This category is for characters who not only receive punishments that are BRUTAL and EXCESSIVE, but STILL had sympathetic and/or redeeming traits.
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