Alright, I really want to confess something: While I have do a reevaluation proposal on him and he ended up being kept, I'm mulling on something: The more I see the guy staying in the category, the more uncomfortable I am with him staying in the category due to the huge heinous standard. Anyways, the removal proposal will be the same as my reevaluation proposal but with some touch-ups as I have seen the show and the arguments from people from other site which I actually lean on agreeing with so yeah...
What's The Work[]
Ah yes, Cowboy Bebop. It is one of the famous animes of all time and one of the anime that has legendary status due to it being one of the animes that introduce the American people into anime after well...Akira exists. Anyways, Cowboy Bebop tells us the story about several bounty hunters who are none other than Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Edward. Together, they tried to hunt several criminals just for a quick buck. However, being a sci-fi anime, of course...The show is set in space which adds to some nice sci-fi aesthetics! As they catch several criminals, several hijinks ensues be it a comedy, a drama, a thriller and so on.
Now, most of the time, Cowboy Bebop's episodes are actually episodic in nature. However, there is one arc that spans into 5 or 6 episodes which touches on Spike's dark past. It was soon revealed that Spike himself? Is actually a member of a crime syndicate known as "The Red Dragon" and after he quit the syndicate, he developed an archenemy and said archenemy is the one I want to discuss right now...
Who is He/What Has He Done[]
Ah yes, Spike's archenemy is revealed to be Vicious (Yes, that's his real name, why do you ask). Now, Vicious himself used to be Spike's friend when he was working at the Red Dragon Syndicate before Spike left for numerous of reasons. Now, he was introduced at first in Episode 5 as after he heard one of the members of the Red Dragon, Mao Yenrai, forms a truce between another gang called the White Tiger, Vicious sabotaged the White Tiger ship and then personally slaughter both Mao Yenrai and his men. Note that Mao himself? Is actually the mentor of both Spike and Vicious and the latter did this because he claims that Mao had lost his claws.
Now, after he killed Mao, he then put his own body in the Opera Theater in order to lure Spike out from the hiding. Turns out that instead of Spike who came into the Opera Theater, it was revealed to be one of Spike's companions, Faye Valentine. Vicious uses this as an opportunity by kidnapping Faye and brought her into a cathedral to lure Spike out from hiding. After Spike found out about this, he then went into cathedral to settles some score with Vicious and save Faye. After the intense duel, Vicious then throw Spike out from cathedral while Spike retaliates by throwing a grenade at him. However, both of them survived the ordeal.
Vicious then appeared again around episode 12 where he was tasked by the leaders of The Red Dragon Syndicate to send a drug called Red Eye to planet Callisto because there is a person who requested it, revealed to be none other than Julia who plays an important role in Spike's past. Accompanied by one of the Red Dragon Syndicate members, Lin, Vicious then told him that if he wanted to survive, Lin had to betray Vicious. However, when Lin responded by a refusal, Vicious was appalled by it and try to sever some honors about it.
Oh yeah, both Episode 12-13 tells an interesting story about a man named Gren who is also one of the figures in Vicious past. You see, Gren himself is a soldier alongside Vicious who participated on the Titan War and Vicious himself befriended the former by giving Gren a musical box that made Vicious reminisce of Julia. However, Vicious betrayed Gren without a second thought by testifying that he was a spy and after the betrayal, Gren was given a drug that destroyed his hormones to the point he become androgynous.
When Gren encountered Vicious again in the present day, he asked about why Vicious betrayed him during the Titan War despite he looked up and believe in him, Vicious responds by saying that there is nothing to believe in and when Lin sacrifice his life to protect Vicious, his response is just that he said the same quote about there's nothing to believe in and when Spike calls out on this, Vicious only responded by saying that he was protecting the order. After Gren participating in the fight alongside Spike in order to stop Vicious, Vicious then shoots Gren's aircraft which resulted on Gren getting fatally injured and succumbed to his wounds before asking Spike to bury his body on Titan.
Vicious then re-appears again in the last two episodes of the series. Now, Vicious attempted to stage a coup d'etat against his superiors on The Red Dragon. However, this backfires as Vicious himself was imprisoned and will be executed soon by his superiors. This resulted on the leader of The Red Dragon Syndicate try to target anyone who is connected towards Vicious, including Spike and Julia...
Now, remember what I said that Julia plays an important role in Spike's past. It turns out that both Vicious and Spike fell in love with Julia and when Vicious discovered that Spike is having an affair with Julia, Vicious then made a Sadistic Choice towards her whether she has to kill Spike or both of them dying. It is soon revealed that Spike fakes his own death so that he could escape his own past. Even then, Spike's past come back to haunt him at the end.
When Vicious is going to be executed soon, it was revealed that there are several members of the Red Dragon who sided with Vicious and Vicious himself kills his pet bird as a distraction for the elders to escape. After he escaped, both he and his men mercilessly slaughtered the Red Dragon leaders and their men who sided with them. As he overtook the seat, he still orders Spike and Julia to be murdered anyways.
Now, Spike himself ended up meeting with Julia in the graveyard who attempts to kill him. However, the two decided to team up and run away together to save their own skin because Vicious's men is after them. It was soon revealed that his men also murdered one of the former members of the syndicate, Annie and when Spike and Julia found out that she's dead, Vicious's men began to ambush them and this resulted on Spike and Julia running to the rooftop to save themselves...
Unfortunately, as they attempted to escape, Julia was shot by one of Vicious's men which resulted on her meeting her demise. This become much personal with Spike as Julia? Is actually the lost fragment of his own life and without her, Spike seems to lost everything. Before going to The Red Dragon headquarters, Spike then had his last meal alongside his companions and tells an interesting story which is an allegory of him losing Julia. After he went into the Red Dragon Headquarters to settle the score with Vicious once and for all, he was ambushed by Vicious's men and then began to fight face to face with Vicious. Fortunately, Vicious was killed but by the end of the episode, as Spike went downstairs, he suddenly faints as the sunrise rises.
Reasons Why He Shouldn't Qualify[]
Again, as I elaborated on my re-evaluation proposal for him... My issue leans towards the heinous standard that the show have. Like, there are several characters who I should note is a one-shot villains committing more heinous acts compared to Vicious like Udai and Asimov who massacred several people (In Udai's case, it was the prison bodyguards and police officers and in Asimov case, it was several mercenaries that tried to target Asimov's ass and that's a lot), Maria Murdoch who is an eco-terrorist that arranges a massacre in a restaurant and attempt to turn the population of Ganymede--which I reiterate housed millions of people--into apes, Tongpu who murdered tons of people brutally onscreen due to the ISSP experimented on him, Dr. Londes who is a cult leader that has its members tricked to commit mass suicide so that he won't be lonely anymore and then there's Wen who cripples innocent old men to the point that they become mute and has them acted as a caretaker towards him.
And as a cherry on top, the movie villain, Vincent Volaju, attempts to kill all the life in the planet accompanied with a hacker named Lee Sampson to do so and a friendly reminder that even if my memory for the movie is hazy, Sampson himself is an unassuming hacker with little to no resource and just Vincent's subordinate at the end of the day compared to Vicious.
When you put at it, compared to the villains I mentioned? Vicious again doesn't have any extraordinary bodycount as he only sabotaged the rival crew ship, killing Mao Yenrai and his men, fatally injured Gren which led to his death and killing The Leaders of the Red Dragon Syndicate and their men while also indirectly killed Julia. Yes, you could argue that Vicious targeted only the peace summit and it's a bad thing because it'll cause gang war but--special thanks to Ravok--we actually didn't see a result of this and it's Fridge Horror at best and sure he was chastised by the Van at the end but... The results was never brought up onscreen and it leans too much on "tell don't show" for me and again, the bodycount that he has as he massacre the people during the peace summit is not that impressive as it amounts to less than 10 people.
And yes, people will bring this as an argument as according to the fact that in the flashbacks, there is a pattern on his crimes and he has a huge bodycount on his trail during his tenure as an assassin for The Van and to add to that, Vicious also kills several people to get into the top. But, as someone who also seen the anime... What does Vicious do in the past? We actually don't see his bloody past about him leaving a huge trail of bodies in said past and most of the time, it is limited to Spike and Vicious fighting together as a friend against unseen enemy and sure, if you want to add... His betrayal with Gren for unspecified reason but this is one time only so I'm not sure if this could set a huge pattern for him. So not only the trail of huge body as a mercenary is Fridge Horror at best but this falls into Offscreen Villainy too which is a no-no.
As far as the Quality goes? After delving into some more research? I... Can't say in a good faith see Vicious as a completely unique candidate whose personal villainy can qualify him as PE. Let me break it to you on why I think he's also outclassed in both Quality too and special thanks to Ravok for this one: Villains like Maria performs heinous experiments towards her son into becoming a feral monkey and that's not played for laughs, villains like Wen turns innocent old men into mute people after he severely cripples them and then there's people like Udai and Jet's former partner, Fad, who is responsible for Jet losing one of his arm. So I can't in a good faith say that Vicious is completely unique in the Personal department either.
And hey, let's talk about his resources... True that during the shows run, he spends most of his time as a lone-wolf who is the subordinate of The Van to commit some of his atrocities and you'd be forgiven for that. But... In present day, Vicious has several men on his disposal just to kill Spike in the end and by the time he successfully commits a coup-d'etat against The Van, he becomes the leader of the most powerful gang in the universe and what does he do as the leader? He's just orders his men to kill Spike and Julia and of course, sit back and watches with no plan at all or any indications that he could lead the gang to the worst path (I thank Ravok for this). I've seen the anime and yes, that's basically the scene as a whole. And compared to Lee Sampson who is basically just a guy with next to no resource except for his hacking skills? His actions in the series is basically pathetic. Throw in with the several one-shot villains that I mentioned earlier like Maria, Londes and so on, Vicious is severely outclassed in terms of Quantity and Quality crimes as he appeared in Five Episode total compared to them and his deeds still feels pale in comparison.
So in short, I don't feel Vicious belong to this trope anymore as he is severely outclassed in both Quantity and Quality department and other villains--especially the one-shot ones--had done much much worse compared to him.
Final Verdict[]
After consideration, I'm sorry to say this but I'd lean cut. I'm sorry but I just really don't have a good faith in Vicious staying in this category as he is rather severely outclassed at best. He would be heinous in a crime thriller or a film noir type of work but in a Science Fiction work like Cowboy Bebop that has some villains with huge bodycount left and right, he fails in my books. Thanks Ravok for giving the best of your arguments which helps this proposal btw and also help me jogged my memories with the show.