Alright, been a long time since I done a PE proposal. Anyways, this one? Is going to be rather unique on it's own because the character in question had been autoapproved by the thread. However, after seeing the anime, I believe that this character in question? Deserve a discussion or at least a re-evaluation since the original EP of this character in question really glossed over several important details for his qualification. Who is this character in question? Well let's find out
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.
Freudian Excuse/Mitigating Factors[]
Ah nope! Vicious has none that I could think of. True, Vicious does have several sentimental attachments towards Julia as this was proven in Episode 13 where he reminisce about Julia via the musical box. However, anytime this comes off, his redeeming qualities were dissipated at the end of the day as he has no hesitation to kill Julia for his own ends or trying to force a Sadistic Choice towards her. Aside from that, not really...All of his redeeming qualities is Fridge Brilliance at best and I don't count that. Sounds like an Easy Keep right? Well...Unfortunately, this is where I have some problems with Vicious.
Heinous Standard[]
So, one of the reasons WHY I decided to do a PE re-evaluation on Vicious is that the original EP in Villains Wiki really really glossed over the actual heinous standard of the show. That and it got autoapproved without further discussion. It doesn't help that the other site which I won't be referenced to also thinks that Vicious is an open-and-shut case. However, to address the elephant in the room to see my stance if Vicious qualify for this trope or not? Let's see who are the characters who commit several heinous acts in order to get the grasp of it:
- First, we have the Starter Villain, Asimov Solensan, who tried to transport the drug Bloody Eye while also using it to massacre his comrades in the Syndicate who is after him. He has a bit of an okay bodycount so far. Sure, most of his victims were asshole victims who tried to punish Asimov's ass but still...
- Secondly, we have the Eco-Terrorist, Maria Murdock, who despite her fanatical desires to protect the animals, committing several heinous acts such as massacring innocent people in the dinner alongside her sons and then planned to turn 8 million people in Ganymede into apes with her own virus. She is also abusive towards her sons btw, turning one of them into apes when one oppossed against her. Her bodycount is serviceable and her intended is pretty huge. Sure, you could argue that turning people into chimps is a silly goal. But this was played by serious gravitas in my books. I would considered her for a proposal but I don't know, her care with animals are still there.
- Third, we have Udai Taxim in Episode 16 who massacred several police officers and prison bodyguards and also partially responsible for Jet's arm loss. After looking at the anime as a whole...I'm also not sure if Udai counted as a PE anymore due to how he stacked with the likes of Murdock, Tongpu and the villain of the movie. And speaking of which...
- Yes, we have Tongpu, a mass murdering clown who murders several members of the ISSP and several people in the ISSP research facility. True, they were asshole victims much like Asimov's case but he still committed a mass murder. Which reminds me...
- Yeah, the ISSP are awful on their own, they experimented on some innocent people under the sun to make them into Super Soldiers. This happens to Tongpu and the villain of the movie which reminds me...
- I am not sure if this movie is canon to the story or not but according to Wikipedia, the movie was set between Episode 22-23 of the series so I had to include this villain at the end of the day to address the elephant in the room that is Cowboy Bebop's heinous standard. Anyways, the villain in question is Vincent Volaju and he racked possibly the highest bodycount in the series if you count Maria, Tongpu or probably Udai in the mix. He actually tried to spread a nanomachine like substance across Mars during the Halloween party which would potentially killed countless of innocent of people, responsible for the terrorist attack that happened in the highway and of course, massacring the people in the train with his own substances. Oh! And if I didn't forgot, he's also a Bad Boss towards his subordinate, not hesitating to kill them when they are not needed anymore. Both Vincent and Tongpu doesn't count and ever will be.
- Now if I forgot, in Episode 22, yes Spike and Cowboy Andy engaged on destruction and the main antagonist, Teddy Bomber, nearly killed everyone present in the party at the Skyscraper because he was ignored. BUT, I should note that there are no casualties or threat in the episode and any bodycount is offset to zero at the end of the day and even Teddy Bomber at the very least had some standard on not murdering people unless he is provoked.
- Ah yes... I also forgot that there is a cult named Scratch and its leader, Dr. Londes, in Episode 23. Since Dr. Londes believed that physical body is irrelevant, some of the members committed mass suicide as a result. The leader is revealed to be a young boy who trapped in the internet and his entire motivation was try to convince several people to be just like him so that he won't be lonely anymore after getting trapped...In addition, said leader justified himself that the cult committed their suicide out of their volition and start rambling about gods didnt create humans, humans created gods.
Now, with that said, how Vicious stand in the totem pole of the heinous bar. As far as the resources go, Vicious is a mere assassin packed with several men and after he took over the syndicate, he does have his men on his disposal which possibly put him besides Udai, Dr. Londes and Maria.
And his bodycount? It's kind of uhhh...Not pretty great 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. BUT, I think you could argue that Vicious is kind of a type of quality over quantity which I can understand as that alone puts him in the trope.
Now, in terms of personal crimes, yep...Vicious has it. Sure, we have Maria who transformed her son into a chimp but what Vicious had done towards Gren is also fucked up, betraying him without a second thought which resulted on Gren given a drug that destroyed his hormones, turning him into a woman is another thing.
And then you have Vicious ordered his men to kill both Spike and Julia which resulted on him becoming responsible of the death of the latter and also resulted on Spike loses his meaning of life and tried to risk his life to fight against The Red Dragon and Vicious. In terms of personal crimes, maybe he passes with just a skin of his teeth but with the high heinous standard? I dunno. I'll let you guys decide on this one. Yes, we have villains with limited bodycount and even a bodycount of one that qualifies as a PE because their personal crime is so horrendous, I am fine with keeping them such as John Wakefield from Scars who rapes, mutilates and tortures one girl for three months before deciding to murder her and sends her ear to a former crush.
Final Verdict[]
I'm...Unsure at the moment due to the high heinous standard. But I think I'm really happy to give an auto-approval candidate a second look with my own perspective instead of treating it as a mere open and shut case. However, I'll let you guys decide on how you perceive Vicious as a PE or not. And P.S. Yes, I know the candidate is auto-approved back then, but this EP is a reevaluation of the dude to see if he holds up well for PE trope or not. And no, I didn't like nor hate this villain as I feel indifferent towards him. Vincent Volaju is a better villain in my books though compared to Vicious so yeah :P