Lawful Evil - TV Tropes

Character AlignmentLawful Good | Neutral Good | Chaotic GoodLawful Neutral | True Neutral | Chaotic NeutralLawful Evil | Neutral Evil | Chaotic Evil

Bringing order to the galaxy,even if we have to choke it to death.

"Peace through tyranny." — Megatron, Transformers

The Dungeons & Dragons Character Alignment system originally defined characters' moral dispositions only on a Law/Chaos axis, with Law seen as usually involving moral goodness, and Chaos, evil. Eventually, Good/Evil was introduced as a separate parameter. One reason for this was the slightly odd but not all that rare case of characters who are clearly evil, but nevertheless organised, consistent, rule-abiding, or maybe even trustworthy and reasonable in their own limited way — in other words, Lawful Evil.

A Lawful Evil character is an evil character who either tries to impose or uphold a lawful system on others without regard for their wishes, and/or adheres to a particular code. They believe in order, but mostly because they believe it is the best way of realizing their evil wishes. They will obey the letter of the law, but not the spirit, and are usually very careful about giving their word. However, there is also the Knight Templar variant, who believes their rules actually make them the good guy — when they and their rules have in truth ended up at the lower end of the slippery slope to evil and tyranny.

Though Lawful Evil characters are often found in charge, these characters also make good henchmen or mooks. Though they lack any moral scruples that may impair their work, a cautious villain will find they respond well to concepts like "loyalty", "duty" and "honour". The caution, however, should be remembered, as these characters also respond poorly to Bad Bosses and Dirty Cowards,note not that a Dirty Coward who is themselves Lawful Evil is something unheard of, far from it, as well as simple incompetence that could lead them to deciding to either find a more worthy master, or take over "for the good of the cause".

Lawful Evil allows for a wide spectrum of character types to work with. Neutral Evil characters tend towards It's All About Me and Lack of Empathy for anyone else being willing to do anything to achieve, what will usually be, completely personal or selfish ends that at best would only incidentally benefit others. Chaotic Evil is even harder to portray as anything remotely sympathetic because even if they have a Freudian Excuse, they usually go so far off the deep end straight into the Moral Event Horizon territory that Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse. Lawful Evil on the other hand allows for many more facets with some interesting types being the Noble Demon who will fight honorably, Affably Evil characters who believe that doing bad things will lead to a better outcome, an Anti-Villain who believes that the cost of their morally-questionable actions is worth the benefit to others if The Plan succeeds. All of these types can usually be worked with, in that you can rely on a Lawful Evil villain to at least act consistently in accordance with whatever rules or personal codes that they choose to follow. Indeed, a Lawful Evil villain is sometimes a benefit to the heroes, in the sense that there are certain lines that the Lawful Evil types won't cross and/or consider morally repugnant even for them. This could lead to an Enemy Mine situation with a Lawful Evil villain when an even bigger problem shows up. But the Lawful Evil villain will almost always go right back to opposing the heroes the moment the threat has passed, with any opportunity for a Heel–Face Turn being thrown back in the heroes' faces.

Lawful Evil tends to be the hardest type of evil to get rid of, especially when it's working within an established system. If the system itself is evil, then it's Inherent in the System, and thus the evil parts can't be changed without major upheaval or the complete destruction of the system. If the system is being used by evil individuals, that's even worse, as these types often perpetrate Loophole Abuse combined with Rules Lawyering to make it impossible to separate where the legal parts end and the illegal parts begin. If legally challenged, the Lawful Evil types will employ the most finely-tuned and detailed legal arguments you've ever heard to counter your loopholes, or even create Legalized Evil to specifically permit their brand of evil by law. Lastly, if the evil isn't part of a large system but rather as a group, it's still difficult to stop; those that are part of the group are generally doing it by following an ideal, and You Cannot Kill an Idea. So even if the current version of the group is stopped, it may not prevent a new version following the same ideals from emerging later on down the road.

Lawful Evil usually comes in at least three types:

• Lawful over Evil — This type uses Evil means to achieve Lawful ends. Essentially, any villain who would consider their goals to be Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good, but who is in practice too ruthless or extreme to qualify. They may honestly believe that an orderly society or way of living is the best, but they are ruthless or cruel enough to take a Necessarily Evil approach to enforcing them. This type can be found in- and sometimes even be sincerely loyal to- any kind of society, including Neutral and Good aligned ones; the problem is, they are prepared to commit evil actions for it, and are prone to invoke Moral Myopia or A Million Is a Statistic to justify their deeds.
• Evil Over Lawful — This type uses Lawful means to achieve Evil ends. A monster with a rigid Code of Honour, or a Card-Carrying Villain who follows a strict set of rules. This is the kind of villain who follows an orderly way of living because they think that this is the best way to achieve their evil desires or goals — For the Evulz with discipline. Some are merely selfish, while others are vengeful, cruel, power-hungry or outright sadistic, with Lawful variants of Dystopia Justifies the Means often falling into this type, but they all prefer to go about their villainy in an orderly manner or with some sort of excuse. They differ from Neutral Evil in that the latter might obey some rules out of convenience or pragmatism, while this type does so out of genuine, if self-serving commitment.
• Balance Seeker — This type seeks a balance between Lawful and Evil, usually an Evil character who uses "Lawful" as a substitute for "Good". This type likes to dissociate their Evil motives and deeds from the other aspects of their life, using Lawful codes of conduct or honour to achieve this. This category usually covers the more Lawful examples of the Professional Killer, Just Following Orders, the family values and churchgoing villains, Evil Parents Want Good Kids etc. Organised crime tends to default as this category (unless they enjoy being evil too much), as do most who follow a Lawful Evil religion or god (and sometimes those gods themselves), and are often villains who (sincerely) use Nothing Personal as an excuse for their behaviour. They usually do not see themselves as "good" or "evil", except perhaps in the technical sense, but may use Even Evil Has Standards as an excuse for their various misdeeds.

All variants are likely to take advantage of Questionable Consent, pushing people into "agreements" and then pushing them to uphold their end of the "bargain".

Lawful Evil characters may not be motivated by anything but a paycheck. Many soldiers and henchmen working for an evil government or ruler fall into the "lawful evil" category by default. Being a genuinely committed member of a military organization makes one lawful by default, and if the government or ruler one works for is evil, then one naturally falls into the category of "lawful evil."

If you have a difficulty deciding which alignment an evil-aligned character belongs to, the main difference between Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil is not their devotion to their evil wishes, but the methods they believe are best to realize it:

• Even though there are some situations where they can't always use this method, Lawful Evil characters believe the best way is to have a specific, strict code of conduct, whether self-imposed or codified as a law. Their first impulse when making a moral decision is to refer back to this code; those with externally imposed systems (codes of laws, hierarchies, etc.) will try to work within the system when those systems go wrong. Depending on whether they are more Lawful or more Evil, they will either refuse to break the code even though it would hurt their evil objectives, or else break it only very reluctantly, and only when it would hurt their evil objectives if they kept their code.
• Neutral Evil characters are indifferent to Order Versus Chaos, and their only interest is in realizing their evil wishes. They will use whatever means will help in realizing their evil wishes, whether that means tearing down a code of laws, following a code of laws, creating an orderly society, causing the breakdown of justice, or staying away from society altogether. Their only goal is to realize their evil wishes, full stop.
• Most Chaotic Evil characters don't constantly break the law, but they cannot see much value in laws that do not function solely to their depraved objectives. They believe that their own evil impulses are their best guides, and that tying themselves to any given code of conduct would be limiting their own ability to realize their depraved wishes. They do not get along with anyone who tries to instill any kind of order over the Chaotic Evil character, believing these people to be restricting their freedom; Chaotic Evil characters often focus very strongly on their own individual rights and freedoms, and will strongly resist any form of oppression of themselves.

In a nutshell, these are a variety of evil characters who don't care if what they do is "heinous" or "horrible", but who will always follow certain rules.

Such characters are, for example:

A warlord who would kill anyone who threatens him — and, let's say, would always spare the enemies that can serve him; or someone who believes in playing by the story conventions; or a villain whose word is absolutely binding but would still kill a pregnant woman; or any kind of evil character that might commit mass genocide but for some reason Will Not Tell a Lie. Or a character who does, without flinching, anything their master orders them to do, anything, because their one rule is absolute obedience. A Lawful Evil character can also be an Omnicidal Maniac just as easily as Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil can be; in such cases, they usually either hold Fantastic Racism towards all other living beings or they wish to impose a new order by annihilating everything and starting from scratch.

Remember, being Lawful does not imply at all that you have any moral standards, and any one of these character archetypes have just as much potential as a Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil character to be truly despicable. Being Lawful may involve some kind of ethical values or moral codes, but they're more about abstract rules than actually caring about other people; alternatively, a lawful character may work within and abuse the rules. Lawful Evil is not always the "nicest" of the Evil alignments, though in individual cases the Lawfulness may make for a Noble Demon. It is just the most consistent and orderly. In short, an evil character who feels that the rules is what gives them strength or superiority. This includes upholding Evil as an ideal in and of itself, coupled with a sense of duty to promote it wherever possible and by any means. They're likely to have standards, but they're just as likely to have a warped moral code regardless. Notably, Hextor, the iconic god of Lawful Evil in Dungeons & Dragons is not sympathetic in the slightest. That being said, many, perhaps most evil characters who end up siding with heroes permanently without undergoing a Heel–Face Turn tend to be Lawful Evil, as they are the most likely of the evil alignments to work within the system; type 1s are particularly prone to this, due to their views on order.

Finally, it should be remembered that while many Lawful Evil types may value the law and may obey it in many cases, being Lawful Evil does not necessarily mean that the character will necessarily obey the actual laws of the land — many of them are fully prepared to commit illegal acts or to twist the laws to their own purposes, and even to annihilate entire systems or civilizations. Some may justify this by saying they are trying to create a superior lawful society; others may assume that their own personal code supersedes any loyalty to the authority of mere mortals; others still may think that the only law they obey is that of their own masters. No Lawful alignment is necessarily inclined to obey every law or any law.

It is safe to assume that Lawful Evil is at least the most "reasonable" in their actions compared to the other Evil Alignments. Characters of this alignment tend to restrain themselves from certain actions, fearing it'll go against what they stand for. As such from a diplomatic or negotiable view, Lawful Evil will listen at least to demands, however this doesn't mean they'll accept them (especially if they don't benefit from them). You can trust Lawful Evil to some extent, while such a thing is ambiguous with Chaotic and Neutral Evil.

See Also: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil

Lawful Evil type typically includes:

• Abusive Parents (if not Lawful Neutral or Neutral Evil)
• Many Affably Evil characters
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• Alpha Bitches, if they are mean enough.
• Amoral Attorneys
• The Ancient Conspiracy, depending on how far they're willing to go.
• Anthropomorphic Personifications that combine order with evil or who simply go to the extreme.
• Aristocrats, when they're evil.
• Any villain trying an Assimilation Plot
• Most Black Knights (if they are not Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral or True Neutral)
• Most Black Shirts
• Some Blood Knights, as they enjoy conquest and warfare but also have some appreciation for fair play and valor.
• Villainous Bounty Hunters (when not Neutral Evil).
• Bullies, when not Neutral Evil.
• The more ruthless versions of the Church Militant.
• The Clock King, when he isn't Lawful Neutral.
• Clocks of Control-themed characters, who are evil more often than not.
• Control Freaks at their absolute worst.
• The more villainous Corporate Samurai.
• Some Corrupt Churches
• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• Corrupt Politician
• Criminals whose modus operandi heavily relies on organization.
• Culture Police
• Dark Messiah (When not Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil)
• Deadly Doctor (can also be Neutral Evil)
• Dean Bitterman
• Decadent Court
• Diabolical Mastermind
• Most varieties of Dirty Cop
• More loyal types of The Dragon.
• The Emperor who leads an evil Empire
• The Empire
• Villains that invoke Even Evil Has Standards. (Occasionally Neutral Evil).
• Evil Chancellor (When aren't Neutral Evil)
• Evil Colonialist (If not Neutral Evil)
• One Evil Counterpart to a Lawful Good character regularly is this.
• Evil Overlord
• The Evils of Free Will
• The Evil half of an Evil Versus Oblivion conflict, if not Neutral Evil.
• Exact Words — honesty doesn't mean there's no treachery
• Family-Values Villain
• Many Faux Affably Evil characters.
• More villainous cases of The Fettered.
• In a villainous Four-Temperament Ensemble, the Melancholic or Phlegmatic usually.
• Less sympathetic examples of The Fundamentalist (the rest are Lawful Neutral).
• The Generalissimo
• General Ripper
• Glorious Leader
• God, when he's evil.
• The Government
• Hanging Judge
• He Who Fights Monsters
• A Hero to His Hometown
• Villainous Hired Guns who still abide by a personal code of honor.
• Evil examples of a Hive Mind
• Dark examples of characters who believe Hobbes Was Right.
• Jerkass Gods (if not Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil)
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner
• Any villain who devises a plot to Kill the Poor.
• Killer Robot, as they follow strict programming and parameters, but what they do is usually evil.
• Knight Templar (Same goes for the Knight Templar Parent and a few Knight Templar Big Brother's, though typically the sibling variant is treated with more sympathy)
• The Krampus, or any Bad Santa who goes a bit too far punishing “the naughty”
• Light Is Not Good (commonly depicted in a sterile, controlling and eerie fashion).
• Antagonists whose narrative purpose is proving that Machiavelli Was Wrong.
• Classic portrayals of The Mafia and the Yakuza
• Many Magnificent Bastards
• Mayor Pain, when evil.
• The default alignment of most Mega Corps (as they're usually run by Corrupt Corporate Executives and often engage in Industrialized Evil)
• The Men in Black (when they are not Lawful Neutral)
• Moral Guardians (If not Lawful Neutral)
• A Nazi by Any Other Name
• Necromancer (If not Lawful Neutral)
• The Neidermeyer
• Noble Demon, when he is actually evil and their "noble" side is because one code of honor
• Those who give a "Not Illegal" Justification for their actions.
• Some Obstructive Bureaucrats. Those who they aren't Lawful Neutral or Lawful Stupid.
• Greedy villains who are Only in It for the Money. (More cash than death in this case)
• Villainous Paranoiacs.
• Persecuting Prosecutor
• Politically Correct Villain
• Politically Incorrect Villain
• Most organized Pragmatic Villains.
• President Evil
• Evil Principles Zealots
• Professional Killer (when they live up to their agreements or follow a strict code of honor).
• Punch-Clock Villain when they really are evil.
• The blue oni of an evil-aligned Red Oni, Blue Oni duo.
• The Renfield
• Adherents of the stricter forms of the Religion of Evil.
• Sadist Teacher
• Most sympathetic portrayals of Satan
• Secret Police
• Sinister Minister (when religion goes terribly wrong)
• The Social Darwinist
• Quite a bit of Sociopathic Heroes who find themselves "stuck" to the good side by a deal, contract or some similar bind, or simply out of a sense of loyalty to the heroes.
• Sociopathic Soldiers of the Jingoist category.
• State Sec
• A Stepford Smiler of the Empty variety, when not Neutral Evil or True Neutral.
• The least sympathetic variants of The Stool Pigeon, usually the Obnoxious Olivia/Oscar, Petty Patty/Peter, and Snobby Sara/Simon.
• Straight Edge Evil
• The Spock, a.k.a Superego of an evil-aligned Freudian Trio.
• Sycophantic Servant
• The Syndicate
• Those Wacky Nazis
• Totalitarian Utilitarian
• Tragic Villain
• Trolls (particularly the Bully Hunter or Principle Zealot varieties).
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: The bad new boss is in this arc is usually Lawful Evil.
• The Undead (If not Chaotic Evil)
• Any villain who believes utopia, despotism or dystopia justifies the means (if not Lawful Neutral, Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil respectively).
• Many Villains with Good Publicity
• Wardens Are Evil
• Well Intentioned Extremists (more sympathetic examples tend to Lawful Neutral. Of course the least sympathetic examples usually fall under Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist.)

Examples

When dealing with the examples of specific characters, remember that assigning an alignment to a character who doesn't come with one is pretty YMMV. If you've got a problem with a character being listed here, it probably belongs on the discussion page. There will be no Real Life examples under any circumstances; it just invites an Edit War. Plus, real people are far too complex and multi-dimensional to really be classified by such a straightforward alignment system.

On works pages: Character Alignment is only to be used in works where it is canonical, and only for characters who have alignments in-story. There is to be no arguing over canonical alignments, and no Real Life examples, ever. noreallife

Several sections have been separated into their own pages due to their size:

• Anime & Manga
• Film
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Tabletop Games
• Video Games
• Western Animation

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Comic Books

• Apocalypse, one of the X-Men's more dangerous foes, is this, although he does not seem to be bound by anything approaching the morality of mortals. His envisioned victory involves endless direct Social Darwinist competition between the strongest creatures on Earth, with himself as the projected ultimate victor. It's telling that in many future dystopias, his only servants are beings who have been forcibly transmuted into his slaves or robots.
• Doctor Doom seeks to Take Over the World to bring it order and peace, rules his home country as either a benevolent but iron-fisted despot or a crazed megalomaniac Depending on the Writer, and is generally loyal to the letter of his oaths and his personal code. His need for domination over others is so all-consuming it makes him Immune to Mind Control because he will not accept any position but absolute superiority.
• Elseworld Kryptonian Gar-El arrived on Earth in the 18th century and allied himself with the British king, aiding him in stopping The American Revolution and then taking over the world with all the powers of Superman. He claimed that he "brought peace, imposed order", and wasn't above executing his own half-human progeny for treasonous thoughts against his rule.
• Magneto, when he's written as a villain, is a classic example, seeking world domination to feed his own ego but also and more importantly to safeguard the future of the mutant race, and protecting it from the very real threat of genocidal anti-mutant prejudice. His principal foes are the X-Men but he generally regards them and most other superheroes as worthy of respect, even non-mutant ones, and (Grant Morrison aside) there are several lines he absolutely will not even think of crossing. His Ultimate X-Men (2001) incarnation is also this, though he evidently doesn't consider humans or anyone in his way to matter much in his personal, amoral ethical code.
• Iron Man villain the Mandarin is an Evil Overlord through and through. On one occasion, he destroyed one of his martial arts students for cheating by trying to drug him in a training session.
• The DCU's uber-Big Bad Darkseid is Lawful Evil in its purest form. His goal is to rule the entire universe by finding the Anti-Life Equation, which would destroy the free will of everyone except him. One blogger called him "the god of fascism," and although it's not mentioned in the comics very often, he is the god of tyranny.
• Dimension Lord Dread Dormammu, despite his title of Lord of Chaos, has a twisted sense of fair play and honor, and displays consistent behavior in attempting to conquer Earth's dimension. As Doctor Strange mentions "Spontaneity is something Dormammu cannot fathom. Like all tyrants, his mind is rigid...he follows set formulas."
• Zarda from Supreme Power is the team Sociopathic Hero. She kills those in her way without hesitation, but she is committed to the goal of world domination. But for that to happen, she needs Hyperion to realize it, so she stays with the Squadron and goes on missions where her powers and brutality are best served: warzones. It was during one of these incidents that she approved of a Pay Evil unto Evil incident involving an abused girl taking revenge on her tormentors.
• Likewise, The Punisher often slides into this alignment, Depending on the Writer. He is sometimes depicted as a guy who simply enjoys killing, and targets criminals simply to give himself a twisted form of self-justification. He is always depicted as a guy driven by a desire for personal revenge, and frequently tortures the perp in various especially brutal ways. The fact that most of the criminals he does this to are usually portrayed as worse (or just as bad) is the only thing that might get him off of this.
• Green Lantern:
  • Former Green Lantern Sinestro seeks to bring order to the universe. And what better way to do that than through fear?
  • The Guardians of the Universe have been on a gradual slide to this in recent issues. Finally culminating in bringing order to the universe by just replacing everyone in it with their Third Army in an Assimilation Plot.
• Spider-Man villain Knight of the super-villain duo, Knight and Fog, is certainly this. He is a contract killer, but never kills unless he is specifically ordered to. Unlike his Chaotic Evil partner, Fog, he never gains any pleasure from torturing his victims before dispatching them.
• The Adversary, also known as Gepetto from Fables. He truly believes that his Empire is for the good of all, citing the necessity of murdering millions to provide prosperity to billions.
• Star Wars: The One Sith from Star Wars: Legacy. Their goal is galactic peace and order- as enforced by a galaxy-spanning totalitarian dictatorship. They do seem to genuinely believe their rhetoric and are loyal to each other, the one betrayal done because they became a liability to their greater goal. But don't think for a minute they won't commit as many atrocities as previous Sith Orders in pursuit of their goal.
• Korvac during The Korvac Saga of The Avengers appears to be Lawful Evil. Before taking godhood, he sought to build a paradise planet. But after having taken godhood, he carefully and methodically planned to take over the universe to make it one of a perfect order. He also killed anyone who found out the truth about him, but stated that it is necessary and that he regrets doing it. Moondragon mistook him for Lawful Good during a mindscan, but his evil showed itself in a What If? (Marvel Comics) comic.
• Ultimate Thanos is certainly this. His mission is stated as being "To make life a little more like death, Ordered. Perfect. Predictable."
• The Beast from Transmetropolitan. A true bastard, but he nevertheless plays by the rules. He's ever so slightly preferable to The Chaotic Evil Smiler.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Scrooge McDuck, especially in the Italian comics. Depending on the Writer, he can be surprisingly nasty. Often ruthless, unscrupulous and uncaring, he routinely threatens, even beats his nephew Donald Duck to do his bidding. He pays below minimum wage (if anything) and is OK with firing thousands of employees just to save a buck.
• Adam Susan from V for Vendetta believes that order and stability take precedence over anything else and will commit a second holocaust to eliminate those he believes would destabilize it.
• The "Mutants" gang members in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. They have a quota system for committing crimes!
• Judge Dredd: The Dark Judges, a group of superpowered undead Judges from another dimension where they already killed every living thing. Their basic mission, formulated by their leader Judge Death, is to create a universe free of crime. Since only the living commit crimes, they decide to pre-emptively murder all potential offenders. They take their fanatical belief in the supremacy of law to the point where they became the worst evil in the whole setting. A prequel story shows that Death actually annihilated most of the other Dark Judges because they adhered too much to Chaotic Evil behavior.
• Black Adam fits, as he was the wizard's original champion, before suffering a tragedy caused him to go the fascistic route. Of course, like a lot of DC villains, he has been known to veer into Lawful Neutral.