OSP's "Pure Evil" Video is Bad

I enjoy some of Overly Sarcastic Production's content, eve if I feel they draw from a very limited pool of fiction from which they cite their tropes--anime, cartoons, Marvel movies, etc. However, I feel their weaknesses cause them to take a simplistic view of fiction, as exemplified by the incredibly naive, shallow view they take of villains in this video:



As any experienced writer can tell you, forcing your antagonist into a binary system and making them either a sad, misunderstood anti-hero (ugh) and cartoonishly evil sadists is a great way to encourage innovation in writing and not recycle the same tropes over and over again.

In this video, Red fails to account for one of the most basic tenets of human nature--that people always take actions for mixed motivations. Where good intentions end and personal pride or desires for validation begin is often a fine line. Let's take an example of an excellent villain with a complex backstory but a "Pure Evil" mindset--Pagan Min from Far Cry 4. [Spoilers for FC4 below]

Spoiler

Pagan Min is the dictator of the fictional nation of Kyrat, located somewhere near Nepal. The country has been caught in a bloody civil war between a group of revolutionaries known as the Golden Path and Pagan Min's Loyalist faction. Long story short, Pagan's daughter Lakshmana is murdered by the Loyalists. In his rage and grief, Pagan begins a brutal crackdown on anyone with ties to the Golden Path.

Pagan is a absolute monster. During the events of the game years later, he stabs his own soldier to death with a letter opener, tortures the player's guide after inviting him to dinner, and has his body double slaughter a family suspected of harboring Golden Path revolutionaries on a whim. Throughout most of his dialogues with the player, he doesn't mention Lakshmana at all--he talks and jokes with the player casually about his material excesses, such as melting down culturally significant artifacts so he can build a 50-foot gold statue of himself and wondering if he should invite Kanye West to his palace to improve "his image on the world stage. He even laughs about how he forced a humanitarian worker to violate her deepest principles of her profession by taking her family hostage and forcing her to manage a gladiatorial arena where enemies of the state are slaughtered for the people's amusement.

The player's character leads the revolutionaries on a final push against the Loyalist forces. The player breaks into the royal palace, with Pagan quietly waiting for them. If the player chooses to spare them. Pagan reflects on Lakshmana and her death, but then says shows a rare moment of self-reflection that speaks volumes about his character and on villains in general:

"I killed so many people for [Lakshmana and her mother.] But then I realized--I was only using Lakshmana's death as an excuse to do whatever I wanted to do...G-----n if it isn't fun." (Source)

Pagan Min is a callous, irredeemable monster whose proclaimed motives--justice for his daughter--fed into his desire for power and security over others. Where one began and the other ended isn't clear, and somewhere along the way he stopped caring which was which. The game doesn't try to use his backstory as an excuse for his behavior, but to explain how he became a "Pure Evil" villain.

I could speak further about Red completely misunderstands Thanos as a villain and how the mindset she propagates leads to the awful trend of "moral ambiguity" in fiction writing, but my main point is this: this video should not be used as the source of advice it was designed to be. Take these videos with a grain of salt.