Antagonists Wiki
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Dellenbach: What did Muller want with you?
Karas: He wanted me to know what you really are.
Dellenbach: Come on, Karas, quit playing the saint.
Karas: I don't know anything about saints. But I have an uncanny instinct for sniffing out a son of a bitch!
Dellenbach: For someone with instinct, you sure let a lot of people die when you're on the case. Dimitri Ostrovski. Jonas Muller. Hishiro Nakata. [Karas holds down his left fist in rage and anger towards Dellenbach and his henchmen after hearing that Dellenbach killed Nakata without knowing] You didn't know! [laughs evilly]
~ Dellenbach after having his henchmen to killed Jonas Muller off and has a argument with Barthélémy Karas.
You're a liar and a bully, and I'd rather rot in this dumpster than join any "family" of yours!
~ Jessie to Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear
Muzan. You… are a being that must not be allowed to exist.
~ Tanjiro Kamado to Muzan Kibutsuji.

Hate Sinks are characters who are purposely created to be despised by fans/the audience for their negative character traits and/or despicable actions. They can be so hateable that even their own portrayers or creators can come to detest them. They “pour out hate”, are one dimensional, given little to no entertaining elements, complexity, sympathetic traits, or anything like that. Most, if not, all of the characters in-universe absolutely loathe them. As such, Hate Sinks often overlap with Pure Evil villains. They are the evil opposites of Love Exalted which are Pure Goods who are loved and praised for their kind and positive traits.

However, this does not necessarily mean all Pure Evil villains are automatically Hate Sinks. Some PE villains might have an entertaining/"evil is cool"/compelling screen presence while others can even be Laughably Evil (when the audience finds a villain funny, even though they are taken very seriously in-universe to the point that their comedic traits do not detract their heinousness, like in the cases of Syndrome, Bill Cipher and most versions of the Joker). To contrast, a PE villain is more likely to be a Hate Sink if they lack all of these entertaining values and/or if they were intentionally written to be hated.

Villains like Alan Yates, Mark Tomaso, Dolores Umbridge, Bogs Diamond, Professor Hojo, Black Noir, Rip Blazkowicz, Shou Tucker, Joffrey Baratheon, Ozai, Scorpio, Scarlet Spiker, Peter Stegman, Champ, General Dreykov and Muscular are prime examples of what a Hate Sink is expected to be (at least as far as PE villains are concerned).

Hate Sinks almost never qualify as Laughably Evil given that Hate Sinks are completely devoid of entertaining villainy qualities, though unlike with Love Exalted and Seriously Good, there are certain occasions where a villain can fall under both, such as:

  • Villains who are designed to be despised yet frequently come across as genuinely funny (e.g. Michael, Ramsay Bolton, Valdo Obruchev, Isaac Kanda, Black Mask, Edward Wade, Babidi, Dream, Kilgrave, Pennywise, Glichtrap, and Penguin).
  • Villains who guise their true loathsome colors under a comical persona (e.g. William Wharton, Caleb, Micah Bell, Rolo Haynes, It, Simon Krieger, Lavrentiy Beria and The Trickster).
  • Villains who initially start off as laughable but slowly become darker as the story goes on (e.g. Scar, Warren Mears, Simon, Bradford Buzzard,J, and Steele).
  • Dissociative villains who have a personality with comedic traits, and a personality with more detestable traits.
  • Ensemble villains who are laughable in one role and more contemptible in another (e.g. the DCAU's Joker and Rastapopoulos).

Please note that just because a loathsome villain is presented comedically on one small occasion, does not mean they are Laughably Evil (e.g. Dag, Ozai, Aya Tokoyogi, Lord Commander, Chief McBrusque, Porky Minch and Peter Pettigrew). Likewise, just because a comical villain briefly loses their comedic traits, does not mean they are a Hate Sink (e.g. Freddy Krueger, Frieza, PAMA, Sir Benedict Cumbersnatch, Bill Cipher, Chucky, Grimmel the Grisly, Emperor Palpatine,Black Hiver, Koba,and King Boo). Hate Sink and Laughably Evil crossovers must have a significant amount of both hateable and humorous traits.

Also, just like with Laughably Evils, it's not necessary for every Pure Evil villain to be a Hate Sink, as there are many that can fall somewhere in between (e.g. Sauron, Johan Liebert, Morgoth, Anton Chigurh, Lord Voldemort, Piella Bakewell, William Afton,and SMG0) where fans and/or the audience can have their own opinions.

NOTE: If the villain seems detestable enough but the people who created the work (a.k.a. Word of God) say that the villain was meant to be seen as tragic or three-dimensional (e.g. Judge Claude Frollo, Commander Rourke, Masayuki Kaneki, Edwin Epps, David, Isaac Ray Peram Westcott, Koba, Venom, Steppenwolf, Miss Gribben, Lieutenant Obsidian and Femto), they do not count. Likewise, villains that appear to be loathsome enough for the category but later shed those traits to be outweighed by entertaining elements like evil is cool, laughably evil or all will no longer apply here (e.g. Ridley, Tae Gu Mo, Frieza, Dio Brando, Avon Hertz, Norman Stansfield, Lord Voldemort, Lucas Baker and Freddy Krueger).

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