Neutral Evil Narrator

MEDIA EXAMPLES

Most characters in Black Lagoon are of this alignment — living in a world as violent as theirs, both a tolerance and an occasional willingness to do evil to come out on top is practically a necessity. Mr. Chang, Shenhua and Sawyer the Cleaner are the most prominent Neutral Evil characters. Berserk: Gambino, Gut's adoptive father, is a real piece of work. A cutthroat mercenary, he had no love for Guts as a father and barely tolerated his existence when he was raised by Sys, Gambino's lover. After Sys's death, Gambino hated Guts enough to sell him as a child prostitute for three silver coins and allow Donovan, one of his men, to have his way with him. He would only get worse after losing his leg to a cannonball during a battle, ending his career on the battlefield, causing him to take to drinking, and blaming everything on Guts. One night when massively drunk, Gambino came into Guts' tent one night and tried to murder him, but Guts killed Gambino in self-defense and fled the mercenary camp to escape the wrath of the other mercenaries. Griffith fits the bill after joining the God Hand and becoming Femto. Throughout his life, the one thing he valued above more than anything else in the world was achieving his dream of ruling a kingdom of his own. Though the act of ruling may be seen as more lawful than neutral, he is motivated primarily by self-realization instead of any desire to have order. He's willing to sacrifice anything — no matter what that entails — if it means he reaches his goal. When he joins the God Hand, he proves this by betraying his own soldiers and having them slaughtered by demons, then by forcing himself on his former best friend's lover while said former friend watches. After joining them, he triggers the Great Roar of the Astral Plane and is willing to plunge the whole world in chaos with only his dominion as a haven of order. Many of the more reserved Apostles are these, doing their evil deeds out of public eye and enacting their own selfish desires without delving too far into Chaotic Evil territory. It is important to know that all Apostles were once humans who underwent a Despair Event Horizon, so vestiges of their human personalities still remain. Some examples include. The Slug Count, a corpulent autocrat who uses the pretense of a heretic hunt to capture humans to feed on. He was horrid and cruel, but pragmatic enough to keep the people loyal to him out of fear if nothing else. Despite him revelling in evil acts, one of his most interesting traits was his genuine love for his young daughter Theresia. Despite his trying to shelter her from the cruel world and his true nature, Guts used her to slay the horrid beast, and when granted a second audience with the Godhand, he refused to sacrifice his daughter to save himself and is Dragged Off to Hell. Rosine was once a curious and imaginative girl who was born into an abusive household. After losing hope in the world of humans, she sacrificed her parents to become a beautiful moth-like Queen of the Elves of Misty Valley, a swarm of malignant children-turned-monsters that terrorized villages and kidnap children. Despite her change and [hatred of humanity, she remembered and still cared for her former friend Jill, and actually tried to protect her from Guts when he almost killed her. She still wanted to turn Jill into an elf, but her reasoning was that war and death are natural in the human world, and it's better to live in an escapist fantasy. Emperor Ganishka was a renegade Apostle and Demon Emperor of the Kushan Empire. His ego and cruelty knew no bounds, and he is not shy of torture, slavery, and twisted dark magic rituals. He ruled with an iron fist, and ensured that his will is absolute through a campaign of fear and death. However, what prevented him from being a Lawful Evil villain is his defiance against the Godhand and especially Griffith, for he refused to give up his throne to any being, be they king or god. Sadly for Gahnishka, he turned out to be nothing more than an Unwitting Pawn for the gods he denied his allegiance. His first confrontation with Griffith wasn't even a fight, so in desperation he plunged himself into a man-made-Behilit to become a god. Unfortunately for him, it worked, and he was turned into the Chaotic Evil Shiva. While technically not canon, The Idea of Evil fits the bill of a perfect Neutral Evil being, being the Greater-Scope Villain beyond the Godhand and Apostles themselves. Resting deep in the World of Idea, this eldritch being was formed from the collective hopes, dreams, and thoughts of humanity, specifically the bad ones. When people ask why bad things happen like death, war, famine, and plague, The Idea of Evil answers it with its own existence. It is a huge monster created out of humanity's need for a reason for all their suffering. Thus it is responsible for making the world of Berserk what it is. Shapiro Keats from Dancougar. He betrayed his kind and his planet to join the Muge army and he tried to manipulate them in order to get the chance to become god of the universe. Dragon Ball: Piccolo started off as the Big Bad, until Raditz first appeared and outmatched him. Piccolo decided to join Goku in defeating him only because Goku was as strong as or maybe even stronger than him, and to keep Raditz from taking over the world, which he planned on doing. In training Goku's son, Gohan for the other two Saiyans, he starts to diverge from his evil nature, leading to a full on Heel–Face Turn when he sacrifices his life to save Gohan. His "father", King Piccolo, was for his part an openly Card-Carrying Villain who devoted himself to the cause of wreaking havoc, and who became ruler of the world solely to abolish all laws and throw it into darkness. Just before his death, he reincarnated himself in the form of Piccolo Jr. in the hope that his own evil would outlive him. Vegeta in the Namek saga. He spends most of the saga as a Villain Protagonist until joining Krillin and Gohan to fight the Ginyu Force. However, he's only joining them because they're the only other people who could possibly help them, and made it very clear that he was still planning on killing them and stealing the Dragon Balls. Thanks to circumstances, he eventually goes through Heel–Face Turn. Frieza is absolutely of this alignment. He is an utterly selfish Galactic Conqueror whose modus operandi is taking over a planet, cleansing it clean of life and selling it to the highest bidder; though he is the ruler of The Empire it doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than making him more money, glory, and power. He is a Bad Boss of the worst sort who once blew up a world of his elite warrior race because he heard a rumor that they might become strong enough to defeat him, and his goal is to achieve Immortality so he can be the strongest in the universe forever. Once Cell created the Cell Games, he had a rule that if you are ringed out you lose. When he and Goku fought, he blew up the stadium so that a) He and Goku would be able to keep fighting and b) So that he wouldn't need to abide by his own rules. Death Note: Light Yagami's egomaniacal god complex and his utter unwillingness to admit that what he is doing may be wrong places him squarely into this trope, particularly late in the series. While his original motivation may have been to punish criminals and create a perfect utopia with himself as a god, by the end he's been reduced to merely killing the people that he personally dislikes. Mello fits this trope, as well. He is devoted to accomplishing the Lawful Neutral L's goals via his own methods (which include taking over the Mafia). Mello later transitions to a Chaotic Neutral, after meeting with Near. Misa, as well. She is willing to do anything to gain Light's trust and love to her. "Anything" includes becoming a partner in his mass murder business... for which she takes the initiative by herself before he's had a chance to manipulate her into it. Most Shinigami in this universe are apathetic parasites that keep themselves alive by depriving humans of their lives without a second thought. The most important one for the story, Ryuk, might be a funny comic relief guy at many times, but he starts the whole dark, tragic, death-filled storyline because It Amused Me, and that's still his attitude by the end. Cyborg 009: Black Ghost is a technologically advanced criminal organisation that manipulates and instigates wars around the world in order to sell their weapons to the highest bidder, and some of these weapons include people turned into powerful cyborgs against their will through kidnapping and blackmailing. Naruto: Sasuke Uchiha started out Lawful Neutral, became Neutral Good after becoming part of Team 7, going into True Neutral when he abandoned Konoha and sought out Orochimaru's help, but after Tobi told him the truth about the destruction of the Uchiha clan, and he subsequently attacked the Five Kage Summit with the intent of killing Danzo to avenge his family's deaths and proceeded to proclaim that he would kill everyone in Konoha as revenge for his family, which firmly established him as Neutral Evil. Kakuzu, whose only goal is profit, and Sasori, who wishes to make as many puppets as possible to establish the immortality of his art, also fit this alignment. Vicious from Cowboy Bebop is only interested in killing Spike and is willing to do anything to accomplish this. Yujiro Hanma from Baki the Grappler. He wavers more between Chaotic Evil and Chaotic Neutral in the sequels. He is excessively cruel and the reasons for his cruelty are sometimes just as excessively flimsy, but he'll also stay out of the "good guys"' way if he doesn't feel like fighting them or even help if he's got personal stakes in their fights. My-HiME: Several of the antagonistic Hime become this later on in My-HiME. Their allegiances typically lie with themselves and they are willing to hurt others in order to advance their own agendas. My-Otome manga: Tomoe Marguerite has this alignment written all over her. She is extremely vicious and selfish, to the point of not caring who gets hurt or dies because of her schemes, and will either play by the rules or break them outright. It doesn't matter which, as long as she gets away with it and gets what she wants: Shizuru's love. She becomes increasingly Chaotic Evil as time goes on. The Big Bad of the manga, Sergay initially appears loyal to the real Mashiro even after being exposed as a villain, only to dispose of her when she's no longer useful and attempt to destroy the world. Gundam — again — is a good source for examples. Char's original alignment is still debated. Being evil without question, his balance of being a proud soldier but killing friends and superiors to avenge his father would put him in NE alignment. Manipulative Bastard and The Chessmaster Paptimus Scirocco in Zeta Gundam. He will betray anyone and break any oath to fulfill his objectives, but can play along with his "superiors" for as long as needed. Glemmy Toto from Gundam ZZ fits this alignment as well, considering he is The Starscream of the series. G Gundam has the secret main villain Major Ulube, who is planning to rule the Earth sphere with Devil Gundam. Putting him in lawful or chaotic is not really possible, so he's probably best left here. Wang Liu Mei from Gundam 00 will aid whoever can be useful to her goal of changing the world into a place that suits her desires, and elevate herself into an higher being akin to the Innovators, and at the same time will sacrifice anything or anyone she deems necessary. She has loyalty to no one but herself, not even to her own brother Hong Long, whose death only elicited the most minute emotional response from her. Muruta Azrael of Gundam Seed. A Smug Snake whose desire is to slaughter every Coordinator in existence while gaining as much political influence and money as possible. His successor, Lord Djibril, started here for the same reasons, but devolved into Chaotic Evil as the events of the series turned against him. Djibril's Tykebombs, the Extended, are likely Neutral Evil as well: sure they're being forced into fighting, but Sting and Auel at least would cheerfully do it anyway. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: Jail Scaglietti may be a giggling Mad Scientist, but unlike Precia, he's kept his sanity where it counts. He's not prone to abusing his minions for no reason, for one, and he will happily play by the rules of his employers... that is, until he's deemed them too obstructive to his goals. Bleach: Mayuri Kurotsuchi certainly counts in this area as a Mad Scientist of the worst caliber. Although he serves the Soul Society (and seems to have no interest whatsoever in the Big Bad's evil plan), he shows very little care for standards and is willing to bend (or, if he can get away with it, outright break) the rules "For Science!". Mayuri is an example of an effective Neutral Evil character on the good guys' team done right; all he wants is research, and he will kill anyone he has to to get it and that's it. He won't backstab, and didn't even backstab Urahara even when the latter informed him that all that stood between him and being the leader of 12th Division was his own death, because he was getting what he wanted anyway. Grimmjow Jeagerjaquez. He is under Aizen's command, but holds no loyalty to him beyond the fact that Grimmjow himself is not strong enough to take him down (which is a great irritation to him). He goes against orders on a number of occasions, including going so far as to break Orihime out of her prison and sealing Ulquiorra into a pocket dimension temporarily just so he can have his showdown with Ichigo. Sosuke Aizen shows himself to be definitely this. He has freely admitted to being unbound by any type of honor, law, morality, or even decency. Everything, including (read: especially) his own underlings, are pawns used to achieve his own goals. Naturally, he believes this makes him the only viable candidate to become the world's new God. While he may have used the political system on his behalf for an unspecified amount of time, even years, he did not have a plan for bettering people, order, or society. It was just a selfish lust for power, and to become "God", not to rule, but because, as he described it, the seat has been empty for a while, so he would take it, aka be the strongest being in existence. He has no loyalty to his minions, they are all dead at the end of his arc, some directly or indirectly because of him, he just views them as tools to further his ambition. Neuro from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro. His motives may benefit humanity in the short term, but this is somewhat spoiled by the fact that every time he saves humans from outside forces, he is essentially saving them in hope that they will kill each other some day, and create a puzzle. And yet, he's not actively Chaotic, either, preferring to manipulate law rather than destroy it. Enishi Yukishiro, the Big Bad of Rurouni Kenshin's Jinchu arc is willing to use anyone and anything to get his revenge on Kenshin for his sister's death. To him, nothing else matters. Fate Averruncus of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. It's currently unknown what his true goals are, but there isn't much he's not willing to do for it, including taking out multiple gate ports and framing Negi for it, petrifying anyone he sees as an obstacle (including non-fighters like Nodoka and Konoka), kidnapping those he sees as crucial to his plans, and not-so-subtly threatening a city full of innocents when meeting Negi.