Board 8 > Most Evil Fictional Character: Eric Cartman vs. Nurse Ratched

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Welcome to the 2023 edition of Most Evil Fictional Character, a single-elimination tournament to determine the most evil fictional character of all time!

Here's the bracket:

https://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=477621&tclass=

And here's the discussion topic:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80568652

And here are the rules:

-First and foremost, YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT. The reason for this is that these topics encourage a lot of discussion and debate, and it helps me to distinguish a vote from simple discussion if all votes are bolded. So, I state again, ALL VOTES MUST BE BOLDED FOR THEM TO COUNT. I reserve the right to be lenient in early topics if people just aren't getting it, but for the most part, IF YOUR VOTE ISN'T BOLDED, IT WON'T COUNT.

-You must vote for which of the two characters you honestly believe to be the more evil of the two. You can determine this via any method you like, use your own morals and judgement, read all the arguments made to determine your choice, or however you choose to make your pick, but you must only vote for the one you truly believe is the most evil. This isn't a death battle, or a popularity contest. You're voting ONLY for the most evil character out of the two choices presented.

-While on that subject, remember that because this isn't a death battle or a fighting tournament, do your absolute best to consider the two characters as if their power levels were equal (either the weaker character brought up to the level of the strongest, or vice versa, or both if you want to consider both possibilities). Therefore, just because, for example, one of the characters blew up a planet and the other one merely kicked a puppy, doesn't necessarily mean the planet killer is more evil than the puppy kicker. Consider the characters as if they have the exact same capabilities and what they might do in that scenario.

-You can make any arguments, debates, etc. you want in this topic. Discussion is STRONGLY encouraged, a fun debate about which of the two characters is most evil is exactly what these topics are for. Just don't make it personal, no insults or flaming, keep things civil even if you disagree. Also, no vote rallying, if you want to encourage people to vote for your character you need to at least make some semblance of an argument as to why, even if it's just "Character X did (really dastardly thing), I can't believe no one's voting for them!"

-Voting will continue for exactly 24 hours after the post is made. If there's a tie, there will be a new 24 hour topic. This will continue indefinitely until a winner is determined.

-YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT.

-

The following write-ups will contain untagged SPOILERS for South Park and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Proceed at your own risk!

ERIC CARTMAN

Eric Cartman is a major character in the animated series South Park.

Cartman is an elementary school student who lives with his single mother, Liane, in the eponymous Colorado town. Cartman is principally characterized by his obesity, his amorality, and his bigoted and especially antisemitic disposition, being described by Parker and Stone as "a little Archie Bunker." In later seasons, particuarly following the fifth season episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", Cartman exhibits increasingly sociopathic and manipulative behavior. He knows German, and once uses this knowledge to impersonate Adolf Hitler while promoting the extermination of Jews to an oblivious audience that did not speak German. In the episode "Pinkeye", Cartman dresses up as Hitler for Halloween. When shown a documentary to demonstrate why dressing like him is not cool, Cartman is enthralled and imagines himself being the one commanding the Nazi troops in the video. After his psychiatrist mocked his weight, Cartman framed the man as a pedophile to his wife, causing her to commit suicide. In the season five episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", Cartman is repeatedly pranked by a ninth grader named Scott Tenorman. He then successfully executes an elaborate scheme to publicly humiliate Scott in front of his favorite band Radiohead, by getting Scott's parents killed and then tricking Scott into eating them. He once kidnapped a student named Billy Turner and forced him to play a Jigsaw game by handcuffing his ankle to the school flagpole. Cartman secretly spiked poison in Billy's lunch milk and told him that the poison would kill him unless he sawed off his own leg and got the antidote. In "Coon 2: Hindsight", "Mysterion Rises", and "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", although Cartman does not directly murder anyone, he does manipulate Cthulhu in murdering hundreds of people whom he personally deems evil, which includes Hippies, Jews, the people of San Francisco, and Justin Bieber.

vs.

NURSE RATCHED

Nurse Ratched is the primary antagonist of the novel and film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Nurse Ratched is the head administrative nurse at the Salem State Hospital, a mental institution where she exercises near-absolute power over the patients' access to medications, privileges, and basic necessities such as food and toiletries. She capriciously revokes these privileges whenever a patient displeases her. Her superiors turn a blind eye because she maintains order, keeping the patients from acting out, either through antipsychotic and anticonvulsant drugs or her own brand of psychotherapy, which consists mostly of humiliating patients into doing her bidding. She keeps the patients in line by using their mental weaknesses, and encourages other patient to act is informants for her so that she can use sensitive information against a patient as she sees fit. When Randle McMurphy arrives at the hospital, however, he flouts her rules with impunity and inspires other patients to follow. Her attempts to cow him into submissionat first with threats and mild punishments, then with shock therapyare unsuccessful, serving only to fuel his defiance. McMurphy helps organize an unauthorized party late one evening, and they invite two prostitute friends, Sandra and Candy, into the asylum. After noticing fellow patient Billy Bibbitt has a crush on Candy, McMurphy encourages her to have sex with him. Ratched catches Billy and Candy in the act. Furious, she threatens to tell his mother. He begs her not to, blaming McMurphy and the other patients for orchestrating the event. Ratched sends him to wait in the ward doctor's office as the authorities are called. When Dr. Spivey finally arrives, he finds Billy has killed himself. Ratched tells the inmates that "the best thing we can do is to go on with our daily routine".

We also have a TIEBREAKER match (Calvin Candie vs. Yami Marik), that can be found here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80576672

There's a very important note about Ratched at the end of Cuckoo's Nest that is sorely missing from the write-up, which is that ultimately, she orders McMurphy to be lobotomized. That is the one thing that might compel me to pick Ratched here.

Cartman, however, has such a vast body of work to draw on. It's varied, it's extensive, it's cruel, and it's often random and frivolous. He shows complete wanton disregard for other people, and I don't doubt he'd do everything Ratched does if given a chance.

Cartman

Nurse Ratched

I am meh on both of these!

Cartman is a weird case. He is definitely an asshole far more often than not and has comically evil extremes. However, at the same time, he has also had moments where he has been genuinely good and has been willing to sacrifice for his friends if things are particularly rough. His "evilness" also seems to stem from his proximity to Kyle and his antics can be shut down pretty fast if you just smack him.

That said, while it wont be enough against some others in this bracket, the sheer extremity of some of the things Cartman does still gives him the edge here for me despite the deductions

What Ratched did was horrid, but I dont see her going to "tricking a teen into eating a chilli made partly from his dead parents" level

Cartman

Ratchet

Cartman is comically evil but an idiot. He's also inconsistent.

Ratched is smart, calculating, and fully aware of the harm she's causing in a frighteningly realistic way

ERIC CARTMAN

RySenkari posted...

He once kidnapped a student named Billy Turner and forced him to play a Jigsaw game by handcuffing his ankle to the school flagpole. Cartman secretly spiked poison in Billy's lunch milk and told him that the poison would kill him unless he sawed off his own leg and got the antidote.

Man I don't remember this at all but apparently this was in "Tsst."

Nurse Ratched

Yes, Cartman does super heinous things. But he also feels remorse sometimes, and he does good things. He's just too inconsistent imo to be considered truly evil. I'd say he'd do worse things than Nurse Ratched, but he'd also feel some sense of remorse over them. Ratched, while not as bad as some in this contest, is irredeemable.

I gotta go with Eric Cartman here. Little bastard of a child..

This is another tricky one to compare. Cartman has a much larger body of "work" than Ratched, with more varied evil acts. Ratched is someone you could envision existing in real life, whereas Cartman is much more exaggerated. It seems consistent that Cartman's eviler qualities are heightened around Kyle, but he's gone out of his way to torment other characters like Butters.

Ultimately I think, if Cartman was in charge of Ratched's psych ward, he would be petty and cruel, tormenting the patients solely because he could, maybe even more than Ratched does. Whereas if Ratched was an elementary schooler in a small town, would she even come close to Cartman's deeds?

I think I'm going with Cartman here.

Oh, hey, the rare match where I am familiar enough with both characters to feel comfortable voting.

Eric Cartman, and I think my feelings on both are summed up well by azuarc and Pirateking2000.

Nurse Ratched because her villainy is more consistent. As others have said, Cartman's characterization varies depending on the episode, and is dependent on what would be the funniest thing for him to do.

Eric Cartman

Nurse Ratched practically did nothing wrong, McMurphy had it coming tbh

Seginustemple posted...

Nurse Ratched practically did nothing wrong, McMurphy had it coming tbh

That's a take. I don't deny McMurphy had something coming, and he was legitimately a criminal who escaped prison by being sent to the loonie bin instead, but Ratched's actions against others are unethical and her responses to McMurphy are usually disproportionate.