Board 8 > Most Evil Fictional Character: Albert Wesker vs. Art the Clown

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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 Resident Evil and the films of Damien Leone, particular the Terrifier films.

ALBERT WESKER

Albert Wesker is a major antagonist in the Resident Evil series.

Wesker has been one of the series' main antagonists as a member of Umbrella Corporation, manipulating story events behind-the-scenes. Wesker first appears as a non-playable character in the original Resident Evil game, where he is the commanding officer for the Alpha team of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.). He is also secretly a double agent for the Umbrella Corporation, where he is employed as a researcher to develop mutagenic viruses and bio-organic weapons (BOWs). Wesker lures the S.T.A.R.S. teams to a mansion overrun with zombies and other deadly BOWs to study the combat effectiveness of Umbrella's creations. He initially helps the player by providing supplies and useful information, but his true motives are discovered by surviving S.T.A.R.S. members Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. He survives his apparent demise due to an experimental virus which grants him superhuman speed, strength, and regeneration. Wesker then begins to work for an unnamed rival to the Umbrella Corporation and conducts a raid on a secret research facility in Antarctica in Resident Evil Code: Veronica. Wesker is defeated by Chris Redfield, who arrives at the facility while searching for his missing sister Claire. Afterwards, Wesker continues to sell viral agents and BOWs on the black market. Wesker makes a cameo in Resident Evil 4 and its 2023 remake, where he is revealed to be working with Ada Wong to obtain a specimen sample for further BOW research. In Resident Evil 5, Wesker conspires to release the Uroboros virus across the world.To further his own plans, Wesker betrays his allies, fakes his death, gains superhuman abilities, and works with both Umbrella's mysterious rival company and their successors in the field of biological weapons development until his ultimate defeat by Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5. He believed that he was chosen to achieve the ultimate goal of causing the mass extinction of humanity in favor of evolution. Albert Wesker is a very power-hungry, traitorous, manipulative, ruthless, misanthropic, sadistic, and calculating individual who seeks power and dominance over everything. Wesker works constantly behind the scenes, often using others to do his dirty work for him. He maintains a calm, collected, and enthusiastic manner most of the time and is always looking to bring payback to anyone who wrongs him. Wesker can manipulate others to work for him, but he doesn't care for anyone except himself, as noted by his betrayal of his S.T.A.R.S. Unit and Excella. He believes that he is destined to be the god of a new world, one that he would create by "purifying" the current one.

vs.

ART THE CLOWN

Art the Clown is the antagonist of several horror films and shorts.

Art the Clown made his debut appearance in the short film "The 9th Circle", which follows his pursuit of a young woman named Casey in an empty train station on Halloween night. Art abducts Casey and brings her to a satanic cult for a sacrifice to Satan. Art's second appearance was in the short film "Terrifier", where he stalks and torments a young woman who witnesses one of his murders at a gas station. The character made his feature-film debut in All Hallows' Eve, which incorporates the prior two short films as segments on VHS tapes that the film's protagonist Sarah watches with the children she's babysitting on Halloween night. Art enters the real world and murders the children for a terrified Sarah to find. Art's second feature-film appearance was in the slasher film Terrifier (2016). In Terrifier, Art inhabits the fictitious Miles County and pursues partygoer Tara Heyes and her sister Victoria on Halloween night. After killing Tara, he targets Victoria, the lone survivor. She fights against Art until he runs her over with a pickup truck and eats half of her face off, leaving her disfigured. Art is a vile, dangerous, and demented killer clown who has a penchant for viciously slaughtering nearly anyone he comes across, with his preferred method of killing and torture being mutilation. Art possesses various supernatural abilities as well, which he uses to induce fear upon his targets. He is shown to be an extremely dedicated serial killer, stopping at nothing until he has finally cornered his victims, who he continually chases down, terrorizes and stalks, before either killing in a slow, violently sadistic manner, or, as shown in some cases, sparing their lives, only so that they have to live with the trauma he has exposed them to. He always (silently) laughs when his targets are in peril, and is very theatrical when hunting down and killing them, oftentimes performing his kills in an animated, comedic manner.

art the clown

wesker is p evil but this guy seems to game it to another level. even though art is responsible for more localized incidents of violence, he just seems more overtly evil. while wesker is responsible for far more death and mayhem, his motivations aren't purely to inflict suffering on others and is more self interested

Art the Clown
Wesker is more practical and has a purpose to his villainy, while Art just likes killing and torturing people.

Wesker

Art isnt a character. Saying Art is evil is like saying a hurricane is evil.

Art is well on his way here, so this is more going to be a discussion for future rounds, but I don't think characters like Art or Jason or Michael Myers are evil, primarily because the person making the movie is less interested in making them evil and more interested in making them scary, which are two different things to me. They exist beyond the realm of morality and are just killing machines that walk around stabbing stuff. Art is evil in the same way the shark from Jaws is evil, in that bad things happen to people when he's around.

Art doesn't talk (like Jason and Michael) so you don't have any sort of sense as to what he's thinking or any idea that he understands what he's doing is wrong, which is sort of key to me in these discussions. Characters like these killing someone feels almost akin to a person squishing a bug and I guess you could argue "treating people like they are disposable meat bags qualifies as evil" but I never got the sense that they operated under that morality. Art doesn't seem human. He seems like a supernatural force that only exists to murder or maim. He fails the ham sandwich test of "can I see this character sitting down and eating a ham sandwich, ever, in their life." No? Why not? Well, because he's not really a character. He's not rebelling against his nature or ignoring impulses to do good - he only exists to murder and there's nothing else to him but that.

That test of "what would he do if put in the other characters shoes." Well, what would Art (or Jason or Michael Myers) do if they were say put in the shoes of Lex Luthor? Probably stab whoever was in the board room with them and then wander the halls looking for an accounting to cut in half. They don't have the mental capacity, desire, or understanding to undertake acts of evil beyond "I'm going to stab this person right in front of me." They're all id, nothing else. I exist, therefore I slice. They do not have the capacity (or desire) to enact societal, meaningful evil.

They're classic horror villains. "BOO I'M GONNA GET YAH!" kind of stuff. I know that falls under the technical definition of evil, but, I dunno. Evil isn't in the top ten of words I'd use to describe characters like that.

Art I just don't think Wesker is that level of evil.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Art is well on his way here, so this is more going to be a discussion for future rounds, but I don't think characters like Art or Jason or Michael Myers are evil, primarily because the person making the movie is less interested in making them evil and more interested in making them scary, which are two different things to me. They exist beyond the realm of morality and are just killing machines that walk around stabbing stuff. Art is evil in the same way the shark from Jaws is evil, in that bad things happen to people when he's around.

Art doesn't talk (like Jason and Michael) so you don't have any sort of sense as to what he's thinking or any idea that he understands what he's doing is wrong, which is sort of key to me in these discussions. Characters like these killing someone feels almost akin to a person squishing a bug and I guess you could argue "treating people like they are disposable meat bags qualifies as evil" but I never got the sense that they operated under that morality. Art doesn't seem human. He seems like a supernatural force that only exists to murder or maim. He fails the ham sandwich test of "can I see this character sitting down and eating a ham sandwich, ever, in their life." No? Why not? Well, because he's not really a character. He's not rebelling against his nature or ignoring impulses to do good - he only exists to murder and there's nothing else to him but that.

That test of "what would he do if put in the other characters shoes." Well, what would Art (or Jason or Michael Myers) do if they were say put in the shoes of Lex Luthor? Probably stab whoever was in the board room with them and then wander the halls looking for an accounting to cut in half. They don't have the mental capacity, desire, or understanding to undertake acts of evil beyond "I'm going to stab this person right in front of me." They're all id, nothing else. I exist, therefore I slice. They do not have the capacity (or desire) to enact societal, meaningful evil.

They're classic horror villains. "BOO I'M GONNA GET YAH!" kind of stuff. I know that falls under the technical definition of evil, but, I dunno. Evil isn't in the top ten of words I'd use to describe characters like that.

See, I disagree.

First, I'd say Jason isn't that evil (and he's not even in the contest). All he wants is revenge for his mother. He's also clearly a character with motivations and desires. He's not just some mindless killing machine (and in fact, he spares kids and animals)

Myers and Art are also both definitely characters. Art shows delight in his kills. He derives enjoyment out of it. And he possesses clear moral agency. Myers and Art both do more than just kill. Myers especially, as he stalks his victims before killing them, and often terrorizes them in other ways. Myers is also capable of speech, but he chooses not to talk.

Also wouldn't this mean that Allied Master Computer would not qualify as 'evil' as you can't picture Allied Master Computer eating a ham sandwich?

Art the Clown

He laughs at you while you suffer.

Wesker seems to lack personal touch. He wants to accomplish his evil goals but doesn't seem to care about suffering in particular. He does to his credit have instances where he betrays allies which does give him some points for me

Art seems to lack scale-- he likes making individuals miserable but wouldn't gain a lot by making the whole planet or even a city miserable.

Leaning Wesker atm

Art the Clown for sure.

First he tortures you by just creeping you the hell out and making you scared. Then he pursues you and tortures you physically. And THEN he goes the extra step to torture you further. It's all what he finds funniest in his own twisted way, because he's often laughing silently at people while he does his kills.

I'd say what bumps it up is that when he feels he's wronged, he absolutely loses all jokes and just outright fucking kills the person. That when his fun is ruined or all run out, he has no use for them and kills them. That's fucking evil.

Art the Clown is terribly fucked but I'm going

Albert Wesker

Wesker has a murderous edge on top of wanting to completely saturate the globe with a twisted virus. Art is definitely more small-scale.

Also, characters definitely don't need to strictly talk to express a wealth of personality.

Yeah I think Art's need for validation by enjoying the victim's suffering that people seem to be sold on, for me while it makes him twisted, it ultimately limits how much evil he'd be driven to do to well below what Wesker would want to. Because if he isn't directly enjoying the suffering he isn't going to bother. So if you're not in his immediate proximity you're relatively safe.

Wesker

Art the Clown

Easy choice here.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

~stuff~

See this is where I'm at with it, which is why I go with Wesker.

Also don't forget to bold your answers, peoples.

Let's see, a edgelord killer that was written by an edgelord
Or a well written villain from a game series.
I'm going with Wesker.

DemonicChaosXX posted...

Let's see, a edgelord killer that was written by an edgelord
Or a well written villain from a game series.
I'm going with Wesker.

Its not best written its evilest.

Art

RySenkari posted...

Albert Wesker is a very power-hungry, traitorous, manipulative, ruthless, misanthropic, sadistic, and calculating individual who seeks power and dominance over everything

sure but has he ever gone diarrhea doo-doo on the floor

if this contest was about well written characters that chucklefuck from hatred wouldn't even have been in the running to begin with.

also bold your answers (again)

tentatively voting for art here. he's more smaller scale for sure, but there's something chilling and personal to his depravity.

Art

Sadism vs scale again, I think here sadism wins. However I would vote for Griffith over Art here so it is an odd one.

Also @plasmabeam @PrivateBiscuit1 @DemonicChaosXX @PerfectChaosZ you need to bold your votes for them to count.

Oh, alright. Art the Clown

Can I change votes after reading arguments? If possible, Id like to change my vote to

Art the Clown

LightningStrikes posted...

Art

Sadism vs scale again, I think here sadism wins. However I would vote for Griffith over Art here so it is an odd one.

Also @plasmabeam @PrivateBiscuit1 @DemonicChaosXX @PerfectChaosZ you need to bold your votes for them to count.

Oh, sorry. Thanks
Wesker

Art the Clown is way more twisted, sadistic and just plain evil. Wesker has scale of objective on his side for sure but that's really the only advantage I see for him here, and Art is way more malevolent in his intimacy.

Art the Clown

Bolded vote