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But Not Too Evil

162 statements
28 feature instances
39 referencing feature instances

But Not Too Evil	type	FeatureClass
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But Not Too Evil	comment	Moral Guardians often get into a tizzy over any sort of naughty, nasty, or even questionable business portrayed in the media. After all, in their minds those kids will imitate anything they see on the screen (and they would do in the real world). This tends to result in a world of clear-cut heroes and villains in media marketed as being "kid-friendly". But villains are supposed to be evil, right? They can get away with doing all sorts of nasty things the moral guardians wouldn't approve of because they inevitably get what's coming to them in the end. But sometimes the guardians complain anyway, as if the viewers are too dumb to tell who's right and who's wrong (or the guardians might be afraid that Evil is Cool, in the mind of kids who like acting someone cool). It's like they don't want the bad guys to be evil... and, of course, since most of these moralists believe in Black-and-White Morality, this attitude steers them dangerously close to Logic Bomb territory. The result of this sort of thinking (if the writers don't tell the Moral Guardians to fuck off) is typically Villain Decay or a Harmless Villain or Friendly Enemy who isn't actually shown doing bad things. Any attempt by the villains to do bad things will get foiled by the heroes with a minimum of fuss. To be fair, one of the oldest ways of Getting Crap Past the Radar is to create a Magnificent Bastard who outsmarts everyone, is much cooler than the heroes, and lives a life of (vividly described) debauchery, but gets killed in the last five minutes. Then the creators appease the Moral Guardians by saying, "Hey, he loses. That proves that all the debauchery and lying we showed isn't something you root for." (Goes at least as far back as Don Giovanni.) After Moral Guardians realize they've been hoaxed this way, they become paranoid and assume that any villain who succeeds at all is a case of Getting Crap Past the Radar. Despite the snarky tone we're taking here, this trope is not necessarily a bad thing. No matter how clear a series makes it that the villain is not to be admired, some evil acts genuinely aren't appropriate for all audiences. This is why fairly light kids' shows like Scooby-Doo have their villains committing the more mundane crimes (theft, fraud, etc.) rather than the more disturbing ones (rape, graphic torture, etc.) This trope is not about villains whose villany is toned-down to make them more sympathetic to the audience but about cases where it is toned-down to avoid being controversial or shocking. If you are looking for the former trope see Adaptational Nice Guy, Pet the Dog, Even Evil Has Standards or A Lighter Shade of Black. Everyone Is Satan in Hell is a related phenomenon. Perhaps the writers would write a story much safer for the audience by adding no villain at all. When this trope involve censoring of Nazis it will often cross path with No Swastikas. See also Do Not Do This Cool Thing, Villainy-Free Villain, and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. When this is done to a Historical Domain Character, see Historical Villain Downgrade.
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But Not Too Evil / int_1816b03b	type	But Not Too Evil
But Not Too Evil / int_1816b03b	comment	The Little Mermaid (2023): The film version of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from The Little Mermaid (1989) removes the verse about body language and women staying quiet to find a man, apparently because the song had been criticized by some parents for sending a bad message, despite the fact it was sung by the villain who was manipulating Ariel and was never presented as a legitimate moral.
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But Not Too Evil / int_261c8d3f	type	But Not Too Evil
But Not Too Evil / int_261c8d3f	comment	The Simpsons: According to Matt Groening, Bart Simpson was created out of his frustration with this trope; as he put it, the traditional brat in television was usually just a decently mannered kid who spoke too loud, in contrast to Bart's genuinely disruptive and anti-authority behavior. Of course, back in the day Matt got what he wanted and more: when The Simpsons first began airing (and particularly during the first two seasons) Bart's behavior set off a firestorm of protests from angry parents' groups saying Bart was a terrible role model. Unlike many examples on this page, though, all this complaining was roundly ignored by the show's writers, who refused to change a thing. In fact, it inspired an episode where Marge stages a censorship campaign against Itchy and Scratchy. The campaign works, and I&S becomes incredibly bland and boring as a result. Ironically, either through shifting culture or Menace Decay (probably a little of both), Bart can now be reasonably accurately described as a "decently mannered kid who speaks too loud". Even in his heyday, Bart could almost be a subversion. While he genuinely enjoyed causing mayhem, most of his antics were more meant to drive authority figures crazy rather than cause any genuine harm. There were lines that even Bart wouldn't cross, and when he realized he went too far, he'd actually feel bad about it and try to make up for it. The prime examples would be he'd happily torment Homer and raise hell for Skinner but cares about Marge's opinion of him and never pranks Maggie. He'll tease Lisa relentlessly but if anything ELSE bothers Lisa he'll step in to help her out.
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But Not Too Evil / int_3692a962	comment	In Lord of War the in-character reason that Yuri never supplied Al Qaeda is that Osama was bouncing cheques, but the scriptwriters' reason was almost certainly to allow him to be amoral, but not too amoral for the audience to handle only four years after 9/11.
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But Not Too Evil / int_3953baf0	comment	The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Disney was forced to cut several minutes of footage (including most of the awesome Villain Song) in order to secure a General Release rating in Australia.
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But Not Too Evil / int_3b34143f	comment	Daniel Handler eventually stated in an interview that he was deliberately trying to provoke this kind of thing, and was actually disappointed that he got so little attention compared to Harry Potter. His one real "victory" was the series being banned from a Georgia school due to Olaf trying to marry his own relative in the first book. After jokingly hinting at why Southerners in particular would object to that plot point, he went on, "I'm at a loss for how to write a villain who doesn't do villainous things."
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But Not Too Evil / int_44127c7c	comment	Similarly, the number of "bad guy" figures released in the series' accompanying toy line has diminished over the years; in Power Rangers' early days, a good handful of bad guy figures were released along with the Ranger figures, sold under their own name, but nowadays you'll be hard-pressed to find even one baddie among the sea of Ranger merchandise... and if you do, it's under the generic term of "Evil Space Alien". Who exactly the kids are supposed to play-fight with their Power Ranger action figures is a mystery.
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But Not Too Evil / int_4be3aedd	comment	Lord Zedd, one of the truly genuinely creepy villains in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, got turned into an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain by the network after parents complained he was "too scary" for their kids. Made especially jarring considering that the Rangers' response to any monster's crime is to blow them up (twice!). Heck, most monsters don't even get to commit a crime before being destroyed. Similarly, the number of "bad guy" figures released in the series' accompanying toy line has diminished over the years; in Power Rangers' early days, a good handful of bad guy figures were released along with the Ranger figures, sold under their own name, but nowadays you'll be hard-pressed to find even one baddie among the sea of Ranger merchandise... and if you do, it's under the generic term of "Evil Space Alien". Who exactly the kids are supposed to play-fight with their Power Ranger action figures is a mystery.
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But Not Too Evil / int_52e8fba	type	But Not Too Evil
But Not Too Evil / int_52e8fba	comment	Every villain in any of the Land of Oz books by L. Frank Baum. Baum talks about how evil and nasty they are and how they love being that way, but they're all talk and no show. In his sixth book, four teams of villains band together to make war on Oz in secret, but Ozma had three annoyingly convenient plot devices that put the kibosh on the war just seconds before it could happen. In his previous book, The Road to Oz, there is absolutely no conflict of villains at all. It may have been intentional because the prologues and epilogue of book six suggest that he really wished his fans would stop asking him to write the series.
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But Not Too Evil / int_56edb129	comment	Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street was initially intended to be a child molester but to avoid controversies at the time, he was eventually turned into a Serial Killer who target children without any mention of sexual motives. Averted in the 2010 remake where he's flat out described as a pedophile.
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But Not Too Evil / int_584365d4	comment	On the title character's romantic path in Melody, Steve and Bethany, the vengeful exes who plot to destroy Melody and the protagonist, get redemption scenes late in the story.
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But Not Too Evil / int_5e3f9611	comment	The Handmaid's Tale: In the original book, Gilead was racist, sexist, militarist and generally they fulfilled every possible negative stereotype of the Right-Wing Militia Fanatic to the maximum extent. This adaptation actually amplifies the regime's misogyny, or at least the attention it receives, but seemingly omits the racism, even showing the system actively promoting higher black birthrates. Unlike the above examples (with The Handmaid's Tale being a million miles from kid friendly in the first place) this change was made for pragmatic reasons, as the makers reasoned that a society built around plummeting birth rates could ill afford to deport fertile women based on racial grounds. They also have black people in their ranks, and are also fine with interracial marriage (this is also practical in that it allows the show to avoid Monochrome Casting). Still, a disproportionate number of black people are in low-ranking positions and almost all Commanders are white. Remember this is in Boston, a city which is about 25% black. It indicates that black members of the regime are in a secondary position overall. The only explicit racism is one white Commander and Wife who refuse to have Handmaids of color, though.
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But Not Too Evil / int_5e4ba6dc	type	But Not Too Evil
But Not Too Evil / int_5e4ba6dc	comment	The evil(er) Overlord in Overlord is more funny-evil than evil-evil. He has a harem of kidnapped village girls who don't actually do anything but stand there and wonder if they can get something less revealing to wear.
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But Not Too Evil / int_62570927	comment	It's a long-accepted fact for both the Marvel Universe and The DCU that sufficiently popular villains will often be subjected to this in the name of trying to shift them into good guys, regardless of how monstrously evil they were portrayed as before. Some infamous semi-successful examples include Venom and Harley Quinn (the latter in particular notoriously being depicted as a spree-killing lunatic who had no issue murdering children to please The Joker mere issues before making a switch to hero that received big push from DC). Infamous failed examples include Sabretooth and Clayface. An offshoot of this phenomenon is situations where a villain depicted even slightly as a Noble Demon will receive big complaints if they're depicted as actually doing anything genuinely villainous. See, for example, the shitstorm that ensued when Grant Morrison depicted Magneto as a terroristic murderer willing to emulate the very people who caused his descent into villainy in the name of his anti-human Fantastic Racism, complete with running death camps and murdering his own henchmen for objecting. Despite all of this arguably just being the logical conclusion of Magneto's long-established goals and personality, fans and other writers revolted at the thought of Magneto actually engaging in the sort of human-targeting genocide he had been claiming to want for decades, immediately proceeding to create a massive Continuity Snarl in a rush to render the whole thing non-canon. Another variant on this is the tendency for supervillains in adaptations to be given Adaptational Sympathy or have their evilness/dangerousness toned down to make them more likable harmless villains. It's rare for Batman cartoons to show his rogues actually seriously injuring or, God forbid, killing people like they do in the comics; Killer Croc won't be a cannibal, Joker won't cripple or murder hapless bystanders for fun, Penguin won't systematically destroy people's lives over petty slights, Black Mask won't be a misogynistic torturer, Poison Ivy won't engage in genuine ecoterrorism, and so on and so forth. Instead, they'll just do schemes where there aren't really any casualties or their actions will be subject to extreme levels of Could Have Been Messy.
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But Not Too Evil / int_6fe3e8a7	comment	The treatment many Neopets villains receive (and nearly all that aren't part of the regular character lineup). Goes hand-in-hand with the prevalent Villain Decay.
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But Not Too Evil / int_83b57b51	comment	Illumination Entertainment did this earlier for the Minions in their solo movie. The little yellow creatures' stated motivation is to locate and loyally serve the most evil person currently alive at that time, but fall into a collective depression and exile themselves to the Arctic after accidentally killing NapolÃ©on Bonaparte, and (conveniently) only emerge from hibernation in the year 1968. The entire internet has gleefully pounced on the assumption that the only reason this plot point was included was to avoid a scenario where Minions might still be actively searching for a master in the 1940s and thus end up working for Adolf Hitler.
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But Not Too Evil / int_83d41855	comment	In Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles, Big Bad Xanatos and his wife Fox got a really jarring Heelâ€“Face Turn and became complete saints (in the canon comics by the original creator, Greg Weisman, they do a much more natural semi-Heelâ€“Face Turn to become Anti Heroes, and even though they're now allies of the protagonists are still very morally grey and rather untrustworthy).
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But Not Too Evil / int_8dd0bbcc	comment	This happened with the second book in A Series of Unfortunate Events: It was banned in one school because the villain says "Damn!" and "Hell!", and the really absurd part is that Snicket uses this as an occasion for an parody of overly moralistic children's authors about how swearing is something only a villain would do. Daniel Handler eventually stated in an interview that he was deliberately trying to provoke this kind of thing, and was actually disappointed that he got so little attention compared to Harry Potter. His one real "victory" was the series being banned from a Georgia school due to Olaf trying to marry his own relative in the first book. After jokingly hinting at why Southerners in particular would object to that plot point, he went on, "I'm at a loss for how to write a villain who doesn't do villainous things." There was also some amount of scandal involved with the book when several Christian groups found out that Daniel Handler was an atheist, and claimed that the book series would turn children into atheists.
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But Not Too Evil / int_a4420d22	comment	The Venture Bros. proves that even shows aimed very squarely at adults can fall victim to this, as shown by a story one of the creators likes to tell at conventions about how his own mother got on his case for including a scene where the Monarch calls somebody a retard. He responded by doing two things; first, pointing out the obvious fact that the whole point of the scene was that Monarch is a Jerkass Politically Incorrect Villain who is uncaring towards others' feelings, and second, making the scene longer to include a gag about people haranguing Monarch for using the word and him just doubling down on it.
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But Not Too Evil / int_a9f06cb6	comment	In early VeggieTales, before DVD, "Rack, Shack, and Benny" retold a Biblical story of idolatry, replacing chocolate bunnies for the idol. The bag guy, Mr. Nezzer, sang "The Bunny Song", with lyrics about neglecting parents, school, and church. The heroes achieve their moral victory by refusing to sing along—but the song was so ridiculously catchy that Real Life kids started singing it for real. The show responded, first by offering a "New & Improved Bunny Song", as sung by the reformed Mr. Nezzer, in their first sing-along video: the tune was the same, but the words were about getting a stomach ache from eating too many chocolate bunnies. ("I need to eat good food to help me to grow / I'll obey my mama, 'cause she loves me so.") And when his backing singers sang the same lyrics from the old song, Mr. Nezzer scolded them. Then, reprints of "Rack, Shack, and Benny" bowdlerized the villainous version of "The Bunny Song", to make it more focused on neglecting healthy food. Now, the original version of the song is only around at VHS quality. You can see it here.
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But Not Too Evil / int_ab42c63a	comment	Siegfried, the agent of KAOS who usually fought against Max Smart in Get Smart, definitely falls into this trope. Sure, he was "involved" in KAOS's schemes, but whenever he ran up against Max, the more common thing for them to do was trade commiserations about comparative health benefits, retirement benefits, and working conditions between KAOS and CONTROL, with each one trying to get the other to defect. Oh, and argue over whether KAOS or CONTROL's spy gadgets were better.
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But Not Too Evil / int_ad6bd171	comment	Moonwalker: The Blu-Ray release was edited; we no longer see Mr. Big attempt to inject Katie, nor do we see Michael (try to) threaten Mr. Big
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But Not Too Evil / int_b3129c97	comment	Downfall drew quite a bit of controversy among some Moral Guardians for depicting Adolf Hitler as too sympathetic. It follows his last days as the Red Army closes in on Berlin, and largely Hitler is something of an old ship captain trying to retain some dignity and grace in a hopeless situation, a man capable of showing genuine kindness and charm around people and things he likes, but also cruel, petty, ineffectual and paranoid. Before you start feeling too sorry for him, there's a notable scene where he reminds you that he's Adolf Hitler by giving a big speech where he expresses pride in killing millions of people and hopes that the entire German people get wiped out for failing him.
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But Not Too Evil / int_b7e2bb69	comment	Inverted in the case of the Syndicate remake. Reviewers called out Starbreeze for throwing in a Heelâ€“Face Turn instead of letting you fully embrace the Villain Protagonist role of the originals.
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But Not Too Evil / int_c0d295c4	comment	In Team Fortress 2, the Medic is a German near-sociopathic mad doctor who considers healing people a mere side effect of curing his own morbid curiosity, and the game's time period makes it clear he would've been around during the World Wars. However, the game's writers have gone out of their way to confirm that he's not nor has ever been a Nazi. In this case, the reasoning for it is less to do with avoiding controversy, and more because making him a Nazi would have been "too easy, and too boring." It also avoids the natural Fridge Logic that would arise from a Nazi serving on a team with a black man and a Russian (the latter of which he also happens to be a close friend with).
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But Not Too Evil / int_c25176c5	comment	Gary Karkofsky, a.k.a. Merciless: The Supervillain without MercyTM in The Supervillainy Saga, is the Villain Protagonist of the series. However, its repeatedly brought up he's not nearly as evil as its required to be one in Falconcest City. As such, he mostly restricts himself to robbing the super-rich and Poke the Poodle pranks.
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But Not Too Evil / int_ca4949d1	comment	Villains by Necessity: The villains never do much that's really bad (mostly killing to save the world or in self-defense, while Arcie's thefts never cause harm). Valerie is the worst, killing some dolphins just for fun. The evilest thing that the others are shown doing is dropping a tree on a village full of Smurf expies, which is Played for Laughs.
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But Not Too Evil / int_e25322af	comment	Parodied by Homestar Runner in the Strong Bad Email "being mean", where Strong Bad makes fun of an e-mailer known as "Nice Dad" who scolds him for "being mean" and tries to convince him to "point out why being mean isn't always the best choice". Strong Bad then shows a "high school drama club" production by "Coach Z's Nicetown Players", in which Head Male Cheerleader (Coach Z) and Marzipan's character are at a party making (rather defanged) jibes at Strong Mad in the role of a stupid nerd. After the fun is made, the party's going great... until suddenly the gigantic muscular nerd comes back to bash Head Male Cheerleader with a bat full of nails.
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But Not Too Evil / int_fb9c177d	comment	All the way back before any actual Transformers fiction was created, Hasbro representatives initially complained that the name "Megatron" sounded too dangerous, until reminded that the character was intended to be the Big Bad.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

But Not Too Evil	processingCategory2	Censorship Tropes
But Not Too Evil	processingCategory2	Idealism Tropes
City of Life and Death / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Downfall / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Downfall (2004) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Lightning Jack / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Lord of War / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Moonwalker / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Shin Godzilla / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
The Fencer / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
The Little Mermaid (2023) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Under Ten Flags / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
White House Down / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Fallen Empire / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Left Behind / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
The Lightlark Saga / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Villains by Necessity / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Time Magazine (Magazine) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
OffStageVillainy	seeAlso	But Not Too Evil
Hogan's Heroes / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Swashbuckle / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
The Handmaid's Tale / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Devil's Attorney (Video Game) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Knights of the Old Republic (Video Game) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Marvel: Avengers Alliance (Video Game) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
The Powerpuff Girls: Relish Rampage (Video Game) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Tropico (Video Game) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Way Walkers University (Video Game) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Syndicate / Videogame / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Melody (Visual Novel) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Feminist Frequency (Web Video) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Niels (Webcomic) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Minions / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped	seeAlso	But Not Too Evil
The Grinch (2018) / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? / int_38dade51	type	But Not Too Evil

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