Bad Powers, Bad People/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character has evil powers, ergo they will be evil.
 * Straight: Bob can reanimate the dead, so he becomes a villain
 * Exaggerated: Bob's power source is the pain of tormented kittens. He is an Omnicidal Maniac.
 * Justified: Bob's power has some arbitrary rule so that it can only be used for evil purposes, and he must use them regularly or he will die.
 * Inverted: Bad Powers, Good People or Good Powers, Bad People
 * Subverted: Bob uses his zombie army to protect the innocent.
 * Double Subverted: The innocents aren't really innocents, but turn out to be villains. Bob was aware of that all the time.
 * Parodied: Bob finds a book about practical jokes. He bursts into an Evil Laugh.
 * Zig Zagged: Bob is a user of the Heel Face Revolving Door, who uses his powers for good or for evil, depending on his mood.
 * Averted:
 * There are no superpowers which could be interpreted as good or evil
 * Gray and Gray Morality makes it impossible to tell which Differently-Powered Individual is good or bad.
 * Enforced: Bob has satanic powers. The Christian Moral Guardians would never allow him to not be a villain.
 * Lampshaded: Alice wonders why nice guy Bob became a dick the moment he became able to raise zombies.
 * Invoked: A Super Empowering villain gives random people evil powers expecting that they will fight the good guys for him.
 * Exploited: People with powers having an "evil vibe" to them are monitored by the good guys, so that they can react immediately when they turn evil.
 * Defied: Despite having the power to raise zombies, Bob is still determined to remain as good and heroic a person as possible, often helping out at orphanages whenever he can.
 * Discussed: "Just because Bob was born with necromantic powers doesn't mean that he is a bad guy. Give him a chance."
 * Conversed: "No way! I've never read a story where the necromancer isn't the bad guy."
 * Played For Laughs: Bob is constantly using his evil powers to do evil things, but when people call him out, he plays the Fantastic Racism card, accusing them of discrimination.
 * Played For Drama: Society notices that evil people almost always have a certain type of powers. Therefore, any individual found with a power potentially evil is incarcerated immediately, if not killed outright. This causes many super-powered beings to rise up against the government, further perpetuating the belief that bad powers make bad people.

Back to Bad Powers, Bad People