Evil Cripple: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Ozwell Spencer 3224.jpg|link=Resident Evil 5|frame|''[[A Worldwide Punomenon|They see me rollin'/]][[Memetic Mutation|They hatin']]'']]
Going hand-in-hand with [[Genius Cripple]] (though not all Genius Cripples are Evil Cripples and vice-versa), an '''Evil Cripple''' is a villain or generally morally perturbed character who also suffers a debilitating physical condition, often taking the form of paralysis that causes him or her use a wheelchair.
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Shiba'i in ''[[Ikki Tousen]]'' is [[The Chessmaster]] behind Kyosho Academy's Sousou Motoku, and though she later does start walking around it's not made clear whether or not it's because she was faking being disabled or if {{spoiler|Motoku (who had turned her into his [[Soul Jar]] this point) was the one who allowed her to do it}}. Shiba'i is based on [[Romance of the Three Kingdoms|Sima Yi]], who faked an illness, which suggests that she was able to walk the entire time.
* One of the ''[[Code Geass]]'' manga spin-offs makes {{spoiler|Nunnally}} a straight-up [[Yandere]] whose hatred for the world results in another personality developing.
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* The Chairman in ''[[Paprika]]''.
* Mashiro Kazahana in ''[[My-HiME]]'' falls more into morally ambiguous throughout much of the series, given that she actively manipulates the HiME and has certain [[Creepy Child]] tendencies, though by the end of the series she's fully on the side of the good and provides a convenient [[Deus Ex Machina]] to the heroes.
* Quincy Rosencreutz of ''[[Bubblegum Crisis
* [[Psycho for Hire|Gauron]] became one late in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', as the result of injuries sustained during the first season finale. He still managed to set in motion events that led to Kaname's near death at the hands of one of his [[Creepy Twins]], the destruction of a major portion of downtown Hong Kong, and the deaths of multiple high-ranking Mithril and Amalgam personnel.
* Edge Turus in [[Until Death Do Us Part]] started off as just plain evil; only after going too far ''and'' invoking [[Diplomatic Impunity]] did he lose [[An Arm and a Leg]].
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** {{spoiler|Also in the [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|2003 anime]], we have Frank Archer, who lost half his body in Lior and had to have his whole left side replaced by automail.}}
* The ''[[Area 88]]'' manga and OVA, have Farina, an elderly arms dealer who is confined to a wheelchair.
* Kagemaru, the [[Big Bad]] of Season One of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', was an elderly invalid kept alive by a liquid-filled tubular stasis chamber with robotic arms and legs. Halfway through the [[Final Battle]] with Judai, however, the power he gains from [[Artifact of Doom| the Sacred Beasts]] make him a young man, who not only breaks out of it, but effortlessly throws the entire device away.
== Comic Books ==
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* Professor Xavier from ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' when he goes evil.
** The X-Men have also faced a Japanese cripple mutated by the atomic bombings, who tried to take revenge on the team for not being freakish like him.
* [[Spider-Man]] villains:
** [[The Don| Elderly crime boss Silvermane]] is either wheelchair bound and often on some sort of life support, except the times he's a [[Cyborg]]. There was even a time when he was running his criminal organization while bedridden.
** [[Robot Master| Alistair Smythe]], one of many villains to build the Spider-Slayer robots, was originally unable to walk and bound to a high-tech mechanical wheelchair. However, after enhancing himself with cybernetics to become the Ultimate Spider-Slayer, he became able to walk again, and became strong enough to be a match for Spider-Man on his own.
* And [[MODOK]] in most of his incarnations is in a powered wheelchair.
* Miami drug czar Ulysses X. Lugman, aka the Slug, (who first appeared in [[Captain America]]'s comic) is so enormously obese, he can't move on his own, requiring a custom-made mechanical wheelchair with tank treads. He has been known to asphyxiate a man in the folds of his flesh when he wants to kill someone personally.
* Another [[Green Lantern]] foe, Baron Tyrano, is
* {{spoiler|Dr. Caulder, leader of}} the [[Doom Patrol]] is arguably insane, and, despite good intentions, tries a little too hard to force the world to be a better place.
* Ma Gnucci in ''[[The Punisher]]'', after her unfortunate encounter with a group of polar bears.
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* [[Lex Luthor]] became one of these at the conclusion of a story arc wherein he had implanted his mind in a cloned body and posed as his own son, Lex Luthor II. The clone underwent severe degeneration, ultimately leaving Lex in a vegetative state, unable to move, feel, hear, or even close his own eyes. He still managed to take control of [[Superman]]'s Kryptonian warsuit, and wearing it as a suit of [[Powered Armour]], nearly beat the hero to death. After his defeat he was confined to an intensive care unit; one of his henchmen helped him escape and eventually restored him to full health.
** Another Superman villain, the Ultra-Humanite, is most commonly and most famously shown as an albino gorilla, but he actually began as a mad scientist in a wheelchair. He soon gained the ability to [[Body Swap]] with any person or animal he pleased, however, so he didn't stay crippled for long.
* ''[[X-Men]]'' villain Apocalypse employed a few of these within his Horsemen, artificially curing their condition as a sort of [[Deal with the Devil]]. The original Horsemen included War, a quadriplegic army veteran confined to an iron lung; Famine, an anorexic teenage girl whose body was morbidly withered by the disorder; and Death, the X-Man Angel who lost his wings.
* Bright Eyes and the Voice, cenobites who appear in the ''[[Hellraiser]]'' comics; the first is mute (her mouth nailed shut), the second is blind (literally no eyes). When they were human, both had beautiful eyes and a beautiful singing voice, but the conditions of the deal they made to become cenobites stated that each could only keep one of those traits.
== Film ==
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* Obesandjo, the Nigerian crime boss from ''[[District 9]]'', is confined to a wheelchair. Speculation that it might be his version of a throne crumbles when the viewer notices the knock-kneed way he sits and how he never gets up from it, even when his men are getting bumped off.
* The wheelchair-bound crime boss who talks through a hole in his throat in the Thai action blockbuster ''[[Ong Bak]]'' is a truly vile example, cynically selling his country's religious treasures to foreigners and [[Complete Monster|causally orders the deaths of anyone who tries to protect them.]]
* An
* Dr. Arliss Loveless in the 1999 version of ''[[Wild Wild West (film)|Wild Wild West]]'' lost his legs in the Civil War. He replaced them with [[Awesome but Impractical|robotic spider legs]].
* In ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]'', when David Lo Pan is in his "old man" form, he gets around in a motorized wheelchair.
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* Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) in ''[[Mystery of the Wax Museum]]''.
* Blanche Hudson (Joan Crawford) in ''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane]]''
* Jason Stryker in ''[[X2: X-
* Though more of a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] [[Anti-Hero]], Rufus Shinra spends part of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]] Advent Children'' in a wheelchair. {{spoiler|He's still hurt, but he's at least partially faking it.}}
* {{spoiler|Elijah Price}} in ''[[Unbreakable]]'', a movie which draws from comic book lore and explicitly compares the villain's physical frailty with the "unbreakability" of the main character.
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* "[[Only Known by Their Nickname|Big Brain]]" from ''[[The Hills Have Eyes]]'' (2006) has a, well, [[My Brain Is Big|big brain]] and is confined to an old-fashioned wheelchair, where he serves as the [[Mission Control]] for the other mutants.
* The killer in ''Midnight Movie'' has a foot so fucked up it it sometimes looks like he's walking on his ankle. Unfortunately for the other characters, it doesn't seem to slow him down that much.
* Invoked and then subverted in ''[[Hugo]]''. The orphan-hunting Station Inspector's leg brace is fodder for a number of sight gags, but [[The Reveal]]
== Literature ==
* [[Peter Pan|Captain Hook]], [[Trope Maker]] for [[Hook Hand]], although he did claim the hook was "worth a score of hands".
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has Lothar Frey, nicknamed "Lame Lothar", one of the masterminds of the "[[Moral Event Horizon|Red Wedding]]".
* Non-wheelchair example: In ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', one of Count Olaf's more frightening henchmen has hooks for hands—interestingly, he's the only one who eventually gets a semi-detailed backstory and becomes relatively sympathetic.
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{{quote|''"His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing," said Mother Wolf quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are angry with him, and he has come here to make our villagers angry. They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and our children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful to Shere Khan!"''}}
* The Wheelchair Assassins of ''[[Infinite Jest]]'' are some pretty nasty customers; a crew of pissed-off and legless Quebecois trying to take down the government by means of a mind-destroying video cartridge.
* Subverted in ''Lord Kelvin's Machine'': The villain is crippled from a childhood illness—until, about three-quarters of the way through the book, a time-
* The crippled and disfigured Inquisitor Glokta of ''[[The First Law]]'', while arguably not exactly ''evil'' in the context of the story, is nonetheless more than morally bankrupt enough to qualify.
* ''[[The Mysterious Benedict Society]]'' and sequels has the lovely Ledroptha Curtain. He remains in a wheelchair, but not because he's paralyzed - he has a rather short temper as well as a disease that makes him fall asleep whenever he feels strong emotions... such as rage. Hilariously, his brother Nicholas has the same disease, but he fits the Evil Cripple's benevolent cousin trope ([[Genius Cripple]]) just fine.
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* Ivar the Boneless from ''[[Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons]]'', a Viking warlord crippled from birth and unable to walk, is noted as outstandingly clever, but also extraordinarily cruel.
* Hackle from the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'', who lost a leg to a wolf trap.
*
** The Hammer-Heads from the first book were mean guys who lived on a large hill in the Quadling Country, who had no arms. Unfriendly and xenophobic, they attacked anyone who trespassed on their hill with their hard heads on stretchy, elastic necks, their lack of arms hardly a problem.
** The Wheelers in the third book were a race native to the Land of Ev, who had wheels for hands and feet. Like the Hammer-Heads, they were unfriendly and coveted the magic trees that grew lunchboxes (which really weren't theirs at all). Not truly dangerous or malicious, they still liked scaring people away. (The movie ''[[Return to Oz]]'' made them [[Adaptational Villainy|much more darker and hostile.]])
* President Snow, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[The Hunger Games]]''; a very old man, he suffers from very bad tuberculosis.
== Live Action TV ==
*
** Davros, the creator of the Daleks, is a crippled old man who cannot move without his high-tech wheelchair.
** The Daleks themselves aren't much better off, being helpless invalids outside their cybernetic exoskeletons.
** Also Lumic, creator of the new series Cybermen.
** The Captain, of classic Who story ''The Pirate Planet''.
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** To really nail it in, the Costume the Pretender picks for a Halloween Costume is to make himself look like William Raines.
* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' has Walter Sykes, who was turned evil by an artifact that also allowed him to walk. His entire goal is revenge on the warehouse for taking the artifact from him.
== Professional Wrestling ==
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* Vickie Guerrero, during her [[Smack Down]]! general manager run in 2008, in cahoots with ''[[Edge]]'' and the faction La Familia.
* In Smoky Mountain Wrestling, there was Ron Wright, former wrestler and manager, who was confined to a wheelchair after years of in-ring abuse. He tried to play the sympathy card with the crowd, but he was still the same heel as he'd always been, interfering on the behalf of his clients and berating the crowds for not sending him money for a surgery that would help his condition.
== Theater ==
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* Arguably, Nessarose in ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]''.
* Shakespeare's ''[[Richard III]]'' is quite possibly the [[Trope Codifier]].
** The discovery of the real king's remains in 2012 confirmed the real English monarch Richard III did indeed suffer from rather prominent scoliosis (which modern medicine could have easily rectified). Like any leader in a civil war, plenty of contemporary demonizing of him to be found.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[No One Lives Forever]] II'' (which is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[Spy Fiction]] in general), a villain from the original game returns in a wheelchair... with integrated rocket launchers. For starters.
* Belger, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Final Fight]]'' appears to be one at first, confronting the heroes in a wheelchair using poor Jessica as a [[Human Shield]]. {{spoiler|Subverted, however, in that one successful throw against him shows he's faking it and can walk just fine.}}
* Von Bolt from ''[[Nintendo Wars|Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]''.
* Subverted in one of the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games. The killer is wheelchair-bound, but he's easily one of the series' most [[Sympathetic Murderer|sympathetic murderers]] and it's even said that he isn't really a bad man.
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* {{spoiler|Hugh Darrow}} from ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]''.
* During [[Triple H]]'s story in ''[[Smackdown vs. Raw|WWE 12]]'', [[The Miz]] is confined to a wheelchair after a career-ending leg injury. {{spoiler|Or so it appears; it's eventually subverted when he jumps out of his chair and attacks you during one of your matches.}}
* Adolf Hitler himself is this in ''[[Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus]]'', which takes place in an alternate version of 1961 where Germany won World War II, meaning he survived the war, but clearly not unscathed. An old man suffering from unspecified diseases (possibly Parkinson's disease and syphilis) he's also paranoid and senile, with a "volatile disposition". This is proven in the audition scene, where he vomits on the carpet and urinates in an ice bucket (missing, showing that he urinates blood). Much of his dialogue makes no sense at all, ranting about "Jewish spies" plotting to kill him one minute and mistaking Helene for his long-dead mother. Of course, in this game he is at most a tertiary antagonist.
== Web Comics ==
* Bionic of ''[[Asperchu]]''.
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'': Jackie Broughten in a nutshell, who has a permanently damaged leg from getting hit by a car. Her first action on the island? Slicing Maria Santiago's throat open with a saw. And that's not even going into her [[Hearing Voices]]...
* [[Caustic Critic]] Mr. Plinkett of ''[[RedLetterMedia]]'' is allegedly 90+ years old and in a wheelchair. He also regularly talks about committing actions that would make him a [[Complete Monster]] if he [[Crosses the Line Twice|wasn't so funny]].
== Western Animation ==
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* A later ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' episode, "Gadget Meets the Clan", featured a disabled mafia boss.
* [[Word of God]] confirms that minor ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' villain the Garbageman has no legs, explaining why he was only ever shown riding around in little mechs.
* Depending on one's point of view, [[Transformers| Megatron]] could be considered one. He's hardly a "cripple" in his true form, but in his alternate form of a handgun, he's practically helpless and can't do anything without another Decepticon's help. Ironically, this is usually [[The Starscream| Starscream.]]
* In the [[Netflix]] remake of ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power]]'', {{spoiler| Hordak is one of a legion of clones of [[Bigger Bad|Horde Prime]]; in this case, Hordak seems to be a failed experiment, suffering from [[Clone Degeneration]] that makes him require his armor to even survive.}}
== Real Life ==
* Joseph Goebbels, the man notorious for being Hitler's right-hand man and the mastermind behind the Nazi's antisemitic propaganda, suffered from numerous physical disabilities due to polio, and was physically frail all his life.
{{reflist}}
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