Evil Genius (video game)/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The intellectual amongst the villains.

  • Straight: Dr. Crazystein is an expert in local MacGuffins and evil superweapons. His knowledge is thus a valuable asset in the army of Emperor Evulz.
  • Exaggerated: Dr. Crazystein is so smart that even Evulz himself comes begging to him for evil ideas.
  • Justified: Dr. Crazystein is a natural expert in fields obscure to the other villains.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted:
    • Dr. Crazystein isn't a genius, he's just a fool who makes things up at the top of his head.
    • Alternately, Dr. Crazystein isn't evil at all. The only reason he's working for Evulz is that he's the only one who can foot the bill for his experiments. Should Evulz ever be deposed, he would happily switch to the heroes' side and become The Smart Guy.
  • Double Subverted: However, he never spews out "nonsense" unless he's damn certain it's plausible. A great deal of the time, he's right on the money.
  • Parodied: Dr. Crzaystein is a bumbling Mad Scientist whose schemes somehow manage to work.
  • Deconstructed: Dr. Crazystein knows that he's smarter than Evulz; however, he also knows that Evulz's brutality is unmatched. The knowledge that he may get Bad Boss'd one day aggravates his pre-existing neurosis. As a last resort, he may try to conjure up a Gambit Pileup to prevent his latest failure from being realized.
  • Reconstructed: Dr. Crazystein knows that he's smarter than Evulz, and that Evulz's brutality is unmatched. Thus, he endeavors to make himself useful to Evulz on all occasions, so that his rare screw-ups will be ignored, and his advice heeded. He also realizes that Evulz, psycho or not, is better leadership material than he is (personal magnetism, better fighter in an Asskicking Equals Authority society, who knows?) and thus remains loyal.
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: Emperor Evulz relies solely on his own strategies and schemes. Or, Evulz is an Emperor Scientist and designs his own doomsday devices.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: Evulz: "Ah, thank Evil I have such a delightfully twisted mind on my payroll as yourself, Doctor!"
  • Invoked: Evulz wants to make new, and therefore scary, weapons, so he tries to find a skilled scientist who doesn't care much about ethics for the R&D.
  • Defied: Evulz doesn't want to spend large amounts of money on research that might not yield anything, so he reprimands any scientists who get too creative.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: It is clear to everyone but Evulz that Dr. Crazystein's inventions do more harm than good.
  • Played For Drama: Dr. Crazystein is the backbone of Evulz's army, impossible to get, The Empire would have fallen a long time and Crazystein has caused more grief than Evulz ever could.

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