Category:Scapegoat

A Scapegoat is a villain who is punished much more than he/she would actually deserve. By definition, they are the polar opposite of Karmas Houdinis.

Just being a "bad guy" and having bad intentions is never enough to suffer such a punishment, which must be given according to acts. Some villains, however, are submitted to a retribution that can be very harsh, even unfair, thus winning over the audience's sympathy.

The very definition of a Scapegoat is an individual framed for something done by someone else, although Scapegoats also include:
 * 1) Villains whose fate is so horrific that the audience feels pity for them. (Yet some villains are so awful that not even their horrific death makes them scapegoats).
 * 2) Villains who are subjected to some horrendous torture as a way of karma that they did not deserve.
 * 3) Villains that have horrible lives that almost never improves or even gets worse.
 * 4) Minions that are often unfairly abused or killed by their master, either for failure or because they've outlived their usefulness. (Unless the minion deserves it for committing heinous crimes).
 * 5) Tragic villains who, in the end, suffered more than they made others suffer, or whose tragic past outweighs the extent of their crimes.
 * 6) Remorseful villains who wanted to redeem themselves, but either was rejected or died before they could.
 * 7) Incompetent villains, whose recurring defeats are often humiliating and degrading and they did nothing to warrant it.
 * 8) Comic reliefs who are defeated or punished in a slapstick manner, sometimes brutally so.
 * 9) Villains who are constantly revived and killed over again, even if they didn't do anything that bad.
 * 10) Anti-villains who intend to do good and never resort to dirty tactic, but just go about it the wrong way.
 * 11) Affably evil villains who only wanted to get along with the heroes, or other particular characters, but are disrespected, scolded or badly admonished for doing so, even if they never did anything that particularly bad.
 * 12) Villains by Proxy who never wanted to be villains in the first place, yet still get punished for their evil actions anyway.
 * 13) Villains who, in spite of doing absolutely nothing to deserve it, became a damned soul.
 * 14) Villains who are just wild predators acting by their natural instinct who, despite this, are killed or are receiving torture regularly.
 * 15) Former Karma Houdinis who can no longer get away with their actions because their karma has reached the inescapable point.
 * 16) Jerks or otherwise not very antagonistic villains who constantly have to put up with the protagonist's annoying behavior, stupidity, arrogance, etc. or just evil teachers with an unteachable student.
 * 17) Insecure villains who wanted to make friends in the first place, but the people are too scared and/or disgusted by their looks, which drove them to villainy in the first place.
 * 18) Arrogant egotists who are publicly humiliated/booed for their actions such as cheating, being revealed as a fraud, etc.
 * 19) On & Off villains and their heroic enemies who have to temporarily put their rivalry aside for the greater good, or there's a worse threat that puts the real "villain" to shame, which also leads to certain Evil Vs. Evil senarios where the more "important" villain is the only one strong enough to defeat the more dangerous threat.
 * 20) In Love villains who are regularly cheated or abused by their crush, yet keep protecting and taking care of them out of devotion.
 * 21) Possessed/Brainwashed villains who instead of snapping out of their influences, had to be killed in the end.
 * 22) Villains who get a tragic sendoff: they might not even have a tragic/sympathetic background, have any positive qualities, be affable or anything, but their deaths are still silent moments where the characters show a deeper, more complex personality and that they may not be entirely evil, maybe showing insecurity as their primary motive and/or trying to fit in.