Rob, an example of a Villainous Benchmark character from The Amazing World of Gumball.
Villainous Benchmark are under Rank 4 -. These characters are villains who have committed crimes heinous enough to not be bog-standard, but are not heinous enough to be an higher moral rank. In addition, these characters may have multiple redeeming qualities that detracts from their villainy.
Some of these characters are capable of being exceptionally dangerous and evil in the story they appeared in even if they fail to stand out.
Villainous Benchmark comes in five classes:
- Class A: The character only fails the in-story heinous standards slightly and is heinous enough to be Near Pure Evil, but they have too many redeeming qualities and/or mitigating factors. These characters are still some of the most heinous in their works, but they do have many redeeming qualities. These type of characters may even be redeemed at some point and no longer evil. Examples are Dr. Ivo Robotnik from Sonic Cinematic Universe and Darth Maul from Star Wars.
- Class B: The character is extremely heinous but comes from a work with an high heinous standard where their actions are very common, to the point that even having limited resources doesn’t help them to stand out. These characters would be heinous enough to be Pure Evil in a different work. Examples are Van Zant from Dragon Ball and Donovan from Berserk.
- Class C: A combination of the classes above, where the character fails to stand out due to the work having extremely high heinous standards but wouldn’t qualify as a Pure Evil or Near Pure Evil even if they did stand out due to having severe preventions. Examples are Vanny from Five Nights at Freddy’s and Magolor from Kirby.
- Class D: The character commits an act that allows them to pass the in-general baseline, but fails the in-series baseline due to other characters who do worse. This is because even disregarding resources, a villain who easily passes the baseline would overshadow a villain who only barely passes it, as the gap in heinousness is too big for the character to stand out. It is the least a villain can get to not be bog-standard. Examples are Gaston LeGume and Biff Tannen from the main timeline.
- Class E: The character commits acts that would technically allow them to pass the heinous standard, but these acts were done under another villain’s control. These villains are often just vessels or extensions of another character and barely count as characters on their own right. Examples are the Time Eater from Sonic Generations, Phantom Ganon from The Legend of Zelda and Monokuma from Danganronpa.
- Class F: The character commits acts that would technically allow them to pass the heinous standard, but their moral agency is impaired to the point they don’t know they’re committing heinous acts. These villains have serious psychological disorders that makes them think they’re doing something good rather than an horrifying crime, which downplays their heinousness. An example is Pyro from Team Fortress 2.
- Class G: The character commits acts that would technically allow them to pass the heinous standard, but said acts were done by accident. The villain either never became aware of what they caused or is immediately remorseful for it. Many of them are responsible for a more heinous villain becoming evil in the first place, but since they didn’t intend for that to happen, they can’t be held completely accountable for the other villain’s crimes. The villain still does to pass the baseline, but their more heinous acts are the accidental ones. Examples are Ivor from Minecraft: Story Mode and Tomoo from Elfen Lied.