[quote=@Lugubrious] I took the term 'bad guy' as the deciding factor here. To me, bad guy is not debatable; to have bad as the main qualifier, you've got to be doing so much bad that the label envelops the character. This isn't Wreck-it Ralph. To be on the opposing side isn't enough, and to accomplish good things in bad ways is to be degrees of an anti-hero. The reason Grane qualified is because he hasn't accomplished anything good, and it's up to real debate whether or not he ever will. That's part of the tragedy. It makes him a bad guy; all the great things that Ben has done for people make him a good guy with a bad rap by some people. If I want evil, I'd rather have an evil character than just evil methods. I'll admit that evil is a broad term, and murderlusting serial killers have a place there at one end of the spectrum, but I'm not at all, I don't think, encouraging a generic standard. The top five entries were all unique, despite the fact that they all killed people. As for you bringing up the canon...why? Our contests are something that's non-canon in a non-canon fan work of an actual thing. The most creative liberties can be taken here. I'm sorry my judging style didn't appeal to you. Your main post is right, there's an unclear metric in play: me. I can't give a real metric of what I like and don't like, and the limited scope of what I ask for compared to the massive spectrum of what I got. I could only draw the line in the sand after combing the beach. If that makes me suck as a judge, so be it, but if nobody makes a contest for a month, I'll be the one that does it, and people have only to not participate to make me stop. [/quote] I think finding the measurement was incredibly difficult to begin with anyways. There are villains who are evil because they like what they do, and what they like to do is evil. There are villains who commit evil, because they truly believe it is right, and on the grey ground of that, what they do isn't completely wrong either and that is what drives them, simply because it is a lesser evil. Then there are villains who do evil because it's their job, but it doesn't stop people from disliking them. It's a measurement of intentions and actions. You can even have an evil character who has been doing good, but only towards his own ends and forwarding his own plans, and in the end, pulls the wool over everyone's eyes. Evil was difficult to measure and judge, not only because of how many different and different measurements of them there were, it was also because they didn't have a hero to be evil to. I think the contest should have been making a direct villain to our own characters, rather than an evil version of them. One of the most interesting aspects of a villain, is their fight against the heroes, and that is what I think the contest lacked.