Delusional villains are characterized by or holding beliefs or impressions that they are good people regardless of their acts.

Delusional villains are similar to Vigilantes, Extremists, Anti-Villains and Grey Zone Villains, and in some cases even overlap with them. However, the main difference is that these villains have convinced themselves into believing that their acts are righteous, even if the causes they pursue and/or the means to achieve them are nothing close to noble from the perspective to anyone but themselves.

These villains also believe that whoever disagrees with or opposes them is a bad person, or simply just ignorant or insane. Therefore, many of them are very paranoid, narcissistic and pay little to no attention to the opinions of others. These villains are often greedy or hypocritical, but cannot even see it. Worse, some of them tend to blame other people for the destruction they cause (especially those who oppose them) while, in reality, it was their fault (e.g. John Ratcliffe, Shiro, Bowser (Movie Version), Bradford Buzzard, Kai Chisaki, Gil Yepes, Dawn Bellwether, General Lunaris, King Runeard, Lt. Colonel Sullivan, Daffy Duck, Twitch and Slagar the Cruel).

Delusionals are deeply convinced that their commitment to good ideas gives them the full moral right to decide the fate of others.

The scope of these villains' delusion can range from being a relatively minor trait (usually just simply believing they are doing good and not fanatical about it) to dangerously extreme to the point of mental illness (such as villains who are extremely outspoken that what they are doing is right and there is absolutely no chance to convince them otherwise).

Delusional villains can also be nihilists who do not believe in good or evil, thereby justifying their own heinous actions with their twisted logic. The best examples of this would be Gaku Yashiro, Masayuki Kaneki, Mathael, Vincent, Anton Chigurh, Douma, Eurus Holmes, and Ultraman Tregear. Xenophobes/genocidal villains who believe a certain/some foreign races to be "evil" can also count as delusional (e.g. Count Bleck's Father, Judge Claude Frollo, Bacon General and Hody Jones); the same thing with Misanthropes, who think humanity itself, whether an individual is truly innocent or not, is evil and should be punished (e.g. the Crusader, General Barkov and Alan Jonah). Social Darwinists can use their twisted philosophy to justify oppression of the weak instead of helping them (e.g. Carlton Drake, Albert Wesker and General Mandible). There are also robots/artificially intelligent beings who are much more commonly known to be delusional and misanthropic towards human life as they view them as "irredeemable" and "flawed", and see their acts as noble goals by enslaving them (e.g. PAMA) or wiping them out (e.g. Ares). In fact, even omnicidal maniacs can be delusional if they genuinely believe it’s the right thing to do (e.g. Infinity Ultron).

However, in the uncommon case where a certain delusional villain truly wants to do good, that can be a redeeming quality and a Messiah and/or Pure Good can aid in redemption. Through that can the villain truly see and accept their mistakes and then choose true righteousness over their delusional one (e.g. Satsuki Kiryūin, Darth Vader, The Collector).

They are also the evil counterparts of Misguided heroes and the opposites of Insecure Heroes who view their heroic deeds as wrong and evil.

Notes[]

• In order to qualify as delusional, it is necessary for them to genuinely believe that they are inherently good individuals and claiming they have good intentions, even if their actions and motives consistently contradict their twisted perceptions.
  • Villains that only think of themselves as a higher person than other people and are self-righteous do not qualify (e.g. Lady Tremaine, Napoleon, Griffith, Cinder Fall, Emperor Palpatine, Thanos, Drago Bludvist, Chelsea Van Der Zee, Wormwood, Flowey, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, Ozai, Mysterio, Lord Shen, Qu, Vilgax, Sentinel Prime (Transformers One), William Afton, Randall Boggs, Infinite, Amon, Porky Minch, Esdeath, Red Skull, Azula, General Dreykov, Syndrome, Darkseid, CatNap, Professor Marmalade, Creek, Bob Roth, Professor Ratigan and Lord Voldemort), those should go under Arrogant or/and Egotists instead. It's necessary for any delusional villain to think of themselves as actually a good person and keep their mindset even if their actions and motives prove the opposite.
  • Villains who acknowledge their own evilness and take pride in it, but do not exhibit any signs of delusional mindsets, also do not qualify (e.g. Bowser (Game Version), Shao Kahn, Aku, Freddy Krueger, Dio Brando, All For One, Chucky, Lucifer, Gary Smith, The Lich, Mephiles the Dark, Johan Liebert, Broly, Invictus, Cosmos, Big Jack Horner, Dr. Eggman, Commander Rourke, Judge Holden, and Mickey Altieri). They can only qualify if they meet the aforementioned criteria (e.g. Asav, Bill Cipher, The End, Superfly, Agustin Allende, Trevor Philips, Anti-Monitor, Dutch van der Linde, Sauron, He Who Remains, Kane, Scarlet King, Shaw, Dr. Wily, Junko Enoshima, Kurumi Tokisaki and Mitsuko Souma).
• Not all delusional villains are Pure Evil, since they may have extremist values (e.g. Zurg, Abraham Van Helsing, and Alexander Pierce) or even be anti-villains with a few noble goals that can be considered mitigating (e.g. Arthur Harrow, Poison Ivy, and Joseph Seed). However, some can qualify as Pure Evil if they believe their goals are noble but are completely hypocritical about them due to how far they would go and are only delusional by their self-righteousness (e.g. The Director (Nimona), Judge Claude Frollo, Light Yagami, High Evolutionary (MCU), Emperor Belos, Isaac Ray Peram Westcott and Fyodor Dostoevsky.).

Delusionals and Extremists[]

Delusionals and Extremists have a number of similarities, consisting in a desire to improve the world and using by no means good methods to do so. However, they are not equal to each other, and the Extremist is a milder version of this type of villain.

The main difference is the degree of radicality of the character: Extremists understand that they are committing evil, and may even realize that they are villains in the eyes of representatives of society, and also perceive their methods as a necessity. In some cases, Extremists can even may have doubts about their choice or be tormented by pangs of conscience, because they understand that in some way they themselves may turn out to be even more evil than those they oppose.

Delusionals do not experience doubts, and only certain serious events in their lives can push them to repent or reconsider their actions.