Evilness versus Effectiveness: A visual representation

The opening to Episode 409 featured one of our favourite types of sketches; one where we attempt to over-analyse the fanfics we read and apply some sort of strange logic to them. The 'evilness versus effectiveness' idea was an attempt to quantify something that logically couldn't be quantified, but of course, that wouldn't stop us anyway.

And while the opening sketch contained descriptions of the various charts, I thought that it would be fun to put them in a more visual form ti give a better idea of what we were talking about.

The chart format is pretty simple. The two main stats, Evilness and Effectiveness are measured from 0 to 100. Maybe it's a percentage, maybe it's an arbitrary measurement. Regardless, there it is. These two are measured against a time index, rated 1 to 10; this covers the character's impact in the fic from their first appearance to their last (ie, when they die, when the fic ends or when it's abandoned and never spoken of again)

So here are the charts we used in the opening, presented in order.

And here's the chart for Red Skull, based on the discussion at the end of the episode.

However, there were some more ones that I had conceptualised but chose not to use in order to prevent the sketch from going on for too long. So I thought I'd present them here.

The first is for Xeruel from The Apocalyptic Battle. The idea was that he started out pretty evil and really peaked in his evilness about midway through the fic. After all, after you've decided to wipe out all life in the cosmos, there's not too much more you can do in the evilness stakes. The Effectiveness is the result of both his ability to kill everyone in the entire cosmos, and then his sudden and inexplicable death caused by Tom Dyron doing the same thing he'd been doing for the last six dozen chapters, only having it work for no real reason.

Next is Madeline from Bubblegum Shift. For the most part, her evilness is more of implied because she's a member of the evil conspiracy. And her effectiveness is non-existent because all she does is shout at Quincy. And then right at the end both jump up because she found a way to take advantage of the situation for her own evil ends. Would this trend have continued? Given that the fic is long dead, who can say. But probably not.

The third unused chart is the Kyoshi Dawn-Chan alliance from Gundam Wing Crisis. In case you've forgotten, it was the evil terrorist organisation seemingly run by a teddy bear. They start out super-effective in that they kidnap two major characters and brainwash them into doing their bidding with ease, but then don't do anything at all for the rest of the fic. Finally they lose to the power of friendship. Again the evilness is more assumed since they don't do much on-screen besides occasionally attack something for no real reason.

Finally we have the Prophet from Trinity: Forgotten Flame. The Evilness count remains low simply because the character a) isn't introduced until halfway in and b) never has their motivations or goals even remotely explained beyond the general idea that it's a bad thing. Their effectiveness on the other hand is odd. They have moments where they seem capable, but then lapse back into being completely useless and inept.