The all but canonical alignment for these characters is Neutral Evil Chaotic Evil characters of this type usually go "freelance" and Lawful Evil is typically more professional. If the Psycho isn't for hire, he's doing it For the Evulz. As various examples of the latter may testify, it is all too possible for a character to sit on the fence. In the end, they may even end up defying the requirement and try to kill the target anyway.Ĭontrast the more realistic Serial Killer, who doesn't flaunt it, and the less realistic Heroic Comedic Sociopath who hangs around heroes and whose sadistic games are treated as wacky hijinx for the sake of comedy. ![]() If they're not outright forced into the job, they often will only even consider cause they they need the reward offered. As you can expect, the Psycho for Hire is rarely enthusiastic about taking on such a job. Despite being aware of their psychopathic nature, a client may find their skillset nonetheless ideal for the job and demand that the quarry in question be unharmed. Despite this, it's not uncommon for them to get saddled with a job that outlines an explicit No-Harm Requirement (rather than say, a Consummate Professional who are much better at this). In most works that feature such characters, the psycho in question will make it quite clear to potential clients that murder is their calling. The Sociopathic Soldier can be extremely similar to this trope but is retained by a single employer, usually his nation's armed forces. The Combat Sadomasochist also enjoys hurting others, but differs in that they also enjoy being hurt. The Blood Knight also enjoys himself without much purpose, but he just loves the fight, although both could overlap. Not every Psycho For Hire is an unstable lunatic, though - beware the mercenary who has managed to focus their love of violence into total professionalism in a job they adore. ![]() Note that the Evil Overlord List discourages hiring such individuals, as they "tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance." In fact, it's hard to understand why any intelligent Big Bad would hire these guys, given their tendencies to attract attention by killing vast numbers of innocent bystanders as a regular occurrence, convert any assignment meant to intimidate into a bloodbath because "people scare better when they're dying", turn down easy chances to kill the hero because " it wouldn't be fun", and turn on their bosses because of trivial or imagined "insults" or just For the Evulz. The Big Bad often has contempt for them for precisely this reason. They are almost never the Big Bad, because unstable maniacs don't make good or interesting plotters (usually). Most are mercenaries, the handful who aren't are summoned and controlled with Applied Phlebotinum. When on the side of the Good Guys, they are invariably the Token Evil Teammate and/or the Psycho Party Member. Many of them, the less-restrained ones, are Ax-Crazy and often wield axes. Instantly identifiable by their Evil Laugh, at least one unusual signature weapon, a flashy style, and a tendency to play with their victims like a cat. When a job has awesome non-pecuniary benefits, the employer can pay low wages. Another example of a job with non-pecuniary benefits is working at Club Med in Antigua (you get to live in a tropical resort). note The labor economics term for this is "non-pecuniary benefits". On the pro side, you could say they love their job. The paycheck or other reward they get at the end of the day is incidental they get a huge kick out of hurting complete strangers, Never Hurt an Innocent and Would Not Shoot a Civilian is not in their vocabulary and will be very glad to target them too. ![]() There doesn't need to be killing involved they like doing unpleasant things to people and there are people willing (and dumb enough) to pay them to do something they'd probably do for free. A hired agent who is in it for the killing and torturing.
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