Thread:Mesektet/@comment-27729149-20150707052956/@comment-3581997-20150827065436

Enrico Maxwell is not a Tragic Villain, he was well off, had most things provided for him and the fortune he had granted him his main station in the show. His social/family issues were not thrust upon him and weighed him down, they simply demonstrate how he became the filthy slimy piece of refuse that he is and even then he was just looking for somethingto gribe about, they did not trap him on a path to villainy. Nearly every villain has a reason for being a evil, Lord Recluse had to deal with a self-righteous foster-brother who eventually turned on him and provoked him into going full evil just to get even with him, that's not tragic, that's base character building. Doctor Doom was rejected by the one woman he ever loved and got a mild scar on his face, that's not tragic, that's character background. Mega-Mind's planet blew up, he never knew it to miss it, so that's not tragic, however growing up in a school and social system that essentially assigned him the role of antagonist, that is arguably tragic, it is forces beyond his control that permanently shaped him.

Being Tragic is about being shaped by events you yourself can't control and that has broken most other people. Enrico Maxwell is by no means anything special, many people have it worse than he did and turn out fine, therefore the end result of Enrico Maxwell and others like him isn't tragic it is at best vaguely justified he was a spoild prick who never got over being adopted. Serously listen to Dr. Evil's non-chalant recounting of his back-story and then try to go over how tragic Enrico Maxwell is.

"The details of my life are quite inconsequential- very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it."

- Dr. Evil, turning the tragic backstory on it's face

"Boo hoo, my parents put me up for adoption the. The world must pay!"

- Enrico Maxwell: yes I'm paraphrasing

There is a Furturama gag that mocks this trope. A bad-ass street racer chick busts out in almost every scene playing up the drama as being from an abused family and only alludes to it a little bit but goes on to say her father abused her, not sexually or even physically beaten but he was always kinda distant, however she is doing it in such a serious tone that it's the sort of reaction you would expect from a victim of sexual abuse. The joke is that some people just want excuses to be given attention and justify their erratic behavior with the high of a "dark and troubled past" but in the end it's no place near as horrific as it's being played. Do not fall for those sorts of tropes they are all pure emotional exploitation especially when it is all tell and little to no show.