Most morally incomprehensible character in fiction?

[Relish in Chaos]

Which fictional character do you think is the most morally incomprehensible? As in, as a consumer, you find it considerably difficult to understand the standards of judgement behind their decisions.

For me, it's Walter in Hellsing, and to explain why, I'll have to enter into *SPOILER* territory.

Spoiler

The reason for Walter's betrayal is never made entirely clear, and even with the reasons we're given, it still doesn't make much sense. He's the butler of the Hellsing family and apparently very loyal to Lady Integra, but all of a sudden when he returns as a vampire (but says he wasn't brainwashed, and the other roundtable folk whose names I can't even remember suggest he'd been an Millennium agent since the 40s), he says he hates Alucard for some reason, wants to kill Alucard to prove himself stronger apparently (or some shit like that), then he kills Yumie with no hint of remorse and...yeah. What the fuck? This is less understandable than the Major's bullshit "I love war" plot, if you can even call it a 'plot'.

Maybe this will be revealed more in Hirano's unfinished-but-not-cancelled prequel series The Dawn, but still...if you ask me, it's poor characterisation if you pull that shit on the readers with no warning or clear explanation as to how and why it happened. Not saying Hellsing is even a series with that good writing; it's just this one really stood out for me.

What about you?

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Does Dio Brando count? Is there anything else behind his actions apart from
'I'M GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE POSSIBLE AND WILL RUIN EVERYONE'S LIVES'?

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

Does Dio Brando count? Is there anything else behind his actions apart from
'I'M GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE POSSIBLE AND WILL RUIN EVERYONE'S LIVES'?

This, first time me and friends watched JoJo, the second the first episode ended, we just said "Dio's a ****!"

OT: Would Tobi from Naruto count? I mean he set up the Akatsuki, started a war and planned to put everyone in an infinite genjutsu all because

Spoiler

The girl he liked died

*face palm*

It's so completely stupid

 

[TheRiddler]

Meursault, from The Stranger. I mean, thinking that life's meaningless doesn't mean you have to be a total dick about it...

 

[Casual Shinji]

Wyald from Berserk. But he's so over the top that he sort of collapses in on himself.

A better one would be John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) from The Hitcher. He does horrible, horrible things as a means to fuck with the protagonist, but for some reason it does seem like there's a purpose behind it, eventhough there obviously isn't. He's just a total mad man. It's really the performance by Hauer that makes him work as well as he does.

 

[Hazy992]

Does Dio Brando count? Is there anything else behind his actions apart from
'I'M GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE POSSIBLE AND WILL RUIN EVERYONE'S LIVES'?

That was who my mind initially went to. During the few episodes I've watched, all I can think is that he's just being an asshole for the sake of it.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

I'm assuming you mean morally 'reprehensible' not 'incomprehensible'.

The Joker from Batman has got to be pretty high on these lists.

I think it is his awareness of what he is doing and subsequent lack of caring that make him so (This aspect is dependent on the iteration of The Joker you are considering though, because I believe he has been marketed as an out-and-out psychopath with no awareness, but at other times as a man thoroughly in control of what he is doing and well aware. So the latter would surely be regarded as more morally reprehensible).

 

[Neverhoodian]

Anakin Skywalker's reasoning behind joining the dark side was pretty stupid.

"I'm going to betray my friends and colleagues, join the obviously evil Sith, destroy the Jedi Order, slaughter a bunch of children and plunge the entire galaxy into darkness because my wife might die if I don't! It's the right thing to do! I'm a good person!"

And then he goes and tries to kill Padme (who's still pregnant) in a fit of rage anyway. Brilliant.

It's made all the sillier when stuff like the CGI Clone Wars series tries to retcon him into a wise and noble mentor figure. It's like he's a completely different person.

 

[Hades]

Does Dio Brando count? Is there anything else behind his actions apart from
'I'M GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE POSSIBLE AND WILL RUIN EVERYONE'S LIVES'?

This, first time me and friends watched JoJo, the second the first episode ended, we just said "Dio's a ****!"

OT: Would Tobi from Naruto count? I mean he set up the Akatsuki, started a war and planned to put everyone in an infinite genjutsu all because

Spoiler

The girl he liked died

*face palm*

It's so completely stupid

I was very disappointing with that as well, to the point i can no longer take Tobi seriously as a villain.

My vote however goes to Uchiha Sasuke. He starts out with the ambition to kill his brother for slaughtering his whole clan. That's pretty understandable. Then we find out that his clan where evil warmongers who would start a new world war if they had their way and he still thinks its a great injustice the Leaf village moved to prevent that. When Sasuke wanted revenge against his brother he was at least sane about it, when he wants unjust revenge against the Leaf village he turns into an obsessiveness maniac.

 

[Flammablezeus]

James Heller in Prototype 2. He's constantly bouncing between "I'm a soldier and my daughter's been taken from me, I'm depressed and want to do good" and "die you random soldiers who are on my side! I'll eat you all!"

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm gonna cheat and pick Jehora Jeheyu from Desktop Dungeons.

Kill an enemy, and he dumps acid on you.

Walk across a room and he heals you.

Cut down a plant, and he gives you money.

Buy an item, and he curses you.

Then he does it again in a random order.

Forever.

;_____;

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Does Dio Brando count? Is there anything else behind his actions apart from
'I'M GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE POSSIBLE AND WILL RUIN EVERYONE'S LIVES'?

That was who my mind initially went to. During the few episodes I've watched, all I can think is that he's just being an asshole for the sake of it.

I guess his father being a massive twat could KIND OF be why, but it's a bit of a stretch for that to be the reason for the uber-douchebagness

 

[snappydog]

I'm assuming you mean morally 'reprehensible' not 'incomprehensible'.

I actually have separate answers for each of the two terms, I think:

Morally reprehensible: Dolores Umbridge, who is an unbridled bundle of evil and disgust.

Morally incomprehensible: I'm gonna say Kirito from Sword Art Online, probably for the wrong reasons (or at least ones unintended by the creators). He just comes across as kind of dickish, what with going from:

Spoiler: Spoilers up to the end of the SAO anime

-actively attempting to become the single most powerful person in SAO in order to free everyone to
-taking a holiday, having already become the most powerful person and therefore the one that everyone REALLY needs to stick around and not take a break to
-deliberately causing as much pain as possible for that guy at the end of the elf arc
all the while having a completely unbelievable relationship and simultaneously kind of leading his sister on.

So, to me, Kirito's morals come across as pretty incomprehensible, as in difficult to understand.

EDIT: Put the SAO-related stuff in spoilers, just in case.

 

[SwimmingRock]

The main character/squad from Binary Domain. That game's morality is weird to begin with, but the spoilers be crazy pants.

Spoiler

So the antagonist, who is basically robot Jesus and wants to save the world, calls out your squad for effectively being a futuristic Nazi death squad. In response, your crew says they're gonna go murder some babies and nobody seems to have a problem with that. But then you turn on the dude who gave you those orders and in the post-credit sequence you're helping them or something? Even though the entire game portrays the 'good guys' as giving 0 fucks about morality and being happy just following orders.

 

[Zontar]

The Angels and SEELE from Evangelion.

Spoiler

This is mostly because of the fact that neither group was ever given an explanation for their motivations (at least not in any material which was translated) so we never understand why the Angels want to wipe out humanity, or how SEELE came to the conclusion that wiping out humanity in their own way was in any way in their interest. The only villains we do understand the motive of is Gendo, and that's just because he ended up being the biggest pussy who couldn't deal with lose in history.

 

[Zontar]

Morally incomprehensible: I'm gonna say Kirito from Sword Art Online, probably for the wrong reasons (or at least ones unintended by the creators). He just comes across as kind of dickish, what with going from:

Spoiler: Spoilers up to the end of the SAO anime

-actively attempting to become the single most powerful person in SAO in order to free everyone to
-taking a holiday, having already become the most powerful person and therefore the one that everyone REALLY needs to stick around and not take a break to
-deliberately causing as much pain as possible for that guy at the end of the elf arc
all the while having a completely unbelievable relationship and simultaneously kind of leading his sister on.

So, to me, Kirito's morals come across as pretty incomprehensible, as in difficult to understand.

EDIT: Put the SAO-related stuff in spoilers, just in case.

Though this is all true, it's mainly due to bad writing over anything else (especially the part where he becomes the most powerful player in an MMO while always soloing, otherwise known as the slowest means of gaining XP. There's just no functional way for him to even be in the top section of the charts without being a guild member who always parties with people on his level, and it's all the worst when you realize the writer of the source material was really into MMOs and should have known that).

A real incomprehensible character would be Kayba, since we never learn why he trapped 10 thousand people in a death game and no logical reason for that even exists.

 

[MCerberus]

Who is John Galt?
The guy whose entire existence as a character shows how stupid individual relativism is.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm even more surprised (or am I?) that no one has said Iago from Othello. You tell me exactly what the fuck drives that guy and I'll abscond this place forever.

 

[BNguyen]

Does Dio Brando count? Is there anything else behind his actions apart from
'I'M GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE POSSIBLE AND WILL RUIN EVERYONE'S LIVES'?

This, first time me and friends watched JoJo, the second the first episode ended, we just said "Dio's a ****!"

OT: Would Tobi from Naruto count? I mean he set up the Akatsuki, started a war and planned to put everyone in an infinite genjutsu all because

Spoiler

The girl he liked died

*face palm*

It's so completely stupid

I was very disappointing with that as well, to the point i can no longer take Tobi seriously as a villain.

My vote however goes to Uchiha Sasuke. He starts out with the ambition to kill his brother for slaughtering his whole clan. That's pretty understandable. Then we find out that his clan where evil warmongers who would start a new world war if they had their way and he still thinks its a great injustice the Leaf village moved to prevent that. When Sasuke wanted revenge against his brother he was at least sane about it, when he wants unjust revenge against the Leaf village he turns into an obsessiveness maniac.

I think it's the part where even innocent children were involved and that the Leaf didn't push for more of a democratic resolution to the situation rather than just slaughtering an entire clan - that and the village enjoys peace from the twisted things that the military does for them - think about it like this - you enjoy products made by (probably a good chance anyways) a third world sweat shop with child laborers - so a person representing that country and those children is angered by how well off you do by what is basically parasitism

at least that's how I see it - it's very reasonable to say the least