Simplified view
By having simple context to have a basic understanding of a Near Pure Evil, one must under that they follow the six principles of the criteria fairly well. With the six being:
- They stand as the minority as one of worst or at least somewhat comparable to how heinous a pure evil would be in the story.
- They are taken seriously as comic relief would not be fitting to how serious they should be taken and laughably evil is as close as they're going to get to comic relief.
- They are hardly ever presented in a positive way.
- They can only make few acceptations to who they care about or have a very limited amount of respect the foundations they try to create without being an anti-Villain, grey zoned, on and off and a mostly affably evil.
- While they may have redeeming qualities, they are not going to be good or even neutral.
- Their remorse is minimal.
Criteria
Baseline Near Pure Evil
The villain must pass the baseline to qualify. While off-screen villainy and fridge horror are allowed as well (see below sections for details), they must still be enough to push the villain pass the baseline. If the villain fails the baseline, even if by a little bit, they're standard and cannot qualify.
Pure Evil Prevention limit
A Near Pure Evil does still need to follow its name, they can't have too many positive traits or else that would take the "Near" out of Near Pure Evil quite a bit. The Villain needs to in general have more negative traits than positive traits and they can't have too many positive traits. The maximum amount of preventions we generally allow is four but there is also an element of weighing preventions. To take to examples in the opposite directions if a villain has one super severe prevention they can't qualify no matter how many heinous actions they have, and a villain can qualify with two heinous actions if their prevention is really small compared to it.
Much like with Pure Evil the heinous standard of long-running series' is taken into account to some extent. While NPE's can fail the heinous standard of the franchise they must still stand out in the upper echelon of heinous villains around the 25% worst. There are many franchises where actions that would be heinous in a lot of the franchises are standard in the franchise they are a part of, these cases won't be able to qualify no matter how many redeeming qualities they have or don't have. How many villains a franchise has also does play a role in this if a franchise has many villains it will make the top ones stand out even more but in ones with a very low amount of villains it does get a bit trickier. Different universes will also have different standards to compare the villains by but they still must be in the upper echelon.
Hate Sink
A hate sink needs to at least have some heinous accomplished effect in order to be qualified to be Near Pure and not ones who attempt to murder, and don't stand out as dangerous that much within the individual capability of a story.
They stay a villain
Unlike Anakin Skywalker who became good again, in sacrificing himself to save his son, these characters have to remain as villains, any lower down would get them too much under the pure evil status then they should be, and while near-pure evils aren't quite on the pure evil status level, going much further from even the villainy status would be too far off from someone who is supposed to be almost pure evil. It should be noted that one and off villains are too inconsistent to be Near Pure Evil, as Near Pure Evil is is for the most part Pure Evil.
Remorseful Insecurity
Bringing villains who have either remorse or insecurity is ill-advised, unless if it's minimal and they embrace their heinous acts enough to show little of remorse and Insecurity.
Amoral Limitations
A Near-Pure Evil needs to have an intelligence that is not like an organism or an object, they need to at least be able to have an intellect in figuring things out rather than have no brain or thoughts whatsoever. Characters that have no control over their actions, such as characters that are completely controlled, cannot qualify.
No strictly depraved verses
Exploitation villains can count, but only if they stand out among the rest. Plus, there needs to be some story to it and some sort of message even it does even up overshadowed.
They need to be challenging
They need to be competent almost or as how a Pure Evil villain is competent enough to be taken seriously as a real threat.
Presentation
Their presentation is hardly ever positive and throughout 75% they are not presented in a positive way.
Unpleasant traits to remain
Completely or mostly Affably evil is too weak for a near-pure evil villain to qualify, these villains may have all the qualities to be pure evil except for how genuinely nice they can be, but they still some kind of unpleasant quality to themselves that still indicates their unpleasant side.
The sympathy limits are overall petty
Villains like Itachi Uchiha can't qualify due to the situation and circumstance they were place in, it has to be something that didn't get give a questionable motive as to why they do what they do, such as anti-villains, who can never qualify in being Near-Pure evil because they are committing their actions that are not for selfish intent, and the sympathy Freudian Excuse can above the standard situations of it such as typical child abuse, if it is Freudian it has to be a very heinous one within the story.
They are mostly selfish
Villains with good motives behind their back that is meant for largely heroic causes can't qualify to be Near-Pure Evil, mainly because of they are questioned to be a villain in the first place, with Rick Grimes being a prime example of this and if they are ever qualified to be a hero, then they can never qualify. A Near Pure Evil would only do this for a very few amount of individuals or to a minimal extent of respect for people that serve their cause, and at the end of the day they are still holding their not for debate totally heinous ways.
Honorable limitations
Near Pure Evils have little to no genuine honor for anyone as they mostly do the opposite as to what honor is, except for a few individuals in them showing this admiration to.
Affably Evil limitations
Near Pure Evils are never truly nice for the most part plus as it derails too much from their consistency in being presented as a serious threat.
Offscreen Villainy limitations
Offscreen Villainy can count towards the qualification of a NPE but their crimes must be stated to have happened, so cases where a villain is just called a bad person will not help.
Fridge Horror limitations
Fridge Horror issues are generally advised against due to the issues they present in general, as if the crimes of a villain are too undercut, they may end up standard. These cases can sometimes count, but there are a few sets of standards we have. There needs to be some sort of strong implication that implies deaths could or have occurred, or something equally or nearly as bad, like rape and torture. The Fridge Horror needs to be a reasonable conclusion to come to, so wild conspiracy theories aren't allowed. It also needs to be central to the plot in some way, so it isn't undercut by how much fridge horror is involved, like, for instance, the main plot of the bad guy.
Having a personality
Characters that are insufficiently characterized have a hard time being Near Pure Evil because there isn't much known about them. While insufficiently characterized characters are allowed, there are limitations to them. They must have a motive, a reason as to why they do villainy. They must also have moral agency so that it is clear that they aren't just being forced to do villainy against their will.
Seriousness
The villain must remain for the most part a threat and their crimes must mostly be played for horror. If the villain starts off really comedic, but loses most of their comedicness over time, they can be judged by how comedic they are in their more recent appearances.
Extremism
While Extremists are allowed, given they genuinely have good intentions, there are some limitations. Their extremism must not be treated with to much sympathy, or the villain's goal has to be far less beneficial than the heinous actions they take to achieve it. Otherwise, the villain could be considered in the grey zone or an anti-villain, or at least be to far to be called even close to Pure Evil.
Categories that can't qualify for Near Pure Evil
No Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Neutral, Grey Zone or On & Off villains
These categories have too many inconsistencies as to what a Near Pure Evil is, because when being Near Pure Evil they are not morally ambiguous or decide to be neutral, somewhat good or even good but remain evil, doing heinous actions is as natural as breathing for them.
Anti-Villain
Anti-villains can't qualify is as Near Pure Evil because they are presented too positively compared to Near Pure Evils. Near Pure Evils are almost never presented positively while Anti-Villains are often presented positively and can they also appear even more kind than an anti-hero. Therefore the term "Anti-Villain" isn't a proper fit for this wiki and they tend to be very redeemable by nature.
Comic Relief
These villains can't apply due to how it doesn't fit well with how their taken seriously plus it goes against the concept nature of a Near Pure Evil as the nature of a Near Pure Evil is almost the same as a Pure Evil villain, having this category would break that kind of consistency and the dark tone of their presence that dominates the chances of lighthearted qualities intervening as comic relief makes lighthearted outweigh the dark tone.
Hostile Species
These groups don't have a moral agency.
Incompetent
There failings are comedic in nature.
Imperialist
These are regimes not individual characters.
Organizations
Organizations don't have a moral agency.
Scapegoat
Near Pure Evils are deserving of their crimes.
Proxy Villains
Near Pure Evils commit heinous actions on their own accord.
Mischievous
Near Pure Evils are less as playful as Pure Evils are.
Redeemed
Redeemed villains are characters who are no longer villains and characters who are redeemed aren't Near Pure Evil.
Teams
The same reason why Organizations and groups of species are incompatible.
Important note
When using pure preventions it is highly recommended to add what the villain kept their whole lives and not preventions that they used to have or likely do not have.