Ok, now that I'm back, I've decided to propose another candidate from Moriarty the Patriot. Yeah, this series has a lot of candidates and I'm not sure how to feel about that. I have other candidates from this series but I'll just start off with one simple proposal. Also, as a disclaimer, I'm mainly going to talk about the manga version of the candidate since I personally feel like the anime version might not be heinous enough to pass the baseline.
What's The Work?[]
Moriarty the Patriot is a Japanese mystery anime/manga created by Ryosuke Takeuchi which focuses on Sherlock's nemesis, William James Moriarty, and portrays him in a more heroic light.
Who Is He?[]
Dudley Bale is the main antagonist of "The Dancers on the Bridge" and a posthumous antagonist of "The Case of the Noble Kidnapping" in Moriarty the Patriot.
What Has He Done?[]
Prior to the events of the series, Bale was the administrative assistant for the University of Durham as well as a land owner without a title. Due to his power, he was able to create many brothels while posing them as hospital to get large amounts of opium. Around this time, he also provided this opium to a prominent drug operation which was outright stated to have killed many addicts. Using the brothels, Bale would have many aristocratic students partake in hedonistic pleasures while blackmailing the noble families to buy silence or make donations to the university. It was also stated that Bale refused to shy away from committing certain criminal acts to hide his crimes.
Later, one of the students he targets, Lucien Atwood, falls in love with a commoner named Frieda and even planned to marry her. It is later revealed by Frieda that she was pregnant with Lucien's child. However, fearing that his criminal activities would be exposed and outraged by the idea of a common girl marrying into nobility, Bale kidnaps Lucien and keeps him high on Opium for days. At the same time, he also drugged the pregnant Frieda to terminate the baby and allows her to fall into the river.
Eventually, as news of Lucien's disappearance and Frieda's "suicide" come out, crime consultant and secret serial killer William James Moriarty decided to investigate this by searching for Lucien. Bale finds out and tries to discourage this by explaining that it would reflect the Atwood name poorly and that he would use his connections with the cops to investigate the disappearance. Later, Bale visits Lucien in one of his opium dens and informs him of the tragedy that befell Frieda, all while faking sympathy.
William eventually discovers the truth behind Bale's involvement as well as his true identity. At this, he sends a letter to Bale, posed as Lucien, saying that he will confess all of Bale's crimes and asks the land owner to meet him at the bridge. Once Bale reaches the bridge, he confesses to the confused and drugged Lucien his involvement in Frieda's death and accuses him of being ungrateful for "cleaning up his mess". He then sees "Frieda" emerge from the river before confessing how he caused her death in shock. Upon the confession, Moriarty shows up and reveals that "Freida" was actually Fred in disguise.
Afterwards, Moriarty than explains all of Bale's criminals acts. Bale then tries to egg him on by claiming that his connections to the police make him impossible to turn in. However, William, who understands this, forces Bale to commit suicide by having Sebastian Moran shoot at him in such a way that Bale would have to dance before falling to his well deserved death. Upon this, Bale's actions are revealed by Moriarty and all his criminal operations would be presumably shut down.
Heinous Standard[]
The Heinous Standards of Moriarty the Patriot are nothing short of jacked-up. Most of the antagonists commit horrific atrocities such as Baskerville, who decapitated hundreds of children, Charles Augustus Milverton, who sets the standards himself, Daryl, who committed many war crimes on his own to prolong the Afghan war, Drebber, a serial r-pist who brutally tortured many women, and Jack McGinty, a greedy sociopath who destroys towns to satisfy his greed.
Personally though, I feel like Bale does pass the baseline enough for a couple of reasons. For one, unlike most of the manga's most heinous villains, Bale isn't a noble and is merely a land owner without a title with nothing indicating that the wealth he gains from his blackmailing spree is on the same level to the wealth of most nobles. With this, it is rather unfair to compare Bale to villains like Baskerville, Enders, Milverton, Dunderdale and even McGinty who are all either nobles or possess many companies. Another thing is that he also is a primary supplier to a major operation that is outright stated to reached the provincial cities as well as the nobility to the point where it is causing the citizens to suffer. Bale is clearly central to these operations as one of the distributers behind it outright told Moriarty that it was Bale's opium that was being sold and Bale himself took notes of distribution paths. Finally, he has the unique crime of infanticide since he knowingly killed a pregnant teenager while also holding personal villainy towards Lucien as well as Frieda. With all this, I feel like Bale passes the baseline of the series.
Mitigating Factors[]
None. If there is anything to learn from how one-dimensional the villains are, it's that any of the remotely aristocratic antagonists in the story have nothing in terms of redeeming qualities. While Bale does give a facade of being affable by coming off as a cheery man, it's clearly fake and it basically drops as soon as he is in actual danger, screaming at Lucien and it crumbles when being confronted by Moriarty. While he claims to do all of this to protect the nobles and the class system, it's pretty clear that he has no care for them given how he is more than happy to blackmail them for money out of petty spite and resentment for not being a noble himself. One might also try to argue that he is an extremist who wants the university students to have a relaxing life from their aristocratic duties which is why he uses the blackmail money to fund the school. However, this too is completely selfish on his part as he mainly just wants them to be more susceptible to his blackmail and give more money for his luxurious lifestyle and unlike Moriarty, he is more than willing to neglect them for his own selfish gain. Moriarty himself even notes that the way Bale speaks of the students is more akin to customers rather than people. Furthermore, he also knowingly supplies opium to a drug operation that even affects the nobility of the country which further supports the idea that he isn't an extremist. There really isn't anything concerning for Bale in this regard.
What Prevents Him From Being Pure Evil?[]
In the end, while Dudley Bale is undeniably a Hate Sink, he ultimately doesn't have the Red Lock due to failing the standards. Now, on paper, the crimes he does commit might seem to be enough to pass the standards enough for Pure Evil. However, upon a closer examination, there are a number of factors that downplay his heinousness. The drug operation he takes part in relies on Offscreen Villainy to help him stand out since ultimately, I feel it's a similar case to Officer Cole and Agent Morris in that we don't directly see anyone die from the drugs with any deaths being completely offscreen. Of course, unlike the other two, Bale does have crimes outside of his centrality in the drug operation.
However, the problem is that Bale's onscreen crimes aren't enough to make him stand out. While his blackmail is undeniably bad, the issue is that it's just generic blackmail as he only demands money for it. This is in stark contrast to Milverton who blackmails others to corrupt them into committing horrific acts simply For The Evulz. While Milverton does have more resources, resources only affect scale and not brutality with Bale's blackmail completely lacking that and only being done to satisfy his greed. Another thing is that while it is outright stated that Bale didn't shy away from committing certain criminal acts to hide his crimes, that doesn't necessarily mean that he often murdered people to do so. The main indication of this is how upset he was at the trouble he went through to kill Frieda which seems to show that he didn't commonly kill people to cover up his crimes and likely only does this on rare occasions at the very least. Either way, nothing indicates that he has a large kill count with it being rather vague.
Now obviously, Bale has the unique crime of infanticide but the problem with that making him stand out is that while it is unique, he has a low scale with only one infant victim. Furthermore, child murder on larger scales is fairly common as shown by the actions of Milverton, Baskerville, Enders and even McGinty. While Bale does indeed have lower resources that the villains mentioned, the fact that he has such a low victim count prevents this crime from making him completely stand out.
With all this, he ultimately fails the Heinous Standard to William James Moriarty. Now, you might argue that William has more resources as the Lord of Crime and you would be right ... for most of the series. In the very first chapter of the manga, William orchestrates the burning of the Moriarty Manor which takes the lives of 12 people at once as a mere orphan who was basically a street rat. Now, some of you might argue that this doesn't out-heinous Bale's onscreen actions since all the victims were Hate Sinks who deserved it. However, upon rechecking the chapter, I ... really don't think this is the case. Out of all twelve people, the only real Hate Sinks seem to be the butler, the adoptive "mother" and the original William. Everyone else, while definitely jerks, were not truly evil unlike William's other victims which makes their burning brutal, underserved and generally overkill. Furthermore, while Bale might have killed Frieda and the baby indirectly, the killing itself doesn't have a particular level of brutality unlike child William who burned his victims alive, which is an incredibly painful way to die.
Overall, Bale's lack of sadism or brutality in his actions unlike the corrupt nobles, Milverton, Daryl, McGinty and even Moriarty himself is the main reason why he fails to stand out with his onscreen actions. The only action that could make him standout, his centrality in the drug operation, has no onscreen effect. Personally, I feel like if Bale had a larger scale and possessed a greater level of brutality, I feel like he could've gotten the Red Lock but this ultimately isn't the case.
Verdict[]
Honestly, I'm not sure if he's heinous enough or not. However, it is ultimately up to you to decide.