Why Villains love Contracts

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Villains are always making deals and contracts, which half the time don’t even make sense. Even when they have the power to get what they want, for some reason they just can’t resist trying to get the hero to put their X on the line…

But it seems like there’s actually a pretty good reason why.

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[antares]

I think this is why I find Eris very interesting in the Sinbad animated movie. Despite her being a Goddess of Chaos, she fulfilled the end of her deal, even when she has been embarrassed publicly. I was expecting her to renege on her deal with Sinbad and pull out a "gotcha!" moment but she stood by her word and knew when she lost.

[Fairygoblet]

My DM wrote up an entire contract for the big bad of one of our campaigns. Pages of nonsense from essays and blog posts about everything from The Big Bang Theory to Plato. Lines of Egyptian hieroglyphs and weird symbols. And one tiny tiny line hidden deep in the middle of it all, promising our characters souls to the big bad. It was really something to behold, and fitting for something that turned out to be a chaos God.

[StarlasAiko]

Rather than finding a loophole, I would like to see a protag win against the demon by malicous compliance, honouring the contract to the most painful effect foer the demon, basically doing to the wishmaster what the wishmaster intended to do to the protag.

[helrem]

I like to think that the issue of contracts is explained by two things:
1.- As a way to demonstrate that villains are not just wild monsters with disordered thoughts and that they can become quite educated and refined, surpassing even heroes in terms of charisma
2.- As an example of how their influence and manipulation capabilities can corrupt even the legal spheres

[ArkBlanc]

Story idea: a lawyer gets isekai’d into a magical world and defeats the big bad by using his/her extreme penchant for memorizing law and contracts

[DAMDO]

2 reasons actually:
1. the "deal with the devil" phenomenon
2. there's nothing more evil than being legally unable to do something about it, especially when "you consented, this is what you wanted right?" making it a guilt-trip as well, while the villain is taking advantage of you... it is the purest way of screwing someone over.. which is probably why _some_ people think lawyers are sociopaths

[SuperSylar]

I like the concept that the broker is very powerful, if not already a reality bender of the sort, that likes to cause mayhem and despair, but still offers a contract because enjoys even more knowing the cause of misfortunes was the signer that either or both agreed with shady terms or fell for the written trap.

[PuppyLuver]

My favorite instance of this is probably the Subcon Forest chapter of A Hat in Time. Basically every mission is laid out in the form of a contract from a being called the Snatcher, and while he does force Hat Kid (the player) into the first one in exchange for her soul cuz he needs a new lackey for a bit, they *are* all mutually beneficial cuz you get one of the main collectible things for doing each one. Best part is after the inevitable boss battle, he writes up a new contract to make Hat Kid leave and even gives her soul back and another of the important collectibles with no strings attached... only for Hat Kid to scribble all over this contract's original terms of "get out" and "take all your junk" and replace them with her own conditions of "stay and have fun" and "be my bff". Love that lil chaos gremlin of a kid XD

[_hadoken]

As a lawyer who got a B in Contracts in law school, I think this absolves me of being a villain.

[ArcLightShock]

I've always enjoyed the trope of the gracious deity, devil or otherwise ascendant being who's quite pleased to be 'beaten' and sends the hero off with applause. Asmodeus from Pathfinder is quite like that. Every contract has an out, including the creation contract that states someday all creation will become his to rule. He is always given greater pleasure in dealing with clever people who outwit his (or his servants') contracts than he is in winning, though he enjoys that too.

[BennysGamingAttic]

A TV series about a fairytale lawyer who helps people navigate out of predatory mystical contracts would be great.

[approximateCognition]

One very interesting kind of reaction to these kind of "supernatural contracts" that wasn't mentioned in this video is the way most Devil contracts are set up in Chainsawman; the power of human stubbornness.

It leads characters to go knowingly into contracts with devils that often physically mutilate them as part of the terms, and can shorten their lifespan by decades, in return for the power to do *something* the character thinks the value of which trumps any such payment to the devil whose power they'll be borrowing.

Things like revenge, or loyalty, or "power", but not the kind to stay in power with, but to change the future framework within which power is held.

And considering the devils in CSM are the physical manifestations of humanity's fears, the dynamic becomes even stranger.

People willingly and knowingly giving parts of themselves up to incarnations of fear, because they're too stubborn not to.

[BigSisAne]

I remember making a joke contract with my younger brother, who bragged that he could go a month without sugary snacks or junk food. His words were that it would be extremely easy and he would do it for $30. I clearly stated that he wouldn't be able to get fast food, pastries or any chocolate or candy for the month, else he'd have to pay me back $9 for every time he failed. He didn't last 2 weeks lol.

I let him keep the money because the whole thing was way too funny to watch.

Update: clearly he hasn't learnt his lesson of not taking challenges because just last night he bragged he could survive a week without electricity for $100. Boy you have no idea how much you'll suffer...
No, I am not going to do that. He is 14 and most of his homework is online anyway. I'm a sadist but not that much.

[frostkitsunelive]

One of my absolute favorite forms of a "contract" actually came in the anime No Game No Life. Where the beast race forces any that play by their rules to sign a contract to never share information of the games they play so long as they live. The king of Imanity abides by this, and loses. But he plays the long con, and instead of speaking it... writes down everything in a hidden journal that Sora and Shiro, the new King and Queen, find and use to beat the Beast race.

It's an incredibly smart way of using your own death to cheat the contract.

[OmegaTheCrazyWolf]

As someone who plays the game, I don't typically see Morax (Zhongli/Rex Lapis) pop up in my writing advice videos and you can imagine my happy surprise lol. I find his role as the god of contracts and his moral greyness very interesting and very fitting for him as a character and many of the characters from Genshin are morally grey in their own way

[invaderfrombeyond]

7:55
I'm sure it's been said countless times, but "Devil Went Down to Georgia" is such a fun story/song.
Johnny literally said "Yeah sure, we can have a violin-off; I don't care if what I'm doing is against God himself because there is no way I'm letting the Devil walk around thinking he's better than me at fiddling."
(I also like to consider the Primus cover music video as canon) where instead of the fiddle being forgotten about after being rewarded to Johnny, Johnny instead just punts the fiddle back to the Devil because he didn't even want the reward in their deal, he literally just wanted to flex on Satan.

And as a side-note for those who haven't heard the legendary classic somehow: the Devil straight up cheats and brings in a whole demon band complete with an insane walking bassline, my dude still loses.

[phenixphangorn]

I've always been quite fond of contracts as a plot device, to the point where I've made the protagonists of a few of my stories "Brokers". Clever by nature, actively seeking deals with others, but always, ALWAYS, bound by their word, no matter how poorly that might go for them.

[andro_king]

I love these types.
One especially well written one that comes to mind is Bill Cipher, as he both comes into existence to make a contract and is erased from existence by making a contract.

[trevorhaddox]

The idea of a demon ending up as boiler fuel in a steam cruise ship is hilarious.

[bemusedbandersnatch]

One of the most satisfactory stories involving contracts is the anime *Puella Magi Madoka Magica* in which the terms of the contract are faithfully but maliciously fulfilled in such a way as to drive the signer mad until...well you'd need to see the series finale but suffice it to say its very satisfying.