What? No Tessier-Ashpool? Some Sci-fi list.

Fiction, like a Physics 101 problem, is IDEALIZED. Everything is made perfectly to the story.

So the evil family has to be a family, and in combining all the familial elements fictitiously you wind up with a much better family than any real life family could be, even if you go back and make it semi-dysfunctional you never get the real life non-sequitor kind of generalized malaise a real dysfunctional family would have.

Happy families are all alike in their happiness. Unhappy families are each unhappy in their own unique way. That's why there are more stories about them.

SpinStopper: I hoped that Lursa and B'Etor would be in there. I'm happy ;)

No matter how hideous their faces are I just can't stop staring at their boobs.

Ghastly: SpinStopper: I hoped that Lursa and B'Etor would be in there. I'm happy ;)

No matter how hideous their faces are I just can't stop staring at their boobs.

They have faces?

malle-herbert: How about The Adams family ?


The Addams family weren't evil...in fact, they were very kind and considerate of one another and others. They were just very, very eccentric.

buckler: malle-herbert: How about The Adams family ?


The Addams family weren't evil...in fact, they were very kind and considerate of one another and others. They were just very, very eccentric.

Not to mention creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky. Hell, they're all together ooky.

But they cared for each other.

chaddsfarkprefect: That X-Files Peacock family still haunts me. It's one of the creepiest episodes in modern TV.

I have all of the X-Files seasons on DVD and of all of the episodes, that's one I won't ever watch again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy a bucket of Chaco's Chicken.

skepticultist: chaddsfarkprefect: That X-Files Peacock family still haunts me. It's one of the creepiest episodes in modern TV.

That's the only episode of X-Files my mom ever watched. She refuses to watch any more. She doesn't believe me when i say that one episode makes all the rest seem like episodes of the Smurfs by comparison.

Isn't that the one with the mutant incestuous inbred hillbillies? That one creeped me right the hell out.

Ghastly: SpinStopper: I hoped that Lursa and B'Etor would be in there. I'm happy ;)

No matter how hideous their faces are I just can't stop staring at their boobs.

I think the one on the right would be cute once you got all that shiat off her head.

FTFA: House Harkonnen, from Dune
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is willing to do anything to consolidate his power and destroy House Atreides, and he's helped by his vicious nephews, Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha. The House of Harkonnen comes close to destroying the Atreides line, killing Duke Leto, until their gambit to strand the Duke's wife and son on Arrakis backfires on them.

Um, The Duke's consort (not wife) was Harkonnen's daughter... making Paul and Alia his grandchildren, and making for a truly twisted family when you realize Alia has her grandafather's personality (and memories) embedded in her

chaddsfarkprefect: That X-Files Peacock family still haunts me. It's one of the creepiest episodes in modern TV.

I'll never be able to hear that song again without getting the willies.

Dunno if you could call it science fiction, but Rob Zombies firefly were evil as hell.

Ming the Merciless and Princess Aura.

The Ikaris from Neon Genesis Evangelion

That entire series was really philosophical. I took away from it that Ikari represented someone who was consumed by nihilism due to his belief in a future state, Instrumentality. And arguably if his goal was achieved, then all of the prior suffering would be rendered meaningless anyway.

Call him evil is to miss the entire basis of moral ambiguity in the series.

Hell, worrying about good and evil in the context of scifi is probably missing part of the point of scifi compared to fantasy.

The Harkonnens in Dune weren't "bad" overall. They were influenced to be the way they were to a great degree (they were once a really good family, but long before Dune took place they were screwed after they killed someone who was bad, but happened to have really good PR), and they also had an important part to play in the eventual salvation of humanity. Had they not attacked the Atreides on Arrakis, then Paul would not have (attempted to) fulfill his destiny, which means his son would not have fulfilled his, and humanity would never have started down the Golden Path, which saved the entire race.

dervish16108: No Petrelli clan?

It was only really Pa Petrelli who was the evil one. Ma Petrelli and Nathan were more just chaotic good or something.

Sid_6.7: Had they not attacked the Atreides on Arrakis, then Paul would not have (attempted to) fulfill his destiny, which means his son would not have fulfilled his, and humanity would never have started down the Golden Path, which saved the entire race.

Everything after Dune is a lesson in diminishing returns.