The Asylum (Most Insane Characters Thread)

[H. Zee]

Welcome... To the Asylum.

This is a thought experiment along the same lines as the Top 10 Villains and Top 10 Villainous Organisations threads, but very different from both of these. Imagine that, at the centre of the multiverse, where all mythologies and stories interconnect, there is a huge, forbidding Asylum, run by an ancient and inscrutable Warden. This Warden is dedicated to tracking down insane fictional characters and keeping them in the Asylum for the rest of time.

Note: This is not a Villains thread, though it works the same way. This is an insane characters thread. It doesn't matter if the character is minor or major, hero or anti-hero, villain or henchman, if they're at least arguably insane, they get chucked in here.

The Asylum has several tiers. The highest tier is where the most high-profile insane characters are kept. The lowest tier is where the least prominent are kept.

This thread works differently from the Villains threads. Everyone gets to nominate as many insane characters as they want, provided they are actually insane (give reasons to back this up, or I'll be forced to resort to checking Wikipedia - Also, give the fictional media from which the character is derived). The nominations will close when I feel we have enough, and then voting will begin. Everyone will have 10 votes each. The characters with the most votes will be put in the highest tier of the Asylum, and the characters with the least will stay incarcerated at the bottom. If this thing takes off, I might write fanfiction based on it, because I am weird like that. I have taken the liberty of nominating a few myself to get the ball rolling.

The Nominations:

Spoiler

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- Abdul Alhazred (Lovecraft Mythos)
- Adam Susan (V For Vendetta)
- Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick)
- Albedo (Xenosaga)
- Alice (American McGee's Alice)
- Alexander Anderson (Hellsing)
- Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
- Alucard (Hellsing)
- Atyminius (Xena: Warrior Princess)
- Bangladesh Dupree (Girl Genius)
- Barking Wilder (Planescape: Torment)
- Barry the Chopper (Fullmetal Alchemist)
- Biter (A Song of Ice and Fire)
- The Bleak Cabal (Planescape)
- Boyd Cooper/The Milkman (Psychonauts)
- Braids (Magic: The Gathering)
- Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs)
- The Bursar (Discworld)
- Callisto (Xena: Warrior Princess)
- Castle Heterodyne (Girl Genius)
- The Chaos Space Marines (all of them) (Warhammer 40,000)
- "Coach" Ernie Pantusso (Cheers)
- The Crimson King (The Dark Tower)
- Agent Crueller (Psychonauts)
- Daelin Proudmoore (Warcraft)
- Davros (Doctor Who)
- Deadpool (Deadpool)
- Deathwing (Warcraft)
- Delirium (Sandman)
- The Demoman (Team Fortress 2)
- Dr Destiny (Sandman)
- The Dogs (all of them) (Animal Farm)
- Don Quixote (Don Quixote)
- Dukat (Star Trek)
- Early Cuyler (Squidbillies
- The Engineer (Team Fortress 2)
- Professor Farnsworth (Futurama)
- Duke Felmet (Discworld)
- Franky (One Piece)
- Ford Prefect (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
- Garithos (Warcraft)
- Gates (Full Metal Panic)
- Gauron (Full Metal Panic)
- GIR (Invader Zim)
- GLADOS (Portal)
- Gollum/Smeagol (Lord of the Rings)
- Green Goblin/Harry Ozborn (Spider Man)
- Griffin (The Invisible Man)
- The Gung-Ho Guns (all of them) (Trigun)
- Haggle (Warcraft)
- Hans Beckert (M)
- The Headless Horseman (Warcraft)
- The Heavy (Team Fortress 2)
- Homsar (Homestar Runner)
- HOLLY (Red Dwarf)
- Humbert Humbert (HH) (Lolita)
- Ignus (Planescape: Torment)
- Illidan Stormrage (Warcraft)
- Cpt Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean)
- Jeffry Goines (Twelve Monkeys)
- Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)
- Jennings (Warcraft)
- Johnny C (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac)
- Johnny Truant (House of Leaves)
- The Joker (Batman)
- Kael'thas Sunstrider (Warcraft)
- Kevin (Sin City)
- Lord Kevin Landwaster (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
- Kodos the Executioner (Star Trek)
- Kryll (Warcraft)
- Kurotsuchi Mayuri (Bleach)
- Mr Kurtz (Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now)
- Lenore Karidian (Star Trek)
- Loki (Norse Mythology)
- Mrs Lovett (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
- Luther (The Warriors)
- Macbeth (Macbeth)
- Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
- Mad Gerald (The Black Adder)
- The Mad Old Cat Lady (The Simpsons)
- The Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland)
- Malygos (Warcraft)
- The Marooned Mariner (Tales of the Black Freighter)
- Meatwad (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
- The Medic (Team Fortress 2)
- Miata (Claymore)
- Miko Miyazaki (Order of the Stick)
- Minsc (and Boo) (Baldur's Gate)
- Nero (Star Trek)
- Norman Bates (Psycho)
- The Orks (all of them) (Warhammer 40,000)
- Ophelia (Claymore)
- Ophelia (Hamlet)
- Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)
- Pip (Moby-Dick)
- The Pyro (Team Fortress 2)
- Ramsay Bolton (A Song of Ice and Fire)
- The Reavers (all of them) (Firefly)
- The Red Man (Deadman Wonderland)
- Remy (Black Lagoon)
- Ren (Ren and Stimpy)
- Renfield (Dracula)
- The Riddler (Batman)
- Cardinal Roark (Sin City)
- Roberto (Futurama)
- Rorschach/Walter Kovacs (Watchmen)
- Salad Fingers (Salad Fingers)
- Sarda (8 Bit Theatre)
- Sargeras (Warcraft)
- The Scout (Team Fortress 2)
- Principal Scudworth (Clone High)
- Sicco Thermaplugg (Warcraft)
- The Sniper (Team Fortress 2)
- The Soldier (Team Fortress 2)
- Soulcatcher (The Black Company)
- The Spy (Team Fortress 2)
- Stimpy (Ren and Stimpy)
- Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
- Toby (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
- Tracy Jordon (30 Rock)
- Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver)
- Dr. Tristan Adams (Star Trek Original Series)
- Tsunenaga Tamaki (Deadman Wonderland)
- King Tut (Batman)
- The Twins (Hans and Gretel) (Black Lagoon)
- Two-Face (Batman)
- V (V for Vendetta)
- The Warden (Super Jail)
- Warden Treelos (Warcraft)
- Willy Wonka (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
- Yagami Light (Death Note)
- Zaraki Kenpachi (Bleach)
- Zim (Invader Zim)
- Zsasz (Batman)

The Joker was kind of a given.

[Innis Cabal]

Oh, I had thought this was to post insane character's we've played....though the sub forum should have told me I was wrong.

Joker is high on that list for sure. The main villan from Dead Man Wonderland...forget his name...ranks up there as well.

[Eldan]

Right...

Barking Wilder from Planescape Torment, and the Planescape Adventures.

Delirium from Sandman.

GLADOS. Here, she's actually fitting.

[H. Zee]

Oh, I had thought this was to post insane character's we've played....though the sub forum should have told me I was wrong.

Joker is high on that list for sure. The main villan from Dead Man Wonderland...forget his name...ranks up there as well.

Tsunenaga Tamaki? Is that the guy you mean?

EDIT: I added Minsc from Baldur's Gate to the list, as an example of an unarguably good character being in the Asylum.

[Sneak]

Sweeney Todd. And Toby, by the end. Actually, pretty much everybody from that musical, except for Anthony and Johanna.

Also, Pip from Moby-Dick.

[Innis Cabal]

Tsunenaga Tamaki? Is that the guy you mean?

EDIT: I added Minsc from Baldur's Gate to the list, as an example of an unarguably good character being in the Asylum.

Think so ya. He's pretty messed up. So is the Red Man

[Eldan]

Since I'm nominating people from Torment: Ignus

[Starscream]

Deadpool - He actually thinks he's a character in a comic book.

Alternately, Everyone else in the Marvel Universe - They DON'T think they are characters in comic books.

Riddler - "You don't understand. .. I really didn't want to leave you any clues. I really planned never to go back to Arkham Asylum. But I left you a clue anyway. So I... I have to go back there. Because I might need help. I... I might actually be crazy."

Ford Prefect - At least, he went mad for a while. Then he got bored with it.

Davros - "Yes, I would do it."

Tracy Jordon from 30 Rock - And proud of it. He wanted to sue a tabloid for calling him normal.

Doctor Destiny - At least the Sandman version is terrifyingly insane. The JLA version is considerably less so.

Hans Beckert from M - Very sympathetic but also completely twisted.

The Bursar - "Why, certainly, I'll have your whelk! How do we do it? Volume!"

[Trizap]

Cap'n Jack Sparrow.

[Dienekes]

Braids- MTG, gals pretty nuts.

Ramsay Bolton- ASOIAF. A villain so twisted he raped a girl, killed her, then told his mentally broken servant to rape her again. I think the guys one of the few as nuts as Mr J.

Zsasz, Two-Face, you know the Batman lineup.

The Reavers- Firefly and Serenity. You'd need a rather huge Asylum though.

Adam Susan- V for Vendetta (comic) yeah he's pitiable, but this very human fascist fell in love with a computer, before he completely broke down.

Mr. Kurtz- Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now/ The horror, the horror and all that.

[Querzis]

Well the Joker is obvious and nobody can be as insane as him. That being said:

Soulcatcher from the Black company: An avatar of chaos, she get bonus point for having like a thousand personnalities and surviving her own decapitation.

Franky from One Piece: most people would just call him crazy since, for some reason, most people associate crazy with good character and insane with evil character. But if we go back to true definition of insane, Franky is probably one of the only character who can almost match the Joker. A self made Cyborg (which means he was conscious when he butchered his own body to add armor-plate and weapons) his whole fighting style and all his actions scream insanity. He was based on Jim Carrey after all.

All the characters from No more heroes: Everyone is insane in that game.

[Weezer]

Lord Kevin Landwaster (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant): Was driven insane by despair so badly that he rained destruction on all he knew and loved

[Boo]

Oh, just insane you say? Well- HEY! Why is there a hamster with my name?! Damn you D&D! DAMN YOU!! (I thought you were talking about me for three seconds just because the name is so rare to see on a character)

Back on topic: Everyone in this movie.

Mad Hatter (Really? No one's suggested him yet?)

Alex "DeLarge" (A Clockwork Orange - He is a Clockwork Orange, or at least was.)

Luther (The Warriors - "No reason")

The Crimson King (Dark Tower series)

Well the Joker is obvious and nobody can be as insane as him.

Ah, I love how silly this line is.

I wouldn't nominate Zaraki. He doesn't seem to have much of a stand for insanity (You are looking for insane people, right? Not just people who seem insane, but are just exaggerated?). Mayuri on the other hand would fit much better.


And I still can't believe the Mad Hatter wasn't mentioned right off the bat. For shame!

[Brewdude]

Remy from Black Lagoon. Really likes getting INTO gunfights, treats them like an extreme sporting event and goes into a sort of blood lust trance while in the middle of one.

The Twins from Black Lagoon. Pre-teen genius homicidal escapees from a child porn operation. They trade off which one dresses like a boy and which dresses like a girl.

[H. Zee]

I wouldn't nominate Zaraki. He doesn't seem to have much of a stand for insanity.

"Sanity? What would I do with something as useless as that?"

Braids- MTG, gals pretty nuts.

Care to elaborate? I can't find any evidence of this person. By "MTG" are you referring to Magic: The Gathering?

FYI: Nominations saying "Everyone from x" will not be counted as I'd prefer to have names and I'm not going to track down every character from said universe. Either list them all yourself, or give the most prominent examples. However, naming specific groups within said universe which are all insane is fine (e.g. Firefly's Reavers).

[Quincunx]

I thought the defining characteristic of dementia was not realizing your worldview was demented and/or being incapable of changing your behavior after realizing it. Anyone who brags upon their insanity ought to be voided from the list. Goodbye, the namesake.

The insane characters in the books of my library are either too obscure to nominate or thinly fictionalized real people.

[Coplantor]

Ophellia and Miata from Claymore.
Everyone on wonderland, specially the mad hatter.
Agree with Alexander DeLarge
The Joker
Rennfield
Ren and Stimpy
8-bit theater's Sarda
The Pythons
The Old Lady with cats in The Simpsons.
Willy Wonka

[Pronounceable]

Mrs Lovett is the single most demented individual in Sweeney Todd.

Every Chaos Space Marine ever. "Sanity is for the weak!"
Every Ork ever. "WAAAAGH!"
Let's just make it everyone from WH40K, ever. Except for Ciaphas Cain, HERO of the IMPERIUM!

[Berserk Monk]

Berry the Chopper (Fullmetal Alchemist) He's a very minor character that ran a butcher shop, dressed up as a chick to make deliveries, and hacked people up. He was caught, killed, turned into an animated suit of armor and became a bloodthirsty psuedo golem.

Good to see the Joker on the list. He's the first guy that came to mind, but then again, wouldn't all Batman villains fit this list. I think too most of the Gung Ho Guns from Trigun should fit the list as well.

I'm not sure if he counts, but what about The Comedian/Edward Blake. He's a psychopath and rapist.

[Coplantor]

I gorgot about Loki. Good old mad norse god.

@^: In the manga, Barry got his chance to shine a bit more.

[H. Zee]

I thought the defining characteristic of dementia was not realizing your worldview was demented and/or being incapable of changing your behavior after realizing it. Anyone who brags upon their insanity ought to be voided from the list.

I'm not sure that's true. I've definitely read about real-life cases of people who were analysed as being 'insane' and who acknowledged that they were, but went on with acting the same as before anyway. I think that 'insanity' is too vague a term to have set rules like that.

And even if you're right, better to ignore that, because otherwise we'd have to get rid of the Joker, the Mad Hatter (c'mon, he calls himself 'the Mad Hatter'), and others who definitely belong. Let's not ruin our fun by trying to apply real-world rules to fictional people.

EDIT: Also, Berserk Monk, I'd say The Comedian is amoral, evil, and all-around nasty, but not insane.

[Eldan]

Care to elaborate? I can't find any evidence of this person. By "MTG" are you referring to Magic: The Gathering?

Braids.

She was also in most of the novels of the Odyssey and Onslaught blocks. And pretty much insane, yes. Also, Minion Legend is the best creature type ever.

[H. Zee]

Braids.

She was also in most of the novels of the Odyssey and Onslaught blocks. And pretty much insane, yes. Also, Minion Legend is the best creature type ever.

Cheers. She's in.

[Querzis]

I thought the defining characteristic of dementia was not realizing your worldview was demented and/or being incapable of changing your behavior after realizing it. Anyone who brags upon their insanity ought to be voided from the list. Goodbye, the namesake.

You're right. People affected with dementia most of the time cant realize it. But dementia is not even a form of insanity, its an actual disease thats (mostly) because of old age (the Alzheimer's disease is a form a dementia.) But for insanity? Most people realize they are insane. Weither they want to become sane or not is another matter though.

Lets check at some real form of insanity shall we? Psychopathy? Kenpachi is most definitly a psychopath. The incapacity to feel any form of fear? Yeah he got that too. I'm not a specialist and I can still easely see two severe form of insanity with Kenpachi and I'm sure there is more.

[Lord_Gareth]

Johnny Truant (House of Leaves) - Geez, where to start on this guy? Johnny Truant is an unreliable narrator on enough drugs to start a hospital being driven slowly insane by the notes of a man named Zampano - except Johnny might not even exist. "He" might be a hallucination of his mother, or of Zampano, or Zampano might be his own hallucination, or his mother could be his hallucination, or both of them could be Zampano's! However it breaks down, Johnny has completely and utterly lost it by the end of House of Leaves, breaking down as completely and utterly as the possibly-fictional Navidson family.

[Berserk Monk]

Do Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde count?

Also, still seeing no Comedian. "Once you realize what a joke life is, being the Comedian's the only thing that makes sense."

Oh, Codename V?

[Athaniar]

To honor the great movie I just saw, I nominate Star Trek's Nero. I'd call him quite insane (although he was driven insane by grief).

[Dienekes]

To Berserk Monk

You see I never saw the Comedian as insane, he simply had a nihilistic philosophy on the world.

V is nuts though

[Berserk Monk]

To honor the great movie I just saw, I nominate Star Trek's Nero. I'd call him quite insane (although he was driven insane by grief).

You know the Roman Emperor Nero was quite mad too.

Also, not sure why this hasn't been suggested before, but Gollum from LotR.

[H. Zee]

Do Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde count?

Hmmm... I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one, since I've never read the original book, only the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen version.

Sorry, but I still don't think the Comedian should go in. He's amoral, and impulsive, but not insane.