The first Simpsons Halloween special occurred way back in season 2, but it quickly became a
tradition among the creators and fans. While we’ve covered the main Simpsons cast in one of
our larger Good to Evil episodes, the Treehouse of Horror episodes stand alone as being universes
of their own… All with their own twists and turns. But with these new characteristics,
how do our beloved Springfield residents stack up on the morality scale?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this Treehouse of Horror: Good to Evil.
Now, we’ll be discussing and ranking the most frequent key players of the
Halloween episodes… That said, we had to put some thought in how to tackle the Treehouse episodes…
Mainly because characters who recur are oftentimes presented with completely different personalities…
For instance, sometimes one character appears in a Treehouse episode as a hero,
only to appear in a later Treehouse episode as a villain.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and noble character
and working our way down. These characters are The Good.
Bart Simpson is not usually seen as a pure hearted character. It isn’t that
he’s a horrible character, but he is a kid that makes a ton of bad calls and tends to
be impulsive. But in the Treehouse of Horror, he really shows the best of his character.
It doesn’t mean he’s not impulsive or never makes any poor choices, but he tends to be far more
considerate and heroic in these stories. He saves his classmates from a gremlin attacking the bus,
he dives into a portal to save his father and saves Lisa from a brain sucking Mr Burns.
While he can be swayed onto the side of evil, he’s typically teaming up with Lisa to stop some plot
such as escaping their murderous father or running from cannibalistic school staff.
Moving on, Lisa stayed pretty true to her character even during the chaos of
the Halloween specials. Especially in the earlier seasons she was quick to catch on to any abnormal
phenomenon occurring, being the first to call out Burns being a vampire and trying to protect her
family when she thought they were going to be eaten by aliens. She teamed with her brother,
the dead only being raised so he could try bringing her beloved cat back and tried to help
stop the murders done by Willie. She also took the role of the Katniss parody, leading everyone put
up to kill one another to take out Mr Burns. Even though that last one didn’t quite work out, it was
done with good intentions. She was blamed by her imaginary friend for the murders she committed,
saying she came from Lisa’s mind so everything she did was technically Lisa’s fault. We don’t
really see it that way since Lisa fought against her, but it’s a warped thing to think about.
Up next is our Bronze Medal of Good… Marge is typically higher on these lists, but she’s given a
questionable role a couple of times. While we rank her higher due to being the one that is set up to
warn parents about the violent programming to follow, she was also portrayed as a witch that
devoured children and as the head vampire rather than Mr Burns. More often than not,
she’s the voice of reason in a realm of madness. She does have her more surprising moments,
such as when she blew away a bunch of mutants rather than allow them to be chummy.
The littlest Simpson, Maggie is usually turned into a variety of creatures during these stories.
From being part alien to being a witch to being a demon more than a couple of times. But we cut
Maggie some slack despite her destructive tendencies because we know she’s just a baby
mimicking what she’s seen on tv or acting out based on something she can’t really vocalize.
But we also have to admit that a Maggie on the loose with unpredictable abilities
is downright terrifying.
Finally, we get to Homer Simpson. Homer is a well loved character,
but the Halloween stories give him a chance to be way more careless without any real consequences.
In many of the stories he’s seen as a liability. There are times such as after his wife is revealed
as a witch that he accuses Lisa of witchcraft, not wanting to be mocked for throwing a rock
through his own window. He screws up the timeline numerous times with a toaster,
sells his soul for a donut and turns into an axe wielding maniac just from lack of beer and tv.
But we have to give him some credit since he does try to correct the timeline and fights for Maggie
as his child when he learns about Kang. He was the one to take out Burns when Lisa revealed he was a
vampire and fought against the zombies rising up after Bart and Lisa’s spell went haywire.
Professor Frink is brought up more often in the Treehouse of Horror segments than he is in the
canon episodes. His intellect is often sought in times of panic and unusual circumstances.
One story in particular focuses on him bringing his father back to life,
wanting the man that inspired him to pursue science to walk among the living again.
He tried warning Homer against using the teleporter too carelessly
and was one of the ones consulted when Homer was lost in the void behind the bookshelf.
With that said, we've arrived at the neutral territory. These characters fall in The Grey Area.
Moving onto a fan favorite… Groundskeeper Willie often tries to be the hero, even though that never
seems to go in his favour. He tried saving the children from being eaten by the school staff,
tried saving the family from Homer’s axe-wielding rampage,
and showed up to try and get Homer back on his own timeline. However, all of those encounters
ended up with him being taken out by an axe being plunged into his back in a twisted on-going gag.
He falls lower due to his one very memorable time as a sort of Freddy Kruiger parody, taking out all
of the children as they slept. This is actually one of the most memorable Treehouse of Horrors…
and he essentially tries to kill children in their sleep, so even though he does try to
help most other times… This definitely weighs him down quite a bit. Plus, when he does try
to help… he usually ends up with an axe in his back. But, it’s the thought that counts.
Hey-diddily-ho-there-neighborino! Ned Flanders was a tricky one to place. On the one hand,
he’s usually the same helpful and lovable Ned we’re used to seeing. On the other,
he’s also capable of murder if need be and is even shown to be the Devil in one particular
episode where he accepts Homer’s plea to sell his soul for a donut. But even as the Devil, he
was still a reasonable and friendly guy, accepting going through with a trial when Lisa requested it.
When Homer was exposed as already giving his soul to Marge, he still punished Homer in a way that
would be torture for the man, turning his head into a giant donut. In Ned’s other roles, he does
lose points for ending up as a zombie, a flesh hungry mutant and as a witch hunting radical.
The times where Ned is still the nice guy, things just don’t work well in his favour. When Ned
was given the ability to see people’s deaths, it just made Ned desperate to protect and ultimately
cause more damage. When he tried helping the gremlin that was attacking Bart’s bus,
it wound up with him decapitated. We drop him quite a bit, mainly due to the whole “devil’
thing… but we place Ned in the grey because though he’s done some questionable things,
the poor guy ends up dead everytime he tries to be the good guy.
Chief Wiggum falls lower than he typically would. He manages to be just as negligent in these
episodes as he does normally. But in one segment in particular, he even took it to the realm of
murder. In what was meant to be a jab at Sherlock Holmes, he kills a bunch of innocent people
just to be able to solve a case before anyone else can. He was also given the role as the sheriff in
a small town accusing women of witchcraft, having Marge shoved off a cliff and led the
entire police force to wait outside for Homer after the man’s head was turned into a donut.
Moe has a hard time reeling in his anger and impulses in the normal settings of the show, but
when placed in circumstances where he can run wild, he gets even crazier. He was one of the
mutants that became fixated on feasting on human skin and was portrayed as the demon
that came to take Marge’s favourite child, only letting up if Homer performed a task for him.
Finally, we've reached the dark side. These characters are The Bad and The Evil.
Kang and Kodos have changed a lot since their initial introduction. In the first Halloween
special, they actually didn’t do anything vile. They abducted the Simpsons, yes, but under the
impression that the family would want to be celebrated on their home planet. They never make
it clear why they wished to honour that family exactly, but they were quickly insulted when Lisa
accused the aliens of wanting to eat them. Their following appearances were much different, mocking
humanity for their weaknesses, attempting to enslave the Earth, and even running for president.
Kang was even shown to be Maggie’s real father, with Marge having been abducted and inseminated.
Principal Skinner loses a lot of points for being the mastermind behind one of
the most gruesome stories features on the Treehouse of Horror stories:
the murder and cannibalism of children. Now Skinner is given some other questionable roles,
but this one was by far the worst. He stooped to using the children as a means of dealing with the
school’s low budget and trying to provide better meals for not only the students but the faculty.
The devouring of human meat wound up turning them all into deranged cannibals that were only
concerned with getting their next victim cornered. Skinner was even seen taking
an axe to Willie when the Groundskeeper tried saving Bart, Lisa and Millhouse.
While Snake wasn’t super popular, he was consistent enough to mention on this list.
Being a hardened criminal, it isn’t so unexpected to see him take out more than a few people.
One story that stuck out, however, was when he was sentenced to death for a third strike
and came back to take down the witnesses: Moe,
Apu and Bart. He was able to carry out his wishes beyond the grave using the hair that was once his
to control Homer. And his murders were gruesome and merciless. Using a corkscrew to remove Moe’s
heart straight from his chest. Drowning Apu in the Squishee machine. And for Bart,
sealing the boy up in his room and having him see his own father take a sledgehammer to him. And the
fact that his hair tried to keep going after being removed was pretty disturbing to say the least.
Smithers earns the silver medal of evil due to his aiding of Mr Burns.
He collects dead bodies knowing full well they aren’t entirely dead. He helps suck the brains
from school children. He helps lure victims to be devoured by Burns’ army of the undead. The list
goes on and on. Ultimately, his worst trait is that he goes along with whatever Burns cooks up,
just wanting nothing more than to make the man happy. We were greeted with more
than a few disturbing moments during these stories, such as seeing a snake version of
Smithers unhinge his jaw to devour a now dead Mr Burns so they could “always be together.”
He’s obsessive and loyal, but that was creepy for a number of reasons.
Mr Burns is just as sadistic in the Halloween universes
as he is in the original story line. He hunts people for sport.
He prays on school children. He’s a vampire that lures people to his home so he can feed on them.
He steals Homer’s body, even though the man isn’t dead, to have a brain for his robot.
He cuts off all cable and beer supply to his home even though there was a trend of people going
insane and murdering their families. He shares a body with Homer without any consent, figuring the
man had plenty of room for both their heads so why did it matter? He was a ruthless leader hoarding
the town’s water supply and making them all kill one another to get any of it. He’s already not an
upstanding citizen, but he’s made worse when it comes to the spookiest time of the year.
But what do you think? Who are the most evil characters in the Treehouse of Horror specials?
Let us know in the comment section. Don't forget to hit that notification bell
and check out our full Simpsons Good-to-Evil episode. Where we break down the morality of
all the residents of Springfield! But most importantly, stay wicked!