History ALighterShadeOfBlack / Literature

** Prince Dominic is regarded as "barking mad" and having an unhealthy interest in sorcery.* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': While both Coin and Snow are power-hungry villains, what makes Snow a slightly better person than Coin is that if he makes a threat or promises to do something, [[IGaveMyWord he keeps his word on it]]. Coin, on the other hand, is willing to manipulate others and lie to order gain power. [[spoiler:This led Katniss to realize that it was Coin, rather than Snow who was responsible for the bombing of the Capitol's children and the death of her sister, Prim.]]

* The ''Literature/{{Parker}}'' novels by Richard Stark sometimes uses this. Parker, a VillainProtagonist, is an amoral thief. However, he is pragmatic. He would kill to get what he wants, but he would not do it if it was unnecessary because he knows that the police put more effort in hunting murderers than thieves. Some books like ''The Sour Lemon Score'' or ''Deadly Edge'', put him against complete psychos who rape and kill on a whim.

* In-Universe in ''Literature/VampireAcademy'', the Alchemists consider Strigoi, Moroi, and Dhampirs to be all "evil creatures of the night". But they are willing to concede that the latter two are a lighter shade of black. Allowing them to covertly co-operate.

* ''Literature/EzrasGamble'' is about BountyHunter Bossk and StreetUrchin Ezra Bridger fighting a criminal and a corrupt and murderous Imperial officer in cahoots with him. Bossk himself only comes across as evil in other ''Franchise/StarWars'' stories, not in this one. [[spoiler:Until the reward he promised Ezra turns out to be significantly smaller than implied.]]
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': While both Coin and Snow are power-hungry villains, what makes Snow a slightly better person than Coin is that if he makes a threat or promises to do something, [[IGaveMyWord he keeps his word on it]]. Coin, on the other hand, is willing to manipulate others and lie to order gain power. [[spoiler:This led Katniss to realize that it was Coin, rather than Snow who was responsible for the bombing of the Capitol's children and the death of her sister, Prim.]]

* The Imperial States of America in ''Literature/{{Caliphate}}'' are an brutal Christian empire that has abolished its Constitution, freedom of speech and the right to bear arms don't exist and it has expanded its influence over other foreign territories. Yet for all its faults, women have rights, are taught how to read and are allowed to join the military in a stark contrast the [[NoWomansLand Caliphate]] where women are forbidden from reading, going out in public without veil or a male companion, their testimony are only count for half a male one and if they are raped they are regarded DefiledForever.
* ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': In book 2 (''Blood and Honor''), all of the three princes fighting for Redheart's throne are evil and murderous in their own way. Yet Prince Viktor, the middle of the trio, is regarded as the best option to take the throne due to supposedly being the ''least'' evil, despite being just as bad as his brothers.
** Prince Lewis has a violent temper and makes a habit of forcing himself on young ladies from the lesser nobility, or any others who catch his interest (and he also has the habit of murdering them afterward if he feels like it).
** Prince Viktor, who is also a headstrong and hotblooded lady's man who attempted to murder his own younger brother (which got him exiled from the castle) when the woman they were competing over chose Dominic, and doesn't care if everyone else in the kingdom dies if that's what it takes to achieve his own goals.
** Prince Dominic is regarded as "barking mad" and having an unhealthy interest in sorcery.
* "Big Claus and Little Claus," by Creator/HansChristianAndersen: Little Claus is the protagonist, Big Claus the antagonist. Both are greedy and unscrupulous, and cause other people's deaths, but Big Claus is more actively murderous, and also extremely stupid. As an example, Little Claus mourns when his grandmother dies -- then uses her corpse to scam money out of a stranger. Then he tells Big Claus that he made the money by selling his grandmother's corpse. In response, Big Claus murders his own grandmother and tries to sell the body, while openly admitting this to the apothecary.

* PlayedWith in ''Literature/TheFirstLaw''. The wizard Bayaz is a grumpy {{Jerkass}} who assembles a team of hardened killers ([[AndZoidberg and Jezal]], who is still a soldier and TheFightingNarcissist, just a bit green) to find a secret weapon to help him defeat the cannibalistic slaver armies of the EvilSorcerer Khalul, and near the end they thwart a separate plot by another renegade wizard to bring TheLegionsOfHell into the world as well. [[spoiler:It turns out that Bayaz might be the ''greater'' evil of the three, as he turns out to be a massive ManipulativeBastard who played every character in the book like a fiddle, and the other evil wizards are driven in part to avenge crimes he commit in the past against them and their mutual master, whom it's implied Bayaz murdered for power. He is a megalomaniac bent on WorldDomination, and the armies of Khalul even offer to spare the capital city the protagonists are defending if they just hand over Bayaz to them. His vision might be a bit less dystopian than the other two evil wizards, but Bayaz is the most unprincipled of the three and is largely responsible for the other twos' descent into villainy in the first place, and is actively exploiting their greater threat to further his own ends anyway.]]