History AntiVillain / LiveActionTv

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Lex Luthor evolved from an AntiHero into an AntiVillain in Season's 4 & 5, retaining most of his sympathetic qualities, but becoming directly antagonistic. Eventually, he lost those as well, and evolved into the CorruptCorporateExecutive and sociopath we all knew he'd eventually be. His father, Lionel, evolved the other way. Beginning the series as an unrepentant BigBad, Lionel became an {{Antivillain}} in the later seasons, as his crush on Martha, revelations about his past, and attempts to make up for his many mistakes humanised him. Some would argue that he even managed to become an antihero (Type IV) before his Season 7 exit.
** Before her HeelFaceTurn, [[BrokenAce Tess]] was this, as both a JerkassWoobie and a WellIntentionedExtremist. [[spoiler: AntiVillain must run in the Luthor family tree.]]
** A non-Luthor example would also be Major/General Zod, in an interesting twist as he's essentially simultainiously given AdaptationalHeroism ''and'' AdaptationalVillainy. He ultimately just wants peace, justice, and freedom for the Kryptonians, is a FatherToHisMen, respects Kal-El/Clark and still holds his former best friend Jor-El in high regard, and while he leads a ruthless coup, he's motivated by the fact his family was killed in the destruction of Kandor, and his plea to clone his son was rejected, pushing him over the edge. However, unlike most depictions, he was almost successful in taking over Krypton, and when he learnt his cause was lost, he decided to destabalize Krypton's core and, essentially, is the one responsible for its destruction. Ultimately, he's just trying to cope with the death of his son, but doesn't do it in a healthy means.

* Carl Elias from ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. He served the role as the {{Big Bad}}} for a good part of the first season. He's even gone as far to [[MoralEventHorizon lock a baby in a freezer truck to gain Reese's cooperation]], but he's also helped Reese on several occasions. He often shares Reese's goals when up against the Russian mob or HR. [[spoiler: This comes to a close in Season 3 when he has {{Dirty Cop}} Simmons killed in revenge for killing Carter earlier.]]

* ''Series/{{Scandal}}'': [[spoiler: Cyrus]], possibly. It's still not clear what his motivations are.

** Lex Luthor evolved from an {{Antihero}} into an {{Antivillain}} in Season's 4 & 5, retaining most of his sympathetic qualities, but becoming directly antagonistic. Eventually, he lost those as well, and evolved into the CorruptCorporateExecutive and sociopath we all knew he'd eventually be. His father, Lionel, evolved the other way. Beginning the series as an unrepentant BigBad, Lionel became an {{Antivillain}} in the later seasons, as his crush on Martha, revelations about his past, and attempts to make up for his many mistakes humanised him. Some would argue that he even managed to become an antihero (Type IV) before his Season 7 exit.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': Nobody in [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E137Number12LooksJustLikeYou Number 12 Looks Just Like You!]] is malicious in the slightest. They ''genuinely believe'' that the Transformation is the right thing to do, and they're confused and heartbroken that Marilyn doesn't want to be just like them.

* Every single vampire on ''Series/TrueBlood''. While some of them are not unwilling to perform the occasional good deed, by and large they all seem to be willing to kill, torture, mind control and otherwise abuse the human population despite their [[ConsummateLiar public relations campaign]] about wanting to "mainstream" and [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire live peacefully with humans]].

* The cause of all the problems of ''Series/WandaVision'' turns out to be [[spoiler:Wanda herself. After all the trauma she had suffered, she had a mental breakdown and psychologically retreated to the comfortable world of sitcoms; she just didn't know that she had RealityWarper powers that would drag thousands of people into that world with her.]]

* Raymond Reddington, the VillainProtagonist of ''Series/TheBlacklist'' is a solid type III. He usually has decent or even noble motives when getting involved with the FBI and is completely polite to everyone, but is bluntly honest about his nature as an often very brutal criminal. He is absolutely ruthless towards those who wrong him or someone he cares for but is also very reasonable and has a strong sense of honor, often helping bring down other criminals that cross the MoralEventHorizon. Summed up well in the first episode:
-->'''Liz''': Can I trust you?
-->'''Red''': (''bluntly, while chuckling'') Of course not. ''I'M A CRIMINAL''.

* One of the memorable twists in the final season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' was having [[spoiler: Jack Bauer himself]] become one in the final episodes of the series. Although he has a mostly noble goal in mind ([[spoiler: exposing the conspiracy regarding a foreign President's murder that current U.S. President Allison Taylor is covering up after undergoing a FaceHeelTurn]]), they are tainted by the desire for revenge after he finally gets screwed over for the last time, leading him to pull some pretty terrible acts even for him that not only cross the line, they double over it.

** [[spoiler: Jason Carver. A handsome, blonde, basketball captain with inspiring pubic speeches that would impress Captain America, Jason could very easily be TheHero in any other show. When the love of his life Chrissy is found dead inside the house of the school’s TroubledTeen Eddie, Jason is understandably grief-stricken and vengeful and [[OneSideOfTheStory without the knowledge]] of the Upside Down and Vecna that the MainCharacters and the audience have, it isn’t too surprising that he believes Eddie and his Hellfire club are Satanic. In the finale Jason even shows genuine concern for Max when she’s in Vecna’s trace, assuming Lucas has put a curse on her. ''However'' as noble and sympathetic as Jason’s drive was at first, he still crosses the MoralEventHorizon during his SanitySlippage attacking and threatening '''anyone''' remotely connected to Eddie and Hellfire to the point of instigating a WitchHunt in Hawkins and being willingly to kill kids. Additionally even before Chrissy died, Jason [[LightIsNotGood beneath his radiance]] displayed BitchInSheepsClothing traits aggressively disliking those less popular than himself and considered them “freaks”. Ultimately thanks to the screwed-up social norms of TheEighties, Jason was a monster in the making and only needed one big push [[DramaticIrony to become the very thing he accused Eddie of being]].]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** As long as you don't challenge his power, Khal Drogo is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure... in charge of a BarbarianTribe that revels in RapePillageAndBurn as well as slavery.
** Jaime's characterization in the first two seasons. He is a man who doesn't hesitate to kill a child or a kinsman for his own benefit but does possess some sympathetic traits like a BigBrotherInstinct.
** The Hound does terrible things in service to the Lannisters, but at least has the decency to acknowledge them as such and express a distaste for pointless sadism. He also demonstrates both compassion (primarily towards Sansa) and honour. In Season 3, this is further emphasised by his defection from the Lannisters and his willingness to bring Arya back to her family for a ransom reward despite their mutual hatred.
** Mance Rayder leads a barbarian horde featuring some pretty reprehensible characters in an invasion of the Seven Kingdoms because he wants to save his people from the White Walkers and he knows the Night's Watch will never just let them through.
** The High Sparrow is religious fanatic, a homophobe and a misogynist, but he sincere and legitimate in his attempt to fight for the poor and downtrodden against the corruption of the highborn.
** Rickard Karstark, of the WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds variety. His villainy is the result of his grief over the deaths of his sons.
** The Smalljon doesn't seem particularly fond of the Boltons (on the contrary, it's evident he despises them). His primary motivation is protecting the North from Wildling invasions.
** Stannis becomes one due to him having fairly noble goals, yet he still sacrifices Shireen to R'hllor to ensure his victory over the Boltons.

** Khan Noonien Singh in his appearance in the episode "Space Seed". Although fandom (and some of the writers of the later series) have made him out to be evil, it's stated that he was the only good dictator in the Eugenics Wars. He was neither bloodthirsty nor a warmonger, and rather than assume a scorched earth strategy when he was defeated, he took his people and fled into space to find a new world. In fact, in "Space Seed" he doesn't even kill anyone (though he does come close in the case of Kirk and at the end, he is actually quite happy with Kirk's suggestion of leaving him and his crew on Ceti Alpha V, since he and his people will finally have what they wanted: a world to themselves. It was only after spending twenty years on a dead rock that he became the monster we saw in ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan The Wrath of Khan]]''.

*** And now he's gone back to being an unrepentant brain-eater, by joining forces with The Man, just so he can have access to a never-ending all-you-can-eat buffet of powers whenever they kill any harmless individual with a cool superpower. End of Season 4, he seems to be rehabilitated...again. Mostly because [[spoiler: Matt Parkman trapped him in a nightmare where he was the only person in the world, which was messed up by Peter Petrelli borrowing Matt's power and following him in after he had a dream that Sylar would save Emma, a friend of his. Which... Sylar does, with a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} when he tied up Puppeteer Doyle like...a puppet.]]