History DracoInLeatherPants / WesternAnimation

** Ember [=McLain=] gets this treatment, mostly for her loss, but some fans think that her song was about her suicide after being cheated on by her BastardBoyfriend. It helps that she (and several other members of Danny’s RoguesGallery, for that matter) is increasingly portrayed as fighting Danny for fun more than out of malice.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesofPower'' Catra is a fan favorite. The writers made her deliberately sympathetic, and often pit her against the unilaterally detestable Shadow Weaver, so Catra naturally appears more sympathetic by contrast. That said, Catra is also incredibly selfish and vindictive and with almost no sympathy for anyone, with her moments of kindness to others being just that - ''moments'' - and she openly cares very little that the Horde goes around destroying the world and killing innocent people. [[spoiler:Even after she tries to [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum destroy Etheria and all life on it including herself]] just to [[WeWinBecauseYouDidnt deny Adora victory,]] you will still find fans who think she is justified in her actions]].

* Smudger from the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' episode, "[[Recap/ThomasAndFriendsS4E1Grandpuff Granpuff]]" has a lot of fans who want to see him return to the series. This is despite the fact that he was a naughty, arrogant engine who often rode too roughly and never learnt from his mistakes, as well as the fact that he's been turned into a generator for life, and the Mid Sodor Railway is closed by now.

* In the old ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'' cartoon, many girls adored the [[CardCarryingVillain self-proclaimed evil]] Prince Lotor, despite his attempts not only to kidnap Princess Allura, kill the Voltron Force and raze her planet to a pile of ash, but also (and repeatedly) to force her into marriage, brainwash her, or commit various other despicable acts; he has never shown an ounce of remorse for any of this. Many fans will attempt to argue that he was forced to do this by his father, even though he hatched and enjoyed half these plans, and though he continued making them after he usurped his father. Others will say it's all out of love for Allura, even though he was willing to throw her away for another princess that looked just like her.

* The Sirens/The Dazzlings are this for ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' as a whole. They're the most popular villains from the franchise by a country mile, and they often get portrayed in fan works far more sympathetically than their canon counterparts. In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks, the Sirens are a TerribleTrio who want to spread a HatePlague, caused people to be brainwashed against their friends, and show absolutely no remorse for any of this. In most fan works about them, they are portrayed as showing remorse for their actions, especially Sonata Dusk. In their first appearance in five years since ''Rainbow Rocks'', WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetsBackstagePass, they are shown to ''not'' show remorse for their actions, only showing regret for them because they no longer have their HatePlague powers. But in the digital short, "Find the Magic", they sing the titular song about how lost they feel without their former powers and by the end they learn to appreciate the simple joys in life.

** [[BigBad Hawk Moth]] ''himself'' started getting this treatment once it was revealed that [[spoiler:he's Gabriel Agreste. Fans latched on to his [[AdultFear concern for Adrien's safety]] and motives (bringing his beloved wife back), while ignoring the fact that he often puts Adrien in danger to begin with.]]

** Lord Stingray gets a bunch of this treatment from certain fans, who feel as if he's been unfairly wronged and misunderstood for being imprisoned in Superjail. Some decide to depict him as physically attractive in order to play up suaveness to make him a viable partner for the Warden, if they don't go with outright FoeYay.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'':...this trope could had been easily renamed "Valtor in leather Pants"...since the fanart where he is portrayed as romantic interest of Bloom can be counted in hundreds, along a huge lot of fanfics with this portray of him, sometimes being redeemed, sometimes atracting bloom to the darkness...

* Hexxus, the Spirit of Destruction and pollution embodied in ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'' gets this even though he's trying to level a rainforest full of plant and animal life as well as sentient fairies that depend on its existence to survive. It doesn't help that the movie is {{Anvilicious}}, the protagonists (save maybe for [[CrazyIsCool Batty]] [[CloudCuckoolander Koda]]) are bland and rather uninteresting, and Hexxus himself is voiced by Creator/TimCurry, with all the implications this entails. And he gets one of the best {{Villain Song}}s of all times.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' fandom does this a lot, especially with characters like [[FatBastard Cartman]], who once [[spoiler:tricked a kid into eating his parents]], and Damien, who set Pip on fire and turned Kenny into a duck-billed platypus.
* Plankton in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. It has been established that he's evil as he continued to try to take Krabs' secret formula in myriad ways. One episode even had him as a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk with him saying [[CardCarryingVillain "Being evil is just too much fun!"]] His actions include enslaving Spongebob, taking out his brain, and gleefully attempting to murder people several times. He's definitely crossed the MoralEventHorizon. But because Mr. Krabs TookALevelInJerkass in later seasons, a lot of folks act as though Plankton is some innocent victim who never does anything wrong, when even in those seasons he's still a Jerkass who has done just as many nasty things as Krabs has. Obviously that doesn't excuse what Krabs did in "One Coarse Meal", but still...
** Squidward could also fall as an example. Sure he suffers a lot, but there are fans who ignore all the bad stuff he has done and treat him like an innocent victim, even when some of his misfortunes are brought upon himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry''. While Tom is something of an IneffectualSympatheticVillain, fans have taken to downplaying Tom’s flaws ''completely'' and treat [[HeroAntagonist Jerry]] as if he's the bad guy in all their altercations. The truth is that neither one is by any means innocent, being victim and provoker in almost equal measure, but Tom just gets the DILP pass because the writers worked so hard to depict that ''Jerry'' (who, at the time at least, automatically got audience sympathy by [[CatsAreMean not being Tom]]) wasn't, and that they [[TeamRocketWins let Tom win a lot of times he genuinely deserved it]].

** Azula is a callous, cruel manipulator who kills without hesitation and gleefully advances the aims of the genocidal Fire Nation, but thanks to being the best example of EvilIsSexy and {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry in the show she has a large chunk of fans who insist she's a tragic woobie or just misunderstood. The GrandFinale gives her one hell of a FreudianExcuse and the following canonical comics hint that she [[spoiler:might be redeemable after all]], but the DILP treatment started long before this.
*** Much of the defense of Azula these days comes from older fans in response to the ways in which she is demonized far beyond what her actions deserve. Many fans take it as canon without real evidence that Azula did things like torture prisoners, abuse animals, engage in incest or rape, and is always motivated by sadism despite the restraint she shows compared to the other major villains. The perception morphed into something akin to a RonTheDeathEater, to the point where she has become something of a fandom scapegoat receiving sole blame for acts she shares with other characters because she's more obviously villainous and less obviously conflicted.
*** This is largely due to the narrative constantly playing up her villainous aesthetic through her dialogue, framing, music, etc. Relatively speaking, in the grand scope, Azula causes less actual destruction or suffering over a much shorter time than the likes of Azulon, Zhao, or even Iroh did in the past, and displays less petty cruelty than a villain like Hama or even the heroes do when they are angered.
*** Azula's villainy ends up being partially an InformedAttribute. While she has the same goals as the majority of the Fire Nation, it is because she is more successful, dangerous, has a meaner personality, and antagonizes fan-favorite Zuko that she is seen as being worse than her actual actions would imply. Ironically, Azula's fear tactics were just as effective on the audience.
*** At present, the defense of Azula has shifted away from basic DILP'ing because she is cool and sexy and more towards Azula fans sincerely wanting her to be treated with more sympathy and more fairly. This is notable considering the themes of forgiveness and redemption, how young Azula is at just 14, and the unwinnable circumstances she was born into. In comparison, many characters in the franchise who found redemption were older, did worse, or were redeemed much more easily. Their argument is that Azula deserves the same chance to change even considering the evil she committed, rather than to condemn a child as irredeemable or unforgivable, regardless of her actions, much less assume she did even worse and use those assumptions to justify mistreatment of her.

** Sozin gets this treatment quite a bit, another case of his fans focusing on the "well-intentioned" and ignoring the "extremist" aspects of WellIntentionedExtremist. They see nothing wrong with him wanting to [[WhiteMansBurden spread the fire nation's glory]], [[DiscreditedTrope power]], and advanced civilization with the rest of the world, which apparently justifies 100 years of war, the first act of which after disposing of the only man who could stop him was a complete genocide, and many other genocidal actions to follow. It's worth noting that Sozin himself comes to regret these actions even before he dies, and Iroh specifically states that Zuko, more on him below, has the opportunity to not only change his own path, but to cleanse the royal family's sins going back to Sozin.
** Zuko got this treatment back when he was an AntiVillain, with many fans saying all his wrong actions can be excused because of his [[FreudianExcuse angsty backstory]] and conflicted nature. [[WordOfGod Mike and Bryan themselves]] have brought this up in commentary for episodes such as "The Warriors of Kyoshi" and "The Beach" that, as sympathetic as Zuko is, he's not supposed to be justified in his bad actions, and in fact a big part of his CharacterDevelopment is ''learning'' that he needs to take responsibility for his bad actions. This internal struggle of good and evil, which has still crept up even after his HeelFaceTurn, is kind of the entire point of his character.
** Recurring character and WellIntentionedExtremist Jet had a lot of fans rationalizing his act of [[KickTheDog flooding a village that was filled with civilians to kill a few Fire Nation soldiers]] (to the point where only a handful seem to remember that it was an ''Earth Kingdom'' village under occupation, not a Fire Nation colony), which is missing the point. Even Jet himself later seems to realize he went too far there and that his psychological desire for revenge ''really'' overcame his heroic desire to be a freedom fighter, and works [[TheAtoner to atone for it.]]

* WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}: Plenty of fans will tout Minerva Mink as their ideal woman. While she's not pure evil, the fans are ignoring that she's vain, shallow, materialistic and [[ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful happy to use her sex appeal to get what she wants]] - purely because she's just that sexy. The comics do at least give her more PetTheDog moments.

* Many [[FanPreferredCouple Waul/Tanya]] shippers in the ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' fandom tend to get this way, and seem to gloss over the fact Waul tried to kill and eat Tanya's family.

** Eddy gets ''a lot'' of this. Fans use his [[spoiler: FreudianExcuse involving his brother]] as a legitimate excuse for how badly he treats his friends and the other kids in the series. This is ignoring the fact that most of Eddy's jerkass behavior is done out of free will, as Eddy sometimes starts unprovoked drama with the the other Cul-De-Sac kids. Fans would even go as far as to attempt to push the blame off of Eddy by putting all the blame solely on the other characters for their roles they played against Eddy and his actions (just go to the videos (especially the Youtube comments on said videos) and the comments of the episode pages of "A Case of Ed" and "Brother, Can You Spare an Ed" and you'll see a lot of whitewashing/ignoring of Eddy's behavior).

*** At present, the defense of Azula has shifted away from basic DILP'ing because she is cool and sexy and more towards Azula fans sincerely wanting her to be treated with more sympathy. This is notable considering the themes of forgiveness and redemption, how young Azula is at just 14, and the unwinnable circumstances she was born into. In comparison, many characters in the franchise who found redemption were older, did worse or got it much more easily. The argument is that Azula deserves the same chance to change even considering the evil she committed and that it is wrong to condemn a child regardless of their actions, much less assume she did even worse and use those assumptions to justify mistreatment of her.

** Azula is a callous cruel manipulator who kills without hesitation and gleefully advances the aims of the genocidal Fire Nation, but thanks to being the best example of EvilIsSexy and {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry in the show she has a large chunk of fans who insist she's a tragic woobie or just misunderstood. The GrandFinale gives her one hell of a FreudianExcuse and the following canonical comics hint that she [[spoiler:might be redeemable after all]], but the bulk of the DILP treatment started long before this, and it doesn't excuse her actions.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' fandom does this with Evil Flippy, insisting that he's really just misunderstood and needs "twu wuv", or [[ScrewYourself his good side]] in order to become an upstanding member of society. Never mind that they've already got Good Flippy to toy with.

* The Sirens/The Dazzlings are this for ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' as a whole. They're the most popular villains from the franchise by a country mile, and they often get portrayed in fan works far more sympathetically than their canon counterparts. In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEqueriaGirlsRainbowRocks, the Sirens are a TerribleTrio who want to spread a HatePlague, caused people to be brainwashed against their friends, and show absolutely no remose for any of this. In most fan worle about them, they are portrayed as showing remorse for their actions, especially Sonata Dusk. In their first appearamce in five years since ''Rainbow Rocks'', WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunset'sBackstagePass, they are shown to ''not'' show remorse for their actions, only showing regret for them because they no longer have their HatePlague powers. But in the digital short, "Find the Magic", they sing the titular song about how lost they feel without their former powers and by the end they learn to appreciate the simple joys in life.

* The Sirens/The Dazzlings are this for ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' as a whole. They're the most popular villains from the franchise by a country mile, and they often get portrayed in fan works much more sympathetically than their canon counterparts. Since very little is revealed about their backstories, fans have taken semi-canon sources (like the ''[[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic Fiendship is Magic]]'' comic book on them) or just made up their own backstories for them. The Sirens are often made out to be lost souls, sisters who have no one but each other, [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld ageless beings]] who are now forced to WalkTheEarth with nothing, {{Tragic Monster}}s who don't want to feed on hate but have no choice, or showing [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone remorse for the things they've done]]. In canon, the Sirens are a TerribleTrio who want to spread a HatePlague, caused people to be {{brainwashed}} against their friends, and show absolutely no remorse for any of it. Even in their appearance in ''Sunset's Backstage Pass'', the Sirens don't have a HeelRealization; the closest they get is admitting their plans failed, and [[RetiredMonster they're just as nasty as they ever were]]. It's rare to find a fan work that tries to stay in line with the canon portrayal of the Sirens as villains, and even rarer to find someone who actively ''dislikes'' them.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'':

* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'':Cedric the sorcerer, who had been the hidden villain for almost 3 seasons, have a huge lot of fanart where he is portrayed as more simpatetic, the reason varies from the poor treatment that the viewers perceive from king Roland to him, to show him conflictuated by choose between his wish for the amulet of Avalor and the friendship(and romantic love in some cases) for older versions of Sofia, with whom he is often coupled in many fanarts and fanfic.

* Smudger from the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' episode, "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS4E1Grandpuff Granpuff]]" has a lot of fans who want to see him return to the series. This is despite the fact that he was a naughty, arrogant engine who often rode too roughly and never learnt from his mistakes, as well as the fact that he's been turned into a generator for life, and the Mid Sodor Railway is closed by now.

* Smudger from the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' episode, "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS4E1Grandpuff Granpuff]]" has a lot of fans who want to see him return to the series. This is despite the fact that he was a naughty, arrogant engine who often rode too roughly and never learnt from his mistakes, as well as the fact that he's been turned into a generator for life, and the Mid Sodor Railway is closed by now.

* Hexxus, the Spirit of Destruction and pollution embodied in ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'' gets this even though he's trying to level a rainforest full of plant and animal life as well as sentient fairies that depend on its existence to survive. It doesn't help that the movie is {{Anvilicious}}, the protagonists (save maybe for [[CrazyAwesome Batty]] [[CloudCuckoolander Koda]]) are bland and rather uninteresting, and Hexxus himself is voiced by Creator/TimCurry, with all the implications this entails. And he gets one of the best {{Villain Song}}s of all times.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Mr. Cat is portrayed on the show as a psychopath who wouldn't hesitate to kill or maim people [[DisproportionateRetribution for petty reasons]], and also is a [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]], {[[{Greed}} greedy]], rude, egomaniacal, sarcastic {{jerkass}}. In fanon, he is portrayed as much nicer, and some fanworks even portray him as a sweet person who just wants Kaeloo to love him.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Mr. Cat is portrayed on the show as a psychopath who wouldn't hesitate to kill or maim people [[DisproportionateRetribution for petty reasons]], and also is a [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]], {{Greed greedy}}, rude, egomaniacal, sarcastic {{jerkass}}. In fanon, he is portrayed as much nicer, and some fanworks even portray him as a sweet person who just wants Kaeloo to love him.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Mr. Cat is portrayed on the show as a psychopath who wouldn't hesitate to kill or maim people [[DisproportionateRetribution for petty reasons]], and also is a [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]], {{greedy}}, rude, egomaniacal, sarcastic {{jerkass}}. In fanon, he is portrayed as much nicer, and some fanworks even portray him as a sweet person who just wants Kaeloo to love him.

** [[EvilChancellor Long Feng]] and his [[SecretPolice Dai Li]] are sometimes given this treatment, with their {{Orwellian|Editor}} methods and repression of Ba Sing Se painted as the act of true patriots who were compelled to do whatever it took to keep their city safe. [[Fanfic/{{Embers}} Case in point.]]

*** Play!Azula lacks most of the real Azula's psychopathy and mental instability. She doesn't shoot Iroh in the play's version of ''[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheChase The Chase]]'' (she instead tells the others to GoLookAtTheDistraction and escapes through a hidden door), and she keeps her sanity throughout the finale, unlike the real Azula, who had a [[VillainousBreakdown spectacular breakdown]].

** Bill Cipher, the BigBad of the entire series. He is a living embodiment of the Illuminati symbol and he has psychotic behavior but fans love him. He is often [[SelfFanservice drawn as a sexy man]] with [[BlindingBangs one eye covered]] and [[ManOfWealthAndTaste dapper clothes]] who is sometimes shipped with Dipper or Mabel. Back in "Dreamscaperers," most of his villainous acts technically took place inside dreams, yet he still showed signs of his chaos-loving like when he telekinetically removed a deer's teeth to creep out Gideon. Fans ignored the warning signs and thought his mysteriousness at the time was hinting at some kind of morally-gray character, beginning to make all kinds of romantic interpretations of him. When the episode "Sock Opera" where he possesses Dipper's body debuted, fans started fawning over "Bipper" and outright calling him sexy even though he tried to kill Mabel. Even when the last quarter of the series makes it blatantly clear that his "strange plan" is [[spoiler:to ''destroy the world for fun'', which he partially succeeds at doing (he manages to cause an apocalypse in the town of Gravity Falls, but he's stopped from going further by a barrier),]] the habit of painting him as some sort of misunderstood good guy persisted to the end of the series and pairing him with the Pines remained some of the most popular ships in the entire fandom.