History TragicVillain / Literature

* Simoun, the VillainProtagonist of ''Literature/ElFilibusterismo'', who used to be the TragicHero Crisostomo Ibarra in the previous book ''Literature/NoliMeTangere.

* Simoun, the VillainProtagonist of ''Literature/ElFilibusterismo'', who used to be the TragicHero Crisostomo Ibarra in the previous book ''Literature/NoliMeTangere

** Prince Viserys of House Targaryen lost almost his whole family in a rebellion that toppled their dynasty and had to sell whats left of their riches so he and his sister Daenerys can survive. Drink and years of being treated as a joke caused him to threaten Dany in front of her husband Khal Drogo who then killed him.

* ''Literature/Felidae'' has Claudandus: Once a normal, good-hearted stray cat he was later taken in by humans who just so happened to be performing horrible experiments on cats just like him, and had to endure more of them than any of the other cats involved solely from the misfortune of surviving everything the scientists put him through. Preterius, the head scientist's own descent into madness killed all hope of him ever being treated any better by his caregivers, and by the time he was free he could feel nothing but animosity towards people because of everything he'd been through, driving him to murder Preterius and start an insane plan to ethnically cleanse his own species to make them strong enough to overthrow humanity. Even in his last moments, Claudandus implies that he doesn't like what he became and looked back more fondly on the point of his life when he was still a good individual.

** The ruthless Tywin Lannister of is the most feared lord in Westeros. He is this because his father's weakness almost caused the fall of their family. The death of his wife (who was the velvet glove to his iron fist) also made it hard for him to raise his children with love and compassion, and led to his hatred of the child of this birth, Tyrion Lannister. Unfortunately, he has gone to [[LackOfEmpathy another extreme]], which made his children very screwed-up, and ended in his death.

* [[VillainProtagonist Clayton "Blaze"]] [[ReluctantPsycho Blaisdell Jr.]] from ''Literature/{{Blaze}}''. He's a mentally disabled small-time crook who was constantly abused and mistreated his entire life, and was forced into becoming a criminal both by poverty and con-man George Rackley, who manipulated Blaze into becoming his partner and utterly destroyed his self-esteem in the process. While Blaze is a genuinely kind and decent man, he continues to be haunted by hallucinations of George long after his death that continue to push him into indulging in his worst impulses, which isn't helped by the fact that Blaze barely comprehends the world around him to begin with.\

* Mordred in some ''Myth/KingArthur'' interpretations, especially where (as some legends have it) Arthur tries to have him killed at birth as a threat, he's raised to hate Arthur by his mother, and hated in turn by Arthur's supporters simply because he exists, leading to the inevitable clash. It's hard not to sympathize with him in many cases given that.

* Maedhros and Maglor from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', who would be entirely heroic if not for being bound by their father's evil Oath under which they and all their brothers invoked the Everlasting Darkness upon themselves if they failed to recover the Silmarils. They don't want to commit more evil deeds, and do so only because they believe that they have no choice.

* [[VillainProtagonist Clayton "Blaze"]] [[ReluctantPsycho Blaisdell Jr.]] from ''Literature/{{Blaze}}''. He's a mentally disabled small-time crook who was constantly abused and mistreated his entire life, and was forced into becoming a criminal both by poverty and con-man George Rackley, who manipulated Blaze into becoming his partner and utterly destroyed his self-esteem in the process. While Blaze is a genuinely kind and decent man, he continues to be haunted by hallucinations of George long after his death that continue to push him into indulging in his worst impulses, which isn't helped by the fact that Blaze barely comprehends the world around him to begin with.

* ''Literature/EphemeralPrince'' expands on the backstory of the antagonists of the [[StarStealingPrince prequel game]] and reveals they were victims of the novel's antagonists, the lords.

* Literature/{{Cujo}} isn't really a villain in the popular sense of the word, but he's just as much a victim as anyone else is, and if the Cambers had taken the possibility of their dog catching rabies seriously, the disaster could have been avoided. Parts of the books are told from [[{{Xenofiction}} his perspective]]; there it's shown that he suffers horribly from rabies, and only attacks people because he believes that they are responsible for his pain.

* Ed Deepneau from ''Literature/{{Insomnia}}'' was a good kind man and a dear friend of Ralph, until his life cord was cut by an evil {{Psychopomp}} which corrupted him into a "wild card", allowed him to fall under the control of [[BiggerBad The Crimson King]], and turned him into a CosmicPlaything being used like a pawn to murder said King's enemies. His behavior suggests he's somewhere between [[WellIntentionedExtremist thinking he's serving a benevolent higher power]] and being completely stark-raving mad and lashing out at his perceived "enemies". [[spoiler:When Ralph sees him for the last time, despite acknowledging that the man must have had ''some'' understanding that what he was doing was wrong, nevertheless remarked on how the man was more a victim than anything and couldn't help notice Ed had a photo of his wife and daughter taped to the dash of his [[SuicideAttack explosive-loaded plane]] so they'd be the last thing he would ever see]].
--> [[spoiler:'''Ralph:''' He wants them to be the last thing he sees in this world. He’s been turned into a monster, but I guess even monsters don’t forget how to love]]

* Claude Frollo from Creator/VictorHugo's ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' suffers from his [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny obsessive love]] for Esmeralda, which causes him to go tragically insane. What makes his suffering sympathetic is the fact that he was a deeply compassionate and caring man before he laid eyes on the gypsy.

** [[spoiler:Soan (the Original King) and Xiri (the demon inside Snowe), the BigBadEnsemble of the prequel game, ended up in their situation because the former was tricked by a lord into eating the latter alive. As a result, [[AndIMustScream Xiri goes insane]] and convinces Soan that the only way to make his kingdom immortal is to kill his citizens and take their souls. This fails to make any headway into Soan's research into immortality and he clearly regrets what he did to his people, but he stays in denial that his plans are beyond salvageable. Unfortunately, both of them end up in worse situations when Edgar and Lina separate them and haphazardly seal Xiri into Snowe, causing Soan's citizens to die and causing Xiri to further lose his sanity. Soan himself eventually recovers from their attack and snaps from losing his only hope of reviving his people, though losing to the main characters causes him to calm down and realize his folly.]]