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3%% EXAMPLES LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. PLEASE ADD ANY NEW EXAMPLES ACCORDINGLY
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6!!The following have their own pages:
7[[index]]
8* ''DracoInLeatherPants/MarvelCinematicUniverse''
9[[/index]]
10!!Other Examples:
11* ''Series/{{Ahsoka}}'': Shin Hati, due to a combination of her physical attractiveness, and the popularity of the ship with Sabine ([=WolfWren=]), it didn't take long for fanfics to appear that paint her as a poor JerkassWoobie who only hopes to be redeemed with the power of love (usually by Sabine).
12* Julian Sark from ''Series/{{Alias}}'' is amoral, killing people left and right to further his own goals, and yet he still has a horde of infatuated fangirls ready to throw themselves at his feet without a second thought. They tend to swoon over his PrettyBoy looks, [[SharpDressedMan fashion sense]], posh English accent, dry wit and keen intelligence.
13* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory''
14** Tate Langdon in ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse Murder House]]''. While he's indeed a huge WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, that still doesn't quite excuse some of his downright awful actions, including [[spoiler:shooting up his school and raping his girlfriend's mother]]. This is later reverted in ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse Apocalypse]]'' when [[spoiler:it is revealed by Madison Montgomery that all of Tate's violent and predatory behavior was due to being a conduit of the Devil, who influenced the behavior of all of the ghosts trapped in the Murder House as a means of birthing the Antichrist and bringing about the end of the world]].
15** ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum Asylum]]'':
16*** Satan has a large number of fans, particularly while he is in the body of Sister Mary Eunice, who easily forgive his monstrous deeds. He possesses an innocent nun and slowly corrupts her while allowing a Nazi to experiment on the Asylum's patients, psychologically tormenting Sister Jude, and rapes a high-ranking priest. Yet, due to his charisma and Creator/LilyRabe's good looks, fangirls have little to no problem romanticizing his deeds and even pair him with Lana in multiple fanfics, despite his hiring the serial killer who raped her to work at the Asylum for his own amusement.
17*** Oliver Thredson, despite appearing kind, is in fact a serial killer, who rapes the lesbian Lana, targets women who he turns into furniture, and has no problem threatening to kill Lana even after learning she is pregnant with his child. However, mainly due to him being played by the good-looking Creator/ZacharyQuinto, he is portrayed as a tragic villain by a large group of fangirls, who even go as far as to vilify Lana for rejecting him or pair her with him.
18** Madison Montgomery from ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven Coven]]'' is an AlphaBitch who only cares about power and herself, but try telling that to her legion of fangirls. She tries to kill Zoe multiple times, takes advantage of Kyle recently coming back from the dead to have sex with him, and tries to leave Misty to die buried in a grave. However, due to being played by Creator/EmmaRoberts, a lot of fangirls are quick to paint her as a tragic hero while pairing her with Zoe and even reinterpreting Kyle as an abusive JerkJock.
19** Dandy Mott in ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryFreakShow Freak Show]]'' is a PsychopathicManchild who's also a serial killer that murdered his own mother and bathed in blood, that is not to say that there are some fans that sympathize with him. After all, there are rich people who have gotten bored in the past. He also claims that he identifies with the freaks, though in the final episode he decides that he's going to kill everyone (other than Bette and Dott), in the freak show. He also claims that he loves Bette and Dott, though it's doubtful that if he truly loved the Tattler twins, he wouldn't have gone after their friends and family in the first place.
20** Michael Langdon from ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse Apocalypse]]'' has a huge group of fangirls who like to forget the fact that he is TheAntichrist due to his good looks and tragic backstory. He manipulates his way into the warlocks' good graces, has little problem killing innocent people, and starts the Apocalypse. However, almost any fanfiction featuring him will have that one girl, usually a SelfInsert, who can fix him. In fact, on [=AO3=], stories featuring him with an OC are the second most popular pairing, topping some of the fandom's most popular couples.
21* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''
22** As Gaius Baltar has his cult of rabid, beyond-reason believers InUniverse, so does he have his cult of rabid, beyond-reason believers in the real world. Of course, ''no one'' on this show is cut-and-dry good or evil, but as far as selfish acts go, Gaius has performed many of the most shameless ones.
23** Leoben Conoy. While he has a genuine (albeit ''deeply'' twisted) love for Starbuck, can even be [[AffablyEvil pleasant company]] and is played by the incredibly charismatic Callum Keith Rennie, many fans ship him with Starbuck as though it were a storybook romance, ignoring little things like him keeping her locked up for months, kidnapping a child and trying to force her into motherhood and her stabbing him to death every night, only for him to resurrect again the next day (which is straight out of a horror movie). It probably doesn't help that Creator/KateeSackhoff herself said she ships them (though whether it was sincere or sarcastic is unknown).
24* ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' has Kelly Taylor, who could be the page image for BrokenBase. Some see her as TheScrappy, others are fans of her but identify that she's a TroubledButCute flawed human being [[JerkassWoobie with reasons for why she turned out how she did]], and then there's the third category, every mean comment she makes, every bad thing she does, anything she does is justified to them by her FreudianExcuse. And woe be unto any character who says anything bad about her, they end up a permanent RonTheDeathEater. Some fans [[InsaneTrollLogic even do this with the actress, Jennie Garth]] in a weird inversion of XPacHeat, [[spoiler:which is actually easier to do than with Kelly because Creator/JennieGarth is a very sweet person in real life, it only gets ridiculous when people start calling her twitter updates a "life changing experience"]].
25* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': One [[http://web.archive.org/web/20010211073045/http://members.nbci.com/sjcinct/rtff07.html recurring theme]] is that Avon is perfect, infallible with nobler intentions than he had in canon. Many fans think Avon the most attractive character, who wears more leather during later seasons.
26* Walter White from ''Series/BreakingBad'' retains a hardcore fanbase who still see him as an unambiguous hero, when the entire point of the show is seeing him do a long, gradual FaceHeelTurn. Yes, he did start out as something of a JustifiedCriminal, but it's clear that his ego has slowly poisoned that initial motivation.
27** The BigBad Gustavo Fring also gets this treatment. Mostly because of his MagnificentBastard status. His backstory reveals that he [[spoiler:lost his partner, implied to be his lover, at the hands of TheCartel]] but many forget/ignore that he was a meth dealer even before this happened. Also he [[spoiler:himself threatens to kill the aforementioned's loved ones at one point, making him something of a {{Hypocrite}}]]. There is also those who seem to confuse his PragmaticVillainy with altruism, even though he clearly disregards and kills his workers as soon as they become a liability to him.
28%%** Due to his status as a NobleDemon, fans tend to overlook Mike being a remorseless hitman who will kill anyone he's hired to.
29* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
30** Spike, who despite casually killing several innocents and trying to kill the main characters several times over, rather instantly became a fan-favorite for his biting snark, punk rockstar style, dynamic fight-scenes, and showing more [[BruiserWithASoftCentre emotional nuance]] than most depictions of soulless vampires before and after him... It also didn't hurt that he was [[MrFanservice conventionally handsome]] to juxtapose the season 1 BigBad [[LooksLikeOrlok The Master]]. He became [[BreakoutVillain so popular]] that he was not only spared from his originally planned death midway through season 2, but became a regular cast-member and eventual member of the Scoobies from season 4 onward, and was the full-on {{Deuteragonist}} of season 7. Inadvertently {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the episode "Crush" when Dawn lists "he wears cool ''leather'' coats and stuff" as a reason she likes him.
31** After two seasons the main cast had become {{Shell Shocked Veteran}}s, and that's when Faith is introduced, which turned out to be a much needed breath of fresh air after the Angelus plot. She was sassy like Buffy, not afraid to have fun, looked like a million bucks, even when she was with the good guys had a dark streak that she wasn't afraid to show, and her fight scenes were among the best in the series. Even when she turns into a killer she still had a large fan base, to the point where some fans blame Buffy for Faith turning the way she did.
32%%** The vampire fan club in "Lie to Me" is a good in-universe example.
33%%** There's another small example in "Crush", in the form of a female Watcher who has a crush on Spike.
34* Rather disturbingly Morgan from ''Series/{{Camelot}}''. There was even a post on Website/IMDb claiming that Arthur deserved everything Morgan did to him. Well Arthur is a bit of a skirt chaser and slept with a woman on her wedding day (to another man) but Morgan has murdered innocent people, plotted against her brother, raped two men (including [[spoiler:her own brother]]), manipulated her own citizens and imprisoned her stepmother while she walked around pretending to be her.
35* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':
36** Cole Turner/Belthazar. Let's see. He's a demon, but "Cole" is his human half so, hey, he's not all that bad, right? He repeatedly plots against, deceives, considers killing, and attempts to kill the Charmed Ones, but he's really just misunderstood, see. Even when [[spoiler:he was possessed by The Source, essentially ''Charmed'''s version of Satan]], he's still just a big ol' softy to some viewers (and Phoebe, whose intelligence could be questioned to be perfectly fair she was being manipulated by the Seer who used her love against her then went through some fairly well scripted angst). Part of the dangers of casting Julian [=McMahon=] for your villain.
37** Phoebe herself is a bit of a Draco as the above text demonstrates. The relationship with Cole going wrong is almost equally her fault as well yet her faults are easily ignored by fans. Cole tried to give up the Source's powers only for Phoebe to step in and kill the wizard who was willing to take them. When Cole returned, some fans treat her as perfectly justified in her treatment of him, ignoring that the reason he came back with new demonic powers was because she refused to bring him back to life when the alternative was him going to demonic hell. Add that to how she spends a lot more of the series abusing her powers, stringing guys along and fawning over her own beauty and you have yourself a DILP.
38* ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'': Lilith is TheHeavy of the first season, working for Satan to corrupt the hero Sabrina, and is willing to kill multiple innocent people to do so. However, due to her charisma and Creator/MichelleGomez's good looks, a lot of fangirls are willing to excuse her evil deeds and portray her as a straight-up hero. While she does eventually break away from Satan, Lilith never actually becomes a good person and continues to be a WildCard who won't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in her way. However, multiple fanfics great her as if she is an honorary member of the Spellman family.
39 %%* ''Series/ColdCase'' has oneshot villains Cameron Coulter and Neal Hanlon, because apparently getting picked on and working dead-end jobs at the mall justifies messily slaughtering everyone there whether they were involved or not, including children.
40* Pat Phelan in ''Series/CoronationStreet''. His first storyline ended with him blackmailing Anna Windass into [[SexualExtortion sleeping with him]] after her son assaulted him. A worrying number of fans took Phelan's side and insisted Anna [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalisation must have enjoyed it]]. Realising Phelan was a KarmaHoudini, the producer decided to bring him back with a promise to give him his comeuppance…except that the producer then left, and instead Phelan stuck around for two and a half years in which he quickly became a VillainSue with WolverinePublicity and PlotArmour who repeatedly defied attempts to expose him and implausibly won fights against stronger opponents. Not only some fans but also many critics missed the fact he was the show's antagonist and instead treated him like a VillainProtagonist or LovableRogue that the audience were meant to root for. As characters went up against him, only to be respectively framed for assault by him and sent to prison; have their business torched by him; die of a heart attack while he watched on and [[EvilGloating gloated]]; and, most egregiously, kept chained up by him for months before being murdered in cold blood, fans insisted they all deserved it for challenging "[[FanNickname King Phelan]]”. A few people [[HeelRealisation got the message]] and jumped ship when he murdered a popular character who was asking too many questions about one of his victim's disappearances. Others continued to see him as the hero of the story until the end and, when Anna stabbed him during an armed siege where he'd already shot two people, considered it murder. (As well as continuing to lobby for a HesJustHiding reveal.)
41* Alec in ''Series/DarkAngel'' somewhat. While he's a good guy by the end, the fangirls are far too forgiving of/willing to overlook his beginning on the side of evil or his time as an egocentric lawbreaker in the middle of the season. Likewise, Creator/JensenAckles's other character Ben (Alec's twin brother, the SerialKiller) is a lost and vulnerable puppy.
42* ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' has some low-key versions of this:
43** [[TheCharmer Craig]] gets excused for cheating on [[FallenPrincess Ashley]] and stringing [[GoodBadGirl Manny]] along due to his DarkAndTroubledPast. Not to mention, both of the girls get hated on more in the fandom than Craig is - either Ashley's too stuck up or Manny is a slut.
44** [[TheCorrupter Jay]] pretty much ruins every life he touches by introducing drugs and alcohol into their lives, but he is still well liked by the fandom and it doesn't help the actor is a good-looking guy and good actor. He does get better though.
45** [[LonelyRichKid Peter]] has this ''invoked'', twice he does something really bad to two girls (filming [[GranolaGirl Emma's]] best friend's naked breasts while she's intoxicated and getting [[HolierThanThou Darcy]] in a situation where a sexual predator ''comes to her house'') and they both ''end up dating him.'' He too gets better.
46** [[TroubledButCute Eli]] is the latest example, along with [[TheBully Fitz.]] They both had an EscalatingWar where the both of them did pretty terrible things to each other, but the fangirls still love them -- even more JustForFun/{{egregious}} with Eli considering his CrazyJealousGuy tendencies towards [[TheIngenue Clare.]]
47* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
48** The Master. In fan works, the Creator/JohnSimm version is usually not portrayed as the murderous psychopath he is, but as just a mischievous, quirky, sexy guy who just wants to have some fun with the Doctor. "The End Of Time" [[spoiler:which revealed that the drums which apparently drove the Master insane were planted as part of ThePlan by the Time Lords]] has only made it easier for those inclined to ignore or handwave his lengthy list of evil deeds with the "it wasn't his fault, they made him do it, he's really a sweetie!" card. The Creator/AnthonyAinley version is also walking around in the body of Nyssa's father. Thus, every time the Doctor battles him, he's facing the man who murdered the father of a close friend (along with her entire race) who is also in that same man's body, which gets creepier the more you think about it. The Missy (Creator/MichelleGomez) incarnation has a lot of fangirls who are willing to forgive her evil actions (such as trying to kill Clara) and instead portray her as the victim of unfounded hatred from the heroes, which was not helped by her redemption arc. The Creator/SachaDhawan incarnation killed his entire planet, but most fangirls online are willing to excuse this because of his charisma and good looks.
49** A weird example is with the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Daleks]]. You'd think what are essentially [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot tentacled flesh-lump space-Nazis in salt-shaker-shaped mechanical bodies]] wouldn't have fangirls, but there is an inordinate amount of fanart portraying said fangirls hugging, kissing, and/or stalking Daleks. Most are played for laughs, but some seem quite serious. Hybridized Dalek Sec having fangirls is a bit more understandable since he is at least humanoid and played somewhat sympathetically, but he isn't really what most would define as a hottie. You can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNNRzFa0U08&feature=related hear the audience making a sort of 'awww' sound (at around 1:17)]], as the Dalek is sent to be exterminated. This phenomenon was occurring as early as ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuBJ5H9m3Sc the First Doctor]]''. This probably comes from the fact their actual form is a [[TorturedMonster rather pathetic tentacled-mutant]] forced to use the salt-shaker-shaped mechanical body that borders on AndIMustScream-Space Nazi or no, such a state is still pitiful.
50* Billy Mitchell was introduced to ''Series/EastEnders'' as an abusive bastard who beat the living hell out of his nephew Jamie. For some unfathomable reason, fans liked him. He was [[VillainDecay slowly turned into a gentle, nice, and weak man]] who was given all the "touching" plot-lines about a nice man with a hard life, reducing the earlier child-abuse plotlines to being occasionally mentioned by his family and himself as a warning not to let his temper get the better of him, especially after he winds up with custody of a child, again. Still, that last bit means that he gets a little of this InUniverse, even if he's mostly reformed out of it in ours.
51* [[BigBad Scorpius]] from ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', despite his numerous KickTheDog moments. It doesn't help that wears a bloody ''full body leather suit'' and is the embodiment of AffablyEvil (until you ''really'' annoy him). In fact, he became so popular, that by the end of the third season he'd gotten his own [[FreudianExcuse sympathetic]] background and eventually joined the main cast as a pseudo-protagonist.
52* Adelei Niska from ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. This elderly sadistic crime boss is known for torturing his wife's nephew to death in one episode, and [[spoiler:Mal and Wash]] nearly to death in another episode. But his wince-inducing torture techniques are contrasted by a unique personality and accent.
53* An in-universe example on ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. Martin and the boys talk about Hester as if she were a saint, but from what we know about her: She cheated on Martin at least once, she egged on the rivalry between Frasier and Niles that continues to affect them in adulthood and that's not even counting her manipulative, shrewish behavior on ''Cheers''. On the other hand, they wouldn't exactly be the first grieving sons/husbands to ever decide to NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead when it comes to a deceased and clearly much-loved-and-loving-despite-her-flaws mother/wife, so this is perhaps understandable.
54* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
55** Khal Drogo is shockingly popular and beloved. Despite being quite badass, people seem to love his speech where he brags about killing people, raping women and selling their kids into slavery. He is not bluffing either. He also obliterated a peaceful people and didn't much care if the women were raped until his wife objected. [[spoiler:And let's not forget that in the first episode, he raped Daenerys just moments after their wedding]]; yet, and oddly enough, they are made to love each other as the series goes on... A lot of people seem to make him a saint rather than the brutal bastard he is.
56** Sansa Stark has this sentiment towards Prince Joffrey Baratheon in-universe in Season 1, refusing to see him for the bully and DirtyCoward he is because she is in love with him... [[spoiler:until he gets crowned king and orders her father's execution on false charges of treason and makes her watch, and then states he's going to rape her once she starts menstruating, and then also has her beaten when her eldest brother Robb causes Joffrey's armies no end of grief. She is summarily broken of this illusion.]]
57** A lot of characters go through this in contrast to their book counterparts, such as the Tyrells and Renly. In the books Renly is a vain and greedy but charismatic guy who comes across as a deconstruction of TheGoodKing, being clearly a usurper who hides his villainy behind a constantly amiable personality but doesn't show any real ruling skills. The Tyrells also look amiable and give out food to end the starvation in King's Landing, but in the books it is pointed out they began the starvation to help Renly's attempt to usurp the Iron Throne. This has proved controversial, as it takes away a lot of the moral ambiguity in the books and turns characters who were basically [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Villains with Good Publicity]] into straight heroic examples.
58** On the flip side, Stannis gets a lot of respect from the fans that the writers seem determined to avert. A lot of it comes from his AdaptationalVillainy compared to the books, as well as the fact that he ''does'' have a better claim to the throne than most other contenders, which causes a lot of hostility to the idea of Stannis being the uncharismatic zealot that the show treats him as. Based on most interviews with the writers, the idea of him being nicknamed "Stannis the Mannis" seems to have been entirely unintentional.
59** Euron Greyjoy. Despite being introduced in Season 6 as a Trumpian figure who cut out his crew's tongues and killed his brother (who was admittedly a colossal jerk), he earned this trope in Season 7. His vulgar wit, combined with his appearance of crashing down onto his niece Yara's ship riding a corvus, has made him a fan favorite. This firmly ended after Season 8, in which pretty much ''everyone'' agreed he was one of the worst parts of the final season.
60** Daenerys is an example of this partially due to ProtagonistCenteredMorality, and her poorly written [[spoiler:FaceHeelTurn]]. For most of the show, she was viewed as ''the'' hero of the story, and her more questionable actions (her multiple atrocities in Slavers Bay) were often overlooked or ignored by her fans (understandable when this series runs on GreyAndGrayMorality). Daenerys in the books was much younger, and so her being driven by emotion was more understandable, and the books also treated her with the same moral ambiguity as any other character. Due to the showrunners turning her into TheMessiah, as well as an empowering role-model for women and girls, her turn to villainy was not well-received and came off as an AssPull. Viewers who were more aware of Dany's flaws earlier on in the series were less surprised by her eventual turn. What really falls into this trope is when some viewers argue that Daenerys was justified in her [[spoiler:slaughter of the citizens of King's Landing.]]
61* ''Series/GeneralHospital'':
62%%** The most famous of soap opera romances, Luke and Laura, began with Luke ''raping'' Laura. But the fans liked him.
63** Find one mobster who isn't adored by fans, and also by the characters. Sonny Corinthos came to town 20 years ago as a sleazy nightclub owner who very quickly lured young and naive Karen Wexler into working as a stripper, ultimately seducing her and getting her addicted to amphetamines--a watered down version of him being a pimp and her being a prostitute, right down to him threatening to kill her when she finally found the nerve to walk away. After getting amnesia and suffering more-or-less total DeathOfPersonality, Jason Morgan treated all of his former loved ones like garbage--his behavior toward his former girlfriend bordered on abuse, ultimately shunning every trace of his old life as clean-cut preppy Jason Quartermaine (in all fairness, he didn't remember any of it and the people around him kept pushing him to despite him telling them not to) to become Sonny's errand boy/hitman/partner. Yet they both have a HUGE following, and their fans often ignore their crimes. Anyone who doesn't like them is often vilified. The writing team has also contributed by writing Sonny and Jason as heroes and the people who oppose or even just criticize them as the ones in the wrong, with several other characters cheerleading them for having a "code of honor", Sonny being a great father (despite how often his children have been put in harm's way because of his rivalry with other mob bosses), Jason's protectiveness of various other characters (including Sonny's children), etc. Often Sonny will do something bad, other characters will take offense and become Sonny critics for a while, then forgive him unconditionally and become Sonny cheerleaders again.
64* Sebastian Smythe from ''Series/{{Glee}}''. He stalked Blaine, bullied and teased Kurt and generally was a menace to everyone for weeks, yet people still love to ship him with Blaine, Kurt, or both. Fanfiction with Seb in them tend to portray him as a slightly arrogant DeadpanSnarker and leave it at that. Forget the fact that he almost destroyed Blaine's eye with a slushie full of rock salt or that he turned all of Kurt and Blaine's Dalton friends against them for no discernible reason.
65** Both Santana and Karofsky, who are bullies, get treated as repressed gays, ignoring some of the awful things that they did. At least with Karofsky they manage to craft a storyline of redemption, where the character recognizes all the wrong things he's done and apologizes sincerely, not to mention tries to make amends by participating in his beard's Anti-Bullying Watch... but go tell that to his fans, who take the JerkAss out of JerkAssWoobie and run away with it. In Karofsky's case, a lot of his fans mostly just preferred [[{{TheBear}} one type of male fanservice]] over [[PrettyBoy what they usually got]]
66** It's easy to forget at this point, but Puck started out on ''Glee'' as a straightforward bully who harassed the Glee Clubbers and knocked up his best friend's girlfriend, and dude only really completed his HeelFaceTurn in the second half of the first season. He had fangirls all over him long before any of that happened, though.
67* ''Series/GossipGirl'': Chuck Bass. [[AttemptedRape Attempted rapist]]? Meh, still a pretty cool guy. [[DomesticAbuse During a fight shoves his girlfriend so she falls through a glass coffee table?]] Uses his past history of considering suicide to emotionally blackmail his girlfriend (same one!) into prostituting herself to his uncle, so Chuck can get back a hotel he once owned and lost through bad business decisions? But they're the OneTruePairing!!!! Near the end of the show, even Chuck's actor wanted him to get a HoistByHisOwnPetard on-screen death, (although he was later accused of some very bad behaviour himself) but who cares?
68* Oswald Cobblepot from ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' got this very quickly, mostly due to him being a ManipulativeBastard with AdaptationalAttractiveness, [[TheWoobie who gets beaten up once every episode]]. Everything might be better with penguins, but he's still an AxeCrazy, stabby, women's-clothes-sniffy, manipulative psychopath who started a mob war for power.
69* ''Series/HannahMontana'': Mikayla is portrayed InUniverse as a {{Jerkass}} who is needlessly rude to Hannah from the moment they meet for no reason and turns singing for a charity event into a competition between her and Hannah. While her second episode shows her to be nicer to Miley than Hannah, she still treats Lilly rudely for no reason. However, due to her good looks and Music/SelenaGomez's natural charm, a lot of fangirls are willing to overlook or, in their fanfics, even outright erase her more negative traits. Most of the fanfiction about her will rewrite Miley as being a jerk to her for no reason, and those that don't instead portray them as in a sort of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' type romance where they only pretend to hate each other.
70* Much like his cinematic and literary counterparts, Hannibal Lector in ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' is an unrepentant cannibal serial killer who's also a WickedCultured badass, but his DILP aspect is constantly exaggerated due to his being played by the positively magnetic Creator/MadsMikkelsen, which allows his many, many fans to easily overlook the many, many truly monstrous things he does over the course of the series.
71* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
72** Gabriel Gray (a.k.a. Sylar) is a ruthless serial killer who murders many people (including fan-favorite Ted) so as to [[PowersAsPrograms take their powers]] by cutting their heads open and poking their brains around. He feels no remorse for his actions ([[MustMakeAmends usually]]) and has a soul that is truly blacker than a moonless night, but ''[[ShirtlessScene look at that wet, delicious shirtless chest!]]'' He does [[spoiler:ultimately make a genuine HeelFaceTurn, though not without a bunch of bloodshed and ruined lives along the way]].
73** Noah Bennet - legitimately loved as a BadassNormal and ManipulativeBastard - is nevertheless often happily excused of abducting and experimenting on people (including children) for about 17 years. And what convinced him to stop was essentially an extreme case of ProtagonistCenteredMorality focused on his daughter Claire. Bennet's moral ambiguity is an unquestionable part of the character's appeal; the DracoInLeatherPants-ing comes in when fans use "but he's morally gray!" to handwave away any suggestion that Bennet might have crossed ''any'' ethical lines, or suggest that Bennet "didn't know any better" (this is especially odd coming from fans who love Bennet because he's one of the smartest and most competent characters on the show).
74* Dr. Gregory Series/{{House}} does have a decent FreudianExcuse and is a genuinely skilled doctor. But people go to insane lengths to excuse the crap he's put his subordinates and friends through, claim that he's only a jerk to people who deserve it, and portray the others as horrible jerks to poor little saint House. In example, when [[spoiler:Cuddy]] broke up with him for apparently good, House [[spoiler:completely trashed her living room and drove his car into it]]... and people blamed [[spoiler:'''Cuddy''']] for it.
75* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Worse than the cases in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', is Daemon Targaryen, blood of the dragon in actual leather pants. Being blond, entitled and British only goes to make the whole thing more obvious, and fans will go as far as call him a good husband despite him killing his first wife on screen and nearly strangling his third.
76* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
77** An InUniverse example: In the episode "The Stinsons", it's revealed that Barney apparently does this for every movie he watches. For example, he thinks [[JerkJock Johnny Lawrence]] was the titular [[Film/TheKarateKid1984 Karate Kid]], thought Hans Gruber was the star of ''Film/DieHard'' [[InsaneTrollLogic (because he was "the only character in the movie in a suit"]] and "he died hard") and thought the Terminator was the protagonist of his [[Film/TheTerminator film]], even going so far as to cry when he was crushed in the hydraulic press ("they didn't even try to help him!"). Barney's views on the villain being the main character have even extended to outright horrifying villains with little to no sympathetic or redeeming qualities such as King [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Joffrey]] [[Series/GameOfThrones Baratheon]] and [[Franchise/StarWars Emperor Sheev Palpatine]]. He even considers the former the wisest and most enlightened king Westeros ever had!
78** Barney himself is this: By no means is he a villain, or even a straight ComedicSociopath, since he is genuinely very sweet sometimes, loves his friends and has gone to insane lengths for them, and has gotten lots of character development over the course of the show. But his fans treat him like a saint, with many males thinking that his "awesome" qualities, which in the show are treated in a ridiculous, ironic way that would be pathetic if they weren't so ballsy they CrossTheLineTwice, are [[MisaimedFandom actually awesome]], and many females thinking that he's actually just a [[TheWoobie sad, lonely, tormented soul who's mentally messed up from his horrible childhood.]] While the latter actually ''is'' true, it doesn't stop the fact that he's also a lying, misogynistic womanizer, an insensitive, selfish jerk, and an unapologetic ManipulativeBastard who almost never shows a conscience and is heavily dependent on Ted as a MoralityChain while at the same time being a PsychoSupporter with hints of CrazyJealousGuy towards him. However, fanfics have gone so far as to portray his ''friends'' as [[RonTheDeathEater being in the wrong]] for making disparaging remarks about his more assholish actions or daring to judge him for them.
79%%* On ''Series/{{iCarly}}'', Sam Puckett is a {{Jerkass}} who loves to bully poor Freddie and other characters on the show. Doesn't stop a lot of fans from insisting she can do no wrong.
80* Jay from ''Series/TheInbetweeners'' is more often than not seen as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and {{Woobie}} by the fans, though in the actual series, he is usually a full-blown {{Jerkass}} (with a very few PetTheDog moments). He is also a compulsive liar and a coward. However, his selfishness and especially lies are so over-the-top and PlayedForLaughs that you will be more busy laughing at him than hating him, which may be why he has become this trope (and the fact that he is at least more amiable than the series' main "villain", Donovan). The woobie thing comes from how he ''may'' have a FreudianExcuse: That his father is constantly picking on him. But we don't know if he started to act unbearably and [[AttentionWhore attention-whoreishly]] because his dad treats him like that, or if he has ''always'' been like that and his dad just tries to bring him down to earth. At any rate, Jay is amusing, but he isn't a guy most people would want to hang out with in RealLife.
81* ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': [[spoiler:Rose]] is revealed to be a massive drug kingpin and regularly abuses her girlfriend [[spoiler:Luisa in ways that range from gaslighting her to getting her locked in a mental hospital]], but a lot of fans online massively downplay her negative qualities due to her charisma and [[spoiler:Creator/BridgetRegan's good looks]]. Most online fanfics play [[spoiler:Rose and Luisa's relationship as a fairytale romance and erase the abuse entirely]].
82* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
83** Jiro from ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'' is a sociopathic WolfMan who regularly kills ''and eats'' random women on the street, but this does not stop fangirls from drooling over him.
84** Then there was Ouja of ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki", a real immoral AxCrazy BloodKnight Sociopath. Some are wooed by his evilness and sinister agenda motivated by pure personal reasons, something that was absent from the older Franchise/KamenRider series.
85** In spite of him being a KnightTemplar EntitledBastard with heavy dose of FantasticRacism, Kusaka from Series/KamenRider555 gained a rather large following who tried to downplay his actions or play up the fact he genuinely loves Mari. Kouhei Murakami, who played he character, was aware of this and decided to make the character even more detestable every time he read a comment defending the character
86** A canonical version of this could be attributed to ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', specifically to Katsumi Daido[=/=]Kamen Rider Eternal. In his original appearance in TheMovie, he's the BigBad, an [[BackFromTheDead undead]] SuperSoldier whose list of atrocities includes [[ForTheEvulz sending the citizens into a riot trying to find a single tiny object just for laughs]][[note]]Made more explicit in the DirectorsCut, where he says he was never going to pay the reward money (presumably he would have killed whoever brought him the item) and just wanted a laugh[[/note]], [[YouHaveFailedMe insulting a teammate while she's dying]] [[MadLove (who was in love with him)]], [[SelfMadeOrphan shooting his own mother dead when she tries to stop him]], and oh yeah, [[ZombieApocalypse trying to turn the entire populace of a Tokyo-sized city into revived corpses like himself]]. The movie ''does'' give him a tragic backstory (UsedToBeASweetKid who CameBackWrong), but then he got his own focus movie which made him the HeroOfAnotherStory who nobly attempted to save a group of human test subjects from a MadScientist, only to go insane with grief when the villain makes him accidentally kill the people he was trying to save. It speaks volumes that at the end of this movie, protagonists Shotaro and Phillip visit the place where he died and apologize for not understanding him, despite the fact that when they originally fought him they had absolutely no sympathy for the man.
87* ''Series/KirbyBuckets'':
88** Dawn Buckets, Kirby’s older sister, is meant to be the title character’s main enemy. Yet she’s a big time CosmicPlaything, the only main character on the show without that goody two-shoes personality many fans may find off-putting, plus Olivia Stuck’s acting is quite good and she’s both quite attractive yet normal at the same time. So naturally she has quite a few fans.
89** Principal Mitchell may be your typical strict high school principal, but his long hair, British accent, and hilariously boring personality make him a constant scene stealer.
90* ''Series/LazyTown'': While Robbie Rotten is a fairly harmless villain who's a FriendlyEnemy at times and sometimes can feel guilty for his actions, many fanfics play up his softer side, discount his more malicious moments, have him be NotEvil, JustMisunderstood, or TrappedInVillainy to some degree, when by all accounts he's a CardCarryingVillain in canon who can be nice in one episode and nasty the next.
91* Darken Rahl from ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker''. He commits ''mass'' infanticide, horribly tortures people to death in order to gain magical power, tortures them after death for information and for the heck of it and even beside that is an oppressive tyrant in slightly less KickTheDog methods. But fangirls insist he had the good of the land at heart because of his self-aggrandizing speeches to the woman he was torturing.
92* Appears in-universe in ''Series/LieToMe'', where a serial rapist locked up in jail has a bunch of fans who attend his trials and parole hearings and act like they're witnessing the second coming of Jesus.
93* Gene Hunt, the "[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding]]" DCI in ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' and ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' has somehow become a huge sex symbol.
94* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' has Sauron, the archetypal DarkLord. If you are a fan of the show, chances are you will see fans acknowledging his gaslighting and what a toxic relationship they would have with a being obsessed with order, yet still claiming they would ignore all of his dark deeds and [[ICanChangeMyBeloved try to fix him]]. And all because of his sex appeal. And if you hate the show, there are plenty of people who consider the writers did such a bad work with the writing that they managed to make Sauron the actually good guy, while the other characters are too UnintentionallyUnsympathetic to like.
95* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Ben Linus. While he ''is'' certainly intelligent, driven, and has [[JerkassWoobie his genuinely sympathetic moments]] here and there, he's also an unapologetic sociopath, manipulative, self-centered, and homicidal. However, it does help that he ends up [[spoiler:atoning for his actions and genuinely making an effort to become a better person.]]
96* Tony [=DiNozzo=] from Series/{{NCIS}}. He's a good person deep down, loves and sees the team like family, and isn't by no definition, an actual villain, but his bewilderingly unreasonable fans have no problem excusing and blindly accepting him borderline sexually harassing female coworkers and other women, being nosy as all hell and going through his teammates' possessions and eating their food, bullying [=McGee=] in the earlier seasons and just behaving like an all around cocky, obnoxious, and condescending jerk, because of his [[FreudianExcuse dysfunctional childhood and daddy issues]], his good looks, and sense of humor. But oh, watch them foam at the mouth and unleash hell when [[RonTheDeathEater other characters]] (''especially'' [=McGee=] or Ziva) give him a dose of his own medicine or say something "mean" to him.
97* Series/MashinSentaiKiramager: Yodonna is a SplitPersonality of the BigBad who is defined by being more sadistic and cruel than the previous two villains. Yet a lot of fans were clamouring for her to have a HeelFaceTurn (probably due to being [[HighHeelFaceTurn the sole female villainess]]. Becomes something of an AscendedFanon with the character’s miniseries, where she has to learn to be a better person to come BackFromTheDead.
98* {{Karakasa}}, a MonsterOfTheWeek from ''Series/NinjaSentaiKakuranger'', a somewhat eccentric LovableCoward of an [[HarmlessVillain oddball Youki]] who is just a beautiful woman with face paint (even in her "demon form" it's just more elaborate face paint) wearing an umbrella-themed costume which resembles a cross between Anime/SailorMoon, Snow White, and a cheerleader. The DILP-ing is because of her eccentricity combined with being a CuteMonsterGirl.
99* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'':
100** Michael Scott is a lesser case of this, as his sins generally extend to being a rather obnoxious AttentionWhore and inept manager rather than the violent criminals and murderers seen elsewhere. Nevertheless, a significant section of the fanbase tends to downplay his faults and emphasise the more sympathetic elements of his character that are shown throughout the show, to the point where there are those who unironically state that they would love to work for him... perhaps forgetting that unlike his long-suffering employees they only have to put up with his grating neediness, self-absorbed desire for attention, inappropriate attempts at humor and selfishness for half-an-hour at a time.
101** Similarly, Dwight Schrute's fans tend to be regard him as a helpless innocent victim with no fault or flaws whatsoever, particularly in his feud with Jim (who, naturally, [[RonTheDeathEater tends to be overly painted as a cruel unfeeling bully picking on a defenceless man with personality issues]] in response). While like Michael he's not completely irredeemable, the show nevertheless makes it abundantly clear that he ''is'' callous, insensitive, overly officious, utterly humorless, [[TheSocialDarwinist ruthless and scheming]], willing to betray anyone in an instant if it suits his purposes, an oppressive authoritarian and ControlFreak whenever he gets a taste of power, incapable of [[NeverMyFault accepting blame]] whenever his actions go too far, a {{Hypocrite}}, a KnowNothingKnowItAll and, somewhat ironically, quite the would-be bully himself (his pranks, while fewer in number, tend to be much more mean-spirited, violent and harmful in nature than Jim's). Oh, and those personality issues mentioned above? Are pretty much non-existent outside of head-canon; he's definitely eccentric, but that's largely due to his upbringing, and while it's possible to read him as being on a spectrum if you're so inclined to there's no serious suggestion made that he's anything other than neurotypical. As with Michael, it's hard not to get the impression that his more ardent fans are relating a bit too closely to him and underestimating just how utterly insufferable he would be to actually have to spend any meaningful amount of time with.
102** Josh, the manager of the Stamford branch in Season 3, tends to get some of this, though less than the other two. This mainly stems from his subplot where he leverages the promotion / merger the season arc builds to into a higher position at Staples. As a consequence, he has small but nevertheless devoted sub-fanbase who are willing to passionately defend this as wholly and morally justified because he has a right to look out for his own interests and Dunder-Mifflin rarely rewards employee loyalty so has little right to expect any from its employees in return. While not wholly unreasonable points, given that Josh's actions result in the closing of the branch he managed and the firing or relocating of his employees, this can't help but clash with how he was typically depicted as the "good boss" in contrast to Michael, making him seem somewhat hypocritical and self-serving at minimum. One again suspects that his defenders would be less likely to champion the primacy of his self-interest if (a) they were the employees negatively impacted by his actions and (b) if he wasn't youthful, handsome and charming.
103* Todd Manning from ''Series/OneLifeToLive''. Gang-rape, terrorizing a blind woman, and beating his teenage daughter's friends without any provocation haven't stopped him from becoming favorite among some aggressively protective "He's so hot!" fans. It's very much a case of PerverseSexualLust and the show doesn't help as Todd is almost inarguably this show's main character and they tend to load him up with humor and charm. His original actor, Roger Howarth, was deeply disturbed by a female fan yelling, "Rape me, Todd!" He quit when the writers tried to pair Todd romantically with ''the woman he raped''.
104* Regina Mills from Series/OnceUponATime was a perfect example of the trope in the first season, however the character has progressed in later seasons with a {{HeelFaceTurn}}. Regina once got the Leather Pants treatment for these reasons: 1) she's played by the beautiful and talented Creator/LanaParrilla, 2) the character is given a {{Dark and Troubled Past}}: [[spoiler:being repeatedly abused by her controlling mother, and her father not coming to her defense, having her lover killed by her mother right in front of her eyes, and having to marry into the family of the girl who is sort of responsible for having her lover killed]], 3) she is portrayed sympathetically, and, 4) because of the show's once oft repeated phrase and theme: "Evil isn't born, it's made".
105** Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold is another fan favorite who also gets this treatment. Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold is (literally) a baby-snatcher, a skilled manipulator, has killed people, and, according to Henry, [[spoiler:is actually ''worse'' than Regina]], but that doesn't stop him from gaining a huge fanbase, and certainly doesn't put a stop to him gaining a buttload of apologists who give him a break for his deeds, [[RonTheDeathEater but crucify other characters for less]].
106*** Again, a [[JerkassWoobie massively sympathetic]] [[FreudianExcuse backstory]] - [[spoiler:being born the son of a coward, being forced to fight in a war, crippling himself to avoid a prophecy saying he'd die in battle and leave his son fatherless, spending his entire pre-Dark One life being abused by his entire village as the reviled town coward, finally turning to magic to try to keep his son from being taken away to fight in the same war, being tricked into assuming the mantle of the Dark One, and then losing his son anyways]] - goes a long way to explaining his fanbase. So does his undeniably genuine love for Belle, as his interactions with her prove that he ''is'' capable of acting unselfishly and putting someone he loves above himself.
107** Jefferson [[spoiler:aka the Mad Hatter]] is another character who gets this treatment, thanks to him having a sympathetic backstory, being played by Creator/SebastianStan, and knowing how to dress to the nines. The fact that Jefferson [[spoiler:kidnapped Mary Margaret, held her against her will]], and then [[spoiler:drugged and tied up Emma]] goes ignored by certain fans. Usually in favor of shipping him with Emma. Worse, Emma even gets ''bashed'' [[spoiler:for knocking him out with a telescope for the sake of escaping with her life and not believing him.]] Because what sane woman would resist a hot guy who [[spoiler:kidnaps and drugs her and puts a gun to her head and not believe a word he says?]]
108** Season 2 brings us Killian Jones, aka [[Literature/PeterPan Captain Hook]], who gets excused of a ''lot'' by virtue of being played by the extremely attractive Creator/ColinODonoghue. His most egregious offense to date is removing the heart of Princess Aurora while she was unconscious and promptly handing it over to the BigBad, Regina's mom Cora, and then, in the following episode, he coldcocked Belle (who was already locked up in a cell) after she refused to help him, and would've killed her had Regina not walked in. While some make the argument that he's a victim of LoveMakesYouEvil, there remains the fact that the woman he loved and lost was someone else's wife, and that regardless of whether or not he's a villain (he is), violence against anyone (not just women) should be rightly called out as not cool no matter what the reasoning behind it is. [[spoiler:After his HeelFaceTurn, even Hook himself brings it up in Season 6 in a conversation with Belle, flat-out saying that it was inexcusable of him.]]
109** Maleficent is a TragicVillain, but a villain none the less, which a lot of fans seem to forget. In flashbacks, she inflicted a sleeping curse on Aurora, turned Philip into a monster, tried to kill David, and threatened to kill Belle if Rumplestiltskin didn't give her what she wanted. In the present, she teams up with Gold to find the Author, puts the whole town under a sleeping curse, and kidnaps Pinocchio so Gold can torture him to find out where the Author is. However, due to her having lost a daughter, as well as being played by the talented Creator/KristinBauer, many fans forgive this and most fanfiction centered around her will demonize the Charmings or simply focus on her raising her daughter, often with Regina helping her.
110* ''Series/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians2023'': Similar to his book counterpart, [[spoiler:Luke]] has a lot of fans who downplay or excuse his evil deeds due to his tragic backstory, good looks, and charsima. These fans forget that he tried to start a war that could have destroyed the world and tried to kill Percy when Percy refused to join him.
111* Arnold Rimmer in ''Series/RedDwarf'' gets some of this treatment. He's thoroughly unlikeable, slimy, cowardly, arrogant, self-pitying and weaselly -- and yet, if the show could be said to have a sex symbol, it's him. This is helped by his rather [[JerkassWoobie Woobie]]-ish backstory and some scenes in series 5 involving the actor with his shirt off, which makes it a bit easier for those inclined to downplay the fact that he spends 99% of the series acting like an insufferable asshole. It also helps that in another timeline, he's TheAce, meaning that deep down he's got the potential to be a decent person and a great one. However, this means it also tends to be forgotten that merely possessing the ''potential'' for greatness and decency does not automatically make one great or decent.
112** Also, Ace Rimmer is used by the ''show'' writers to prove that Arnold Rimmer is ''definitely'' the source of his own flaws. Ace Rimmer had Arnold's life mostly, but ''not'' being let off the hook for something at a time when Arnold was is what made Ace seek to better himself.
113* Daniel Grayson from ''Series/{{Revenge}}''. Many fans encourage a serious pairing between between Daniel and Emily, despite the fact that Emily only initially dates him to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge destroy his family and vindicate her father]]. Admittedly this desire was justifiable during the beginning of the series when Daniel was portrayed as a misguided but ultimately good guy who wanted to distance himself from the Grayson name. However, after [[spoiler:Daniel finds out the truth about David Clark's framing and continues to cover it up, usurps his father as CEO from his own company via nepotism, steals majority share of Nolcorp for the fun of it, blackmails a man to get his vote and participates in framing Amanda for Helen Crowley's murder,]] considering his character someone Emily would ''ever'' genuinely date seems ludicrous.
114%%* Guy of Gisborne in the BBC's ''Series/RobinHood'' prior to his CharacterDevelopment. It doesn't help that he actually wears leather on the show.
115* Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant from ''Series/{{Scandal}}''. No matter what he does to his self-professed true love, Olivia, his wife Mellie, or any other character, many fangirls will band together and be united in their cause to defend him, wave off his actions as forgivable because he is ''such'' as a sad, repressed, and confused man who just wants to be with the love of his life, but Life and other people just keep getting in his way.
116* From the BBC series ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', [[DiabolicalMastermind James Moriarty]]. He orchestrated an explosion that killed an old, blind woman and several others; kidnapped and threatened to kill three other people, including a child; fed poisoned candy to two children; "sponsored" a serial killer merely to test Sherlock's mettle; threatened to blow up John and shoot Sherlock; and, as of the season 2 finale, [[spoiler:has single-handedly ruined Sherlock's career, relationships, and credibility amongst the public]]. He is a "consulting criminal" who has aided scores of thieves, smugglers, blackmailers, foreign spies and murderers, thus being directly or indirectly responsible for many of the worst crimes in Britain - and likely most of Europe as well. At the beginning of the first episode of the second season, he threatens to make shoes out of freshly-removed human skin; and most viewers have no trouble believing him capable of it. Still, he's intelligent, relatively-harmless looking, and reasonably attractive, and the fandom will ship him with anyone: Sherlock, John, poor Molly (though there is some in-canon justification for that), Mycroft, Irene, and ''especially'' his right-hand man Sebastian Moran from the original ACD stories, who has yet to even appear in the BBC version.
117* The character of Detective Ronnie Gardocki, on ''Series/TheShield'', developed a major cult following amongst fans of the show in spite of not receiving much screen time or character development during the first couple of seasons of the show outside the occasional nerd moment and ButtMonkey-style physical abuse moment. As such, many fans of the character began promoting the notion/belief that Ronnie was a nerdy and all all-around good guy who simply fell in with the wrong crowd at work and not a rotten to the core corrupt cop whose soul was as black as the rest of the team. Needless to say, even when Ronnie is hauled off kicking and screaming for his crimes committed as part of the Strike Team (which has to be spelled out to him by Dutch, when he reacts in a confused fashion when he's arrested) at the end of the series, fans of the character argue that Ronnie was the victim, having been screwed over by Vic Mackey, who ratted out Ronnie for immunity for all of his crimes (including murdering a fellow cop) and a cushy new job with the Feds. Ironically, even David Rees Snell is aware of the trope that his character suffers from, as seen in the [[http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/08/shield.html following interview]].
118* The villains of ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. Lex Luthor, when he finally became evil around season 5/6, Davis in season 8 and Zod in season 9. Tess Mercer is a definite example in Season 8.
119** Lionel Luthor. Affable, witty, cultured and ''[[TropeCodifier the]]'' MagnificentBastard he may have been, but he was still emotionally abusive, self-centered and sociopathic for at least four seasons. Must have something to do with being played by Creator/JohnGlover.
120* Furio in ''Series/TheSopranos'' kind of falls into this, even canonically, as many fans (and Carmella Soprano) saw him as a cultured and sensitive NiceGuy. The issue is that while he kind of is in private life, on the ''job'', he's a totally vicious and brutal thug.
121* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
122** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Lore, Data's EvilTwin, has received this treatment in fanfics. Apparently, people think that the love of a good woman is all it takes to redeem Lore, when he wouldn't even be redeemed for his own brother. One fanfic out there was, in its entirety, a "Lore For President" flier.
123** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
124*** Weyoun. More subtly evil than the overshadowing Dukat, but to squealing fangirls (and boys), Weyoun is absolutely adorable. After all, he's not necessarily evil: he was programmed that way, and is capable of overcoming his programming. (We even see one such "defective" Weyoun in one of the episodes). Also, he's played by Creator/JeffreyCombs.
125*** [[Characters/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineGulDukat Gul Dukat]] was rather too well-liked by fans, given that he was essentially a [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Space]] [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi]]. For all his villainy, he is quite convincingly a charming character both in-universe and out. The writers desperately kept trying to give him KickTheDog moments (such as his siding with the Bajorans' demonic Pah-wraiths against their angelic Prophets) to cement his villainy once and for all, but even after they tried to send him past the MoralEventHorizon in "Waltz" by having him raving with insane fury about how much he hates the Bajorans and is convinced [[FinalSolution he should have turned their world into the biggest mass grave in the galaxy]] when he had the chance, he still had his admirers and defenders. It probably didn't help that the show was about BlackAndGrayMorality and [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructing]] TheFederation.
126*** Section 31, which, granted, gets the RonTheDeathEater treatment as well. It's a shadowy black ops organization intended to show that [[GreyAndGreyMorality even the Federation has to get its hands dirty]] with black ops, introducing a deliberately complex moral question for the characters and fans. However, there are some who berate anyone who doesn't approve of every single thing Section 31 does, including [[spoiler:their attempted genocide against the Changelings]], ignoring the inherent HeWhoFightsMonsters question in favor of lauding all their actions as right and necessary and decrying anyone who disagrees as naive fools.
127* ''Franchise/StargateVerse'':
128** In ''Series/StargateSG1'', Ba'al is perhaps the best example of this. He kidnaps and tortures Colonel O'Neill, kills thousands of people, enslaves the human race (or tries to, anyway) and is generally a ManipulativeBastard, yet he's still so loved by even the most loyal fans. Why? To put it quite simply, he's hot. He also has a huge amount of charm and is quite funny, so despite being evil at heart, is still able to woo the audience into loving him.
129** ''Series/StargateAtlantis'':
130*** Anyone who attempts to turn you from a person who eats sentient beings into a person who does not is interfering with your civil rights, right? Michael Kenmore thinks so, and it appears much of the fanbase agrees. Obviously, anti-Wraith genocide, Wraith worshiping, or living like a cow herd is the better way to go. Keep in mind that at this point, the replacement food research was going absolutely nowhere. Being brainwashed and lied to is reasonably enough to make a person cranky and get some sympathy, but a lot of fans act like the Atlanteans did this to prevent Michael from performing his favorite folk dance. Why, yes, Michael, we DO think being a Wraith is a disease-how many people have died from you being a Wraith so far? Could we get some sympathy and righteous indignation for them?
131*** Sympathy for Michael comes not from him being turned into a human, but from the criminally insane manner in which the Atlanteans treated him after his HeelFaceTurn against his own Hive to help *them*. Admittedly this was after the hive betrayed and ostracized him, however he genuinely believed the hive Queen wanted an alliance with the Atlanteans. His repayment for his aid? He was forcibly turned into a human and memory wiped AGAIN. This being after he technically forgave the Atlanteans for doing it to him the first time. It was only after this that he became a megalomaniacal sociopath hellbent on revenge.
132*** Also, Todd the wraith. Yes, we know he fed on Colonel Sheppard. Yes, he's a wraith and eats people. He's also funny, gave John back the life he took from him and does in fact help them out several times, even if he's generally a jerk about it and winds up only doing it to further his own goals.
133* Billy Hargrove from ''Series/StrangerThings'' is a violent BarbaricBully who emotionally abuses his thirteen year old step-sister, threatens to run over a bunch of children with his car on the suspicion that they might be making her something other than miserable, fights dirty by clobbering his opponent with a plate when it looks like he ''might'' not win and then beats him to a pulp while he's already unconscious, laughing hysterically. He's explicitly stated by the writers to be partially based on the Nicholson version of Jack Torrence from ''Film/TheShining'' and to have been written as irredeemably awful. Going by fangirls he's actually either a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who isn't really responsible for any of that because [[FreudianExcuse his dad is abusive]] or a straight-up sweetheart and he's frequently shipped with Steve, the aforementioned guy he tried to ''beat to death''.
134* Series/{{Supernatural}}:
135** Fangirls give a number of villains the Leather Pants treatment. Lucifer is probably the least deserving character who has earned this treatment, but Crowley, Balthazar, and Gabriel have done a lot of sociopathic things.
136** Lately, [[spoiler:Evil!Castiel]] has been getting this treatment, as has [[EldritchAbomination Dick Roman]] for some reason. Dick is probably even less deserving of leather pants than Lucifer. [[IncrediblyLamePun His name]] even tells you how much of a horrible person he is!
137** Amy Pond, the Kitsune from "The Girl Next Door" murdered at least four people and lied to the heroes. Some fans tend to overlook this due to the fact that she was a GirlOfTheWeek for Sam, specifically targeted AssholeVictims, and had a sympathetic motive (she needed live brains to cure her sick son) for doing so. The fact that she was played by Creator/JewelStaite probably didn't hurt, either. So when Dean killed her, much debate ensued both in-universe and amongst the fandom as to whether he had done the right thing or not. After much {{angst}}, the show decided that he did, but the subject remains a sore spot for the fandom to this day. However, in RealLife, a mother who had done what Amy did for the same reasons would not be let off the hook for it.
138%%* Malcolm Tucker from ''Series/TheThickOfIt'', despite him being an utter, utter, ''utter'' [[MagnificentBastard bastard]].
139%%* Max Thunderman started out as the villain of ''Series/TheThundermans''. But he has several fans due to his good looks, snarky personality, and JerkassWoobie status.
140%%* Zero from ''Series/TinMan'' is a coward that gets his kicks torturing -- well, lots of people, but notably children. And yet fangirls swoon over.
141* There's an odd heroic version in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''. The majority of fans cannot forgive [[NeverLiveItDown Gwen having an affair]] or [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Owen date-raping a couple.]] Yet, Ianto [[ItMakesSenseInContext hides his Cyberman girlfriend in the basement.]] Because of this, two people are killed and the planet is put in danger. After Jack kills the Cyberman girlfriend, Ianto calls him a monster and swears to make him suffer. However, fandom's reaction to this was to declare Ianto TheWoobie, possibly because of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday traumatic experience]] that led to Ianto's actions.
142** A non-heroic example is Jack's murderous, psychopathic ex John Hart who, despite [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating everyone for his own gain]], bringing [[spoiler:Jack's brother Gray]] to have his revenge, and setting off a chain of events that [[spoiler:kills Owen and Tosh]]. Yet the fandom adores him and often claims his arguable love for Jack as a redeeming quality.
143** And there's Torchwood collectively. Practically every TV episode or Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse work that discusses pre-"Army of Ghosts"[=/=]"Doomsday" Torchwood makes it clear that they were outright '''evil''', being dedicated to robbing and murdering innocent aliens in order to get weapons to kill non-British people in the service of extreme imperialistic and racist British nationalism. By contrast, fanfic and commentary treats them like, at worst, ruthless people [[IDidWhatIHadToDo doing what they had to do]] to save humanity, and more often just a fun-loving hero team. Just because it's implied that some of them might have been LGBT at a time when British society as a whole was violently homophobic.
144* ''Series/TrueBlood'':
145** Eric Northman. He kills people left and right, he runs a TortureCellar, he holds humans in contempt, [[spoiler:he tricks Sookie into drinking his blood]], and he was a Viking, and [[RapePillageAndBurn not the kind that trades or explores]]. At one point, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqj2AfCZ7Cg he sexually assaults a woman named Willa by glamouring her and putting his hand between her legs without her consent.]] But for some fans, he's just misunderstood and they insist he's really a good person underneath. You should see the contortions fangirls go through to excuse him for all of his awful behavior. It's a bit worse than one might think: His fans try to brush that off with how different the times were back then. Yeah, try telling that one to all his victims. [[spoiler:Then after getting literal LaserGuidedAmnesia and then regaining his memory, he becomes genuinely heroic when the Authority turns into a Cult for the EvilGod Lillith. He even gets a MyGodWhatHaveIDone experience when Godric breaks through the blood haze and shows him that what he's doing is wrong.]]
146** Franklin. A psychopathic vampire and SerialRapist who develops dangerously unhealthy obsessions with certain women and tries to force them into a relationship with him by kidnapping them, taking them to a plantation, tying them to beds, and proceeding to RAPE them before tearing them apart when they don't love him for it. In spite of all this, some fans still find him sexy for some reason.
147** Downplayed in the case of Bill Compton. While Bill’s popularity as a character has taken a hit in recent years thanks to a combination of ValuesDissonance, being viewed as TheScrappy by a good chunk of the fanbase, and his relationship with Sookie falling into RomanticPlotTumor, that still hasn’t stopped hardcore fans of Bill from painting him as this tragically misunderstood character who is always the victim (no matter what he does) and who genuinely wants to be a decent person. This is ignoring that he’s committed some pretty heinous crimes (rape, torture, murder, human trafficking, terrorism, etc) that should have either gotten him sent to prison or executed. It also ignores that he’s '''intentionally''' gone out of his way to either hurt or kill other people [[NeverMyFault while proceeding to either make excuses for his behavior or try to find someone or something to blame for how he acts.]] To give a recap: He spent 70 years with Lorena raping, torturing, draining, and killing innocent women and men while getting a hard-on from the carnage he caused. After 70 years pass, he begs Lorena to release him because he doesn’t want anymore “bloody beds” or “cruelty for sport,” and yet once she complies with his request, he immediately goes to join a nest of vampires (Diane, Liam, and Malcom) and proceeds to participate with them in their sadistic escapades. He then works for Queen Sophie Anne for 35 years as her personal procurer [[HumanTraffickers (which by definition is someone who obtains another human as a prostitute for a client),]] and it’s pretty much stated that he was employed by her, which means he got paid to bring her humans to feed on, rape, parade around as her pets, and then callously dispose of once she was done with them. And then there’s his entire relationship with Sookie: Despite the insistence that Bill really fell in love with Sookie, it doesn’t change the fact that [[spoiler:he got into this relationship by allowing Sookie to get beaten to death by two dangerous psychopaths so he could pretend to be a hero, use the situation to drug Sookie with his blood (which was both a powerful aphrodisiac and a tracking device), and use this to manipulate Sookie into falling in love with him.]] All of this was done so he could [[spoiler:procure her for the Queen.]] And despite having '''multiple opportunities''' to come clean to Sookie about this, not only did he try to keep his actions a secret, but he also attempted to [[spoiler:murder Eric and Pam when they found out what he did,]] and later tried to gaslight Sookie into believing he was a wonderful boyfriend with her best intentions in mind. This also includes the instances when he tried to control her, when he assaulted her, when he tried to manipulate her, and when he kept secrets from her for self-serving reasons. Bill only gets worse in the later seasons [[spoiler:after they break up]], and one particularly vile act he commits is [[spoiler:when he tries to target Jason (Sookie’s brother) by bullying Jessica into turning Jason into a vampire without his consent.]] And yet, in spite of all of this, you will still find Bill fans who profusely insist that Bill really did love Sookie in a selfless way and that his behavior towards her (and towards other people) wasn’t abusive at all.
148* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': While none of the Hargreeves are ''villains'', per say, they still will often experience this. Luther gets the RonTheDeathEater treatment in many fics (often physically hurting his siblings) while characters like [[ISeeDeadPeople Klaus]] and [[ApocalypseMaiden Vanya]] are made out to be perfect, without flaw, and with all of their (many) mistakes, bad decisions, and flaws excused as being the fault of someone else (usually Reginald or [[spoiler:Leonard]].) The BlackAndGreyMorality of the show's characters can make this fairly common, in that pretty much every character has done something bad and many fans (across the board, for most fandoms) don't partiuclarly want to acknowledge that their favorite has flaws.
149* Franchise/TheVampireDiariesUniverse: With this franchise, it helps that after a while no one's hands are clean, so your favorite characters are less about any kind of morality than who's more fun to watch.
150** Klaus Mikaelson has a lot of fangirls who excuse his more villainous actions because of his good looks. In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', he forcibly takes over Alaric's body, kills Jenna, and tries to sacrifice Elena. He also repeatedly stabs his siblings, frames his father for murdering his mother (a murder he committed), and starts his romance with Caroline by having her boyfriend bite and potentially kill her. However, fangirls will often ignore this while painting him as a straight-up TheWoobie, who just needs the right girl to fix him. This continues into his spin-off ''Series/TheOriginals'', where he curses Hayley for the crime of trying to keep their daughter safe while being stuck in her werewolf form except during the full moon. However, fans try to claim that he was right in the situation due to her trying to take Hope away from him.
151** ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'':
152*** Damon Salvatore is a serial killer who regularly kills innocent people without care, repeatedly rapes and feeds on Caroline before erasing her memories, and fed on a pregnant woman. However, fans like to forgive this because he is good-looking, while damning Stefan for even the smallest crime. It gets to the point that the show itself tries to redeem him and make him into the romantic lead, though it still makes it clear that his earlier actions are inexcusable.
153*** Kai Parker is a self-described sociopath, but his fangirls excuse his evil actions. He killed his siblings with an ax, torments Bonnie and Elena, and stabs his pregnant sister's stomach. However, there are entire fanfics that turn him into a romantic lead for Bonnie to swoon over. They also try to excuse his killing of kids due to him being robbed of his chance to merge, despite the coven being right that he is unstable and the fact that the children did nothing to him.
154** ''Series/{{Legacies}}'':
155*** A lot of fans like to forgive Ryan Clarke's more unsavory actions, like repeatedly threatening the lives of teenagers and helping in turning Josie into Dark Josie. Much of this comes from his actor Nick Fink's natural charm and good looks, which has led to many fangirls shipping him with Hope.
156*** Dark Josie, an alternate evil personality of Josie, almost instantly had fans who excused her murderous intentions due to her good looks. She torments her own friends, imprisons her good half in their mind, and tries to kill Hope repeatedly. However, a lot of fangirls like to instead portray her as a much better version of Josie, in comparison to her vanilla good half.
157* ''Series/VeronicaMars'':
158** Sheriff Donald Lamb, whom some fans loved even though he was a petty, self-absorbed himbo slacker who ignored heroine Veronica Mars when she attempted to file a report on being drugged and raped. Series creator Rob Thomas and actor Michael Muhney acknowledged that they went overboard in the pilot in order to make Lamb an [[DesignatedVillain unlikeable jerk]], and they even gave the character a sliver of sympathy by revealing that Lamb was [[FreudianExcuse abused as a child by his father]]; but Thomas refused to [[BadassDecay humanize]] Lamb or negate the events of the pilot (as many fans of the character had done via fanfictions). He had Lamb tell Veronica that he still didn't believe her claim of being raped and taunt her over the issue during season three. Thomas then had Lamb largely absent from season three's rape storyline and had his head bashed in during season three's second arc at the hands of a crystal meth addict (that last part possibly because Lamb's fans wouldn't leave him alone).
159** Dick Casablancas encouraged his brother to [[spoiler:rape Veronica]], and yet the fanbase seems to adore him. The cast and crew have outright admitted to only keeping his character around for love of the actor that plays him, Ryan Hansen.
160* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': In canon Jade is a [[TheBully bully]] who often torments those around her, especially Tori who she stole blood from once. However, there is a large set of fans who ship her with Tori, despite the constant bullying. They typically try to downplay Jade's behavior or justify it. Some fans who dislike Tori will [[RonTheDeathEater reinterpret]] her as an AlphaBitch who deserves Jade's treatment. An incident that's commonly brought up is that Tori kissed Beck during a play in order [[TakeThatKiss to mess with]] Jade. What's often left out is that Tori did this in retaliated for Jade pouring coffee on her after she assumed Tori was making a move on Beck.
161* ''Series/Warehouse13'': Creator/HGWells is a frequent target of fangirls who forgive her more unsavory actions as far back as her debut, due to her natural charm, tragic backstory, and good looks. In her debut season, she kills one of her allies, manipulates Myka into trusting her, leaves a lawyer in a boiling pit of tar, gives Pete's girlfriend an object that forces her to almost kill him, and tries to start a second ice age by activating a supervolcano. While she does eventually join the good guys, some fans portrayed her as one even when she was advocating for the extinction of the human race.
162* Andy in ''Series/{{Weeds}}'' who [[DirtyOldMan goes onto his nephew's computer and talks dirty to his sixteen year old girlfriend while jerking off]].
163* Stringer Bell from ''Series/TheWire''. Despite being Avon Barksdale's right-hand man in crime, he was portrayed as intelligent, insightful, clever, and determined to learn how the legal business world worked, so that he could expand into honest projects. He's even shown taken community college courses. Because of this, fans saw him as a sympathetic character. They conveniently forget how [[spoiler:he was the one who setup and got D'Angelo Barksdale killed off in prison, while at the same time having an affair with his woman. They forget how he did this behind Avon's back.]] They forget all the other backstabbing and under handed things he did. Which is why in the end, [[KarmicDeath it caught up with him]].
164* Alex Krycek from ''Series/TheXFiles''. Krycek has betrayed (and tried to kill) Mulder and Scully on numerous occasions, but some fans think he and Mulder make a cute couple. Non-slash fans of the "Rat-boy" desperately tried to find excuses and claimed that it's all just a part of his elaborate plan of outsmarting the conspirators.
165* ''Series/ZNation'': Murphy. A portion of the fanbase seems to have missed the memo that he's the TokenEvilTeammate.

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