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| 4 | %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700 |
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| 7 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/HarleyQuinn https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pls_add_this_pls_its_too_damn_good_give_me_a_chance.jpeg]]]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | In fiction, it's not uncommon for a given franchise to have a very uneven ratio of male to female characters, particularly when it comes to the VillainOfTheWeek, but even among many franchises with a more even mix, the mix of genders within various character roles may also vary wildly from role to role. For example, a gang of villains might contain several male and several female villains, but where most of the male villains are of the {{card carrying|Villain}} variety, the female villains are all {{noble demon}}s who were forced into a life of crime. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | That's where this trope comes in. In franchises that adhere to this trope, female villains will generally fall into one of two categories: |
| 12 | * They are [[{{Mooks}} minions]]. Whether TheBaroness or a MinionWithAnFInEvil, these characters typically are given little choice by their superiors, and should TheHero invest the proper effort, they are very likely to make a HighHeelFaceTurn. |
| 13 | * They are working alone or are the boss, but have a FreudianExcuse for their actions, which [[NeverASelfMadeWoman often (but not always) involves a man]]. The typical belief is: ''"Behind every bitch is a bastard who made her that way."'' |
| 14 | |
| 15 | In either case, the essence of this trope is the suggestion that, while male villains can be evil by nature or by choice, such depths of evil are ''not'' natural for women, and so, if a female character has truly evil thoughts, a man must be ultimately responsible for putting them there, even if her actions and behavior don't hint at it. Thus, when facing InUniverse justice, she is more likely to receive a less severe fate for the same crimes as a male villain might--assuming she is not just EasilyForgiven and [[KarmaHoudini let off completely]], and any character that complains about the outcome will be seen as in the wrong. Murder-mysteries have a related phenomenon: generally, if the murder victim is a woman, she is more likely to be portrayed sympathetically, as an innocent victim who was TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth; whereas the vast majority of {{Asshole Victim}}s are male. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Another possible factor that makes this trope a thing of its own is that certain individuals who have immoral or questionable intentions are [[MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial more notably male than female]], especially within pop culture itself (which then gets to be further explained with the assumption that MostWritersAreMale). |
| 18 | |
| 19 | A long-running franchise might occasionally depict a woman who is maliciously evil, or motivated by money, greed, fame, intimidation, jealousy, power, or [[ForTheEvulz because they enjoy it]]. However, they will be extremely few and far between and will be remembered as [[MoreDeadlyThanTheMale even worse than any male villain for having chosen evil of their own free will]], despite having done the same amount of evil as a male villain. A good indication that this trope is in force is if you can count the number of leading female villains on the show in the last three years on one hand. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Needless to say, the idea that women cannot commit crimes, enact violence, inflict abuse, or perpetrate evil acts of their own volition is '''not''' TruthInTelevision. [[note]]A number of earlier thinkers also believed the inverse of this trope, that men were less susceptible to evil than women, which is ''also'' not TruthInTelevision.[[/note]] |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Compare AllAbusersAreMale, DamselInDistress, HighHeelFaceTurn, the MadonnaWhoreComplex, MenAreTheExpendableGender, TheUnfairSex and WomenAreWiser. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Contrast MoreDeadlyThanTheMale and LadyMacbeth. |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | !!Examples: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 33 | * ''Franchise/MyHime'' zigzags this. The series, as a MagicalGirlGenreDeconstruction, has very few male characters to begin with; however, at least half of the ones that are there are villains. The cruelest and most manipulative villains are almost all male, while the female villains are almost all {{Anti Villain}}s. |
| 34 | ** In the ''Anime/MyHime'' anime continuity, there are plenty of female antagonists like [[TokenEvilTeammate Nao Yuuki]], [[spoiler:[[TheMole Alyssa Sears]]]], and [[spoiler:[[{{Yandere}} Shizuru Fujino]]]], but all of them are sympathetic and, to some extent, driven by love; and while there are good-hearted males like Yuuichi Tate and Takumi Tokiha, the three most evil villains ([[BigBad Nagi Homura]], [[spoiler:[[SmugSnake Wataru Ishigami]]]], and the [[GreaterScopeVillain Obsidian Lord/Prince]]) are all male. |
| 35 | ** In the ''Manga/MyHime'' manga continuity, [[spoiler:Natuski's mother Satsuki/Saeko is a major ArcVillain, and a [[AbusiveParents cruel parent]], but is still working for a male boss and a secondary threat to the [[BigBad Obsidian Lord]]; and the Cosmo Beauties are straight-up villains but merely the Obisidan Lord's CoDragons who get betrayed by him to show how evil he is]]. |
| 36 | ** In the ''Anime/MyOtome'' anime continuity, the {{Big Bad}}s in each series are either male (Grand Duke Nagi, [[Anime/MyOtome0Sifr John Smith I]]) or genderless ([[Anime/MyOtomeZwei Yuna]]), and they usually send male [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] to fight the heroines. John Smith II, leader of [[TheSyndicate the Schwarz]] and helper of Nagi who is depicted as equally evil as him, is male as well. All the evil heads of state are male, while the good ones, with the sole exception of King Nguyen, are female. It is true they all have female soldiers, but they are JustFollowingOrders. The main male in the series is Sergay Wang, who is a father figure of protagonist Arika and Nina, and also TheDragon and completely loyal to his master ([[DefectorFromDecadence until much later]]). The only 100% good men are the captain of the guard who is the RoyalBrat queen's ButtMonkey, a one-off prince (Takumi), and the SatelliteLoveInterest of a secondary character (Kazuya). There are a few female antagonists, but almost all of them are shown to actually be good people and are redeemed by the end. There is an exception in [[spoiler:Tomoe Marguerite]], who is depicted as pure evil and has no redeeming qualities, but she is still ultimately a second apple to Nagi, and [[spoiler:she becomes a KarmaHoudini, unlike the male villains who are punished for their crimes]]. |
| 37 | ** ''Manga/MyOtome'' manga continuity: |
| 38 | *** The original manga has a kindhearted male protagonist DisguisedInDrag (Manshiro), and while the male Duke Nagi is still the BigBad, [[spoiler:he turns out to be a DiscOneFinalBoss. The real Mashiro turns out to be a cruel [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen queen-type figure]], a ManipulativeBitch, and seemingly the true BigBad. However, she ultimately turns out to be a pawn of the male [[TheStarscream Prime Minister Sergey]], who kills her, and she has an AlasPoorVillain moment and is implied to love her family. Sergey, however, is portrayed as pure evil, loving no one, not even himself, and both he and Kazuya, who were good in the anime, [[AdaptationalVillainy are villains here]]]]. |
| 39 | *** The ''Mai-Otome Arashi'' manga has a male BigBad in the [[AntagonistTitle titular]] Arashi. [[spoiler:When Arashi is revealed as female, she becomes a sympathetic AntiVillain; but she is a puppet of her female henchmen ([[DragonAscendant the aforementioned Cosmo Beauties]]). That being said, while not depicted sympathetically, the Cosmo Beauties are not nearly as despicable as Sergey.]] |
| 40 | * In the ''Manga/PetShopOfHorrors'' manga, although there aren't really "villains" per se, the guys who screw up their contracts normally do so out of greed or ambition (the Chinese mob boss who murders a little girl to obtain her tiger, the drifter whose pursuit of success makes a kitten cry) The women screw up out of more sympathetic emotional weakness (a mother who spoils her daughter, a girl who wants her pet bird to be happy). |
| 41 | * ZigZaggingTrope in ''Franchise/SailorMoon''. Both the manga and the original anime had female villains who were just one-dimensional bad guys. However, others were manipulated or misguided and portrayed more sympathetically. |
| 42 | * ''Anime/PrettyCure'' takes this trope and runs with it. The trope description, which states that "a good indication that this trope is in force is if you can count the number of leading female villains on the show in the last three years on one hand", sums up the issue. Despite being a female-led MagicalGirlWarrior series, the vast majority of the villains the heroines face are male, while female villains [[HighHeelFaceTurn are practically guaranteed to join the heroines and become a PreCure]]. The BigBad is almost always male as well, while the few female main villains all adhere to this trope in some way, usually having a tragic backstory and [[spoiler:[[TheManInFrontOfTheMan turning out to be a pawn of a male servant]], after which they join the heroines]]: |
| 43 | ** In ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'', Despariah is technically the main villain, but her male secretary Kawarino [[DragonInChief is the personal threat to the heroines with all the screentime and is depicted as much more evil]], [[spoiler:and in the end winds up being the real BigBad when Desparaiah, of all people, turns good]]. |
| 44 | ** Similarly, ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'' has Queen Mirage as the main villain, but she is given a sympathetic backstory involving [[LoveMakesYouEvil lost love]], [[spoiler:and eventually turns good, while her male servant, Deep Mirror/Red, is revealed as the real villain controlling her and given no sympathetic qualities]]. |
| 45 | ** TheMovie ''Crispy! The Memory of Mille-feuille!'' has Cook as the villainess, but she is also motivated by love, [[spoiler:and turns good in the end, though there is no male villain controlling her, at least]]. |
| 46 | ** TheMovie ''New Stage 3'' has Maamu be the villain, but she is a WellIntentionedExtremist who only traps children in dreams so her daughter can have friends, [[spoiler:and she turns good when her (technically genderless) servant Akumu [[EvilIsNotAToy goes out of control]]]]. |
| 47 | ** TheMovie ''Singing With Everyone Miraculous Magic'' has Solcielle be the villain, but she [[LoveMakesYouEvil just wants to resurrect her dead teacher]], [[spoiler:and she turns good when her male butler Trauuma turns out to be a demon using her]]. |
| 48 | ** In ''Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure'', the OmnicidalManiac and BigBad Darknest is depicted as an evil monster when presented as male, but once she is revealed to be Ophiuchus and is defeated in the final battle, she surrenders and is promptly forgiven for her evil actions by the heroes, unlike basically all the male omnicidal villains the series has had. Her equally despicable MadScientist Aiwarn is also welcomed with open arms by the very people she turned to stone. |
| 49 | ** In ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure'', the Witch of Procrastination/Delays is revealed to ultimately be a puppet of her Butler, as he ensures she doesn't remember the kindness that Cure Oasis showed her so that she doesn't lose the desire to destroy the world. |
| 50 | ** In ''Memories & F'', [[spoiler:Cure Supreme]] is not being manipulated by any other villain, but she still does a HighHeelFaceTurn by the end and is EasilyForgiven despite wiping out all the other Precures and destroying TheVerse. |
| 51 | ** Overall, the only instances that come close to an aversion are the Witch, the villain of one movie (the very first one, in fact) who still serves as a minion of the male Jakku King, and Lady Dyspear of ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure'', who is MadeOfEvil and more of a force of nature than an actual character. |
| 52 | * In ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'', Yui enters the Universe of the Four Gods with Miaka, and not returned with Miaka, who goes back looking for her. Yui is attacked by thugs, rescued by Nakago [[spoiler: who allows her to believe she was raped]], and he convinces her that Miaka had just abandoned her to her fate. Yui doesn't believe him at first, but is convinced that Miaka didn't really come back for her when she sees Miaka and Tamahome (whom Yui also has a feeling for) kissing. This spurs Yui to become the Priestess of Seiryuu and enemy to Miaka. |
| 53 | ** Also in the Eikoden OVA, it's played with. [[VillainProtagonist Mayo]] enters the book, spurns all attempts to get her back home, spreads vicious rumors about Miaka and tries to steal Tamahome away from Miaka. She does that stuff all on her own. But she is motivated by [[spoiler: a male demon posing as]] Suzaku to [[PrayerOfMalice pray for the destruction of Konan]], in order to save herself from a TraumaticCSection ''and'' get to be with Tamahome. |
| 54 | * In ''{{Manga/Parasyte}},'' Reiko Tamura is the only important "[[NoBiologicalSex female]]" Parasite on the mayor's side, and though TheHeavy, she gets more character development than the other villains, because MotherhoodIsSuperior; she's also the only one who (eventually) chooses not to eat humans. {{Averted|Trope}}, however, with the Parasite who kills and takes over [[spoiler:Shinichi's mom]]. |
| 55 | %%zce* All the Claymores in ''{{Manga/Claymore}}'' are women because all of the ''male'' Claymores would [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Awaken]] almost immediately. |
| 56 | * Zigzagged in ''Anime/QueensBlade'' and its [[WorldOfActionGirls nearly all-female cast]]. Though women in the series can be both good and evil, almost all of the evil ones get at least something approaching a PetTheDog moment or a MoralityPet. Meanwhile, there are some benevolent male characters, but most of the men are usually faceless outlines and [[MenAreTheExpendableGender crow-fodder]], or evil and [[AllMenArePerverts lecherous assholes]]. In particular, Dogura, the only male minion of the Swamp Witch, is also the vilest one by far, being a DirtyOldMan who gets his kicks from torturing women, while the female BigBad Aldra [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss turns out to be a pawn]] of the male demon Delmore]]. On the other hand, the Swamp Witch herself is the BigBad and by far the evilest character in the series, [[spoiler:while Delmore is ultimately a pawn of her, and is actually female in both the [[ShesAManInJapan English version]] of the original anime and the ''Unlimited'' AlternateContinuity]]. |
| 57 | * There are two female Espada in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', past and current. [[note]]And Cirucci, but she isn't considered one anymore.[[/note]] Apart from Starrk, they're the only nice ones. They're also stronger with only two Espada stronger and [[spoiler:Harribel is the last Espada defeated, taken down personally by Aizen. And the two female Espada seem to be the only ones that actually get to live]]. |
| 58 | * Overlaps with DesignatedVillain in ''Anime/BlueGender''. HumansAreTheRealMonsters who brought on [[BigCreepyCrawlies the Blue]] with [[ScienceIsBad technology]] and [[DepopulationBomb overpopulation]], and run [[SpaceStation Second Earth]] as a dictatorship, but it's mainly the men (like the intended BigBad Chairman Victor) who are given this treatment. Women, like Marlene, are innocent victims who have been separated from the goodness of nature. Alicia Whistle [[spoiler:does a FaceHeelTurn, but only due to the influence of the male Tony]], and the [[TheSmurfettePrinciple one female member]] of the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness High Council]], Lu, [[spoiler:is also [[MenAreTheExpendableGender the only one spared]] and repents along with Su]]. And in the end, [[spoiler:Gaia, the personification of the planet and intended BigGood, is referred to as female]]. |
| 59 | * In ''Manga/SilentMobius'', all of the heroes in the AMP are [[AmazonBrigade female]], and the only visibly female [[DemonicInvaders Lucifer Hawk]], Rosa Cheyenne, is a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds who is only evil because of persecution by humans; in addition, minor antagonist [[spoiler:Anne]] turned to killing because of her treatment by the researchers who raised her; and both of them [[spoiler:redeem themselves [[RedemptionEqualsDeath before they die]]]]. When [[spoiler:Katsumi]] does a FaceHeelTurn later on, it is only because she [[spoiler:lost [[LoveMakesYouEvil her boyfriend]], and she turns back to the side of good by the end]]. Meanwhile, all the Lucifer Hawks besides Rosa appear to be male and are not given any characterization beyond {{generic|DoomsdayVillain}} MonsterOfTheWeek stuff, and the male Ganossa Maximilian is the BigBad, a total HateSink, and the one who manipulated Rosa and [[spoiler:Katsumi]] into joining him in the first place. |
| 60 | * Every female villain in ''Anime/SpeedGrapher'' is given a sympathetic backstory to explain their reasons for joining the Roppongi Club. Kaoru Koganei is addicted to diamonds, and is shown to have truly loved her late husband, but the cutthroat world convinced her that love is about material things. Miharu Shirumaku [[spoiler:was abused and almost killed as a child (admittedly, by her StageMom)]]. Kikukawa, despite being a higher-up of the club, is never shown doing anything evil (or much of anything) and [[spoiler:ends up happily marrying Niihari]]. Most egregiously are Hibari Ginza and Shinzen Tennouzu; the former, though not a member of the club, is nevertheless a violent CowboyCop who [[spoiler:sells out Kagura to the club and [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale outright rapes Saiga while he’s unconscious]]]], yet she is supposed to be pitiable and sympathetic, while the latter is ''the BigBad'' and an abusive EvilMatriarch to Kagura, yet is treated as sympathetic because she [[spoiler:was a failed actress who was abandoned by her husband while she was pregnant, and is losing her looks, abusing Kagura out of jealously- and she isn't the real BigBad, but a pawn of her lover, the male Suitengu (who himself is portrayed sympathetically)]]. Meanwhile, all the male Euphorics and politicians (except [[spoiler:Suitengu and his TerribleTrio]]) are straight villains, and the worst, most evil Euphorics are all men, especially [[spoiler:Prime Minister Kamiya, who is [[GreaterScopeVillain the root of Japan’s corruption]]]]. |
| 61 | * ''Anime/CrossAnge'', being an {{Ecchi}} show, has mostly female characters (including {{The Hero}}ine Ange), all of whom are portrayed either heroically or sympathetically. Meanwhile, there are a grand total of ''three'' recurring male characters, and only one -- Tusk, the {{Love Interest|s}} -- is good. The other two, [[BigBadWannabe Julio]] and [[BigBad Embryo]], are [[HateSink solely meant to be hated]], and every female antagonist is shown to be a victim of their machinations. [[AlphaBitch Hilda]] merely wants to reunite with her mother after Julio's men separated them, and her two flunkies follow her out of love; [[spoiler:Ersha]], [[spoiler:Chris]] and [[spoiler:Salia]] make a FaceHeelTurn only because Embryo charms them; Zola and Jill, the former of whom rapes Ange and the latter of whom tries to sacrifice allies to win the war, are both simply "doing what they need" to get revenge on Embryo; [[spoiler:the [=DRAGONs=] were only fighting to rescue their ancestor from Embryo]]; [[TheDragon Liza]] is a WellIntentionedExtremist [[spoiler:trying to accomplish the mission of her fellow [=DRAGONs=]]]; and even [[spoiler:Sylvia, the DecoyDamsel who betrays Ange, tries to have her executed, tortures Liza in her spare time, and is hateful towards Norma, does so only because Julio and Embryo have convinced her that it is the right thing]]. By the end, [[spoiler:with the exception of Zola who was killed]], all of them have made a HeelFaceTurn, while Julio and Embryo die unmourned. This even extends to ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'', where Embryo is the [[BigBad direct mastermind]] behind all the crossover events and is depicted as pure evil (with Embryo attempting GratuitousRape of ''all the heroines''), while the female [[spoiler:[[TheWomanBehindTheMan System Nevanlinna]]]] is depicted as a WellIntentionedExtremist at worst (who even has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment). |
| 62 | * The later parts of Creator/BeeTrain's GirlsWithGuns trilogy adhere to this. |
| 63 | ** In ''Anime/{{Madlax}}'', Limelda Jorg, the only major female opponent of the four heroines, only hunts down Madlax for revenge because Madlax assassinated her boss; she doesn't know that [[SuicideByAssassin it was by his own request]], and she is actively being manipulated by the male [[TheDragon Carrossea Doon]]; his boss, the BigBad, and the only character without any sympathetic qualities, is the male Friday Monday. |
| 64 | ** In ''Anime/ElCazadorDeLaBruja'', Vanessa manipulates [[LovelyAngels the heroine duo Nadie and Ellis]] the whole journey, but eventually pulls a HighHeelFaceTurn, and the Witch Coven she works for are [[BigBadWannabe ultimately victims of manipulation themselves]]. The BigBad is the male Douglas Rosenberg, and both he and [[TheDragon L.A.]], despite both having [[FreudianExcuse sympathetic backstories]], die without any redemption. However, it is averted in the manga adaptation, in which the BigBad, [[AdaptedOut instead of Rosenberg]], is a woman- [[spoiler:Alice, the EvilTwin of Ellis]]. |
| 65 | ** Interestingly zigzagged in the original ''Anime/{{Noir}}''. Both the BigBad Altena and TheDragon Chloe are women, and both are treated fully seriously as villains, [[spoiler:and die with no redemption]]. However, it is indicated that Altena's evil is in part because of [[spoiler:the destruction of her home village and implied {{rape|AsBackstory}} by a soldier]], and Chloe was [[TykeBomb raised by her]] to be evil. The title heroines often face female opponents on their journey, but most of them are also given at least one sympathetic quality. And then there's minor ArcVillain Shao Li, a ''full aversion'' of this trope, as she is a cold-blooded, sadistic assassin and MasterPoisoner who likes to kill her targets in the most gruesome way possible, is given ''no'' sympathetic qualities or moments, and is so evil that even [[AncientConspiracy the Soldats]] themselves [[EvenEvilHasStandards rejected her offer to join them]]. |
| 66 | * In ''Anime/BloodPlus'', the BigBad, Diva, is a PsychopathicWomanchild who kills tons of innocent people and, most infamously, ''[[spoiler:rapes and kills Riku, a thirteen year old boy]]''. Yet despite this, she is treated as a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, and everything she did is blamed on the evil men who used her as a lab rat, [[spoiler:especially Amshel Goldsmith, who is not only presented as more evil than her but [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan turns out to be the real villain]] who twisted her to become who she is]]. When {{The Hero}}ine Saya finally defeats Diva [[spoiler:and kills her]], [[SympathyForTheDevil she cries for her and feels immense sympathy for her tragic past]], [[spoiler:even after she [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale raped and killed Riku]], ''Saya's own adoptive brother'']], while [[spoiler:Amshel]] gets no such backstory to justify his actions and zero pity from Saya. |
| 67 | * ''Manga/TokyoESP'': Of the two ARES executives, Claudia Kuroi is a cruel EvilMatriarch who kills her husbands, abandons her daughter, and goes so far as to [[spoiler:torture one of them while ''getting off on it'']], and tries to kill tons of innocent people. Despite this, the ending paints her as a tragic woman who just wanted a family (even though [[NeverMyFault she pushed away her family in the first place]]). Meanwhile, Hephaistos, the Machine Duke and her fellow executive, appears to be a little girl but is [[DemonicPossession actually]] an evil DirtyOldMan with no such sympathetic moments. |
| 68 | * Defied in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''. [[EvilVersusEvil During her fight against Curious]], Himiko Toga adamantly insists on the fact that she has never been anybody's victim. She even states openly that she is perfectly content with being as twisted and psychotic as she is, [[LoveFreak since killing and drinking her victim's blood is her way to demonstrate love]]. Curious is stunned by this statement, realizing that it's an even better storyline than the usual trope. |
| 69 | * ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'': Kokutou uses this stereotype against Shiki just to piss her off by saying [[DoubleStandard girls shouldn't swear]]. According to him, this is enough to immediately make her mad. |
| 70 | -->'''Kokutou:''' "Eat the damn thing?" Such unseemly words. I’d really like it if you did something about that. I mean, you are a girl after all. |
| 71 | * ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' in general hasn't featured very many female villains who came close to being as evil as their male counterparts. |
| 72 | ** Kycilia Zabi in the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', is a ruthless, power-hungry [[TheBaroness Baroness]], although even she's made out to be sympathetic when she's put next to her tyrannical, self-proclaimed "[[ANaziByAnyOtherName Hitler follower]]" of an older brother. |
| 73 | ** Haman Karn is the BigBad of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', but she's also played with the most humanity out of any of the four original ''Gundam'' Big Bads. While she is an icy and militaristic tyrant, she's also given an extensive backstory as to what she had to endure to become that way (which is expanded upon in the ''Char's Deleted Affair'' manga), has multiple other significant redeeming qualities and [[spoiler:gets possibly [[AlasPoorVillain the most sympathetic death]] out of any main antagonist in the ''Gundam'' franchise]]. The manga plays this up even more with her eventual rival, Glemmy Toto, who lacks the sympathetic qualities he had in the anime and is portrayed as worse then her in every way, and in both continuities Rakan Dahkaran is a MoreDespicableMinion to Haman. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 77 | * ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' ran for five decades, and in that time Tintin only met one female villain, who was aiding her husband (and both were quite insignificant even in the book they were in). Of course, [[SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality Tintin has almost no female characters to begin with]]. The movies added another female villain, who merely spied on the heroes for the BigBad. |
| 78 | * Of the most famous ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villainesses, Characters/{{Catwoman|SelinaKyle}} varies between being an AntiHero and AntiVillain (and her villainy in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' is caused by an evil man trying to kill her), Characters/{{Harley Quinn|TheCharacter}} is a sympathetic abuse victim of a far more evil man, [[Characters/BatmanTaliaAlGhul Talia Al-Ghul]] was reared by an evil father and is noticeably more sympathetic than him. [[Characters/BatmanPoisonIvy Poison Ivy]] was less sympathetic but even her origin story has her being experimented on by an evil man, and in recent years even she has gotten the AntiHero treatment. |
| 79 | ** Inverted with the Al Ghul family, depending on who's playing the BigBad. [[Characters/BatmanRasAlGhul Ra's Al-Ghul]] is an AffablyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist, while his daughter [[Characters/BatmanTaliaAlGhul Talia]] can range from a SpoiledBrat to a NeutralFemale who longs to be with Batman because [[EntitledtoHaveYou he's apparently the only man worthy of her]]. |
| 80 | ** Exploited by Punchline, the Joker’s new henchwoman. When she’s captured after ''ComicBook/TheJokerWar'', she plays on the media and public’s natural sympathy for an attractive young woman and pretends to be a BrokenBird who the Joker manipulated into helping him so she can get a lighter sentence. It works like a charm too; her release from prison becomes a major cause celebre. In reality she was a willing and enthusiastic participant the whole way. |
| 81 | * Zigzagged all through the ''Comicbook/XMen'' series. Among the numerous female villains that the team encounters, [[EvilTwin Cassandra Nova]], [[VainSorceress Selene]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] or [[MoreDeadlyThanTheMale Zaladane]] have little to no FreudianExcuse for their behavior. Even [[TheStarscream Deathbird]], who was TheUnfavourite between her and her sister Lilandra, is never presented as sympathetic or justified in her ways. On the other hand, you have plenty of DaddysLittleVillain types (Lady Deathstrike, Mastermind's daughters Regan and Martinique, Adrienne Frost...) and other types of otherwise sympathetic villainesses such as [[{{Seers}} Destiny]] or [[HeelFaceTurn Emma Frost]]. Also, most villainesses in TheVerse are in service of a greater male villain, with few exceptions mentioned above. |
| 82 | * ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' does this in a couple of ways. There have been all manner of criminals across a whole spectrum of sympatheticness, but only four major villains have been women. Of these, only half were truly evil: the Sisters of Death, creators of the Dark Judges, were bloodthirsty psychopaths; Judge Bachmann, who tried to overthrow Chief Judge Hershey, just wanted power; the others were Judge Edgar, who was a {{knight templar}}, and America Jara, a {{hero antagonist}} with a tragic backstory. Within Justice Department, there is a tendency for women to be more sympathetic and kind as foils to Dredd himself, most notably Anderson, Hershey, and more recently Beeny. |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWomanBlackAndGold'': In ''Golden Age'', a take on the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Golden Age Wonder Woman]], a Diana early into her time in Man's World fights a group of banks robbers but tries reasoning with the female member as a sister who isn't her enemy and has been lied to by the patriarchy to make her violent. She is shown to be wrong, and the woman in question is infuriated by Diana's naivety and refusal to take her seriously so Etta knocks the woman out to put an end to the fight. |
| 84 | [[/folder]] |
| 85 | |
| 86 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 87 | * ''Fanfic/TheMakingsOfTeamCRME'': |
| 88 | ** ''Fanfic/TheBlackHearts'': Downplayed with Mercury Black's parents, Marcus and Melanie. |
| 89 | *** While both of them are horrifically AbusiveParents and [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] to different degrees, Marcus is still the worse one of the two while Melanie comes off as ALighterShadeOfBlack. Marcus is physically abusive and forces him to be an assassin, but Melanie is mainly verbally and emotionally abusive to him. She's also incredibly [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain homophobic]], which causes issues since Mercury is bisexual. While her abuse is no less damaging to Mercury, Marcus is still the worse parent. She is callous, but not overtly sadistic like her husband. Basically, [[DamnedByFaintPraise Melanie only looks better because Marcus already set the bar pretty low]]. There is also the fact that she is being abused by Marcus, but Melanie just passes it along to Mercury without any concern for him. She is still just as much of a HateSink as her husband. |
| 90 | *** This also ties into their respective professions. Marcus was [[SociopathicSoldier a soldier in the Atlas military]] before becoming a ProfessionalKiller -- two careers [[PsychoForHire chosen specifically to hurt people]]. Melanie was a nurse before meeting Marcus -- a profession that helps people. |
| 91 | ** ''Fanfic/MyNameIsCinder'' and ''Fanfic/{{CRME}}'', however, avert this with both Brigit Stark and her daughter, the titular Cinder Fall. Brigit is shown to be an {{Abusive Parent|s}} as bad as Marcus, [[MurderBySuicide intentionally driving her husband to suicide]] [[GoldDigger to take his wealth]], [[spoiler:poisoning her son Sterling for the same reason]], manipulating her other children into hating Cinder to justify her abuse, and essentially abusing Cinder for trying to expose her intentions. Cinder herself, meanwhile, may have a FreudianExcuse, yet not only was the abuser her mother, but Cinder goes on to commit horrific acts that ultimately [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse invalidate her backstory]] and make her just as bad as her mother, if not even worse. |
| 92 | * ''Fanfic/TheBridge'': Defied with Grogar's students, all of whom willingly joined and were fully aware they were working for a destroyer deity, which went on to be the various villains that all attacked 1,000 years ago in a scheme to resurrect their master and destroy Equestria and Harmony's legacy. While Queen Chrysalis did less initial upfront destruction than her male teammates, Lord Tirek, Discord, and King Sombra, she was every bit a willing participant in the overall plan while keeping Equestria's allies at bay. Later when her compatriots were imprisoned, petrified, or otherwise sealed away; she willfully went on a rampage by her own volition now that the heroes were exhausted or divided and there wasn't many who could stop her. By the time Celestia defeated her, she'd actually accumulated a larger bodycount than the rest of her team. |
| 93 | * A Spanish [[https://www.facebook.com/RandomCartoonNew/photos/2357874947707280 fancomic]] has [[Characters/TheOwlHouseEmperorBelos Emperor Belos]] lampshade that he's treated less sympathetically than the previous Disney character who [[Characters/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilStarButterfly tried to commit magical genocide.]] |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 97 | * Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' involves two major royal human characters who became black bears themselves through different methods of curses that were both provided by a mysterious woodcarving witch, mainly as a shared consequence for their prideful personalities, especially in front of their respective kingdoms: |
| 98 | ** One of them is '''Mor'du''', who used to be a ''greatly'' fierce human prince in front of his own kingdom who got cursed into becoming such type of animal right after he drank an entire power-induced potion, although it did gave him the "strength of 10 men", as well (as described by the witch herself), something that he had used for the rest of his life for his own ends. |
| 99 | ** The other one is '''Queen Elinor''', who was initially a ''very'' strict Queen of [=DunBroch=] who got transformed into that same type of animal after her daughter Princess Merida gave her a cursed cake as a deceptive form of peace offering between them for their earlier differences. |
| 100 | *** Unlike [[DarkIsEvil Mor'du]], however, [[DarkIsNotEvil Elinor]] herself was '''''still''''' able to maintain her sense of humanity inside of her even when she became a bear, as best shown when she saved her daughter from him via confronting him [[spoiler:and eventually putting a stop to him once and for all (though, such act of hers surprisingly [[DeathEqualsRedemption lead to his apparent change of heart]], as well)]]. |
| 101 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/EscapeFromPlanetEarth''--the female villain, [[StrawFeminist Lena]], is manipulated by her fiancée [[FantasticRacism Shanker]], and the movie seems to set her up for a HighHeelFaceTurn. When push comes to shove, though, she refuses (either refusing to believing that Shanker is tricking her or just planning to take over the galaxy without him), and [[ActionMom Kira]] stops trying to help her and [[DesignatedGirlFight takes her down]] instead. |
| 102 | * Disney's version of ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' has Megara, or "Meg" for short, who once served under Hades after experiencing a previous romantic infidelity with an ex-boyfriend, which causes her to have a sense of [[DoesNotLikeMen misandry]], even if she's [[FemmeFatale seducing men]] while doing her job. However, this all changes when she met and personally interacted with the movie's [[PositiveFriendInfluence titular character]] himself, whose overall NiceGuy persona causes her to have a change of heart when being in love with men in general, which also makes [[spoiler:her death more tragic (even if it's meant to be [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificial]]) than Hades' defeat]]. |
| 103 | * ''Franchise/TheIncredibles'' |
| 104 | ** [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles The first film]] has Mirage, who once worked under Syndrome as his assistant, but during the climax of the film, it turns out that she's '''not''' as villainous as her old boss is, as best displayed when she decided to help the titular heroes in defeating him. |
| 105 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2'', there's also [[spoiler:Evelyn Deavor, a.k.a. ''the real'' Screenslaver, who despite her ruthless actions against supers, actually has a rather tragic backstory behind them, as both of her parents unfortunately lost their lives from intruding criminals (largely thanks to their reliance on superheroes), and does love her whole family dearly, thus making her more sympathetic than Syndrome ever was (who instead has much pettier reason behind his descent into villainy)]]. |
| 106 | * {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}''. Scarlet Overkill, the BigBad of the film, is a frighteningly unhinged master criminal who makes it clear that she will not hesitate to [[BadBoss have her own minions horribly executed should they fail her]] and [[DisproportionateRetribution blows up her hairdresser for mocking a drawing she made when she was five]]. Her husband, Herb, on the other hand, despite [[TheDragon going along with her every command]], is [[AffablyEvil otherwise a generally nice guy, and shows barely any malice at all]]-and even when he eventually does, it may only be because [[spoiler:he thought the Minions had tried to kill Scarlet with the chandelier earlier]]. Even then, he doesn't really do anything. The Minions themselves, meanwhile, are sort of trying to be evil, but [[MinionWithAnFInEvil are so horrible at it]] that they end up being [[LethallyStupid more of a danger to the villains they serve than anyone else]]. |
| 107 | * ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'': Gabby Gabby is the first female villain in the ''Franchise/ToyStory'' franchise, but unlike previous villains, she is portrayed as being ''far'' more sympathetic in terms of villainy (especially since all she ever wanted was [[IJustWantToBeLoved to be loved by a human child]], given that she has been unowned by anyone for quite a long time), [[spoiler:and that she eventually performs a HeelFaceTurn after realizing the errors of her ways]]. |
| 108 | * ''WesternAnimation/Wish2023'' plays this trope straight with [[spoiler: Queen Amaya]], [[BigBad King Magnifico's]] wife, [[spoiler: who eventually betrays her husband after he captures Star and uses them to terrorize his own subjects and sides with Asha and [[TheMole six]] [[BrainwashedandCrazy of]] the seven Teens to help them defeat Magnifico.]] |
| 109 | [[/folder]] |
| 110 | |
| 111 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 112 | * ''Film/ActOfValor'' sets up a group of suicide bombers intending to sneak into the United States. Out of 14 men and three women, the men are casually shot down while the women are given lingering closeups and scenes of themselves looking regretful, including one's tragic backstory of wanting to reunite with her husband. |
| 113 | * Inverted in ''Film/BasicInstinct''. All female characters in the film are either sociopathic, homicidal, manipulative, obsessed, or some combinations of the above. There are no truly evil male characters, while the protagonist is duped by the main villainess despite his better judgment. |
| 114 | * ''Film/TheBirthOfANation2016'': Adult male members of slave-owning families are uniformly {{Hate Sink}}s or prone to SlowlySlippingIntoEvil, while the three most notable female ones (Samuel's mother and sister, and a woman Nat speaks to during a visit to town) tend to get PetTheDog and EveryoneHasStandards moments. That being said, several unnamed white women are shown baying for Nat's blood after his failed rebellion. |
| 115 | * ''Film/{{Bit}}'' has two villains, Duke and Vlad. Duke, the female vampire leader of a coven of {{Lesbian Vampire}}s, is a murderous maniac who DoesNotLikeMen, targets men to be killed, and dreams of a matriarchy where women oppress men. While she is treated as wrong and extreme, she is motivated by her and her fellow vampires having been a SexSlave to Vlad, who is also vile and equally destructive but has no such backstory to explain his actions. |
| 116 | * Played straight in ''Film/BlackkKlansman'' with the KKK terrorist lady, who is implied to only be a racist bitch because her husband has convinced her they'll be happier when all the black people are dead. In reality of course, many white women were active instigators of racist violence: sometimes for no other reason than they were bored teenagers. |
| 117 | * ''Film/Bones2001:'' Four of the five notable female characters (Cynthia, Pearl, Tia, and Jeremiah's second wife) are utterly nice and caring characters. This isn't true for the fifth, Eddie Mack's hooker, but she's still not quite as bad as the rest of his organization. Every prominent male character besides Patrick and Bill engages in some form of criminal behavior (although Jimmy and Shotgun are {{Lovable Rogue}}s). |
| 118 | * ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' enthusiastically embraces this trope. To date no female character has been portrayed as truly villainous; at worst they are simply misled by evil male superiors about the true nature of Bourne and Treadstone. |
| 119 | * ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'': Downplayed with Faye Daniels. She is the only female of the film crew, and the only one who has any shred of decency, objecting to the gang rape of a native woman by the three male members of the crew, engaging in the least atrocities of the group, and being horrified when Jack is impaled with a spear and trying to convince the others to save him despite the fact that she never personally liked him much, while the others leave him to die. She is also the only crew member with a family relative who has anything positive to say about them, whereas the male members were hated even by their own family. However, she was still a murderous psycho who engaged in the mass murder of an entire tribe of innocent villagers including children and taunted them as they burned to death. |
| 120 | * ''Film/TheCraftLegacy'' plays this straight in comparison to the original ''Film/TheCraft'', where the BigBad Nancy is a sympathetic villain who became evil because of bullying and abuse while Chris is a misogynist HateSink, and Nancy became evil in part because of her abusive stepfather while her mother was loving (if not neglectful), but the AlphaBitch Laura is also a HateSink. In ''Legacy'', the BigBad, [[spoiler:Adam]] is an even more blatantly misogynistic HateSink who leads a cult of misogynists and constantly goes on about how men are better than women, while the women opposing him are all shown in a good light. While Chris at least gets an AlasPoorVillain moment, [[spoiler:Adam]] does not. |
| 121 | * ''Film/CrimsonPeak'' [[InvertedTrope inverts]] this. Although Lucille and Thomas are both complicit in [[spoiler: their murderous crimes]], Lucille is the more dominant one and comes off as a lot less sympathetic. While she does have a FreudianExcuse involving abuse by men, it doesn't remotely justify her later crimes (most of which involve other women) and she's depicted as being a ruthless sadist, whereas Thomas only goes along with [[spoiler:the murders]] out of [[TragicVillain perceived necessity and despises it]]. It's strongly implied that the root cause of Thomas' darker side is [[LadyMacbeth Lucille's influence]]. People assuming this trope leads them to underestimate Lucille, as they focus more on Thomas and don't realize just how dangerous she is until it's too late. Notably, [[spoiler:Thomas makes a HeelFaceTurn and gets to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, while the unrepentant Lucille is BarredFromTheAfterlife]]. |
| 122 | * ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'': |
| 123 | ** Of all the traitors in Gordon's unit in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', the only one with a sympathetic motive is [[spoiler:Anna Ramirez who was on the take because she needed money for her mother's hospital bills, and she is the one who lucks out and survives Two-Face's judgement]]. |
| 124 | ** Played straight again in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' with Selina Kyle, [[spoiler:but averted with Talia]]. Selina royally screws Bruce Wayne out of his wealth and throws him to the wolves, yet he forgives her. [[spoiler:Talia tried to nuke Gotham City, and he wound up inadvertently killing her.]] |
| 125 | * ''Film/{{Delicatessen}}'': While all of the five women in the apartment are complicit in the cannibalism, only one of them actively joins the four men trying to harm Louison in the climax while two others help save him. |
| 126 | * ''Film/DickTracy'' has the FemmeFatale Breathless Mahoney, a night club performer who worked under the crime lord Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, who is rather abusive to her. She also has romantic feelings for the titular character himself, to which she tries to seduce him for such reason, but fails in doing so due to him having a lover already. [[spoiler:She secretly works as an independent robber, as well, adopting the alias "The Blank", where it involves wearing a mask that appears to be faceless. At the movie's climax, she aids Tracy in defeating Big Boy, albeit with [[AlasPoorVillain the cost of her own life]] via gunshot wounds from her old boss]]. |
| 127 | * ''Film/FaceOff'': Sasha Hassler lives a life of crime, yet she's ''not'' as morally deviated as her old lover Castor Troy. This ranges from encouraging their son Alex to not be in the same questionable path as his parents were, to sacrificing herself in order to save both Eve and Sean Archer, where she even leaves the other couple to adopt and raise Alex in a much better direction. |
| 128 | * In ''Film/{{Flatliners}}'', medical students putting themselves through {{Near Death Experience}}s to try and glimpse the afterlife are tormented by the vengeful spirits of the people they have wronged in their lives; they can only stop them by CrossingTheBurntBridge. All the men in the group have to deal with some pretty serious sins, while the only woman in the group's only sin is [[spoiler:having a veteran drug addict father who committed suicide out of shame when she as a little girl walked in on him hitting up, through no fault of her own]]. In the original script, her character actually had an affair with her college professor; when she was caught out, she villainised him and [[FalseRapeAccusation claimed he was sexually abusing her]]. |
| 129 | * TheBaroness's film incarnation's sins in ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseofCobra'' are apparently all attributable to brainwashing. |
| 130 | * ''Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace'': The two female Klowns don't actually hurt anyone. All they do is get frisky and leave two men CoveredInKisses. |
| 131 | * ''Film/TheLegendOfLizzieBorden'': DiscussedTrope. It's made clear that a man in Lizzie's position would doubtless be found guilty, but she can get off scot-free because of the expectation that this trope is true. When Hosea gets mad that Lizzie is "hiding behind her skirts," his wife replies "you men have only yourselves to blame if women hide behind their femininity as a last defense. After all, you cast us in this role." |
| 132 | * ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' plays this straight. The VillainProtagonist is revealed to be evil because [[spoiler: the king cut off her wings]] and on top of that, [[spoiler:she's reformed by Aurora and forgiven for all of her crimes. She also rarely actually kills anyone, and her curse on Aurora is just a sleeping one instead of death]]. Averted in the sequel, ''Film/MaleficentMistressOfEvil''. While Maleficent herself remains heroic, her adversary is the evil queen Ingrith, who is vicious unlike her charitable son and husband. She claims to have a FreudianExcuse of her brother being killed by a fae like Maleficent, but nobody takes that seriously. She’s also accompanied by a female [[TheDragon Dragon]], who takes glee in attacking the woodland heroes. |
| 133 | * ''Film/{{Matilda}}'': Harry and Zinnia Wormwood were both instinctively neglectful parents to their children Michael and Matilda. However, Zinnia has proven herself to be less abusive than her husband (especially given that he's a fraudulent car salesman). This is best shown near the end of the movie, when she had deeper thoughts about surrendering Matilda to Miss Honey Trunchbull for adoption, to which she had the will in doing so as opposed to her husband, and later gives a final heartwarming goodbye to her and Harry's only daughter, as the rest of the Wormwood famiy besides Matilda herself were about to move to Guam to avoid arrest from the FBI for Harry's criminal fraud. |
| 134 | * ''Film/MonsterParty'': None of the women at the former SerialKiller support group want to relapse into violence, while all but one of the men ultimately do. |
| 135 | * ''{{Film/Noah}}'' is set in a world where humanity has grown so thoroughly wicked that God has decided to destroy it all and start over. Noah himself witnesses the cruelty of humanity, and comes to believe that all humans are too evil to be redeemed. However, all the atrocities seen in the film are committed by men, while women are present only as victims of massacre or rape. Additionally, when Noah cites his family's own sins as proof that they too are evil, the worst he can come up with for the women is that [[MamaBear they would do anything to protect their children]]. This comes off as an InformedFlaw, as none of the women do anything violent when trying to [[spoiler:prevent Noah from killing his newborn grandchildren]]. |
| 136 | * Zig-zagged in the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series. The "original" villains before ''Jigsaw'' are John Kramer and Mark Hoffman, who are both male. The only woman who can seriously be counted as a villain is Amanda Young, who only became a Jigsaw apprentice because she was "rehabilitated" by John and sincerely believed that the experience "helped" her, but later deviates from John's philosophy and kills people via inescapable traps for her own motives. On the other hand, many of the female victims were [[AssholeVictim assholes]], including a thief, a LoanShark, a woman who pimped out younger girls, and several con artists. |
| 137 | * The villain of ''{{Film/Scream 4}}'' exploits this. [[spoiler: She's Sidney's cousin Jill, orchestrating the whole thing to emerge from a series of murders as the new FinalGirl and become famous. Not once is she suspected by any of the protagonists until she unmasks in her NearVillainVictory. She's given no FreudianExcuse beyond wanting fame, and presented as remorselessly evil and deranged.]] |
| 138 | * ''Film/VForVendetta'' features a long series of definitely awful male villains for whom V has no sympathy at all, plus one completely repentant female minion whom he treats almost tenderly. However, [[ComicBook/VForVendetta the original work]] ''does'' feature the power-hungry, treacherous, manipulative, heartless and completely rotten to the core [[LadyMacBeth Helen Heyer]], Conrad Heyer's horrible wife, whose goal is taking over Norsefire as [[TheManBehindTheMan the power behind the throne]] by using her husband as a puppet. She's presented as a serious threat on her own, so much so that V himself feels he needs to put her out of commission for good, lest his own plans be ruined. And while he doesn't kill her, he eventually has her reduced to a homeless street hooker, which is quite the [[BreakTheHaughty humiliation]] for a former RichBitch {{Socialite}}. But the trope is still in play since she's presented as being unnaturally evil compared to all the other evil men around her and, without these men, [[NeverASelfMadeWoman she's nothing]]. |
| 139 | [[/folder]] |
| 140 | |
| 141 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 142 | * The TropeCodifier would probably be Franchise/SherlockHolmes, who never brought any woman to justice. He would always either allow her to escape or make sure no charges were filed against her. He would also come up with sometimes ludicrous explanations on why it was not her fault, like something must have hit her hand, causing the load stone of a structure to collapse, killing her ex-fiancé and she just took the money because she might be pregnant. This courtesy was sometimes extended to men if they had a female accomplice. |
| 143 | * Jo speaks against this trope in ''Literature/LittleWomen'' where the men in the boarding house are discussing whether women should receive the vote. One of the men invokes this trope in favor of giving women the vote, while Jo says that women should not vote "because they are angels" but because it is their right as human beings. |
| 144 | * In ''Literature/OliverTwist'', most of the women are wholesome, decent people (special mention goes to TheIngenue Rose), save for Nancy, who is a LoveMartyr for Bill Sykes, someone who is less than pleasant. |
| 145 | * ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': The only reason [[AmazonBrigade the Kthonian knights]] want to wipe out all the men in the world is because they were horrifically abused by men and so they think all of them are evil. [[spoiler: Even Ktonia herself fits this trope; Jihadain, her daughter, attacks Daniar, Kalak's wife, and is killed by him for it. Ktonia watches this happen and thinks everything is Kalak's fault.]] |
| 146 | * A CatGirl bandit in ''Literature/MyInstantDeathAbilityIsSoOverpowered'' leads the protagonist and his friend [[LuredIntoATrap to an ambush]] by her fellow bandits and cut-throats, then [[SmugSnake mocks them for their naivety]]. After [[CurbStompBattle the protagonist kills them]] save for her and her boss, She goes OhCrap, and tries to {{exploit|edTrope}} this trope, pleading for mercy and claiming that she was {{forced into evil}} by her boss and [[IHaveAFamily talks about her poor family]]. The protagonist gives her a FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse talk and [[SubvertedTrope kills her and her boss]]. Given the DeconstructiveParody elements of the novel, this scene was probably a TakeThat against light novels' tendency to using the trope towards female villains in general. |
| 147 | -->'''Yogiri''': And you'd thought, that'd justify mugging people and selling them off? |
| 148 | * This is constantly used as an argument as to why women need to be shielded from the vices of the world in ''Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall''. Helen vehemently argues against this idea, knowing from experience that keeping women innocent will only set them up for future problems. |
| 149 | * There are no male Confessors in ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' because they would inevitably abuse their powers. [[spoiler: Male babies a confessor bears are killed shortly after birth.]] |
| 150 | * In ''Literature/MasksOfAygrima'', [[spoiler:The Lady of Pain and Fire]], though seemingly an ally of {{The Hero}}ine Mara, is a ManipulativeBitch who plots to take over Aygrima, and to that end kills hundreds of innocent people and [[spoiler:Mara's boyfriend Keitan]]. Yet despite this, she is treated as a victim of the Autarch, the male BigBad who killed her father, and he is depicted as much worse than her despite both using essentially the same tactics. |
| 151 | * In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', villains are almost always male: |
| 152 | ** This trope is really present in ''The Prophecies Begin'' arc, in which nameless bad guy cats are always, or almost always, toms. The named villains are also overwhelmingly male. Tigerstar and Scourge are the main villains of series one, and both of their chief henchcats, Darkstripe and Bone respectively, are toms as well, as is Brokenstar, the villain of early series one. Blackfoot, who later becomes Blackstar, is at his most villainous in this arc as well. |
| 153 | ** In ''The New Prophecy'' the villain is Hawkfrost, and also Mudclaw, who plots to overtake [=WindClan=]. Sharptooth, the cougar who preys on the Tribe, is also male, although not really a character so much as a monster. |
| 154 | ** ''The Power of Three'' has Sol, who wants to destroy the Clans, and Ashfur, who tries to murder three of his Clanmates. The closest thing to a female villain in this arc is Hollyleaf, who kills Ashfur. Of the Tribe invaders, half are toms and half she-cats. |
| 155 | ** In ''Omen of the Stars'', most of the villains reused from previous series are male, although some female villains finally get introduced. Mapleshade is the biggest female villain, and introduced in this series (after fans pointed out that most villains so far were dark brown tabby toms). Also appearing in the Dark Forest is the minor female character Sparrowfeather. Ivypool may also qualify, before she realizes that the Dark Forest wants to destroy the Clans. |
| 156 | ** ''Dawn of the Clans'' has the male cats Clear Sky and later One-Eye as chief villains, but also the she-cat [[spoiler:Star Flower, although she later undergoes a FaceHeelTurn]]. |
| 157 | ** The one major female villain in the series, Mapleshade, is an interesting case. Her backstory is that she was banished for a cross-Clan romance, her kittens died and she went to the Dark Forest after going on a killing spree of those she deemed to be their murderers. While it's mentioned nowhere in the actual books, a good chunk of the fandom will viciously defend Mapleshade's actions as justified because she's a grieving mother who (despite making lucid, calculated decisions pointing to a perfectly sound mind) was driven insane with grief. Not even Scourge, who's backstory is equally fleshed out and portrays him as even more sympathetic, is given this level of DracoInLeatherPants treatment with zero impute from the authors. |
| 158 | * ''Literature/TheCrimsonShadow'': The sole good person in Greensparrow's service is a woman, who's been tricked into this. After learning he killed her family, she defects to the good guys. All the rest of his minions are men, without any displaying redeeming features. |
| 159 | * ''Literature/GirlsDontHit'': {{Invoked|Trope}}, both in the book's title and the story itself. Joss is well aware that most people don't expect a ''hitwoman'', and it's a large part of why she's been very successful as one, enhancing it often by her [[HoneyTrap seducing her target]] or [[WoundedGazelleGambit somehow acting wounded]]. |
| 160 | [[/folder]] |
| 161 | |
| 162 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 163 | * In ''Series/ThirteenReasonsWhy'', not only is Hannah Baker portrayed as a blameless victim who was DrivenToSuicide by bullying and sexual harassment, even though she repeatedly makes idiotic decisions and pushes people away from her (like [[DoggedNiceGuy Clay]] and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Mr. Porter]]) for no good reason, but of the 13 people she blames on her tapes for her suicide, the women are treated as less at fault than the men: |
| 164 | ** Jessica slapped Hannah and ended their friendship over a misunderstanding, Sheri merely knocked down a stop sign while driving drunk [[spoiler:and may have killed Jeff as a result]], by complete accident, and even [[AcademicAlphaBitch Courtney]] was only trying to protect herself from homophobia. Courtney and Jessica get fully redeemed in Season 2, but then again, [[spoiler: so do Alex, Justin and Zach]]. |
| 165 | ** By contrast, not only are most of the offenders men, but they are given ''far'' less sympathy- Justin took a naughty picture of Hannah that got spread around [[spoiler:and left Jessica to be raped]], Alex added her to a “hot-or-not” list, Tyler was a creep who secretly took pictures of her [[spoiler:and almost shoots up the school in the season 2 finale]], Zach steals kind notes from her classmates and is blamed for not leaving Hannah alone even though he was just trying to console her, Ryan published a poem she had without her consent, Mr Porter is blamed for not properly consoling her even though she was being extremely vague and unhelpful, and ''[[MasterOfTheMixedMessage Clay was told by her to leave before she got mad at him for not staying]]''. |
| 166 | ** The three worst offenders, and the primary “villains” of the show, are all male; Marcus, who nearly sexually assaulted Hannah and only cares about protecting his reputation; [[spoiler:Bryce, who ''did'' rape her [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil and is the worst of the people on the tapes]]]]; and Monty, who protects [[spoiler:Bryce]] and is an AxCrazy JerkJock who witnessed Bryce raping Hannah and let it happen without a shred of remorse. |
| 167 | ** Season 2 did have the litigator on Hannah's trial be female - and devote her time to trying to destroy Hannah's reputation and paint her as a lying, manipulative slut. Not once was she given a justification for her behaviour, and in the 'Me Too' inspired sequence of female characters confessing their abuse she is not included. But the series has never had an outright female 'villain'. |
| 168 | * ''Series/{{Bones}}'' averts this [[spoiler: with TheReveal of Heather Taffet as the Gravedigger]]. |
| 169 | * ''Series/TheBoys2019'' subverts it. While the two female members on The Seven are the AllLovingHero Starlight and the BrokenBird but ultimately good Queen Maeve, Season 2 introduces Stormfront as a GoodIsNotSoft yet seemingly benevolent female role model. [[spoiler: Then she cruelly slaughters innocents and turns out to be a literal Nazi, and never gets a FreudianExcuse - becoming the first villain on the series to get an extended NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from literally half the cast.]] Even before that, Kimiko was the sole female member of The Boys; a planned super-terrorist who, although de-radicalized is very much ReformedButNotTamed, and Hughie is TheHeart and MoralityPet of the team. |
| 170 | * ''Series/CoronationStreet'': Any male character that isn't a gormless twat or a henpecked husband, or has any type of backbone, is some kind of villain, be it a wife beater, serial killer, con artist, womanizer or just your average JerkAss. In affair storylines, the woman will almost always be the sympathetic one. |
| 171 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': The episode "The Angel Maker" being about the female [[JackTheRipoff copycat]] of a male serial killer, as well as a unrelated murder attempt from a separate woman. The victim however are entirely innocent, except for the sole male victim, a corrupt prison guard and an extortionist. |
| 172 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' ran for a quarter century and had a large number of {{Big Bad}}s, yet in that time period only about 10 were women, and only one or two of them appeared in the show's first 15 seasons. The revival series is starting to subvert it with more frequent female villains. Additionally, out of all of [[ArchEnemy the Master]]'s [[TheNthDoctor iterations]], the female Missy is the only one who displays redeeming features and gets a redemption arc. (The original Master played by Roger Delgado would have had his exit with a RedemptionEqualsDeath, but tragically Delgado died before this could be filmed.) |
| 173 | * Played straight in ''Series/{{Hanna}}'' in sharp contrast to [[Film/{{Hanna}} the original film]]. Originally, CIA operative Marissa Wiegler was the pure evil BigBad, committing evil actions in pursuit of the title heroine and running a horrifying {{Tykebomb}} project. In the series, she is portrayed much more sympathetically [[spoiler:and is not even the real villain anymore, instead working for male villain Jerome Sawyer, and all her atrocities and original [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] personality are given to him instead]]. |
| 174 | * Averted in Creator/InvestigationDiscovery series ''Deadly Women''. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As the title suggests]], the show is all about female killers who usually have no sympathetic or justifiable motivation for their crimes. |
| 175 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' is an interesting case as they have had enough bad women that you would think that it is not the case. However, they continually subscribe to this theory, and look for anything that will get a woman who attacked a man off for her actions. |
| 176 | * In ''Series/MrRobot'', [[spoiler:CorruptBueraucrat Whiterose/Zhi Zhang, the BigBad, is initially depicted as a psychopath who is willing to kill thousands, but in season 4, she is revealed as being motivated by the love of her boyfriend Chen and the intolerance of the world towards transgender and LGBT+ individuals like her]]. By contrast, Fernando Vera, who becomes a major villain in that season, is depicted as pure evil, and ''his'' much worse FreudianExcuse, being sexually abused in childhood, is not treated sympathetically at all since its invalidated by him [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil being a rapist as well]]. |
| 177 | * ''Series/OnceUponATime'': |
| 178 | ** Females playing this straight include Regina - who was once kind and good but was purposefully corrupted to become the Evil Queen by Rumpelstiltskin, and eventually undergoes a HeelFaceTurn. Her sister Zelena followed suit as the show went on. Additionally Ursula the Sea Witch was once good but became evil after years of abuse from her father, and Captain Hook stealing her voice was the last straw. [[spoiler: She too gets redeemed]]. Ingrid the Snow Queen is a borderline case as although she had a sympathetic backstory, she was still presented as evil. She likewise got [[spoiler: RedemptionEqualsDeath]]. Cora, Regina and Zelena's mother, was horrifically evil in life, and yet died a tragic death and [[spoiler: ended up finding redemption in the Underworld later on]]. |
| 179 | ** Completely avoided with Cruella - who is shown to have been rotten to the core ever since childhood, the Black Fairy who is considered the Ultimate Evil despite her sympathetic traits, and Mother Gothel, whose tragic backstory is not used to justify her evil (especially given how long ago it transpired), and she is ultimately proven to be too far gone for any sort of redemption and thus KilledOffForReal in the end. |
| 180 | ** The spin-off ''Series/OnceUponATimeInWonderland'' plays it very straight. There are two female villains - Anastasia and Amara. Both have sympathetic reasons for their evil deeds and both get redeemed. This is in contrast to Jafar, who is shown as irredeemably evil. Likewise, the Jabberwocky switches sides and attempts a HeelFaceTurn (that doesn't happen due to getting sealed away again). Also, Alice's stepmother is presented as something of an antagonist but appears to be redeemed by the finale. |
| 181 | * The ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise has gotten into this for some of their female villains. Examples of them include: |
| 182 | ** Astronema, from ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' (especially since it's revealed that she's actually [[spoiler:Andros' long-lost sister Karone, who was captured and raised to be evil under Dark Specter's influence]]). |
| 183 | ** Trakeena, from ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'' (because even if she was born and raised evil, she has also proven herself that she can be genuinely honorable, as well, as opposed to someone like Deviot, who is actually '''much''' more wicked than her, which makes [[spoiler:their forced fusion rather unfortunate for her]]). |
| 184 | ** Elsa, from ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' (to the point where Mesogog [[spoiler:decided to backstab her by disowning her as his servant]]). |
| 185 | ** Camille, from ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'' (where her feelings for Dai Shi were rather misguided at the end, and has developed newer ones, but they're instead [[spoiler:for Dai Shi's ex-vessel Jarrod]]). |
| 186 | ** Tenaya, from ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' (as she's really [[spoiler:Dillon's long-lost sister who got taken away from him and grew up being malevolent in Venjix's favor, which is pretty similar to Astronema's case]]). |
| 187 | * ''Series/ASmallLight'': When the Annex is discovered and the inhabitants are taken away, the older male employees insist Miep will play to this trope to save herself. Instead, she makes use of the leader being from Vienna to gain a human connection with him. He does indeed let her go, amidst some threats. |
| 188 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': |
| 189 | ** Marla [=McGivers=] of the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed Space Seed]]" is perhaps the prototypical example of this. The episode's writers clearly want us to see her as a weak, innocent victim of Khan and [[ValuesDissonance maybe the audiences of 1967 saw her that way]]. To modern audiences, however, she often comes off as more of a DirtyCoward. |
| 190 | ** Dr. Janice Lester of "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E24TurnaboutIntruder Turnabout Intruder]]" is a power-hungry psycho who, among other things, murders her entire research party and shows no sign of remorse for it. She should be considered a serious criminal, but the episode ends with the main characters regarding her with condescending pity. Granted, she's clearly mentally ill, so she could be legitimately pitied for that. However, the pity expressed for her was definitely more along the lines of, "Poor silly girl got too uppity." |
| 191 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'': Of the 40+ {{Big Bad}}s the franchise has had so far, only four have been female. Of those four, two ([[Series/DenshiSentaiDenziman Queen Hedrian]] and [[Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger Witch Bandora]]) were likable individuals who had plenty of noble qualities to balance out their nastiness and one ([[Series/KishiryuSentaiRyusoulger Eras]]) was a full-on WellIntentionedExtremist. Then again, the other one was [[Series/KyukyuSentaiGoGoV Grand Witch Grandiene]], an EvilMatriarch who is definitely in the running for most vile villains in the series. |
| 192 | * In the [[Recap/SupernaturalS01E01Pilot pilot]] of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam tries to explain the actions of the woman in white by saying the woman was temporarily insane because of her husband's infidelity when she killed her children. |
| 193 | * In ''Series/TerraNova'', It turns out that the female sixer leader Mira is working for [[spoiler: associates of Lucas Taylor, and has more or less been coerced into the role]] in much the same way as another female "villain", [[spoiler: sixer spy Skye Tate]]. [[spoiler: Lucas Taylor]], on the other hand, causes trouble for the colony largely out of a sense of DisproportionateRetribution for [[spoiler: his father's decision years earlier that led to his mother's death]], and the associates are doing it out of [[spoiler: pure greed]]. |
| 194 | * Callisto from ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' is an aversion. She became a warlady because [[spoiler: she believed]] Xena killed her parents. |
| 195 | * This trend isn't rare in traditional sitcoms utilizing a WomenAreWiser dynamic. Even when it is time for the more rational female character to act NotSoAboveItAll it will still often be heavily provoked by their more bumbling male costar's stupidity or arrogance. |
| 196 | [[/folder]] |
| 197 | |
| 198 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 199 | * In the song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels", the lyrics state "''From the start most every heart that's ever been broken[=/=]has because there always was a man to blame''". It was written as a response song to "The Wild Side of Life", a song about a man who's fiancee left him for a man she met at a roadhouse |
| 200 | * The song "Daughters" by Music/JohnMayer is about a man who is rejected by a girl and so admonishes fathers to treat their daughters well because it will influence how she falls in love later in life - as if the only reason she could have rejected him is because her father was cold or abusive. Becomes a DoubleStandard in the bridge, which states you can "break" boys and they'll be fine, but don't you dare even raise your voice to a girl or she might turn someone down one day. |
| 201 | [[/folder]] |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[folder:Mythology and Religion]] |
| 204 | * Modern versions of Myth/ArthurianLegend seem to follow this trope very much. Most of the important female villains in ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' have sympathetic backstories and are WellIntentionedExtremist types; Morgana gets several BeingEvilSucks scenes. Likewise, in ''Series/{{Camelot}}'', Morgan gets a rather more sympathetic treatment than King Uther who is just a brutal warlord. It's debatable as ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' goes on; not only is there an overwhelming number of evil magical women on the show (compared to good magical men), but the likes of Morgana and Morgause are portrayed as consistently more one-dimensional, whilst King Uther grows considerably more sympathetic. |
| 205 | * Myth/ClassicalMythology averts this quite a bit. |
| 206 | ** [[ManipulativeBitch Apate]] is the goddess of deceit who helped kill a mortal princess on another goddess' orders. |
| 207 | ** [[EvilIsEasy Kakia]] is the goddess of vice and immorality who tried to tempt Hercules away from his heroic path. |
| 208 | ** [[PayEvilUntoEvil Nemesis]] is the goddess of retribution who exists solely to punish those who succumb to hubris. |
| 209 | ** Eris is the [[GodOfChaos goddess of chaos]] and she started the Trojan War just because she wasn't invited to a wedding. |
| 210 | ** [[DarkActionGirl Keres]] are goddesses of death who search the battlefield for wounded and dying men they can feed upon. |
| 211 | ** The myth of Pandora is basically an illustration as to how the greeks viewed women as ''evil incarnate''. |
| 212 | * In Myth/NorseMythology the "evil" female figures are almost always less evil than the men on their side. Hel is the least dangerous of Loki's offspring, and the female giants are always innocent. The only exception might be the giantess that didn't weep for Baldr (which would make her contextually the most evil and miserable character in the myths), which was most likely a shape-shifted Loki anyways. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 216 | * The musical ''Theatre/{{Lizzie}}'', based on Lizzie Borden mentioned below, ''heavily'' softens Lizzie's character to justify the murder of her father and stepmother - where she was now molested by her father (which there's no historical evidence for), as well as him being verbally abusive and cruelly killing her pet birds. Her sister Emma is portrayed as a mean person, but still loves and adores Lizzie, all to make the murder of Andrew Borden into LaserGuidedKarma. The musical also emphasises Lizzie's financial dependency on her father, all to make for a happy ending when the mentally ill spree killer gets away with murder. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 220 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' games, the only female enemy is an optional encounter in the first game. |
| 221 | * The female antagonists in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' follow this trope. Even among the demons, the female "Broodmothers" are ultimately seen as victims, abducted, raped and transformed into {{Mook Maker}}s. Much the same holds true for many male Darkspawn, but excepting one instance in the Dalish Elf origin, this isn't stressed as much. |
| 222 | ** [[spoiler:Subverted with]] Anora. Among all the possible candidates for the throne, she is presented as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure [[spoiler: unless she betrays the warden to Ser Cauthrien or suspects she won't get her way at the Landsmeet]]. Of course, shrewd [[IDidWhatIHadToDo doesn't equal innocent]]. |
| 223 | ** Flemmeth can be this depending on whose story you believe. If you believe Lelianna's story, she started out a winsome young bride who escaped an arranged marriage to be with her one true love. If you believe Morrigan's story, she was a shrewd dealer who got screwed over and did what she had to do to survive. |
| 224 | * ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' Selvaria's body count is in the hundreds of thousands, but it's made very clear that all the bad things she does are [[BigBad Maximilian]]'s fault. All the other generals under him are male; the only one who isn't portrayed as utterly evil is Jaeger, and even he's at least responsible for the actions he takes under duress. Selvaria is presented as a tragic character who, despite being by and large the most powerful being in the game, is doomed by Maximilian's mishandling of her; this is reinforced in her DLC mission, where [[FeminineWomenCanCook all she wants to do to thank one of her subordinates is cook a meal for him]]. |
| 225 | * In the latest ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games, truly villainous female bosses have become very rare and are usually depicted as an abused pawn of the real male villain. Women {{Mooks}} are also nearly never seen, but [[MenAreTheExpendableGender that's another trope]]. |
| 226 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' features Hilda, who is an intentional example of averting this trope. She's noted to have spent years hurling abuse onto her sister-in-law and niece and emotionally abuses her daughter by trying to force her to be a GoldDigger. On top of that, she's an avid supporter of the Child Hunts. The game's despicable BigBad has something of a FreudianExcuse, but that's not the case for Hilda, who freely admits to the aforementioned niece that she abused her for her own amusement. Even with the extra layers given to her in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', it's made clear that she's one of, if not THE most despicable characters in the series. |
| 227 | ** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem]]'': Both of the female villains in the remake's subplot are depicted as tragic pawns of the male villain, the teenager [[spoiler: Clarisse]] being raised from birth as an assassin and the adult woman, who raised her, [[spoiler: Eremiya]] being magically corrupted by a male villain. Both get tragic cutscenes on their deathbed. Conversely, the male assassins, [[spoiler: Legion]], [[MenAreTheExpendableGender die with much less fanfare]] despite having the same FreudianExcuse as [[spoiler: Clarisse]]. |
| 228 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' seems to only have one truly evil woman throughout the game, with any other women merely being antagonists and/or mooks. But if you receive the [=SpotPass=] chapters [[spoiler: you suddenly find out that she was mind controlled for the entire game, she then joins your team]]. To compare, [[spoiler:King Gangrel]] was a genuinely messed up individual, with a long list of atrocities to his name; he [[spoiler:joins too]], but he actually ''has'' to bear responsibility for his actions, instead of shifting the blame to someone else. In the Japanese version, SissyVillain Excellus is depicted as a Trans woman, but this is due to the mockery transgenders receive there at the time. |
| 229 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' has [[spoiler:Arete]]'s death played for tragedy, complete with a DyingAsYourself moment as she CameBackWrong by a male dragon. Her similarly possessed husband, [[spoiler:Garon]], simply dies without any moment with his children, despite it being shown in Birthright's endgame that he still remembers his children. |
| 230 | ** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Echoes: Shadows of Valentia]]'', the Remake of ''Fire Emblem Gaiden'', unlike the original, emphasizes that all the female witch enemies were sacrificed against their will by wicked men, causing an AdaptationInducedPlotHole about the existence of independent witches acting as bandits. The female boss, Nuibaba, in addition to being giving the AdaptationalAttractiveness treatment, gets a backstory in supplementary sources about how she was ForcedIntoEvil because the man she loved abused and betrayed her (but also subverts it since afterwards she became DrunkWithPower and embraced the evil within her). None of the male bosses or enemies get such backstories. |
| 231 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'': |
| 232 | *** DoubleSubversion in Book I and II. The BigBad of Book I, for a change, is a [[VillainousPrincess princess]], Veronica. However it’s made clear from the start that she is a [[DarkMagicalGirl tragic character]], and it is implied that she’s being manipulated by a voice that’s telling her to kill. Eventually she starts working with Loki, who herself [[TheDragon is working under]] the King Surtr, who [[AbusiveParents mistreats his daughters]] (both of whom are portrayed sympathetically), [[spoiler:[[EvilerThanThou betrays Veronica]], and turns out to be the bigger threat at that moment]]. |
| 233 | *** Book III, however, finally averts it for once with its BigBad, [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Hel]], who wants to kill everyone she possibly can to subjugate their souls in the land of the dead, which she rules. She also abuses her daughter Eir and never once has a sympathetic moment, making her as bad as Surtur. |
| 234 | ** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', of the [[BigBadEnsemble three main villains]], the two female ones are more sympathetic than the male one. The Flame Emperor/[[spoiler:Edelgard]] is pretty much one of the instigators of the chaos engulfing Fodlan on her own volition, albeit for the sake of [[WellIntentionedExtremist creating a better world that is free of the Crest system]], and was shaped by her horrific past caused by her power hungry uncles and other male nobles. Rhea, head of the Church of Seiros that [[spoiler:Edelgard]] wants to overthrow, is an equally WellIntentionedExtremist driven by the love of her deceased mother. Meanwhile, Thales, leader of Those Who Slither In The Dark, and his cohort Solon are depicted as pure evil, power-hungry monsters who are responsible for [[spoiler:Edelgard]] becoming the Flame Emperor in the first place. |
| 235 | ** Despite its LighterAndSofter tone, and the BigBad still being male, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'' mostly avoids this. Of the major female villains the closest to this trope is Marni, who has a FreudianExcuse and tragic send-off, but she's still a violent SpoiledBrat who disgusts her [[MirrorUniverse good alternate counterpart]]. Zephia gets an AlasPoorVillain moment but it's shared with a male villain, and her horrible actions up to that point are never forgiven. Veyle's evil SplitPersonality, which is treated as a separate character from her genuinely sweet good side, is one of the most unsympathetic in the story and no-one mourns when her good half [[DeathOfPersonality kills off this side of her.]] Abyme is a minor recurring boss and a PunchClockVillain no different from the average male enemy general, while Anna's Paralogue features a female bandit boss who isn't treated any more sympathetically than past games' male ones. |
| 236 | * The first official translation for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' describes DefectorFromDecadence Celes Chere as having "a spirit as pure as snow" even though her in-universe claim to fame is being the war criminal who burned a city. Celes ''is'' a good person (being as she joins the party out of distaste for Kefka's even worse tactics) but the retranslation's character blurb does not repeat the odd assertion that she somehow had IncorruptiblePurePureness while committing atrocities for TheEmpire. |
| 237 | * ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'': |
| 238 | ** Vanny/[[spoiler:Vanessa]], the BigBad of the game, is a SerialKiller [[JackTheRipoff following in the footsteps of]] [[WouldHurtAChild William Afton]], who has hacked the Glamrock animatronics to make them help her kill children, and she apparently has already claimed nine victims. However, the only reason she became a copycat killer in the first place is because [[spoiler:she was [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] and/or [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by William's VirtualGhost, Glitchtrap]]. It's also implied she [[AmbiguousSituation may or may not]] have grown up with an abusive father ([[spoiler:who [[AmbiguouslyRelated may or may not]] be William himself]]). In one of the game's (non-canon) endings, it is actually possible to [[spoiler:free Vanessa from William's control, resulting in a GoldenEnding where she lets Gregory free and even buys ice cream with him, and her body count is conveniently forgotten about]]. |
| 239 | ** The [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Glamrock animatronics]] deserve mention as well[[note]]Yes, they're technically genderless robots, but they're still designed and programmed with genders in mind[[/note]]; [[BigEater Glamrock Chica]], [[HairTriggerTemper Montgomery Gator]], and [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex Roxanne Wolf]], in spite of their various personality quirks, are normally not hostile towards humans, and as stated before, were hacked by Vanny, meaning they are BrainwashedAndCrazy and cannot be held accountable for attacking the player. With that being said, however, the game's backstory implies that before being hacked, Montgomery might have [[spoiler:murdered Glamrock Bonnie in order to steal his role in the band, ''and'' that he might be willing to do the same to Glamrock Freddy]]. If that's true, that would make Montgomery the TokenEvilTeammate amongst the Glamrocks, as no such implication is given to either Chica nor Roxanne. [[ZigZaggingTrope However]], [[TokenHeroicOrc Glamrock Freddy]] is also the only Glamrock who doesn't suffer from any vices, and Roxanne appears to be the token {{Jerkass}}, so there's that. |
| 240 | * Starting from the [[VideoGame/Persona3 third entry]] onward, the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series started to adopt this mindset with its villains. While male villains often are pretty vile or extreme with few exceptions, the female ones are treated either as tragic characters who end up villains due to circumstances beyond their control, or as in the case with [[spoiler:Izanami]], ultimately [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned]] but misguided. |
| 241 | ** [[VideoGame/Persona5 The fifth game]] has a large variety of minor antagonists with all manner of crimes to their names, whom the protagonists reform [[HeelFaceBrainwashing by stealing their hearts]]. These people include members of both genders, but not only are the two female major targets, Futaba[[note]]A suicidal girl who suffers from the erroneous belief that she killed her mother, and is essentially living proof that Palace rulers don't have to be evil[[/note]] and [[spoiler:Sae Niijima]][[note]]A cynical and bitter woman who hasn't committed any of the same crimes as the other major antagonists, and reforms on her own volition after a heartfelt plea from her younger sister, who saw stealing her heart as a way to save her[[/note]], sympathetic, but while many of the other females you target are terrible people, they aren't nearly as monstrous as the worst of the males. |
| 242 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 243 | ** Female {{Big Bad}}s are few and far between, even when Dr. Eggman is being usurped from his usual position by various eldritch monsters or other more "normal" villains. The most noticeable one, [[spoiler:Merlina from ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight'']], also has the honor of being an AntiVillain ''and'' a WellIntentionedExtremist, something almost no other villain can claim to be. |
| 244 | ** Among the Eggman Empire, Sage is easily their most sympathetic member alongside [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Gamma]] prior to the robot's HeelFaceTurn, and acts as their TokenGoodTeammate. She's also the only creation of Eggman that he actually cares about on an emotional level as opposed to merely stroking his ego. |
| 245 | ** The only noticeable [[AvertedTrope aversion]] is Zeena of the Deadly Six who is as villainous as the rest of her comrades. |
| 246 | * The original ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' averted this with Locust Queen Myrrah, the BigBad who was a monster out to KillAllHumans. Then ''Gears 5'' gives her a backstory that fully exemplifies this trope, pretty much blaming all her actions (and the actions of the New Queen [[spoiler:Reyna]]) on the male [[spoiler:Niles Sampson]], who abused and experimented on both of them until they went insane. In addition, her male general, RAAM, is a misanthropic madman who actively manipulates Myrrah into following his agenda, while the Locust Ukkon, despite ''having the exact same backstory'' of being experimented upon as a child, never has his backstory really delved into and is treated as just a MadScientist who admires his torturers and wants to carry on their legacy. |
| 247 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has few female villains that aren't minions of the BigBad, and the first female BigBad, Lusamine from ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', has a FreudianExcuse, an offscreen HeelFaceTurn, and is EasilyForgiven even when her crimes surpassed the male [[AntiVillain Anti Villains]] Archie and Maxie. ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' took this even further, as Lusamine is less evil and is usurped as main villain by Necrozma, is more clearly forgiven and understands her mistakes, and is kidnapped by DiabolicalMastermind Giovanni and needs to be rescued in the Rainbow Rocket episode. |
| 248 | ** In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', the seemingly-evil Pokemon [[HeroWithBadPublicity Ogerpon]] is portrayed as being female-only and is revealed to be a good Pokemon the whole time, while the Loyal Three Pokemon, Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezendipiti, are all male, and, [[spoiler:alongside their genderless leader Pecharunt]], are all ''outright evil'' for Pokemon standards, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity with their "heroic" status being just a mere facade concealing their true natures.]] |
| 249 | * ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'': While the [[WorldOfActionGirls playable heroes are all female]], the BigBad currently in control of Schicksal is the son of the Grand Overseer, Otto Apocalypse. Herrscher of the Void is shown to have become evil from the experiments done by the Grand Overseer and scientists of Schicksal. Although [[CivilizationDestroyer Herrschers]] in general are usually female, [[spoiler: they're suggested to be controlled by the genderless Will of the Honkai and some of them aren't evil at all]]. |
| 250 | * Both the ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' games and anime, being a PantyFighter, has a largely female cast anyway, but the series gives a FreudianExcuse to explain why each of the antagonist girls became villainous or antagonistic, and they are all {{Anti Villain}}s at worst. Homura, Yumi, Miyabi, and their subordinates are all good people deep down [[spoiler:and being used by a male villain]]. Even [[spoiler:Orochi]] and the other [[EldritchAbomination yoma]] are made of the suffering spirits of female shinobi. By contrast, the BigBad for much of the series, and the only major villain who is meant to be hated without being given any kind of justification for his actions, is the male [[spoiler:Dogen]], who is just a self-centered, wannabe world conqueror with no redeeming qualities. And by the end of both series, [[spoiler:all the “evil” girls team up with the heroines in a EnemyMine situation against him]]. This also extends to the girls’ backstories, as many of them involve being victimized by men (Ikaruga by her brother Murasame, Homura by her mentor Komichi, Haruka indirectly by her father) who, with the eventual exception of Murasame, are also [[AllAbusersAreMale not given any characterization beyond one-dimensional abusers]], and aside from that, Ikaruga and Haruka’s fathers are shown to be terrible, greedy people. The sequels do introduce [[spoiler:Jasmine]] and Fubiki as female, independent BigBad characters, but the former does not do anything particularly evil, while the latter wants to [[FinalSolution genocide all Shinobi]], but is motivated by [[spoiler:the loss of her family at the hands of shinobi]]. And both [[spoiler:do a HighHeelFaceTurn by the end]]. |
| 251 | * In the ''VideoGame/ExaPico'' series, despite half of the {{Big Bad}}s being female, every single female antagonist is sympathetic in some way, with some of them even doing a HeelFaceTurn; while all of the despicable {{Hate Sink}}s (with the exception of the gender-ambiguous [[spoiler:Other Player]]) are men, and are also often the reason that the villainesses turned evil. |
| 252 | * Le Paradox's gang in ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'' is composed of four males and two females, and this trope is zig-zagged. [[TheDragon Miss Decibel]] is the most sympathetic of the group, as she worked for Le Paradox out of MadLove, and when he [[UsingYouAllAlong rejects]] and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness abandons her]], and she ends up in prison, she decides to reform. [[KnightOfCerebus Penelope]], in contrast, is the ''least'' sympathetic of the group, and arguably of ''all'' the villains of [[Franchise/SlyCooper the franchise]]. She is [[ItsAllAboutMe purely selfish]] and [[TheSociopath sociopathic]], the mastermind behind Le Paradox's time tunnel, and ends the game as the GreaterScopeVillain, replacing [[BigBad Clockwerk]] as the Cooper Gang's [[ArchEnemy most hated enemy]]. |
| 253 | * ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': |
| 254 | ** Although the majority of playable characters are female, only four of [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad The Eleven Fatui Harbingers]] are women [[spoiler: (one of which is dead)]]. The god the Fatui answer to, the Tsaritsa, is also a woman, but it's made clear that her evil stems from past trauma. It's also rare to see any females in other hostile groups, such as Treasure Hoarders. Main antagonist in Chapter II is a woman, but she isn't truly evil and [[spoiler: soon becomes our ally]]. |
| 255 | ** Whenever a quest requires some one-time villainous or just {{Jerkass}} NPC, it's almost always going to be a man. Additionally, if there's an NPC we are trying to help, they will usually be female. |
| 256 | *** "A Teapot to Call Home" quest is about helping a woman from Liyue who has lost a necklace belonging to a Snezhnayan merchant. Later Yanfei and Traveler discover proofs that he was trying to scam her. |
| 257 | *** In Zhongli's Story Quest, Zhongli and Traveler go to Sal Terrae together with Kliment and Wanyan, both of whom claim to be archaeologists. Kliment, a Fatui Agent, is clearly greedy and egoistic, breaks the contract with Wanyan and tries to steal her artifact, for which he gets beaten up. Wanyan was also lying, but had a much more noble goal: [[spoiler: she's a follower of God of Salt and was trying to find out the truth about her past]]. When Zhongli decides to punish her for breaking the contract too, Paimon even insists he absolutely cannot hit her. |
| 258 | *** Before the introduction of Lessig, Eula is the [[TokenGoodTeammate only sympathetic member]] of the [[AristocratsAreEvil Lawrence family]]. Her Story Quest requires us to deal with her extremely arrogant and disdainful uncle Schubert who [[spoiler:conspires with the Fatui in order to restore the clan to power in Mondstadt]]. |
| 259 | *** In Ayato's Story Quest, we're trying to prevent a marriage between the heads of Hiiragi and Kujou clans. It turns out to be a political plot by Matsuura, a member of the Hiiragi clan, who also kidnaps one of their soldiers and threatens Ayato. We manage to stop him and help the manipulated would-be bride gain better authority in her family. |
| 260 | *** In Archon Quest Chapter III, Dunyarzad and Nilou are organizing the Sabzeruz Festival, but a sage from the Akademiya and a member of his retinue come in to forbid it. Later, Nahida reveals that the female one is less evil and a good candidate for a person who might help them. Indeed, Setaria feels guilty about [[spoiler:the experiment done on Sumeru citizens and betraying her homeland]]. |
| 261 | * ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' does this with its BigBad characters. The first game's villain, Lord Brevon, is nothing but an evil GalacticConqueror and warmonger who is willing to harm children, and his desire to save his home world is solely so he can keep ruling it. ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet2'''s villain, Merga, is a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds whose attempted revenge on the earth dragons is motivated by revenge for the genocide she was the SoleSurvivor of, and being separated from her lover, [[spoiler:and unlike Brevon, she can do a HeelFaceTurn]]. |
| 262 | [[/folder]] |
| 263 | |
| 264 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 265 | * ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': |
| 266 | ** Downplayed in the first game. [[spoiler:Dee Vasquez]], the only female culprit in that game, killed the victim in self-defense... because the victim was trying to kill her over blackmailing him for his involvement in someone's death, which may or may not have been accidental, so neither the killer nor the [[AssholeVictim victim]] comes off looking very good. The other killers, who are exclusively male, are mostly unsympathetic, although [[spoiler:Yanni Yogi]] is a TragicVillain who's motivated by {{revenge}}. |
| 267 | ** Subverted in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations''. At first, [[spoiler:Dahlia]]'s tendencies date back to being neglected as a child. But not only was she horrible even as a child (sending [[spoiler:her twin sister Iris]] to a monastery just so she can be center of attention) but her issues go back to the turmoil within the women of the Fey Clan. And [[spoiler:the abuser was her mother]]. |
| 268 | ** Also downplayed in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', [[spoiler:Alita Tiala]] is a rather unpleasant person who [[spoiler:married a dying young man in order to inherit his wealth]], but ended up killing an AssholeVictim, so she isn't quite as vile as the HateSink male killers in this game. |
| 269 | ** The series in general plays with this, as while most female murderers are just as petty and greedy as the male murderers, they are much, ''much'' less common than the male ones, at a ratio of roughly 4 or 5 to 1. Of those relative few, only 2 are the BigBad in their game. And ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' has [[spoiler:''no'' female culprits as well as more female defendants wrongly accused(although Juniper is the defendant in two trials, and Athena is accused of two separate murders in the last trial), although it is the only game in the series to do so]]. |
| 270 | * [[spoiler:Subverted]] in ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}''. The heroes, the crew of the titular ship, are [[AmazonBrigade all female]] with the exception of [[TheCaptain Kayto]]. Meanwhile, the BigBad is the {{ma|levolentMaskedMen}}sked [[GalacticConqueror dictator]] Veniczar Arcadius, and the local EvilEmpire, [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny PACT]], has two other leaders/Veniczars, both of whom are male. The [[TheSmurfettePrinciple sole female]] among Arcadius’ cohorts isn’t even an official leader, but a space pirate hired by PACT. She’s also the most sympathetic, as her backstory involves her being born on a nigh-inhospitable planet and forced to drink dirty water just to live. She comes across as a prime candidate for a HighHeelFaceTurn, [[spoiler:but she has to be forced into one]]. Veniczar Kuushana, the official female Veniczar, eventually [[DefectorFromDecadence left PACT]] due to being disgusted with Arcadius’ actions. And the GreaterScopeVillain ([[spoiler:Crow Harbor]]) is a male. [[spoiler:''However'', this is turned on it’s head by TheReveal that Arcadius [[SamusIsAGirl is a woman]] by the name of Alice Ashada, and the commander of an [[AmazonBrigade all-female]] HiveMind known as the [[ArtificialHuman Prototypes]]. The HiveQueen is also a girl, called Alpha. Finally, working with the Prototypes is [[TheMole Claude, the female doctor]] of the ''Sunrider''; she is actually a powerful {{Jerkass God|s}} who’s primary motivation is [[ItAmusedMe amusement]]. Add in Lynn, Chigara’s [[ManipulativeBitch manipulative]] EvilTwin, and the [[DarkActionGirl female villains]] actually ''[[WorldOfActionGirls outnumber]]'' the male ones.]] |
| 271 | * ''VisualNovel/RoseGunsDays'' has not a single female villain among its extensive cast of both males and females. All the villains are male, while the only antagonistic woman, Amanda, is [[spoiler:revealed to be GoodAllAlong]]. It’s rather odd since Creator/Ryukishi07’s [[Franchise/WhenTheyCry other]] two [[Manga/TheUnforgivingFlowersBlossomInTheDeadOfNight works]] are known for their CuteAndPsycho female villains. |
| 272 | * ''VisualNovel/AkaiIto'' and ''VisualNovel/AoiShiro'' are [[YuriGenre Girl's Love]] visual novels so most of the characters are female, yet none of them are true villains while the BigBad in each is male. The former has female CreepyTwins Nozomi and Mikage, but they are both pawns working for the male BigBad Nishi. KEI-kun, the only other major male character, [[spoiler:gets possessed by Nishi]]. In the latter, the only major male character is the BigBad Ba Rouryuu. |
| 273 | * In ''VisualNovel/ShinraiBrokenBeyondDespair'', [[spoiler:while the mastermind behind the murder plot is a girl(who's also the first victim)]], most of the males are less sympathetic than the females. Hiro is an arrogant {{Jerkass}} who doesn't even treat his own girlfriend Momoko well, [[spoiler:and his womanizing ways end up driving her to murder]]. Kotoba is a notorious pervert that only his best friend Taiko can stand, and when it turns out that [[spoiler:he not only was manipulated into becoming Momoko's accomplice, but had also been stalking her]], Taiko can't defend him anymore. Even Taiko, despite usually being a NiceGuy, becomes somewhat more hostile and quick to point fingers after [[spoiler:Kotoba dies or is badly burned]]. As for the girls, even Kamen, the biggest jerk out of all of them, [[spoiler:as well as the prime suspect for the murder]], becomes a much more sympathetic character once her backstory is revealed at the end, [[spoiler:and even Momoko, the murderer, is ultimately a tragic figure]]. |
| 274 | [[/folder]] |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 277 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]]. With the exception of TokenGoodTeammate Hazel, most of the female villains are treated with more sympathy and deemed more innocent than their male counterparts. This is most apparent with the StarterVillain Roman and his cohort Neo. Despite both having a fair share of deaths, crimes and atrocities to their names, Roman is portrayed as a low life thug selling out everyone to survive, which he does not, while Neo is given sympathy and shown to be a lost soul raging at whoever she can direct her hate at with Roman gone, and given a nod of understanding from the heroes and allowed to find her own path after her time as a villain was over. This in spite of the fact that she did far more villainous actions because she was around longer. Subverted with [[BigBad Salem]] and [[TheDragon Cinder]], because while they do have sympathetic backstories, the plot clearly treats them as having flown too far past the MoralEventHorizon to be redeemed. And the story isn’t afraid of having them commit horrifying atrocities without a hint of hesitation, guilt or remorse, such as [[spoiler: The destruction of Mantle and Atlas in Volume 8]]. |
| 278 | [[/folder]] |
| 279 | |
| 280 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 281 | * In ''Webcomic/DanasStory'', which is [[BasedOnATrueStory based on a real interview from the mother of a family of refugees fleeing war in Syria]] show an example of this in action in real life. When Dana and her young son's are arrested 7 times along with the group of refugees she's travelling with in Macedonia she says she, her [[ChildrenAreInnocent sons]], and the other women and children are scared but left alone by the police. The adult men however are brutally beaten by police. |
| 282 | [[/folder]] |
| 283 | |
| 284 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 285 | * ''Franchise/Ben10'': |
| 286 | ** Charmcaster had notably became this during ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', in opposition to two male villains: |
| 287 | *** Addwaitya (primarily because he ruthlessly killed her father Spellbinder, to which Addwaitya's own living soul would've helped in reviving Spellbinder himself). |
| 288 | *** Michael Morningstar/Darkstar (as he's seducing her just for the mana, not only to gain his physical beauty back, but also to become more powerful than he ever was before). |
| 289 | ** In "The Most Dangerous Game Show", the third-to-last episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', almost the entirety of the females in Ben's Rogues Gallery (including Charmcaster) help save him when he's in a pinch as a way to return the favor of him helping them. It's highly unlikely many of the male villains would have done the same. |
| 290 | * Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' where out of the five female characters in the MinimalistCast, only ''one'' is a consistent NiceGirl while out of the seven males, four get the consistent NiceGuy treatment. |
| 291 | ** The three Kanker Sisters are almost AlwaysChaoticEvil in their portrayals, being bullies to the kids and each other, alongside their consistent sexual harassment of the Eds. Sarah is a [[SpoiledBrat spoiled]] BrattyHalfPint that terrorizes her brother, knowing her mother favors her over Ed, and attacks the Eds even when they haven't done anything wrong. By contrast, only Nazz is sympathetic in her motives and actions. |
| 292 | ** As for the males, Ed and Edd are examples of DumbIsGood and TokenGoodTeammate, their questionable actions never exceeding Eddy's and only done via his influence. Jonny too falls under DumbIsGood and tries to be a superhero at one point to protect the kids from the Eds' scams, but even then can get along with the Eds when the situation calls for it. Rolf meanwhile tries to be civil to the Eds, his negative moments only arising when people intentionally or unintentionally insult him and his culture. By contrast, Eddy and Kevin are TheNapoleon and JerkJock. Even then, Eddy doesn't always go out of his way to harm others, [[spoiler: and his influences are the result of his BigBrotherBully]]. Kevin also isn't entirely unjustified whenever he attacks unprovoked, given that Eddy ''is'' generally always trying to scam him, with it being hinted that he'd get along fine with Edd if he ditched his leader. Jimmy fluctuates between innocent and potentially eviler than Eddy depending on the situation, using his reputation to get what he wants. |
| 293 | *** However, the most irredeemable character on the show is likely [[spoiler: Eddy's Brother]] who is a major tyrant and [[spoiler: BigBrotherBully]] that is responsible for [[spoiler: Eddy's]] worse behaviour. Even then he may still only share his spot with the Kankers given that the Kankers [[spoiler: don't seem to have actually learned their lesson that sexual harassment is wrong by the end of the movie]]. |
| 294 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' sometimes invokes this when it comes to Lois' flawed behavior. A lot of her more self righteous or aggressive bouts are shown to be provoked by Peter's selfish or obnoxious antics, even if many of her reactions are disproportionate. Later episodes just skip the formalities and just make Lois an even bigger JerkAss than Peter, even if her losing it as a result of his behavior isn't that unlikely. |
| 295 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Harley Quinn|2019}}'': |
| 296 | ** Averted by [[Characters/HarleyQuinn2019TheCharacter Harley]], as the show makes a point of showing that she was always a rather sick, twisted individual even as a child and was not at all corrupted by the Joker. Poison Ivy even calls it comforting to find out that Harley was really always that way. |
| 297 | ** Also averted by the Queen of Fables, who's an independent female villain who's significantly more depraved than the majority of male villains in the show. |
| 298 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheKarateKid'', "Homecoming": Tina helps her jerk boyfriend Brick steal the shrine, but she clearly doesn't like doing it and tries to keep him from hurting Daniel in the process. |
| 299 | * Frequently played with or subverted in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': |
| 300 | ** In the first episode, while watching a riot that resulted from the alien invasion, Wonder Woman remarks on how savage "man's world" is (comparing it to her all-female home of Themyscira). J'onn immediately tells her not to judge them so harshly because "they're scared", and points out that amid the rioting an equal number of people are rushing to the help of others and digging victims from the rubble. |
| 301 | ** Subverted with Tala, who longed for affection, would obsessively cling to whichever man was in charge, and obediently follow his orders. [[spoiler:She gets ''no'' sympathy from anyone: she's depicted as pathetic more than anything, it's made quite clear she's a bad person regardless, and she ends up as a LivingBattery for Lex Luthor's machine and brutally electrocuted to death.]] |
| 302 | * Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTarzan'' has Lady Waltham (from the episode "Gauntlet of Vengeance"), Clayton's long-lost sister who had took the path of vengeance because she thought that Tarzan was the one who mercilessly killed her brother (even though it was Clayton's own fault for his death), which involves poisoning Tarzan himself. Thankfully, after the latter saved her from being attacked by the black panthers Nuru and Sheeta despite being affected by the poison she gave to him earlier, she decided to [[HeelFaceTurn change for the better]] by curing him with the antidote she had been holding against him before, realizing that he was "not the monster" that she thought of at first. In addition to that, she also felt remorseful about her malicious actions throughought her appearance in the show, mainly towards Tarzan, where he, alongside his companions, [[EasilyForgiven decided to forgive her]] for that. |
| 303 | * Generally played straight in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': Most female antagonists are treated quite sympathetically. Volcana, for example, was really a victim of a rogue government agent who was trying to turn her into a living weapon: Superman even lets her go at the end of the episode despite the crimes she'd committed. Maxima isn't evil, she's just a RoyalBrat who's [[AllAmazonsWantHercules horny for Superman]]. The really vile female villains are Granny Goodness and the Female Furies, who, of course, are minions (and consequently victims) of [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]]. The only female antagonist who really averts the trope is Livewire, who's just an all around miserable person before she gains powers and goes PsychoElectro afterword. |
| 304 | * ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': [[Characters/TotalDramaHeather Heather]] somewhat became this during ''World Tour'', where she's that season's protagonist, in which her main rival is Alejandro, who's instead that same season's primary antagonist (especially at the moment when they became its finalists). In addition to that, Al's overall malevolent presence during ''World Tour'' itself makes Heather look more like a saint in comparison to him (which is one of the reasons why her winning moment during her own ending as a finalist is ''WAY'' more satisfactory than his). |
| 305 | [[/folder]] |
| 306 | |
| 307 | [[folder:Real Life and Pop Culture]] |
| 308 | * The infamy of one UsefulNotes/LizzieBorden is largely due to this trope. In 1892, this trope was widely accepted and thus the public was shocked by the very idea of an upper-class lady committing such a violent crime against her own parents. This helped in securing her acquittal, despite a firm case for her guilt, while even feminist groups of the time backed Borden through disbelief that a women was capable of such brutal murders. |
| 309 | * Male betta fish are very territorial and will not hesitate to attack another male betta (and other showy fish, such as male guppies) that's placed in their tank. But what a lot of people don't realize is that although it's certainly possible to keep female bettas together, it's very difficult because they too are territorial (remember, bettas are not schooling fish). The first week is often the worst, as they fight to figure out a pecking order. Some can't even handle being with other fish and need to be kept separate, just like males. If you want to attempt a sorority tank, it's best to have a large tank, with lots of plants and other places for the fish to escape to. |
| 310 | * This trope is a reason why female [[SuicideAttack suicide bombers]] tend to gain particular notoriety. They can bypass security more easily, dress themselves in a way to conceal their equipment and many are hesitant to perform body searches, making them BeneathSuspicion. Female suicide bombers are also statistically shown to receive more coverage and sympathy than their male counterparts, as well as being used by the group associated with them to highlight that the GodzillaThreshold has been crossed and now even the women have to fight. There have even been ''pregnant'' suicide bombers, taking this [[ExaggeratedTrope to an extremely tragic level]], since few people could imagine such a thing. |
| 311 | * A notable way this trope often appears in pop culture (and intersects with MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial and MenAreTheExpendableGender) is the many games, movies and television shows that feature both men and women as members of the heroes' team/army, or a team of all women as the heroes, but an all-male opposing force. Not main characters, just {{Mooks}} and [[RedshirtArmy Redshirt Armies]]. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' did this, for example, with Balamb Garden and the Galbadian Army. ''Film/StarTrek2009'' and its sequel ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' featured both sexes as part of the heroic Federation, but a single blink-and-you-miss-it villainous female Romulan as a background character in the former and no female crewmembers whatsover aboard the villainous USS Vengeance in the latter. |
| 312 | * Captive wolves and hybrid wolf-dogs agree with this sentiment, and are generally more fearful around unfamiliar men than unfamiliar women. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
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