Affably Evil / Western Animation

"I hate to admit it, but for an evil villain, you have been very hospitable."

— Dojo to Chase Young, Xiaolin Showdown

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• In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius:
  • Professor Finbarr Calamitous, as well as his daughter, Beautiful Gorgeous.
  • Grandma Taters, an alien grandma who would just as happily knit Jimmy a hat or offer him fudge as turn him and the entire city of Retroville into cheerful, mindless meat puppets. She also doubles as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who just wants everyone to be happy. It is implied that she eats brains, but even this is played affably, with others of her kind offering her "brain juice" to console her over her failure.
• Adventure Time:
  • Marceline, the Vampire Queen, who, despite possibly being evil, is so affable that she's one of the most popular characters on the show. She does use her mean side about as much as her nice side, but she's generally mean in a "bullying older sibling" kind of way.
    • In one episode Finn becomes Marceline's slave to help out her old slave, and she makes him do a number of scary things (which all turn out to have good reasons). Such evil things include raising an army of the dead (so that they can go to a party), and slaying a cute living plant (which turns out to be a man-eating monster). They become friends afterwards.
  • Her father, Hunson Abadeer, is incredibly friendly as well despite pretty much being the show's equivalent to Satan. It must run in the family. Though really he's a good mix of this and Faux Affably Evil, he can appear as friendly when he wants, but a lot of the times it's just to unnerve his victims to let their guards down or terrify them. Even around his own daughter all that pleasant talk he did was just to manipulate her into taking his place in the Nightosphere. He does love his daughter and can be genuinely nice at times, but it's more a ruse than not, and he loves her in a rather unhealthy way.
    • Though averted in the Official Adventure Time Encyclopaedia, which is written in-universe by Hunson, and written in real-life by his actor Martin Olson. Every character profile (except for Marceline) is him talking about how disgusting and beneath him they all are and that they won't be spared when he conquers Ooo.
  • Peppermint Butler is definitely evil, but he's friendly and genuinely loyal to Princess Bubblegum.
• Amphibia: The main villain, King Andrias juggles with this, Faux Affably Evil and being a stoic villain, as his true personality is a fun goofball. However, thanks to the Core manipulating him into becoming evil, he's forced to put on a much more detached, aloof persona. His presentation before Marcy, and later Anne, is his more genuine side, although he is still using the girls to get the Calamity Box back in his hands. Sometimes, he instinctively acts courteous to his enemies, such as wishing Anne a merry Christmas as she uses the phrase as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, whereas other times it's much more clearly skin-deep. The "evil" part was averted before his friends' betrayal, where he was actually disturbed to learn the true extent of what Amphibia's royalty does to keep the empire afloat, and after his Heel–Face Turn in the finale, after which he now strives to restore the nature of Amphibia that was destroyed by him and his ancestors.
• Archer: Most villains seem like this compared to the Jerkass parade that is the main cast.
  • Characters who turn out to be Evil All Along will still remain just as polite post-reveal as after. Rona Thorne, Conway Stern, and Charles and Rudy are good examples.
  • Krieger is a lunatic Mad Scientist who frequently experiments on people without their consent, insists he isn't a serial killer and has been implied to be a clone of Adolf Hitler. He's also the only member of the main cast who could be legitimately described as "friendly", and gets along well not only with all of his coworkers but with many of the other villains as well.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Iroh appears to be this in the first season. A mellow, easy-going, Cool Old Guy who loves tea, Pai Sho, and just relaxing. He also just happens to work for Zuko, his Troubled, but Cute Anti-Villain nephew, though he's never seen doing anything particularly evil — notably the "worst" thing he ever does on-screen is swipe a bottle of perfume from an abbey during a fight. He rarely even helps Zuko make any major progress toward capturing the Avatar and instead devotes himself almost entirely to either treating his exile as a vacation or looking out for his nephew's wellbeing. It turns out that he secretly did a Heel–Face Turn several years ago and since then, he's never supported the Fire Nation in their quest to Take Over the World. He's also a prominent figure of the Order of the White Lotus and it's implied he's spent the entire time with Zuko trying to nudge the troubled kid toward a Heel–Face Turn as well, something he's ultimately successful at.
    • Pre-Heel–Face Turn, though, he fit this trope to a T. In one flashback, he's seen writing a kind letter to his family in the Fire Nation while leading a brutal siege against Ba Sing Se (in the letter, he even casually jokes about the possibility of burning the city to the ground). Later during this siege, his son died, and this seems to have triggered his Heel–Face Turn, possibly because of the uncomfortable realization that this is the kind of emotional trauma that he's been inflicting on Earth Kingdom families and families of his own nation for years on end.
  • Ty Lee, a ditzy, cheerful Genki Girl who just happens to work for Azula. Though she also gets a Heel–Face Turn in the end.
  • Evil Chancellor Long Feng is a perfectly reasonable man, willing to give his enemies multiple opportunities to surrender, and an excellent host. As long as you don't try and mess with his Government Conspiracy.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Varrick perfectly represents this trope. He is normally very cheerful and helpful to our heroes, but when it benefits him financially, he won't hesitate to backstab them. He is arrested in the end for the attempted kidnapping of the president thanks to Bolin and Mako, but he still treats Team Avatar as if they were friends and is flabbergasted when he finds out they're mad at him for what he just finished doing.
    • Zaheer from Season 3 is very polite and civil, even towards his jailers. When confronted by Korra about why he attempted to kidnap her and his reasons for what he's doing, he is very polite to her and compliments her and her ideology. He may want complete societal collapse and he was just stalling Korra in the Spirit World to kidnap her, but Zaheer's still a complete gentleman. Of course, he still proves to be a very dangerous man, murdering The Earth Queen, holding the amateur airbenders hostage, and nearly killing Korra by forcing poison into her body. After a few years in jail, however, he ends up being the one who brings Korra out of her funk, since he clearly regrets the role he played in bringing Kuvira to power.
    • Ghazan of the Red Lotus also comes off as such and has a perfectly pleasant conversation with Bolin, much to Mako's dismay. He also later compliments Bolin on his mastery of Lavabending, coming off as genuinely impressed.
      Mako: Bolin, will you stop making friends with the bad guys?
• Bojack Horseman's business tycoon Jeremiah Whitewhale is downright avuncular and friendly as he explains to Diane that he doesn't mind her journalistic expose of his evil business practices at all — since anything she writes will only make him more respected as a cutthroat businessman, and as a billionaire he can (and does) literally get away with murder.
• Despite appearing to kidnap you if you say his name, Candlejack is really a pleasant villain. He makes witty comments, thanks one of his victims for calling his name, and has a soft spot for pumpkin p Why, thank you.
• Centaurworld: Played With in episode "The Last Lullaby". The Nowhere King is outwardly psychotic and cruel, with little redeeming qualities other than his alleged soft spot for the Mysterious Woman. However, somewhere in his mind, the Elk (a manifestation of his conscience) has many genuinely good or fun traits, despite being a part of the Nowhere King. He's rather polite to Horse, somewhat friendly, and has the quirk of fawning over food memories.
• Clone High: The Board of Shadowy Figures, particularly its leader (voiced by co-creator Bill Lawrence). He always speaks in a calm voice when talking to Scudworth and retains a dry sense of humor throughout the dinner in episode 4. This still does not eclipse the fact that he strongly considers killing Scudworth and maintaining strong control over the clones, whom he regards as little more than objects, rather than humans, to serve as a super army for future purposes. In spite of this, he and the other members try their best to assure the clones can live in a peaceful environment and have as normal a teenage life as possible.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: Stickybeard is a Friendly Enemy to Numbuh 5. In "Operation: A.F.L.O.A.T.", he saves the kids from a Great White Asparagus because he believes that nobody should suffer that fate, not even his worst enemies.
• Cow and Chicken: The Red Guy. Despite being a devil, he's rather a mischievous and jerkish troublemaker instead of evil, but he can also be polite, friendly and even helpful.
• The Crumpets has Uncle Hurry and Aunt Harried. While being a rich couple who deceptively make money off the namesake family and the public besides other bad things, they are polite and charismatic.
• Darkwing Duck:
  • Compared to the likes of NegaDuck, Quackerjack, and Megavolt, Bushroot seems downright sweet, stemming from his origin as a meek, much-bullied scientist — as long as you don't get in the way of his search to find/make his one true love. He also has the honour of being the only villain on the show to murder someone onscreen.
  • Megavolt just isn't consistent enough in his worldview to realise that his penchant for mayhem contrasts with his personable attitude whenever he comes in direct contact with anyone who is not hostile in any way, which leads him to threatening people with death by electricity one moment and gratefully thanking others for directions the next.
• King K. Rool in the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. One episode where a movie was being made had him cast as the hero.
• Viggo in Dragons: Race to the Edge. He's polite, thoughtful, rarely loses his temper (although he's had Not So Stoic moments) and sees the conflict as a Maces and Talons game (the local version of chess) between himself and his Worthy Opponent Hiccup. Lampshaded by the twins:
  Ruffnut: You gotta love the way he talks. "Hiccup, I'm afraid our time together has come to an end. I must now kill you, if you have no objections."
  Tuffnut: Yeah, like he's not going to have objections! And then he'll go "All of your dragonriders must also go, with my sincerest apologies."
• The Urpneys of The Dreamstone, serving the monstrous Zordrak is enough to give them sympathy value, but the majority of them are pitiful slobs that have little interest in their evil duties and a lot of the time make nonchalent small talk to the heroes (in particular Spildit, who has problems recognising they are even bad guys). Even more conniving Elite Mooks such as Sgt Blob and Urpgor are this in spades.
• On The Fairly Oddparents, Doug Dimmadome is rather friendly if you're not getting in the way of his goals.
• Family Guy:
  • Stewie is this in the post revival episodes, unlike his old character who was more Faux Affably Evil. While he was once a Token Evil Teammate, he has now become much nicer over the course of the series.
  • Not to mention Mr. John Herbert as Stewie puts it "Well, there's a pedophile up the street that nobody seems to be doing anything about, but it's mainly because he's so funny".
  • Glenn Quagmire is a rapist, an ephebophile and an all-around nastier predator than Mr. Herbert. But he’s also the most outgoing and friendly of Peter’s friends who has even struck up a genuine friendship with Meg, even waiting until she was 18 before he could... deflower her... and by consent no less!
• Father of the Pride has Sarmoti, who, despite his naturally grumpy personality, has helped Larry more than once when Larry is in a sticky situation. Though Sarmoti claims to hate Larry, he is more annoyed by him than purely hateful.
• Futurama:
  • The Robot Devil is actually, most of the time, rather polite as a character, despite being a robot Satan, and the depths to which Bender sinks at times leave even him appalled. He even included his own hands in his roulette wheel of choices when Fry asks for a better pair.
  • Professor Farnsworth. A Running Gag is his cheerfully telling his crew "Good news, everyone!" right before sending them on suicide missions for profit. He tends to become less gleeful if they actually die, though, and he won't send his crew to a planet where one of his previous crews died (unless they volunteer to go). Whenever someone more evil tries to take over or destroy the Earth, he's always on the front line to defend humanity, despite openly admitting that he always knew he would one day be responsible for its destruction.
• Gargoyles was very good about having layered and complex villains, particularly for a kids' show. David Xanatos seems to like the gargoyles and doesn't really mind them always ruining his plans, either because he somehow wins anyway or because he considers Revenge "a sucker's game" anyway. Macbeth, while not as friendly, actually is closer to the gargoyles in terms of morality, though he's willing to go to extreme ends to achieve his goals.
• Gravity Falls:
  • A number of more incidental monsters qualify as well. Special mention to the unnamed giant one-armed head, who is so affable, he asks nicely if you'll get in his mouth before eating you, and is even perfectly amenable, if very disappointed, to taking no for an answer (although he does get very irritated if you're rude enough to ignore him).
  • Zombie Soos, to the point where he stops mid-zombie-rampage to watch TV.
    Zombie Soos: Second thought, gonna flip the script; can I eat your brains, Yay or nay? Seein' some Yay faces over here.
• Green Eggs and Ham (2019): "Evil" may be a stretch, but even though this version of Sam-I-Am is a scam artist and an animal smuggler, his friendly attitude towards Guy and everyone is genuine and clearly doesn't want to do what he's doing. He later pulls a Heel–Face Turn, becoming a Nice Guy.
• Death of The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse on The Hollow. When the kids imply Mira might be able to save his horse, he immediately offers them refreshments and a place to rest. The second it looks like it might be too late for Mira to do anything about his sick pet however, he goes right back to threatening them.
• Hazbin Hotel: Alastor is a terrifying warlord who toppled the entrenched lords of Hell almost immediately after his damnation started, was a remorseless serial killer when he was human, and constantly smiles to assert dominance. His first real appearance in the show has him surprisingly upbeat, polite, and gentlemanly. At least until you act like you can stand up to him, at which point he'll put you in your place... while still smiling, just in a less friendly manner.
• Shannon on Home Movies is a mild version of this trope. (He's not evil so much as he is just a bully, but the show is about eight year olds, so a bully is as close to evil as you're going to get.) In his first appearance, he schedules a fight with Brendon and gives him tips on how to warm up before the fight. Later in the episode, he lets Brendon think he won, just to help out Brendon's ego a little.
• The cast of Inside Job (2021) are all employees of an corporation run by the Robes for the sake of managing the world's conspiracies. Despite the wildly unethical actions they partake in on a daily basis, the main characters are a bunch of fun-loving goofballs that don't take themselves or their jobs too seriously.
• Several villains in Invader Zim are Affably Evil, most notably Mortos der Soulstealer. In between granting ruinous wishes, he recharges his malefic hellborne powers by petting puppies, eating snacks, and having fun.
• Several villains from Jackie Chan Adventures could be called this, but the one that sticks out the most has to be Xiao Fung the Wind Demon. Of all the sealed demon sorcerers, he was the most relaxed, well spoken, and generally polite. Where the other demons who were released immediately set to begin their rampages, often while berating Shendu for not getting to them sooner, Shendu wasn't even present for Xiao Fung's release, who instead engaged in small talk with Shendu's thugs, and then joined them for lunch while happily eating his prison slop, and generally seemed to be the most approachable of the group. When reality was rewritten so that the demons ruled the Earth, all he seemed to be doing was lounging on his throne, watching masked wrestlers fight while his champion's fanboy fanned him and watched. While it was implied that the battles were to the death, it seemed remarkably mild given the rest of the world's condition.
  • Tarakudo as well. Despite being the Season 4 Big Bad, he seems genuinely polite and well-spoken towards even his enemies, and unlike the other main villains he's a Benevolent Boss who doesn't take out his frustrations on the Dark Hand even when they fail. Still evil, but not quite nasty enough for the "faux" part in "affably evil" — his affability, when it shows, is quite genuine and never exaggerated or faked.
  • The Dark Hand Trio Finn, Ratso and Chow qualify as well, they went from generic mooks to actually a pretty decent trio of friends, who just so happen to be thugs. They even once tried going straight after being fed up with always getting their butts kicked, but found that they were just as bad at being good as they are at being bad, even going so far as to attempt a Heroic Sacrifice to save Chan. They also have a trio of nephews who greatly resemble them and they want them to know nothing of their criminal lives, afraid they'll turn to crime as well.
• Peep on Jimmy Two-Shoes can be very pleasant when he's not stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
• The Choten from Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters manage to stay on the thin line between genuinely Affably Evil and Faux Affably Evil.
• Kim Possible:
  • Señor Senior, Sr. falls into this. He's a genteel, wealthy old man...who took up supervillainy as a hobby because his life had become boring. Unlike the archetypal example, he does use Death Traps, although this seems to be because he feels compelled to follow the traditions of villainy, rather than because he enjoys them. In one episode, Ron even comments that Senior's a "bad man. Good manners."
  • DNAmy is the sweetest, kindest, sociopathic geneticist you could ever hope to meet. She's not a bad person... she just wants to pervert nature and science to create life size abominations unto all things good. Or "Cuddle Buddies" as she likes to call them.
• League of Super Evil:
  • Taken to ridiculous levels with Red Menace, to the point that he has no evil or even jerkish qualities whatsoever, but still calls himself evil.
  • Played straight with Doktor Frogg, who is much more polite than Voltar in spite of the fact that Frogg is legitimately evil whereas Voltar is merely obnoxious.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Sylvester, being a cat, wants nothing but to eat Tweety Pie and Speedy. Except, he's also a loving father to Sylvester Jr, has managed to save the lives of both Porky Pig AND Granny on more than one occasion, and has even proved that his fatherly instincts outweigh his cat instincts when he unexpectedly 'fathers' both a baby mouse (A Mouse Divided) and a baby bird (Father of the Bird).
  • Elmer Fudd, outside his obsession to bwast that wabbit, is fairly mild mannered, and actually takes the role of The Everyman whenever not playing an antagonist. This evolved to the point that director Friz Freleng feared Elmer was so docile he made Bugs look like an abrasive 'bully' against him. (In fact, this is one of the reasons the far more aggressive Yosemite Sam was introduced.)
  • Marvin the Martian was created to be a much more dangerous foe than either Sam or Elmer, but was designed to be the polar opposite of Sam in personality, being quiet, polite, and very open, as well as rarely having any genuine malice in his actions. As a result, he easily zigzags between genuinely Affably Evil and Faux Affably Evil depending on his current motive. When he's not engaging in any of his attempts to destroy Earth simply because it blocks his view, which he treats with the same care as someone would when taking out the trash and easily puts him into the latter category, he can be very friendly when engaging in Villains Out Shopping. His "nicer" appearances lean more toward this than the other category. This was actually lampshaded at one point when he stated that he took politeness very seriously and stated he would blast anyone who was rude.
  • The spider from Meatless Flyday, despite doing nothing but hunting down a fly to eat, is always laughing and having a good time. Even when the fly fights back against him, he doesn’t get angry.
• Sonata Dusk from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks is essentially an evil Pinkie Pie. She is quite friendly for an evil siren that feeds on negativity who wants to Take Over the World, being the only other one besides Pinkie to enjoy Snips and Snails Cringe Worthy rap, speaks pleasantly enough to Sunset Shimmer that she almost blows the trio's entire plan, and even does things to suggest she's nice when left to her own devices like making punch for everyone. However, when the chips are down, she can be every bit as cruel as her allies when the need arises.
• The Mask: Dr Neuman in Shrink Rap was given the Mask of Loki by Stanley who wanted to get rid of it so Dr Neuman agrees to take it with him but while inside his house he gets curious when he saw that the mask sparkes and so puts it up to his face and gets attached to him and he becomes a green faced man who wears a yellow coat, blue trousers, sneakers for shoes and a red and black tie and his hair becomes straight up as well and he is insane and psychotic but however he is very polite as he speaks to others with the attitude of a therapist and has standards as well such as putting anyone he sees into wedgie straitjackets, does not react to anyone with hostilty even though the boy's mom attacks him a lot of times on the head which he puts her in a cage and when Charlie mentions The Mask he does not do anything to him until he mentions Stanley which causes him to lose complete control and do lobotomy but after his appointment alarm went off he decides to do his job instead and puts Charlie in a wedgie straightjacket instead and at the prison a police officer tried to get double clearance on him which he stops her from doing it but after she tells him where his appointment is he decides to spare her and after interviewing Pretorius and finding out about his plan, Masked Dr Neuman agrees with everyone that Pretorius is indeed insane but however he decides to help him and team up with him anyway but he does it by getting the police to release him into his custody instead of blowing a hole in the wall to do it showing himself to be a insane and psychotic but professional and polite man who will do his job who also still retains some morals and cartoonish traits as well just like The Mask and the other benevolent mask personas.
• The Owl House:
  • The Golden Guard, despite establishing himself as a legitimate threat in his first appearance, acts oddly casual towards Eda and Luz, and after ominously telling them that the Emperor is not a merciful man, flies off with a cheery "Byeeeeee!" Later episodes establish that he's actually a genuinely good kid who only acts the way he does because of the propaganda he's been fed his entire life, and once he's given the chance to be a normal teenager, he instantly comes out of his shell. His genuine friendships with Gus and Willow eventually lead to his Heel–Face Turn after Gus finds him hiding out at Hexside post "Hollow Mind".
  • Though apparently responsible for the annihilation of most other titans, the Collector is completely unironically friendly with King. Their destruction of the Boiling Isles is for the sole purpose of playing what they understand to be a game of "Owl House" with not only King, but every single witch and demon on the island. Overall, they don't come off as evil as much as they do as a child with immense, god-like power, which isn't a far off description of them.
• From Phineas and Ferb:
  • Dr. Doofenshmirtz is an evil scientist who's at odds with P&F's secret-agent-platypus, Perry. Except that he spends half his time doing stuff like trying to make the perfect sweet-16 birthday party for his daughter or sharing chicken wings with Perry after he's captured him. He really is a nice guy who genuinely bears very little to no real malice as a person; it's just that, well, he is an evil scientist, after all. His daughter Vanessa even helps him understand he’s not so much an evil guy who happens to be nice, but a nice guy trying to be evil, who believes his Hilariously Abusive Childhood defines him as a person and confines him to being a villain.
  • There's also Norm the Giant Robotic Man, introduced in "Greece Lightning". He's fond of spouting random dialogue more appropriate for a married, white-collar suburbanite than a killer robot originally designed to attack platypi on sight. He was built this way because the aforementioned Doofenshmirtz watched a documentary about platypi, while trying to figure out their weaknesses. Said documentary stated that biggest natural enemy of the platypus is man, so he decided to build a giant robotic version of a middle-aged man to defeat Perry.
• The Brain, the smarter half of Pinky and the Brain. An erudite, genetically-altered lab mouse who merely wants to do the same thing he does every night: try to Take Over the World! It's eventually revealed that he wants to take over the world in order to help people by ending war and enacting humanitarian efforts. What helps Brain further is that there are lines he definitely won't cross in his goal of world domination, even if they guaranteed his victory.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • Mojo Jojo wants to take over the world and destroy the Girls, but he's very friendly and suave, and doesn't act hostile towards the Girls in his free time, that is, as long as they don't push his buttons, and some episodes guarantee that he might not be truly evil. The series finale reveals that he's very much like the Brain just above, wanting to take over the world so he can make it a better place.
  • Big Billy from the Gangreen Gang. He's got such a friendly and cheerful nature for a thug, and only causes trouble because of Ace's bossy attitude.
  • In "Catastrophe", the girls discover that the slime monster was only tearing Townsville apart because it was looking for its lost cat.
  • In "Super Zeroes", a monster begins destroying Townsville, and the girls start changing into their new hero identities. By the time they're done, night has fallen and the monster has suddenly lost interest in destroying the city. The next morning, the monster resumes his rampage, and the girls begin their journey to confront him. However, they all run into inconveniences that hold up their arrival, and the monster eventually stops his path of destruction again at night (even checking his watch as time passes). Finally, when the girls actually confront him and prove ineffective against him, the monster, in a rare example of What the Hell, Hero?, explains that the reason he was destroying the city and drawing the girls out to fight him is because he was taking up a tradition back at his home island.
• Lurky from Rainbow Brite. Unlike Murky, Lurky is not really evil at all, only helping Murky with his evil plans because he is too childlike to know any better. Lurky actually likes Rainbow Brite and colors. Despite being an enemy of Rainbow Land, Lurky is very friendly to the other residents. During a mission to investigate a house, he spends most of his time playing with a hamster.
• Daemon from ReBoot. When she was first mentioned, everyone expected her to be a huge snarling monster of a Virus, not the sweet, gentle, messiah-like figure she turned out to be (actually lampshaded by Mike the TV, the first Mainframer to meet Daemon face to face). It turns out she's out to wipe out every sprite on the net, but she still remains mostly sweet and nice throughout the whole thing.
  • Also Megabyte and Hexadecimal. Megabyte is suave and sophisticated, and treats his minions with respect. Hexadecimal can go from being genuinely nice to insane at the drop of a hat
    • They're siblings. And Megabyte is the one who tortured his sister into insanity.
• Rick and Morty:
  • Krombopulus Michael, to comically absurd extremes. He's an utterly ruthless hitman who will kill anyone, anywhere, kills because he enjoys killing, and uses the fact that he has no code of honor as advertisement. Yet he's also incredibly upbeat and friendly both on and off the job, making jokes and being polite as can be towards everyone he meets. Even when people attack or insult him, he barely reacts to it emotionally and keeps joking around like they're best friends.
  "(cheerfully) Oh boy here I go killing again!"
  • Fart always speaks in a calm, soothing tone, and his stated desire for a cosmos without hatred is genuine. Too bad his idea of how to bring that about involves destroying all carbon-based life.
  • Unity is a Hive Mind out to take over the Universe and eliminate free will. She's also really, really nice about it, and at least one planet has been significantly improved by her taking over.
  • In "Something Ricked This Way Comes", Summer has a job at The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday run by the Devil himself, who turns out to be a well-spoken, dapper Man of Wealth and Taste selling goods that come at A Price. When she finds out, to the shock of both Rick and the man himself, she chooses to continue working there since, she reasons, the other places she can think of make her part of a system she hates and this guy is nice.
• Robot Chicken:
  • The show hilariously turned Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars into one of these. He's every bit as heinous as he was in the films... as he's chatting pleasantly with his barber, hanging out in his office with friends and laughing about the time he 'threw the whole senate' at Yoda, and joking about the force to the server in the Death Star's cafeteria.
  Palpatine: (Seriously) I sense a disturbance in the force... (With a big grin) You didn't give us any crackers!
  • This is Bossk's main trait. He has his boots taken off before the briefing with Vader and berates the other bountyhunters for not doing the same and equips them while the other bountyhunters runs for their quarry.
  Bossk: "Am I the only one polite enough to take off his boots?"
  Bossk: "Manners are their own reward, gentlemen!"
• Samurai Jack:
  • A Southern bounty hunter referred to as The Gentleman is very polite and sophisticated and very charming, even when confronted in battle. One of the locals in the small town describes him as "a nice fellow, but deadly."
  • Robot assassin X9 shows signs of this due to having feelings and emotions as well as adopting a dog named Lulu that drove him into retirement. It doesn't end well.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • Scorpia, like Catra, is a Force Captain for the Horde, planning invasions and leading various missions and battles against the heroes, and is fully prepared and willing to kill her opponents. She's also incredibly friendly to pretty much everyone see meets, loves hugging her comrades, and just a sweet individual overall. When she defects from the Horde, her friendly nature quickly wins over the princesses and she proves to be a loyal and valued member of the Alliance.
  • Entrapta is an energetic and curious person who just likes experimenting. The only reason she's even working for the Horde is because of her friendship with Catra and Scorpia, who were sympathetic to her when they all erroneously come to the conclusion that the Rebellion abandoned her in the Horde (the good guys actually thought she died). The lack of restrictions given for her research is also a bonus.
• From The Simpsons:
  • Hank Scorpio, a one-shot character from the episode "You Only Move Twice". A Benevolent Boss and all-around nice guy whom you'd be happy to work for (he calls all his employees friends and invites them to go golfing with him), who also just happens to want to take over the world, Bond-villain style. It isn't an act, he's not actively trying to "manipulate" people, he's really just that friendly — on the principle that a happy employee is a productive and loyal employee. And what's so wrong with that?
    • His Villain Song helps even further; apparently his twisted twin obsessions are his plot to rule the world and his employees' health! He also loves German beer. You get the feeling that were Scorpio to conquer the world, it would be more like more like a pleasant benevolent dictatorship anyway than, say, Hitler.
    • At the end of the episode, Homer reluctantly asks him if he should leave Scorpio's organization because his family is miserable in their new town (not even knowing Scorpio is a supervillain), even though Homer himself was proud of his work for the first time in his life: Scorpio says that while he is sad to lose Homer, he agrees he should leave because it's the right thing for his family.
    • The staff wanted to bring Scorpio back as the Big Bad of The Movie but thought he was too likable to work as an all-out villain and instead made a new character voiced by the same actor.
  • Sideshow Bob qualifies at times.
  • In "Pokey Mom", Marge befriends a prison inmate who had previously robbed the Kwik-E-Mart and shot Apu. The episode ended with him having another Ax-Crazy episode, but he was generally very polite and was an excellent artist. You feel like he'd be a great guy after some intensive therapy.
    Warden: Lady, I know he charmed you with some "please's" and "thank you's", but he wasn't so polite to the guy he shot.
    Apu: Actually, he was. He waited with me 'till the ambulance came, then ran like a deer!
  • Mob boss Don Vittorio DiMaggio is very polite and even apologetic when he's about to murder Krusty over gambling debts. You get the feeling he'd just be a straightforward fan of Krusty's if not for the necessity of enforcing mob policy.
  • Similarly, crime boss Big Daddy from "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" is pleasant and chatty in person, and when he kidnaps Ralph Wiggum to try to intimidate his father, he treats the boy very nicely.
• Satan is often portrayed this way in South Park. He's certainly less evil than Cartman. One episode even implies that, while he was once the rebellious evil fallen angel described in the bible, he's mellowed out considerably over the years and become more of a Manchild who's merely doing his job:
  God: Jesus, what the hell happened to you? You got kicked out of here for being a headstrong rebel. And now you're a whiny little bitch.
• Steven Universe
  • Blue Diamond is one of the three (formerly four) rulers of the despotic Gem Homeworld which brutally enforces an oppressive hierarchy and plunders and hollows out planets with no regard for any organic life that might be living there, but she is one of the few homeworld gems that views humans as more than just vermin and bonds with Greg over their loss of their loved ones, then kidnaps him with with the intent of saving him from a superweapon that she doesn't know was rendered harmless. Later on when Steven is put on trial for his mother's crimes against Homeworld (though they believe him to actually be Rose Quartz shapeshifted) she says she wants to inflict a Fate Worse than Death on "Rose", yet she insists on a fair trial, unlike her cohort Yellow Diamond who wants it over quickly. She's also the first of the Diamonds to make a Heel–Face Turn upon realizing how awful she's been to Pink, and makes up for it by helping Steven and Connie return to Earth.
  • The Ruby squad are a bunch of airheaded ditzes (probably except Eyeball) through the two who best fit this description are Leggy who is immensely clueless and forgetful and Navy although she has proven that she can be incredibly nasty.
• Bull Gator from Taz-Mania, a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to capture Taz for the sake of the zoo-going children. He also has a Jerkass side to him when you see how he treats his poor sidekick, Axel.
• Total Drama: Duncan's evil and does nothing to hide it, but can show streaks of politeness. He also does manage to get along well with some of the other contestants. Most notably with DJ, Owen, Geoff, Beth, Zoey, and (formerly) Gwen. He also usually treats people with respect, until they wrong him.
• Whenever a Megatron in The Transformers is played as more intelligent and less shouty, this trope usually follows.
  • Also from Transformers: Animated is Sunstorm, the embodiment of Starscream's Sycophant nature. He's always going into battle with a smile on his face and a compliment: be it for Swindle's schemes, Sentinel Prime's ruthless tactics, or Prowl getting creative with Stasis Cuffs (he liked that one so much he used it against Prowl, defeating him and crediting him with the idea). He's also one of the smarter and effective of the clones.
  • Continuing on, Transformers: Prime gives us Dreadwing. He's a incredibly loyal to Megatron, becoming his second-in-command after Airachnid defects, but has a great sense of honour, is a Graceful Loser and will keep his word, even to an Autobot.
    • From the same show, Silas is quite polite and friendly, in a brisk military sort of way. He even compliments his enemies on doing so well sometimes. However, it doesn't take long before he slides down to Faux Affably Evil, then becomes worse. The guy does not take defeats or setbacks well.
• In VeggieTales, the French Peas often fall under this category, along with the Scallions.
• Dr. Flug Slyes from Villainous is meek and anxious, becomes nauseous at the sight of body horror or Demencia's passionate violence, dearly loves 5.0.5 and treats him as his son with nothing but gentleness and warmth, and his only apparent flaw is his inflated ego in regards to his genius intellect — until you see him torture people without batting an eye, and even seems to enjoy it sometimes, as well as showing a more bloodthirsty side in the "Orientation Videos for Villains," calling for the villains to finish off the heroes when they have the chance, even if they're children like K.O. from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes or The Powerpuff Girls. His love for anything to do with aeronautics extends to shooting planes out of the sky with a miniaturization ray and keeping them in snowglobes...with the passengers still inside.
• The Venture Bros.:
  • The Monarch's Henchmen #21 and #24 are two harmless, likable nerds who just happen to be Mooks for the Big Bad.
  • Arguably, most of the series' villains fits this trope. Due to the Guild of Calamitous Intent turning evil into a bureaucratic business surrounded by red tape. An example is that after Sergeant Hatred becomes the new arch villain, he sets up an appointment to see what Venture's allergic to, since it's part of the guild rules. He also says that, "There's no good reason on God's green earth that arching has to be a completely unpleasant experience for either of us." And he brought a gift basket with him. Though he's mostly being so nice to piss off the Monarch for stealing his technology.
  • It could easily be said that Rusty Venture and Brock are the most villainous characters in the show.
    • In which case, Brock easily qualifies for this. While he's prone to go into homicidal rages and kill without a second's hesitation, he's also got a calm, collected nature and enjoys activities like gardening. He also provides good advice to the boys whenever they ask for it.
  • Essentially, all the villains can be described as a mild version of this, for while they're not "evil", they do tend to be mean, in a realistic way.
  • Red Death is probably the exemplar — when on the job he's an utterly remorseless, murderous psycho, but in his downtime he's a genuinely loving, kindhearted husband and father, happy to give friendly advice even to people who've crossed him. He explains that he strongly believes that supervillains should keep their work separate from their personal life.
• Dick Dastardly's dog Muttley in Wacky Races is the least mean of the duo, often coming off as clueless, goofy, and carefree. He is often punished by Dastardly for not doing the job right, and he often tries to warn him not to do his signature cheating even if he's in the lead, as he has seen cheating is a very bad idea.
• The Watchdogs in Wander over Yonder are, with the exception of their Mook Lieutenant Commander Peepers, generally a pretty nice bunch. They work for a Galactic Conqueror and routinely subjugate the populations of other planets, but they're good-natured and fun-loving and most are on Friendly Enemy terms with Wander, despite their boss regarding him as his Arch-Enemy. One even keeps an autographed picture of him in his cell!
  Sylvia: (waking up in Lord Hater's prison) Uh, W-Wander?
  Watchdog prison guard: Shh! He's sleeping! The nerve of some people.
• The eponymous Carmen Sandiego of Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? is a very affable and charming thief who views her thefts as more of a game against Worthy Opponent characters Zach and Ivy.
• There are few villains in WordGirl who aren't this trope — the Butcher, Chuck The Evil Sandwich Making Guy, Dr. Twobrains, the Whammer Mr. Big, and Lady Redundant Woman all seem to have some degree of goodwill between themselves and Word Girl while simultaneously resenting her for thwarting their plans. When they aren't committing crimes, Word Girl admits that they're not bad people, and they enjoy pleasant conversations and small talk from time to time. Strangely, the only villians who don't fall into this trope are the ones who pretend that they're not evil at all, such as Granny Mae and Victoria Best.
• Xiaolin Showdown:
  • Despite Chase Young being an evil warlord who wants to conquer the world, he remains polite and cordial to the Xiaolin monks, particularly Omi and he always uphold his end of the deal if he loses the showdown. This is something that is even acknowledged by Omi when the latter points out that the good within him is stronger than he thinks.
  • Jack Spicer fits this to a greater degree. He's hellbent on being taken seriously as the greatest supervillain the world, but he can be genuinely cordial to the Monks when he isn't going after Shen Gong Wu. He's even shown that he's very capable of pulling a Heel–Face Turn if he wasn't so scared of failing and hurting those around him. In fact he and Omi seem to have a very odd Frenemy situation where the young monk is his unintentional Morality Chain. Without Omi though... he fits more into the Faux Affably Evil category as an old man...

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