All Girls Want Bad Boys / Video Games

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• BlazBlue:
  • Tsubaki Yayoi has a rather obvious attraction to Jin Kisaragi. Jin himself is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who barely holds his contempt for those around him. To be fair, they are Childhood Friends and Tsubaki is pretty much the only character Jin treats with any sort of kindness.
  • Noel, Rachel, Taokaka, and Celica all have been attracted to Ragna the Bloodedge since he's not actually a bad guy, rather because he actually cares for them.
• Bully largely averts this. Some of the girls you can flirt with may say they like Jimmy's rough side, but if you so much as hurt their feelings they'll cool on you immediately and the Prefects will quickly jump on your ass. Zoey plays it mostly straight in-story, but abusing her in the game proper will yield equally bad results. You want some action with the ladies, you've gotta play nice.
• In City of Heroes, mook types known as Skulls are often shown with girlfriends who you can't attack, however, if you initiate combat with the Skulls, the girlfriend will almost immediately dump them.
• Clarence's Big Chance: Subverted. Some of the NPCs do, and Clarence's girlfriend might, but more often than not, she won't.
• Tawna, who was Crash's girlfriend and also rescued by him in Crash Bandicoot, was met with scorn by Moral Guardians due to her Ms. Fanservice design. She was replaced by Crash's sister Coco in the sequel, who was more kid-friendly. To explain Tawna's disappearance, the developers stated that she dumped Crash for Pinstripe Potoroo (a boss from the first game), who was a bad boy with a tommy gun.
• Cyberpunk 2077:
  • Discussed and lampshaded in the side mission "Holdin' On": Kerry and Johnny talk about their bandmate Denny dating their another bandmate, Henry. Johnny doesn't understand what Denny saw in Henry, due to Henry being a Functional Addict and Denny being the smartest member of the band. Kerry answers that Denny always had a thing for losers, and that Henry was perfect for her, because she got to "rescue him over and over again". Johnny then asks "But why did she never tried to fix me?", to which Kerry responds with "Because she'd have to get in line, that's why!".
  • Speaking of Kerry, they seem to be his type, making him an "All guys want bad boys" example. His relationship with Johnny could only be described as "toxic", with Johnny frequently belittling Kerry. Johnny also often abused alcohol and drugs, and pulled dangerous stunts for no real reason (shooting into the audience during a concert) or for petty reasons (bombing the Arasaka Tower as revange for Alt's death that he himself caused). His feelings for Johnny are so strong that it's implied he's still in love with him 50 years later, despite the fact that they never even got together in the first place. V is a downplayed example, because while he isn't nearly as toxic as Johnny was, he's still a dangerous mercenary who kills and steals for a living. In his "Temperance" ending call if V romanced him, he mentions that he used to date a guy who he caught cheating, and another one who nonchalantly dumped him via text. Kerry himself lampshades it during his "Path of Glory"/"The Devil" romanced call:
    Kerry: Don't get me wrong; I love having a (boyfriend) who's also Night City's bad boy(...)
  • According to Mike Pondsmith, Michiko Sanderson (nee Arasaka) once dated Adam Smasher in her youth. The legendary no-ganic, full-borg boogeyman of Night City for whom wanton destruction and collateral damage are conditions for his deployment. He presumably controlled his more repulsive impulses around her so as to not piss off his bosses.
• Morrigan Aensland of Darkstalkers plays with this in her series, her rival the evil vampire Demitri wants her to be his mistress but Morrgian wanting to be a free spirit so turns into stone rather than let him subjugate her. Played straighter in later adaptations as Morrigan reciprocates his lust and they become a Unholy Matrimony in OVA and even when not a couple, Morrigan flirts with him constantly. Also played straight in crossovers such as Marvel vs. Capcom Morrigan hits on rugged scoundrels and anti-heroes such as Wolverine, Gambit, Ghost Rider and Dante whom she considers a “Handsome Devil”. Although keep in mind her succubus nature means she's very broad-minded and she even flirts with Eldritch Abomination Shuma-Gorath.
• Deltarune: Noelle wants a bad girl, specifically the class bully Susie. She's a bit of a Nightmare Fetishist, so while most people avoid Susie because of her violent and aggressive behavior, she finds it appealing. By the time we see them properly interact in Chapter Two, however, Susie's chilled out a lot and is now much nicer, and it's revealed that Noelle was the one classmate she never picked on, because she was nice to her. Ironically, Noelle thought Susie was ignoring her because she didn't even know she existed.
• Devil May Cry:
  • In DMC3 Action Girl Lady has some Belligerent Sexual Tension with demon boy Blood Knight Dante and later media such as CD drama strongly suggest she has feelings for him with Trish saying Lady has been "clumsy" regarding Dante. Lucia from DMC2 also has feelings for Dante, which she admits to in the DMC5 tie-in novel Before the Nightmare. Trish herself has a lot intimacy with Dante and in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 she disappointed that his twin brother Vergil isn't as wild as him. Nico also doesn't attempt to hide her attraction to Dante and goes wild at his Michael Jackson dance. Played with though as Dante is more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold compared to other examples, being more heroic and nicer than he lets on.
  • Vergil the Evil Twin was able to attract an unnamed woman and get her pregnant with his son Nero, although we don't get any more details about it. In DMC4 special edition as Vergil walks through a crowd of people in Fortuna, a woman in red turns and gives him a Longing Look as he walks past, whether she was Nero’s Missing Mom or not hasn’t been revealed.
  • Eva, a human woman fell in love with a demon Sparda the Legendary Dark Knight from The Underworld and gave birth to his aforementioned sons. Although like Dante, Sparta only counts as a "bad boy" in the broad sense given his demonic nature, according to Eva Sparda was a noble person with a righteous heart and was a Defector from Decadence. Nico in DMC5 states Eva must been quite the woman to tame a man like Sparda.
  • Subverted with Kyrie and her boyfriend Nero. While he does fulfill all the bad boy requirements being rude, thuggish and anti-social, Kyrie is much more attracted to his wholesome nice side. Indeed upon seeing Nero almost kill her brother Credo, she’s naturally more scarred than aroused like other examples listed here would be.
  • Dante is a bit of a gender inversion, he gets excited while Lady tries killing him in DMC3 and gets very aroused when the demoness boss Nevan paws at him. In MVC3 Dante flirts with Morrigan and his win quote against her is "Mmm, baby. I love it when a girl gets violent!". Then again from the same game, Dante laments that he can "never meet any nice girls" implying the opposite of this trope.
• Dragon Age
  • Dragon Age: Origins
    • Oghren will bring this up if you talk about his class with him, joking that Berserkers can get all the women they want because women are attracted to men who are mysteriously angry and sulk in the shadows. (Not that it works in his case...)
    • The trope is discussed in a conversation between Alistair and Leliana, where Alistair ponders why Zevran is so successful with the ladies.
      Alistair: Do women go for that sort of thing?
      Leliana: Where I come from they do, oh yes.
      Alistair: Huh. Really? I see.
    • In the expansion, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, Oghren comments that Nathaniel Howe's tall, dark, and broody appearance must make him very popular with women.
  • Dragon Age II
    • Hawke of either gender can comment on Anders' "sexy, tortured look", upon learning about his experiences with the spirit of Justice; there's also a dialogue option for telling him "I love it when you go all hot-headed revolutionary" (marked "You're cute when you rebel"). There's also a hilarious conversation in the Legacy DLC where Anders goes into depth about his condition and Hawke's response is literally "Ooh, baby. Tell me more."
    • Varric tells Fenris that if he looked any more broody, women would swoon at his feet.
    • The Anders romance arc could be seen as a deconstruction. The bad boy ends up a tragic Fallen Hero gradually being corrupted from within; he essentially goes insane, manipulates his lover into helping him blow up the Chantry and start a war, and Hawke is eventually forced to either kill his/her own beloved, send him away, or run off with him to spend the rest of his/her life a wanted fugitive, also losing and greatly angering a close friend in the latter two cases (who swears vengeance not only on Hawke and Anders but on everyone in Kirkwall).
  • The minor character Emile de Launcet invokes this, as he tells women he's a blood mage in an attempt to seem "dangerous and suave".
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition
    • This trope also gets invoked in party banter between Iron Bull and Blackwall:
      Iron Bull: Hey, Furrows.
      Blackwall: What? Me?
      Iron Bull: Yes. Furrows between the eyes. Moping. Lost in your own issues.
      Blackwall: Can't a man think without being judged for it?
      Iron Bull: I'm not judging. I was gonna say you're pretty good at it. I can't pull that off.
      Blackwall: A tragedy, for sure.
      Iron Bull: And I mean, if you're going to brood, you might as well reap the benefits.
      Blackwall: What benefits?
      Iron Bull: The ladies.
      Blackwall: (sighs)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Nirya, one of the mages at the College of Winterhold, says that Ancano is clearly up to no good, but he's "rather handsome" anyway. Of course, if you read the Skyrim Kink Meme at all, you know that many, many people agree with her, as Ancano and various other male Thalmor (especially Ondolemar) feature prominently in the fills.
• Fallout: New Vegas opens with Benny shooting the Player Character in the head. Later on, if the player character is female and has the Black Widow perk, they can give this trope as an excuse while seducing him. He is (understandably) Squicked out by the offer but eventually relents.
  • Cait in Fallout 4 only likes it if you act in a violent domineering and mercenary manner by squeezing quest givers for money, choosing the threatening dialog options and resorting to violence. She doesn’t mind if the quest is unjust ie killing ghouls, synths or defenseless people, and in fact dislikes taking quests from weak defenseless people. She also likes it if you steal, pick locks, do chems, drink and get addicted. This is because she is addicted to Psycho, a drug meant to increase aggression in soldiers and has been using to deal with a traumatic past of child abuse, enslavement, rape, cage fighting and parenticide. This is the only way to earn enough of her trust to ask you for help kicking her addiction, after which a romance is possible. She also changes and mellows out a lot more. Seeking out violent domineering people is often something that abuse victims do, unfortunately that can further perpetuate the abuse.
• Final Fantasy VII:
  • Parodied when the evil scientist Hojo is surrounded by women at the beach. Played straight when you are told the reasons Sephiroth and Vincent exist. This is especially notable in that Hojo is never shown to be handsome at ALL. In fact, he's as close as you can get to the stereotypical mad scientist look, complete with evil laughs he doesn't even bother to hide.
  • Jessie has an obvious crush on Cloud despite his casually rude treatment of her. Depending on how you talk to her on her deathbed, you can make her say that Cloud's bad-boy attitude is what she liked about him. Averted with Cloud's more serious love interests, who like him for his more wholesome traits. Tifa in particular fell for the dorky sweet boy who left her hometown to become a hero, not the bad boy mercenary he became and in the remake even becomes scared of Cloud when he's callous.
  • In Final Fantasy VII Remake, Jessie's attraction to Cloud is a lot more blatant, but also explained to be because of her awareness of the trope - she is an aspiring actress who has a habit of intentionally falling for dramatic men. Madam M affectionately calls Cloud a 'bad boy' after finding out he's involved with Avalanche.
• This trope accounts for at least some of Squall's appeal to Rinoa in Final Fantasy VIII, although a lot of it also has to do with the fact that Squall is profoundly broken and Rinoa is strongly motivated to help people. Rinoa also dated Seifer in the game's backstory, but considering Seifer's aspirations to heroism and the fact that Rinoa herself was a member of La Résistance, he may not necessarily have come across as a bad boy at the time.
• Interestingly toyed with in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Henry is a beautiful white-haired youth with some screws loose due to a Dark and Troubled Past, and, as a result, he's a merciless Blood Knight with a Lack of Empathy. However, when a girl falls for him, it's NOT due to his badassery and bad attitude but because, despite his craziness on the battlefield, outside of it he tries to help them in their daily lives—he joins Cherche in her vigilance rounds, fixes the plates Sumia broke, tries to help Lissa catch some sleep, etc. He also turns out to be a surprisingly loving and dedicated father to any child he has.
  • Inverted in Fire Emblem Fates with Niles and two of his possible love interests, Effie and Oboro, who don't show any romantic interest in him until they get a glimpse of his Hidden Heart of Gold.
• In Guilty Party, both dialogue and cutscenes seem to suggest that nefarious Mr. Valentine, the "Shakespeare of Crime", does not lack for feminine affection. He even seduces one female culprit into working for him! Several others seem to have crushes on him.
• The King of Fighters XV: According to Goenitz in the prologue story for Team Awakened Orochi, both Vice and Mature are "charmed" by Iori Yagami, the series' resident brooding anti-hero, to the point they can no longer be relied on to fully obey their master Orochi.
• Knights of the Old Republic: Bastila in the first game will fall for the male Player Character regardless of alignment, and has some comments before the kiss about how attractive his strength (of personality, we assume) is.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: A conversed trope when it comes to Atton who knows he's the "bad boy" and tries to warn against this trope. You don't get much worse than his track record as a Jedi hunter, Torture Technician, and twice over Dangerous Deserter who manually strangled his last victim to death when she showed him he was about to end up on his own torture rack. And can be played straight if you're running a light side female Exile who tries redeeming him.
• Marin from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening seems to be this. If the player attacks a Cucco enough times while she's with you, she will scream out different remarks such as "Ohh! Link, you're a bad boy!" as if she's orgasming over Link's badness.
• In the original Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha mini-scenario that was included in the Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever fandisc, Chrono played the role of the villain and Nanoha eventually ended up with him.
• Mass Effect 2:
  • Shepard can invoke this trope to explain why Kelly finds Thane alluring. If Shepard is male and played as mostly paragon, Kelly says that that's a dirty stereotype, which just happens to be true in her case. She says to a renegade male Shepard that she was thinking the same way about him too. If Shepard is female, Kelly asked if that includes her. Female Shepard can reply that dangerous men fit right into her dangerous life.
  • It can be gender reversed with a Paragon male Shepard romancing Jack.
  • Played with for Jack and Renegade Shepard. She admires his blood-lust and cruelty, but their relationship can't develop beyond a one-night stand. Sleeping with her actually prevents any meaningful conversations with her, as it effectively reinforces her belief that sex and violence are all she's good for. She can only have a meaningful relationship with Paragon Shepard.
  • Also averted when Kelly says something along the lines of: "Oh I don't know, good guys are pretty nice too." Of course, this is Kelly Chambers we're talking about. It's not like she's picky.
  • Played straight however with the vampire in space Morinth. Her mother Samara asks you to help draw her out to be killed but advises Shepard that acting nice and good will turn her off. The only way The Paragon can attract her is by studying some clues on Morinth's musical, artistic, and vid preferences. On the other hand, a renegade needn't know these preferences and can browbeat Morinth into taking him home. Then, someone who kills Samara to recruit Morinth plays this trope straight. However, consummating the relationship ends badly. Not consummating also ends badly in the third game, as she shows up as a banshee and tries to kill you.
• Mass Effect: Andromeda
  • Discussed when the Ryder twins talk about how their parents met. If Scott is the NPC twin, the version he was told is that Alec put on the bad boy act to woo Ellen and it worked like a charm. If Sara is the NPC twin, the version she heard is that Alec's act failed miserably, but it worked out anyway because Ellen thought it was utterly adorable.
  • Played with after meeting Reyes Vidal who oozes bad boy vibes. If the player is controlling Sara Ryder, then this trope can be played straight depending on her conversation choices.
  • The game also has an All Gay Guys Want Bad Boys variant. Scott Ryder can potentially show the same interest in Reyes that his sister does, and Gil Brodie mentions if romanced that he previously had a preference for the dangerous type and that it tended to end badly.
• Misao: Tohma. He's quite a troublemaker and Misao, Saotome, Yoshino and even Female Aki are all into him. However, Aki changes her mind after seeing him ditch Saotome. In the "Truth" ending, she doesn't even particularly care about leaving him behind in the other world.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • Subverted with Sonya Blade falling in love and having a child with Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy Johnny Cage. Sonya naturally found his Awesome Ego disgusting and only fell for Johnny when he Took a Level in Kindness and became more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold rather than just a jerk.
  • Mileena is a justified example, she’s attracted to and slept with tyrannical assholes such as Goro and Reiko but given she’s been raised by Shao Kahn, this taste in men is hardly surprising. Averted at other times as she’s completely infatuated with The Hero Liu Kang, who putting it lightly doesn’t reciprocate her feelings.
  • Necromancer Quan-Chi in Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub-Zero has a trio of babes Sareena, Kia and Jataaka who Dracula’s Brides-style serve him faithfully since his magic sustains their beauty. Although at least one of them Sareena, pulls a Heel–Face Turn to good.
  • In MK11 Queen Sindel thanks to Adaptational Villainy instead of being brainwashed into loving Shao Kahn like she was in previous continuity, willingly choose the Evil Overlord over her husband The Good King Jerrod. In-game Sindel make multiple In Love with Your Carnage comments to Shao Kahn.
  • Averted with Jade and Kotal Khan, she’s attracted to his nobler qualities rather than his Proud Warrior Race Guy ruthless attitude and is willingly to even fight him when he dips into the latter.
• Persona:
  • Subverted in the female route of Persona 3 Portable regarding the men the female protagonist can romance. Akihiko Sanada's aloof nature has caused him to be pegged as a Bad Boy with plenty of fangirls, while he is in fact a generally all-around nice guy (as well as being hopelessly awkward when it comes to girls). Ken is quite mature for an eleven-year old and very troubled to boot, but much of his social link is about reassuring him that it isn't shameful to occasionally act his age. Ryoji is a Ladykiller in Love, and while he's supposed to bring about The Fall, he really doesn't want to. And Shinjiro Aragaki is not only nice to you from the very start of his Social Link, a good part of said Social Link is showing that he's not really a jerk at all. His love scene is not only completely optional (available after maxing his Social Link out), but a rare male case of But I Would Really Enjoy It; the female protagonist has to be very persistent with her feelings.
  • A major part of Ulala Serizawa's jealousy of Maya Amano in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is Maya's editing job and popularity with men; Ulala has no such luck, and the men she had dated in her lifetime were not only this trope but have swindled her for money several times (you actually meet one of said swindlers during the game). At the end of the game, it's implied that she fell for another "bad boy" - Kaoru Saga, better known as Baofu, a wiretapper, former public persecutor, and another member of the party. However, it's also subverted at that point; both Ulala and Baofu have gone through significant Character Development, and at the end of the game, Baofu shuts down his wiretapping trade and opens a missing persons operation, even taking on his old name again.
  • Subverted with the protagonist of Persona 5; he's a handsome devil of a Phantom Thief with a reputation as an irredeemable delinquent, thanks to a (falsified) assault charge on his criminal record, but the nine women (ten in Persona 5 Royal) who can fall in love with him do so because he's an endlessly supportive and genuinely compassionate person who actively helps them overcome their problems.
• Chillingly deconstructed in Planescape: Torment. A young, naive girl falls desperately in love with a dark, mysterious stranger covered in scars...whose every word is calculated to manipulate her into being willing to do anything for him because he needs a tool to sacrifice herself for him. He feels nothing for her but irritation for using his time. He is, after all, Practical. It's not until after she dies that she realizes the kind of guy he really was, yet still loves him anyway...
• Karen in Pokémon Gold and Silver explicitly states this trope.
• Resident Evil:
  • Gender-Inverted example Leon S. Kennedy, all around hero and Nice Guy can't help but be attracted to Femme Fatale Spy Ada Wong whom he chooses over nice girls Claire Redfield and Ashely Graham. Despite Ada double crossing and manipulating him on a dime, Leon admits to Ashely in RE4, Ada is a part of him he "can't let go", although he never trusts her again after RE2. Played for Drama in RE6 as Leon is fully aware Ada is bad for him and doesn't deserve his care, but he's still willingly to fight Chris to prevent him killing someone he thinks is Ada. Downplayed in RE2make, in spite of his feelings, Leon is still furious with Ada when he learns about her true motives and tries arresting her before she's shot by Annette Birkin and falls into a Bottomless Pit. On the escape train, Leon chides himself for missing Ada and throws away the ID wristband she gave him. This subversion is continued in RE4make as while it is shown Leon is inwardly glad Ada is alive — he hasn’t forgiven her betrayal at all and is far more pissed at/resistant to her wiles than he was in the original RE4.
  • Big Bad Albert Wesker has attracted quite a few women. Excella Gionne his Number Two from RE5 is utterly infatuated with him and will do anything to become his Dark Mistress in his world conquering schemes. Ms Muller, Jake’s mother is still love with him even though he abandoned her and her son Jake and even taught her son to always respect him even though Jake hates him for being a deadbeat.
  • Played with in RE0 as the heroine Rebecca Chambers finds a Love Interest in the tattooed tank top wearing escaped convict Bill Cohen, who reportedly killed 23 three civilians. Except while Billy checks all the boxes for a bad boy and acts like one at the start of the game, he's actually innocent and was just used as a scapegoat by his superiors. Upon learning the truth Rebecca becomes much closer to Billy than she was at start. Even before hearing his backstory Rebecca suspected, he wasn't responsible for the crimes he supposedly committed after he saved her life.
  • Zigzagged with Claire Redfield. In Resident Evil – Code: Veronica she has a romance with Steve Burnside a bad boy prisoner, except Claire finds Steve’s delinquency more annoying than hot and only starts liking him when he becomes nicer later in the game. In Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Claire is attracted to Science Hero Neil Fisher… who turns out to a deranged Mad Scientist, Claire is quite upset about his heel turn but is willingly to put him down. Averted in RE2make, Claire is taken with sweet hero rookie Leon after he saves her life.
  • Subverted in RE3, heroine Jill Valentine spurns the flirting of Carlos Oliveira, the lovable scoundrel and mercenary for U.B.C.S. partly due to his connection to Umbrella more due to focusing on not getting eaten alive. Played straighter in the remake where Jill is presented as more of Tsundere who warms up to Carlos over time and cares for him. Further played with as in the remake Carlos learns about the true nature of Umbrella and is guilt ridden over the fact Jill managed to trust him anyway.
  • Sherry Birkin is a real sweet person, but in RE6 she’s attracted to Jake Muller the son of the Wesker, who isn’t evil like his father, but still very thuggish, anti-social and ruthless. Except in Sherry’s presence he’s a Bruiser with a Soft Center and only aggressive and rude to everyone else they meet, forcing Sherry to act his Morality Pet.
  • Carla Radames from the same game was utterly devoted to the Big Bad Derek C. Simmons and was willingly to turn herself into to Evil Knock Off of Ada Wong to satisfy his obsession. She only turned against him, when the real Ada reentered the picture and became a Woman Scorned.
• In Roommates, Anne going for Max fits the trope to a T. She describes him as being the kind of guy her parents warned her about, despite the fact that there were no guys like him within miles of her hometown. Anne's Gay Option Isabella also counts. Flipping the player's gender, Max going for Sally could be seen as counting in a way, as while Sally isn't as sheltered as Anne, she's not nearly as wild as Max, either.
• Both played straight and inverted with The Sims 2. Angela Pleasant, the sweetheart of the Pleasant family, is going steady with Dustin Brooke, who is a rebel, at the start of the game. Lilith Pleasant, who's a bit of a devil, is going steady with a fairly good teen, Dirk Dreamer. Also, a fair number of girls are in love or have a crush on the town Casanova, Don Lothario, when Dina Caliente is dating Mortimer Goth as well, Kayleen Landgrak (One of the towns' maids, mind), is in love with both the aforementioned Don and Daniel Pleasant (who is married already), and Cassandra is engaged to Don himself. Nina is the only one in the loop who isn't dating or has a crush on anyone else.
• In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Penelope Mouse starts crushing on Sly for him being a notorious thief, while having no romantic interest in Bentley or Murray despite them being Sly's equals. She does eventually fall for Bentley... but come Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Penelope's worst traits as a heartless Gold Digger come in, and her initial love towards Sly is replaced with murderous hatred and jealousy.
• Amy Rose's attraction to Sonic the Hedgehog—basically the progenitor of the Mascot with Attitude trope—definitely has shades of this. Despite her being a Bad Girl, Rouge's frequent flirting with Shadow is also ultimately this... oh wait...!
• Sebastian in Stardew Valley: He has some of the bad boy-isms (edgy design, smokes, rides a motorcycle, is in a band, and is a jerk to you in the beginning). However, once you start his Friendship route, it’s revealed that he’s a nerd who loves the Dungeons and Dragons Expy in the game; is a programmer; has a strong relationship with his mother, Robyn; and has a textbook case of social anxiety. And if you choose to date or marry him later on, he’s a giant mush. Notably, Sebastian wasn't originally romanceable until fans demanded it.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic, it shows up when playing a male, Dark-side Sith. Interestingly, the two classes have two different variations:
  • If the DS Sith Warrior falls for Vette, it's implied the relationship is genuine love, since to start the romance he has to remove her Shock Collar, which he has no reason to do besides wanting to. She ends up being his Morality Pet, and he her Violently Protective Boyfriend.
  • A DS Male Sith Warrior who pulled a Corrupt the Cutie on Jaesa ends up with not only this, but it almost veers into Be Careful What You Wish For, as DS Jaesa is batshit crazy even by Sith standards.
  • Gender-Inverted trope when it comes to a DS Female Sith Warrior and Quinn. Quinn is a stoic Imperial loyalist who more or less expects you to act like a crazy Sith and is a little rattled if you don't. He's attracted to your power but very resigned to the fact he (as a Muggle) is not likely to survive once the Sith bores of him.
  • The DS Sith Inquisitor and Ashara, however, seem to deconstruct this. While the feelings between them are also genuine, he does some pretty dark things to win her over, including staging a Rescue Romance to get in her good books and killing her parental figures so she can travel with him. Additionally, the usual "bad boy is redeemed by love" cliché is completely absent here—while he has a soft spot for Ashara, the Inquisitor remains evil. In fact, his relationship with Ashara opens her up to Sith corruption and she ends up Slowly Slipping Into Evil, showcasing the very real dangers of this trope.
  • A Female Sith Inquisitor can play this with Andronikos. Andronikos, like his predecessor Atton, is a very "bad boy" with a lot of betrayals and a high body count. Unusually for this trope, the "girl" is actually much more dangerous than the "bad boy". Of fact he's attracted to the Inquisitor because she's dangerous.
  • While not to the extent of the Sith classes, and certainly not played with on the same level as the Inquisitor's, this can also be present in any other class where the male Player Character is Dark-side and going after a Light-side companion.
• Street Fighter:
  • Vega The Fighting Narcissist and Ax-Crazy pretty boy is often seen with scores of women, yet subverted with the main female characters of the franchise. In particular Chun-Li and Cammy who find Vega and the Villainous Crush he has them, utterly repulsive.
  • While most characters react in horror to Evil Ryu, Juri’s win quote is about how “frisky” he makes her. Also in her win quote against Akuma, Juri says he “pushes all my buttons the right way”. Averted with other bad guys as Juri hates M.Bison for killing her parents and hypocritically considers Vega a pervert.
  • Played with Ibuki, in her win quote against escaped convict Cody she says “I do like bad boys. Those handcuffs are overkill” and is surprised to learn they’re real. Also played with her other win quotes against attractive bad boys, while she finds Jin Kazama hot in Street Fighter X Tekken she ironically says he’s too “gloomy” for her taste.
  • Kolin is a variation as she’s utterly devoted to Gill the Dark Messiah of The Illuminati and serves as his Dark Mistress in the III series. Except from Kolin’s perspective Gill is the genuine Messiah and believes he is a Hope Bringer.
• Tekken:
  • Jun Kazama is a mysterious case of this. She’s Purity Personified yet slept with Kazuya Mishima the cruel and repugnant Villain Protagonist turned Corrupt Corporate Executive who’s possessed by the Devil and birthed his son Jin. Jun doesn’t at all fit the usual criteria seen by other women listed here, making her relationship with Kazuya all the more baffling, although it is implied Jun was able to bring some goodness out of him. This is supported by Devil Kazuya’s Tekken Tag Tournament 1 ending where he has a Pet the Dog moment giving an unconscious Jun a Bridal Carry as well as Tekken: The Motion Picture where their relationship is explored and Jun’s influence leads to Kazuya sparing Heihachi. However, since both those examples are non-canon, it’s hard to say for sure.
  • The Williams sisters Nina and Anna seem to only go for men as morally bankrupt as they are. Anna flirts and in the anime boinks Lee Chaolin the conceited Smug Snake (although he’s more a Jerk with a Heart of Gold later on), becomes the Dark Mistress of Kazuya in Tekken 6 and all we learn about her fiancé is that he was a G-Corporation executive with mafia ties. Nina for her part shows Undying Loyalty to Jin who in the events of sixth game, triggers WW3 as head of the Mishima Zaibatsu.
  • Subverted with Ling Xiaoyu, she’s a Dogged Nice Girl to well established bad boy Jin, except similar to Jun with Kazuya, Xiaoyu’s goal in the series has been acting as Jin’s Morality Pet against him being a bad guy. Her attraction is also quite hopeless as Jin per Word of God has decided he Can't Have Sex, Ever out of fear of furthering his “cursed bloodline”.
• The Trails Series is full of this. For starters:
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: Estelle and Khloe liking the brooding and cynical Joshua, Schera liking The Hedonist Olivert, and Tita having a Precocious Crush on the Delinquent Agate.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure: There is the Loveable Sex Maniac Randy and his many escapades with women. A village girl from Mainz specifically talks about preferring bad boys such as him.
• Subverted in Under Night In-Birth. Orie developed a crush on Hyde not long after she first met him. Even though he dresses like a school delinquent, swears like a sailor and his face is seemingly set in a constant scowl, Hyde kindly takes the time out to help her get used to the city and being in a co-ed school, and he is also shown to be an incredibly selfless and brave individual in other events.
• The former queen of the Night Elves Azshara from Warcraft entranced everyone around her with her beauty and power. The one man she considered worthy of her? The Burning Titan Sargeras, who is essentially the Devil in the Warcraft mythos. Many of Azeroth's magic-related problems can be directly attributed to Azshara's twisted desire to bring Sargeras into the world and rule alongside him.

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