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  • Adventure Time:
    • The Ice King receives no end of sympathy from most fans, continually painting him as harmless and misunderstood. While he is a Jerkass Woobie with a Freudian Excuse, he still harasses, stalks, kidnaps, imprisons, mind-controls, and at one point mutilates around a dozen different women, all for the purpose of forcing them to "marry" him.
    • Hunson Abadeer is basically Satan, the Lord of Evil who rules the Nightosphere in a perpetual state of chaos and pain, and while he does genuinely love his daughter Marceline that love is by demon standards, and he has no problem with eating the souls of her friends or getting her possessed by an Artifact of Doom. Doesn't stop many fans from painting him as a Bumbling Dad who just wants what's best for his little girl.
    • Ash, Marceline's Jerkass ex-boyfriend, who unlike this previous two is a completely straight example - he's good-looking, and that's his one positive attribute.
    • While Lemongrab 1 was intended to be a Hate Sink, he still has fans. Yup, he has a loud fanbase that often forgot just why everyone hates him so much. Even after being revealed he uses his mental illness as an excuse to be a jerkass to everyone (when Lemonjon got Empathy), eating and mutilating his own brother, and finally becoming a corpulent dictator, his fanbase still tries to get everyone to sympathize with him despite revelations showing he doesn't deserve it - that sympathy is better spent on his brother Lemongrab 2, or their joint reincarnation Lemongrab 3.
  • Mozenrath from Aladdin: The Series. For many fans, his hotness and him being one of the better written and more threatening villains in the show outweigh the fact that he's sadistic, turned his father-figure into a zombie, devoted his life to ruining Aladdin's, and wants to take over Agrabah just "because it's there". The belief that Mozenrath was intended to be Aladdin's brother seems to be an unfortunate (and persistent) side-effect of this trope.
  • Stelio Kontos, Stan's old bully from American Dad!, has his unpunished bullying overlooked by fans who cheered him beating up Stan who was trying to bully Steve into toughening up and proclaimed him a Memetic Badass with an awesome theme-tune. Let's face it, though, he was the reason Stan engaged in that maliciously idiotic if well-intentioned stunt in the first place, as well as part of his somewhat unfortunate childhood. There may be times to cheer Stan getting taken a peg or two, but this wasn't one of them. Stan only seemed to be proven right in season 8 when Steve was faced with his own bully, and the strategy of pitting him off against Stelio, albeit with the circumstances slightly different due to some unwanted help from Roger, totally backfires, with Steve getting an off-screen beating from both this time. Besides, bullying is no laughing matter.
  • Many Waul/Tanya shippers in the An American Tail fandom tend to get this way, and seem to gloss over the fact Waul tried to kill and eat Tanya's family.
  • Animaniacs: Plenty of fans will tout Minerva Mink as their ideal woman. While she's not pure evil, the fans are ignoring that she's vain, shallow, materialistic and happy to use her sex appeal to get what she wants - purely because she's just that sexy. The comics do at least give her more Pet the Dog moments.
  • Arcane:
    • Silco, especially after Episode 9. Focusing just on his last scene in that episode, a number of fans have taken it and rewritten him in their heads as a Tsundere Jerkass Woobie who did everything to provide for Jinx, putting his Dying Declaration of Love on a plinth while the whole reason he was shot in the first place was because he tried to shoot Vi and rob Powder/Jinx of her ability to choose a life other than with him is virtually ignored.
    • Jinx also gets this treatment from some of the fanbase, excusing her more heinous actions in favour of playing up her tragic backstory. Sure, Jinx started out as a traumatized young girl who fell in with the wrong crowd. but she's still responsible for a number of Enforcer and Firelight gang deaths. She never shows remorse or a guilty conscience for the people she kills (Mylo and Claggor aside), willingly chooses to follow Silco's orders and goes out of her way to terrorize innocent civilians, and makes the highly unreasonable demand of wanting Vi to shoot Caitlyn to get Powder back, putting the already-scared and distressed Vi in an impossible position.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Azula is a callous, cruel manipulator who kills without hesitation and gleefully advances the aims of the genocidal Fire Nation, but thanks to being the best example of sex appeal and Magnificent Bastardry in the show she has a large chunk of fans who insist she's a tragic woobie or just misunderstood. The Grand Finale gives her one hell of a Freudian Excuse and the following canonical comics hint that she might be redeemable after all, but the DILP treatment started long before that.
    • Zhao and Ozai get this treatment by Fire Nation fans for Evil Is Cool reasons, but unlike Azula they have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
    • Sozin gets this treatment quite a bit, another case of his fans focusing on the "well-intentioned" and ignoring the "extremist" aspects of Well-Intentioned Extremist. They see nothing wrong with him wanting to spread the fire nation's glory, power, and advanced civilization with the rest of the world, which apparently justifies 100 years of war, the second act of which was a complete genocide, with many other genocidal actions following. It's worth noting that Sozin himself came to regret these actions even before he dies, and Iroh specifically states that Zuko has the opportunity to not only change his own path, but to cleanse all the royal family's sins going back to Sozin.
    • Zuko got this treatment back when he was an Anti-Villain, with many fans saying all his wrong actions can be excused because of his angsty backstory and conflicted nature. Mike and Bryan themselves have brought this up in commentary for episodes such as "The Warriors of Kyoshi" and "The Beach" that, as sympathetic as Zuko is, he's not supposed to be justified in his bad actions, and in fact a big part of his Character Development is learning that he needs to take responsibility for his bad actions. This internal struggle of good and evil, which still crops up even after his Heel–Face Turn, is the entire point of his character.
    • Recurring character and Well-Intentioned Extremist Jet had a lot of fans rationalizing his act of flooding a village filled with civilians to kill a few Fire Nation soldiers (to the point where only a handful seem to remember that it was an Earth Kingdom village under occupation, not a Fire Nation colony), which is missing the point. Even Jet himself later seems to realize he went too far there and that his psychological desire for revenge really overcame his heroic desire to be a freedom fighter, and works to atone for it.
    • Long Feng and his Dai Li are sometimes given this treatment, with their Orwellian methods and repression of Ba Sing Se painted as the act of true patriots who were compelled to do whatever it took to keep their city safe. Case in point.
    • Happens In-Universe in the episode The Ember Island Players. The Gaang watch The Boy in the Iceberg, a play about their adventures performed by the titular Ember Island Players. The play is Fire Nation propaganda, and so it puts the Fire Nation in a much better light than the series does.
      • Play!Azula lacks most of the real Azula's psychopathy and mental instability. She doesn't shoot Iroh in the play's version of The Chase (she instead tells the others to Look Behind You and escapes through a hidden door), and she keeps her sanity throughout the finale, unlike the real Azula, who had a spectacular breakdown.
      • Play!Ozai still wants to conquer the world and kills Aang in the finale, but he has no plans of genocide and merely uses the comet for a power boost in his fight against Play!Aang.
  • Batman:
    • Fanfics about Batman: The Animated Series often depict the Rogues Gallery as a fun-loving bunch of lovable misfits who are unfairly and brutally harassed by the humorless Caped Crusader. Never mind that even in the kids' show's context, most of the Rogues were originally apprehended for attempting ruthless murders on hapless civilians for imagined or exaggerated slights, and that when Batman was put on trial for supposedly creating his foes, the jury of villains found him not guilty in the end and decided that they were responsible for their own messed-up behavior. Then they tried to kill Batman anyway.
      • Poison Ivy in particular gets this a lot because she is so hot and sexy, because she's quick-witted and funny, and also because she occasionally acts as a Cool Big Sis to the naive and put-upon Harley Quinn, who does suffer a great deal at the hands of The Joker and various others and legitimately deserves some sympathy herself. However, none of this should make anyone forget that the rest of the time she's a nasty piece of work, killing people left and right for her own insane reasons (or, on one heinous occasion, trying to turn them into trees after exposing them to a plant-based elixir that she promised would grant them immortality), and also being a Manipulative Bitch, using her goddess-like beauty to weaken men's resolve or squirm her way out of being punished for her actions.
      • The Penguin also gets the Jerkass Woobie treatment: it's easy to feel sorry for a short, funny-looking man who gets looked down on by many people. This is particularly the case in the early episode "Birds of a Feather", where it's shown that he commits crimes (all of them as nonviolent as he can possibly make them, unless he gets really angry) either simply for fun or to win some respect for himself. That episode even opens with him speaking politely and amicably to a man he's just tied up and is robbing. It's clear, at least in these early appearances, that the Penguin doesn't want to hurt anyone; it's just that he feels being a crook is what he was meant to do in life.
      • Mister Freeze is another villain who gets this a lot, due to being a Tragic Villain. And while he does have redeeming features, he also happens to be The Unfettered, obsessed with revenge, and in some appearances a Straw Nihilist who targets innocents just to spread his own misery.
      • Harley Quinn also for being an abuse victim at the Joker's hands, and actually having her origin shown in which he manipulates her into becoming his accomplice by taking advantage of her obvious crushon him by feeding her sob stories. While this is genuinely tragic, it does not excuse her numerous homicidal acts as a part of the Joker's entourage. Her first appearance has her gleefully try to bomb the policeman ball while all officers present are paralyzed by a toxic gas, and she becomes willingly complicit in several more severe crimes form then on.
    • Likewise is the more recent The Batman series, where many villain origins are reimagined and many characters are portrayed as younger, and therefore somehow less corrupt and more tragic, especially The Riddler and Poison Ivy. The fact that the former was later revealed to have a Freudian Excuse probably helps.
  • Kevin 11 from Ben 10, despite being an Ax-Crazy Sociopathic Enfant Terrible, was often this among his fans, even though the show flat-out presented his Freudian Excuse as not being valid enough for his unrepentant villainy.
  • Chip Whistler from Big City Greens is a narcissistic sociopath who is obsessed with revenge on the Green Family and has literally tried to murder children, but he’s good-looking, so there’s no shortage of fans trying to redeem him so he can be shipped with Gloria, Bill, or well, anyone.
  • Lahwhinie from the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode "Gadget Goes Hawaiian" is Gadget's Evil Twin. Period. At least in Canon. But for some fans, she is Gadget minus her quirks and geek attitude and lack of social skills, but plus a dress and make-up and actual passion, and sometimes have her do a more or less spectacular Heel–Face Turn.
  • Code Lyoko: William's long-term possession by XANA has definitely increased his fanbase, although the emphasis is more on curing him than on loving him for/despite being evil.
  • Father from Codename: Kids Next Door gets some of this, despite being a psychotic child-hating supervillain who brainwashed five kids into thinking they were his own and planned to bake a whole bunch of innocent kids into a cake, but according to his fans he's "just misunderstood". It helps that he has a Freudian Excuse and some pity moments through Villain Decay, plus that there are far, far more unsympathetic villains on the show.
    • The Delightful Children got a lot of this even before their backstory was revealed.
    • Cree gets some of this as well. The hints that she might actually seek reconciliation with her sister - but only if it's on her terms - helps.
  • Danny Phantom:
    • Vlad Masters/Plasmius gets this treatment for his sympathetic backstory- after an accident at the hands of his ex-friend, the title character's father, who he then viewed as "stealing" his one true love while he suffered in the hospital. He then based his life around getting revenge. He uses deception and mind control to amass his fortune and uses it and his ghost powers to attempt murder and cause mayhem, which he somehow thinks is a good way to get Maddie to fall in love with him and Danny to consider him as a better father than Jack. Yet because all he wants, essentially, is to be loved, numerous fans ignore that he's a selfish, maniacal narcissist.
    • In fact, in a reality where he did get what he wanted, marrying Maddie, he still became a bitter, controlling man, to the point where Maddie threw him into the ghost zone.
    • Ember McLain gets this treatment, mostly for her loss, but some fans think that her song was about her suicide after being cheated on by her boyfriend. It helps that she (and several other members of Danny’s Rogues Gallery, for that matter) is increasingly portrayed as fighting Danny for fun more than out of malice.
    • Desiree gets this from fans. She has a very sympathetic backstory and is heavily implied to have been an unappreciated Sex Slave in life. The fact that she's extremely attractive helps of course. In the show proper, she's bad to the bone and has gone full Jackass Genie more concerned with power than actually granting wishes.
  • Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory In the show he's an Evil Genius and the closest this series has to a Big Bad. Try explaining that to fangirls who portray him as a sweet nerdy boy who just wants Dee Dee to love him.
  • The Urpneys from The Dreamstone often maintain a higher popularity than the heroes, due to an excessive Sympathetic P.O.V., their half hearted villainous streak and just being Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains of the highest order. While this has some credibility since they are genuinely forced unwillingly into most schemes (most of which have a very petty motive in early episodes), the narrative usually makes clear they are so out of laziness and cowardice rather than any form of conscience, and usually display an indifferent obedience to Zordrak whenever his ambitions become more menacing, such as trying to destroy the heroes' world or turn them into stone. Even the far more genuinely malicious Zordrak and Urpgor gain sympathy from fans due to their ineffectual qualities.
  • Duck Dodgers: Deconstructed in one episode. There's a villain called the Magnificent Rogue who basically terrorizes people, yet is worshipped because he's so attractive. Even when he flat out admits that he is indeed insane. Porky snaps out of it and ultimately thwarts his plot. IQ also states that being beautiful doesn't give you the right to terrorize people. It could easily be trying to mock this trope.
  • The Dragon Prince is still an ongoing show, and some of the things that the bad guys do can be seen as justifiable due to the world's Grey-and-Gray Morality setting where no side of the original war was really all that "good" or "bad." However, this trope can come into play with some of the more obviously evil characters:
    • Viren, the ongoing main antagonist of the first three seasons, tends to get this from time to time. As said before, his ideals weren't exactly "wrong" at first, but when he gets desparate, he jumps to conclusions that would make him do things that are absolutely vile, including trying to get his son to kill his friends just so he can usurp the throne. Some fans tend to remember his more understanding opinions that could technically be more "right" than even what certain heroes would think, but that hardly matters when his actions only spur the war and he completely ignores the option to make peace when the opportunity arises.
    • Viren's daughter Claudia is a lesser example. This can be justified in that Claudia is not evil upon introduction, and her actions can be seen as more of desperate acts to keep what's left of her crumbling family together. However, Claudia is no longer guilt free after season 3, where she made a clear attempt to kill Ezran and brought her father back to life by using another person as a material component. The more bizarre use of these leather pants is that on top of fans remembering Claudia as the quirky fun girl she started out as, they also tend to keep shipping her with Callum, despite the fact that Callum has since lost his feelings for her and moved on.
    • Unlike the other two, Aaravos has next to no redeeming qualities morally, and every time he directly interacts with the outside world, someone tends to disintegrate. He was willing to help Viren take over Xadia and achieve an incredible amount of power by absorbing the essence of a baby dragon and only failed to do so when Rayla interviened. Despite all this, people really like Aaravos. Why? Well, I mean, look at him.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • Eddy gets a lot of this. Fans use his Freudian Excuse involving his brother as a legitimate excuse for how badly he treats his friends and the other kids in the series. This is ignoring the fact that most of Eddy's jerkass behavior is done out of free will, as Eddy sometimes starts unprovoked drama with the other Cul-De-Sac kids. Fans would even go as far as to attempt to push the blame off of Eddy by putting all the blame solely on the other characters for their roles they played against Eddy and his actions (just go to the videos (especially the Youtube comments on said videos) and the comments of the episode pages of "A Case of Ed" and "Brother, Can You Spare an Ed" and you'll see a lot of whitewashing/ignoring of Eddy's behavior).
    • May Kanker is often seen as a sympathetic Woobie and the Token Good Teammate of the Kanker sisters (a trio of bullies/molesters and the main villains of the show). True, the way her sisters treat her sometimes puts her on The Woobie territory, but when it comes to other people, she's just as cruel as them. Yet, some people would rather believe she wouldn't hurt a fly and she's just oppressed by Marie and Lee.
    • Her sister Marie, being the prettiest Kanker, usually gets the free pass from fandom, alternatively given a Freudian Excuse, similar to May's example above. It's also easy to find comments (especially youtube comments) about Edd being an idiot for rejecting a "hot" girl like Marie.
    • Even Lee occasionally gets this treatment in fanart along with her sisters, but less often than May and Marie.
  • Norm from The Fairly Oddparents gets this bad. He's often portrayed as The Woobie, locked up in his lamp and was forced to serve several masters like Timmy. This is ignoring the fact that he is a Card Carrying Jerkass and such a Jackass Genie that he was that page's picture. Also, he had tried to sell Timmy (who was originally apathetic toward Norm) on the prospect of having a genie, and the fact that he plans to destroy Canada once he's free should erode his sympathy.
    • Vicky is a destructive, abusive sociopath, but so many of her fans go to incredible lengths to justify or outright ignore these traits. Others simply fabricate a Freudian Excuse for her out of thin air, despite being repeatedly established that she has no such excuse, and indeed is the Freudian Excuse for several other characters, Timmy included. Disturbingly, there are even people who ship her with Timmy.
    • Anti-Cosmo who's Cosmo's evil counter part, has been seen as a fairy who simply wants his own godchild, baring the fact he has made several attempts on conquering or destroying Fairy World and Earth.
  • Family Guy: Stewie Griffin tends to get sympathetic treatment in later episodes, largely due to putting up with Brian's selfish egotism and his Comedic Sociopath parents, disregarding the fact that even following his Flanderization, Stewie is often portrayed as a sadist who tries to kill his mother and puts Brian through all sorts of painful stunts for petty slights or even just to see if he can. (eg, giving him two gangster style beatings for overdue gambling fees or travelling in time to sabotage every meaningful point in his life over a gay joke).
    • And to mentioned even now and then, he's still shown to commit manslaughter or even outright/attempt murder on occasions.
  • Hexxus, the Spirit of Destruction and pollution embodied in FernGully: The Last Rainforest gets this even though he's trying to level a rainforest full of plant and animal life as well as sentient fairies that depend on its existence to survive. It doesn't help that the movie is Anvilicious, the protagonists (save for Batty Koda) are somewhat generic and seen as rather less interesting, and Hexxus himself is voiced by Tim Curry, with all the implications this entails. And he gets one of the best Villain Songs of all times.
  • Gargoyles:
    • Demona. While the character is definitely a three-dimensional villain, and you understand where she is coming from, a lot of fanfic authors spin this off into either being an apologist or completely re-writing the character to the point where she is Demona in name only. Add in the fact that she's already somewhat sympathetic by design and there you go. Usually, her daughter Angela will either wave a finger in Demona's face, and Demona magically gives up her hatred to have a relationship with her, or Demona magically falls in love with a human and sees that humans are not all bad. A lot of the time, Goliath is portrayed as an evil misogynist. Generally, most of these fanfics are just an excuse to get Demona naked, and some authors have admitted that canon Demona is too difficult to write. Word of God states that Demona will still be plotting against humanity long after Angela and most of the cast are dead.
    • While Xanatos does get a whole slew of Pet the Dog moments and arguably evolves into an Anti-Villain by the end, he still commits a lot of ruthless or downright evil acts (especially early on) and never seriously regrets any of them (except maybe creating Thailog). There are nonetheless a disturbing amount of fans who portray Xanatos as little worse than a brilliant trickster, with more than one declaration that he isn't really evil or villainous. This probably wouldn't happen half as often if he didn't look like a physically-idealized Jonathan Frakes.
    • Rounding out the trifetica of the show's major villains is Macbeth. He's easily the most sympathetic even in canon- he's as tragic as Demona but not a tenth as vicious, and as affable as Xanatos without being nearly as manipulative- and he has an old-school warrior's sense of honor, but his fans have a definite tendency to treat him as a Hero Antagonist, which several of his actions (notably deciding to use Broadway- with whom he had no personal quarrel- as target practice for newly-acquired spells) show he's not. Per Word of God, he's an ends-justify-the-means kind of guy, and his ends are pretty questionable on their own. Character Development, however, does end up moving him into Hero Antagonist territory by the end of the series.
    • The only recurring villains who aren't in some way sympathetic are Tony Dracon and Sevarius, and they sometimes get the DILP treatment.
  • Generator Rex:
    • Van Kleiss, largely because of his Well-Intentioned Extremist claims and the fact that his opposing number White Knight is a jerk.
    • Breach. She isn't without sympathetic qualities, but sometimes people forget that she's completely insane and has happily kidnapped people to use them as toys in her "playhouse," throwing them away when she gets bored of them.
  • Murdoc of the Gorillaz is often seen this way, despite being a canonically alcoholic, exhibitionist, verbally and physically abusive megalomaniac. The trope is even employed in-universe, since despite many of these traits being publicly known, Murdoc does not lack for bedmates.
  • Gravity Falls:
    • Bill Cipher, the Big Bad of the entire series. He is a living embodiment of the Illuminati symbol and he has psychotic behavior but fans love him. He is often drawn as a sexy man with one eye covered and dapper clothes who is sometimes shipped with Dipper or Mabel. Back in "Dreamscaperers," most of his villainous acts technically took place inside dreams, yet he still showed signs of his chaos-loving like when he telekinetically removed a deer's teeth to creep out Gideon. Fans ignored the warning signs and thought his mysteriousness at the time was hinting at some kind of morally-gray character, beginning to make all kinds of romantic interpretations of him. When the episode "Sock Opera" where he possesses Dipper's body debuted, fans started fawning over "Bipper" and outright calling him sexy even though he tried to kill Mabel. Even when the last quarter of the series makes it blatantly clear that his "strange plan" is to destroy the world for fun, which he partially succeeds at doing (he manages to cause an apocalypse in the town of Gravity Falls, but he's stopped from going further by a barrier), the habit of painting him as some sort of misunderstood good guy persisted to the end of the series and pairing him with the Pines remained some of the most popular ships in the entire fandom. Supplemental materials hint that there is indeed some emotional depth to Bill's character, but that ultimately he is still solely responsible for the atrocities he's committed.
    • The episode "Soos and the Real Girl" had .GIFfany for its Monster of the Week, who is a sentient Dating Sim character. She is a Yandere who is implied to have killed her developers and tried to kill the people who played her, she also tries to force Soos to upload his brain to her system so they can be together forever. When he refuses to let her upload him, she outright threatens to kill him too. Many people found her cute and sexy and were even attracted to her yandere tendencies since she "proved" she was willing to go a long way for love, even if it meant coercing and abusing the person she "loved." She even gets some of this in-universe: the entry Soos wrote about her in Gravity Falls: Journal 3 has him praising parts of her game after she tried to kill him and saying that she's sweet when she's not trying to kill people, hoping that she wasn't killed in their battle. She wasn't, as being made of energy meant she couldn't be destroyed and is just safely stuck inside the arcade now.
  • Hey Arnold!
    • Helga G. Pataki. In the series she's a Jerkass Woobie with a Hidden Heart of Gold who is horribly neglected by her parents, but who also can be mean, selfish, rude (and even cruel in some instances) does many things moved by jealousy and constantly bullies other kids (not only Arnold). However, despite that, many fanfics (especially romantic fanfics) portray her almost as a saint. This happens mostly because a lot of viewers see themselves in her, a sentiment amplified by her main character status.
    • Curly is pretty much criminally insane, but many fanfics downplay it for various reasons.
  • Invader Zim:
    • Zim is a Villain Protagonist with little sympathetic qualities and who desires to enslave Earth, committing some pretty vile deeds in his attempts to do so. In fan-fiction, however, he is often given more sympathetic qualities and Pet the Dog moments, with his more villainous qualities and misdeeds being toned down, if not removed entirely. In shipping fics, it isn't uncommon for him to give up his conquest thanks to the love of some kind-hearted human or Irken girl, or Dib in Slash Fics.
    • Gaz. Simply put, she's a selfish, abusive, and greedy brat with absolutely no redeeming qualities, yet many fans praise her as "the smartest character on the show" and call her a no-nonsense badass. This is especially baffling when you consider that not only does she refuse to risk her life for anyone but herself, but that she only goes after people who are much weaker and for petty reasons. Notably, the creator himself ended up regretting how horrible he had made Gaz, and in both the comic series and Enter the Florpus movie she is rewritten to be an actual badass who actually does have redeeming traits such as care for her brother.
  • Kaeloo: Mr. Cat is portrayed on the show as a psychopath who wouldn't hesitate to kill or maim people for petty reasons, and also is a selfish, greedy, rude, egomaniacal, sarcastic jerkass. In fanon, he is portrayed as much nicer, and some fanworks even portray him as a sweet person who just wants Kaeloo to love him.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Amon is the charismatic leader of the Equalists, who just want to bring about equality between benders and non-benders by ending all bending, but have absolutely no problem harming the very people they claim to be helping. Amon's so charismatic that he's managed to convince some of the fans, who rightly point out existing inequalities in Republic City, but tend to gloss over that forcibly stripping people of something the setting treats as intrinsic to one's soul is not a nice thing to do.
    • Tahno, while eventually becoming somewhat sympathetic after Amon takes his bending and leaves him a broken man, had fans wishing he could give them "private lessons" even when he was a total Jerkass.
    • Season 4 gives us Kuvira. She desperately wanted to save the Earth Kingdom from falling into anarchy after The Earth Queen's assassination. To that end, she usurped power from the reigning Prince Wu and reformed the kingdom into the Earth Empire. Like Amon, she is extremely charismatic and can justify her actions with arguments so reasonable that even the heroes begrudgingly agree she has a point. So charismatic is she that even some of the fandom will defend her by saying that she's just doing what she thinks is right, even when it's revealed she is throwing those not of Earth Kingdom decent into labor camps. The fact that the series finale portrays her as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and gives her a Freudian Excuse to further humanize her only reinforced this sentiment.
  • The Loud House: An unusual case where this is applied to the main character of the show itself, Lincoln Loud. Fan-rewrites or Fix Fics of unpopular episodes where Lincoln gets the short end of the stick often portray Lincoln as an innocent victim of the torment of his sisters (who are often given the Ron the Death Eater treatment) who calls them out for their mistreatment of him when in the canon episode(s) Lincoln wasn't entirely blameless or even brought on the torment upon himself. It's especially noticeable in certain re-writes of the widely-disliked episode "No Such Luck", where Lincoln calls out his entire family for treating him like dirt because they thought he was a jinx (sometimes to the point of getting them arrested or otherwise punishing them), even though in the actual episode, Lincoln, like it or not, brought everything bad that happened to him upon himself by making his family believe that he was a jinx solely for his own gain.
    • Even though the sisters are given Ron the Death Eater treatment, there are also a good number of fans who give them Draco In Leather Pants treatment as well. Many go too far in defending them, even when they DO act horribly.
  • In Mega Man (Ruby-Spears), RS-Protoman is arguably not as bad as most of the examples on this page, but some fans seem to think that his switching alliances would instantly rid him of his less pleasant traits. (Possibly so they can offload them to their idealized version of RS-Bass).
  • Bradley Nicholson in Milo Murphy's Law, in canon a pompous jerk who is jealous of Milo for the attention his Weirdness Magnet status affords him. Many fans grant him Jerkass Woobie status, interpreting his craving for attention at all costs as a symptom of an inferiority complex, possibly caused by Abusive Parents, depressive tendencies, or both. In this light, his crush on Milo's close friend Melissa Chase renders him especially sympathetic.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • The more sympathetic akumas tend to get this treatment, despite the fact that, no matter their reasons for getting akumatized, they're still villains who work for the Big Bad and are completely willing to harm innocents.
    • Hawk Moth himself started getting this treatment once it was revealed that he's Gabriel Agreste. Fans latched on to his concern for Adrien's safety and motives (bringing his beloved wife back), while ignoring the fact that he often puts Adrien in danger to begin with.
    • Both of the show's alpha bitches, Chloé and Lila, have been getting this from fans:
      • For Chloé Bourgeois, it started becoming more justified when the writers tried to give her Character Development and turn her into a superhero; however, she constantly displayed Aesop Amnesia in regards to this, and if anything only got worse in season 3, where she willingly worked with Hawk Moth because Ladybug didn't give in to her demands. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), the fans love having her see the error of her ways and become a good person for real. Usually, fans actually at least address her flaws and have her work to overcome them (though they sometimes make it too easy for her), but there are writers who just brush them aside.
      • For Lila Rossi, while it was more understandable when we only had "Volpina" to go by in terms of her personality (with there being enough wiggle room to give her constant lying a Freudian Excuse), there are still fans willing to do this after she's proven herself to be a sociopath who is perfectly willing to work with a supervillain to get what she wants. The most common methods involve citing a potential Freudian Excuse for her behavior (whether even loosely based in canon or made up by the author), ignoring her actions post-"Volpina", or putting her in a situation where she has standards compared to a different character (typically a character going through a Ron the Death Eater phase).
    • Félix Fathom has also been getting this from fans, who often ignore him being a remorseless Manipulative Bastard in favor of portraying him as, at worst, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold — often at the expense of giving the Ron the Death Eater treatment to his cousin Adrien. A lot of this is rooted in the fact that he was originally meant to be the show's male protagonist, and the fanbase had been applying fanon to him for years by the time he made his debut.
  • Scarab from Mummies Alive!. Never mind that he was something like a cross between Mr. Burns and Mumm-Ra; Fan Fic still has him suavely hooking up with heroes of the show alike. Considering that relatively few people even remember the show, the sheer amount of Slash Fic it generates around an aging Corrupt Corporate Executive who powers up into an insectoid monstrosity is rather disturbing.
  • The Sirens/The Dazzlings are this for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls as a whole. They're the most popular villains from the franchise by a country mile, and they often get portrayed in fan works far more sympathetically than their canon counterparts. In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, the Sirens are a Terrible Trio who want to spread a Hate Plague, caused people to be brainwashed against their friends, and show absolutely no remorse for any of this. In most fan works about them, they are portrayed as showing remorse for their actions, especially Sonata Dusk. In their first appearance in five years since Rainbow Rocks, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Sunset's Backstage Pass, they are shown to not show remorse for their actions, only showing regret for them because they no longer have their Hate Plague powers. But in the digital short, "Find the Magic", they sing the titular song about how lost they feel without their former powers and by the end they learn to appreciate the simple joys in life.
  • Phineas and Ferb: It's not uncommon for people to claim that Dr. Doofenshmirtz was never evil and was only ever misunderstood, notwithstanding the truly dangerous and malicious nature of his schemes. It doesn't always come with the Ron the Death Eater treatment for Perry but it sometimes does.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar:
    • Rico. Okay, so he's not evil, but he is a loose cannon who needs to be kept under tight control. All that craziness is very often tossed aside in the interests of pairing him up with whichever penguin the author chooses.
    • King Julien. He's not evil, but he is a jerk. Again, it's abandoned for the purposes of bedding him down with Skipper or Marlene. The weird thing is, the movie, while he's not all that nice, he at least is concerned for his subjects, and demonstrates sincere gratitude toward Alex and the others, but is listed under Jerkass. While in the series he's abusive to Mort and Maurice, malicious toward the Penguins for the sake of it, rude in general and self-serving, with his few decent moments usually having at least partially selfish motivation, yet is listed under Jerk with a Heart of Gold, despite his negative qualities far outweighing his arguable positive ones.
    • Officer X. Being one of the most popular villains and having a rather reasonable reason to want to go against the Penguins. Claims of him being a Designated Villain and Unintentionally Sympathetic are common among fans, arguing he's simply a man who is doing his job while the Penguins are constantly screwing him for their own agenda and getting fired of his newest job. His fans often forget his blatant sadism at the time of hunting Max or the Penguins and his history of commiting property damage or using unjustified force against the animals he's suppose to control. Many fans also often forget, he was fired because of a vandalism spree out of frustration for not capturing the Penguins again, which is hardly a reasonable thing to do.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
    • Mojo Jojo is often given a Freudian Excuse for his villainy, most likely because he was Professor Utonium's lab assistant named "Jojo" always wrecking things he could find. Granted, he was only a baby animal, but still. Many people also believe his sob story about how he was wrongfully cast out of the Utonium residence following his mutation, ignoring the fact that he brought this on himself, in the Professor's own words. He then made a Face–Heel Turn after he tricked the girls into building his volcano-top observatory in the 2002 movie and nowadays, everyone just ignores his hundreds of onscreen - much less offscreen - rampages. On top of that, he thought that being good was boring in the 10th anniversary special, so he went back to being evil just for the fun of it.
    • HIM can qualify for this as well. He has a lot of fangirls that think he's a fun, lovable oaf, downplaying the fact that he's a sadistic, heartless monster who captures the characteristics found in the Devil Himself. Even Professor Utonium described him as a "supernatural manifestation of pure evil".
    • Fuzzy Lumpkins is sympathized by fans for just wanting to be left alone in his cabin in the woods. This is ignoring the fact that he damages other peoples' property out of Unstoppable Rage and overall is just as bad as other villains.
    • The Rowdyruff Boys tend to be toned down and glamorized into being misunderstood little boys who secretly long to be loved and in relationships with the Powerpuff Girls, even going as far as being shipped with the girls as well. In reality, the boys are a trio of aggressive misogynists who love to destroy The Powerpuff Girls, just for the fun of it. Heck, they were even created by Mojo Jojo to destroy them, and they take pleasure in it as well! Brick even himself stated that they only cared about destroying The Powerpuff Girls.
      • Out of all the boys, Boomer seems to be getting this due to the constant bullying that his brothers put him through. They claim that he has empathy for others, forgetting the fact that when it comes to other people, Boomer is just as bad as his brothers.
    • Fans sympathize with Princess wanting to be a Powerpuff Girl and always getting rejected, ignoring how she doesn't have superpowers or crime fighting experience, and only cares about being a Powerpuff Girl for the cosmetic reasons (being popular, powerful, and loved) and the fact that even if the Powerpuff Girls DID consider adding extra members to the team, Princess certainly wouldn't make the cut due to her spoiled rotten behavior.
    • The Gangreen Gang get this to an extent. Some people in the fandom portray them as these innocent boys whom the world and their families have outcasted for no good reason; and while the show has suggested here and there that the team might have some good in them (like when they helped the girls take down Sedusa, or how they changed sides in the FusionFall game), they're still delinquent, disrespectful teens who vandalize the city and prey on children and the elderly just for kicks.
  • Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville: Eva, the main antagonist of this series, is a mean Siamese cat and the twin sister of Princess Ava who wants to claim the Friendship Heart and the throne of the Pocket Kingdom for herself. She does this all For the Evulz and even lacks redeeming factors. Despite all this however, most fans absolutely adore her for varying reasons. Some fan content even paint her as a more sympathetic or misunderstood villain who just wants as much attention as her sister, but does it in the completely wrong way. Some fans even see her fate being captured by the Pet Buster in place of her sister as a Tear Jerker moment, considering the implications of her and her sister’s family.
  • Rick and Morty: Rick Sanchez, one of the title characters of the show, is typically an asshole of many calibers. He's a drunk, selfish and reckless, even if he can get him and his grandson Morty out of sticky situations (though he's the one that normally put them in said situations). Every once in a while though, Rick seems to have a moment of character development, and fans forget that he's an asshole. Even if immediately after the moment of character development, he reverts back to his normal asshole-ish self.
  • Samurai Jack:
    • Three words: Aku. Has. FANGIRLS.
      • Besides, he has a loud fanbase that sympathize with him for being Made of Evil. He simply CAN'T stop being evil because it's in his very nature to be evil. The fact that some fans saw his death as a Tear Jerker moment of the series only cemented this status, since his death marks the end to an iconic Cartoon Network villain many grew up with. Of course, this is ignoring that Aku is a Chaotic Evil sadist whose list of crimes can fill a book; and his sense of humor aside, he has no redeemable traits. Some fans even consider him as Ugly Cute or Creepy Cute, largely due to his somewhat simplistic design.
    • The High Priestess herself is this for some. In fact, there's a theory circulating in the Fridge Horror page about the possibility that she was raised just like her daughters were.
  • She Ra And The Princessesof Power:
    • Catra. Even after she tries to destroy Etheria and all life on it including herself just to deny Adora victory, you will still find fans who think she is justified in her actions. For some fans, the Draco part may be dropped when Catra makes a Heel–Face Turn in Season 5 and performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
    • There are certain fans who completely whitewash Entrapta's Face–Heel Turn and claim that she's purely duped by the Horde and won't need any actual redemption, ignoring the extremely dark and irresponsible depiction of her For Science! tendencies. Some of them also argue her autism means she isn't morally responsible for any of her actions... which is pretty dodgy if you actually are autistic or sympathize with autistic people from a more thoughtful perspective.
    • Hordak. While he's certainly deliberately sympathetic (Especially in the way he bonds with Entrapta), some fans forget that Hordak is very much not a good person and try to whitewash or ignore his villainous deeds, although many of his fans certainly understand that he's a villain and like him plenty anyways. The show ends with him redeeming himself, which has only intensified debate over whether the writers themselves give him this treatment.
    • There are even some fans (admittedly only a very small minority) who downplay Shadow Weaver's relentlessly self-serving behaviour and insist that deep down, she cares for Adora and/or Catra... even though she's proven herself entirely willing to sacrifice both if it gets her what she wants.
    • Scorpia. Despite having committed many vile acts during her time in the Horde, some of her fans treat her as an innocent bystander who did nothing wrong.
  • The Simpsons has Sideshow Bob. While his intelligence, menacing aura, and highbrow/Deadpan Snarker attitude combined with the perpetual clown-like mishaps to which he's subjected make him a cool and funny villain, there is a considerable fanbase determined to overlook that his life revolves around murdering Bart and those who stand in the way of his murdering Bart, instead making him into an angster hiding his suffering under an antisocial exterior. Extra annoying in that they overlook the canonical explanation for any angst (his being Krusty the Clown's Butt-Monkey for years), instead giving him a depressingly cliched tragic backstory.
    • To a lesser extent, Mr. Burns. In canon, he's a heartless Corrupt Corporate Executive, but those who ship him with his assistant Mr. Smithers often sand off his edges and make him considerably sweeter- or, at the very least, portray Smithers as his Morality Pet.
  • The South Park fandom does this a lot, especially with characters like Eric Cartman, who once has gone as far as to trick a kid into eating food made from his slain parents, and Damien, who set Pip on fire and turned Kenny into a duck-billed platypus.
  • Sheldon Plankton in Spongebob Squarepants. It has been established that he's "1% evil, 99% hot gas", but some have doubted that as he continued to try to take Krabs' secret formula in myriad ways. One episode from the same first season with the previous calculation even had him as a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk with him saying "Being evil is just too much fun!" His actions include enslaving Spongebob, taking out his brain, and gleefully attempting to lord over and enslave others while, in the first movie, set up Mr. Krabs to be punished by King Neptune, which would likely be lethal (though the severity of 'death' in such a program is not always clear). With the possibly-alternate world of the post-movie Spongebob, he's gone as far as to potentially murder people several times. He's definitely crossed the Moral Event Horizon to some at this point, though it may be Dependingonthe Writer, as he's still usually content with enslaving people. But because Mr. Krabs Took a Level in Jerkass in these later seasons, a lot of folks act as though Plankton is some innocent victim who never does anything wrong, when even in those seasons he's still a Jerkass type himself who has done just as many nasty things as Krabs has. Obviously that doesn't excuse what Krabs did in "One Coarse Meal", but still...
    • Squidward Tentacles could also fall as an example. Sure he suffers a lot, but there are fans who ignore all the bad stuff he has done and some mean things he's said out of sheer grouchiness and treat him like an innocent victim, even when some of his misfortunes are brought upon himself.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars has some. Since Darth Maul was brought back in the fourth season, he has fans (as seen with the films). General Grievous, although he's a cold-blooded cyborg who killed hundreds of people receives this in spades. Young!Boba Fett also gets this, though in fairness, he's portrayed during his appearances as a sympathetic character.
  • Sofia the First: Cedric the Sorcerer, who had been the hidden villain for almost 3 seasons, has a lot of fanart where he is portrayed as more sympathetic, the reason varies from the poor treatment that the viewers perceive from King Roland to him, to show him conflicted to choose between his wish for the amulet of Avalor and the friendship (and romantic love in some cases) for older versions of Sofia, with whom he is often coupled in many fanarts and fanfics.
  • While Superjail! has a cast filled with characters that are corrupt or despicable to some degree, there are a few examples that tend to stand out when it comes to this:
    • Some tend to ignore the fact that while Alice has a bit of an unfortunate backstory, she's also described by the creators as a sadistic bully who intentionally abuses her power to get herself pleasure from the inmates. Any of her flaws can get easily glossed over for her to be simplified and painted as a saintly Woobie who just needs one good man (when fans aren't going in the other direction to demonize her for not returning Warden's feelings).
    • Lord Stingray gets a bunch of this treatment from certain fans, who feel as if he's been unfairly wronged and misunderstood for being imprisoned in Superjail. Some decide to depict him as physically attractive in order to play up suaveness to make him a viable partner for the Warden, if they don't go with outright Foe Yay Shipping.
    • The Twins are sometimes simplified into harmless innocent young men who just want to have fun in the jail, even though they're shown to take visible amusement in causing death and destruction. Sure, they start trouble to relieve boredom, but they aren't any less questionable in their morality than the rest of the cast.
  • Dr. Viper in SWAT Kats has a few fans despite being arguably the series' most sick, twisted and sadistic villain in his very first episode alone, and not being what would generally be considered attractive (even before he got mutated). Many early fanfics by one "Kikki Viper" revolved around the evil biochemist converting to Christianity, gaining a magical sword and saving the day. The fanfics have been given the MST treatment by many a SWAT Kats fan. Artist Ignigeno sexifies Viper while at least retaining his evil, sadistic personality.
  • Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) has a lot of fangirls. In fact, of every single incarnation of Ninja Turtles, his version is considered the most popular/sexiest of them all in spite of the fact that he's a misanthrope who wants to take over the world and regularly threatens to consume four teenage sentient lifebeings simply for trying to deter his plans. Many are drawn to his voice, his body, his outfit and, depending on the animation, the fact that he's rather handsome without his mask on (something that is played up a lot in canary and fanfics).
  • Agent Bishop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003). Compared to the Shredder, he's a much more sympathetic and well intentioned villain, however while an undeniably a complex villain a lot of fans definitely romanticise him a little too much, especially considering the countless acts of murder, espionage, torture, and other dirty dealings that come close to, if not outright rival, the Shredder's. By the sixth season, set decades into the future, Bishop does renounce his evil ways to become one of the good guys, so he's not an entirely unsympathetic or irredeemable character. However, he achieved DILP status far before "Fast Forward" and there are still a disturbingly large amount of fans who prefer to sweep all his evil deeds under the rug and act as if he's nothing more than a heroic savior of the world with no flaws.
  • Teen Titans (2003):
    • Slade, whose intelligence, competency and "cool" factor results in many fans ignoring the fact that he's a mind-raping adult who takes pride in stalking and fighting teenagers. Some fans even go as far as to find him blameless for Terra betraying the Titans. While yes, it was partially Terra's fault, Slade still played a role in it. Fans even go as far as to make him innocent compared to Terra.
    • There's a subset of fans who think Terra should have been welcomed back with open arms and accepted as a permanent member of the team even after her stint as The Mole and The Dragon to Slade. They argue that none of it was her fault since Slade manipulated her (Terra herself makes this argument, but Beast Boy points out that she could have gotten out at any time but chose not to, and Terra ends up redeeming herself by accepting this and taking responsibility). She's a sympathetic Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds to be sure, but to paint her as a blameless martyr is missing the point of her character (of course, but so is painting her as an irredeemable fiend like other fans like to do, which is just as bad, and if not worse).
  • Tygra from Thunder Cats 2011, the reboot of the 1985 series. While he does have his share of redeeming qualities, is one of the good guys, and is confirmed by the creators to be a Jerkass Woobie instead of a tamed version of Big Brother Bully, a lot of his fan are a bit too willing to forgive him for and justify him leaving his adopted brother, Lion-O, to die twice, being somewhat of an unapologetic bigot, undermining Lion-O's authority and not supporting him on occasions.
  • Tom and Jerry. While Tom is something of an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, fans have taken to downplaying Tom’s flaws completely and treat Jerry as if he's the bad guy in all their altercations. The truth is that neither one is truly innocent, being victim and provoker in seeming equal measure, but Tom just gets the DILP pass because the writers worked so hard to depict that Jerry (who, at the time at least, automatically got audience sympathy by not being Tom) wasn't, and that they let Tom win a lot of times he genuinely deserved it.
  • Total Drama:
    • Duncan. It's invariably difficult to keep him in character seeing as his softer side overrules his bad-boy charm in the eyes of most fans. If you find a fanfic involving Duncan/Courtney, Duncan/Gwen, Duncan/anybody expect Draco in Leather Pants to come into play. (Although, those that ship him with Gwen do have some justified argument, she is the only one he is rather nice to.)
    • Gwen and Courtney also have this problem. Some fans on different sides of the CxDxG conflict believe the girl they support is blameless while demonizing the opposing character.
    • Most of the villains get this treatment. There are also some fans who will portray Scott as kinder for the sake of someone (to be fair, this canonically happened in Season 5), and even Mal (a.k.a. THE MALEVOLENT ONE!!!) is portrayed as having a shred of goodness in him in some fanon, despite being essentially MPD Mike's inner embodiment of chaotic evil.
    • Ezekiel is occasionally written as a sad, down-on-his-luck, poor woobie who doesn't actually want to be in the game, and gets a lot of flack from other characters who never forgive him for his sexist comments back in the first season saying that guys are better than girls. By season three, and hinted at since the post-elimination special of the first season, it's clear that he's actually incredibly arrogant and there are more reasons for people to not like him besides his comments (which nobody aside from Noah, really brings up to him, and even then it was only one instance). Seeing as he clings on to the jumbo jet after being thrown off and willingly stays there until becoming feral, it's also obvious that wanting to leave the game is something he would never do. And yet the innocent, pull-toque-over-his-eyes Ezekiel is still present after all of this, probably because the creator's attempts to make Ezekiel come off as a Jerkass with a huge ego backfired in his fan's eyes due to how little screentime he got... And how divided fans are over how he eventually became an expy of Gollum by the end of World Tour and the fact that two seasons later, he still hasn't fully recovered. It also helps that a lot of his more arrogant actions can easily be seen as a desperate attempt to get people to like him.
  • Transformers:
    • Decepticons as a whole can be called Robots in Leather Pants. It's about a 50/50 split and Deceptifans tend to downplay their villainy a lot. Notable examples include Starscream, Ravage (especially after his upgrade in Beast Wars), BW Rampage, Animated, Starscream, Lockdown, Megatron, and more of Starscream. Megs tends to be viewed as a misunderstood anarchist, a la Axel Rose, and even inversions where Optimus Prime is depicted as a self-righteous fascist are not entirely unheard of.
    • It started with Beast Wars; technically, the Predacons are an oppressed minority on a "peaceful" Cybertron kept in the paranoid grip of the just-as-atrocious Maximal Elders, but their role is more akin to between-World Wars Germany, with Megatron and his troupe attempting to get them to put on the Reich. Like the Animated Decepticons, this goes unnoticed by fans, blinded by Beast!Megatron's Magnificent Bastardry, Tarantulas' delightful craziness, Waspinator's Butt-Monkey-ness...
    • The Transformers: Armada incarnation of Starscream is pretty much entirely remembered for the period he defected to the Autobots. Based on how people talk about it, you'd think it happened in the first episode and he served the good guys with honorable conviction, as opposed to lasting a total of three episodes where his entire motivation was that he wanted to kill his boss and he thought it'd be more convenient to do so with allies. He does make a somewhat more genuine Heel–Face Turn towards the end of the series, and even a Heroic Sacrifice, but even then, he was hardly the "hero on the wrong side" many refer to him as. Fans of the character also tend to toss his later Energon and Cybertron appearances, where he was completely evil, into Fanon Discontinuity.
    • Transformers: Animated deepened this. The Decepticons in this series are in some ways oppressed resistance fighters trying to overthrow a regime that is outdated at best and downright corrupt at worst, but they're less "Rebel Alliance" and more "Al Qaeda". Fans tend to miss this part because Megatron is awesome, Blitzwing is funny, and Starscream is, well, Starscream.
    • Transformers: Prime has Knock Out, who even has some men in the audience wishing they could drive a car like that. On YouTube, he's also been turned into a sex symbol, despite being a total narcissist.
      • Starscream's usual Draco in Leather Pants treatment is taken up a notch in Prime. Because of his skinny physique and how badly he tends to get punished, fans are quick to paint him as a Jerkass Woobie and some even write Hurt Comfort Fics that ship him with his Arch-Enemy Arcee, glossing over the many dogs he's kicked; said dog-kicking includes killing Cliffjumper and throwing his death in the other Autobots' faces whenever he can, threatening Miko in front of an immobile Bulkhead, and taunting a T-cog-less Bumblebee about his inability to transform while holding said T-cog at gunpoint right in front of him.
  • One-shot villain Madame Catastrophe from T.U.F.F. Puppy is often hit with this trope, usually being brainwashed instead of evil.
  • In the old Voltron cartoon, the self-proclaimed evil Prince Lotor gets this. This is despite his attempts not only to kidnap Princess Allura, kill the Voltron Force and raze her planet to a pile of ash, but also (and repeatedly) to force her into marriage, brainwash her, or commit various other despicable acts; he has never shown an ounce of remorse for any of this. Many fans will attempt to argue that he was forced to do this by his father, even though he hatched and enjoyed half these plans, and though he continued making them after he usurped his father. Others will say it's all out of love for Allura, even though he was willing to throw her away for another princess that looked just like her.
    • Things haven't changed much in Voltron: Legendary Defender, as Lotor's Adaptational Heroism and Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds backstory has allowed many a fangirl to excuse or overlook his systemic killing of Alteans in experiments over the years, Alteans who thoroughly trusted him and worshiped him as a savior which allowed them to happily walk to their deaths at his command. A common reaction for fangirls is anger that the Voltron Paladins turned on Lotor after learning this fact, to accuse Allura of just being racist against Lotor despite having genuinely been willing to enter a romantic relationship with Lotor despite his Galran heritage beforehand, or to accuse Romelle of somehow lying and making the whole story about experimental death camps up just to soil Lotor's good name even though Lotor himself admitted that it was all true and that he did it for what he believed to be the greater good.
  • Winx Club:
    • This trope could had been easily renamed "Valtor in leather pants" since the fan arts and fanfics where he is portrayed as a romantic interest for Bloom can be counted in the hundreds. In the latter, he is sometimes redeemed and others, he lures Bloom to the darkness. Note that Valtor is at the very least the same age as elderly Headmistress Griffin (even if he looks in his forties) whereas Bloom is an underage teenager (17yo) when they meet.
    • The Wizards of the Dark Circle receive a similar treatment, this time pairing them with the other Winx. Anagan as Flora's love interest is particularly common. And, much like the above example, the Wizards are grown-up men several centuries-old while the Winx are barely of age (18-19yo) when they meet them.
    • Icy in particular and the Trix in general are "Witches in leather pants" for those who are fond of pairing Icy with Bloom and/or Darcy with Riven. The Reveal about Icy's tragic past that mirrors Bloom's (cursed sister, ravaged home planet, evil witch responsible) unsurprisingly fueled the trend.
  • The Brotherhood of Mutants in X-Men: Evolution. Though they were portrayed somewhat sympathetically, and shown at times to be manipulated, they still were jerks that often caused lots of trouble. Their numerous fans usually defend anything Avalanche, Quicksilver, and Toad do and consider the X-Men to be the real villains. The most extreme example is Quicksilver; while Avalanche and Toad showed that they had some good in them, Quicksilver (unlike how he's usually portrayed) was a borderline sociopath who had little concern for anyone but himself.

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