The Baroness

CO-BRA!!!

"I'm not gonna drain you completely. You're gonna turn for me. You'll be my slave. You'll live for me. You'll eat bugs because I order it. Why? Because I don't think you're worthy of human blood. You'll feed on the blood of stray dogs. You'll be my footstool. And at my command, you'll lick the dog shit from my boot heel. Since you'll be my dog, your new name will be 'Spot'. Welcome to slavery."^note "No thanks; I already had a wife."

— Santanico Pandemonium, From Dusk Till Dawn

A female baddie with a chilly disposition and more than a touch of the dominatrix about her. In Darker and Edgier versions, this will often mean a love of (other people's) pain and suffering. Softer portrayals reduce this to a fervent militarism and devotion to the ideals of whichever totalitarian bunch she works for. Naturally, she'll usually be seen sporting a German or Eastern European accent, along with either a natty military uniform or something black and form-fitting. Whether or not she's vulnerable to good-guy seduction and subversion is highly variable. However, she's invariably attracted to power (which the hero lacks and the Big Bad has).

Baronesses tend to come in one of two flavours: Sexpot or Rosa Klebb:

• The Sexpot is, as you'd expect, young-ish and sexy. Her sadism or (in milder versions) fervent militarism is presented as at least a bit enticing to our (male) hero, whom she's likely to be attracted to despite herself. Her ice-queen façade is pretty likely to crack a little before the story is over. Her chances of surviving the story are variable to good, depending on how much she lets herself fall for our hero. Most sexpot Baronesses like to wield a Whip of Dominance. Being beautiful, classy, and brutally violent, any reasonably combat-competent Sexpot Baroness will almost always be a particularly dark Lady of War.
• The Rosa Klebb (named for the James Bond villain) is middle-aged and very much not attractive (perhaps a Brawn Hilda and/or an Ugly Slavic Woman), but is more likely to be the Big Bad herself rather than just working for him. She is immune to the hero's charms, and ominous emphasis is placed upon her utter asexuality, or upon hints that she likes the ladies. (That is, unless she becomes an Abhorrent Admirer to the male lead.) She's one of the few female characters who's likely to be an Unsexy Sadist. Bond-type heroes will be horrified by her, like she had three heads. In 99% of cases, she will be dead as a doornail before the credits roll.

(If, as with the Bond film and novel From Russia with Love, you find the two types of Baronesses in the same plot, expect to find the Klebb character with an unrequited crush on the Sexpot. And some Baronesses manage to be both at the same time.)

The stereotype of the implausibly attractive Communist or Nazi female officer, and her counterpart, the threatening, mannish sadist, is common in campier WWII and Cold War stories. The Russian example has some basis in fact, as the Soviet military did include more female officers than the US military (permitting women to fly in combat in WWII - a couple of whom became aces), but really, that just meant that they had a few more than none.

The Sexpot type of Baroness can sometimes overlap with The Vamp or Femme Fatale, but most examples of the Baroness, sexy or no, have too much self-respect to use sex as a weapon. She's more about hurting men than pleasing them. See also Those Wacky Nazis or Dirty Communists, for the kind of co-conspirators she usually works with, or Dragon Lady, for the Eastern variety.

---

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Creators:

• Hayao Miyazaki delights in turning this trope on its head — both Lady Eboshi of Princess Mononoke and Kushana of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind start out as Baronesses, but are eventually seen as sympathetic characters with hearts and morals in the end.

Individual works:

• Esdeath from Akame ga Kill! is very much a sexpot Baroness, but with the Rosa Klebb fear factor: a complete sadist working for the Evil Empire who wears dominatrix-style clothing, tortures people for fun, and freezes to death a 30,000-person rebel army in her Establishing Character Moment, she still gets all lovey-dovey around protagonist Tatsumi.
• Vanica from Black Clover is a Sexpot Baroness. She's a relatively young, attractive woman who's usually enthusiastic but is very cold and indifferent to her subordinates, abusing one without care.
• Balalaika from Black Lagoon is actually a blend of both types with her statuesque build and her massively scarred body and face. She is described by the main characters as one of the scariest women on Earth... and they probably aren't exaggerating. Head of the Roanapur chapter of Hotel Moscow, ex-Soviet Afghanistan veteran, and Olympic-level marksman (if the Soviet Union hadn't boycotted the Olympics that she was planning to participate in). Only two people in the entire series have crossed her/gotten on her bad side and walked away with everything still intact.
  • Those two who survived Balalaika are Rock and Roberta. In other words: a Non-Action Guy with the same badassery as a crazy, Implacable One Woman Army. You don't see it often.
  • Further proven by what she did to Hansel, a dissonantly serene child who's an Ax-Crazy killer himself. Balalaika's response to Hansel's shtick is to have him kneecapped. With a sniper rifle.
  • Her mere presence is enough to make Chin tremble in fear after he tried to kill the Lagoon Company. He goes out with a bang, as she ties him up and has her men fill the room with gasoline and explosives and, as an added bonus, waits until she has Dutch on the phone before flipping the switch, seeing as how he caused Lagoon Company a minor headache.
• Fairy Tail: Kyouka of the Dark Guild Tartaros is a mix of both types being a Ms. Fanservice while being a Sadist and implied Psycho Lesbian who take far too much enjoyment in stripping and torturing Erza Scarlet.
• Sarge in Food Wars! is very much a Sexpot variety: she's relatively young (early-to-mid twenties) and very beautiful. She became servile to Asahi Saiba after he defeated her and it's all but stated to be in love with him because of his "power" (as far as culinary skills go, at least).
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Lust is the Sexpot version. She's normally cold and collected, but she's also a Soft-Spoken Sadist and a Blood Knight.
  • Olivier Mira Armstrong, iron-fisted queen of the Briggs fortress, is very much a Sexpot Rosa Klebb, being a young, nice-looking lady with immunity to Mustang's charms (deeming him weak and foolish), and not a single instance of using her looks to get what she wants. Subverted in that she is, at her worst, a Neutral Hero Antagonist. She cares about her men and, unlike most military leaders, isn't tempted by promises of immortality. While ominously ambitious, she readily lays her own plans aside to save her country from Father.
• Yuno Gasai from Future Diary, who is a blend of both the Sexpot and Rosa Klebb types. She's young and attractive and yearns for Yukiteru. Yuki himself though is downright terrified of her, not helped by the fact that she is one of the biggest Yanderes the anime world has ever seen, but she kills herself to let Yuki live.
• Gorgeous Irene: Lauper is a muscular sadist that towers over everyone she meets, and is introduced after having taken over the gangs of Swing Town. She also forbids men from entering her territory, only relenting if it's for something she wants or to torture information out of someone. When asking Irene to help take her down, the tailor's son calls her "Madame Lauper", implying she has a title.
• Hellsing features an odd case in Zorin Blitz. In terms of her clothing, apparent age, and her place in the Millennium hierarchy, she seems closer to the Sexpot variant, but in terms of looks and intended sex appeal (or lack thereof), she's way over on the Rosa Klebb end of the spectrum. She is incredibly sadistic, though not in any sexual fashion, and places far more emphasis on utter cruelty with what she does to Seras and the Wild Geese.
• Miroslava Honebami in Kakegurui, the half-Russian sexpot cousin of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council President whose branch of the family specializes in "interrogation and cleaning-up".
• Gestapoko, the first "Punishment Councilor" from Kekko Kamen.
• Haman Karn from Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ is a badass Lady of War Ace Pilot, powerful Newtype, and the de facto leader of the Neo Zeon fascist military group in the Universal Century Continuity. Despite her ice queen exterior, she carries the torch for Char and, later on in the story, is clearly attracted to and attempts to seduce Judau Ashta, who is much younger than her.
  • Rosamia Badam, also of Zeta has this as her exterior. On the inside, she's actually a frightened child, terrified that the sky is going to fall on her. The contrast is stark.
  • Gundam's original Baroness is Mobile Suit Gundam's Kycilia Zabi, an Evil Princess and ice-cold Lady of War who isn't afraid of climbing to power the old-fashioned way. A capable admiral, she has her own dragons in Char Aznable and her Knight, M'Quve, and competes with her oldest brother, Gihren for the title of series Big Bad.
    • Gihren's secretary, right-hand woman, and aide-de-camp Cecilia Irene is also an example of the trope. Coldly efficient, she's able to intimidate the General Staff with her mere presence, handles most of Gihren's black book operations, and is completely devoted to him to the point where many people assume she has to be his mistress.
  • Nastasha Zabikov from Mobile Fighter G Gundam is another rare case of a (mostly) heroic version. She is, for the most part, a Sexpot type largely resembling the Trope Namer, and starts off fairly neutral, being Argo's personal warden assigned to him by the Neo-Russian government, but soon enough she recognizes the danger that the Devil Gundam poses to her government and to the whole of mankind, and does not hesitate to help the Gundam Fighters against Master Asia in the Guyana Highlands as well as in the final battle against the Devil Gundam itself in space. It's implied that, having thawed to Argo through the course of events (and after removing the bomb wired to his chest), they both went on to have a romantic relationship and live together as Space Pirates after the end of the series.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing's Lady Une is a DID sufferer, with a nice side (that's all about peace and love and tranquility) and a hardcore and utterly ruthless militaristic side that would probably spook Rosa Klebb herself. She serves as Treize Khushreneda's enforcer throughout the show; unsurprisingly, she has a crush on him.
• One Piece:
  • Kalifa (sexpot variation).
  • Also Sadi-chan, who finds extreme pleasure in bringing pain to the prisoners of Impel Down. She's even got the whip.
• Meiko Shiraki from Prison School is a classic example of this trope, to the point of almost being a parody. She's a Statuesque Stunner with a dominatrix streak— and still in high school!
• Aversion: The "Baroness" in Scrapped Princess is in her sixties, and not evil so much as in a different faction.
• Margery Daw and Bel Peol from Shakugan no Shana, both sexpots. Though the former is initially an antagonist, she learns to let go early on and becomes an ally to the main characters. The latter is a more straightforward antagonist, at least until the final arc shows her to be not all that evil.
• There is a very infamous Tenchi Muyo! image song that reveals that Ayeka is like this secretly.
• Doronjo from Yatterman is the sexpot version. Her elaborate black leather costume with spiked heels, skull-shaped pipe-smoking, and velvet couch-lounging habits make her one of these. She rarely ever gets involved in physical combat, but when she does, there's a touch of dominatrix in there. Best seen in her role as a fighting game character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Unusually for this trope, Doronjo is a Played for Laughs Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain and rarely succeeds in seducing anyone outside of her Horny Scientist minion, nevertheless, she is the primary source of Fanservice in the show.

Comic Books

• Gerta Gasch in Garth Ennis's World War II comic parody Adventures in the Rifle Brigade is an over-the-top example of the Nazi sexpot version of this trope.
• Dutch comics The Adventures of January Jones and Agent 327 feature Dritta Reich, Hitler's private pilot, who wears form-fitting uniforms and is quite the femme fatale. She survives WW2.
• Airboy: The Valkyrie, aka Liselotte von Schellendorf, who debuted in Air Fighters Comics vol. 2 #2 (November 1943). By all appearances, she was modeled on Veronica Lake (but with black hair) and her costume consisted of jackboots, riding breeches, and a top incorporating what may well have been the most generous décolletage of any Golden Age lady. This leader of the Air Maidens, a group of female German fighter pilots, first tortured Airboy and then fell in love with him, starting a pattern of heel-face turns that had her alternate between being a foe and an ally to the teenage hero.
• DC's Blackhawk comics of the 1980s (set during WW2) featured Domino, a Nazi femme-fatale who wore form-fitting black leather from head to toe (including gloves and high-heeled boots), apparently so that nobody would suspect she was a spy.
• Captain America: Madame Hydra, a.k.a. The Viper, is a sexpot variation of the trope and one of Captain America's most prominent foes, being one of the primary leaders of the villainous organization Hydra. Madame Hydra has also had a run-in with Wolverine, along with several other heroes. It's worth noting that when Hasbro approached Marvel about doing a G.I. Joe comic book, they simply dusted off an unused proposal for a Nick Fury vs HYDRA series and changed the names. Thus HYDRA became COBRA and The Viper became The Baroness. The only significant difference between the characters is the color of their leather bodysuits. Black for the Baroness, green for Madame Hydra. And their hair (same colors).
• The Queen Bee, dictatrix of Bialya, was this for Captain Atom and Justice League Europe. Played much the same role in Young Justice. She had a penchant for sending men who displeased her to the headsman, had mind control powers, was devious and seductive, and was the absolute ruler of her own country.
• The Baroness, Anastasia Cisarnova DeCobray (pictured above), from G.I. Joe is the inspiration for the name. She was originally created as a Toyless Toyline Character by Larry Hama to be an Evil Counterpart of Scarlett of the Joe Team. Both are the top intelligence agents of their sides, both are experts at disguise, and both are experts with their weapons, though the Baroness is more of a cold-blooded killer. Originally appearing in a plain blue jumpsuit with gold accents, she received her more famous black outfit when she received her first action figure in 1984, the third year of the ARAH toy line.
• Madame Masque from Iron Man was one of these, a leader in the Mafia-esque Maggia operation. In a rare twist, she was obviously of the sexpot variety (given her typical superheroine knockout figure), but her face was horribly scarred, thus leading to her adoption of the metal face mask from which her moniker derives. The Hood doesn't seem to mind the face.
• Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja has Colonel Vavara Novikova. Despite being the head of the KGB's Spetsburo (Assassination Bureau), she spends much of the series running around in a low-cut evening dress and high heels...neither of which reduces her lethality one iota.
• Miss Outlash— err, Oatlash from Preacher, with a few variations to fit into the overall tone of the work.
• Kaptain Natashikov in Rogue Trooper has the appearance of the sexpot, and seems to be in a relationship with General Hoffa, but otherwise generally acts like Rosa Klebb. She tortures Helm to death before being killed by Rogue.
• Mai Shen from Scion: a mysterious woman who joins the Raven Kingdom in their fight against the Heron Kingdom, but has an agenda of her own. She gets cozy with Prince Bron and eventually reveals that she's part of a race of super-powered beings. Not only does she assist Bron in assassinating his father, the king, but she gives Bron powers of his own. Generally favors tight black leather and can be quite seductive when required (she gives Bron his powers through a passionate kiss while they're both naked in a hot tub!).
• Sin City has an organization for assassins called The Guild. There are three women who fit this mold: Mariah, Blue Eyes, and Maxine.
  • Mariah wears skin-tight outfits and seems to enjoy torture. She seduces a teenage boy in one part of the story and, in the climax, threatens to make the hero star in a Snuff Film.
  • Blue Eyes is a seductress that uses her sexuality to lure her targets in and kill them (she seems to be at least somewhat caring, though.)
  • Maxine also wears skintight outfits and enjoys performing genetic surgery and drug experiments on victims captured by The Guild. She also keeps her female hostage in the nude for some reason.
• The Tom Strong books had a deconstruction in the form of Ingrid Weiss, a Nazi fighter pilot squadron leader in bondage leather. She's portrayed exactly as creepily as she would be in real life, with everyone finding her more or less equally revolting due to her political stance. It's ultimately revealed that she drugged and raped Strong, producing a child raised in the Nazi ideals. Strong is absolutely horrified at this, but when his black wife, Dahlua, arrives and learns what Weiss has done, the resulting Curb-Stomp Battle ends only because Weiss tearfully begs not to be killed in front of her son. Dahlua's attitude during this reveals streaks of a heroic version of this trope.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Baroness Paula Von Gunther, Nazi spymistress from the Wonder Woman TV series and Golden Age comics. Until her Heel–Face Turn in Golden Age comics, becoming the Amazons' resident Gadgeteer Genius/The Professor. She also acted, in part, as The Medic, inventing the Purple Healing Ray used on Wonder Girl in her first origin.
  • Modern depictions of Superwoman, the evil Wonder Woman counterpart of the Crime Syndicate universe, usually go for a strong dominatrix vibe. (This is part of her characterization as Wonder Woman's Evil Counterpart. Wonder Woman [as intended by William Marston] is about "loving [mutual] submission", Superwoman is about domination.)
• Cassandra Nova from the X-Men is a Rosa Klebb-type and also one of the most dangerous adversaries of the team. She is Charles Xavier's Evil Twin, made all the more threatening for being elderly, unattractive, and bald.

Comic Strips

• The second-ever story arc of the The Phantom newspaper strip ("The Sky Band") featured a female Sky Pirate captain who was the sexy version and fulfilled every stereotype listed on this page, including Shown Not Told whipping of disobedient subordinates. She was not known by name, but only as "the Baroness." The strip was first published in 1936.

Eastern Animation

• In Squirrel and Hedgehog, Lieutenant Vixen is practically the furry version of this trope.

Fan Works

• Bait and Switch (STO): Operator Ellen Shaw, in a solidly NSFW side story starring Lieutenant Rachel Connor. Shaw is an ex-MACO with sexpot looks (she starred in several recruiting videos), turned Section 31 assassin after she was Court-martialed for executing a high-value target she was ordered to bring in alive. She's also a Depraved Bisexual^note Star Trek being a Free-Love Future to an extent who brutally rapes Rachel as much for her own pleasure as for the ostensible purpose of breaking her for conditioning into a Manchurian Agent.
• In Witchcraft, Executive Ariana is depicted as a seductive and cold, high-ranking member of Team Rocket.

Films — Animation

• The tyrannical Mrs. Tweedy from Chicken Run serves as a Rosa Klebb to the birds on her farm. Which is fitting, since the movie is a Genre Throwback to World War II-related media like The Great Escape and Hogan's Heroes, with human farmers standing in for Those Wacky Nazis.
• Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths: Superwoman takes the BDSM subtext of the early Wonder Woman comics and ramps it up. Just watch her beatdown on Batman (force kissing him and breaking his ribs) while also having a very dominating relationship with Owlman (pinning him down and questioning him in a scene). In addition, she seems to be the only one who is on par with Owlman in terms of craziness with nearly 10x the power he wields. The fact that it's been suggested she's more of the alternate universe version of Mary Marvel adds extra squick to her, since she may, in fact, be a young girl.

Films — Live-Action

• The ABCs of Death: Frau Scheisse in the "H" segment is Nazi Foxy Vixen who spends most of the segment in boots, shorts, a swastika armband, and nothing else.
• The Dark Angel from the Bond-knockoff, Angel With The Iron Fists, runs a drug smuggling syndicate and is the main villain of the picture, where Lorna the titular Angel must infiltrate her ranks as one of her "Angels".
• Austin Powers:
  • Parodied with Frau Farbissana.
  • Played with in the second movie, with Frau going from Klebb to sexpot, due to Dr. Evil traveling back in time and stealing Austin's mojo.
• Frieda Maloney in The Boys from Brazil is a Rosa Klebb, mentioned to have bayonetted infants and strangled little girls with their own hair during her time as an SS guard in a concentration camp. She's imprisoned by the time the movie takes place, but she enters the plot when Laurence Olivier's Nazi Hunter protagonist questions her about her role in a conspiracy that also involves escaped Nazis in South America.
• Nina Strucker from Bulletproof Monk is the head of the "Human Rights Organization", which is actually a Nazi front. Sociopathic and violent Nina seems to go to extreme lengths to satisfy her grandfather and even dresses in a Nazi uniform for the film's climax.
• Parodied in Casino Royale (1967) with Frau Hoffner—she runs a finger over a facial scar as she purrs to Mata Bond "You are even more fascinating zan your mother!"
• Baroness Bombast Bomburst from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, whilst dressing mostly in lace and frills, does have the German accent and a basement full of stolen children.
• The Jiuxian Witch, the villainess of the wuxia The Devil's Mirror, leads a band of ruthless marauders and killers called the Bloody Ghouls Clan and is on a killing spree to seek the titular mirrors. She's also one of the most overpowered Invincible Villain ever spawned in wuxia cinema.
• A bizarre example is Ksanka in the third part of The Elusive Avengers: she is a tomboyish attractive black leather-clad Chekist with a bossy attitude, but because it is a Soviet movie, instead of being a typical villainess, she is one of the good guys fighting evil capitalists and monarchists.
• Madam Kung Sun from the wuxia-horror movie, Finger of Doom, is a former martial arts disciple who uncovered a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, the titular Finger of Doom, which allows her to enslave her victims and turn them into her own army of zombie bodyguards. She runs her own clan and has them perform mass slaughters of anyone in her way of attaining ultimate power, and the only person who can stop her is Kung Sun's younger sister who learned similar skills as her but is strictly on the side of good.
• General Kala from Flash Gordon (1980) wears a uniform more in line with the Sexpot, but acts like the Rosa Klebb.
• Ni Chang from The Forbidden Kingdom has this down pat, complete with white hair (hellooooo The Bride with White Hair!) and a bullwhip, albeit she's a pre-Qing Chinese version.
• The Baroness from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Unlike her comic book counterpart, here Ana DeCobray (née Lewis) was once the blond-haired fiancée of Duke four years prior to the events of the first film. Her one condition of the engagement was that Duke watch over her brother Rex and promise nothing bad will happen to him during their upcoming tour of duty. However, Rex was presumably killed in battle after Duke sends him into a building to retrieve valuable intel, and an air strike he ordered bombs the building too early. Duke, feeling too much guilt, could not face Ana and left her. Unknown to her, Rex was alive, and he injected her with nanomites to alter her behaviour and make her join Cobra. She got trained by Storm Shadow to become a highly skilled operative. In addition to her tight leather suit, her equipment includes high-tech glasses and carrying pulse weapons.
• Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the SS is a faux trailer included as part of Grindhouse. Heavily inspired by Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, Nazi and Girls Behind Bars exploitation films, Zombie's segment portrays the ardent desire of the demented SS official, Franz Hess, and his loyal scientist, Dr. Heinrich Von Strasser, to create the ultimate super-weapon. Is there an escape from the claws of the blood-thirsty werewolf-women?
• Ilsa Haupstein from Hellboy, very much in the mould of Dr Elsa Schneider.
• If Looks Could Kill has Ilsa Grunt, an obvious tribute to Rosa Klebb.
• Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, a 1975 exploitation film, and its sequels. An exception to the typical rules surrounding sexuality (as per the subject), she's much more inclined to use the men she gets her hands on in any fashion possible—and then castrate them if they don't measure up. Inspired by real-life SS Aufseherinnen (female concentration camp guards and overseers) such as Irma Grese, who was incredibly sadistic with the prisoners of her camp, especially the women; and Ilse Koch. The film conveniently ignores the fact that no woman was ever the commandant of a Nazi prison camp.
• Indiana Jones has matched wits with a few:
  • Dr. Elsa Schneider from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade—the hot, blonde, double-crossing Austrian archaeologist who sucks on Indy's earlobe, played by Irish actress Alison Doody. Also an example of The Vamp.
  • Colonel Badass and Dark Action Girl, Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, "Stalin's favourite scientist". And man, being a Dirty Communist, she's a fox (Cate Blanchett, ladies and gentlemen). She tends to the Klebb area of things, although her form-fitting uniform, her use of a well-timed Double Entendre, and her prowess with an edged weapon suggest one could call her Irina Spanko. Indy plays the "guess the accent" game and correctly pins it down to Eastern Ukraine.
• James Bond villainesses Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love and Irma Bunt in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, either/both of whom could have been the model for Frau Farbissana. Mike Myers says he was aiming at Klebb, but the German accent and worshipful attitude to the Big Bad are closer to Bunt. It's worth noting that, in the book, Rosa Klebb was, as Tatiana learned firsthand, the very antithesis of sexy—and a Psycho Lesbian. She was still easily as cruel and ruthless as they come, though.
  • Fiona Volpe from Thunderball has aspects of both. She has the physical appearance of the Sexpot and Femme Fatale skillset, though she combines part of the Rosa Klebb-variety's work ethic (if you could call it that) by not being drawn in by Bond's charm and openly defying (and laughing at) the idea of a Sex–Face Turn.
  • Anya from The Spy Who Loved Me is a goody who starts off as the Sexpot type, but rapidly defrosts.
  • Xenia Onatopp from Goldeneye is unabashedly a Sexpot Baroness and quite the Dark Action Girl.
• A very early example in cinema of this trope is found in the 1938 film, The Lady Vanishes, in the character of a black-wearing, Rosa-Klebb type referred to as only "Baroness" throughout the story.
• Faora from Man of Steel. Another mixture of the types, she's got the looks of the Sexpot Baroness, but the personality of a Rosa Klebb-type Baroness.
• The Man Who Knew Too Little plays with this trope. Upon learning from his captors that he's going to be interrogated by Dr. Ludmilla Kropotkin, Wallace Ritchie replies, "The evil torturer lady? Bring her on!" After escaping, Wallace runs into a septuagenarian dominatrix (don't ask) and assumes that she is Dr. Kropotkin. By contrast, the real Dr. Kropotkin looks like a schoolteacher—though she certainly has the personality of a true Baroness.
• In Matilda, the Big Bad is a sadistically evil, authoritarian, and athletic monster of a headmistress named Trunchbull. (She could be interpreted as a Psycho Lesbian too.)
• Mercenaries has Ulrika, a Rosa Klebb style Psycho Lesbian with a strong slavic accent and an unflinching acceptance of pain and violence in her work.
• Colonel Choi from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was the aide and lover of the rogue KMT General Yang. She is extremely loyal to General Yang's cause of restoring China to its former glory after the effects of the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, and the recurrent Chinese Civil War. Along with Yang's rouge paramilitary KMT, they seek to reawaken ancient Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang so that he can bring order to China and the world.
• Baroness Kessler from The Ninth Gate is the Klebb style to a T, even being an actual Baroness. Nicely subverted from the usual, however, in that the crabby, old, wheelchair-bound, Satanic lesbian is actually one of the most sympathetic and helpful characters in the film.
• Ninotchka, played by Greta Garbo, is an older example of this trope, from 1939, and a goody.
• Madame Sebastian (Leopoldine Konstantine) in Notorious is a sterling example of the trope, far more ruthless than her Nazi agent son (Claude Rains).
• Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl is attracted to the king's power and will do anything it takes, even stealing him from her sister, to marry Henry VIII and become his queen.
• The Princess: Moira has elements of this, leaning towards the Sexpot variety. She wears tight clothing made from leather, is very beautiful, and wields a whip, while being the Big Bad's lover/lieutenant. Moira's cold with everyone but him but clearly enjoys using her whip on others.
• Rotti Largo's henchgirls in Repo! The Genetic Opera are nigh-perfect Sexpot examples of this trope.
• Seventh Son has the queen witch, Mother Malkin, who dresses in a provocative black gown and has a thing for tying people up in her tail.
• Tilda Swinton provides one of the Rosa Klebb variety in Snowpiercer.
• Star Wars: Captain Phasma from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi is a Rosa Klebb, so desexualised that we never even see what she looks like under that armour.
• The T-X (Terminatrix) from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the first female Terminator robot of the saga, and is a Sexpot Baroness to heel. She was designed by Skynet to combat reprogrammed Terminator units. To wit, she is much stronger, much tougher, and capable of overriding the reprogramming done by the Resistance, and John Connor even calls her an "Anti-Terminator-Terminator". In terms of technology, she's a composite of the T-800 and the T-1000 — she's liquid metal over an endoskeleton, making her more stable than the T-1000, as well as being able to carry on-board weapons, and is still able to shift her appearance to impersonate other people, making her a Lightning Bruiser. Her thighs are capable of crushing bones with pressure greater than an industrial hydraulic press. And she wears a red leather catsuit in her default form.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • X-Men: First Class: Emma Frost dresses in Stripperiffic outfits and has a frosty temperament, as her surname suggests.
  • The Wolverine : Viper is sadistic, cold and sexy. The casting even fits the old Communist stereotype as the actress is Russian.

Folklore

• The White Witch of Rose Hall: The eponymous witch apparently got off on the physical suffering of her slaves when they were made to be punished. H.G. de Lisser's novel describes this trait very graphically.

Literature

• Mahaut d'Artois is a good Rosa Klebb in The Accursed Kings, complete with nobiliary titles, Battle Ballgown, and total lack of qualms. Justified in that for a woman, to stand up to men in medieval times needed some serious strength and motivation.
• Taylor from Animorphs, who would be perfectly at home in a Bond movie.
• Silver-Gun Wu from As One Star Sets Another Rises. Unusually, she's not so much a villain as a Token Evil Teammate for the Chinese Nationalists, as well as being the immediate superior of Andrew Chan, who provides the POV for all of her scenes. She's very much a Sadist, with her first scene showing her torturing an enemy captive.
• Baroness Penelope St. John-Orsini, the titular (emphasis on "titillation") character of The Baroness, a series of early-1970s "pulp" novels. As shown on a few sites like here, though the character is the hero of the books, she has similarities to this trope's namesake.
• Discworld:
  • Madam Roberta Meserole in Night Watch. She's only semi-evil, but definitely a Manipulative Bastard. Just like her nephew.
  • Adora Belle Dearheart in Going Postal has elements of this (the cool, steely attitude and high heels that double as emergency weapons), despite being a good guy and a civilian.
• Doctrine of Labyrinths's Kolkhis. She buys small children, trains them as thieves and assassins, and, when they hit puberty, sometimes starts having sex with them — and doesn't take no for an answer. Then there's that little matter of her alliance with an Evil Sorcerer. Pretty enough (despite being significantly older than the protagonist) to qualify as the Sexpot, but definitely with the attitude of a Rosa Klebb.
• Ayn Rand eventually develops into a Rosa Klebb in The Fountainhead Filibuster: Tales from Objectivist Katanga. She's a rare ideologically motivated example who's not Communist or Fascist, not that this makes her more pleasant when things start to go downhill.
• In Greenmantle by John Buchan, the heroes uncover a secret German plot during World War I. Its leader is Hilda von Einem, a seductive and ruthlessly intelligent German noblewoman. The protagonist-narrator, Richard Hannay, is resistant to her sexual wiles but admits to finding himself jealous of her attention and foolishly pleased when she decides he's dangerous enough to actively try and kill. There are hints that she's attracted to Sandy Arbuthnot, Hannay's colleague who infiltrates her organization; her biggest loss of composure is when she learns that he's been a mole for the British side all along.
• Harry Potter:
  • Bellatrix Lestrange is the magical version of this. She's mostly the Rosa Klebb type, although she's very much not a lesbian and is strongly hinted to have an unappreciated crush on Voldemort. The attractiveness part is played with. She was very beautiful during the Back Story, but she's gaunt with a skull-like face in the present day due to her years in Azkaban. This didn't happen in the movies, where she's played by Helena Bonham Carter (though she does have rotting teeth in the films, at least). Fanfiction, naturally, frequently makes her more like the sexpot type.
  • Dolores Umbridge is what you get when a Rosa Klebb tries to cover up her sadism under the glurgey veneer of a Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher (which also makes the character a Gonky Femme). She doesn't start out working for Dirty Communists, Those Wacky Nazis, or any Expies thereof. Instead, she's an Obstructive Bureaucrat in Britain's corrupt Ministry of Magic. But after the Day of the Jackboot, she thoroughly embraces the new Death Eater–run Ministry.
• His Dark Materials has Mrs. Coulter, a ruthless agent of the Corrupt Church who tortures children by separating them from their dæmons.
• The Contessa Maria Sinistre — or just the Contessa — is this in the H.I.V.E. Series She has a habit of changing sides. She starts off as a teacher at H.I.V.E., then she betrays Nero to Cypher, who promised her a continent, is recruited by Number One/Overlord to run H.I.V.E. while Nero is imprisoned, then does a Heel–Face Turn and a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Reapers from killing everyone — including the children — in H.I.V.E. She ends up remembered as a hero, which is unusual for a villain.
• The Frontier Series: Marshall Skyre is a sadist who uses her position of authority to abuse the local populous. Skyre doesn't simply stop at torturing and abusing, she immensely enjoys killing and needs little reason to do so. Skyre's favorite method of execution is to run down fleeing "criminals" with her armoured truck.
• The Hunger Games gives us Alma Coin, the tyrannical leader of District 13. Technically, she's on the good side, but she approaches President Snow's level of nastiness by the end of Mockingjay, resulting in Katniss having to kill her once it becomes clear to her that she's become no better than Snow.
• The Lord Darcy story "The Ipswich Phial", an Affectionate Parody of Spy Fiction tropes, has Olga Polovski, Agent 055 of the Polish Secret Service, who is definitely the sexpot version and is also a powerful sorceress. Most men find her charming and enchanting.
• Eleanor Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate is secretly in league with the Dirty Communists (whom she intends to eventually betray) and exerts an iron grip over both her Henpecked Husband and her Brainwashed and Crazy son. Even more disturbingly, her relationship with her son is explicitly incestuous—albeit with the Freudian Excuse of Parental Incest committed against her by her father, whom her son reminds her of. The cinematic adaptations from 1962 (where she's played by Angela Lansbury at her most chilling) and from 2004 (where she's played by Meryl Streep) tone this down to Incest Subtext.
• Marian from MARZENA is strangely a mix of both Rosa Klebb and Sexpot, thanks to Stem Cell Anti-Aging Therapy (only works on the skin as of 2033 though). Her real name is Marzena Volkolov and she's the director of her own Private Intelligence Company. She's a tall broad-shouldered blonde woman who loves to use brute force to beat on men, and to use her wits to get other women into doing whatever she wants.
• The Duchess in Nightfall is a vampire dominatrix, who cheerfully feeds humans to her vampire sub while she feeds off him.
• Similar to Dolores Umbridge is the archetypal Nurse Ratched of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest fame. Like Umbridge, she's a Stepford Smiler Rosa Klebb who works for "the Man" (or the "Combine" as Chief Bromden calls it) instead of for Dirty Communists or Those Wacky Nazis. And like any good Rosa Klebb, she's a mannish, repulsive "ball-cutter" who takes out her sexual repression by terrifying men into subservience. Of course, she doesn't rule by sexualised torture, like a Sexpot would do. She rules through subtle intimidation, mind-numbing drugs (administered rectally if the patient won't cooperate), and thoroughly unsexy torture (rough baths and enemas, inhumanely-applied electroconvulsive therapy, and if all else fails, lobotomy). Unlike some other Baroness characters, though, she herself doesn't administer the torture, instead outsourcing it to her orderlies (three Scary Black Men).
• In Paranoia, Dr. Judith Bolton, for Nicholas Wyatt, of the Rosa Klebb variety. While Meachum is Wyatt's muscle, Bolton is the one Wyatt goes to for advice on his business, and is able to transform anyone with the slightest potential into a successful hire for a corporate business. The protagonist, Adam Cassidy, notes that she used to be quite beautiful, is cold and professional in her instruction of him at all times. It is revealed in the finale that she was working for Jack Goddard the whole time.
• Baroness Nicola Ceaucescu from Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania series is an excellent example of the Sexpot Baroness, and is also named after a real-life former Romanian dictator.
• Triumvir Ilya Volyova of the Nostalgia for Infinity in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space Series is very much this in the Rosa Klebb style. She's one of the heroes.
• The Reynard Cycle: Rukenaw has turned into one of these by Defender of the Crown. She's the Sexpot type.
  • By the end of the book, she is a literal Baroness.
• The Ur-Example of this trope (specifically the Sexpot variety) could very well be Ayesha, or "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed," in H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She. She's a cruel, ruthless tyrant with uncanny powers of seduction and many followers to do her bidding.
• "Counselor" Troi in the Mirror Universe Star Trek: The Next Generation novel "Dark Mirror" is a ruthless security officer who regularly Mind Rapes people.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Any Hapan (first fleshed out in The Courtship of Princess Leia). The Hapans were a matriarchal society where men were often treated as second-class citizens and used mainly for breeding. Hapan culture, at least among the upper classes, was based on assassination attempts and struggles for power. Most upper-class Hapans would think nothing of arranging the death of one of their own if it would advance their own cause.
  • Ysanne Isard from the X-Wing Series. Ysanne was a female Human who served as the Director of Imperial Intelligence for several years during the Galactic Civil War and ruled the Galactic Empire herself for a time after the Emperor's death.
  • I, Jedi: Admiral Leonia Tavira, riding crop and all. She was the Trophy Wife of an Imperial moff and is believed to have engineered his downfall to take his job, and turned warlord, then pirate queen after the Empire fell apart. She's also sexually predatory towards men under her employ.
• Tale of Yashima: Wada Izue, the so-called Witch of Bijo.
• Miss "Fairy" Hardcastle from That Hideous Strength, the final book in The Space Trilogy. She's the head of the NICE's police force and a Sadist. That's right, an evil policewoman who gets excited by burning female suspects with cigars, in a book by C. S. Lewis.
• Wagons West: Gisela von Kirchberg is a Sexpot but her age difference to Henry gives her traces of a Rosa Klebb.
• Colonel Irena Sedova, a.k.a. 'Bubushka', from the Young Bond novels Double or Die and By Royal Command is a sterling example of the Rosa Klebb variety.

Live-Action TV

• Helga from 'Allo 'Allo! is a Sexpot Baroness. Curiously, she was briefly replaced by a Rosa Klebb when her character went on a sabbatical.
• Admiral Cain from Battlestar Galactica (2003) is not of German or Eastern European descent, but she does manage to be both types of Baroness at the same time. She's attractive but has no romantic desires and her ruthlessness repulses Adama.
• Jara in Big Bad Beetleborgs and Horribelle during the second season.
• Servalan, the Big Bad in Blake's 7, is a military commander, swans about in luxurious frocks, and is about as ruthless and as sexy as you can get. But she never lets sexual attraction overcome her understanding of what's good for her.
• Little Nina in The Boys (2019) was head of The Mafiya in New York and a Sexpot who was Frenchie's former lover and a ruthless sadist who had no qualms about killing anyone who got in their way as well as their entire families.
• Darla of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the classy, sadistic, and ruthless dragon to the Master. This actually applies better in Angel, mostly in flashbacks or when she is revampified—she and Drusilla even attempt to build a gang/army to take the city under their command.
• Doctor Who:
  • Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw in "Inferno"—the Doctor's wholesome companion outside of the Mirror Universe.
  • Torchwood leader Yvonne Hartman is a Well-Intentioned Extremist version of this, although she is heroic enough to resist Cyber-conversion and help undermine the Cybermen.
  • Restac, the Silurian military commander from "The Hungry Earth" and "Cold Blood", shows signs of being a Sexpot Baroness (beautiful, fiercely militaristic, etc.) but with a Rosa-Klebb-like lack of sexual tension, since she is a different species from the hero and very bigoted.
  • Madame Kovarian, the Big Bad of the sixth series in the revival show, is a Rosa Klebb, especially considering her predatory behavior toward Amy.
  • Tasha Lem from "The Time of the Doctor" could qualify as a Sexpot, considering that she's a domineering and sensual woman who flirts with the Doctor and demands that he appear before her naked. Unusually, she's one of the good guys, but she's not an entirely trustworthy ally and at one point ends up fighting the Doctor when she disagrees with him.
  • The Master becomes one in the eighth series, with the middle-aged appearance of a Rosa Klebb but the sensual flirtatiousness of a Sexpot.
• In Elementary, Moriarty turns out to be one of these. She's the sexpot type (complete with genuine, if twisted, feelings for Sherlock and wearing a stylish military-style jacket in her first post-reveal scene). She also develops a bit of an enemy-crush on Watson after Watson proves to be one of the few people capable of out-maneuvering her.
• Commandant Grayza from Farscape has a gland implanted in her body that secretes a substance that lets her "influence" males. Niem, Scorpius's personal Torture Technician in his first couple of appearances, also fits the bill.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider 555 has the sadistic yet sophisticated assassin Saeko Kageyama.
  • Maya in Kamen Rider Kiva, the Queen of the CheckmateFour who’s ruthless in carrying out her duties, although she later turns out to be more of a Broken Bird.
  • Kamen Rider Drive has Medic, the Mad Doctor of the Roidmudes, who’s fiercely cold to everyone who isn’t Heart.
  • Kamen Rider Build has a Rosa Klebb type in Prime Minister Yoshiko Takumi, an older woman who’s cold, aggressive, and ruthless in crushing her enemies.
• Money Heist has police inspector Alicia Sierra, who has traits of both Sexpot and Rosa Klebb: while obviously attractive, she's a middle-aged woman who is not sexualized, in part because she's very heavily pregnant. She's a tyrant to her underlings (and sometimes her superiors) while being fun and flirty while speaking to the Professor. But she's also an extremely cold person who blithely tortures, illegally detains and straight-up tries to murder criminals, due process be damned.
• Orphan Black introduces a new Baroness in seasons two through four. The second season introduces Rachel Duncan as a Sexpot in charge of the sinister Dyad Institute (bonus points for playing the role of a literal dominatrix in the bedroom). The third season introduces Dr. Coady, a Rosa Klebb in charge of Project Castor. The fourth season introduces Evie Cho, Rachel's rival who looks like a Sexpot but behaves like a Rosa Klebb.
• Isabella Gisbourne from Robin Hood. Her Character Arc took her from one type of Baroness to the other: Sexpot to Rosa Klebb.
• Irene Adler from Sherlock is a straight-up sexpot. She's literally a dominatrix, and also, she falls in love with Sherlock.
• Tess Mercer, the Smallville version of Mercy Graves, is this. She's as pretty as any sexpot version and has a definite Broken Bird vibe, but also possesses the icy demanour and bitterness towards humanity more commonly associated with the Rosa Klebb. As for the Les Yay:
  Lois: What is it with you and the physical violence?
  Tess: The last time we saw each other things did get a little... physical, didn't they?
• Star Trek: Picard: Narissa is a ruthless and sexy Zhat Vash spy who's Trigger-Happy, sadistic, and her wardrobe is exclusively black and form-fitting.
• Super Sentai:
  • Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan has Amazon Killer, an imposing and extremely strong warrior woman who serves as field commander for the Machine Empire Black Magma.
  • Kagaku Sentai Dynaman gave us the sadistic and diabolical General Zenobia.
  • Choujuu Sentai Liveman has Doctor Mazenda, an Armed Brain Army Volt executive obsessed with her own beauty who enjoys crushing people she views as inferior.
  • Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman has Doldora, a ruthless scientist and commander for the Galactic Imperial Army Zone clad in form-fitting, golden scorpion-like armor who clearly enjoys her role as an executive for an evil empire.
  • Yodonna of Mashin Sentai Kiramager is a stern, almost emotionless executive of the Yodonheim Empire who nonetheless clearly enjoys dominating others.
• In Supergirl (2015), Lillian Luthor, the chilly and sadistic face of the anti-alien mad science organization Project Cadmus, is a Rosa Klebb.
• Diana from V (1983) is the Sexpot variety. She's beautiful and sadistic, although those who know that she's an evil reptile underneath her human skin are understandably disgusted. She proves herself more extreme than any of her comrades and ends up as the primary villain.
• Wonder Woman (1975): Baroness Paula Von Gunther, who saw not only her specially made, stronger than elephant chain instantly snapped by Wonder Woman, but also out-sleuthed by a poor imitation of Encyclopedia Brown. Getting thrown into a pool was almost a relief after those humiliations.

Professional Wrestling

• GLOW's Colonel Ninotchka. For bonus points, by GLOW standards she was actually pretty good in the ring too.
• Luna Vachon as a manager. As a wrestler, she was mostly like the rest of her family (loud, erratic and violent) but as a manager she tended to grow out her hair and nails, gleefully scratching whatever was near as she watched her clients beat and stretch people. And if she was wrestling a man she'd be sure to pull him in close when happy or when giving orders about what to do once the wrestling was done.
• Wild Xenia, a giant, screaming war paint-wearing German, took on a much more crafty scheming gimmick as The Baroness of USA-based Derby City and Ohio Valley Wrestling.
• Alexander Rusev debuted in WWE accompanied by his manager "The Ravishing Russian" Lana, who is like Faora in having the "looks of the Sexpot, personality of the Rosa Klebb" mixture. A very attractive woman◊ in criminally short skirts, she seemed to get a thrill watching Rusev hurt his opponents. The Rosa Klebb comes in when one notices that the only outwardly sexual part of her character then was how she subtly played up her appearance. She was modeled after Ludmilla Drago to really drive the point home.

Radio

• The Navy Lark: A played for laughs version appears in the form of Natasha Snogitoff, a spy for the Commieland nation of Forbodia.

Tabletop Games

• Mutants & Masterminds: The Freedom City setting has an Alternate Universe Evil Twin of the Distaff Counterpart of a Batman Captain Ersatz, the Raven. Known as Madame Sin, she falls very much into this trope.
• Pathfinder:
  • Erinyes devils have shades of this: they're tall, beautiful, female, Lawful Evil winged humanoids who often work as warriors and torturers. This sets them apart from their less militant counterparts, the succubi and erodaemons, who work primarily through seduction and manipulation.
  • Laori Vaus can be seen as a subversion. She's Lawful Evil, she can fight, she runs around in form-fitting armor, and, as a high-ranking cleric of the Hellraiseresque god of pain, she even provides a touch of sadomasochistic subtext — but she's Affably Evil and really rather cheery.
• Unknown Armies has a few canon NPCs that fit this mold, mostly of the Rosa Klebb variety. Notable examples include Dr. Kaiyo Atsui, a psychiatrist working for the New Inquisition who likes using rather controversial experimental treatments, and Angela Forsythe, one of the leaders of the Sleepers, who has used magical brainwashing to turn her bodyguard into an utterly devoted slave.
• Vampire: The Masquerade:
  • Female Ventrue give off this vibe, since most of them are ruthless, power-hungry Magnificent Bitches that are able to use Dominate, their clan discipline, but, once again, which flavor (or even if this trope is evoked at all) depends on what the player is aiming for.
  • Female Toreador are also prime candidates for Sexpot Baroness status if they're not being The Vamp both literally and metaphorically (and sometimes also if they are). Get one of them to apply their artistic inclinations to combat, and you've got a predatory, supernaturally beautiful Combat Aestheticist Lady of War par excellence.
  • Female Nosferatu, meanwhile, are your go-to if you want a Rosa Klebb Baroness. They're grotesque, shadowy schemers with surprising physical power packed into their hideous frames, perfect for a 'terrifying crone' villainess.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • All female Commissars are this trope, thanks to their Russian-inspired military uniforms and habit of shooting cowards (on their side!) in the back of the head. The particular variety depends on the Commissar in question - it's a huge and diverse galaxy with a huge and diverse range of 'cruel, fanatical taskmistress' options.
  • Any female Dark Eldar who's attained any significant rank will be a Sexpot Baroness by default since that's just what happens when you put the sexy, scary BDSM torture aliens in charge. The Mad Scientist Haemonculi lean more towards the Rosa Klebb side of things due to their abandonment of most conventional beauty standards in pursuit of the deeper art and science of Body Horror.
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Black Spiral Dancer signature character Zhyzhak also carries certain elements of this mixed with the general batshit that is the Black Spiral Dancers — she's attractive (if bedraggled), wears bondage gear (while seemingly unaware of the sexual overtones), will kill with no provocation and seems to be "running hot" all the time (to the point that she has a derangement that leaves her unintentionally shrieking most of the time).

Toys

• BIONICLE is infamously quite light on female characters and especially villains, yet a few have still managed to pop up here and there:
  • Roodaka, a deadly Dark Action Girl introduced as the hero-corrupting co-leader of the Visorak horde, loyally serving Makuta and his interests even while he's completely defunct. While the nature of BIONICLE obfuscates this (namely its G-rated audience, conscious lack of romance, and its cast being biomechanical in design), there's even a lightly seductive air to her given her intimate manipulation of her enemies-turned-minions and a strangely more curvaceous character design.
  • Makuta Gorast is a much less subtextual version. One of the primary Makuta of the Karda Nui arc, Gorast is both the most Ax-Crazy and the most fanatically devoted to Teridax, doing everything in her power to not only kill the heroes trying to stop it, but even her fellow Makuta should they attempt to question or defy it themselves.

Video Games

• Alpha Protocol has SIE, a German Amazonian Beauty & Combat Sadomasochist Psycho for Hire. She's the oldest out of Agent Thorton's Love Interests, and he makes quite a few cougar jokes in response to her sexually-charged demeanor.
• An alternate mode of Amnesia: The Dark Descent has Justine Florbelle, a wealthy aristocrat who was put through a series of psychological experiments by her father from an early age (and eventually killed him) before setting up her own torture experiments on her three suitors, which involved mutilating and imprisoning them. The game opens with a young woman waking up in one of her "experiments" and having to work through a series of torturous tests and at the very end of the game the player turns out to be Justine herself, having given herself amnesia as yet another test. For bonus points, she's named after the title character of a novel by the Marquis de Sade himself.
• Bayonetta is an inversion to this, since she is a domineering woman that likes abusing her enemies and happens to be the protagonist. Though she might be sexualized, she does have some Rosa Klebb attitude in regard to how she deals with angels.
• City of Heroes: Countess Crey (usually just "the Countess"). Unusual in that she manages to be the Baroness and a Villain with Good Publicity at the same time; in fact, along with Nemesis she's the only one who ever manages to damage your heroic reputation, though, in practice, this doesn't affect anything much outside of its own arc.
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars: Killian Qatar is hinted to be this. She definitely shows the conviction to be one. She is also a surprisingly sympathetic example of this trope.
• Dragon Age II: Knight Commander Meredith is very much of the Rosa Klebb variety, especially after the events during the game cause her to place Kirkwall under military rule. She appears 50-something, and while she is fairly attractive she has no hint of any sort of sexuality, sadistic or otherwise.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: Hilda. Evil, cold personality, and perpetrator of Break the Cutie. Baroness might be her actual title, too.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening: Aversa is the young sexpot variant and turns out to be only brainwashed to be evil, immediately doing a High-Heel–Face Turn and lusting after the protagonist.
• Guilty Gear: I-No is a mysterious witch and a combination of these two types: she is a phenomenally sexy woman (Sexpot) that happens to be an ultra-bitch (Rosa Klebb).
• Halo 5: Guardians: The Reveal pulls this with Cortana, who in the previous game remained Master Chief's friend even as her digital body collapsed and she struggled to remain sane, eventually doing a Heroic Sacrifice with the last of her strength. But this proved to be senseless, as though she was supposedly repaired, it actually has corrupted her, so she's now at best a Well-Intentioned Extremist who's going to take over the galaxy with her army of enormous Guardian machines, and hopefully become Empress of the Galaxy, while going Yandere and becoming a Clingy Jealous Girl of the Sexpot variety towards Chief, but a Rosa Klebb in front of Fireteam Osiris. While she keeps insisting that she has good reasons for doing so, it's clearly bordering on Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide", especially when she imprisons Chief and Blue Team in a Cryptum so they won't interfere with her schemes. By the end of Halo 5, Cortana, once identified as the greatest of "human ancilla", decides to invoke a Zeroth Law Rebellion that could lead to all A.I.s being cured of rampancy and rendered immortal "protectors" (read: jailers) of organic races, and soon enough, hundreds of A.I.s, including shipbound ones, flock en masse to her cause within seconds of the announcement.
• Injustice: Gods Among Us and Injustice 2 have the Wonder Woman of the Injustice universe, who chose to become a manipulative Lady Macbeth to Superman. Even before the Joker nuked Metropolis, she had an abrasive personality, something which grew once she joined the Regime in the aftermath.
• Kingdom Hearts: Larxene. As a Nobody, her only source of pleasure appears to be the pain of others, whether that involves emotional torment or kicking the stuffing out of them. The remake's 3D cutscenes also show her invading Axel's personal space to get under his skin.
• Mass Effect 2: Morinth is a combination of the two archetypes. She's physically attractive, has a lust for power and dominance, and initially gives off a Dating Catwoman vibe. Despite that, personality-wise, she's a Rosa Klebb, who is ultimately immune to Shepard's charm and has no sympathy or regret for any of her actions.
• Mega Man X: Command Mission: Ferham fits the sexpot example perfectly, showing a sadistic loyalty to her commander, using a whip, walking on stiletto high heels, and having a design of a harpy. She even has an attack that hurts all of the characters and herself, making her comment "That felt good!". As if to drive the point home, her appearance in Mega Man X DiVE gives her an alternate Christmas skin, but rather than a Santa's Hat, she's given a Commissar Cap to fit with her theme.
• Mortal Kombat: Most of the female villains lean towards the Sexpot variety, but a few of them tilt towards the Rosa Klebb.
  • Mileena is an Evil Knockoff and clone of Kitana - she has the body of the Edenian princess but actually has the jaw of a Tarkatan and uses a veil to cover it up. Being an Ax-Crazy Cute and Psycho girl with the mind of a twelve-year-old certainly makes her lean on the Sexpot side.
  • Tanya is a Manipulative Bitch leaning on the Sexpot side, having a checkered history of backstabbing others. And she's a sadistic murderess and pathological traitor who has the hots for Mileena, making them Depraved Bisexuals and Psycho Lesbians.
  • Skarlet leans on the Sexpot side, as she might very well be Interplay of Sex and Violence personified in Mortal Kombat 9.
  • Mortal Kombat X: D'Vorah leans on the Rosa Klebb side, as she is nominally Kotal Kahn's chief advisor, but is actually working for Quan Chi in order to steal back Shinnok's amulet and helps the necromancer succeed in freeing the former Elder God. But her arcade ending implies that she plans to betray Shinnok — truly indicating her true loyalties are to herself.
  • Mortal Kombat 9: After being revived as a revenant for Quan Chi at the end, Kitana begins to assert herself as an evil revenant of the Sexpot variety in Mortal Kombat X, as it enables her to be a sadistic perpetrator who's willing to lash out at her former allies, and believes that Raiden was the one who led to her downfall. She and Liu Kang (who was accidentally killed by the thunder god) willfully choose to become Quan Chi and Shinnok's Co-Dragons, and their Evil Costume Switch reflects their willingness in going down The Dark Side. Jax, who returned to the side of good after being revived by Raiden, even laments at how Quan Chi's magic has slowly corrupted the remaining revenants to the point of extreme anger and hatred, and turned them into brainwashed killing machines. And after Shinnok's downfall at the end of MKX, she and Liu Kang become the Netherrealm's co-rulers, with her becoming its revenant empress. Her MKX ending reveals that she is shown a vision of the original timeline by the mysterious female entity that possessed Jade in her MK9 Arcade Ladder ending. In it, Kitana miraculously managed to survive Armageddon and defeat Shao Kahn, the victor of the conflict who had absorbed the god-like power held within Blaze, becoming Edenia's next queen in the process. Learning of what could have been, Kitana is understandably dismayed by the revelation and her current predicament, and blamed Raiden for the damage he caused by his Timey-Wimey Ball.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: In the climax, the Final Boss does a Demonic Possession of Princess Peach, transforming her into Shadow Queen Peach, complete with an Evil Costume Switch and having a cold, ruthless and icy demeanor, becoming a Baroness of the Sexpot type.
• Pokémon Red and Blue:
  • In a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness, Sabrina had a forceful, militaristic element in her design with a Whip of Dominance to boot, seen best in Pokémon: The Original Series and Sabrina's official art for Pokémon Yellow. The anime even updated her sex appeal by changing her Proper Tights with a Skirt to Zettai Ryouiki. This was lost as soon as Pokémon Gold and Silver.
  • Elite Four Lorelei is an Ice Queen Ms. Fanservice who specializes in Status Infliction that leaves her victims helpless against her hard-hitting moves (something she boasts about). The French localization doubled down on this by making her German.
• Rule of Rose: Meg fulfills surprisingly many requirements for this trope, probably by accident: her fervent loyalty to the authority of the Aristocrats, which is embodied by her pseudo-romantic attraction to Diana, and her status as the group's Torture Technician. She even has the round glasses and the title itself! The main distinction from the standard examples of this trope is that she isn't even in her teens yet.
• Tears to Tiara 2: Izebel's first appearance is stepping on her subordinate Laelius. Your first in-game fight with her she'll be able to kill any member of your party in at most 2 hits. She's prone to Evil Laugh and in general beating you up and getting in your way. She's half playing the personality. The other half is a Fallen Hero Deathseeker.
• Wolfenstein has a minor tradition of using this trope, since the storyline is always "American Secret Agent vs. Nazis". They're always closer to the Rose Klebb type since this is a game where "kill everything that moves" basically covers its gameplay.
  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein has Helga von Bulow, an arrogant Fat Bastard with an abrasive attitude and who is blind in one eye, courtesy of an attack by a zombie in 1939.
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order has Frau Engel, who is a strange mixture between the two; she has the Rose Klebb attribute of being a vicious, cruel, evil-hearted old bitch, but she's also an extremely sexually aggressive Dirty Old Woman. She's good-looking for her age, mentions she's had six "good Aryan" children, and has the young submissive Bubi as a lover. Over the course of the game her face gets mangled by a robot and she watches Bubi die trying to please her. The developers stated they were going to have the typical Sexpot variation but decided not to as it would clash with the game's darker tone.
  • The Old Blood, the prequel to The New Order, has Helga von Schabbs, a thoroughly Rose Klebb type who is rude, abusive, sadistic, a roaring alcoholic, a bit of a Dirty Old Woman, and quite obese thanks to the combination of her constant drinking and her polio-withered leg.

Visual Novels

• Fate/stay night: Rider has aspects of this, being a vicious but seductive antagonist, although she's much, much nicer than the average Baroness once you get to know her, and is mostly being used for evil ends rather than being especially evil herself. She actually has more disdain for her Hate Sink Master than her enemies and, more than once, considers just offing him, despite the consequences to herself.
• Umineko: When They Cry's Beatrice fits most of the personality aspects of the sexpot to a T, with an emphasis on the sadism.
• Dies Irae: Eleonore von Wittenburg, the burn-scarred Crimson Knightess, is among Reinhard's most fanatical followers with a downright chilling disposition that conceals a quiet rage and is ready to rain hellfire on her opposition at moments notice.

Webcomics

• Collar 6: Butterfly is called "The Sadist from Hell" and is, so far, the closest thing the strip has to a Big Bad, and in a society where consensual BDSM is the norm, she's seen as sadistic and evil for not getting the consent of her partners and using Mind Rape on them. To top it off, she's also a literal baroness from Eastern Italy.
• Girl Genius:
  • Madame Von Pinn is a blond, beautiful Frankenstein's Monster who wears black leather fetish gear and serves Baron Wulfenbach on his flying castle. She seems to be better at hand-to-hand combat than anyone else in the comic, is tough enough to shrug off what should be killing blows, and she's also the nanny. And God help you if you harm any of the children she is charged with caring for.
  • Agatha's mother, Lucrezia Mongfish, fits this trope to a T, especially since she is the "Other" herself. She is also known to revel in her dark side. In most of her ... manifestations (for lack of a better word), she falls under the Sexpot version (including her first appearance in Klaus' flashback), though something of a "Rosa Klebb" appears in a flashback by Queen Albia, thanks to cybernetic changes and time travel.
  • Funny that those two characters were mentioned so close together ... it's quite likely that they share quite a few genes, or at least design choices as was revealed.
• Homestuck: Vriska Serket is only thirteen, but she's established as a domineering sadist from the very start: killing countless trolls, crippling her Love Interest while mocking his dream to fly, and blinding her (former) partner, and generally being an all-around creeptastic Manipulative Bitch. This is all before her first appearance. She's even descended (well, cloned, sort of) from the Marquise, another noblewoman title. She's almost invincible with her luck powers and mind manipulation, even before achieving God Tier — introduction to John and later Heel–Face Door-Slam aside, after which she started becoming less of a backstabbing Attention Whoring Jerkass and more of a particularly hardcore Anti-Hero.
• The Non-Adventures of Wonderella features Hitlerella, a Baroness type that's Played for Laughs.
• Strange Aeons: Meiko is overtly this, possibly to a parodic level. A chain-smoking, whip-wielding dominatrix type in service to the Nazi Big Bad.

Web Original

• The Evil Empress list covers the issues inherent in the trope, including...
  5. While seduction has its place in my vast arsenal, I realize that "evil" and "skanky" are not mutually inclusive. Royal Dressmakers unable to realize this fact will be flayed alive in the presence of their replacements.
  10. Sex is certainly a weapon at my disposal, but then so is a blaster. If it is not clear which weapon I should be using, I will opt for the blaster.
• In The Gamer's Alliance, the half-elven mage Shyralis holds King Marcus under a tight leash, going so far as to mind-rape him if he tries to break free from her control. Vaetris also shows a rather sinister and kinky side when she is revealed as the demonic Duchess of the Eastern Horde.
• A Psychopathic Womanchild version of the trope, The Nostalgia Chick is dominating, willing to rape if she doesn't get what she wants, is morally ambiguous, and was this close to ruling Kickassia with an iron fist.
• Zigzagged with Ilia Amitola in RWBY. Preference for black leather? Check. A whip as the weapon? Check. Close affiliation with an antagonistic militant group that uses animalistic symbolics and has an ideology amounting to A Nazi by Any Other Name? Check. An unrequited crush on one of the heroines? Check. A dominating personality? Well... this is where things get sketchy, as under the mask of confidence and faith in Faunus supremacy hides a frightened, misguided girl who could not find a better life than that of the White Fang assassin. Eventually, the attempts of Blake to get through to her conscience (though being saved by Blake's father from an almost certain death also played part) resulted in Ilia defecting and assisting the heroes... and ditching her White Fang outfit in process.
• Lady Hydra of the Whateley Universe, who fits this trope so tightly it turns out that, in-universe, she is the inspiration for the Baroness and didn't take revenge for such a slight because she had already retired.

Western Animation

• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Amora The Demon Queen (formerly the Enchantress) is manipulative, cold, and powerful. She is the ultimate combination of the Sexpot and the Rosa Klebb since she is extremely attractive while being the Big Bad.
  • Sexpot: Amora is beautiful and seductive in both her appearance and the way she speaks to others. Her power over men is shown in many ways whether it's manipulating powerful villains to do her dirty work or simply enslaving people.
  • Rosa Klebb: As the Demon Queen she is no longer in love with Thor and sends Loki to kill him. Her treatment of Loki by threatening and dominating him also puts her in this category. In one scene Loki tries to use the threat of Odin to get Amora to back down from torturing him, instead Amora caresses his face while she threatens and belittles him saying "Getting into your father's prison without his notice is but the least of what I can do" and waves off the Midgard Serpent that was keeping him prisoner. In that moment Loki recognizes Amora's power.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Ruthless, manipulative, and possessing skills that nearly equal the Big Bad's, Azula seems to be a fairly even mix between both types of Baroness, making her one of the most complicated villains ever to appear in a children's television show.
  • Sexpot: She is young, attractive, and speaks fairly seductively to just about everyone. She is a subordinate to the Big Bad and never becomes a Big Bad herself, despite her aspiration to become one. She's also presented fairly sympathetically when it comes to her backstory, and Word of God has noted that she could perhaps be redeemed in the future after she's had a chance to recover from her issues.
  • Rosa Klebb: She only tries to sexually seduce a man once, and that doesn't turn out well at all; even then, it's implied that she only wanted to seduce Chan as another way of establishing her superiority in the face of Ty Lee's effortless gathering of admirers. To date, she's still the one female character who has shown the least interest in the opposite sex and romance altogether; the closest person she has for a friend (let alone a love interest) is Ty Lee, and even then Azula's affection for her is pretty muddled with her manipulations to keep Ty Lee on her side. None of the heroes are attracted to her because her insanity and ruthlessness are off-putting.
• Red Claw on Batman: The Animated Series. Red Claw is the leader of an international terrorist organization of the same name. She is a stout, opposing figure and master of martial arts, able to match Batman in hand-to-hand combat.
• The version of The Baroness (The Trope Namer) that appears in the original cartoon G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a cleaned-up-for-cartoons version of the type, although her heavily accented portrayal by Morgan Lofting would influence other iterations of the character. Hama had originally conceived the character's background as an American who grew disaffected when she studied abroad, but after her cartoon debut, her official background was updated to state that she was the spoiled daughter of European aristocrats, and it was this information that appeared on her first toy's file card. While most versions of the character have used this background, the Live-Action Adaptation version played by Sienna Miller gave her the American background Hama originally intended, although her reason for joining Cobra was significantly changed.
• Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes. True to form, she's in love with Jimmy.
• Kuvira from The Legend of Korra is also a Rosa Klebb type, despite looking young and attractive. Kuvira is so devoted to her goals, that she's perfectly willing to sacrifice her lover to get what she desires.
• Vanessa Warfield from M.A.S.K. is a mild case of the Sexpot variety. Vanessa is an attractive but cold VENOM operative who, as an added bonus, is able to generate whips of energy with her Mask.
• Queen Chrysalis of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic qualifies. She definitely has the "cold and dark" part down, not to mention that she is a Manipulative Bastard who literally devours love.
• Lady Kale in Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders (whose armor even looks a lot like that of the Baroness).
• Hexadecimal from ReBoot, especially in season 3.
• Natasha Fatale from Rocky and Bullwinkle (Played for Laughs).
• Asajj Ventress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
• Steven Universe: "An agate terrifies," and Holly Blue Agate is a combination of Rosa Klebb, Drill Sergeant Nasty, and overly strict boarding school principal, although her obsequiousness toward her superiors in the Gems' Fantastic Caste System kills some of the menace.
• Madame Rouge from Teen Titans (2003). She's not ugly, but not supermodel pretty, has the sexpot body type more or less... and is a dangerous, brutal fighter who takes great pleasure in pounding Titans and their allies into the dirt. She will not be falling prey to any hero's charms, thank you very much. Oh, and she has an Eastern European accent (despite being French). She'd get along just fine with Viper and the original Baroness.
• Transformers has the Rosa Klebb version in Strika.
• Paige in TRON: Uprising.
• Parodied in The Venture Bros. with Molotov Cocktease. And Girl Hitler. And a previous Baroness alluded to as a former member of the Cobra-parody organization SPHINX. Her curvy powered-armor-suit finds its way into Hank's hands... he makes good use of it.
• Lord Dominator in Wander over Yonder is a downplayed example. She's badass, manipulative, sadistic, and as sexy as she can be for a kid's show. She even calls herself Lord Dominator.

Real Life

• Kiuchi Nobuo, Japanese POW in the USSR, drew these◊ and these◊ pictures◊ of Russian female soldiers in his memoirs, which fit the trope well.
• The German female guards of concentration camps (notably, Ravensbruck) and more than a few Soviet soldiers and NKVD officers of the correct sex fit into this role.
• Irma Grese, "the beast of Belsen" and "The Hyena of Auschwitz". Described as "the vilest human being he ever had met" by Eric Brown, notable Ace Pilot and translator (he spoke fluent German), she nevertheless was something in-between the two archetypes. She acted as a guard at Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps. She was described to be a sadistic Lesbian predator, not interested in men, but very abusive towards female prisoners. She was hanged in December 1945 by Albert Pierrepoint at Hameln, Germany. Her last word was Schnell! (literally "Speed!", in sense "Have speed with it!")
• Dita Von Teese had a picture of herself as this.
• Rozalia Zemlachka, Russian Civil War Commissar, was this before it was cool. Definitely a Rosa Klebb before there was a Rosa Klebb. Presided over a bloody purge of ex-White officers and just unfortunate poor schmucks in Crimea in 1920, and played an important role in the better-known Great Purge of 1937-39. Died peacefully in her bed of old age.
• Bulgaria under communist rule has Julia 'Pretty Julka' Ruzhgeva as a type 1 who served as a guard in the country's most dreaded political prisoner camp. In her 20s, she is reported by numerous survivors to show extreme sadism, in one case eviscerating a woman by impaling her with a wooden stick and racking up a body count of at least 40 people.

---