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It's good to be bad.
There is a reason actors fight for the chance to play the bad guy. The lines are great, the costumes are great, the songs are spectacular, and they don't have to spend the whole shoot pretending they are nicer than anyone they ever met. Even the minions get cool outfits. And the boss, well...
Plus, there are all those wonderful toys!
Why is all that true? Why does the bad guy get all the cool stuff? Because you don't have a story unless you have conflict. The bad guy — in most cases — is the conflict. The more interesting the conflict, the more interesting the story. It really is that simple.
Plus, there are all those marvelous toys! Wait. Already said that.
Can lead to Draco In Leather Pants and All Girls Want Bad Boys. Complements Good Is Dumb. One of the reasons Evil Feels Good and Tastes Good. Evil Is Sexy is a subtrope of this. The Villain Protagonist wouldn't exist if not for this trope, nor would the Heroic Sociopath. This trope is essentially the Jerkass Dissonance Principle in action. If the villains like using tommy guns and/or wearing Starter jackets to conceal Mac 10s, they've probably got Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster on their minds.
Not to be confused with Evil Is Deathly Cold, though they can overlap.
Compare Good Is Boring. Contrast This Is Your Brain On Evil and Being Evil Sucks. See also Balance Between Good And Evil. And ignore Good Feels Good, those traitors don't know what they're talking about. And those wonderful... Ahhh, forget it.
Examples:
Anime
Comic Books
- The Joker, in most incarnations. It doesn't matter whether he's a giggling, goofy, clown prince of crime (e.g. the 60's Batman television series), a mass-murdering sociopathic Monster Clown (e.g. The Dark Knight), or a seemingly impossibly mixture of the two (e.g. Batman The Animated Series) he will inevitably overshadow every other character, have all the best lines and, while Batman will always have the best toys (he's the goddamn Batman, after all), Joker will find the most creative and spectacular ways to use the tools at his disposal. No matter what he does or who he does it to, he will make you laugh, because of the simple fact that he's just that good.
- In the Marvel Universe, Dr. Doom practically owns this trope. He's a science genius who wears a cloak and a suit of armour, rules his own country and lives in a castle.
- Monsieur Choc, the main villain in the Tif Et Tondu Belgian comic book series. He is considered so cool that he is the reason the series became popular in the first place, and the recent re-releases deliberately put him as the focus on the covers and the stories chosen.
- The title character of Lucifer is horrible, destructive person but (likely in reference to Paradise Lost below) is incredibly awesome all the same.
Film
- Cesare. There's a reason that so many other characters - usually nicer ones - look like him.
- Almost every Disney villain imaginable turns out to be cooler and much more lovable and funny than the protagonist.
- Hades from Hercules.
- It really doesn't help that the rest of the pantheon is too stupid to realize his schemes. Also he seems to be the only person who wants to improve the pantheon. His way, of course.
- Jafar from Aladdin.
- Don't forget Iago, one of the funniest characters in both the films and the tv series.
- Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove is arguably the most entertaining character (with the possible exception of Kronk) in the movie in her own right, completely setting aside the issue of the protagonist being less than likeable.
- Scar from The Lion King is this troper's personal favorite Disney character.
- This troper was lectured by a Disney animator who said to always, always, always try and get rights to animate the villain, because they're a lot more fun than protagonists.
- Ursula from The Little Mermaid
- Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. No one overshadows their respective protagonist like Gaston.
- And what about Maleficent? Probably the most obvious Disney Villain example!
- The villain of the upcoming return to Diney's 2D roots, The Princess And The Frog, breathes this trope. From the little we've seen of him, Dr. Facilier is a nasty piece of work: powerful, scheming, stylish, charismatic, and has a Villain Song. Now this is following tradition!
- And who could forget the sexy singing smog cloud that was Hexxus in Fern Gully (voiced by Tim Curry, no less)?
- Really any villain played or voiced by Tim Curry will shine so much that it can be almost dangerous in how awesome the bad guy turns out. Screw the protagonists, let's throw them in a death trap so we can hear the bad guy do that evil laugh again!
- Subverted in Spider-Man 3: When he's possessed by the symbiote and 'evil', Peter Parker is still noticeably geeky and clueless — he's just now arrogant and obnoxious as well. Furthermore, the symbiote eventually merges with Eddie Brock, who is noticeably slimy, unctuous and creepy.
- Don't forget his hilariously awful Conor Oberst-like hairdo and his tendency towards violence. This troper was rolling in her seat with laughter, although it becomes unfunny when he hits Mary Jane in the bar.
- Tai Lung of Kung Fu Panda, all the way.
- He's also one of the most sympathetic characters in the film.
- Darryl Revok of Scanners. Bad, bad dude.
- Michael Ironside pretty much always invokes this trope, even when playing a nominally good guy.
- A couple of examples from Star Wars:
- There are only two things in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace that are, without debate, universally considered awesome:
Duel of the Fates New World Symphony and Darth Maul.
- In comic book/sci-fi conventions, most Star Wars fans will be in a Darth Vader costume. Or Boba Fett. And sometimes, an entire group dressed as Stormtroopers.
- Applies to various evil monsters in the Godzilla movies, especially the Godzilla Final Wars version of Gigan that gets chainsaw hands for the final battle.'
- Also applies to Godzilla himself in the films where he is evil.
Literature
- This has notoriously been the biggest problem with John Milton's Paradise Lost. Satan is in fact so much cooler than God and Christ (except when He gets into His chariot) that William Blake thought Milton was "of the Devil's party without knowing it."
- Somehow, the angels (especially Michael) end up the coolest of all.
- Claudius the God is the story of Emperor Claudius, portrayed as a basically decent and honorable man thrust unwillingly into a position of ultimate power. I Claudius chronicles the reigns of Augustus (and his wife Livia), Tiberius, and Caligula. Guess which one is the more fun read?
- In case you need a hint: one chapter of Claudius the God is devoted to the protagonist's visit to the doctor.
- Subverted in The Screwtape Letters. Devils are bureaucratic, cranky, selfish, killjoys who actively try and reduce the pleasure sinning gives people.
- Haroun And The Sea Of Stories averts and references this. The villains are the enemies of all stories - therefore, they despise anything that looks interesting or impressive. The Big Bad, Katham-Shud, even turns into a dramatic Eldritch Abomination One Winged Angel form for all of a second just to contrast this trope to his weaselly, unimpressive self.
- Stephen King reportedly hates this idea, and his later works try to send the message that "evil is pathetic". This is probably why the villains from his The Dark Tower series suffered severe Villain Decay in the last book.
- Lestat.
Live Action TV
- In Family Matters, Steve Urkel's formula based off the "cool gene" transformed him into Stefan Urkél, who was suave but amoral. However, this was subverted in Stefan's next appearance, where Steve revealed that he'd accidentally involved the "evil gene" in the formula; from then on, Stefan was both cool and nice.
- Rowan Atkinson once said in an interview about his Blackadder character in the British comedy series of the same name, "It's always more fun to play a villain. It's just a well-known fact."
- For some reason, evil, batshit insane, brain-stealing villain Sylar from Heroes is a lot cooler than sane, geeky Sylar. Apparently, evil wears contacts.
- Ditching the specs (and also acquiring stubble) seems to be mandatory for characters taking a walk on the dark side. Consider Wesley from Angel: glasses on — the scholar and gentleman of the group. His attempts to be baddass are laughable. Glasses off — beds Lilah, keeps a woman tied up in his closet, breaks rogue Slayers out of jail and tortures junkies for information.
- Also in the Buffy/Angel series' we have Spike who before he was turned into a vampire was laughed at and wrote "poncy poetry" where as when he is sired he becomes all bad ass
- From the same series, Evil Angel is about seven times cooler than Good Angel. It probably has to do with the lack of brooding. Evil Angel is funny.
- Good Angel can be funny - it's just very rarely on purpose. He's also gets several times smarter when he goes evil, which was lampshaded in the episode Awakening
Professional Wrestling
- Many professional wrestlers profess to enjoying playing a heel far more than playing a face. For some of them, this can bleed through into their performances, such that a wrestler who undergoes a Heel Face Turn actually loses popularity due to his lackluster performances afterwards.
- A good heel turn can also pretty much save someone's career and end up making them a star after a disastrous or boring face run. See The Rock, Randy Orton, John Cena, and Santino Marella for prime examples of this in the past decade.
- A well-known phenomena in wrestling is that crowds cheer louder when a heel turns face. It is believed that people want to see the villain redeemed.
- An interesting phenomena is when through excellence in performance, an interesting persona, and good mic skills, a supposed Heel wins over the crowd and becomes a fan-favorite Heel.
- When Kurt Angle first joined the WWE, he was considered to be a yet another "real" fighter who had not yet paid his dues as a Jobber. However, his ring skills were incredibly impressive, and his two gold medals (1996, Atlanta Olympics, and 1995, World Championships) weren't fake. Even more impressive, he won one of them while having a broken neck. And then, something miraculous happened. During a Monday Night Raw episode, the crowd started chanting "You Suck, You Suck" along with Angle's wrestling music.
 His reaction not only clarified his persona, but it also created the most loved heel in the history of wrestling.
- He lampshaded this in famous incident in TNA where he made a racial remark and said he wanted to make Jesus tap out, and the crowd cheered.
- The Rock, had little or choice in the matter. The level of his creative and imaginative speeches won over the crowd almost against his will. On example of many, many, many classic Rock moments here.
Theater
- The Shakespearean characters every actor wants to play are his most notorious villains, Iago of Othello, and the titular Magnificent Bastard of Richard III. Similarly, every actress wants to be Lady Macbeth, his greatest villainess. The roguish buffoon Falstaff was so popular that Shakespeare gave him his own spin-off comedy in which he is the
hero protagonist.
- Despite the fact that The Phantom Of The Opera is an obsessive, controlling, homicidal, textbook 'bad boyfriend', he is inevitably the one the audience roots for. You'll have to scour through hundreds of Phantom/Christine Shipping Fan Fics to find one Raoul/Christine, and it's better than even money that actors would rather play the Phantom. Why? Raoul is a largely ineffective ponce; Erik drops chandeliers on people. Plus, in the case of the musical, he gets all of the cool songs. And a stylish black cape.
Video Games
- Used quite a bit the Devil May Cry series. Dante's enemies (primarily his Evil Counterpart, his brother Vergil) are pretty darn cool, but Dante still generally mops the floor with them with style.
- Arguably the point of games like Grand Theft Auto, Scarface: The World Is Yours and Evil Genius.
- Also the point of Dungeon Keeper, where you are the Dark Lord who builds his eldritch underground kingdom and throws adventuring heroes in the torture chambers.
- It is primarily for this reason that Knights Of The Old Republic and similar games have an evil option. KOTOR is further helped in this regard, since Star Wars villains are generally among the most Bad Ass characters in all of fiction.
- This is acknowledged in the second game, where the opening screen shows one of the various Sith Lords of the game. Go bad enough, and your character will replace them after you complete the game.
- Also from Star Wars, Star Wars Battlefront II has you playing as the 501st Legion in the "Rise of the Empire" story mode. needless to say, after the evil empire rises and the 501st becomes evil, they're still awesome.
- Another Star Wars example: TIE Fighter. Darth Vader is your wingman. That is all.
- The Command And Conquer series always has fiendishly enjoyable Evil campaigns. Especially in Red Alert, the evil is served with a generous side of Large Ham.
- Kefka.
- Most of the villains in the Kingdom Hearts series.
- Do you see the cool, black, spiky barrier jacket of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's Chrono? That's an artifact from his days as a villain in the original Nanoha mini-scenario included in the Triangle Heart 3 Sweet Songs Forever fanbox.
- The Helghast of Killzone, with their Jin-Roh inspired battle armor (the Custom Uniforms of which are extra-awesome◊), sympathetic back story and having a leader that gloriously feasts on ham. Fans pray for being able to play as them in Killzone 3.
- Gig from Soul Nomad And The World Eaters.
- Kotomine in Fate Stay Night... well, he's cool enough that the fact he has a mullet ceases to matter. Possibly helped along by every scene contrasting him to Shirou. The other Big Bad, Zouken, is not cool. Or likable. Or, well, tolerable. You just kind of want him to hurry up and die already.
- Looking back at Guilty Gear, many people were turned off with Ky Kiske because he's too much of a goody two shoes. Then, in Blaz Blue, he's given an Expy in form of Jin Kisaragi, a twisted, erratic jerkass whose unwholesome personality nonetheless met many fans.
Music
Web Comics
- The Sins. Soul destroying (literally) Anthropomorphic Personifications of The Seven Deadly Sins they may be, but they are also cool ( Ok not New Envy ) and way more fun than their opponents, The Virtues. It doesn't hurt that Lust is pretty hot!
- Richard from Looking For Group is an over-the-top chaotic evil necromancer working with an ostensibly good group, and he's easily the most interesting and coolest character in the series.
- There is also the fact that he's not entirely sane and the one who makes most of the pop culture Shout Outs.
- Really? This troper found Richard to be an insufferable Jerkass.
- Black Mage from 8-Bit Theater viciously subverts this trope. Just about every single other character in the series utterly confirms it.
- Xykon from Order Of The Stick. Some of his worst moments are also listed as his best.
- Lampshaded in this◊ Little Dee strip.
- Bob from Bob and George easily fits here, not only taking on all the other characters in the series (often at the same time), but trying to eliminate the author of the comic so he can take over.
- Black hat. Full stop.
Tabletop Games
Web Original
Western Animation
- Shego from Kim Possible lives for this Trope. For starters, her backstory reveals that she started as a hero but turned villain since evil is cooler. And then she is in fact the coolest person in the show.
- Mighty Max: The archvillain Skullmaster was voiced by Tim Curry. Luckily for the rest of the cast, he only showed up in about 5 episodes. But in those episodes, well he pretty much rules hell, has demon and zombie armies at his command. Oh, he can outsmart the Smart Guy and beat the Big Guy in a straight fight. Oh, and all of his convulted plans succeeded...cept for the last one. maybe.
- This troper cannot be the only Teen Titans fan who thinks Big Bad Slade is the most utterly Bad Ass character in the show.
- You are correct, but nobody commented because stating this is like pointing out that rain is wet.
- On the Halloween Episode of The Fairly Oddparents, every kid wanted to dress as the Jack O' Bots, four villains from Crash Nebula, since the bad guy costumes are the coolest.
- How is David Xanatos from Gargoyles not already on this list?
- See above follow-up reference to Slade.
- Xanatos also subverts this trope- he never stops being awesome or a Magnificent Bastard, even after doing a Heel Face Turn.
- Only a partial subversion, since it's not really that much of a Heel Face Turn. According to Word Of God, Xanathos is still essentially the same amoral bastard as always - he is "never good for the sake of being good, or evil for the sake of being evil" - he's just figured out that there's a lot of benefits to be had from being on the gargoyles' good side.
- Blackarachnia from Beast Wars is very popular amongst the fanbase — like she says, she's hot, poisonous and deadly.
Real Life
- The Nazis may have been horrible, genocidal, and tyrannical, but at least they knew how◊ to◊ dress◊.
- Thanks to Hugo Boss! [1]
- Cartman thinks they're cool.
- There is, in fact, a long standing saying amongst military history enthusiasts that the best dressed army usually loses.
- P. J. O'Rourke has a standard comeback to people who call him a Nazi: "Nobody has ever fantasized about being tied to a bed and sexually ravished by a person dressed as a liberal."
- Many actors will tell you that playing the villain is a lot of fun.
- The Roman Catholic baptismal vows include one about rejecting the "glamour of evil". They recognised it.
- A lot of kids on the Internet like tacking the word "evil" or the number 666 in their usernames.
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