Troperville
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That's the problem with heroes, really. Their only purpose in life is to thwart others. They make no plans, develop no strategies. They react instead of act. Without villains, heroes would stagnate. Without heroes, villains would be running the world. Heroes have morals. Villains have work ethic.
— Mark C. Langston
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. Still, you want to watch out for "toys" that are more evil than you.
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.
Contrast This Is Your Brain On Evil. Compare Good Is Boring. 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 all incarnations. It doesn't matter whether he's a giggling, goofy, clown prince of crime (e.g. the 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. See Villain Sue for more on this.
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.
- Jafar from Aladdin.
- 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.
- And who could forget the sexy singing smog cloud that was Hexxus in Ferngully (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.
- Darryl Revok of Scanners. Bad, bad dude.
- Michael Ironside pretty much always invokes this trope, even when playing a nominally good guy.
- 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.
- 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.'
- This is pretty much why the Joker is so loved. He is unpredictable, chaotic and insane, everything he does is morally questionable, he justifies his own existence by ruining lives... yet we can't help but be amazed, because of just how cool and in control he is at all times.
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?
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.
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.
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.
- What about Hamlet, Lear and Henry V? And most actors want to play Othello in Othello, not Iago. No, what most actors want from a Shakespearean play is the one with the juiciest dialogue.
- 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.
Web Comics
Real Life
- The Nazis may have been horrible, genocidal, and tyrannical, but at least they knew how
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