"The usual dilemma crops up: why does Lady Anne give in to Richard? "'Easy,' says a quiet and rather beautiful young man. 'Evil is erotic.'"
— Antony Sher, Year of the King, rehearsing Richard III for prisoners
Other factors being equal, evil characters are sexier.
Evil does strange things to people. It can be pleasurable, delicious, or addictive, it can make you more badass, and it even makes you more sexy. Often a consequence of Power is Sexy, since Mooks aren't that attractive.
Even though Beauty Equals Goodness, some villains are just gorgeous. They ooze sex appeal and carnality in a way that represents how seductive and tempting evil can be. They tend to have loosersexualmorals. They are as handsome as they are arrogant (much to the heroes' annoyance). They hide their demonic soul behind the face of an angel. And they're not afraid to use their beauty, wiles, and sex appeal to seduce the hero and carry out their nefarious plans. (Okay, maybe that last Pot Hole went too far.)
Their outfits tend to show more skin and have more leather, fetishist hangups, lace, on occasion, or even gorgeous and functional Femme Fatalons. Hey, what's the point of being evil if you can't do it with class? Or, failing that, overdo it with, um, style?
A good guy temporarily tempted by evil tends to suddenly wear skimpier clothes and be more sexually assertive. Many fans will find him sexier this way and perhaps dread the return to purity that will accompany his return to goodness.
An opportunity for Fanservice of all kinds. Also sets the stage for Unfortunate Implications, especially given the gender differences it frequently invokes.
This is especially problematic because it is guaranteed to garner loads of entirely undeserved sympathy from fans. Still, it's so ingrained in certain cultures that it's not going away any time soon.
As a trope, understandable. Evil characters are rarely just the type to say, "I choose evil!" (Though even characters who do have that as their motivation may be sexy.) Even if a character has misgivings, the Big Bad should want to be what he or she is...and what better way than to make evil seductive? Storytellers have understood this for millennia.
People have been going a little far with this trope, though. Evil in general is presented as something that is physically enticing. (In American film, this is probably related to that period way back when when only evil was allowed to be sexy — since sex sells regardless.)
This trope is often reconciled with Beauty Equals Goodness by making the good characters' beauty more genuine and the evil characters' appearance more focused on inspiring lust. That is, they consciously try to separate beauty from sexiness. Thus, the hot chick likely was Evil All Along, or has made a Face Heel Turn; the constant heroine, while beautiful, is not sexy because she exudes Incorruptible Pure Pureness even if she's gonna end up a wife and mother.
Mostly applied to female villains, because most male villains are ratherhideous. Attractivemalevillains are becoming more common, though, especially in series geared toward females.
If the heroine-cum-Love Interest is the initial Ms. Fanservice, then The Baroness or The Vamp has to take it to the next level, sometimes immediately.
Sub Tropes include:
This is an issue wherein discussion about attractiveness AND discussion about evil are both involved, and, sometimes, the whole can be more touchy than the sum of its parts, despite combining an insult with a compliment. In any case, Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment should be taken into account here, even for someof the FICTIONAL examples.
Examples
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General
Most vampires everywhere, if they can pass for human at all. There may be permanently monstrous vampires, but one never seems to run into a pimply, fat vampire. Outside of Discworld, that is.
Buffy: I've fought more than a couple pimply, overweight vamps that called themselves Lestat.
Usually played straight (and done well) in Buffy with Spike and Angel.
Hell, Darla is pretty much the patron saint of this trope.
Vampires in the movie Vampire in Brooklyn are all very sexy, even when played by Eddie Murphy. The heroine gradually becomes sexier as she becomes one.
Played straight with Irrylath the vampire in Meredith Ann Pierce's The Darkangel Trilogy.
The distinguishing feature of the antagonist vampires in Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire series was his face full of acne scars.
No matter how fetishized vampires get, we'll always have Graf◊. Ewww.
Parodied in thisSluggy Freelance strip. "Wow! When you become a vampire, men become broad-shouldered and muscle-bound and women become tall and thin! You ever think of selling this on QVC?"
Also subverted (probably; those sprites make it hard to tell how anyone really looks) with nerdy Vilbert von Vampire in 8-Bit Theater.
Subverted in the Castlevania series (particularly Symphony of the Night and the Sorrow arc) with Alucard, the half-vampire son of Dracula, though the subversion lies in his alignment rather than his appearance.
Averted in The X-Files with a fat vampire who delivers pizzas.
The first Blade movie with Wesley Snipes, does feature one vampire, the Big Bad's archivist, who is obscenely, can't-cross-room-without-forklift obese. Still, on the whole, most of the vampires tend to be at least fairly attractive, and the Big Bad's right-hand girl is played by a former porn star.
Holy shit, she was in porn? I gotta find some of her vids!
Traci Lords was not the Big Bad's right-hand girl, she was just this vampire chick who appears in the beginning.
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes justifies this trope in her vampire novels: vampires usually only choose to turn pretty people, and the transformation process removes imperfections.
Averted in True Blood. Eddie, while actually a very nice guy, isn't particularly sexy. Neither is Area Five's magistrate. On the other hand, Eric and Bill are apparently walking sex gods.
Under the D&D rules, vampires gain a boost to Charisma, which measures among other things physical attractiveness and sex appeal, when transformed. This was parodied entertainingly in an early Antiheroes for Hire strip.
Doubly subverted by Carmilla in Castlevania Lords Of Shadow. The vampire queen prefers a woman's shape, but her deathly pallor and bloody red eyes place her easily into the Uncanny Valley. Her Absolute Cleavage comes off as more wanton than alluring, and her deep voice is harsh and commanding. Her true form amounts to a shaggy, hideous batlike thing that walks like a woman with flabby breasts...all in all, it's probably not a surprise that the heroic knight Gabriel is above her wiles.
With the exception of those based on the original Norse and Scottish mythologies, most "Dark Elves" in almost any Fantasy fiction. All of them. Especially the females. The Dark Eldar from Warhammer 40,000 are actually meant to be naked, but Games Workshop aren't permitted to sell nude figures to under-18s (a major part of their customer base), so they have just enough clothing to cover their naughty bits. Daemonettes of Slaanesh don't, though.
For that matter, most elves in the original mythologies were barely good and hardly the beauty that modern works have them.
There are a few exceptions; they appeared as tiny little demons in the first Final Fantasy.
Apparently this trope is strong enough to make some of the most evil and sadistic psychopaths in fiction sex icons for a surprising amount of women (in a lot of cases though, it's simply the actor playing the psychopath that attracts the audience). Unlike Real Life psychopaths who have a distinct disorderly narcissism and a crudely aggressive personal style, which in most cases would turn off women romantically (depending on the woman), the cool self-possession and unflappable personal style of many film psychos attract quite a few fangirls, despite their... flaws. These characters include Jason Dean in Heathers, David McCall in Fear, Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and Hannibal Lecter (yes, it's possible to make even Anthony Hopkins sexy) in The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising.
The Joker has fangirls. Yes, that Joker. The one with the Glasgow Smile and the sloppy makeup and the sing-song-y voice. The one who pencil-ed someone in the face. He also receives a large number of Mary Sues in Fan Fic.
Forget Fan Fic, Harley Quinn basically incarnates this trope going both ways and she's canon. And, yes, both meanings of 'both ways.' She spends a lot of time with Poison Ivy.
You think lust for the Joker is bad? Clive Barker has commented that women still send him letters saying that they want to have Pinhead's baby. Urgh.
Lust is regarded as an evil or a sin by many religions. Often personified.
Pretty much any character ever played/voiced by Tim Curry.
Completely subverted in Criminal Minds season 5 finale, however.
Mermaid, when are evil.
Succubi, Incubi, or any other kind of Horny Devils.
Advertising
Subverted in a nicotine gum ad, where the initially sultry and seductive personification of tobacco turns into a little repulsive demon after the addict uses the gum to resist his craving.
Anime & Manga
Trinity Blood is a master at this. Talking to you, Cain Nightroad, Isaak Fernand von Kämpfer and Dietrich von Lohengrin. Radu Barvon could also count.
Speed Grapher rather enjoys playing this trope as straight as possible, then immediately deconstructing the idea as brutally and horrifically as possible.
These examples should give special notice to Japanese Kawaisa, which values cuteness sometimes even to the detriment of Western perception of sex appeal; "sexiness" isn't necessarily more attractive. However, when comparing villainesses with heroines, or female characters pre-turn / post-turn, there's a marked drop in the cuteness quotient. The only exceptions are deliberate subversions.
Dio Brando, from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, elevates this trope to practically a superpower. Many of his subordinates follow him just because of his charisma and beauty. Many of them (of both genders) outright wanna jump his bones, and some succeed (Vanilla Ice and Enrico Pucci). To be slightly fair however, he was already extremely attractive BEFORE he became completely evil, and its implied that he is using his Stand Power to aid him in this. Dio's beauty is so amazingly mythical leveled that it even seduced a blind man.
In D.Gray-Man most of the Noah that exemplify this trope, specifically Tyki Mikk (Pleasure of Noah) and Lulu Bell (Form of Noah). Oddly averted in their comically round but nonetheless badass leader, The Millennium Earl.
As of chapter 187, plays this trope straight with his human form.
And in recent chapters, evil Allen qualifies.
Take one look at Pretty Sammy and her antagonist, Pixy Misa, and tell me which is the evil one.
It's even worse in the alternate universe spin-off Sasami: Magical Girls Club. When she is possessed by evil, Misao goes from being a 10-year-old girl to a voluptuous 20-something with very little clothing.
All the Sailor Moon villains with the notable exceptions of Queen Metallia, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, and Zirconia are handsome Bishōnen and seductive Femme Fatales.
Most directly played in the 2nd season. Chibi-Usa is a typical six-year-old girl (physically anyway). When Death Phantom captures her and brainwashes her into the evil Black Lady, she becomes a well-endowed gal in her 20s.
Similar remarks apply to Hotaru's transformation into Mistress Nine in the third season.
Then there is Fate's Non-Human Sidekick, Arf. Skilled in melee combat and blessed with the Most Common Super Power while wearing a Stripperiffic halter top with a bare midriff and a pair of short shorts that's unbuttoned and sometimes look like they're not zippered either.
Force continues the tradition with Arnage of Huckebein, an Evil Redhead with bared midriff, nice rack and hotpants.
I see your Arnage and give you Curren◊. If she hasn't hit enough sexy tropes, she will do so in time.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: While he played up the White-Haired Pretty Boy trope just fine when he was good, Johan Anderson was arguably much more kawaii in the outfit he got while possessed by Yubel — sleeveless trenchcoat, baggy jeans, and leather straps everywhere, all in a fashionable shade of dark slate blue-gray. Sadly, the same couldn't be said for pretty boy Judai during his conversion into the full-armored Supreme King Haou.
So says you buddy...I have a thing for Haou's armor.
Also, Hell Kaiser looks damned hot in his black leather, much more so than he did when he was just the plain old Kaiser. Rawr.
Camula is one of the only women who can be evil, sexy, and play cards at the same time.
Kaname and Momomi from Strawberry Panic are the only characters in a series full ofSchoolgirl Lesbians who actually have a sex life, played for much Fanservice. Their "good" counterparts, Hikari and Amane, clearly have sex with each other as well. Maybe it's a yin-yang thing.
In Princess Tutu, Rue demonstrates a classic case of this: when she transforms into her evil alter ego Princess Kraehe, her previously fairly standard ballet costume is now something strapless, backless, and cut down to her bellybutton in front.
Also, once Mytho is infected by the Raven's blood in season 2, he becomes much much more sexually assertive. He flirts openly, tracing his fingers over girl's hearts, draping his arms around one woman's shoulders, and essentially coming on to every girl he meets in an attempt to take their heart from them as a sacrifice. Although towards the end of the series, when it takes him over more and more, he becomes less sexy and more squicky.
In Monster, Johan Liebert is by far the most attractive man in the entire series. He is also, without a shadow of a doubt, the most evil.
Dakki, the Big Bad of Houshin Engi. She's got a nice body, and often wears revealing outfits. Her magic weapon even gets a power boost when she strikes sexy poses.
Kailfa, hands down. Her sexiness is the reason why Sanji lost his fight against her (well, actually is was more to do with chivalry, but it played a part), while the latter defeated her colleague who is much stronger than her, and her fight against was filled with a lot of Fanservice. Even Nami thought she was sexy, then remembered she's a girl.
To a mild extent in an early episode of the Rockman.EXE anime, where the baddies temporarily turn Roll evil - while her outfit doesn't change, she gets a whip and a dominatrix personality for the duration of this effect.
Paptimus Scirocco in Zeta Gundam and Haman Kahn in Gundam ZZ are extremely sexy and attractive. The former is also an egotistical Magnificent Bastard with a Utopia Justifies the Means mentality, who thinks nothing of using everyone around him (specially pretty women with huge piloting skills) and tossing him/her away after having outlived their usefulness, and the latter is an Baroness who wants to revive the old Principate of Zeon with herself standing on top, manipulating her ward Princess Mineva Zabi for her own gain, and take control of the Earth Sphere as an added bonus...
Ali Al Saachez. We all * abhor* this Complete Monster, but we can't help admitting that Yun Kouga created one very sensual villain.
Pretty Cure rarely takes this approach, with the female characters generally balancing out the positive aspects of their looks with things like odd-looking eyes, conspicuously odd skin tones, and so on. Eas, though◊...
Doesn't stop there; feast your eyes on CirucciSanderwicci: Busty chest, curvy figure, greatfashion sense, attractive voice (when she's speaking calmly), and whip-toting, with a rude, cocky, dominating personality.
Aion from Chrono Crusade plays with this, particularly in the anime adaptation, where he goes from being attractive and charismatic to willing to sleep with Anything That Moves. However, this trope is also used in the anime to make him creepy and squicky — he not only happily seduces those that are willing to sleep with them, but is implied to attempt to rape many of the ones that aren't willing (and may have even succeeded in one case).
Yet averted by Szilard Quates; the most evil and unsympathetic character in the anime is also the least visually appealing.
Though more case of nuts and misunderstood, Gun X Sword features ex-prostitute Fasalina, who is still gratuitous enough to reveal some of her ample bosom (though not so Stripperiffic), fights on a strip pole, long gorgeous hair... Guess which side she's on.
Light Yagami from Death Note is much hotter when evil than when innocent.
Misa Amane, Teru Mikami, Kiyomi Takada and Mello also qualify.
Governor General Godel of Mahou Sensei Negima! is arrogant, manipulative, underhanded, and undeniably evil from the first time we see him. He also has a stylish suit and glasses and is very hot even while tormenting Negi.
What about the aged up Fate or Dynamis?
Slan and Griffith are pretty hot, especially considering what most of Berserk's demons look like.
The human members of the Team Rocket trio (even though they don't qualify as evil), especially in the earlier episodes of Pokémon before they became comic relief — James provides 100% of the series' bishounen quotient while Jessie has the largest set of breasts on the screen.
Don't forget about Butch, who has tons of fangirls, and Cassidy who rivals Jessie for the biggest chest in the series, as well as every female Team Rocket member (like Domino in Mewtwo Returns).
And many fangirls think this of AloisTrancy in the second season.
As well as Claude and Hannah.
Alucard of Hellsing is this trope taken to the utter screaming extreme in both directions. It's difficult to be more evil than someone who essentially orgasms from ripping people into pieces and has consumed approximately four million souls over his centuries of existence, and it is just as difficult to be sexier. As someone on this very wiki notes:
Medusa and Arachne from Soul Eater (ever better, Medusa when she possesses Arachne's body). Also, Asura when he appears more "pretty boy" than Eldritch Abomination. Mosquito in the form he uses to slice Kid's arm off. This doesn't seem to have stopped some fans liking him.
Violinist Of Hameln. The biggest monster (literally and figuratively) in the entire manga, Chestra, also is the one of most gorgeous-looking men there (when he is whole, of course). Also, Sizer wears a very modest outfit normally and a Stripperific one when Brainwashed and Crazy / tapping Superpowered Evil Side.
Izaya of Durarara!!. He's basically /b/ in human form, but damn if he isn't hot.
Essentially all females in Black Lagoon except Yolanda (too old) and Fabiola (manages to not be evil).
Adiane and Cytomander from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are pretty hot. Also, Nia's Anti-Spiral outfit is much more form-fitting than the sweet pink dresses she wears most of the time.
Kaaya from The Tower of Druaga wears a more form-fitting outfit and generally looks more grown-up and sexual after her Face Heel Turn
The meanest characters in Eyeshield 21 aren't necessarily sexy themselves, but are constantly surrounded by lust and are definitely not virgins. Agon seems to sleep with a plethora of slutty women, in contrast to the equally popular (but nicer) Sakuraba who would never think to take advantage of his fans (most of them are more cute then sexy, as well). Supreme Jerkass Mr. Don regularly hangs out at strip clubs.
Quite a few manga artists like to play up how sexy Miyo Takano of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is, though she's already quite sexy once you get past her standard expression.
Ranma ½: Many people think Akane Tendo is sexier after she's possessed by the Vengeful Doll. She's seductive, acts nicer, and even strips in order to invoke Distracted by the Sexy.
Ranma: (to Akane) You were nicer when you were evil. Cuter, too. Definitely more sexy.
Magneto. The chiseled, aristocratic features, the silver hair, the tragic past... he's thrice her age and still makes Rogue weak in the knees.
Even moreso in the fact that Rogue and Magneto actually married, had kids (one named after Charles Xavier himself), and were insanely happy in an Alternate Universe, to the displeasure of the Gambit of this universe.
Speaking of Sue Richards, when she was possessed by Malice, an evil mutant, she clearly fit this trope. And how!◊
The aspect of her personality remained with her and popped back up again years later, resulting in her Darker and Edgier outlook when she became more of an Action Girl. This was her costume.◊
The Enchantress of The Mighty Thor fame may literally be the living embodiment of this trope.
In Legion of Super-Heroes, Shrinking Violet falls under the power of the Emerald Eye, and, well... this... happens. (Her breasts appear to get larger, but that might just be the effect of that push-up bra.)
Poison Ivy, Talia, Catwoman, and Harley Quinn from Batman.
Especially Poison Ivy, as she actually uses her feminine wiles for evil.
Ava Lord, stereotypical vamp/femme fatale from Sin City story "A Dame to Kill For" is most sexy when posing next to her dead husband whose death she caused, all the while faking stories of the guilty of her crimes on the phone and smiling all the way. Saying she lived up to the title in the story would be an understatement.
To say nothing of Blue Eyes and Mariah, the Colonel's assassins. Blue Eyes' specialty is Death by Sex, even.
ElfQuest has Winnowill, who is incredibly hot and just gets more and more deadly. Also the warlord Grohmul Djun, who's a massive hunk, and Door in the "Forevergreen" arc, who's a psychotic pretty boy.
Dreamkeepers Tinsel is about this as much this trope as you can get.
One half of the modus operandi of Moonstone/Karla Sofen of the Masters of Evil and the Thunderbolts. The other half is being a complete psychopath. She was all over this when she became the "new" Ms. Marvel.
Vanity (the devil half of the Conjoined Twins superhero Divangelic) is definitely sexier (dressed) than her sister Charity, an angel.
Fan Works
In The Return Alexia and Akumi clearly believe Evil should be Sexy, but they both take it to such extremes they end up as a Fashion Victim Villain and are soundly mocked by the heroes about their dress sense. The trope is played somewhat straight in that anyone converted into a succubus becomes a Perky Goth, but this is immediately subverted in that they are not Always Chaotic Evil and are free to choose whether they are good, evil, or indifferent.
With abs that make The Situation cry out of sheer jealousy.
Also, in "A Very Potter Sequel" this same young man wears a pink dress and makeup as Umbridge.
Zig-zagged in Naruto Veangance Revelaitons. Taliana, when she's first introduced, is portrayed as quite beautiful, and then goes through several alignment changes before settling on the side of evil. In her last two appearances, however, around the time the author was breaking up with the girlfriend he based her off of, she is described as "ugly". Played straight, however, with the female German member of the Council.
Dreamworks' Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas featured a particularly potent example in the villainess Eris, goddess of Chaos. She had the evilness of Ursula, and the good looks of Megara rolled up into one evil, but compellingly seductive package, a character who's both manipulative and unapologetically sexy.
Frollo comes across as an attempt to subvert this, though, seeing as how he is a wrinkly old man, not to mention rather thin and weak as far as male Disney villains go. That, and resorting to sexual harassment toward Esmeralda made him look desperate.
Maleficent is an unconventional but considerably notable case of this, especially in scenes earlier in the movie. See for yourself. She might not have a noticeable rack or rear, but her feminine looks, graceful style, and seductive voice (provided by Eleanor Audley) combine to create a sense of macabre beauty to her, which really sets her apart from most other major female Disney villains, at least ones known up to that point. (Whom, for whatever reason, tended be portrayed as unattractive.) Note that various Maleficent-related youtube videos yield comments like "Maleficent was hot, I'd let her dominate me any day!"
But anything Maleficent can do, SHODAN can do better. More on that later.
Gothel from Tangled. Well, at least until Rapunzel's hair gets cut.
Hexxus from Ferngully is considered by many to be sexy. Which is quite the feat considering he's a giant cloud of smog. It helps that he's voiced by Tim Curry and he gets an incredibly sexy villain song.
Anne: Oh! You gotta believe in God! But I don't believe that God created Man in His image. 'Cause most of the s—t that happens is because of men. Naw, I think men was made in the Devil's image, and women were created outta God. 'Cause, after all, women can have babies, which is kinda like creating. And which also accounts for the fact that women are so attracted to men. 'Cause let's face it, the Devil is a helluva lot more interesting. I've slept with some saints in my day, and believe me, I know what I'm talking about. Egh-boy! So, the whole point of life, the whole point of life, I think, is for men and women to get married so that God and the Devil can get together — and work it out. Not that we have to get married or anything. God forbid.
Dracula is often portrayed as having a magnetic, sexualized presence, fueled by the erotic overtones in the original book. The 1979 Dracula, with Frank Langella in the title role Dracula is considered by many to be the first overtly "sexy" portrayal of the character. In Coppola's film adaptation, Dracula is so sexy that he and Mina actually fall in love.
In Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi says he turned down the role of Frankenstein's monster because it wasn't sexy, like Dracula.
End of Days: the real threat of Satan is that the female protagonist finds him so damn sexy.
Many of the villains in the James Bond series are sexy women. Notable examples include:
Fiona Volpe, SPECTRE's "Execution Branch" in Thunderball.
It's not just the female villains who are sexy, though. Mmmm, Mads Mikkelsen...
Parodied in Annie Hall where Woody Allen's character is shown to be sexually attracted to the Wicked Queen from Snow White.
Captain Hook, circa the 2003 Peter Pan. Far too much sexy for a kid's film. It helps that he's played by the smouldering Jason Isaacs.
It also helps that he's briefly shirtless.
In the 2007 Beowulf, Grendel's mother is changed from a sea-hag to a sexy monster in the form of Angelina Jolie.
Jareth from Labyrinth, mostly due to the actor playing him (David Bowie), tight pants, and the fact he's supposed to be someone a teenage girl can't resist when he offers her a gift. Still, yum.
Mrs. Coulter, at least as played by Nicole Kidman in the movie of The Golden Compass. In the original book, Lyra has quite a bit to say about how glamorous she is initially. Nicole Kidman portrayed the character pretty accurately.
Subverted in the third Spider-Man movie. When Peter Parker flirts with the The Dark Side due to the symbiote costume, he acts more sexually assertive and seems to think he's suddenly the hot stuff. To the objective gaze and the befuddled look a random girl gives him in the street, he just now looks like a more sleazy dork. He's still fundamentally himself, after all. No matter how self-confident and sexually assertive he's acting, he remains a nerd and has no idea how to carry himself otherwise. Furthermore, in a neat little bit of irony that underscores this point, the only women who he does manage to charm with his new assertive manner were already attracted to Peter when he was "good" anyway.
Harry Potter has a few examples. Tom Riddle, despite having no nose, is played by the smouldering Ralph Fiennes and shows up wearing a very sharp black suit. Christian Coulson fits the trope to some degree. The movies emphasized the trope on Bellatrix Lestrange after Helena Bonham-Carter had the costume redesigned to standout.
Lucius Malfoy, but only in the films. That cane!
Like Captain Hook above, it's Jason Isaacs; what did you expect?
Helena BonhamCarter as BellatrixLestrange is the sexiest thing about that film series, end of story. She may be a Complete Monster, but I'll be damned if she isn't an incredibly sexy one.
Scabior the Snatcher from Deathly Hallows already has fangirls.
The Evil Horcrux vision of Hermione taunting Ron. Did not know Emma Watson had that in her!
Prince Septimus from Stardust. Also, Lamia starts out as an old crone but becomes young and sexy due to digesting the remains of a star's heart. Subverted in that each time she uses magic, she regresses more and more back to her previous, hideous state.
In The Devil's Advocate, Satan is played by Al Pacino as a powerful attorney with a forceful, magnetic personality that seems to drive women wild. Connie Nielsen plays his daughter, who tries to tempt Keanu Reeves to the dark side with her super sexiness.
The X-Men series give us Mystique and later Azazel.
In a similar sense as Albert Wesker, (check video games folder) Agent Smith may be this. He's got a cool, well refined attitude, and a great laugh to boot! In the Matrix sequels, he even spreads it around!
The fan reactions to Pavi and Luigi, two of the antagonists in Repo! The Genetic Opera, are made of this trope. That's ignoring the fact that both of them get plenty of attention throughout the film.
Graverobber has become quite the sex symbol among Repo fans, as well.
Basic Instinct and Basic Instinct 2. Catherine Trammell is a dangerous, manipulative, sociopathic nymphomaniac and compulsive multiple murderer, but don't try to tell me she isn't damn sexy.
Many Hammer Horrors, especially ones directed by Terence Fisher, not only have evil as sexy but evil as overtly sexual— though this was always a popular subtext in vampire stories.
A Discussed Trope in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, where the son tells his father that bad women can be identified in comic books by skinny eyes and big busts.
Christian: You, my friend, are crossing over into the Dark Side. Andrea: I resent that. Christian: You shouldn't. It's sexy.
John Waters' Female Trouble subverts this. Donna and Donald Dasher discover Dawn Davenport (a 300-pound juvenile delinquent turned career criminal) and get her to work as a model to prove that "crime is beauty". Dawn endured such things as acid being thrown on her face by her ex-husband's lesbian aunt while the Dashers kept saying that the gravity of her crimes was making her more beautiful than ever before.
When Sam Rockwell's character does his Face Heel Turn in the first Charlies Angels film, he gets a stylish Evil Costume Switch and reveals himself to be far more hip and self-confident than he had previously let on. He's also got a super-sexy girlfriend.
Star Wars in general averts this trope. With the dark side anyway. The deeper you go into the dark side, the more horrible you look. This is especially obvious in some of the games (at least in Knights of the Old Republic games) the more you slide down to the dark side on the morality scale, the more their eyes turn yellow, their skin becomes sickly pale, and... well, let's just say that seeing a female dark jedi in a metal bikini isn't as sexy as it's supposed to be.
Though it kinda depends on the author... See Tavion, of the Jedi Knight games, and Githany, a Sith contemporary of Darth Bane. Some authors play the trope straight, others subvert it. Then we've got Asajj Ventress, where Your Mileage May Vary as to whether it's played straight or not. Some cases just have the dark side turn your eyes red, like during Anakin's big emo slaughterfest in Revenge of the Sith. The Fate of the Jedi book series has an entire planet full of Sith who play this straight (being obsessed with beauty), and especially the Keshiri natives.
Bane's apprentice Darth Zannah also seems to play this trope straight, if the "Personality and traits" section in that Wookieepedia article is to be believed...
Also Darth Talon. Note that every single example of Darkside Force users not being hideous is female, though there are still some (such as Gethzerion) who are still horrible looking.
And, even in the Knights Of The Old Republic games, Bastila has no appearance changes for turning except for her clothes.
Hey, the Handmaiden's dark-side appearance is exactly the same as her light-side except she is wearing a black jumpsuit and black lipstick instead of white and red. And, given Darth Maul's following, giving Bao-dur jagged black facial tattoos should probably fit here.
Darth Maul and Boba Fett can generally count, more for their mysterious personalities.
Jackson Rippner from Red Eye. He's a bad, bad man but he has buckets of charm.
Inglourious Basterds: The more brutal each Basterd is, the sexier he is (according to the fanbase). Oh, Hi, Donny, Aldo raine and Stiglitz!
In fact, considering the fact that the Basterds are essentially Heroic Sociopath, let's just put all of them, along with von Hammersmark and Shosanna. Especially Shosanna.
Now how can you post Inglourious Basterds in the Evil Is Sexy Trope and forget Hans Landa? For shame.
Col. Tavington is supposed to be the result of when the ultimate Evil Brit is also a Complete Monster. Being played by Jason Issacs (aka Lucius Malfoy) makes it kinda hard to root against him (though he does ultimately manage it.)
Doesn't anyone think that Candyman is pretty hot? He has that awesome voice, and he's so handsome and tall. While he mercilessly hacks everyone else to death, his pursuit of the heroine is overtly seductive.
Eragon had a fair few Durza fangirls since the movie came out. That is, until he turns all corpse-like halfway through for no apparent reason.
Oddly enough, Halloween's Michael Myers fits this trope. According to Word Of God, Tony Moran's "angelic" face is exactly why he was hired to play Myers in the brief unmasking scene. And the scar on Michael's eye wasn't supposed to be as ugly as it turned out to be, but prosthetics got a bit carried away when applying it to the actor's face.
The spa scene in Halloween II could also count as this. After Michael kills a male nurse, he sneaks up behind the nurse's girlfriend who is waiting naked in the spa for him. But instead of killing her straight away, Michael rests his hand on her shoulder. Assuming it's her boyfriend's hand, the woman caresses it and rubs it gently across her face. The scene is...almost sensual. Until Michael drowns her.
Mini of Mini's First Time is a very sexy seductress (she's played by Nikki Reed), and she is also evil to the core. She is, in fact, a parricide.
Loki, the villain of Thor is portrayed by previously unknown, but gorgeous Tom Hiddleston.
Since the release of Thor, Loki has amassed a group of female followers that is seemingly larger than the number of women that prefer the movie's hero, Thor (portrayed by Chris Hemsworth).
In Shallow Hal, the main character is brainwashed into only able to see the inner beauty of women. Most of the characters who he sees as "ugly" are all attractive and shallow women while the actually unattractive people he meets are all seen as attractive in his eyes.
Literature
In Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, the hero is arguably an aristocrat named Kostya Levin. He is a rich handsome nobleman who spends all his time thinking of how he can best use his riches to benefit poor people and humanity in general. Amazingly, this hunky millionaire has trouble attracting women. Meanwhile, Anna Karenina, while not perhaps evil — she doesn't go out of her way to be bitchy — is totally selfish and ruins everyone's life. Men are drawn to her as moths to fire. Probably not one in ten thousand people have ever heard of Kostya. But every literate person in the world has heard of Anna Karenina.
William Sleator's Strange Attractors features this rather prominently. A boring scientist and his plain daughter have evil duplicates, which are nearly identical, just evil and slightly older. They're presented as incredibly sexy and interesting, to the point that the protagonist rebuilds a device which may destroy all time just to be with them.
Villains in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books are frequently mages who gratuitously make use of magic to make themselves ridiculously attractive, to the point where the nastiness of a particular character can be discerned from how attractive the main character finds them. That is, physically attractive. Those sorts of mages hardly ever get (voluntary) dates.
This is similar to sorceresses in The Witcher who are chosen by being gifted in magic. Since noble families are the ones most sorceresses come from and would better benefit the family to be married off to other nobles ASAP, the only ones sent to receive training in magic are ones who are somewhat lacking in the looks department. And one of the first things they learn is modifying their own body. Not all sorceresses are evil, of course, but most of them sure as hell are bitter.
Lanfear of The Wheel Of Time is a singularly attractive and alluring woman, supposedly one of if not the most beautiful in history, who makes all the male leads drool and the female leads envy. She's also reputed to be the most powerful female dark mage in the world. She's in good company; her fellow Forsaken aren't too harsh on the eyes either. Graendal's a voluptuous temptress whose perverse kinks are the stuff of legend, Rahvin's a dashing ladies' man, and all the rest scrub up pretty well except Aginor and Balthamel and Balthamel is eventually placed in the body of a beautiful young woman and assumes the persona of a brazen (but seemingly harmless) hussy. Most female Darkfriends are hotties, most of the Black Ajah are (at the very least) imperious and regal, both aspects of Slayer are attractive (since they're both said to strongly resemble their good looking relatives), and all the biggest Knight Templar jerks in the Children of Light are exemplars of rugged aryan manhood. Then again, there just aren't many ugly people in The Wheel Of Time, period.
Interestingly in Slayer's case, he's Lan's uncle. Lan isn't known for his beauty, but his good (well manly, rugged and so on) looks. In "A Crown of Swords," Nisao Sedai states that "women have been chasing Lan since he was a beardless boy...He was quite a beautiful boy, however hard that might be to believe now."
With a penchant for wearing things that show off his sixpack and well-muscled arms, curious-but-hey-it-works-for-him fashion sense, cheerful and polite manner, and general air of Affably Evil, Jarlaxle displays the ability to seduce even human would-be paladins while flamboyantly drow on the surface, which (twenty years ago, anyway) would have been cause for a lynching for a less charismatic and bold dark elf.
The Stainless Steel Rat: Crook turned galactic agent 'Slippery Jim' diGriz falls for the villainess he's pursuing not just because she's beautiful, but because he genuinely admires her brilliant criminal mind. If only he could get past the fact that she's a sociopathic killer...
Let's not overlook the fact that the villainess used to be extremely ugly in her youth and used the crime money for drastic plastic surgery to gain super model looks (cosmetic surgery is even better in the future). diGriz only met her after she was beautiful. How much insults from others about her ugliness led to her life of evil is a good question. While he did fall in love with her while she was evil, he then brought her to justice so she could be "cured" of her evil (psychological) thanks to some future Applied Phlebotinum. After the cure she no longer approves of killing, although she enjoys robbing (non violently and only the rich) with her husband (in between their constant saving of the galaxy).
Some killing she still approves of, even after her Heel Face Turn. There's a scene in one of the novels when she unhesitatingly offs some people who were threatening her family, over her husband's objection.
The Dresden Files plays this one straight and subverts it with vampires: White court vampires are made supernaturally sexy by their inner demon - Lara Raith is described as so beautiful that it's hard to describe her actual features as they are obscured by her beauty (hence her success as a porn star), Thomas Raith is described as "The Forgotten Greek God of Body Cologne," and his very evil father is described in much the same terms. The Red Court subvert it: On the outside, they look beautiful, but under their flesh-masks they are hideous, slimy bat-things. The Black Court, on the other hand, avert this trope entirely; they are desiccated corpses, complete with dried eyeballs, missing limbs and rotting hair.
Mention should probably be made of the Fairy Queens, too.
Especially Mab. The Winter Queen apparently has a nice ass.
The Draka seem to spend as much time screwing (their slaves and each other, in just about every permutation imaginable) as they do fighting and conquering. The books also include lavish descriptions of their well-muscled warrior physiques (especially the bisexual female ones).
Andrea, from The ZoneWorld War III novels by James Rouch, uses her incredible beauty and sociopathic skills of manipulation to get the other male soldiers to teach her new means of killing. Major Revell, the commanding officer of the unit, is obsessed with her, even though he knows full well she's a crazed killer.
Probably the most famous reversal of this trope is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, in which the protagonist's wrongdoing causes him to age and become ugly - except that it's the eponymous picture to which this happens. Until the end, that is.
In Harry Potter, Tom Riddle was originally very attractive, and used his looks to his advantage. However, even before his resurrection, experiments with dark magic ruined his looks to the extent that people can't even recognize him anymore.
Bellatrix Lestrange also used to be attractive, before she went to Azkaban. After breaking out she still retains some of her looks, which is saying something, because spending years around Dementors is not good for your looks.
While not technically evil, JamesPotter and SiriusBlack seemed to get away with their bullying and casual cruelty largely because of their good looks, athleticism, and charm.
The Sword of Truth series had the Mord-Sith, a cadre of gorgeous, leather-clad women... whom the Big Bad had psychologically broken and uses to torture his enemies. When he is deposed, they become Dark is Not Evil retainers to the heroes.
Warrior Cats: Due to the status of the fanbase, you can't really find a majority opinion on anything, but most major villains have their own fanbases that think their sexy, with some even being elevated to Memetic Sex God status. The less villainous characters? Well, a bit, but not as much...
That is proof of the power of this trope - it makes people find cats sexy!
The Stand: Possibly. It can be said that Randall Flagg is an example of this trope, in his control of Nadine. She would have gone to the good side in Boulder, she says, were she not madly lusting after Flagg. Nadine can also be an example, in that it is difficult for men to resist her, and she uses sex to keep Harold evil.
Nadine, sure, I guess, but Flagg is described as looking very ordinary, like anyone you might see on the street. Of course, in Michael Whelan's capable hands he doesn't even manage that◊. Although he is always charismatic, which probably counts for something.
White-Haired Pretty Boy Pollution in Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's book Good Omens is the PERFECT example of this Trope. Not only the way he speaks: Pollution smiled, wistfully. "Very pleased..." he breathed. "Oh, that would be wonderful..." is hot, but, according to some◊ fanarts◊, he is the best-looking of the Four Horsepersons/Bikers of the Apocalypse.
Demon Crowley is definitely sexy, but not entirely evil.
Quintoon, Jakabok Botch's love interest in Mister B. Gone definitely falls under this.
Most of the bad guys in Belgariad are idiots, but this is one of Salmissra's defining traits.
The entire Dark Court in Wicked Lovely are like this, but especially Irial. Squee!.
Laharl’s aunt Yasurl from the Disgaea Novels. She is evil to the bone and abused Laharl then he was in her care, this affected him so much that he has had vile allergic reactions to sexy women ever since.
Toyed with in Animorphs in the person of Taylor, a deeply disturbed girl who allowed a Sociopathic Soldier of a Yeerk to take over her mind in exchange for a new face. She's described as being very attractive in the physical sense, but is so artificial and emotionally screwed up that no one cares. Pointed out by Tobias when he morphs Taylor and receives far more positive male attention than the real thing:
"We were mirror images, literal carbon copies. But I was alive. Taylor wasn't. Not really. I had a sense of humour. Taylor had a coldness that enclosed her like a shield. The kid could see this. Anybody could."
Quite firmly inverted in The Lord of the Rings: the Forces of Evil are composed of mutant versions of good races, terrifying Dark Lords, and the odd borderline Eldritch Abomination. Played straight in The Silmarillion with Sauron, although it is more properly a case of Evil Is Charismatic than flat-out "sexy". Before his Mode Lock, Sauron could charm his way out of almost any situation. He won the trust of the Elves of Eregion with nothing but his craftsman's skills, and he managed to go from prisoner-of-war to chief advisor to the King of Numenor in a few short years. It was only after the Fall of Numenor that he lost this ability, and had to rely purely on intimidation and military force.
Live Action TV
The female Cylons from the revived Battlestar Galactica. In particular, Chip Six and Caprica Six. Of course, all the Sixes got decreasingly evil.
While it's a very mild example, in the Stargate Atlantis episode "This Mortal Coil", "Dr Keller" is revealed to be a Replicator. Once this is revealed, "her" jacket is unzipped. No cleavage or anything, but someone's invoking something...
The Stargate Verse has plenty of stronger examples. The Goa'uld in particular.
Probably justified in the case of the Goa'uld. They are Body Snatchers, so naturally they are going to try and snatch the best bodies they can find. A former host said that beauty is considered a curse on her world because of this.
And then there's Adria in season 10. As Vala (her mother) put it "Origin is about to become much more appealing to the males of this galaxy." Indeed...
Commander Kiva of the Lucian Alliance from Universe. But what can you expect when she's played by Rhona Mitra??
Not especially "evil" but Blackadder got a lot sexier once he became a total bastard. The flattering clothes, a nicer haircut and the amount of the leather he wore in series II might have had something to do with it.
The Master from Doctor Who, at least as played by Ainley, Delgado and Simm.
The Rani wasn't all that bad looking herself, even getting a stint in one serial as The Baroness.
Theodore Bagwell from Prison Break. He's a pedophile, rapist, and a murderer, and relatively plain looking, but has a sexy exaggerated southern accent.
There's a reason why the Supernatural fandom loves "Skin", "Devil's Trap", "Born Under a Bad Sign" and "Dream a Little Dream of Me" so much. It's because Evil!Sam/Dean/John ooze sexual appeal (even more so than when they're being good) and also because they seem to touch each other a hell of a lot more.
Let us not forget that most female demons on this show are well-endowed.
Also, it has been announced that Mark Pellegrino is going to be playing Lucifer in season 5. Woof.
And our very own Misha Collins originally auditioned to be a demon, as they were keeping the fact that they were adding angels to the show under wraps. He's wonderful as the angel Castiel, but oh man, it would have been AWESOME to see him as a demon.
Almost certainly the inspiration for Grayza (see Farscape below).
Most of the population of the Mirror Universe in Star Trek. Especially obvious with the female characters, naturally.
Sheriff Buck of American Gothic falls under this trope, and his schoolteacher girlfriend Selena Coombs embodies it.
Heroes has Nikki's Superpowered Evil Side Jessica, who manages to be infinitely more sexy than her good counterpart despite looking exactly the same, and Serial Killer Sylar, who has acquired a significant Draco in Leather Pants following because of said sexiness.
Adam Monroe. Oh yessss. The accent, the charisma the RAW SEX. Ahem. And, be it in armour or in that suit with the shirt opened WAY down, he's a snappy dresser. In a way Arthur Petrelli WISHES he was.
The show was clearly TRYING for this with Evil! Future Claire in season 3. Unfortunately, their ideas for sexing up Claire were limited to an all-black wardrobe, a different hairstyle, and a TON of lip gloss.
And then there's Samuel. Maybe it was the fact that he's played by the same actor who played Magnificent BastardT-Bag, or maybe it's the accent, or the charisma, but he is just sexy. The eyeliner and the Badass Longcoat just add to it.
Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angelus and pre-chip Spike, 'cause there is just something so hot about those particular bad boys - then again, it might also be that Angelus' wardrobe tended more towards the leather-pants side (which is in fact lampshaded by one character). Oooer.
And, of course, Darla and Drusilla.
Faith is the Evil Counterpart to Buffy and - since Evil is Sexy - she wears skimpier clothes and is unabashedly promiscuous and seductive. In season 4, Willow lampshadingly describes Faith as a "cleavagey slut-bomb walking around going, 'Oh, check me out, I'm wicked cool, I'm 5 by 5.' "
Well, slaying DID make her hungry and horny.
Vampire Willow embodies this trope. Vampire Xander isn't bad, either.
Possessed Xander from The Pack has his share of fangirls, as well.
Warren Mears is, of course, somewhat of an aversion, unless, that is, he shoots you in the back. Of course, it's justified, as not being particularly attractive was part of what led to him being evil.
Angel's Lilah Morgan really works this trope, especially in the fourth season, during her relationship with Wesley.
And then there's Glory, a.k.a Glorificus. She wants to destroy the world, but that doesn't keep her from being pleasurable to look at!
Lindsey may be a corrupt lawyer, but he is also incredibly pretty.
Not to mention First!Buffy, who was, of course, the Big Bad who seemed to prefer to take the form of Buffy in order to torque with Spike. She previously took the form of Drusilla, but Spike saw through that form, saying that she wasn't nearly crazy enough to be Drusilla.
Prince Dirk Blackpool (played by the luscious Duncan Regeher) the black leather clad villain of Wizards And Warriors.
While the heroic Taja wears reasonable clothing, all the villainous females of Mortal Kombat: Conquest wear revealing outfits—Omegis to the point of wearing nearly nothing. The well-built Shang Tsung usually wears a vest over his muscular body, but spends a lot of time with his shirt off.
Power Rangers had some valiant efforts in Scorpina and Divatox, but with Astronema, it really took hold, as she had a liking for black leather and changed her hair style and color every five episodes or so (if you're watching episodes out of order, it's a great way to check where you are in the plot). Every other season since has featured someone similar to her. Made more evident because Astronema was actually The Hero's amnesiac sister. When she reverted to the nice and pure Karone, she had straight blonde hair and modest clothes. When brainwashed to become Astronema again... form fitting black leather and cropped red hair. When Karone returned in Lost Galaxy as the Pink Ranger, she evoked Evil Is Sexy by dressing up as Astronema to get back the Pink Ranger's Quasar Saber, but was still shown to wear black leather in her civilian form. Even though the show has an almost ludicrous devotion to Color-Coded for Your Convenience, the only pink things she ever wore were hair clips and ponytail holders... in eight or so episodes, she managed to have more unique hair styles than Kendrix and Maya combined...
Also, from Lightspeed Rescue, we have Vypra. Sure, she's a demon with snake/dragon traits, but she's tough and oh so hot. Also, her armor◊ is very◊ Stripperiffic.
From The BBCRobin Hood we get Guy of Gisbourne and his sister Isabella. Guy is a Draco in Leather Pants (literally) right from the start, but Izzy is initially introduced as an ally to Robin. As soon as she throws in her lot with the bad guys, her outfits (which were always designed to make her Ms. Fanservice) also become leather. On the same show, when Allan-a-Dale turns traitor, he gets an Evil Costume Switch (the sheriff actually says "upgrade this boy to leather"), along with a new influx of fangirls.
Wilhelmina Slater from Ugly Betty. Fair enough, she's played by Vanessa Williams, who was Miss America, but there's a certain lustful nature about her being evil.
Ronnie Gardocki from The Shield qualifies, supplying a helping of facial hair Fetish Fuel with the character's mustache and an evil Nerds Are Sexy vibe that helped him stand out from the rest of the Strike Team. Also a subversion of sorts, as after he is disfigured, he grows a beard that managed to, in the eyes of some fans of the show, make him even cuter
On the other side, there is Curtis "Lem" Lemansky, who was a walking poster for Estrogen Brigade Bait with his sleaveless shirts and muscular form.
Of course, Vic Mackey himself also qualifies. Although he is not what you would call conventionally handsome, he had a peculiar charisma that made him very successful with a lot of female characters on the show. More than a few female viewers seemed able to understand why.
There are plenty of ugly baddies in Farscape but Crais, Grayza, and even Scorpius (for the kinky among us) work this trope. Special mention goes to Grayza who unabashedly uses her sex appeal (and self-created Love Potion) to her advantage.
Not to mention his evil, murderous son, Robert Robinson.
In Merlin, Morgause is really quite sexy. Cendred, with his leather pants qualifies too.
All over the place in Charmed. Mainly because evil has more revealing outfits. There's even a Demonic Strip Club. In any case, Julian McMahon and Charisma Carpenter are in Charmed, and both as demons.
Clark falls into this trope as well when he's under the influence of red kryptonite
Nikola Tesla of Sanctuary, so very much. He's a part-vampire with plans for world domination. This makes him sexier. He has developed quite the fanbase, too. The fact that he is played by Jonathon Young does not hurt matters.
While not evil per se, Celia Hodes on Weeds does somehow manage to make being an insufferable cunt oddly sexy.
Sherlock has a few of these. Jim Moriarty has quite a few fangirls, as he most graciously notes.
Fergie's psychopath stripper character in the music video for "Beautiful Dangerous", with Slash. Not only does she succeed in drugging him, tying him to a bed, and all that junk, but also kills him at the end with her knife!
Don't forget the Devil Princess of Baator herself; Glasya. Considering that basically anytime his group runs an evil campaign he plays a cleric of her.
Warhammer and Warhammer 40000 have the servants of the daemon god Slaanesh — a being oicf pure sexy evil whose sexy cultist' sexy hat is being perversely sexy. Or rather, they tend to view themselves as this trope while the "giftof Chaos mutations causes them to grow scales, claws, the occasional extra limb and anything else Slaanesh might find amusing. Basically they take pretty much every potential kink, then take them beyond sanity, morality, or anything someone in their right minds would find appealing.
The Dark Elves play this trope much straighter; on a not entirely unrelated note there seems to be a correlation between how powerful a Sorceress is and how much skin she shows. And the Death Hags look about as far from the usual use of the word 'hag' as it is possible to get.
The Vampire Counts have their own version of this. In fact, the original vampire bloodline is entirely composed of this in the present day of the Warhammer fluff. Lahmian vampires are specifically known to use their seduction to enslave entire populations rather than using outright force. And, to add into the mix, all Lahmian vampires are female.
The AbyssalExalted have a choice: as they get more powerful, they either become decayed and corpselike, or deathly but alluring.
There's a bit of this in the Infernal Exalted too, given that of the five signature characters, one's a White-Haired Pretty Boy and one's a freaking bondage nun. Oh, and Manosque Cyan, who's hard to describe in these terms but is damn good-looking anyway.
"Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets!" The devil's sexy Fosse-dancing sidekick in The MusicalDamn Yankees certainly fits the bill.
Referred to almost by name in the Toxic Avenger musical, in the song "Evil is Hot", where the mayor seduces a scientist into telling her the titular monster's weakness.
Méphistophélès as sung by baritone John Relyea in Robert Lepage's production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust is a handsome devil (literally) outfitted in tight red leather pants.
Pretty much the entire point of Chicago, isn't it?
Deus Machina Demonbane takes over half the stuff from the Cthulhu Mythos and gives it this treatment if it was a canonical asshole (or at least antagonistic to humanity to begin with) in the source. That said, the queen of this trope is Nya(ralathotep). Seriously, it's kinda hard not to find the Crawling Chaos hot when it appears in the form of a Hot Librarian with Absolute Cleavage who can also be a Futanari and Bi the Way. For bonus points, she even has some Creepy Sexy going on during her most dickish moments.
Also, Quan Chi's bodyguards; a trio of Dark Action Girls in stripperific costumes, though the one with the most importance on the plot (and a decent fanbase considering she appeared in a unpopular spinoff) does a Heel Face Turn. A subversion comes with Mileena; who's decent looking with a mask, horrifying without it.
See Morrigan (traditionally sexy) and Lillith (Lolicon) from Capcom's Darkstalkers series. Although they aren't anywhere near the most evil of the cast, the fact that they're demons grants them more than their fair share of hotness- complete with clothes that fly off during certain attacks. Considering, however, that they're specifically succubi, demons whose whole purpose in legend was to seduce men, this is probably justified.
In fact, whatever story Succubi and/or Incubi show up in, odds are good that they adhere to this trope.
Though as the Junon Canon fight sequence from Crisis Core shows, he was pretty damn sexy before his Face Heel Turn as well.
Any Final Fantasy villain since Sephiroth can fit this trope nicely, and a few before him. According to the remakes of the original, Garland is apparently one sexy guy.
Vanitas from Birth by Sleep also may count unless the fact that he looks just Sora with black hair and yellow eyes freaks you out. Ventus, who was a bit scrawny, gains muscles and a sexy bodysuit the moment Vanitas took over his heart.
I-No from Guilty Gear. Red leather? Check. Nice body? Check. Shows it off at every opportunity? Check. Has a voice set jam-packed with innuendo and double entendres? Check. Witnessed the slaughter of a village for fun in one of the Drama CDs? Check. Wants to torture Dizzy by tearing her wings off and cooking them? Check.
Sonia, one of the main antagonists in Fire Emblem 7, wears nothing but a black corset, an elongated loincloth thing that goes to her knees, and stiletto heels. Oddly enough, she's not very popular, probably due to her tendency to Kick the Dog. The dog being her own (adopted) daughter.
Also Limstella, Nergals most powerful creation, who is even hotter then Sonia. Only she doesn't act very "Evil" because she's emotionless.
SHODAN definitely delivers on this front. Sure, she amounts to nothing more than a FACE ON A SCREEN, (even with fan art making it otherwise◊) but her feminine looks, graceful style, and seductive voice(s) (provided by Terri Brosius) combine to create a sense of macabre beauty to her, only rivaled by GLaDOS. Being called an "irritant" or an "insect" may be a small price to pay for SHODAN's dominatrix voice and cold demeanor. "Yes, mistress SHODAN. I shall serve you well."
La Pucelle plays with this a bit. When a character turns out to have a Superpowered Evil Side, it manifests at night, implying that she's basically going out in her sleepwear... which just happens to be some rather sexy-looking lingerie.
Millenia from Grandia II. She's not totally evil (she is a party member, after all), and not exactly heroic (she isan aspect of an Evil Overlord, after all), but man, is she hot or what?
Vamp. Especially when he's repeatedly contrasted against Otacon, who's innocently handsome.
The Beauty & The Beast Corps border on Fanservice, with the fact that they're extremely attractive women (based on real-life models) in skintight clothing, and Fan Disservice, based on the fact that they are so completely messed up. That said, I'm sure there are (more than) a few fans that find the crazy as a turn-on.
Ocelot was already sexy to a portion of the fanbase before MGS 3, but the twenty year old version of him in that game took it to unbelievable levels. Volgin, on the other hand, averts this trope with extreme prejudice.
If you fail to save Richter's girlfriend Annette in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, she gets turned into a vampire who wears incredibly revealing clothing. Succubi and other Cute Monster Girls abound in this series, especially the Sorrow games.
Portal. Playing with subtitles on only makes it clearer. Sudden change in GlaDOS' voice after the Morality Core incineration, anyone?
Kerrigan becomes much sexier when she stops caring about what anyone thinks, slaughters people for fun, and coincidentally takes on the appearance of a mean naked succubus.
Somewhat less so in the DS remake, despite more revealing clothing, due to low polygon count.
While, with some specific ugly examples, most characters in Koei's Warriors games series (Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, Warriors Orochi) are good looking, those considered evil (or at least morally dubious, given the series mostly Grey and Gray Morality) can be absolutely GORGEOUS. Here's some examples:
Cao Cao, the most elegant of the Three Kingdoms' rulers, and a perfect example of a Magnificent Bastard.
Cao Pi, Cao Cao's son. Handsome, dashing, cruel and ambitious.
Zhen Ji, Cao Pi's wife (what IS it with this family?), probably the hottest lady in the Dynasty Warriors series and a hell of a bitch.
Sima Yi, Cao Cao's arrogant advisor. One of those elegant, almost feminine villains, although he isn't flamboyant at all.
Zhang He, however, IS flamboyant.
Diao Chan, a sort of Chinese Helen Of Troy. So many men died or killed for her, she can't possibly be pitied.
Lu Bu, considered the most monstrous warrior of ALL the Warriors series, is the manliest, most gorgeous guy you could imagine.
Nobunaga Oda, considered to be the baddest of Samurai Warriors' characters (and indeed, portrayed constantly as a villain in fiction) is an elegant, charismatic villain.
No, Nobunaga's wife, actually gives Zhen Ji a run for her money in the sexiness department, and she has the Femme Fatale role down to a T.
Kotaro Fuma. Sexy, in a VERY villainous, fetishy kind of way.
Kojiro Sasaki, Musashi's rival. Another one of those feminine villains.
Date Masamune, who was turned into a villain in the Warriors Orochi franchise. He's so damn ruthless and arrogant, the most aggressive, and most Bishōnen amongst the men (not women) who side with the Tokugawa in Sekigahara.
Oh come on now, Mori Ranmaru beats Masamune over the head with the Bishōnen trophy. He's more feminine than most of the women in this game. The rest is true though.
Though Ranmaru can't be said to be 'evil' than merely 'loyal'. Even in the worst moments of Nobunaga, Koei usually had Ranmaru in a lighter depiction.
Orochi The Serpent King. Can give Sephiroth a run for his money in the "I'm gorgeous and evil, and you love me for it" department.
Unless you romance her in Throne of Bhaal.. then you can make her True Neutral.
Resident Evil: Excella Gionne for the guys and Albert Wesker for the girlseveryone. Also Alexia Ashford. Not only does she have a killer body in her human and first form (in this she is actually naked!) but her breasts actually get BIGGER when she transforms into her 2nd and third forms.
The portrait of the female Necromancer in Battle for Wesnoth 1.6 is drawn in this way (the posing and all), despite the fact that she's supposed to look like she's very aged. Compare the male and female portraits.
Subverted with the Dark Adepts - although they aren't exactly ugly, neither even approaches the female Necromancer in sexiness. Also of note is that the female White Mage is also pretty hot, considering that all the above are wearing shoulder-to-toe flowing robes rather than skimpy leather.
And yet none of them come close to any of the female elves.
In Fate Stay Night, the 'Obviously Good' female Servant, Saber, turns out to be the least sexiest out of the other enemy female servants. Really, compare her with Rider, or Caster (especially with her hood down), though Rider has the excuse of just merely being an opposing Servant, not aligned as evil like Caster.
Gilgamesh too. And Archer in UBW.
Even though she's more neutral than evil, RougeTheBat should definitely qualify for this trope since she did willingly work with Dr. Eggman to help him in one of his many schemes to try take over the world in Sonic Adventure 2.
And don't forget Mephiles and Bride Of The Conquering Storm.
While it's true that the good guys of Command & Conquer employ quite a few hot female officers, the bad guys get the likes of Natasha Henstridge, Tricia Helfer, and Gina Carano. In black leather/vinyl. Oh Hell YES.
Mu-12 fulfills the requirements for this trope. We suspect she's Evil, but can't give any solid confirmation until the sequel is released on the console.
Hazama/Terumi Yuuki, he's an utterly hateable Complete Monster and borderline Villain Sue, but manages to have a sizable fanbase almost entirely because of his looks.
Kusanagi in BlazBlue Continuum Shift. When she was Noel, she's more or less cute, being flat chested with Sexy Back. Now she shows her nice abs, has her hair down. Overall, yep. Evil makes her sexier. Though she still has a nonexistent breasts. Just don't say it in front of her.
In the end of CS The NOL pretty much fulfills this trope. The good guys have Noel, Rachel and Taokaka (and also gains Jin). NOL still has Tsubaki and Hazama. They even forced Litchi to pull a Face Heel Turn to join them. Yes, the whole NOL team fulfills this trope now... Although they lost ANOTHER Ms. Fanservice in place of that: Makoto.
There's also popular rumors about Terumi's ally Phantom is actually one of the Six Heroes, Nine. The prequel novel features Nine when she's alive and she looks like... THIS◊. If Phantom is REALLY Nine, then NOL is truly made of Evil Is Sexy.
Exemplified by Iori Yagami, Igniz, and Orochi. Iori Yagami, being the Ryu to Kyo's Ken, defines this trope for the series. He's got a freaking Elvis hairdo, a cool jacket with a crescent moon insignia on the back, and fights with his pant legs apparently tied together. Orochi is exactly what he is named for: the snake god, but taken the form of a shirtlessBishōnen who has been reincarnated in the vessel of a Cute Shotaro Boy. Igniz is pure Bishōnen, and this was admitted to by Word Of God, and this is despite him being 56 years old and having the voice of Norio Wakamoto. And even then it doesn't stop there. Geese Howard used to be quite a looker in Art of Fighting 2, and the same goes for Rugal Bernstein.
It should be noted that while Iori was initially presented as an Evil Redhead (to flesh out his rivalry with Kyo), he's mellowed out quite a bit in later installments, to the point of being an antihero of the Heroic Sociopath variety (if you provoke him, he'll still kill you though).
Dark Messiah has two possible love interests. The good one, Leanna, comes off as an annoying little sister and ventures dangerously into Scrappy territory. The evil one, Xana, is a naked succubus with the one of the sultriest voices every heard in a video game.
Succeeded in Mass Effect 2 by Morinth, who would bring about literal Death by Sex to her victims. But goddamn, her skintight leather outfit and sexy voice made her hard to resist.
The new romance options in Mass Effect 2 (those that are not Garrus or Tali) are all either morally ambiguous or downright insane. Jack is probably the closest example, though.
Aria T'loak, the self-styled "queen...if you're feeling dramatic" of Omega. Especially that one closeup of her mouth...
Marjoly in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. And oh, how she boasts.
Used a few times in Chrono Trigger: Flea is the most obvious example, and there are also the voluptuous and seductive Naga-ettes (Mianu) complete with Femme Fatalons. On the flip side, there is Magus, who is possibly the closest Akira Toriyama has ever come to drawing a bishounen after Zarbon.
Also, Trish in the first game (before she turns good). After which... she's still hot.
Pyramid Head of the Silent Hill series owes his colossal popularity to this trope. Wearing nothing but a long robe while being sculpted from pure granite helps.
Sure, he tricked little children into doing his work for him and enslaved an entire country just because he was sick of the desert. Sure, he masqueraded as a god and helped a Psychopathic Manchild overthrow a peaceful realm. Sure, everything he touch seems to become corrupted. Nevertheless, Ganondorf in his proper Gerudo form, with thick red hair and muscles you could bounce a quarter off and skintight leather armor, has almost as many drooling fangirls as the resident bishounen of the series.
Vaati in The Minish Cap goes from an Ugly Cute Christmas elf into a light purple hairedcute boy. His next form, aside from the eyeball in his torso, isn't bad looking, looking like a grown up version of his previous one. After being defeated in this form, he becomes a giant eyeball monster and hasn't been seen out of it since. Which is odd, considering he'd probably have more luck with young girls if he'd stayed in his human form.
Averted with DarkLink who is much less attractive then the real deal.
The Handmaiden doesn't look all that bad on the Dark Side, and Bao-dur's appearance change consists entirely of adding some Darth Maul-esque jagged black facial tattoos. Make of it what you will.
Also Visas Marr, she doesn't have eyes but Kelly Hu: sexy voice is more than enough.
In Neverwinter Nights, Aribeth's blackguard armor looked a lot better on her than her paladin armor did earlier (ignoring the fact that they are identical except for a color shift). Also, in Hordes of the Underdark, the Elistraee-worshippers (good Drow) wear a lot more clothing than the Lolth-worshippers (evil Drow).
Neverwinter Nights 2 doesn't have very many examples, as most antagonists are undead or other sorts of monsters, but Bishop and Ambassador Claven deserve mention here.
Brutal Legend Drowned Ophelia. I mean, blue skin aside, damn
Yunalesca in Final Fantasy X, to the "barely clothed" extent. One wonders how they managed the T rating.
To clarify, she's clad in nothing more than a metal bikini and thong that covers little of her curvy figure. Oh, and she pretty much resembles a female Sephiroth.
Seymour may count too if one can look past his ridiculous hair.
Played either brutally straight or brutally subverted in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. The precise answer to that question depends on whether you consider adult Alma to actually be evil as opposed to tragically insane, and whether you consider her naked adult form Fanservice or immense Fan Disservice. Helped and/or hurt by the fact that she ends up raping you at the finale of the game.
Ultimecia from Final Fantasy VIII wears a dress with a neckline at the crotch. And then it has a slit that goes up to the crotch.
Fable attempted aversion by making the player character appear more and more unpleasant as he embraces the Dark Side. But because of this trope, Rule 34 plays well even with Pyramid Head...
It's played much straighter in Fable III, however.
Princess Hilda from Final Fantasy II becomes much, much sexier after she is replaced by the Lamia Queen She even attempts to seduce the protagonist before attacking him
That "fucking with" would be Taking said darkhorse's son from him without a second thought when the resident Jerkass Gods marked the son, being kind to the man specifically as a ruse to gain more information about the poor kid, dropping a number of shattering revelations on his head as cruelly as possible, being a key factor in causing the son's crystallization, and rubbing it in the poor father's face—again, as cruelly as possible. I'm no more fond of Sazh than anyone else in the cast, but seriously—yeah, she's a bitch.
In Chapter 13, after beating Orphan the first time, everyone's favorite badass (Fang) decides to complete her focus, and almost does, by turning into the very thing Orphan wanted. Basically, she became evil(in a way) and well, I don't think anyone would be complaining on the looks of her evil side.
Any of the (humanoid) villains whose faces you can see. The Emperor, Sephiroth, and Ultimecia (in addition to the above characters listed) are deliciously sexy. On the other hand, there's Jecht and Gabranth.
Whereas Golbez is never seen outside of his armor (excluding a few select scenes from Final Fantasy IV and The After Years), nor he is that villainous (he's actually a Reverse Mole who acts as a Warrior Therapist towards the heroes), his voice has been reported to induce Stupid Sexy Flanders in guys while causing fangirls' hearts to melt like butter.
BioShock's Sofia Lamb-strange, but she does have her following. Perhaps better reclassified, perhaps as "Complete Monsters are Sexier?" or merely a large number of very, VERY, odd fans.
However, that said, she is rather beautiful in a statuesque way, but the complete psychosis rather moots that.
It's easier to say what villainous team admin, leader, or grunt doesn't fit this in Pokémon; though in several cases they're more so extremists then evil. The females especially tend to be stripperific- and some of the straightest Bishounen in the series are antagonists.
One curious variation is Cyrus, who manages to be very attractive despite not wearing sexy outfits or being noticeably good-looking.
Magiquone/Arfoire in Hyperdimension Neptunia is supposed to be the personification of piracy. While she really does look like one, she looks so damn sexy doing it. Magic The Hard is even worse in the sequel.
No love for the Supervillain uniform in Sims 3? Have you seen their work uniforms??
League of Legends has a MASSIVE cast, quite a lot of which is female, quite a lot of which is evil and quite a lot of which is sexy. Predictably enough, the three overlap quite often:
Jack on the other hand averts the trope hard. All the Sins are pretty horrific, with the titular character being the least hideous. The resident Sin of Lust, Drip, is either the ugliest of the Sins or close to it.
Drusilla, the succubus from Pibgorn, somehow manages to be a lot more seductive than the title character even though they are both attractive, slender women walking around (flying around?) wearing nothing but bodypaint.
Lucrezia Mongfish in Girl Genius, at least as she's played in the Heterodyne Shows and seen in flashbacks, dressed much more provocatively when she was evil than after she married William Heterodyne. Of course, after she possesses her daughter's body as The Other, the Big Bad of the series, one of the first things she does is strip to her underwear to admire the body she now controls and begin flirting with the son of her most ardent (and now dead) supporter with no shame whatsoever.
Dreamkeepers has Tinsel, who practically defines this trope all on her own.
Las Lindas has Alejandra Coldthorn, who is closer to the rival, than a real villain, but still serves as an antagonist for her mean streak and some of her less than ethical actions.
"Shown off", as it were, to great effect in this◊ StripperificExiern banner ad. It even lampshades it: Because Evil is Hot. Also a really good example of Theiss Titillation Theory in action.
Between Madeline, Lethe, Issac, and Grey, the bad guys in Demonology 101 have this down. The Magdelines use this as a weapon.
Nodwick hung a lampshade on an aversion, with Countess Repugsive.
Repugsive: Evil girls are only taken seriously when they're hot. When I was alive, I didn't look much better than I do now. Zorion: This explains the "nice personality" you were famous for.
Phil: You're changing alignment? But why? Dixie: Are you kidding? The perks are fantastic! Better hair — bigger bust — bitchin' outfits — plus I get my own minions!
And love for The Nostalgia Critic seems to jump from Woobies Are Sexy when he's suffering and this trope when he succeeds at being sinister. ("Bratz" review and a lot of his stuff in Kickassia comes to mind.)
Let's face it, The Nostalgia Chick is hot when she shows her sociopathic side.
Dark Nella wears leather and eyeliner, has demonic powers, and is really pissed off at the Chick for abusing her.
Dr. Tease is a horrible, ammoral person who creates woobie sexbots for funsies. This just makes her all the hotter.
The main character of Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog usually doesn't qualify, being a rather conservatively dressed and nebbishly awkward dork (albeit one played by Neil Patrick Harris). But during the song "Slipping" he takes a level in charismatic and holds a room in fearful thrall while singing in a quiet, hypnotic, borderline-seductive voice. Including leaning in and grabbing the chin of a bashfully frightened bystander to force her to look at him, in an almost Abusively Sexy manner. Even lampshaded by the actress, who croons in the commentary that "This is my favorite scene."
Mostly averted in the Whateley Universe, where highly attractive 'exemplar' mutants are seen on both sides of the fence and the current acknowledged hottest girl at Whateley Academy is Fey, who's firmly on the side of good.
Not to mention Fey's 'evil' twin Carmilla, who looks like the goth version of Fey, has a Lust Aura, is an eldritch abomination and a daemon goddess of sex... and one of the good guys.
Admiral Zhao and Long Feng have a sizable following as well. It helps that they're voiced by Jason Isaacs and Clancy Brown, respectively.
Azula bears special mention, because it's rather clear the creators did so intentionally. Either that or they hilariously misjudged how a lithe, sexy, raven-haired, busty teenaged girl who talks like The Vamp at all times would go over with the mostly young teenaged boy viewers.
Azula is also unusual in that she seems to be unaware of the above facts. The one time she ever flirts with someone on purpose, it's not part of any plan, she's really bad at it, and she actually needed to ask someone else for advice. Apparently either she's The Vamp entirely by accident or any attempt at acting like a normal teen is doomed to failure.
Which if you think about it is even sexier: most villainesses have to try to be The Vamp on purpose, Azula was doing it without even realizing it. Does she count as an "Innocent Fanservice Girl" then? Can you do that while also being the show's Ms. Fanservice? Questions abound!
While Your Mileage May Vary on Azula being the show's Ms. Fanservice, a similar point for Ty Lee filling that role (among other things) can easily be made. Ty Lee isn't evil, though, she's just initally on the wrong side.
Strangely enough, the trope is inverted with Zuko, who was at his least sexy when he was at his most evil; growing more attractive once he grew his hair out, which happened when his standing with the Fire Nation had officially fallen apart.
Your Milage May Vary on that one. The ponytail grows on you. And no matter what anyone says, Dev Patel in the live action film was one seriously sexy Troubled But Cute bad boy.
YMMV on Dev, as well. But, yes. The ponytail does tend to grow on you, after a while.
Taken Up to Eleven if you saw the original design of the swimsuits. They were extreme even for an anime... which this is not.
In an episode of the Aladdin TV series, Princess Jasmine is turned against the heroes by Harmless VillainAbis Mal. She gets the dominatrix whip AND the black, as-close-to-dominatrix-gear-as-Disney-will-allow outfit AND the dominatrix attitude. Evil is Sexier With Princesses!!
Any discussion of this trope in Aladdin has to include Mozenrath, everyone's favorite skinny Persian Draco in Leather Pants.
And Wu-Ya looks very nice once she gets a body. She even strikes some Male Gaze poses to seduce young Raimundo into continuing to work with her. Katnappe might also count.
In Gargoyles, when Elisa goes undercover as a crooked cop demanding protection money, she wears a black jacket, tight black pants, and a blue top that shows her midriff, displays cleavage, and nicely accentuates her breasts. No wonder she quickly charms mob boss Tony Dracon into letting her join his crew.
Demona. To the point where it was clearly a conscious choice by the creators to make look that way. She's basically topless, and what little she does have on is stretched to the breaking point by her...tops.
There's also Hyena, who's pretty sexy in her own right. Even after she becomes a cyborg.
Granted, she's more morally ambiguous than Demona or Hyena, but Fox still counts on both the evil and the sexy - even the tattoo on her eye doesn't hurt. Especially if you like redheads. Her husband - David Xanatos himself - isn't an eyesore either, in a rather ruggedly-handsome way.
AndrAIa of ReBoot post-timeskip was already hot stuff to begin with, but when she gets infected with the Daemon Virus she becomes downright seductive, going as far as calling Matrix "lover". Pretty shocking for a supposed kids' show.
On that note, Daemon herself was pretty smex. Probably the accent.
And Hexadecimal, when she's not wearing the scarier masks. Of note is the time Megabyte rebuilt her with a costume that featured a good deal of black leather. Her response: "WHO MADE ME LOOK LIKE THIS?! IIIII...like it."
Shego in Kim Possible. The one episode when she turned good she was sweet and all, but when she's evil she is sexy! Not to mention that she wears a swimsuit, at work, in the same room as her boss, and his companion, several times.
Wade: Her name is Shego. She is wanted in eleven countries.
Ron: Make that twelve!
There is also Adrena Lynn and Warmonga
The Martian Queen of Duck Dodgers. Hell, she's basically Cleopatra with no mouth.
Charmcaster from Ben 10. In her first appearance in the second series, Alien Force, she seduces Kevin with a spell, and even after the spell is broken, Kevin unashamedly admits that she was hot.
Hideously subverted with Mike Morningstar/Darkstar; who starts off sexy but is revealed to only maintain his looks by draining the lifeforce from teenage girls. Once he is defeated, his skin turns gray and his face looks like a skull. And much of his hair falls out as well.
Lady K'tahsh from Di Gata Defenders. Word Of God even says that her design was meant to resemble a night elf ala WarCraft. She also has similarities to the Drow Elves in terms of her powers and her looks.
Inque from Batman Beyond. She's even capable of shapeshifting, tragic backstory aside.
What a few fans, including DA fans, think about Maximus IQ.
Lady Frenzy in The Bots Master is a prime example of this trope, being a reasonably busty blonde with nice cleavage, a tantalizing front-slit skirt, and the phone-sex huskiness of voice artist Janyse Jaud (who also voiced Kagura in InuYasha).
Roger Klotz has the most fangirls out of all the show's characters, who find him to be pretty cute.
Legend Of The Dragon has this happen to Ling after her Face Heel Turn early on. Would you believe that she is supposed to be 15 years old?
