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Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains
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Much like how Anti-Heroes can be vastly different from each other, so can Anti-Villains. This scale is a measure of how evil an Anti-Villain is. Inversely related to Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness. Can contribute to Sliding Scale of Villain Threat and Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness. Compare with Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes.
Type I, Type II, and Type III usually can be evil, although they average out at a darker shade of grey. Type IV characters are a light grey at their worst, and good characters aimed at greater goods at their best.
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Type I: Noble Anti-Villain
Although he chooses to be evil and may in fact embrace his villainous reputation, when the time comes for him to walk the walk, he turns away. This type of anti villain has a set of standards, certain lines that he will never cross. As such, he is the first one to say Even Evil Has Standards when faced with someone who offends said code of conduct. Unlikely to Kick the Dog but will Pet the Dog. Often accompanied by a Morality Pet. Alternatively, villainy is just a job to put food on the table, thus it's never personal. Placed higher on the evilness scale than type 2 because villainy is a choice for them rather than something that they are driven to. The type 1 is the common definition of the Anti-Villain. Those in this category may become true villains if they start to overcome their restraints. Ironically, despite being the most villainous level of Anti-Villain, type 1 tends to be the most stable, with very little change.
The defining Trope for this type of Anti-Villain would be the Noble Demon.
Related Tropes: Hit Man With A Heart, Minion with an F in Evil, Would Not Shoot a Civilian, Never Hurt an Innocent, Even Evil Has Standards, Wouldn't Hurt a Child, Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, a darker Noble Top Enforcer.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Evangeline from Mahou Sensei Negima!
- Tia Harribel and Gin Ichimaru of Bleach. At least, Gin claims to be this at best and acts the part, but it turns out he's actually Type III, a well-intentioned extremist whose actions have put him well beyond any level of hero territory and far into anti-villain territory.
- Raoh from Fist of the North Star.
- Pluto from Astro Boy.
- Younger Toguro and Yomi of YuYu Hakusho
- Most of the characters of Baccano
- Greed of Fullmetal Alchemist. He may be a selfish bastard, but he cares deeply for his followers. He's also the only Homunculus who doesn't resent humans or is a cold-blooded psychopath. He's also the only Affably Evil villain in the series. It's no surprise the he later becomes an Anti-Hero in the series.
- Dark Schneider of Bastard!!.
- In One Piece, we have Seven Warlords of the Sea Dracule Mihawk and Bartholomew Kuma.
- Androids 16, 17 and 18 note in the normal timeline of Dragon Ball Z.
- Goku's father Bardock starts out as this before becoming a Nominal Hero when facing Freeza.
- En of Dorohedoro.
- Eruka of Soul Eater
- Agaard-Jim-Sai and Akira Hongo of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple
- Bankotsu and Sesshomaru of InuYasha.
- Juvia, Kageyama And Lyon and before their Heel Face Turn in Fairy Tail.
- Kintolesky from Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash☆Star
- Viral from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is quite honorable, despite always wanting to enact revenge on Kamina for tarnishing his reputation and pride.* Here are several examples:
- Just after the Hot Springs Episode, he not-so-politely asks the heroes to Please Put Some Clothes On and allows them to arm themselves before fighting him.
- When he confronts Simon and Yoko over Kamina's whereabouts, and eventually accepts Simon as his new rival, he agrees to a fair one-on-one duel.
- When said duel is interrupted by Cytomander, who takes Yoko hostage and orders Viral to perform a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Gurren Lagann, Viral refuses and sheathes his axe, knowing that his honor cannot be regained that way.
Comics
Fan Fic
Film
Literature
Live-Action TV
- In Smallville, Lionel Luthor before his Heel Face Turn.
- Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad, when we first meet him. Through Character Development, he gradually shifts down the scale, and now spends most of his days as a Type II.
- Mike is a good example of a Type I. He never hesitates to kill, but he never holds any grudges and only kills because it is his job.
- Garak in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he does have standards. He is also quite utterly unapologetic about the rather horrifying things he has done (and does).
Video Games
- Default position of most demons in Disgaea
- Elvis from God Hand.
- Many many Highland generals in Suikoden II, particularly Kiba & Klaus Windaimer. Culgan and Seed can also count.
- Black Knight Camus from the original Fire Emblem until he Heel Face Turn-ed as Sirius in the sequel
- Lloyd and Linus in the seventh installment where they carried out the deeds of the Black Fang (and Nergal) but were relatively honorable.
- The Belfrond (Carlo and Regina) siblings from Psychic Force
- Planet Eater Pyron from Darkstalkers started out as a full straight villain in his debut, but then his ending in the third game indicates that he evolved into this as he began to show curiousity and respect toward Earth and its inhabitants, and chose to not destroy it at the end.
- Heihachi Mishima from Tekken. While a dickhead, he's got some soft spots to prevent him to be equal or even worse than Kazuya.
- Wolfgang Krauser of Fatal Fury.
- For a short time, Anji Mito from Guilty Gear, crossing with Type IV. Unlike Litchi below, Anji has no desperation or pressure to make him join That Man and joins out of complete, unpushed free will (and HIGH level of curiosity) rather than being forced. However, despite all that, he's still friendly as ever to even That Man's nemesis (Sol), tried to befriend May at one of her endings, and in any moment he met Baiken, after one fight, he calls it quits.
- The Bonne Family from Mega Man Legends series. Tron Bonne especially, as she even becomes a Nominal Hero in certain spin-off and crossover games.
- Pre-Heel Face Turn Axel Almer in Super Robot Wars Original Generation. He's still dedicated in kicking the good guys' ass, but he's more of a Noble Demon and his true enemy is actually Beowulf and is actually preventing him to 're-materialize' in that world after seeing the brutality Beowulf caused in his world.
- Sagat before Street Fighter Alpha 3, he willingly became a subordinate of Bison in order to get stronger and embraced his status as one of Shadoloo's Four Devas. But over time, he developed into a Noble Demon who is disgusted by Bison's more underhanded methods of granting strength and eventually ditches him for good to resume a more healthy rivalry with Ryu.
- Augus from Asura's Wrath, who only fights him because he fights for the strongest side, and actually treats up Asura's wounds from fighting Kalrow's space fleet before fighting him.
- Magus from Chrono Trigger. Everyone thought he was summoning Lavos to win his war in the Middle Ages. Turns out Lavos destroyed Magus' home and family in the Dark Ages and the whole war was so he'd have an army strong enough to defeat it. While in the past it's shown he's always been pretty cold, he offers your party advice on how to save Crono and his childhood pet cat follows him around very willingly.
- Carl "C.J." Johnson from Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.
- Assassin/Sasaki Kojiro in Fate/stay night embraces his status as Caster's 'gate guardian' and enjoys warding off the heroes from whatever Caster's planning, but he's incredibly polite and only in it because of the good fight he gets from the heroes, without ill-wills and if they beat him fair and square, he'll congratulate them. Essentially, a Noble Demon.
Web Comics
- Sebastian of True Villains seems to be this; his morals often conflict with his villainy, and he admits to turning to evil because of the adventure it offered him. When faced with the option to kill his rival, he lets Gray live, even though he broke the rules of their duel.
Western Animation
- Ty Lee and Mai from Avatar The Last Airbender.
- Despite considering himself an official villain, Puma Loco from El Tigre puts his family in first place than his criminal schemes (at least most of the time), and is often seen helping his grandson Manny and his son White Pantera in beating up the other criminals of Miracle City.
- David Xanatos from Gargoyles through Character Development.
- Gaz of Invader ZIM, in addition to being a Nominal Hero.
- Ultra-Humanite in Justice League is quite morally ambiguous for a villain. While he does a series of serious crimes, like blowing up a modern art museum because he despises Modernism, he also tends to help the heroes in certain occasions. A particular example is in the Christmas Episode where he helps the Flash giving a desired toy to a group of orphans.
- Doctor Doofenshmirtz from Phineas And Ferb
- Brain and his Dragon Pinky from Pinky And The Brain are a mix of Type 1 and Type 3.
- Red X of Teen Titans
- Tom of Tom And Jerry, Depending on the Writer. Although he does get sadistic pleasure out of tormenting Jerry and at the beginning of some shorts is shown doing so, in other shorts he's really only forced to go after Jerry by his owner. Jerry does his share of provoking their battles as well, sometimes to the point of Disproportionate Retribution, and sometimes even just because he feels like it.
- Duncan of Total Drama Island, as well as a Nominal Hero.
- Dreadwing of Transformers Prime. Undying Loyalty to Megatron and the Decepticon cause, Combat Pragmatist and Mad Bomber, but shows honor, gratitude and respect to Optimus Prime and the Autobots. In the end, Starscream's defilement of Skyquake's body almost causes him to switch sides.
- Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown. He is not seen as very evil by any of the other charecters. He also will help the xiaolin dragons, and in one episode, he was neutral. In one episode, he actually turned good.
- Avalanche of X-Men: Evolution
Type II: Woobie Anti-Villain
It's obvious that these types of villains don't WANT to be evil; circumstances just make them out to be. They may act out of Undying Loyalty or love for someone or maybe they're simply fighting for their own survival. Others are broken cuties who have snapped and want to end their suffering by destroying everything. Usually they are suffering from their alignment. The characters garners our sympathy not because their goal is good but because we can see how the Crapsack World made them the way they are. Often suffer from a damaged psyche. Anti-Villains in this category may become true villains, but they're also just as likely to turn into an Anti-Hero.
A lot (although by no means all) of Buffyverse vampires/demons fall into this category. They will tend to be driven to their villainous acts by something within their biology. One example would be vampires who don't necessarily want to kill people, but it's simply that they find human blood to be much more nutritious or tastier than that of animals.
The defining trope for this type of Anti-Villain would be a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
Related Tropes: Sympathetic Murderer, Jerkass Woobie, Tragic Villain, My Master, Right or Wrong, and a typical Dark Magical Girl.
Examples
Anime & Manga
- The title character and Tetsuo Shima in AKIRA; manga only in the former's case.
- Fate Testarossa in the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
- Also, the Book of Darkness in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's.
- And Admiral Gil Graham in A's, who set the whole thing up in order to seal the Book of Darkness when it awoke. That Hayate would be collateral damage was unfortunate but unavoidable in his mind. Nobody judges him too harshly for this, because, honestly, no one else had come up with a better plan for stopping the Book.
- Suzaku from Code Geass.
- According to some interpretations, Mao may also count.
- Jeremiah Gottwald also falls into this early on, when you consider his real motives. He later becomes a Type IV Anti-Hero.
- Guilford, while less malicious than Jeremiah was early on, also falls under here, a Knight Templar of the first order, his loyalty being his defining trait. He is also a Type IV Anti-Hero at his best.
- Lelouch, in addition to Type III (see below) and Anti-Hero types III and IV. His hardships have caused him to jump off the deep end on more than one occasion, to put it lightly.
- Crona from Soul Eater.
- Four Murasame and Rosamia Badam in Zeta Gundam.
- Stella Loussier in Gundam Seed Destiny.
- Louise Halevy in Gundam 00's second season.
- Lucy from Elfen Lied.
- Fried and Oracion seis except Brain to an extent in Fairy Tail
- Zeref, Urtear, Jellal and Meredy.
- Pegasus J. Crawford from Yu-Gi-Oh!, who, like Mr. Freeze, is only evil so he can resurrect his dead wife.
- Similarly, Marik Ishtar(NOT Yami Marik).
- Darcia the Third from Wolf's Rain.
- Sasuke, Nagato/Pain, and possibly Kakuzu, from Naruto.
- Alyssa from the Mai Hime manga, and Yukariko from the anime.
- Sheila in Hekikai No AION.
- After the Time Skip, she evolve to Type 4, since she, though not doing evil herself, still hates the main heroine.
- Mewtwo from Mewtwo Strikes Back.
- Hishigi of Samurai Deeper Kyo. He fights entirely because of his loyalty to his one remaining friend.
- Enchu in Muhyo And Roji, as it's revealed late in the series that the real reason he turned to evil was not out of hatred for Muhyo, but a desire for release from his pain. Some of his accomplices, including Rio and the Cortlaw Siblings are spurred on by the loss of loved ones, including the desire to return them from the dead.
- Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist.
Comic Books
Film
- Big Daddy from Kick-Ass (film version only). He may be a bit mixed with a Type III, but he's more closer to this once you see what happened to him five years ago.
- Magua from Last of the Mohicans.
- Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader from the Star Wars prequels, Well-Intentioned Extremist and Love Martyr who turns to The Dark Side because Love Makes You Evil.
- Doctor Octopus, The Sandman, and Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 2 and 3.
- Loki from Thor was doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Or maybe not "right reasons," but definitely "tragically understandable." He lets the Jotun's into Asgard to prevent Thor from becoming king because he is not ready, he brings them back to Asgard so as to appear to save his father from an assassination attempt, and then attempts to destroy Jotunheim so as to rid Asgard of that threat. At its heart, it was all an attempt to prove to his father that he was just as worthy of his pride and affection as Thor.
- Carrie White from Carrie.
- Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
- Roy Batty starts out this way in Blade Runner, but slides further down the scale by the end of the movie.
Literature
- Simone and her sisters in Moon Over Soho. Never asked or set out to be what they became (and weren't even truly aware of it until the end), and whose origin was entirely accidental.
- Murtagh and Thorn from Inheritance Cycle.
- Sandor "The Hound" Clegane from A Song of Ice and Fire.
- The "monster" from Frankenstein. He actually recounts how all his thoughts were extremely noble when he had just been hiding and listening to people, but when he actually tried to interact with them and was feared, he became bitter and nasty. This slides it towards Informed Attribute, but the actual events in the novel also give good enough grounds to say this trope applies, especially when the protagonist Dr. Frankenstein is not very heroic himself.
- Fëanor, Maedhros, and Maglor from The Silmarillion. Mass murderers, but they are bound by an unbreakable oath to recover the Silmarils from anyone, at any cost.
- Gollum from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Live-Action TV
- In Smallville, many of the meteor freaks.
- Ben from LOST usually bounces between this type and Type I and Type III.
- Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad becomes this towards the end of season 2, and has stayed here ever since.
- The Master from Doctor Who fits into this trope given that the only reason he does what he does is because he's been driven absolutely insane by the drums in his head, and that the drumming was put there deliberately
- Nicci in Legend of the Seeker, though in the books she's more of a Type III.
- Willow Rosenberg of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the sixth season.
- Jefferson aka the Mad hatter from Once Upon a Time. He's pushed into what he does by Regina's manipulation and betrayal plus love of his daughter. Also he's been driven more than a bit crazy by his time in Wonderland and being one of the few concious people in Storybrooke.
- Richard Harrow in Boardwalk Empire. An expert killer, utterly broken by his experiences and injuries in the trenches of the First World War. His only friend, Jimmy, is a gangster who has a use for Harrow's skills. Harrow has therefore murdered a couple of dozen people on screen, many of them without even asking why. Since Jimmy's death, he has killed only to protect or avenge his family.
Table Top Games
Theater
- The Baronets of Ruddigore are cursed to villainy or horrible death.
- Benjamin Barker, a barber, was such a nice guy with a beautiful wife and daughter before a corrupt judge banished him from London, sexually assaulted his wife, and then engaged in some Wife Husbandry with his daughter. It doesn't excuse his becoming Sweeney Todd, who murders all his customers and gives them to his Psycho Supporter Ms. Lovett to cook into meat pies and sell to unsuspecting Londoners for a nice profit. And yet he's one of the most sympathetic characters in the Crap Sack World of the musical.
Video Games
- Tsubaki Yayoi from BlazBlue.
- Sniper Wolf in Metal Gear Solid.
- Shuyin from Final Fantasy X-2.
- Barry Burton in Resident Evil. Wesker threatened his wife, so he went along with betraying the STARS unit.
- Brad Kilstein in Psychic Force. He's actually pretty decent provided his Split Personality doesn't take over.
- Sarah, the assistant of Luc in Suikoden III
- Zero's girlfriend Iris from Mega Man X. She didn't take Colonel's death well...
- Reptile in Mortal Kombat. It's nearly a Running Gag that if you don't off him, his superiors screw him over. Unlike most of the villains, who seek power, his only goal is to resurrect his race, of which he is the sole survivor.
- Walter Sullivan from Silent Hill 4 may count. He's just a little kid who wants his mom back. Plus he was raised by a cult of manipulative bastards.
- Gaspard and, remarkably, Emperor Griffin from Dark Cloud 2.
- Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in Epic Mickey. Much of what he does (and well, mostly what he intends on doing) is the result of neglect, jealousy, and the loss of everything he cared about (especially Ortensia) and built in the Thinner Disaster.
- The real Overlord Zenon from Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories is this trope. "Everyone who has ever come close to me, has betrayed me..."
- Jack Krauser is retroactively implied to be of this trope in Resident Evil 4, as Darkside Chronicles explains that his reasons for turning to Wesker was because that was the only option left for him to do the thing he did well at, fighting, after his mission with Leon resulted in him being fired from SOCOM due to an arm injury that never recovered.
- Dr Stahngun/Dimitri Allen in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. He's only villainous in order to bring back the woman he loved. Layton even acknowledges he'd never go so far as to kill anyone.
- Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer features the Founder, the definition of Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. She inflicted the Player Character with a soul-eating curse and set into motion events that threaten the very fabric of the Forgotten Realms, all to save her lover from the Wall of the Faithless.
- Yasha from Asura's Wrath is a combination of this, a Type 4, and Stoic Woobie, who is legimately the one of the only deities that turned on Asura that feels legitimate regret fro the way they treat humanity after betraying asura, by forcing them into a Martyrdom Culture.
- The Locusts from Gears of War was revealed to be this, despite being Always Chaotic Evil. It turned out that they were fighting a losing war against the lambent and they invaded the surface world as a means of survival.
- Dark Sakura in Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel route.
- Rider/Medusa also counts, throughout the whole series. Her past involves getting bullied by sisters as well as humans and turning into a monster and her resolve in joining the war is simply to protect Sakura simply because they're kindred spirits. Too bad that Sakura handed down the Master status to Shinji and Rider also suffered her abuses, but since it's what Sakura wanted and all to protect her, Rider had to embrace her status as a 'villain'.
- Even when she is returned to Sakura's control, she still fits this, being quite willing to kill Shirou and Rin if necessary to save Sakura (even if Sakura herself is opposed). In Hollow Ataraxia, she even admits that she would happily destroy the entire city if necessary to save Sakura.
- Mary from Ib. Despite her Ronthe Death Eater reputation in the fanbase, that same situation would force anyone to do what she does.
- Shadow the Hedgehog starts out as this in his debut, as he seeks revenge on humanity for the death of his first and only friend, Maria. He later becomes an anti-hero, then later a hero.
Web Comics
- In 151 Hidden Depths, Diglett
 becomes this after evolving into Dugtrio. Being small led him to be rejected from joining the Pokemon Police Force so he proves he's a force to be reckoned with by destroying cities.
Web Original
Western Animation
- The Ice King of Adventure Time, especially after the revelation that he used to be normal until he tried an antique crown that resulted in a loss of sanity, along with gradually gaining supernatural ice powers and becoming unsightly, leading to his present self.
- A lot of fans see Lemongrab as being this. Even though he did pretty horrible things, he was described by Word Of God as "not evil- just completely unadjusted to living" and "dysfunctional," thanks to his failed experiment-induced problems with his noggin.
- Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender is somewhere between this and a Type I, before his Heel Face Turn.
- In the Sequel Series The Legend Of Korra Tarrlok and his brother Noatak, better known as Amon turn out to be examples of this flavor of Anti-Villain. Their father was Yakone, the infamous crime lord that Aang had defeated and Depowered decades before the start of the series. Yakone proved to be a Horrible Father, perhaps almost as bad as Ozai. He forced Tarrlok and Noatak to learn bloodbending so that he could use them to exact his promised vengeance against Republic City. Ultimately, Noatak turned on him and ran away from home, with a festering hatred of bending that would one day lead to him starting the Equalist revolution under the guise of Amon. Ultimately, Tarrlok kills himself and Amon by igniting the fuel tank of Amon's escape boat using an Equalist shock gauntlet.
- Noatak also arguably fits as a Type 3 as Tarrlok implies that he genuinely believes that what he's doing is for the greater good.
- Ethan Bennett, the original Clayface, in The Batman.
- Most of the members of Batman's Rogue's Gallery become this in Batman The Animated Series, most notably the Mad Hatter, Baby Doll, Clayface, Two-Face, and the aforementioned Mr. Freeze.
- An interesting subversion/deconstruction of this character type can be found in Demona of Western Animation/Gargoyles. She's certainly got enough nuance and tragedy in her backstory to qualify her as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, but at the same time she has both the motive and means to do probably the most large-scale damage of any villain in the Rogues Gallery and her obsession with getting revenge for her own pain has blinded her to the fact that she's spent the last milennium just digging herself in deeper.
- Jack O'Lantern, Nergal and his son Nergal Jr. in The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy.
- Courtney in Total Drama Island becomes this in the later half of the third season.
- Nox of Wakfu, who desperately aims to be Type III but is mostly inhibited by his own delusions.
- Colossus in X-Men: Evolution.
- Bushroot of Darkwing Duck.
Type III: Well-Intentioned Anti-Villain
The Well-Intentioned Extremist. They may believe in a good goal, but use whatever means there are to achieve it. The sympathy the audience can garner for this character comes from the fact that they basically share the same goal as the hero, but are pragmatically, expediently, or pessimistically, ruthless about it. They can very much be conscious about their morally questionable actions, but feel that there is no other way. Common antagonist in White and Grey Morality scenarios and relatively likely to be redeemed if shown the error of their ways depending on how "extremist" they are. These Anti-Villains may become more malicious true villains, but they are more likely to either stay in this category or possibly become a Type II Anti-Villain or an Anti-Hero. The Type IV can also be a revolutionary of some sort, fighting against the main character only due to their affiliation to some government or organization, and usually fighting for a noble cause. Alternatively, they may not even realize what they're doing is wrong or making things worse in the first place. The more heroic examples tend to overlap with either Pragmatic Hero, Unscrupulous Hero, or Nominal Hero.
The defining Trope for this type of Anti-Villain would be the Well-Intentioned Extremist, of course.
Related Tropes: Necessarily Evil, Obliviously Evil, Utopia Justifies the Means, Villainy-Free Villain.
Examples
Anime & Manga
- Pain, Konan, and Itachi of Naruto
- Gil Graham from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's.
- Amber, Amigiri, and most of the rest of Evening Primrose from Darker Than Black.
- Trevor Goodchild from Aeon Flux.
- Haman Karn from Gundam ZZ.
- Anaval Gato from Gundam 0083.
- Master Asia from G Gundam
- Zechs Merquise and Treize Khushrenada from Gundam Wing.
- Gilbert Durandal from Gundam SEED Destiny, as well as his adopted son Rey Za Burrel
- Lordgenome from Gurren Lagann, a brutal though world-weary dictator who was the only thing preventing his masters from wiping out his species.
- The Blue Knight from Astro Boy.
- Father Alexander Anderson from Hellsing, as well of the rest of the Iscariot Organization, are mostly this type with a bit of Type I added (with the exception of Enrico Maxwell.).
- Magellan, the Impel Down warden from One Piece.
- Chouji Suitengu of Speed Grapher
- Prince Schneizel of Code Geass turns out to be a particularly vicious example.
- Lelouch also falls under this in addition to Type II (see above), as well as Anti-Hero types III and IV.
- Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Kuze from the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Ultear, Jellal, Laxus and Knightwalker of Fairy Tail
- Kaname Tosen & Kugo Ginjo of Bleach
- It turns out that Gin Ichimaru is this or at least, this is how he started although he deliberately cultivates the image of a Type I Anti-Villain. His motive is something the protagonists could sympathise with and support but the methods he's willing to (and does) use put him well outside the hero scale and firmly in the anti-villain scale. For a Type III, his methods are very extreme and drag him towards the Type I he claims to be.
Comic Books
Film
Literature
- Nicci of the Sword of Truth series, along with several minor villains, such as Michael and Sebastian.
- Thrawn ends up here by the time of his last campaign. He started out as a morally ambiguous character in Outbound Flight, but turned into a ruthless, pragmatic man who wasn't above committing some truly villainous acts to achieve his goals. His motives were understandable, especially after they were retconned into stemming from a desire to protect the galaxy from an imminent invasion, but he was most definitely not a good or nice man. His men adored him, but Leia might have had something to say about that...
- Javert in Les Misérables, who is only trying to maintain order and enforce the law, but is extremely rigid in carrying out his goals.
- Lord Asriel from His Dark Materials. His goal is to eliminate an evil god, but the ways he gets to it includes killing a little boy by separating him from his soul.
Live-Action TV
- Smallville:
- Lex Luthor for most of the time he is evil.
- Lana Lang may count around season six and seven.
- Walternate from Fringe seems to fall into this category. Yes, he wants to destroy our universe, but for all he knows there isn't any other way to save his. He thinks the two universes are at war. True, he is openly malevolent towards Olivia while she is trapped on the other side, along with anyone that helps her and is quite ruthless, but he occasionally has higher moral standards than Walter. Most obviously displayed when he flat-out rejects his top scientist's idea to text cortexiphan on children, an idea that Walter developed and executed far before the conflict between the universes began. Though it was later revealed that Walter only did that in an attempt to find a safe way to cross to the other universe and return Peter home.
- Thomas from The Event, also Sophia after Thomas's death and finding out the aliens homeworld is dying.
- The Cigarette Smoking Man, and the rest of the Syndicate, from The X-Files.
- Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek The Animated Series are jam packed with this type. Examples include Roger Korby, Kodos, the Talosians, the Gorn, the Horta, Cochrane’s companion, NOMAD, John Gill, Ron Tracey, Loki, Bele, and Stavos Keniclius, to name just a few. The tradition continues in the film series with Sybok, Valeris, Cartwright, and arguably Chang and Kruge.
- The Strike Team from The Shield
- Walter White from Breaking Bad, in addition to being a Type V Anti-Hero, before he reaches the end of the slippery slope and becomes a Villain Protagonist.
- 24:
- Tony Almeida in the seventh season.
- President Allison Taylor and Jack Bauer wind up becoming this on opposing sides during the final season as well, with the latter skirting a little between Type II and III.
- Touch: Guillermo Ortiz may be the most ruthless person to ever hold this distinction, singularly devoted to the goal of killing a group of 36 people whose very existence he believes to be a crime against God and bound to this goal by being a member of said group (presumably he intends to commit suicide after all of the others have been killed), but when he nearly took the life of someone outside this group of 36, it caused him to doubt himself, and when his attempt to confess his sins forced him to do what he'd narrowly avoided doing in order to remain free to continue his mission, he had a severe crisis of faith that only ended when he saved the life of a man who'd been Driven to Suicide and restored the man's will to live. It truly appears that he is genuine in his belief that in hunting down and killing 35 highly gifted individuals and then committing suicide he is merely carrying out God's will.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Delita in Final Fantasy Tactics (goes up the scale).
- Namatame in Persona 4 (due to being oblivious to the consequences of his actions more than anything else).
- Matriarch Benezia from Mass Effect. And depending on which camp are you on, Saren Arterius. At the end of 3, even The Illusive Man can come off as this, despite his utterly brutal experiments.
- Craft, The Dragon to Dr. Weil from Mega Man Zero 4.
- Duke and Pharaoh from Tales Of Vesperia.
- Vayne in Final Fantasy XII.
- Jowy Atreides-Blight in Suikoden II. Also his strategist Leon Silverberg.
- Most Tales Series villains, the most prominent one being Dhaos.
- Keith Evans in Psychic Force. He truly wanted the good of his kinsmen, who was being oppressed by humanity and the only way to do it, he thinks, is being a Dark Messiah.
- Lance from Epic Battle Fantasy.
- Jedah Dohma from Darkstalkers. He wants nothing but to eliminate all the evil that plagues Makai, but on the other hand his plan consists in fusing all the Darkstalkers (including the good ones) in a gigantic demon womb.
- Archie and Maxie from the third generation of Pokemon could fit the bill, but Maxie more so.
- Big Boss in Metal Gear did the things he did, besides for his Blood Knight tendencies, out of a legitimate desire to free soldiers so they won't have to be expendable pawns of the government, due to his experience with The Boss's death (and his involvement in it). He also is shown to forgive and save his enemies/defectors if they are threatened, as evidenced by his saving Kyle Schneider's resistance from NATO's nuclear bombing of Outer Heaven despite the latter group being against him.
- Solidus Snake is similar, having taken in people who weren't wanted anywhere else, and also doing terrorist actions in order to prevent the Patriots from eliminating everything America stood for, such as liberty.
- The original founders of the Patriots were also this, as they did legitimately attempt to follow through with The Boss's will, and thought they were doing so with their actions.
- Nobunaga Oda in Samurai Warriors.
- Graf Michael Sepperin in Rosenkreuzstilette.
- Alister Azimuth in Ratchet And Clank Future A Crack In Time.
- Ironically, he's a borderline Anit-Hero while on your side, so he's been on both sides of the spectrum in one game.
- Look no further than Ammon Jerro from Neverwinter Nights 2. The man has an army of powerful fiends at his beck and call, murders several people who get in the way of his recovering a MacGuffin, and is canonically Neutral Evil. He's not the Big Bad, not even The Dragon. He's the former court mage of Neverwinter, trying to save Faerűn from the Big Bad by whatever means necessary. And you get to give him an absolutely epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- The Big Bad he's opposing, the King of Shadows, can come across as this when you meet the ghosts of people who knew him. He willingly underwent a transformation into a magical golem called The Guardian so he could protect the Illefarn empire, and everything he's done since then, from binding himself to the Shadow Weave to waging war on Neverwinter, and all the carnage he's caused, is simply him fulfilling the orders programmed into him.
- In Arcanum, Kerghan is a powerful necromancer who seeks the destruction of all life... because, after centuries of using necromancy to study the place where souls go after death, he's wholeheartedly convinced that since all beings undergo suffering during life, the comparable peace associated with death is a desirable state of existence. This view is backed up by one of your party members, who is likely to have been killed and resurrected during the events of the game.
- Bioshock: Andrew Ryan. The Audio Diaries show that he never let go of his dream, even as he went from a staunch idealist to a power-mad dictator. Grace Holloway in Bioshock 2 believes in Sofia Lamb completely and believes Delta kidnapped Eleanor. Lamb herself might have been this once, but definitely isn't now. At all.
- Deus from Asura's Wrath.
- Kessler from inFAMOUS. His end goals are noble, hoping to prepare the protagonist Cole, his past self, for the coming of the Beast, an entity intent on destroying all life, which Kessler failed to stop in his own timeline. So by extension, he hopes to save Cole's world. He hopes to do this, however, by showing Cole firsthand the kinds of atrocities he has to prepare for when the Beast comes, as well as the agonizingly difficult choices he'll have to make for the greater good, resulting in the slaughter of thousands of innocent lives at Kessler's hands, including Cole's girlfriend and Kessler's former love, Trish
- Viridi from Kid Icarus Uprising. As the Goddess of Nature, she is disgusted with the way humans fight against each other and pillage nature, so she tries to wipe them off the earth with the Reset Bomb. While Palutena and Pit agree with her views, they also say that what she does is not the solution and fight her forces to stop her Reset Bombs. Later on she joins with Palutena and Hades to fight the Aurum Invasion and when Palutena is possesed by the Chaos Kin, she helps Pit so he can rescue her.
- Knight-Commander Meredith of Dragon Age II. Anders is a combination of this and Anti-Hero.
Web Comics
- Baron Klaus Wulfenbach from Girl Genius
- Redcloak from The Order of the Stick, initially; he became more of a straight villain over time due to his association with Xykon.
- He then realizes that he is being corrupted and then becomes even more sympathetic and dangerous.
- Tangerine from Sinfest doesn't do the stuff she does out of malice, but as a result of not knowing any better. More recently she and Lil' E have slipped into Type IV territory.
Web Original
- Dr. Horrible from Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
- Jaffers and the obstacles (except for Suede at the end of part 5) in Suburban Knights just want to protect the gauntlet from Malecite so that he cannot pose a threat to our technology-dependent world. In the process, however, they're willing to fight and kill anyone also looking for the gauntlet in order to prevent that from happening.
Western Animation
- Jet from Avatar The Last Airbender. He has a good reason to be opposing the Fire Nation, he just takes his grudge way too far.
- Earl of Lemongrab of Adventure Time just wants the castle to be quiet, clean, orderly, and free of pranks and sass. So he sends EVERYONE to the dungeon for impossible lengths of time. Also, this guy doesn't exactly have all his marbles together, so he overlaps a lot with type II.
- Kang the Conqueror in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes becomes sort of this. The sole reason why he wants Captain America dead is because he blames Cap for disrupting the timeline (remember, Cap got preserved in a block of ice in the North Atlantic after an accident in his last mission in the 40's and then was revived to present times by the Avengers), which for an unexplained reason causes the destruction of the world within 10 years and almost erases Kang's wife Ravonna from existence.
- Charmcaster from the Ben 10 franchise is between this and Type II.
- Valerie Gray from Danny Phantom, if you don't view her as an Anti-Hero.
Type IV: Villain in Name Only
These characters either lack any villainous traits whatsoever or have so much concern over others that any signs of villainy are nearly completely drowned out. Frequently, these characters are called villains only because they fight against the hero. Basically, these guys are NEVER actively malevolent. They usually have some other reason for opposing the hero besides evil schemes. Ironically, these characters can be extremely dangerous to the hero as their high skill at arms/competence more than makes up for their lack of vileness. Fighting them also poses a moral dilemma which can also sap the hero's morale. It is at this point where an Anti-Villain starts to blur with the Hero Antagonist. Having to kill a particularly well liked type 4 in a boss fight can be a Player Punch. Their deaths are extremely likely to be a Tear Jerker. These Anti-Villains have virtually no chance of becoming a true villain - in fact, if they did, it would probably mess up the flow of the story.
A defining trope for this type of Anti-Villain is the Designated Villain.
Related Tropes: more benign My Country, Right or Wrong or My Master, Right or Wrong, Non-Malicious Monster, Punch Clock Villain, Noble Top Enforcer (when not a Type I), mild examples of Necessarily Evil, those who are Forced Into Evil, and occasionally a Token Good Teammate (when amongst a bunch of scumbags).
Examples
Anime & Manga
- Haku from Naruto.
- Coyote Starrk from Bleach
- November and April of Darker Than Black
- The Wolkenritter from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's.
- Lloyd and Cecile of Code Geass
- Athrun Zala, Nicol Amalfi, Dearka Elsmann, Yzak Joule and Andrew Waltfeld in Gundam SEED.
- Several examples in Gundam 00, most notably Colonel Sergi Smirnov, if one doesn't consider him an outright Hero Antagonist.
- Ramba Ral in Mobile Suit Gundam.
- Norris Packard in The 08th MS Team.
- The Cyclops Team in Gundam 0080, including Bernard Wiseman.
- The Team Rocket trio from Pokémon were this for a looong time until the Black/White series. They had started out as bumbling and humorous, but still villainous in personality, but by the end of the Johto arc, any evil they had was drained out and they were left as just bumbling and humorous.
- Excel and Hyatt from Excel Saga.
- Mifune in Soul Eater
- In One Piece, this type applies to any of the Marines (particularly Smoker and Garp) that aren't corrupt or abusive, and follow a reasonable justice code that usually conflicts with the intentions of their Knight Templar superiors.
- Shin and Noi from Dorohedoro are an interesting example. Both seem to be Blood Knight assassins at a first glance, but in reality they are just Punch Clock Villains that reserve their ruthlessness on the people they suppose to kill.
- Zagato from Magic Knight Rayearth
- Joshua from Seikon No Qwaser
- Sasaki in Haruhi Suzumiya. In a Genre Savvy display, she even states she KNOWS she's poised as "the villain of this story", but chooses not to follow through with playing the part, and actively helps in trying to sabotage the REAL villain's plan.
- Also the Computer Research Society President, who only opposed the SOS Brigade because Haruhi extorted a computer from him. Lately, though, he and Haruhi seem to be on better terms with each other.
- Angel from Angel Beats!
- Wizardmon from Digimon Adventure.
- Ivan from Digimon Savers, who kills Digimon to earn money to support his mother and his many siblings. He's a stark contrast with his boss Kurata.
- Pantherlily, and Erza old comrades from Fairy Tail
- The title character of Squid Girl. First of all, her threat of invading and taking over the surface world isn't taken very seriously by other characters (except Nagisa). If she tries to actually invade the surface, she would easily be defeated the entire military from many different countries that would put her under control. Oh wait, you don't need a military to do that, because it only takes one person to keep Squid Girl under control. Also, the worst thing she can actually do is trying to tie you up with her tentacles and attempt to take over a beach restaurant. She is very oblivious and has very limited knowledge on the human society in general. In the end, she end ups like a cute squid girl goofball with her villainy not even taken seriously by everyone.
- Chao Lingshen from Mahou Sensei Negima!. She's such an Anti-Villain, in fact, that Negi had actually considered letting her complete her plan.
- Ratman is a protagonist version, and is actually a superhero Otaku who is only a "dark hero" because he was tricked into joining Jackal, an Oddly Small Organization of rather goofy and nonthreatening villains. Since his missions have him breaking the law and put him at odds with the Hero Association (especially the more Jerkass heroes), he's a criminal, but takes every opportunity he can to use his powers to help people.
- Hajimete No Aku. The "villains" actually try to choke the world doing nice things. The villains are so good, in fact, that the characters question the heroes' good will and say that they are eviler...
- Alyssa from the Mai-Otome manga, who wants to end the Otome system so that she can spend more time with her sister.
- Panza from Muhyo And Roji. She ends up Taking the Bullet for Roji, and Muhyo points out that she's not evil like the rest of Ark.
Comics
Fan Works
Film
- King Kong.
- Naval Marshall General Isoroku Yamamoto from Pearl Harbor. While being charged by the Japanese Empire with the task of somehow successfully destroying the American Pacific navy at anchor in shallow waters, he is making comments such as "A brilliant man would find a way not to fight a war."
- The Spaniard from the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean.
Literature
- Several of the Havenite military personnel in the Honor Harrington series are only villains because they happen to be part of a nation that is at war with Manticore. This is especially the case after Eloise Pritchart takes over as President and transforms Haven from a People's Republic of Tyranny into a genuine democracy. They have now become straight protagonists after Haven and Manticore allied to fight Mesa.
- In many of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, the perpetrator or the closest equivalent turns out to have merely been the victim of the circumstances, not known what they were doing, merely committing a lesser crime for understandable reasons, or at least to be a Sympathetic Murderer taking justice in their own hands against an Asshole Victim who really had it coming. Once they're exposed and explain themselves, Holmes tends to let these characters off the hook even when they actually did do something illegal.
- Nen Yim from the New Jedi Order was like this, putting her skills to the service of the Yuuzhan Vong more because they were her own people rather than because she believed in their cause (privately, she thinks her peoples' religion is bogus and their God Emperor is a total nutjob, though she'd never say it out loud). Indeed, her only actually villainous appearance is in Conquest, the first book to feature her, in which she was more a sidekick to a much nastier Mad Scientist than a villain in her own right. Later on, she'd be the protagonist of her own subplot (Rebirth), helping the Warmaster root out a Starscream conspiracy (the Enemy Lines duology), a cameo (Destiny's Way) or in an Enemy Mine with the heroes followed by a Heel Face Turn (The Final Prophecy), but any further real villainy was off-page.
- Before that, in the X-Wing Series, there was Admiral Teren Rogriss. In his first appearance (Solo Command), he's a good-natured officer who pulls an Enemy Mine with General Han Solo to take down Warlord Zsinj. In the second (Starfighters of Adumar), more of his background is revealed, showing him to be an overall honorable man who happens to be on the side of the Empire. It's mentioned that he's fought the New Republic in ship-to-ship battles, but his name has never shown up in any so-called "dark projects" (like Imperial superweapons or Imperial Intelligence operations). Overall, he's a sympathetic character.
Live-Action TV
- Lt. Kavenaugh on The Shield at least until the premiere of season 6 when he crosses the Moral Event Horizon.
- Enos from The Dukes of Hazzard. He is never really portrayed as corrupt or evil, and despite his Designated Villain role (by default by being on the same side as Boss Hogg), becomes quite sympathetic and likable over the course of the show. Enos is plagued by a strong sense of duty. He's a deputy, and sworn to uphold the law. Unfortunately for him, Boss Hogg controls the law. At times, one has to wonder if his goofing up isn't at least somewhat intentional as a way of helping the Dukes. Especially considering that he was able to become the head of the Los Angeles SWAT team.
- Sgt. Shultz and Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes
Theatre
- John Dickenson in 1776 is staunchly against Independency, even coming to blows with protagonist John Adams. His only claim to villainy is he's a Loyalist that truly believes America's best course is to remain with England.
Video Games
- In NieR, The Shadowlord, who is actually the original Nier. His "villainy" is the only thing preserving human life at this point, and his only selfish actions in the series are to save his daughter - the same motivation that ironically drives the player character to kill him and ruin everything forever.
- The Guardians from Mega Man Zero, especially Harpuia. They're essentially good people (technically, Reploids) fighting for an evil government. Eventually they make a Heel Face Turn.
- Meta Knight from Kirby though he can sometimes be a Type III in his more extreme moments.
- Litchi Faye-Ling in BlazBlue. She actually disliked NOL and thinks Hazama is suspicious, but the situation forces her to join the bad guys.
- Mid Boss in Disgaea. The worst thing he does is loot the party's picnic basket.
- Death King Hugo in the 4th game, who like Meta Knight has elements of Type 3.
- Garl Vinland from Demon's Souls.
- For that matter, Maiden Astraea herself. The only reason she's even billed as a villain is because she has a demon's soul (she's the Valley of defilement's Archdemon), but it's outright stated that even in her bitter disillusionment after finding out about God's non-existence,, she still hasn't lost her kind heart, and her soul is the most impure one because she's taking all the sins and suffering of the Valley's inhabitants on herself, relieving them of some of their misery. The Valley's denizens adore her, and will do absolutely anything to protect her, including judiciously slaughtering pesky soul-hunters looking to snag her soul. Like say, the player character. And she commands such loyalty simply by being a good person at heart. Sixth Saint Astraea, indeed.
- The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3. Her death is one of the saddest moments in gaming history.
- Miles Edgeworth in the Ace Attorney series is either this or a type III: he starts off as a more typical villain, trying his best to get all the defendants found guilty, but he has a Heel Face Turn. Now, he looks for the truth, and helps Phoenix if need be.
- Both Eltoshan or Ishtar from Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu. Eltoshan was too much of a Stupid Good when it comes to loyalty (and dies for it), and Ishtar was really decent for children or Tinny, but just can't say "no" for Julius.
- Ishtar, however, did go directly against Julius's orders and had children that were due to be sacrificed smuggled into Freege castle, and made it clear that anyone who laid a finger on them would be dealt with by her personally. While she does end up dying for Julius, she does show that she's willing to disobey the orders of the most powerful character in the game in order to do what she feels is right. Really, if she wasn't in love with Julius she'd probably have done a Heel Face Turn.
- Any generic boss who isn't an utter Jerk Ass qualifies.
- General Teo McDohl from Suikoden I. And you, being his son, offed him because he serves the Empire, you lead the rebels.
- Baldur's Gate:
- Tamoko in the first game, based on what we see of her. She's only on the side of the Big Bad, and willing to try to kill the Player Character, because she loves him, and she even wants to stop his plans to save him. However, she is officially Neutral Evil according to game files, which doesn't actually contradict her behaviour if we assume she's otherwise willing to do evil but her True Love for the villain is stronger than those tendencies. But according to what we actually see her do, her being merely somewhat amoral rather than evil would be the most sensible explanation.
- In the sequel, Yoshimo, Tamoko's brother according to cut content. What a Senseless Waste of Human Life indeed. Even more clearly amoral rather than evil, but forced to work for the villain through a Magically-Binding Contract.
- Leon Magnus from Tales Of Destiny, who's fighting you only to preserve the life of Marian, his surrogate mother figure. For double whammy, so is his manipulator Hugo Gilchrist, who turns out to be his and Rutee's father and he's been possessed all along.
- Sonia/Chris Ryan from Psychic Force. Her loyalty was actually programmed and any events of her death proved to be soul-crushing for her little sister Wendy.
- Golbez and Jecht in Dissidia: Final Fantasy. The first is a Stealth Mentor, the second just wants a reunion with his son.
- The latter character was a Type IV in his original game as well, seeing how the only reason he's on the villain's end is because he fused with Sin after becoming Brask's Final Aeon with the intention of eliminating Sin, and was perfectly willing to die at the hands of his son as long as it at least ensured Sin's permanent destruction.
- Cloud Strife and Kuja were depicted as Anti-Villains in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, being on the Warriors of Chaos side, yet not being too happy about their current position in the conflict, as well as sympathizing with the other side in the case of Cloud. It's also implied that Cloud's sympathizing for the Cosmos side is because a person he knew and cared for was there. Cloud eventually managed to defect to the Warriors of Cosmos, although at the cost of getting killed by Chaos at the end of the 12th cycle and having to be revived. Kuja, however, wasn't so lucky, thanks to Kefka and his implementing Fake Memories.
- From Pokemon Black And White, N, leader of Team Plasma is easily the most heartbreaking example of one of these in the Pokemon series, and has a bunch of qualities of the other 3 types above this one, with none of the truly evil traits that belong to them.
- General Leo in Final Fantasy VI.
- Lemon Browning in Super Robot Wars Advance and Super Robot Wars Original Generation. Despite her Mad Scientist tendencies, she's generally without malice and kind enough with her creations, and you off her merely because she just have to fight for the side she's on. Oh, and her relationship with Axel is genuine. Add up that she's Excellen Browning's Alternate Universe counterpart...
- Originally in Advance, if you feel genuine enough, you can avoid attacking her in the last stage and go beat down Vindel, leaving Lemon's fate more open than surefire death.
- Sophitia Alexandra starting from SoulCalibur IV goes to this path. Despite starting out as the holiest and purest of all fighters, her motherly instincts decreed her to protect her children who was under Soul Edge's influence, by protecting said weapon that she swore to destroy. There's a reason why she's crying in her official art in IV.
- Her daughter Pyrrha gets the same treatment in Soulcalibur V. Being raised by Tira and manipulated into being a new host for Soul Edge, everything out of her mouth screams she doesn't want to do any of it.
- Donkey Kong himself when he's the antagonist, such as the classic arcade game or the Mario VS Donkey Kong series. He never has any malicious intent; he simply has trouble controlling his impulses and tends to get angry when he doesn't get what he wants, leaving Mario to stop him. After Mario defeats DK, he generally forgives him and gives DK whatever he wanted in the first place.
- Claus, AKA The Masked Man from MOTHER 3. He's only evil because Porky revived his dead body and brainwashed him as an assassin.
- Aphelion, the silver dragon from Radiata Stories is the closest thing to a Big Bad the game has—and wouldn't be considered evil on any conceivable moral scale if it weren't for the fact that his plan cannot go through without killing his fellow dragons and the host of his opposite, Quasar.
- Mr Freeze in Batman Arkham City is this with a bit of Type II. As usual his main goal is to protect his wife and he only goes against Batman once in the entire game and that's just because Bruce's stubborness lead to a miscomunication between them.
- The Theives Guild in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion. Despite being unrepentant theives they never kill, protect the poor and only target people who can easily afford the loss. Their leader the Grey Fox in particualr fits this as he only resorts to crime due to a curse which he seeks to break.
- Ser Cauthrien of Dragon Age: Origins.
- Lancer/Cu Chulainn from Fate/stay night is actually a laid back cool guy who's source of joy is good, fair fights and teasing. It's just that he's stuck with a Master that he finds disgusting like Kotomine Kirei (after his previous Master got yanked on the arm by said Kotomine), but too honor-bound to obey the rules despite his misgivings. Kotomine's actions and his other servant Gilgamesh disgusted him so much that he ends up defecting when opportunity presents itself (and dying as a result). It does show when the show goes Alternate Universe in Fate/hollow ataraxia, what he does is just hanging around fishing rather than being hostile.
Web Comics
- Miko Miyazaki from The Order of the Stick starts out here, and slides up to a Type III.
- Fuschia from Sinfest goes from Card-Carrying Villain to type I to type IV.
- Various characters of True Villains could count as this. Cecile and Xeke only seem to help Xaneth because they are friends with Elia, and Mia is just going along with Sebastian. Had someone different taken her in, she could've easily been a hero.
Western Animation
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