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Just fear me. Love me. Do as I say, and I shall be your slave.
So, The Hero's girl is pretty cute. Only it turns out the Hero isn't the only one who thinks so. She's caught the villain's eye as well.
If this crush takes a turn for the perverse, this can lead to tropes like I Have You Now, My Pretty, Forceful Kiss, Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me, And Now You Must Marry Me, Scarpia Ultimatum, and Go-Go Enslavement, although none of those require a Villainous Crush. Additionally, the villain may become a Stalker with a Crush. If the crush itself is a motivating factor in his Start of Darkness, then it's Love Makes You Evil.
Conversely, this trope can be played as a humanizing factor, making the character into more of an Anti-Villain, and the love interest may act as a Morality Pet. Taken all the way, it may become Love Redeems.
Despite the description, this trope applies whenever a villainous character has feelings for a heroic one, not just when the Big Bad has the hots for the Hero's girlfriend. That's just usually the way it goes.
If the feelings are mutual or an actual relationship develops, then it's Dating Catwoman instead. When this is purely subtextual, see Foe Yay. The specific variant when the Evil Empress captures the hero to seduce him is Villainesses Want Heroes.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Road towards Allen in D. Gray-Man. She even kisses him at one point.
- In episode 4 of Meitantei Holmes, Professor Moriarty kidnaps Mrs. Hudson to get to Holmes, but she's so kind that he soon develops a serious crush on her himself. When the plan eventually fails, he releases her and promises never to involve her in one of his schemes again.
- The whole deal in Inu Yasha would have NOT started if the thief Onigumo didn't fall in love with Kikyou, then made a Deal with the Devil that transformed him into none other than Naraku...
- Also from the same series, Jakotsu towards Inu-Yasha himself, and Mukotsu towards Kagome.
- Happens more than once in Sailor Moon, where villains of both genders were attracted either to Usagi (Seijuuro/Alan, Prince Diamond) or to Mamoru (Queen Beryl, Natsumi/Anne, manga!Dark Lady, anime!Fish Eye, anime!Nehelenia).
- Sorta used in Shaman King, where Hao is pretty pleased when Yoh's Action Girl fiancée Anna Kyouyama stands up to him...
- Vampire Hunter D. Vampire lord Count Magnus Lee desires the human girl Doris Lang, but she only has eyes for the title hero.
- Elie from Rave Master. Everybody's got a crush on her, even the psycho Lucia, who stole her first kiss, leaving her in tears.
- Rido from Vampire Knight was obsessed with his sister Juri and then subsequently with her daughter, Yuuki.
- Voltron: Lotor has a very unrequited obsession with Allura.
- Outlaw Star: Harry towards Melfina.
- Full Metal Panic!: Gauron towards Sousuke and Leonard towards Kaname.
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Haman Khan seems to have one of these on Judau Ashta, while Glemmy Toto has one on Roux. In each case the heroic individual ends up being responsible in some way for their admirer's death.
Comicbooks
Film
Literature
Live-Action TV
- Davis Bloome on Chloe in Season 8 of Smallville. Sometimes Tess Mercer seems to have one on Clark. And then there was the whole Lex/Lana mess in Seasons 5 & 6, and Lionel's unrequited crush on Martha which ran for most of the show.
- Unfortunately for Kurt on Glee, David Karofsky, his main homophobic bully, has one on him, and he only finds out when he's given a Forceful Kiss.
- Ares has it bad for Xena: Warrior Princess, to the point where his motivation throughout the show is basically to win her love.
- There were indications in Season Two that how Lord Zedd felt about Kimberly in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was not just Foe Yay subtext, especially with the episode he tried to make her his queen.
- Either played extremely, scarily straight or averted in Sherlock with James Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty originally presented himself as a camp gay when he was undercover to get to Sherlock, but once he dropped the "Jim from IT" face, the act remained. The two flirt incessantly in an impressive display of villainous UST.
- On Luther the titular detective has to deal with the uncomfortable fact that his closest friend and confidante, and most reliable source of help is Nietzsche Wannabe Manipulative Bastard and thorough psychopath Alice Morgan. That alone would be bad enough, but as many of Alice's lines suggest, she may well have a thing for Luther.
Roleplay
- Before being sealed away for good, Apos had a downright disturbing fascination with Ozbourne.
Tabletop Games
- Shadowrun adventure Harlequin's Back. In the backstory, a Horror fell in love with Queen Thayla and refused to leave her, even though his presence was destroying her land. She eventually decided to leave with him to save her people from destruction.
Theater
- Judge Turpin of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street developed two of these. The first was on Sweeney's wife, Lucy Barker, which ultimately led him to kick off the plot by having Sweeney transported for life, followed by luring her to a masked ball and raping her. The second was on Sweeney and Lucy's daughter Johanna, who he adopted out of remorse for what he did to Lucy but came to desire as more than a daughter as she grew older, leading him to have her thrown into a madhouse upon learning that she planned to elope with Anthony Hope, a young sailor. Sweeney finally takes vengeance upon Turpin by luring him into his shop by claiming that Johanna has "seen the error of her ways."
Videogames
- Darth Sion of Knights of the Old Republic II developed an interest in the female Exile immediately after seeing her; his crush was so intense, it was threatening his connection to the Dark Side, and therefore his life.
- Bowser to Peach. Especially in Paper Mario.
- LeChuck to Elaine in the Monkey Island series.
- Combined with Les Yay in Shantae. Big Bad Risky keeps oscillating between threatening our heroine and trying to flirt with her.
- Final Fantasy X: Seymour Guado has one on Yuna, resulting in a Forceful Kiss. Made squickier by the fact that Yuna shares a voice actress with Seymour's mother.
- Apparently, Trabant had some feelings for Ethlin. Too bad she was Happily Married to Cuan.
- Mix this with Yandere, Complete Monster, I Have You Now, My Pretty, and Dragon Rider, and you have Valter the Moonstone.
- Valkyrie Profile: Lezard is fascinated by Lenneth and would do anything to get her for himself. The fans don't mind though.
- Kain is jealous of his best friend Cecil for winning the heart of Rosa, the apple of his eye. Does he Murder the Hypotenuse? Thankfully, no. Kain is ultimately accepting of his status as the Unlucky Childhood Friend and hides his feelings for Rosa out of respect for the trio's deep friendship. Unfortunately, Dark Kain does not value his better half's reservations, even going as far as to pull an I Have You Now, My Pretty moment when he captures Rosa
 ◊ in The After Years.
Webcomics
- Sinfest's Fuchsia/Criminy romantic subplot started out when the seductive succubus Fuchsia took an interest in Criminy for the purpose of corrupting his innocence. When he treated her kindly, she was reminded of her humanity and developed a crush on him. They gradually started spending more time together, leading to positive Character Development for both of them, as Fuchsia genuinely tried to become the good girl she thought Criminy would like, while Criminy came out of his shell, matured, and arguably Took a Level in Badass for her sake.
- Galgarion from RPG World apparently has some crush on Cherry.
- A spoileriffic but amusing one from Homestuck: Jack Noir, the sort-of Big Bad, has developed a crush on PM, who wants nothing more than his horrible, bloody demise. Given Jack's previous reaction to the entire idea of affection, his response to this realization is to run the hell away.
- In Girl Genius, maybe Zola was faking weakness every time Gil had to rescue her, but her love for him remains after she revealed being way more dangerous than she looks.
- Depending how you interpret him, Tarvek may be this (crush undisputed, villainy not certain). And even Gil, but he's rather an Anti-Hero.
Web Originals
Western Animation
Real Life
- During the Libyan Civil War it was discovered that Muammar Gaddafi had one on former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, no less. The rebels even found a sizable photo album full of pictures of her in his compound.
- Apparently, this wasn't a surprise for her; diplomatic meetings with him were apparently quite awkward.
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