Anime & Manga
"I neither understand you nor accept you. Whereas for the Hero Killer...I don't accept him either...but I do understand him. For both me and the Hero Killer we started out...by watching All Might. And back then, I was saved by him. At the very least, he didn't destroy because he wanted to. And he didn't give up so fickly. His methods were wrong, but he tried to live according to an ideal."
— Midoriya talking about Stain to Tomura Shigaraki, My Hero Academia
Blogs
Apparently someone has tasked the Dick Tracy creative team with adding more “psychological depth” to the strip’s villains so we can understand their “motivations” or whatever, so, here you go: Mr. Roboto robs banks not just because he loves the money, but because bank robberies provide a thrilling change of pace from his otherwise dull life. It’s not clear what he feels like dressing up as a Styx robot adds to the whole process, or why cyber-cosplay isn’t enough to alleviate the ennui and why he has to bring crimes into the mix, but I think we know enough for us to feel a twinge of empathy when Dick inevitably shoots him in the face.
Comic Books
"You ask me if I'm a good guy or a bad guy, and well... I mean, if I didn't think I was a bad guy when I was trying to kill Spider-Man, how can I trust myself to answer it now?"
— Eddie Brock, Venom (Donny Cates) #25
"Our enemy is never as evil as we imagine. And maybe we're never quite as good."
— Amanda Waller, Justice League
Fan Works
Why was it that everyone always had to have sympathetic reasons for being [Alex's] enemies? Why couldn't he ever have to kill someone who was just a raving murderer, driven by hate and evil and an urge to kick puppies?
Films
"You're a good guy, Cassim. But not too good. Ha ha!"
"I may be a bastard, but I'm not a fucking bastard."
—Seth Gecko, From Dusk Till Dawn
Literature
"Marcone's good intentions could have paved a new lane on the road to hell. But dammit, I couldn't hate him anymore".
— Harry Dresden, The Dresden Files
From a distance, one's adversaries seemed fiends, but with a closer view, one saw their sincerity and it was as great as one's own. Perhaps Satan was the sincerest of the lot.
"[S]peaking as one who’s dealt with both sides closely on many occasions, let me tell you that the most visionary, most dynamic, most effective, most selfless, most courageous, most HEROIC people that I have met in the past thirty years - have been supervillains.”
— Mephisto the Mentalist, before listing a number of Vigilante Men, Byronic Heroes, Well Intentioned Extremists, and other Anti-Villains, Whateley Universe, "Give'em The Old Razzle-Dazzle", part 3
"All of you. Me. We didn't save the world. We never did. We saved humanity. We always saw saving the world from humanity's selfish, selfish point of view. I'm beyond that now, Arthur. To save the world, I have to sacrifice humanity.
—Clyde 2.0, Anti-Hero by Jonathan Wood
Live-Action TV
"I know I was wrong. But in my head, I thought I was wrong for the right reasons."
—Frank Sobotka, The Wire
"You start to tell the story, you think you're the hero. And then when you get done talking...
— Detective McNulty, The Wire
Music
We were once so close to heaven
Peter came out and gave us medals
Declaring us the nicest of the damned
Peter came out and gave us medals
Declaring us the nicest of the damned
— They Might Be Giants, "Road Movie to Berlin"
I told him, "You can have my cash,
But first you know I gotta ask:
What made you wanna live this kind of life?"
He said, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay
I got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
I know I can't slow down
I can't hold back
Though you know I wish I could
Oh, no, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good"
But first you know I gotta ask:
What made you wanna live this kind of life?"
He said, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay
I got mouths to feed
There ain't nothing in this world for free
I know I can't slow down
I can't hold back
Though you know I wish I could
Oh, no, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good"
— Cage the Elephant, Ain't No Rest For the Wicked
No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
Theatre
"And tho' I'd be the first one to say that I wasn't a saint,
I'm finding it hard to be really as black as they paint.
I'm reviewing the situation.
Can a fellow be a villain all his life?"
I'm finding it hard to be really as black as they paint.
I'm reviewing the situation.
Can a fellow be a villain all his life?"
— Fagin, Oliver! ("Reviewing the Situation")
Video Games
"Don't make yourselves the villains of my story."
— Ivor, Minecraft: Story Mode
"I'm not some cannibal, Lee. Some killer out in the woods. Some...v-villain. I'm.... just a... dad. I coach little league."
— The Stranger, The Walking Dead (Telltale)
Black-hearted evil, brave-hearted hero
I am all, I am all, I am
I am all, I am all, I am
— Theme of Shadow the Hedgehog
Standing here, I realize
You were just like me
Trying to make history
You were just like me
Trying to make history
— "It Has To Be This Way" (final boss theme), Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Dr. Maruki's an adult with a warped desire, but... That desire's just a wish for us all to be happy, right?
— Ann Takamaki, Persona 5 Royal
It's just that it's weird to hear him talking about Dad that way. I wasn't expecting him to be so...well, nice.
— Estelle Bright, regarding Colonel Alan Richard, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Web Original
Nanoha doesn't have villains, it has antagonists.
Some villains are complicated. They're less villain, more antagonist. Their backstories are nuanced or tragic, their motives complex, their character oddly relatable and even sometimes redeemable.
— Red, Overly Sarcastic Productions
No one will escape the fury of the Flag Smashers, a movement with a nefarious plan... to deliver food and medicine to refugees. But don't worry, they'll kill just enough people to qualify as villains.
Real Life
I think of her kind of as an 'anti-villain', a person in the villain's role who is not actually villainous.
— Rich Burlew, creator of The Order of the Stick
