What works feature this kind of villain?

The type of villain in question is one who pretends to be a victim of some tragedy or threat and uses the sympathies of others to manipulate those people into doing awful things.

Thus far I can only Abigail Williams from The Crucible. She and several others claim to be victims of witchcraft and demonic forces. But in reality they just want to be in the position to manipulate others for their personal gain.

BTW the reason I ask this question is because I'm not sure how popular this type of villain is going be in the future.

Wicked, the theater version, seems to have this with the Wizard and Madame Morrible. They both claim to have been victims of Elphie's, well, wickedness, just to turn the public against her and stop her from saving the Animals.

Why does it matter if this is a popular villain type, though? If it's effective and works for the story, then use it.

I don't know what works feature the kind of villain you're talking about, but I will say that you really shouldn't worry about how popular your intended villain will be. You shouldn't be worrying about the popularity of any of the things in your story, really, not even the story as a whole.

What you should be worrying about is the quality of your work, first and foremost. If you're only in the planning and outlining phase at the moment, then the publication and oh-God-I-hope-people-like-it phase is so far away it might as well not even exist.

Write a story, write it well, and people will like it. If you make it, they will come.

edited 27th Dec '14 2:11:51 PM by Tungsten74

Personally I can see this type of villain pissing off certain groups on the Internet. They would probably claim something along the lines of vilifying victims of abuse.

Morathi pretended to be an innocent victim so as to seduce the High Elf king and establish a Slaaneshi cult among the High Elves.

Ravenna also pretended to be an innocent victim so as to seduce the king, but she actually killed him on the night of their wedding.

edited 27th Dec '14 3:24:50 PM by nekomoon14

So? Anything you write will tick off somebody, somewhere, on the Internet.

Yep. I totes hate the villain because she fails the Bechdel Test and her skin's the wrong shade of mauve.

So it is no biggie if I deliberately alienate the social justice... "proponents" by including a false martyr as the antagonist?

He's the villain. He's supposed to do awful things.

A change of pronouns would make things more controversial.

edited 28th Dec '14 9:12:03 PM by Worlder

Frankly, there's nothing wrong with having a villain play the "victim" card if their prefered tactic is manipulation, just make it clear that this is the villain's MO and that they're not really a victim "cashing in" on being victimised.

If you're really worried that people will think you're making a stealthy negative comment about people who have been victimised, depict some genuine victims (perhaps of the consquences of the villain's plan) who're not playing people for suckers, really do need assistance, and are grateful as all fuck for whatever help they get.

Or, when the villain's true nature is revealed, have someone outright call her out for being a total arsehole using that ploy when there are genuine people who need help who're not getting it.

I just remembered there is a name for this.

The Wounded Gazelle.

Yep, Wounded Gazelle Gambit

edited 29th Dec '14 1:43:22 AM by nekomoon14

Opening question most definitely answered (TL;DR: lots and varied, many done in such a way as to avoid problems with villifying real victims).

Wolf 1066 has pretty much answered your question. If you are that worried about offending people the key is to include other characters who are victims and aren't faking it.

I'll note that this applies to almost any character type you are using as a villain. There's nothing wrong with a black villain for instance, even if he's a stereotypical one, like a carjacker. It only becomes a problem when said character isn't counterbalanced by positive characters of the same background. Same goes for women, gays, and any other minority you can think of.