History AffablyEvil / Literature

* Literature/TortallUniverse's ''Literature/TheImmortals'': Emperor Ozorne varies between this trope and FauxAffablyEvil, depending. He does genuinely love his birds, and really is glad that Daine could help them. For every other character, he's only ''playing'' nice.

* ''{{Literature/Victoria}}'': Nearly all of the Northern Confederation's enemies are [[EvilIsPetty bad-mannered, petty and spiteful]] as well as repulsively and irredeemably evil. About the only exception is, surprisingly enough, the main representative of the ''Nazi'' faction, Hauptsturmfuehrer Halsing, who impresses everyone with his courteousness, sobriety and manners (if not his politics).

* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' deconstructs this trope with TheCaptain Nemo, who is a WickedCultured, [[NiceGuy extremely polite person]] that prefers to put the protagonists in {{Gilded Cage}}s, rather than destroy them. He really is a good, noble human being [[MoralEventHorizon who cruelly destroy his enemies]] in his fight against TheEmpire. How can a truly good man do those terrible things? [[VillainousBreakdown Because he is slowly but surely losing his sanity through the novel, and in the end he becomes a]] DeathSeeker. [[AnAesop The whole point of the novel is to show that]] [[ScienceIsBad a submarine like the Nautilus could be used as a ]] WeaponOfMassDestruction, and any human, no matter how good and noble, will discover that WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.

%%* ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'': Nyarlathotep

* ''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'':

* ''{{Literature/Brennus}}'': The Dark, King of Supervillains and Father of Metahumanity. Despite being, ya know, the first supervillain in history is a pretty friendly guy, family man, and full on BenevolentBoss. In the story proper he's rarely seen doing any actual crimes - altough given the fact that he runs an organization which controls 60% of metahuman crime, and approves or rejects all the other villains evil schemes, he probably doesn't ''need'' to - and routinely helps the heroes defeat S-Class threats, or sends his underlings to. Macian claims that when he was a hero, he was better than many modern heroes.

* ''Literature/ScavengeTheStars'': Boon is a charming and playful man who's also a murderer, conman and thief. He's ruthless but also sincerely affable, and loves his daughter dearly

* ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'': Many of the villains are friendly to the main characters, especially Lucyfar and the Bull.

* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': Agrona Vritra the BigBad of The story despite his madness and ruthlessness is polite, softspoken and Generous to those who are loyal to him also believe allies must not be made through forces and be genuinly willingly. According to Arthur Leywin the BigGood of the story his demeanor is eccentric and sociable.

* ''Literature/AfterDarkMySweet'': Collie is an earnestly friendly if socially awkward man who goes out of his way to be polite to everyone he meets, and all he wants is to be treated nicely in return. [[BewareTheNiceOnes If he's insulted, however…]]

* Creator/AlbertCamus's ''Literature/TheFall'' is dedicated to exploring this trope through the person of its narrator, Clamence, who is incredibly selfish, manipulative, and dangerous, but endlessly pleasant and civilized all the while.

* The titular character from ''Literature/{{Blaze}}'' is a violent, somewhat unhinged criminal, but he's a docile and gentle man when left to his own devices and is a loving and doting guardian to the baby he kidnapped. It doesn't hurt that he's a TragicVillain with the mother of all FreudianExcuse{{s}}.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': Jarlaxle, of Creator/RASalvatore's ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' novels. He won't hesitate to kill innocents, [[OnlyInItForTheMoney works for the highest bidder]], doesn't seem to be inclined to turn down any sort of job, uses slave labour consisting of "lesser races", and once had a guy's face set on fire as a method of coercion. He manipulated events to start a war over the port of Luskan. After the fighting was over, with tons of citizens dead and the city partially destroyed, he made sure that food was scarce by preventing the flow of supplies into the city, and starved the people of Luskan until they were ready to rebel against the new establishment and install Jarlaxle's associate as the new ruler.\\
\\
But he's almost always in a good mood (even when his life is in danger), is a clever DeadpanSnarker on those occasions when the situation doesn't visibly amuse him, has joined forces with Drizzt and his friends on more than one occasion, and and has saved Drizzt's life seemingly out of the goodness of his heart at least twice. Search this wiki for [=CMOA=]s and [=CMOF=]s associated with Jarlaxle. There are quite a few, because a lot of fans consider Jarlaxle both awesome and funny.\\
\\
In other words, he's a mercenary-minded adventurer, but of the "[[MagnificentBastard sneaky bastard]]" type, rather than the "BloodKnight" type. Also, Luskan wasn't an innocent halflings' glade. It's (among other things) a major pirate nest with Arcane Brotherhood and Kraken Society jostling [[ManBehindTheMan behind the High Captains' "throne"]]. These behaved halfway decently only due to being bullied by Waterdhavian "superior firepower".

** [[GreenEyedMonster Kayo Sudou]] murdered a family of four, including a woman she considered her personal friend, in order to sate her envy [[spoiler: and her desire for revenge against the man who killed her family]]. Aside from that, she is well- liked in her neighborhood for her cheerful and hard- working attitude, and doesn't hold any ill will towards [[spoiler: Kokutan- douji]] when he executes her for her crimes.