History AntiVillain / Literature

* Nicola Ceaucescu from Paul Park's ''Roumania'' series. She actually becomes more interesting than the protagonist Miranda, who is a standard teenage fantasy heroine except not stunningly beautiful. Nicola (who was named after a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceaucescu real-life Romanian dictator]], who is also referenced in a fictional book within the book, in a mindbending bit of meta) is beautiful and charming, and believes that her political manipulations are all for the good of her country. She is not all that competent as a villain, since she tends to be impulsive, melodramatic, and over-emotional, with a stereotypical "artistic" temperament. She commits acts of evil like kidnapping and murdering the good guys and sacrificing men who love her, and then cries about it afterward. While her attempts at political intrigue and sorcery turn out badly, she is described as a brilliant artist on the stage, and is able to skillfully manipulate others with her beauty, charm, and acting abilities. While Miranda is described as not all that great-looking, Nicola is a famous beauty who can make men give up their lives for her even when they know she is evil, reinforcing the trope that Evil is Sexy. Nicola also has a sympathetic backstory as the daughter of a rural prostitute who ran away from home when she was very young, and lived on the streets before becoming a famous actress and luring a baron into marriage. She also has an autistic son, who was taken from her and forcibly institutionalized. She reveals a maternal streak towards her young henchman, Kevin Markasev, in addition to her son,[[spoiler: although she eventually makes Kevin martyr himself and honors him by making him a Romanian national hero.]] She gets lots of sympathy from the entire country when she writes and performs a tragic opera based on her own life, which gets a standing ovation and is eventually performed by others all over the world. [[spoiler: However, she gets killed right after her performance, and although her ghost returns to possess the heroine, she is eventually consigned to a gloomy afterlife.]] She's more of a fabulous theatrical diva than a MagnificentBastard, in spite of her manipulative nature.

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' has Cotillion and Shadowthrone whose methods might be questionable --being the Patron of ''Assassins'' and the Lord ofShadows respectively--, their goals are far less nasty, culminating in [[spoiler: seeing through their plan to heal and free the Crippled God and send him back to his homeworld]] in ''Literature/TheCrippledGod''.

* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' has Cotillion and Shadowthrone whose methods might be questionable --being the Patron of ''Assassins'' and the Lord ofShadows respectively--, htheir goals are far less nasty, culminating in [[spoiler: seeing through their plan to heal and free the Crippled God and send him back to his homeworld]] in ''Literature/TheCrippledGod''.
* Clarence Potter from Creator/HarryTurtledove's eleven-books-and-counting AlternateHistory ''Literature/{{Timeline 191}}'' series. His three-decade love-hate relationship with Jake Featherston, the Adolf Hitler {{Expy}}, goes to the extent that he attempts to kill him at one point (but ends up saving his life). He eventually begins to warm up to Featherston because he feels Featherston has revitalized the CSA. All of his actions are for the good of the CSA, and not the evil Freedom Party, and after the war, he tells a young man whose rants remind him of Featherston to forget the hate. He eventually ascends to MagnificentBastard and KarmaHoudini status by [[spoiler:personally destroying Philadelphia with a nuclear weapon.]]
** He's more of an out and out villain. He only opposes the Party because he doesn't want to hand his country over to a man he knows is nuts. He's supportive of the Population Reduction, and masterminded some of the worst atrocities of the war.
*** There's no virtue in wanting to protect your country from the damage an insane leader could do? At one point, he attempts to assassinate Featherston for the good of the Confederacy, even though he knows he will not survive the attempt. While he does support the Population Reduction (as do most Confederate whites), he plays no part in it; if he had, he would have been so charged by the War Crimes Tribunal, [[spoiler:who specifically acquit him of atrocity, saying he acted only as a soldier would do]].

** The most tortured character in the story must be [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Merope Gaunt]] and she is a posthumous character nonetheless. A victim of abuse from her father and older brother in all her life, who was so desperate for love and affection that she brainwashed Tom Riddle Sn. to elope with her. The only happy moments in her life were due to a lie that she invented and she even decided to lift the enchantment hoping that he would stay with her. She was wrong...

* Anomander Rake from Steven Erikson's ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' initially appears as a menacing antagonist, but is gradually revealed as one of the more heroic characters of the series. Same goes for Cotillion.

** This was, however, a retcon: originally, he just wanted to re-establish the Empire, and run it along more efficient (and [[ALighterShadeOfGrey SLIGHTLY more pleasant]]) lines. Though they hinted at it as early as 1997 in the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' books, with his base in the Unknown Regions, part of something vaster he'd set up, intended to watch for any of a hundred threats that would make one's blood freeze. They only made it official in OutboundFlight, written ''after'' the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series (completed in 2003), which featured the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong. He is, after all, a MagnificentBastard.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'': Among the [[ReligionOfEvil Soul Eaters]], Nef the Bat Mage is easily the most sympathetic. While the others want to oppress the clans in their self-absorbed hunger for power, [[WellIntentionedExtremist she believes that the clans aren't living in accordance to the will of the World Spirit and have to be oppressed for their own good]]. While she's not objecting to sacrificing predators, she doesn't like the needless torment [[{{Sadist}} Thiazzi]] the Oak Mage puts them and

** The most tortured character in the story must be [[ WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Merope Gaunt]] and she is a posthumous character nonetheless. A victim of abuse from her father and older brother in all her life, who was so desperate for love and affection that she brainwashed Tom Riddle Sn. to elope with her. The only happy moments in her life were due to a lie that she invented and she even decided to lift the enchantment hoping that he would stay with her. She was wrong...

* Joe Keller of Arthur Miller's ''All My Sons'' is a warm, likable, friendly fellow who genuinely loves his son and his wife. He also [[spoiler: deliberately sold defective parts to the Airforce that got 21 pilots killed and framed his partner for it. Eventually, his justifications get broken down and he kills himself offstage at the end of the show]].

* Fagin from ''Literature/OliverTwist''. Even more so in the musical.
** This is largely down to revisionism: Creator/CharlesDickens clearly saw Fagin as a monster who corrupted vulnerable children, arranged for the arrest and execution of his accomplices to avoid sharing his loot, and orchestrated the murder of Nancy after her HeelFaceTurn. Most adaptations, worried that this comes across as anti-semitic (possibly unintentionally, since reprints in Dickens' lifetime removed most of the references to Fagin being a Jew), portray him as someone forced into crime by being made a second-class citizen, or even a loveable rogue, and remove his more "evil" acts.
** Further deconstructed in Creator/WillEisner's ''Fagin the Jew''.

* Maedhros and Maglor from ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''. Because of their Oath, they killed many innocent people; however, both regretted their acts and tried to make amends for it, even attempting to forswear the Oath at various times. Maedhros was rather more diplomatic than the rest of his brothers, and he tried to save Dior's sons and avoid attacking Sirion; Maglor fostered Elrond and Elros.

** It is possible that [[BigBad Sauron]] started out as this, wanting to bring order to a chaotic world. However he underwent severe MotiveDecay and ends up as one of the most terrible villains in Literature.
** Saruman joins Sauron, but his motives are to ultimately [[TheStarscream defeat]] Sauron, believing he cannot be defeated otherwise.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', [[spoiler:the Malfoys]] became this.

** Also, arguably, [[spoiler: Regulus Black]] - he doesn't actually [[spoiler:lose his FantasticRacism, he just realizes that Voldemort is too evil when he leaves Regulus' beloved slave to die a slow, painful death.]]

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/ThePhoenixOnTheSword", while Rinaldo views the king Conan deposed with stupid nostalgia, he is not acting out of personal ambition and really thinks he is helping the kingdom. Conan, on seeing that it's him, appeals to him, though futilely.

* Most of the cast of ''Literature/BlackLegion'' comes across like that, especially Khayon. For ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40K]]'' standards, comes across like a NiceGuy and cares less about conquest and more about fighting a cause and people fighting for. It helps that he's the VillainProtagonist.

* One of the reasons Chinese novelist Creator/JinYong is considered such a great writer is because he never makes his characters evil for the sake of it, such as the case of the entire antagonistic cast of ''Literature/TheHeavenSwordAndDragonSaber'', in which they are all provided with understandable motivations, albeit couple with less than honorable m.o.

* One of the reasons Chinese novelist JinYong is considered such a great writer is because he never makes his characters evil for the sake of it, such as the case of the entire antagonistic cast of ''Literature/TheHeavenSwordAndDragonSaber'', in which they are all provided with understandable motivations, albeit couple with less than honorable m.o.

* ''Literature/TheSagaOfArrowOdd'': Odd's [[ArchEnemy arch-enemy]] Ogmund Eythjofslayer is a monstrous half-demon chock full of black magic who kills Odd's entire crew and treacherously murders Odd's blood-brother Thord Prow-Gleam. But later we learn that Ogmund acted in revenge of Odd's depredations in Bjarmaland and so is hardly more ruthless or cruel than Odd himself. Moreover, after their first encounter Ogmund tries to get away from Odd, and it is Odd who keeps up the feud out of vindictiveness. Ogmund even tries to reconcile with Odd, and eventually offers him his friendship.

* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': Arguably the Baudelaires themselves in later books, and among actual antagonists, Fernald seems to fall into this category at times.

** Saruman ends Sauron, but his motives are to ultimately [[TheStarscream defeat]] Sauron, believing he cannot be defeated otherwise.