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Villainous Friendship

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"Sardu and Ralphus have a... special relationship. Sardu doesn't spend the movie yelling at him or belittling him like in movies such as The Body Shop, in this one it seems like they're friends."

The relationship between the Big Bad and The Dragon is...complicated. Sometimes The Dragon has different goals in mind than his boss. Sometimes the Big Bad will toss aside his Dragon without a second thought should he fail his master, or cannibalize him for an extra power boost. Sometimes The Dragon only follows the Big Bad out of loyalty or duty. Sometimes they even intend on stabbing him in the back. It would seem that the relationship between the two positions varies from grudging respect to deep loathing.

But what if the two are actually friends?

It's not too much of a stretch, when you think about it; who does the Big Bad always have at his beck and call to talk out his issues and hang out with? His Dragon. After spending so much time together, the two may form some kind of a bond, whether it's just a matter of Emperor Nefarious wanting to know how Zartok the Destroyer's wife and kids are, or that the two are True Companions, sticking up for each other to the end. Neither one necessarily has to be a good person; sometimes they're both Affably Evil, other times the Big Bad cares nothing for any of his troops except for his right-hand man. Sometimes Birds of a Feather is in full-on effect; the two villains get along well exactly because they are both terrible, opportunistic people, who share similar ambitions of oppressing and harming the ones they see as their inferiors. This relationship often comes in two varieties: either they both care for one another, or the relationship is only one-way.

Compare My Master, Right or Wrong, Evil Is One Big, Happy Family, Criminal Found Family, and Unholy Matrimony. It's often between a pair of Bantering Baddie Buddies. A subtrope of Even Evil Has Loved Ones and Even Evil Can Be Loved. If the two villains have an equal partnership from the start, this can sometimes develop into a Big Bad Duumvirate. Contrast The Starscream. May result in Moral Myopia if they condemn heroes for doing the same things as themselves. For characters who don't get along, it's Headbutting Heroes.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • McDonald's: The Hamburglar and Captain Crook aren't exactly evil, but they are billed as bad guys, and they do have a genuine friendship with each other.

    Anime and Manga 
  • My Hero Academia: The League of Villains, led by Shigaraki Tomura, becomes this over time, which contrasts heavily with other villain groups like the Shie Hassaikai and Meta Liberation Army, both of whom believe We Have Reserves, and aren't afraid to say You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness. Shigaraki views his subordinates as True Companions, and will absolutely mess you up if you hurt or, God help you, kill one of them, as Overhaul found out the hard way.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • The Pillar Men from Part 2 have known each other for millennia; it's no surprise they like each other (except for Santana, who the others see as kind of a weak tool). Esidisi was even willing to sacrifice his life so that his comrades' plans could succeed. Even after Esidisi and Wamuu are killed and Kars reveals his true colors as The Unfettered, it's clear that if nothing else his friendship with the others was completely genuine, as he announces that his first order of business after becoming the Ultmate Life Form will be to avenge their deaths.
    • Dio Brando is notorious for treating humans as either food or tools, which makes it all the more surprising that he found a confidante and equal in Enrico Pucci, a priest-in-training. Even Dio was shocked at finding a human whom he could feel comfortable debating philosophy and sharing his deepest secrets with. After Pucci proves once and for all to be truly genuine in his friendship, Dio entrusts him with his ultimate plan, something none of his minions even knew about, and which Pucci carries out in Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean.
  • Naruto: In the Akatsuki, while the duos often bicker between each other (such as Tobi, Deidara and Sasori), there's a select few exceptions :
    • Konan and Nagato were actually friends prior to joining Akatsuki, and as such are actual friends instead of being forced to work with each other. Konan shows genuine concern to Nagato when the latter uses Chibaku Tensei and later on when Nagato dies using Rinne Tensei. Later on, Konan herself dies protecting Nagato's dream.
    • Kisame and Itachi get along quite well. While they were hostile when they first met, Kisame displays genuine concern for Itachi. In fact, other than the aforementioned meeting, they are never shown to argue at all, and that argument was quite civilized and only turned nasty when Kisame drew Samahada. Kisame's last words are even directed at Itachi. Their friendship is actually quite sweet. It is later revealed that both share a common burden of killing comrades for the common good. Both of them were men lost in their own contradiction and unable to know their true identity. In the anime, Kisame, despite his hatred of lies, is well aware of Itachi's true nature and bids him a fond farewell when Itachi goes to die against Sasuke. Zetsu even expressed doubt Kisame would remain loyal to Akatsuki after Itachi's death.
    • While they were never paired with each other, Tobi and Kisame deeply trusted each other. Tobi never manipulated Kisame, openly told him what he wanted and Kisame decided he'd join him. Tobi also showed Kisame his face, and after Pain's death, apologized to Kisame for having to pretend to be a goofball in Akatsuki. Kisame goes as far as to sacrifice himself to prevent the enemy from extracting intel from him.
  • In One Piece, Kaido - one of the biggest villains in the story - and his subordinate King have a similar relationship to Luffy and Zoro.
  • Guame and Lordgenome in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Supplemental materials show that Guame was once Lordgenome's Non-Human Sidekick (as Boota is Simon's). A thousand years of ruling the planet has warped both of them, but they are still on better speaking terms than Lordgenome is with anyone else.
    • To put it in perspective, the other three generals are afraid of reporting failure to Lordgenome because they know it might mean their lives, whereas Guame can get away with openly questioning his orders in front of the others.
  • Gundam:
    • Mobile Suit Gundam: Garma Zabi thought he had this with Char Aznable, all the way back from officer school. Unfortunately, Char, secretly the prince of the royal family the Zabis usurped decades ago, has been feigning friendship this entire time just waiting for the moment he can deniably murder Garma, with the rest of his family to follow.
    • Played with in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Sociopathic Soldier Yazan Gable is clearly incapable of showing empathy or actually caring about anybody. But it's just as obvious that he enjoys the company of likeminded psychopaths Dunkel Cooper and Ramsus Hasa and Big Bad Paptimus Scirocco, playing the Manly Man to the latter's Sensitive Guy.
      • Sarah Zabiarov is shown to have a bad case of hero-worship and/or heavy crush on Scirocco, which he naturally exploits whenever necessary. However, there is a hint that Scirocco may have cared for Sarah more than his other pawns, as when she dies, he completely loses control and goes ballistic, the only time in the series he does so.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny reveals that Big Bad Gilbert Durandal had a functioning friendship with his predecessor, Rau Le Creuset. In fact, most of Durandal's actions are driven by his inability to prevent Le Creuset's spiral into madness. The reason Durandal didn't actually assist Le Creuset in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED was that despite their friendship, they had a fundamental difference in philosophy. Both believed that humans were inherently evil, but had completely incompatible ideas on what to do about it. Le Creuset felt the only solution was to exterminate humanity, while Durandal thought that humanity could be forced to get better.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Marik's relationship with Rishid (his foster brother as well as his second-in-command) is complicated. The two are very close, and Rishid does show Undying Loyalty to his brother, but this is for a very good reason: Rishid knows that he is the only one preventing Marik's even darker personality (who killed their father) from taking hold. When Yami Marik does eventually take over, he tries to kill Rishid to prevent the real Marik from regaining control, but Rishid refuses to desert the real Marik, and this plays a vital role in the Final Battle between the villain and Yami Yugi.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Yliaster's Four Stars of Destruction are the main villains of the Yliaster Saga, who share a bond of friendship with each other due to the fact that they were the only remaining survivors of the Bad Future, with the collective goal to prevent it from happening. The androids based on the original three dead friends still harbor strong feelings for Z-one, the last survivor of mankind, with Antinomy and Aporia putting all their faith and support in Team 5D's, asking them to save him from his despair and show him hope. After he's defeated, Z-one ultimately sacrifices himself while thinking about his three friends in his final moment. Thanks to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links being made of memories, all Four Stars of Destruction are finally able reunite again. Aporia and Z-one repeat their Heel–Face Turn from the anime series, Paradox also pulls a Heel-Face Turn, and Antinomy is already on the side of Team 5D's to begin.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
    • Gauche and Droite share a strong bond of friendship with each other, with Gauche even Taking the Bullet for Droite during their 2-on-1 duel with Yuma.
    • The Seven Barian Emperors also have a strong bond of camaraderie with each other. Well, six of them do. Vector is The Starscream who doesn't care for any of them, having pissed off every single one of them for his treacherous deeds. Girag and Alito in particular consider each other as best friends, with Girag confronting Vector for ambushing Alito. After Girag and Alito are out of commission, Mizael attempts to attack Vector for what he has done to them, but he is stopped by Durbe. Durbe himself sacrifices himself for Merag during their duel with Vector, and Durbe is generally loyal to the other Barians, particularly Nasch. Nasch is very pissed off about Vector having absorbed Merag, Durbe, Girag and Alito. However, after Nasch has absorbed all of the other six Barian Emperors, he even considers Vector a comrade who reluctantly helps him out, as Vector has already been freed from Don Thousand's influence.
  • Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover from Attack on Titan are devoted friends, and make for an extremely dangerous team as a result. They are fiercely protective of each other, and won't hesitate to risk their own life to help the other. Their friendship with their aloof partner, Annie Leonhart, is a bit more complicated. Even more complicated is their friendship with the other members of the 104th, who they genuinely consider their friends regardless of being on the opposite side of the conflict.
  • The Team Rocket Trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth from Pokémon: The Series. They genuinely care about each other and their Pokémon. In one episode it was shown that Meowth was not treated well by them. In almost every other episode however, they treat him as a true friend. In particular, Ekans and Koffing normally evolve through regular Level Grinding - except the gang's did it through straight Power of Friendship.
  • The Power of Friendship is so strong in Kinnikuman that even villains express it. This is especially notable in the case of Ashuraman and Sunshine during their fight with the Hell Missionaries. Ironically, they had spent that arc actively blocking the Power of Friendship from aiding Kinnikuman.
    Sunshine: It doesn't matter if we're devils! I can't abandon the person who's fighting this battle beside me to the very end!
  • In Eyeshield 21, Blood Knight Gaou genuinely respects and considers Marco to be his friend and role model, even if Marco himself is openly terrified of Gaou.
  • In Hunter × Hunter, Hisoka and Illumi hang around each other quite a bit during the Hunter exams and the chairman election arc, trading information, having casual chats, and helping each other with their plans.
  • Panzer World Galient: Hy Shaltat and [Marder. Both men have mutual respect for each other (even though the former really isn't in a position to assist the latter much). Hy is absolutely loyal, and Marder greatly values Hy's spirit, zeal and skill.
  • Rosario + Vampire: Hokuto Kaneshiro and Kiria Yoshii. The latter was Hokuto's Only Friend during his Yokai Academy days, and even turned him into a monster using his own blood to give him the strength to survive.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Vegeta and Nappa initially seemed to have one. Despite Vegeta being the prince and Nappa his aide, Nappa constantly addressed Vegeta in a casual manner, calling him by his name without honorifics like "prince" or "sir". The two seemed to get along due to their sadistic senses of humor, and while Nappa did seem somewhat fearful of Vegeta due to their power gap, and Vegeta did scold Nappa a couple of times, overall, their relationship seemed positive, with Nappa being very loyal to Vegeta. This ended up being Subverted when Vegeta killed Nappa after he was crippled by Goku, remarking that a Saiyan who couldn't move was useless. When Nappa is revived in Dragon Ball GT and games such as Dragon Ball Fighter Z, he is shown to hold a grudge against Vegeta and want to kill him out of revenge for his betrayal. Only in the Bad Guy saga of the game Extreme Butoden do they bury the hatchet.
    • The Ginyu Force are rather close; doing poses together, playing Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who fights who, and betting candy over fights. Burter and Jeice in particular are very close, dubbing themselves the "Blue Hurricane" and "Red Magma" of the team, and performing combo attacks together.
    • Van Zant and Smitty, the two evil thugs whose actions lead to the birth of Evil Buu. Zant calls him an "old friend" at one point, and they do get along fairly well. Zant even asked Smitty to help him kill people because he wanted him to join in on the fun.
    • Bardock and his crew in Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku are still a band of mercenaries who make a living by slaughtering innocent races so their planets can be sold off by Freeza. That said, for all of their sins of mass murder, they are true, genuine friends with each other, unlike other Saiyans such as Raditz and the above mentioned Nappa and Vegeta. While most Saiyans don't care for one another and have no problem with killing family members, Bardock and his crew are true friends who care deeply for one another. This is shown when Bardock is shocked and saddened to find his crew killed by Dodoria.
    • In Dragon Ball Super, Ginyu and Freeza seem to have this at first. Freeza is genuinely happy to have Ginyu back, saying that he thought he died on Namek. Then this becomes subverted after Vegeta kills Ginyu. Instead of being saddened by the death of his most loyal servant, Freeza laughs.
    • Although Future Zamasu doesn't see Goku Black as his "comrade", they get along very well. When they're not out killing mortals, they live together in a house outside the city and have tea together; Future Zamasu even suggests to Black that he use the Dragon Balls to become immortal just as he did. It turns out Goku Black is *another* timeline's version of Zamasu who stole Goku's body. Really says all you need to know about Zamasu.
    • Later on, Freeza seems to develop one with his Universe 6 counterpart Frost when they finally meet. Like the Zamasu-Goku Black example above, it says a lot about Freeza that the one guy he seemingly gets friendly with is basically another version of himself. Ultimately subverted, however, when Freeza leads Frost into an alliance - only to betray him and call him an amateur for being stupid enough to trust Freeza.
  • Black Lagoon: The Lagoon crew are murderous pirates, but they really do care for each other, being Vitriolic Best Buds. Revy is actually disgusted by Chaka shooting his own men in the back since her team cares for one another.
  • In Case Closed the Black Organization members Chianti, Calvados and Korn are in rather good terms. To the point that when Calvados kills himself in custody, Korn and Chianti do not forget him through their apparitions in the story, and they loathe Vermouth because they believe she let their friend die.
  • Digimon Data Squad: While not much of their camaraderie is seen between the Royal Knights, they are shown to respect each other. Magnamon and Dynasmon praise Craniummon's (nigh-)invincible defense and trust him for that. Dukemon still shows respect towards Sleipmon who has betrayed them and Dukemon shows some signs of reluctance of fighting his former comrade.
  • Digimon Frontier: LordKnightmon and Dynasmon are shown to be fairly close with each other. They share the exact same goal and dream of conquering the Human World and their teamwork is comparable with that of the heroes, despite each of them being proud knights. Part of their dream is that they conquer the real world together, thus Dynasmon flips when he sees his comrade being mortally wounded, and the near-dead LordKnightmon is concerned about Dynasmon being slayed down.
  • In Kill la Kill, Satsuki and Jakuzure are shown to be Childhood Friends. Later it turns out they're not villains.
  • Magical Girl Site: For all of her cruelty, Sarina was genuinely friends with Erika and Kawano, and she becomes depressed after Erika's death, which leads to her hating Aya even more, since she blames her for the death.
  • My-HiME: Alyssa and Miyu have a very close bond. While Miyu is an android built to act as Alyssa's bodyguard, they seem much closer than servant and mistress. They are first seen singing together on a hillside. Alyssa frequently clings to Miyu. A flashback shows the two building a snowman. The two care deeply for each other.
  • Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Oriko and Kirika are true friends. They are completely devoted to each other. Oriko is the only one who can call Kirika "kid" without her getting mad. Kirika even wished to change her personality so Oriko would like her more. When Kirika dies, Oriko dies protecting her lifeless body.
  • In Vinland Saga, Askeladd and Bjorn are on friendly terms and Askeladd trusts Bjorn with secrets and missions he doesn't trust anyone else with (except Thorfinn). When Bjorn catches a fatal infection he requests Askeladd kill him in battle so he can get into Valhalla, and as he lies dying tells Askeladd that all he ever wanted was to truly be his friend. Askeladd tells him that he was his Only Friend as he gives him the Mercy Kill, though it's never made clear if he was being genuine or not.
  • Code Geass has the Emperor of Britannia Charles and his Knight of One Bismark Waldstein. The two are genuine friends and are notably functional, which is notable given that the Emperor is not really known for being on the best of relations with...well anyone.
  • While the homunculi of Fullmetal Alchemist are all pretty sociopathic, they do occasionally show some level of concern for each other. Gluttony seems to look up to Lust, and in the 2003 anime, is angry and protective of her when Ed weakens her by bringing out some of her mortal version's hair. When Mustang kills Lust in Brotherhood, Envy is genuinuely upset and disturbed and wants immediate retaliation, stopped only by a more pragmatic Wrath. A few episodes later, Gluttony goes completely berserk when he realizes Mustang is nearby, and tries to kill him in revenge.
  • Death Note: Matt and Mello are genuine friends. Matt is Mello's Only Friend. The two clearly care a lot for each other. They even live together. Mello becomes very saddened when Matt is killed in a police shootout.
  • Black Cat: Kyoko has this with a few of her teammates, with the most obvious example being Charden. She always follows him, even leaving the Apostles with him when she knew that she would most likely be killed for treason.

    Comic Books 
  • Arawn: Arawn's only true friend as an Evil Overlord is the decapitated head of his advisor Owen. In fact, the whole reason why Owen is still alive is because Arawn forces the Cauldron not to kill him and later brought him Back from the Dead after Owen gave his own life to destroy it.
  • The DCU:
    • To the extent that either of them is capable of it, Lex Luthor and the Joker are friends. They understand one another better than any other villains do, and despite their many fallings out, they'll always work together again.
    • Batman:
      • The Joker is sometimes good chums with other Bat-rogues. This is heavily Depending on the Writer, though, and sometimes his unstable nature is what keeps the Bat-rogues from working together.
      • Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are genuine friends, occasionally with benefits. Harley only has eyes for Mistah J but often goes to Ivy when she feels abused, and Ivy considers Harley to be one of the few good humans.
      • Harley, in fact, is quite friendly with most of her fellow Arkham inmates. For example, she was friends with the Ventriloquist, to the point that, after he died in the pre-New 52 continuity, she was utterly offended when Mafia Princess Peyton Riley took up the mantle (and Scarface with her), feeling it was disrespectful to Wesker's memory.
      • The Riddler and the Penguin are friends with each other as both see in the other the only villain in Gotham that is smart and can hold a conversation. When the Penguin believes he is going to die in battle, the Riddler quietly tries to stay at his side, but Cobblepot sends him away, saying he doesn't want his friend to die with him.
      • Sometimes, such as in The Long Halloween, the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter seem to get along pretty well... although they're at their most insane in that story, so it's sort of hard to tell. Since they're both fond of messing with people's minds, presumably they have a lot to talk about.
    • The Flash: Captain Cold has a surprisingly strong friendship with fellow villain Heat Wave. All of the Rogues like each other to some extent (except Captain Boomerang), but Cold and Heat Wave are especially notable in this regard. They constantly bicker and have completely opposite motifs and personalities but are also very protective towards one another, and Captain Cold is genuinely concerned about Heat Wave's ever-damaged mental state.
    • After their time together during Forever Evil (2013), Sinestro and Black Adam have developed one, even though the former does consider the later somewhat excessive.
    • Robin (1993): Tapeworm and Thunderhand became good friends while imprisoned and escaping from the O.M.A.C.s. After Ragman killed Thunderhand, his buddy Tapeworm went on to become a major thorn in Robin's side in retaliation.
    • Superman: Luthor is known to partner up with Brainiac. Funny how the guy who's everything wrong with humanity (including xenophobia) and the being who's everything wrong with aliens (including contempt for humans) get along so well.
    • Teen Titans: Deathstroke has one with his butler, mentor, and confidant, Wintergreen. Wintergreen saved Slade's life when he was sent on a suicide mission, and Slade returned the favor and saved Wintergreen when he was captured as a prisoner of war. As a result, the two are quite fond of each other, and Wintergreen even served as Slade Wilson's best man for his wedding. He has been Slade's right-hand man, acting alternately as moral conscience, comrade in arms and nursemaid. After Slade murders Wintergreen while possessed by the spirit of his son Jericho, Slade falls into a deep depression, never fully recovering.
  • Hierarchy members Sere and Emeris in A Distant Soil have a reasonably close friendship based on their common fondness for Torture for Fun and Information, murder and Mind Rape. Emeris doesn't mourn long (or at all) when Sere is killed though.
  • Evil Ernie: Ernie has one with his sidekick, Smiley, a psychotic sentient button that acts as the source of his power. Smiley was originally Ernie's pet rat, and was one of the only things Ernie genuinely cared for. After his death, Smiley became Ernie's new companion in undeath. He acts as Ernie's guide and voice of reason, often letting his friend know his opinions. They get along very well.
  • Jason vs. Leatherface: Jason forms one with Leatherface and his family, and it seems to be the first time that Jason has ever had a friend in his life. A simple misunderstanding ruins it all though, and he heads back to Crystal Lake to get away from the place that encouraged friendship.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Captain America: The Red Skull has an incredibly loyal second-in-command in the form of Crossbones. Crossbones is the only person who genuinely likes and looks up to Skull, considering him a mentor-figure. No matter what atrocious act Red Skull commits, Crossbones will always be there to help him. It helps that Crossbones is also hopelessly in love with Red Skull's daughter Sin. For his part, while the Skull doesn't really care for Crossbones on a personal level, he does value him as a very effective soldier and treats him far better than his other minions.
    • Fantastic Four:
      • Dr. Doom has one with his right-hand man Boris. Boris is highly loyal to the doctor. Doom seems to care for Boris as well, being content to leave him in charge of Latveria whenever he is away. Doom even acknowledges Boris as his "only living friend". According to their backstory, Boris helped raise the orphaned Doom. He is the closest thing Doom has to a surrogate father.
      • Also, even though Doom sees him basically as a means to an end (well exemplified in the original and newest version of Secret Wars (1984)), he treats the Molecule Man pretty well. It was even thanks to Doom that Owen realized the extent of his power, even though it further damaged.
    • The Incredible Hulk: The Leader and the Abomination, who became friends through their mutual hatred of the Hulk. The Leader was even upset when the Red Hulk killed the Abomination.
    • Greg Rucka's run of The Punisher introduces Stephanie Gerard and Christian "Chris" Poulsen. Stephanie's a former A.I.M. scientist who wants to get into regular crime because it is more profitable and less risky. Chris is a former S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who acts as her right-hand man, confidante, and muscle. The two share a genuine friendship, spend all of their time together, and at the time of Stephanie's death, were moving towards a romantic relationship. When she dies at the Punisher's hands, Chris proceeds to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that sees himself dead, leaves a double-digit body count, and results in the Punisher becoming the NYPD's Public Enemy #1.
    • Spider-Man:
      • Doctor Octopus and the Vulture were friends for a long time. Ever since the formation of the Sinister Six, the two have partnered up on a number of occasions. They seemed to get along well. That is, until the events of Superior Spider-Man (2013), when Ock learned that Vulture was using kids as minions, which appalled him and put an end to their friendship.
      • In Spider-Men II, it is revealed that Wilson Fisk and the 616 Miles Morales have been close ever since Miles saved Fisk's life in prison. They later ran a restaurant together and Fisk arranged for Miles' retirement from the criminal life.
    • Thunderbolts: Baron Zemo and Fixer have a tumultuous but very strong friendship, being effectively Heterosexual Life-Partners. No matter what they go through or what side of the law either is on at any given moment, they always end up either on the same side or at least willing to help the other. Their relationship has been very rocky and full of twists and turns, but at the end of the day, it's really not an exaggeration to say that they're the only constants in each other's lives and care for one another accordingly.
    • X-Men: Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut were friends for many years. Wolverine once teased Juggernaut by referring to Cassidy as "your boyfriend". Juggernaut once dived underwater to save Cassidy from drowning. For Cassidy's birthday, Juggernaut once gave him the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, hoping to give him some of his powers. After Juggernaut's Heel–Face Turn, he convinced Cassidy to turn himself in. He even gave up on money despite Cassidy's wish since money means nothing to the Juggernaut without him.
  • Cardinal Roark and Kevin are quite close in Sin City. Cardinal Roark mentions Kevin as only ever speaking to him, and kisses his severed head as Marv prepares to kill him.
  • The page image is a variant cover from Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, where Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily start the Crisis Crossover because they find a mutual friend and kindred spirit in one another. The partnership works out very well up until late in the series: the stress of their failure to stop Sonic and Mega Man, despite their teamup, combined with the fact that Dr. Eggman is a murderous psychopath who will casually throw Dr. Light to his death from their vessel once he decides Dr. Light is too dangerous to keep alive, which offends Dr. Wily because A: he considers that going too far and B: he wanted to keep Dr. Light alive to rub his triumph in Light's face, causes an irreconcilable break-up between the villains. They promptly start double-crossing each other and further ruin their efforts to stop Sonic and Mega Man. By Worlds Unite however, Eggman reconciles with Wily after Sigma forces the two mad doctors to work on the Master and Unity Engines by telling a (somewhat true) tale about the events of Collide and how Dr. Light caused their falling out.
  • Star Wars:
    • Star Wars: Darth Vader and Star Wars: Doctor Aphra have Triple-Zero and BT-1, a pair of Killer Robots who share a love of killing and destruction, and overall have a dynamic that helps sell their status as Evil Counterparts to Threepio and Artoo. When Beetee is seemingly destroyed by Vader, Triple-Zero is clearly distraught (even if he tries to deny it), and overjoyed when Beetee is rebuilt.
    • During the climax of the Worst Among Equals arc, Aphra comes to the realization that for as toxic and destructive as their relationship is, Triple-Zero is her only real friend, the only person who fully understands and accepts her for what she is. When they appear to be seconds away from blowing up, Triple-Zero holds the wounded Aphra's hand to await the end. And when the bombs are deactivated in time, he calls her his friend as he leaves.
    • That same arc also features Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba, who are clearly good friends on top of being a Mad Scientist and his enforcer sidekick.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW): Bebop and Rocksteady have this dynamic. The two are almost never seen apart and they get along very well. There was one time when the two had a falling out in the Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything mini-series, but they later patched things up. They even had a mini-series dedicated to their relationship entitled Bebop & Rocksteady Hit the Road.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): One of Alan Jonah's mercs, Tejada, has an apparently genuine friendship with a Mook Lieutenant (whose name is censored but apparently consists of four characters), being often seen together with said Lieutenant and trying to stop them from running to their death. Both of them were also friends with fellow merc Kauffman, and are genuinely upset after Kauffman commits suicide.
  • In Apples Equals Cyanide Equals Light, Ryuk and Kira get along rather well, even though one of them doesn't remember his former life or their prior association.
  • In Mega Man Reawakened, Glyde and Bass are friends, and later, so are Glyde and Wily. Glyde even paid Wily's billion dollar bail.
  • Neomorphs: The Visser and Guraff are close friends, and appear genuinely concerned whenever the other is in danger.
  • In The Lion King Adventures, Timon and Pumbaa are turned into evil beings who drain the souls of cubs to preserve their immortality; however, they are still just as much friends as they were in the actual films.
  • In The Moon's Apprentice, Nightmare Moon legitimately appears to care for her dragon, Twilight Sparkle, although when she began to care is up for debate.
  • Vengeance of Dawn has the eponymous fallen heroine Breaking Dawn and her circle of foalhood friends, Razor Wind, Cherry Blossom, Hardy Bloom, Laurel, and Hard Candy. None of the latter five are particularly evil, but go along with Dawn's plot to dethrone the newly-crowned Twilight Sparkle and win back the favor of Princess Celestia, simply because their loyalty to her is so strong. She feels the same way toward them, as seen when she promises not to leave them behind when she becomes a princess of Equestria. In fact, one could make the argument that they're as close as Twilight and her friends are. They don't even abandon Dawn when her plan fails and the princesses come to arrest her, sticking by her side until the end. How's that for loyalty?
  • In Child of the Storm, it's been noted that Gravemoss and Dr. Zola get along disturbingly well.
  • The Bridge (MLP):
    • There is a group of Anti-Villain kaiju consisting of Monster X, Gigan, and Megalon later joined by Irys/the Hyper Albino Gyaos who do have a genuine bond together. They spend most of their off-duty time together, are frequently grouped together on missions as the Big Bad knows they work well together, and won't hesitate for a second to pile into the fray if one of their teammates gets attacked. Gigan even unknowingly channels the Equestrian power of friendship to successfully repulse a windigo attempting to infect him with a Hate Plague and hijack his body.
    • To a lesser degree, it's revealed Discord, Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra all know each other personally. In addition to the IDW comics being canon, they are all pupils of the God of Destruction, Grogar. When King Sombra is revived and in private with Queen Chrysalis, they respond rather cordially with one another.
  • Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): SEELE members Keel Lorenz and Shinji's grandfather Takuya Ikari have this dynamic. Takuya was the closest thing Keel had to a mentor, and he seems to respect him more than the other high-ranking SEELE members, valuing his input and willing to be completely honest with him. For his part, Takuya is the only person in SEELE who can be casual, even sardonic, with the chairman.
  • Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness: Hokuto and Kiria, as in canon; it's noted that Hokuto agreed not to enact his plan to revive Alucard unless Kiria failed in his own plan to use Chrono Displacement to rewrite history, even though Hokuto was firmly convinced that Kiria's plan was doomed from the start. Nonetheless, when Kiria's plan does fail at the end of Act III, resulting in Kiria's death at Tsukune's hands, Hokuto has almost no reaction; if anything, he's actually happy that Kiria's dead since he can now enact his own scheme.
  • Before the event of the story, in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fic Harmony Theory, villain Max Cash had one with his mentor and loyal companion James Big Jim Bay. Max rewards his friendship and loyalty, exactly how you think a sociopath with a huge case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder would, accidentally awakening and reviving the long dead hero Rainbow Dash and kicking off the plot of the story with Jim's death.
  • In The New Adventures of Invader Zim, Zim's new ally Norlock quickly establishes a friendly rapport with the Tallest.
  • Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters:
  • In Amazing Fantasy, Mysterio and All For One have this relationship, referring to each other as friends and lending each other their resources as needed. All For One lends Prowler's services to Mysterio, while Mysterio provides All For One with powerful technology from the Marvel Universe that surpasses that found in Izuku's.
  • In Mastermind: Strategist for Hire, Izuku/Mastermind is on good terms with Arms Dealer Giran and Serial Killer Himiko Toga, though the former is primarily due to him being good business.
  • Gensokyo's Heart: Kerrigan has a very good relationship with her second in command, Stukov, and seems to genuinely see him as a friend, although, he, while highly loyal to her, insists that he isn't her friend simply because he can't be friends with her if she's his boss. He talks about this to her other minions, insisting the soldiers can be friends with each other, but not their boss.
  • From Darkness I Rise: Darth Lumis (formerly known as Obi-Wan Kenobi) is notable among the Sith for developing real, genuine bonds with those he deems worthy, most notably Asajj Ventress, General Grievous, and Commander Cody. Ironically, two of those were strong contenders for being his Arch-Enemy in canon. He tries to help Ventress escape from her destructive "apprenticeship" under Dooku, bonds with Grievous over their shared hatred of the Jedi, and with Cody and the other members of the (brainwashed) 212th with their shared connection to Mandalorian heritage. He's also extremely protective of them, as shown when he threatens to hunt down and kill Mace Windu if he should happen to kill Grievous in their duel. This is noted to make him especially dangerous, as he commands actual loyalty from these people, when the best Sidious and Tyrannus could hope for is obedience.
  • In Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship, the Big Bad, Dark Conquest, has a genuine friendship with his ally Necromancer. He accepts criticism from him, and the two often share jokes together. That doesn't change the fact that they're both depraved planet-slaughtering psychopaths.
  • True Potential: A friendship is formed between Kabuto and Hidan during chapter 100, due the fact that the two of them are the first person to treat the other with a smidge of respect. It's quite the contrast compared to the latter's relationship with his previous partner.
  • The Chaotic Masters: Upon meeting at Roulette's auction, Mad Mod and Señor Senior Sr. bond over their shared annoyance at having their sons turn out to be joke villains. The latter even invites the former to a weekly poker game with similarly-minded villainous parents.

    Films — Animated 
  • Although Iago does take a few blows along the way, he and Jafar seem to have a genuine friendship throughout Aladdin. They chat pleasantly with one another, Jafar actually takes advice from him at one point, and even after he conquers Agrabah he keeps Iago at his side to enjoy in the spoils as well. This fizzles out in the sequels when Iago manages to escape Jafar's lamp and decides to cozy up to the heroes in the sequel, hoping to start a new life on easy street, and when Jafar tries to use him as The Mole he finds he's come to care about the heroes and ends up pulling a Heel–Face Turn and even delivering the finishing blow to Jafar to save Aladdin. By the third movie he's a full-blown good guy.
  • Anastasia: Rasputin and his familiar Bartok are shown to get along like friends. Rasputin only yells at Bartok once (for the understandable reason that Bartok was recklessly endangering his reliquary) and otherwise treats him very well, while Bartok is consistently shown to be genuinely interested in his master's wellbeing. That said, Rasputin's increasing obsession with completing his revenge, coupled with Bartok's growing reservations about pursuing it, cause growing strain in their working and professional relationship over the course of the movie; eventually, Bartok abandons his master, having failed to convince him to abandon his self-destructive quest and realized it wouldn't end well.
  • Killer Frost and King Shark from Batman: Assault on Arkham are the only two members of the Suicide Squad who not only don't dislike or want to screw over one another, but actually like and genuinely become friends with one another. They actively look out for and protect one another, and Frost is genuinely cross when Shark's implanted explosive kills him. Not bad at all for a relationship that started with Shark trying to eat Frost and getting a swift kick to the nuts for it, eh?
  • Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation begins with the villain, Dark Heart, blackmailing a girl named Christy after a Deal with the Devil. Partway through the movie, however, she saves him from drowning, which begins to make him actually care about her. This eventually leads to a Heel–Face Turn that makes him Become a Real Boy.
  • The Lion King: The hyena trio of Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed are a Vitriolic Best Buds example. They snark at each other, but they still consider each other friends. They also thought they had one with Scar, but he was just using them: they do not take it well when they overhear him trying to blame them for everything to save his own skin.
  • Maybe they're a bit more like pets, but when Ursula accidentally zaps Jetsam and Flotsam in The Little Mermaid (1989), she looks absolutely distraught and decides to go One-Winged Angel.
  • Megamind: Megamind and Minion are true friends. In fact, they have been friends since infancy. Minion is completely loyal to Megamind, who values him as his Only Friend. Eventually subverted when they both make a Heel–Face Turn.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Electro and the Green Goblin form one when traversing through Oscorp. Electro is initially reluctant to form a bond with anyone, but it works out for both of them. Electro even asks Goblin if he really wants to be his friend, to which Goblin replies "I thought I already was."
  • Batman
    • Batman (1989): The Joker and his right-hand man Bob seemed to have a pretty good relationship. Bob was the second in command of The Joker's group of thugs back when he was Jack Napier. After Jack's transformation into The Joker, Bob stayed by his side as his loyal right hand man. Bob was very loyal to his boss and did everything he was asked with a "Yes sir!" The Joker seemed to value his loyalty pretty well, telling him "you are my number one guy", though you might notice he's quoting what Grissom said to him before trying to have him killed. Unsurprisingly, The Joker later shoots and kills Bob with no hesitation just to vent his anger after Batman foiled one of his plans, and never so much as thinks twice about it..
    • Batman Forever: Riddler and Two-Face get along great and seem to be having the time of their lives in every scene they share. Even when Two-Face and his goons crash Riddler's party, he simply complains that Two-Face should have let him in on it.
  • Big Trouble in Little China: Lo Pan seems to have had one with the Three Storms. The Three Storms were all shown to be genuinely loyal to Lo Pan. The last Storm becomes visibly upset and bulks up to take on the hero when Lo Pan is killed. An earlier scene implies that Lo Pan felt at least a certain amount of kinship with them as well.
  • Bloodsucking Freaks: Sardu and Ralphus seem to genuinely like each other and have a true friendship. Sardu is a Benevolent Boss and Ralphus appears sincerely loyal.
  • Blue Velvet: Frank Booth and his cohort Ben. Even with Ben's lack of screentime in comparison, it's clear that Ben is the only other person in the entire film who Frank genuinely likes as a person, which is impressive considering how spiteful and cruel he is to everyone else, including his own lackeys. Frank genuinely respects Ben's "suave" attitude, and the two have a routine where Ben will lip-synch the song "In Dreams" to Frank. Ben is far more reserved, so it's hard to tell if the feeling of friendship is mutual from his side, but he's cordial with Frank and goes along with his scheme of holding Dorothy's son hostage.
  • The Dark Knight Trilogy
    • In The Dark Knight, the Chechen and Maroni are clearly good friends outside of work. They're even having dinner together when they're arrested.
    • In The Dark Knight Rises, it is revealed that Bane is merely The Dragon to the real Big Bad, Talia Al Ghul. Their backstory swiftly reveals that he pledged his life to protecting her when she was a little girl in a Hell Hole Prison, and it's likely that Talia is the only person Bane has ever cared about, to the point that he was willing to fight off almost all of the other inmates, suffering an agonising disfigurement in the process, just so that she could have the freedom that was denied to him. And she came back for him, bringing the might of the League of Shadows to bear against the prisoners who injured Bane and murdered Talia's mother, asking Ra's to spare Bane. Their relationship has been one of absolute loyalty and mutual trust ever since.
  • Calvin Candie and Stephen in Django Unchained are shown to be genuine friends, with Stephen, the head house-slave, preserving Candie's authority at Candieland and basically running his plantation for him, and Candie providing Stephen with a dominant position in his organization.
  • Godzilla vs. Megalon: Gigan seems to have shades of this with Megalon. Subverted in that Gigan's perfectly fine with abandoning Megalon as soon as the tides turn in their enemies' favors.
    • Gigan had a similarly friendly relationship with King Ghidorah in Godzilla vs. Gigan. He and Ghidorah squabble after the mind control used on them is broken, but they willingly work together to finish off Godzilla and Anguirus and escape Earth together afterwards. Considering they're both Ax-Crazy sadists that love torturing other monsters, it figures.
  • Gothika: The serial killer/rapist is eventually revealed to have had an accomplice. After Sheriff Ryan is revealed as Doug's accomplice, he states that he helped Doug out with his first kill because they were friends, and since then they have been destroying countless lives for their depraved gratification. Ryan goes on a rampage against Miranda as revenge for killing Doug (she was possessed by the ghost of one of the victims).
  • In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Prince Nuada was heartbroken and enraged at the death of his sidekick Mr. Wink, telling Hellboy "You will pay for what you did to my friend back there".
  • Harry and Marv from the Home Alone films seem to have a pretty good friendship, despite Harry often getting annoyed with Marv's stupidity. In a deleted scene, the two are even shown singing "Harry And Marv are coming to town".
  • In Bruges, Ken and Harry are, aside from being hitman and mob boss, old friends. Back in the 70s, Harry indebted Ken by avenging the racially-motivated murder of Ken's black wife and ending up doing prison time for it. Even though Ken thinks Harry's "a cunt, and always be a cunt", he has no qualms telling it to his face, and neither does Harry object. When Ken directly disobeys one of Harry's orders, Harry just knee-caps him (when the 'appropriate' thing would have been to kill him).
  • Knock Knock (2015): One of the only redeeming qualities Bel and Genesis have is that they genuinely seem to be friends with each other. They get along great and never argue.
  • Mars Attacks!: The Martian ambassador and the Martian leader seem to get along quite well during their interactions, even sharing a laugh at the Earthlings' gullibility, although the ambassador does show fear when the leader is berating the other Martians in one scene.
  • Dorian Tyrell from The Mask is very jovial with Freeze, one of his henchmen. He takes it hard when he sees Freeze mortally wounded, tries to comfort him with One Last Smoke, and flies into a rage when Freeze dies.
  • Drug kingpin Nino Brown in New Jack City has a friendship with his lieutenant Gee Money that doesn't seem to be faked. When they establish their criminal empire, Nino tells Gee that they've finally made it and that they have to look out for each other. Near the end, he expresses his friendship with Gee as more important to him than all the money and women he has gotten, but they just can't go back to the way they were after Gee betrays Nino by allowing an undercover cop to infiltrate CMB and also making a deal with said cop behind Nino's back. Nino struggles to kill Gee as tears roll down his face.
  • In Poker Night, the killer had one with his mentor, Terrence Alby. He wanted to show him the work of his recent killing spree. He was devastated about his death and vowed to avenge him.
  • Prince Humperdinck and Count Rugen were portrayed this way in The Princess Bride, with full on Affably Evil, Heterosexual Life-Partners overtones.
    Humperdinck: Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work. But I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I'm swamped!
    Rugen: Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything.
  • In Scarface (1983), Tony Montana and his eventual Dragon Manny Ribera start out the film as friends, which doesn't change as they start a criminal empire in Miami. Manny eventually gets fed up with Tony's more malicious behavior, like beating up his sister's touchy boyfriend. When Manny secretly elopes with Tony's sister, his friend goes nuts and kills Manny in a jealous rage.
  • Scream (1996): Billy and Stu ostensibly have one. They are noted to be best friends, and Stu claims to have only helped Billy out of peer pressure due to their friendship. The two do seem to get along fairly well due to their sadistic senses of humor. However, while Stu clearly cares for Billy, it is hinted that it might be a one way friendship, with Billy not caring at all for Stu. This is implied by Billy being a Bad Boss and ordering Stu around. This is further hinted at in Scream 3, where Roman reveals he gave pointers to Billy, including the suggestion that he recruit an accomplice that he could pin the blame on for everything if things didn't work out, suggesting that Billy was just using Stu and wouldn't hesitate to sell him out.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Agent Stone seems to genuinely like Dr. Robotnik in spite of the man's constant belittlement, prioritizing rushing to the doctor's aid over chasing their target, bringing him drinks, understanding the mad man's quirks better than anyone else, and following his orders without question. Robotnik seems to like him, at least to the extent a sociopathic Mad Scientist with complete disdain for humanity and friendship could like someone, stating he won't miss him when humans are replaced by machines and generally treating him with contempt, but nevertheless complimenting that he loves the way Stone makes lattes (notably the only nice thing he ever says about anyone) and creating a stand-in of Stone, an actual stone with a vaguely face-shaped surface, to keep himself company once he's been exiled to Mushroom World. This continues into the sequel, where he reacts to Robotnik's return with genuine glee and immediately returns to his side. And for his part, Robotnik seems content enough to reunite with him, and during the climax when Stone asks that the doctor take him along when he creates a Humongous Mecha with his new Master Emerald-granted Reality Warper powers and goes on a rampage, Robotnik doesn't hesitate to do so.
  • Son of Frankenstein: Ygor and the monster form a genuine bond due to them both being outcasts. The monster even helps Ygor get revenge on those who shunned him. The monster goes berserk when he finds Ygor dead.
  • In Star Wars:
    • Palpatine and Vader have a very dark version of this, although it borders on hostile at times. Palpatine saved Vader's life after Mustafar and refers to Vader as his "friend" on various occasions, and seems to care about Vader to the extent a Sith Lord is capable of caring about someone (a little), but nonetheless is willing to discard Vader if a better apprentice comes along. Vader, for his part, is completely loyal to Palpatine, largely because Palpatine is all he has left after the events of Revenge of the Sith. Even so, he plans on overthrowing Palpatine sooner or later.
    • A New Hope: Expanded material makes it clear that Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba are genuine friends. Their partnership began when Ponda saved Evazan from a bounty hunter. Though Ponda did once consider turning Evazan in for the money, he decided against it when he realized they could make more money together. Overtime, they came to like each other. They considered each other friends despite their differences. In Legends continuity, their relationship was more rocky, and Evazan really felt no care for Ponda, while Ponda vowed revenge after Evazan nearly got him killed trying to reattach his arm. In the canon materials however, they truly do care for each other, which serves as Evazan's only redeeming quality. Unlike in Legends, Ponda stayed friends with Evazan even after the near death experience. Evazan even states that he agrees with Ponda that evil doesn't preclude friendship.
    • Also from New Hope, Tarkin and Vader. Tarkin even calls Vader "my old friend" at one point. This is also used to explain Tarkin giving Vader orders (Vader's true rank in the Empire hadn't been worked out in the first movie): Vader is simply willing to follow Tarkin's command out of respect for their friendship, and the fact that he is on a station Tarkin has command of.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows: Following the examples in the cartoons and comics, Bebop and Rocksteady are shown to be genuine friends who get along great, calling each other "Beebs" and "Rock".
  • Cohaagen and Hauser (Quaid's former identity) in Total Recall (1990). Cohaagen acknowledges their friendship when Quaid calls the guy an asshole and makes sure he is given an obedient, mindwiped wife to "enjoy", goes into a rage when he is forced to order the death of his friend, and goes on a tirade against Quaid for making sure he's not coming back.
  • Tragedy Girls is just as much about the friendship between Sadie and McKayla as it is about their killing spree. Despite being utter sociopaths with no regard for other people, the girls genuinely care about each other and share everything, McKayla even describing them as "the same person."
  • Eric Ludendorff and Dr. Poison in Wonder Woman (2017) form a very close, platonic relationship despite being very twisted individuals. The two actually giggle together like high schoolers while gassing their victims.

    Literature 
  • Nightfall (Series): Tristan and Vladimir are both evil and are very close friends in spite of having a master-servant dynamic.
  • Implied to be the case between Nicodemus and Anduriel, the Fallen Angel that shares his body, in The Dresden Files. While most of the Denarians (the organization Nicodemus heads) end up little better than slaves to their Fallen before long, the fact that Nicodemus has retained his free will and humanity despite being possessed for approx. two thousand years speaks of at the very least a healthy respect between them. Part of the reason it works is that Nick is horrible enough on his own that he doesn't really need much demonic prompting...
  • In the Honor Harrington series, Rob Pierre and Oscar St-Just are friends aside from being loyal, while they recognize they are two very different personalities. David Weber often shows this type of relationship between people on the opposing side of his heroes, as he often has the "villains" be doing things for reasons other than just purely For the Evulz.
  • Restart: The closest thing to a virtue that Aaron, Bear, and pre-amnesia Chase have is a strong sense of respect and loyalty for each other, even during times of adversity.
  • In Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, Trixie and Gilda are shown to have met each other and become friends at some point. The two have fun pulling pranks and scamming ponies. It is an Odd Friendship because Gilda hates ponies and Trixie IS a pony.
  • Belch is this to Henry Bowers in It. Villainous jerk or not, it takes a pretty brave and loyal guy to stand up against a fricking Frankenstein's monster just for the sake of protecting a friend. Henry barely returns the sentiments, though he does apologise to Belch's reanimated corpse (though it's actually the creature in disguise) for leaving him behind to die.
  • In the prequel novel Wolf Creek Desolation Game: Mick Taylor is shown to have had one with his superior during the Vietnam War, Sergeant Atkin. The two raped and tortured women together. During a mission, Atkin taught Mick the "head on a stick" technique, and watched as Mick cut a soldier's head off, and mount it on a pike. The two seemed to like each other and get along quite well. Their friendship ended when Atkin decided to try and kill Mick to make sure he didn't talk about what they did.
  • The Godfather - Despite being the relative "good guys" in the story compared to the other gangsters, Vito Corleone has genuine friendships with Tessio, Clemenza, and especially Genco. They are also his two capos and consigliere in his criminal empire.
  • In the BALADA: A Symphony Of Eternity series, the various Imperial Officers of the 378th battlewing are shown to be friends to a various degree among themselves, not an easy feat considering that their composed out of a giant spider who's a religious fanatic, a Eagleman with aspirations of chivalry and knighthood, a sarcastic giant locust, a Legion being formed out of thousands of hivemind insects who is also a fashionista, a centaur, a six armed Starscream expy, a sweet tooth velociraptor with a perchance for pranks, a friendly humanoid turtle, an Admiral Thrawn/Flashman expy, and a werewolf as their marines commander, though it helps that most of them where cadets together at what's basically West Point IN SPACE and then the weird characters come in!
  • In The Traitor Son Cycle, Jean de Vrailly and the King of Alba (who serve as The Dragon and Obstructive Bureaucrat respectively) share a genuine friendship - in fact, as de Vrailly laments after the King is killed, they're pretty much one another's Only Friends.
  • War and Peace: Anatole, Dolokhov, and Hélène.
  • Soon I Will Be Invincible: Dr. Impossible and the Pharaoh are Vitriolic Best Buds and while Pharaoh is way below Impossible in terms of Villain Cred, Impossible still likes and defends him. This is noted to be fairly unusual; most other supervillains in this setting can't stand each other, seeing their colleagues as rivals that are little better than the heroes.
  • Rod Allbright Alien Adventures: The Big Bad Duumvirate, BKR and Smorkus Flinders, are not just partners, but good friends. It's noted that this is in part because they're the two most evil and vicious criminals in each other's respective dimensions.
  • In "The Yellow Dwarf", the titular dwarf and the Fairy of the Desert have a close alliance, and the Fairy explicitly calls the dwarf her friend on multiple occasions.
  • In Fate/Zero, Gilles le Rais and his Master Ryuunosuke are both Ax-Crazy Serial Killers without a shred of empathy for other people... Except for each other. In fact, they so enjoy each other's presence that they have the strongest Master/Servant bond in the novel, treating each other as equals and partners. When Ryuunosuke is assassinated Gilles is deeply distraught and vows to consume the entire city with his Eldritch Abomination in Ryuunosuke's honor.
  • The Shadowspawn: Adrienne and Michiko are extremely evil vampire girls, but they're also genuine best friends, casually discussing torture and murder over lunch in among the other girl-talk. All with a playful wink. At one point, one cheerfully asks the other ''Aren't we awful?''
  • Redwall: Nightshade is this to Swartt. Nightshade is his advisor, second in command, and long time companion, and she is very loyal to him, going out of her way to make him happy. For his part, while Swartt doesn't really care for her on a personal level, and doesn't mourn when she's killed, he does value her service and go out of his way to keep her alive, treating her much better than most of his army.
  • Counselors and Kings: Kiva and her bodyguard, huntsman, and confidant, Mbatu, are genuinely fond of and loyal to each other, sharing a strong rapport.
  • Good Omens: Hastur and Liqur have a strong relationship. Hastur gets really upset when rogue demon Crowley melts Ligur with holy water.
  • De Griezelbus: Beentjes was once Onnoval's best friend, who killed him when he figured out his friend was secretly a werewolf. Beentjes becomes a skeleton and tries to kill him years later, but Onnoval is so happy to see his former friend that he refuses to destroy him. They continue their friendship even after both of them become undead monsters.
  • A Practical Guide to Evil:
    • Amadeus of the Green Stretch, better known as the Black Knight, has one with Alaya of Satus, better known as Dread Empress Malicia. They started as Childhood Friends in Praes, before twists of fate led to Amadeus and his Calamities overthrowing the prior Dread Emperor and Alaya stepping up as Dread Empress. Since then, they've kept their friendship going—with Black serving as Malicia's right-hand man, letting Black handle the Legions of Terror and the story while Malicia handled the politics of running the Dread Empire. It's implied that having the ability to genuinely trust her right hand was a major factor in Malicia's unprecedented forty-year reign. While their relationship frays over the series as a result of mutually broken trust and conflicting visions for Praes, eventually reaching straight-up opposition despite neither of them wanting it deep-down, Amadeus still sacrifices himself to buy Alaya a few more years of life.
    • Amadeus's own right hand, the Scribe, has a one-sided version with him.
    • Catherine's villainous Band of Five, the Woe, have a few examples:
      • Cat develops one with her own second in command, Hakram, to the point the Grey Pilgrim sees him as the person Cat loves most when deciding who should wake Cat up from her Revenant-induced coma at the Battle of Hainaut. Their friendship also frays as a result of broken trust over the course of Books 6 and 7, though they never oppose each other and manage to reforge their friendship by the end.
      • Indrani bonds deeply with Masego, eventually entering a queerplatonic relationship with him.
      • Averted by Cat's friendship with Vivienne when she starts to grow into someone worthy of being Cat's successor as Queen of Callow, if only because Vivienne is technically a hero.
    • Kairos Theodosian, the Tyrant of Helike, genuinely appreciates Catherine for being the only one who really gets what he's going for. He still betrays her, of course, just as she betrays him, but he doesn't regard it personally.
    • Inverted by the Grey Pilgrim and Saint of Swords, two of the oldest heroes on Calernia and opponents to Catherine during the Tenth Crusade. Saint breaks their friendship when Pilgrim accepts Cat's offer of peace, refusing to compromise with the Enemy.
    • Downplayed by the Dead King and the Intercessor. Both are ancient, immortal shatranj-masters defined by being "more essence than form," and while the Intercessor is technically one of Above's her ends are just as horrid as the Dead King's. They both regard each other as Arch-Enemies, but they occasionally have friendly chats as the only two people on Calernia who can really relate to the other.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In season 3 of The Vampire Diaries, Stefan and Klaus, but it's more like "comrade"ship than friendship.
  • Tony Soprano of The Sopranos with Silvio Dante and Paulie Gualtieri.
  • Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell from The Wire have been friends since they were kids, and as of the show's first season they have killed and plotted their way into controlling the drug trade on the West Side of Baltimore. However, they begin to grow apart after the end of Season 1, when Avon is arrested and sent to jail while Stringer avoids any jail time, as Stringer has very different ideas about running the business. Stringer wants to run the illegal drug trade like a business, without the violence and Mob Wars, while Avon exults in everything that is part of The Game, especially his reputation and the taking of turf. Eventually they both reluctantly turn on each other, with neither knowing that the other was also doing a set up. The result is that at the end of Season 3 Stringer dies and Avon goes to jail again.
  • Uncle Jack and his gang from Breaking Bad are some of the evilest people in the series, yet they are shown as True Companions.
  • Justified has Wynn Duffy and his bodyguard and enforcer, Mike, who live together in Wynn's trailer, and always look out for one another. There's also Dickie Bennett and Dewey Crowe, who are always overjoyed to see each other, and go out of their way to protect one another when in jail together.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Roose Bolton and Walder Frey are seen amicably chatting and bantering back and forth the morning after the Red Wedding, celebrating their ascensions and the destruction of House Stark and House Tully.
    • Ramsay Bolton has an apparently friendly relationship with Locke, warmly shaking his hand upon Locke's return to the Dreadfort, and then chatting with him about how much Jaime Lannister screamed when Locke cut off his hand.
    • Cersei with Qyburn, who is the only person to visit her during her imprisonment by the Faith, and the first person to cover her after her walk of shame.
    • Tywin Lannister and Olenna Tyrell. They will fuck over anyone - including each other - to win, but the two of them casually walk together and have a civil conversation that doesn't involve murder, abuse, attempted murder and they only people they snark at are their own families when they actually meet. And, most of all, they seem to respect one another as the actual power behind their families. Note that Olenna only turns on Cersei after Tywin is dead and Cersei murders her entire family. When Tywin is alive, the two families are held in line by their very scary matriarch and patriarch.
  • Elias and Scarface in Person of Interest. From their first moment on screen together, it's clear that they're closer than your standard boss and minion; as the series goes on, we see them sharing a nice meal together when one of the good guys comes calling, and when Scarface is gunned down when Elias is in jail, Elias has his bodyguards paroled to watch over Scarface in hospital. It turns out they met as kids in an abusive group home, and are the closest thing each other has to family.
  • Gul Dukat and his long-time second in command Damar in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Sometimes they seem almost like a villainous Picard and Riker.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • In S2, Spike and Drusilla are a genuinely loving couple. When The Judge, a being designed to destroy all humanity rises, he states that their love for each other means he could kill them easily despite their not being human.
    • In S3, Mayor Wilkins loves his Dragon Faith like a daughter. Hurt one and the other will come looking for you.
    • In the spinoff Angel, Angelus and Spike were originally this, initially hitting it off with each other pretty well and Angelus taking the then-fledgling Spike under his wing as his Sensei for Scoundrels. However, as things went on, Spike began resenting Angelus for sleeping with Drusilla and their relationship became more of a rivalry, which carries on when they both get souls.
  • Captain Cold and Heat Wave in The Flash (2014), mirroring their relationship in the comics. Leonard chose Mick to be his first recruit for his new team of crooks to take on the Flash and is shown to be much more forgiving of his transgressions than that of previous associates. Cold also seems to be the only person that the insane Heat Wave trusts or even listens to.
    • Reinforced in Legends of Tomorrow, where Mick makes it clear that the only reason he's going along with the team is because Snart is, and it's later established that they've been friends since they met in juvie. Sadly, the series also sees the breakdown of their relationship, as Snart's development into a Noble Demon leaves him often in stark contrast to Mick's card-carrying evil, ultimately driving Mick into betraying the team, and Snart having to leave him for dead. Later, however, when Mick returns as the Time Masters' brainwashed goon Chronos, it's Snart who's able to snap him out of it.
  • Also mirroring a comic book example of this trope, Gotham features Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepot and Edward Nygma. When they meet in Season 2, they hit it off fairly well from the start, Nygma admiring Penguin as an inspiration. He helps Penguin get over his mother's death and the loss of his power base, forging a lasting bond. The two are seen eating meals and singing songs together, and when Nygma is incarcerated in Arkham in Season 3, Penguin visits him regularly and sends him presents. Their relationship falls apart later in the same season after Penguin kills Nygma's girlfriend in a jealous rage, leaving them at odds until midway through Season 4, when Penguin helps Nygma's "Riddler" personality reassert itself, which is grateful and helps Penguin against Sophia Falcone. They remain on fairly rough terms, however, until Season 5 when they work together, first to try and escape the blockaded Gotham and later joining the stand against Bane's forces, during which they reaffirm their friendship. By the time of the series' Distant Finale, their relationship perfectly reflects that of their comic counterparts.
    • There's also Jervis Tetch and Jonathan Crane, who seem to have mutual respect for each other while working as Jerome's co-dragons in season 4, perhaps having become friends in Arkham. They even call each other "Mr. Tetch" and "Mr. Crane".
  • American Horror Story: Hotel: Iris and Liz Taylor. The two initially did not interact much, but as the season goes on, they become genuine friends, with Liz helping Iris dispose of her victims without so much as blinking an eye. The two eventually team up and take over the hotel together.
  • Good Omens (2019): The Four Horsemen get along rather nicely. When they all meet at a diner to prepare for the final ride, they're glad to see each other, briefly make small-talk, and overall seem to have respect for each other's work. War, Famine, and Pollution also treat Death with genuine respect, as he's the oldest and most powerful Horseman of them all. (The book has a line that explains that the others like Death, but feel somewhat awkward around him, comparing it to getting a drink with your boss.)
  • Subverted in Once Upon a Time. Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella De Ville initially appear to be True Companions, and are shown to work well together and even risk their own safety for each other. However, it quickly becomes apparent that they all have their own agendas and are at different points on the Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness, so they clash when they aren't focused on a common goal. Additionally Ursula, the least villainous of the three, helped mediate between Maleficent and Cruella; and they quickly turn on each other when she leaves.
  • Power Rangers Dino Charge : Poisandra and Curio. Curio was created to act as a friend for Poisandra, and they like each other very much. The two acknowledge each other as best friends and have been seen watching TV and planning to go on a vacation together. They have even been shown hugging while talking about what great friends they are.
  • Velvet: Barbara and Cristina may become conniving schemers when working together, but they always have each others backs.
  • Limitless: Dragon with an Agenda Sands and Bit Character Huston served together as black ops spies and drug runners for years together. After their unit disbanded, Huston bribed authorities to get Sands out of a Hellhole Prison and got him a job working as a fixer for Morra. Sands is reluctant to kill him even when he's comatose. Huston does ultimately co-operate with the investigation against Sands, but mainly due to his desperation to get help with his And I Must Scream state of health.
  • Marvel's Netflix universe
    • Daredevil (2015):
      • Wilson Fisk and his right-hand man James Wesley. Beyond acting as his head enforcer, Wesley helps Fisk woo Vanessa Marianna and encourages him to do things that make him happy. In return, Fisk speaks fondly of Wesley and even gives him a genuine "Thank you" for everything he's done. Fisk takes it really badly when Karen Page kills Wesley for trying to blackmail her over an unrelated matter, beating up one of his bodyguards for not protecting Wesley, all the while shouting "he's my friend!"
      • Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman, a pair of corrupt detectives on Fisk's payroll, have been friends for 35 years. After Blake survives getting shot by a crooked ESU sniper for accidentally leaking information to Matt, Fisk worries that Blake will rat on him. It takes an awful lot of money, a threat to his own life, and the knowledge that Blake would be killed by someone else anyway, to get Hoffman to go to the hospital and poison Blake. Even then, Hoffman is so wracked with guilt over doing so that he goes into hiding, stashed away by Owlsley, and later gives Fisk's operation up to the FBI.
    • Luke Cage (2016): Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes and Henry "Pop" Hunter seem to have bits of this. Cottonmouth always holds Pop in high regard, to the point that when Pop is killed by Cottonmouth's right-hand Tone in the crossfire of a botched hit on Chico, Cottonmouth's response is to throw Tone off the roof to his death (that Tone had dismissed Pop's demise as "a casualty of war" was what pushed him to the breaking point).
  • On Mystery Science Theater 3000, the relationships between the various iterations of the Mads tend to fall into this to different degrees. It was best exemplified with Dr. Forrester and Frank, who were full-blown Heterosexual Life-Partners, but the trio of Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy were Vitriolic Best Buds who constantly bickered but ultimately cared about each other. Kinga and Max are probably the ones who least qualify due to Kinga showing no care for Max, but Max is still devoted to her in turn.
  • Narcos: During the 90s, Amado Carrillo Fuentes develops an Odd Friendship with Pacho Herrera. While the Mexican and Colombian Cartels are partners in the international drug trade, Amado confides things about his personal life in Pacho such as dealing with his daughter's death and they regularly visit each other for both business reasons and because they genuinely enjoy each other's company. By contrast, Pacho's dealings with Amado's predecessor Felix were quite cold.
  • Super Sentai
    • Denshi Sentai Denziman has this between the Vader Clan executives. Queen Hedrian is well liked by her subordinates, General Hedrer, Keller and Mirror, and in turn values their loyalty and greatly cares about them.
    • Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger has Furabiijo and Wendinu. They start off not really liking each other, but form a tight knit duo as the season progresses.
    • Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger has Wiserue and Kleon. Kleon looks up to Wiserue and likes him the most out of the three "bosses" he's served, while Wiserue takes a liking to Kleon as well.
  • In the Greek series "Στο Παρά Πέντε", the two enforcers who hunt the protagonists for the sake of the villain are Heterosexual Life-Partners. They are frequently shown hanging out together in mundane scenarios. During action, despite working for a very dangerous person who gets quite angry at failures, they prioritize supporting each other even at the expense of catching the protagonists.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • Kamen Rider Gaim features a subversion. Takatora and Ryoma were genuine friends in the past until Ryoma found out Takatora was a Well-Intentioned Extremist, instead of someone who shared Ryoma's Social Darwinist beliefs, and immediately began plotting behind his back, while still keeping up a friendly facade to manipulate him. Then again, given the sociopath Ryoma is shown to be, it's debatable how much Ryoma ever cared about Takatora as opposed to viewing him as his ideal Evil Overlord.
    • Kamen Rider Drive: The Heart Roidmude cares for both his co-executives, Brain and Medic, and makes an effort to be on good terms with both of them, even though they're constantly at odds with each other. Heart's friendship actually extends to the Roidmude race as a whole, and everything he does is to ensure a human-free future for them to thrive in.
    • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Parado and Graphite are shown to be best pals and to have a very informal Big Bad-Dragon relationship.
    • Kamen Rider Build: Them being villains is highly debatable, but Kazumi Sawatari and the Hokuto Three Crows are very close. Kazumi used up his savings to care for the Crows and his other farm workers after their farm was irradiated by the Skywall Disaster, and when Kazumi joined the military to get more money, the Crows joined after him out of loyalty.

    Podcasts 
  • The Magnus Archives has plenty of these, given that almost every non-protagonist character that serves one of the Powers qualifies as a villain to some degree:
    • Some time after they both gave their statements at the Institute, Trevor Herbert saved Julia Montauk's life during a monster attack, and the two became fast friends; for the past several years, they've been traveling around North America together, serving the Hunt.
    • Peter Lukas and Elias Bouchard appear to be on good terms; the Lukas family provides much of the Magnus Institute's funding, and although the two aren't seen "onscreen" together until episode 158, they refer to each other casually and have a friendly wager going on between them.
    • Peter Lukas and Simon Fairchild also seem to be close. They serve similar Powers, and were both closely involved in the creation of the space station Daedalus.
    • Implied between Jude Perry and "Megan" in episode 87, when the latter invites the former to see something funny (a plumber named Sebastian Skinner who didn't notice anything odd about, among other things, pulling human flesh out of a drain). In line with Jude's nature as a Desolation avatar, this doesn't last, and she burns down the entire surrounding area, which incidentally kills "Megan". She did seem to find Sebastian funny, at least.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • It's a general rule of thumb that Heel vs. Heel matchups don't sell, as it leaves audiences confused as to who to root for. As such, whenever heels do interact with each other, more often than not they gleefully go along with each others' disrespect, misconduct, and aggravated assaults. Whenever this falls through and one heel turns on another, that usually marks a Heel–Face Turn for one of them.
  • Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman. Despite being Heels, the two do genuinely care about each other. In the 2013 Extreme rules match against Triple H, when Trips had Brock in a submission he had no chance of escaping, Paul rushed into the cage to help Brock knowing that he stood no chance against Trips, allowing Brock to defeat him. In one interview, Heyman described a meeting with Brock where Brock showed him a picture of their kids playing together. Lesnar was also the one who asked Heyman to be brought back to the WWE.
  • The Shield. Notable as a stable of "equals", Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins genuinely cared about each other and considered each other "brothers". Or at least, that's what it appeared to be — while Dean and Roman were genuine about their feelings, Seth wasn't, only ever considering them "business partners" who he didn't hesitate to Sell-Out to The Authority. At the same time, however, a lot of Seth's behavior since then indicates that he's lying to everyone, including himself, about whether or not he honestly cared about them.
  • During WWE's Rock N Wrestling era in the 80's and early 90's, this was pretty much the case with the entire Heel locker room. Heels would often be shown having the same natural affinity for eachother as the Faces did, basically bonding over being complete dicks. it was considered unusual when Bad News Brown debuted and was portrayed as a Badass Loner who disliked his fellow Heels as much as he disliked the good guys.
  • The Four Horsemen, one of the best known Power Stable of all time. Consisting of Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and Ole and Arn Anderson, the group formed a bond between what were then the four biggest bad guys in the NWA.
  • Nikki Cross of SAnitY has become good friends with Alexa Bliss. The two have stated they are proud to consider each other friends, and have been known to hug. Alexa was the first person to welcome Nikki to Monday Night RAW. When Nikki replaced Alexa in a Fatal 4 Way match and won, she was overjoyed, seeing it as a victory for them both.
  • Shawn Michaels and Triple H are perhaps the most recognized example in wrestling. They were actually friends in real life outside of wrestling. A classic example of Vitriolic Best Buds, they are known for teasing each other, and will not hesitate to fight each other in a match, and Triple H has been known to eliminate him during free for all matches despite previously working with him. They still continue to work together, and Triple H did an induction for Shawn that was filled with a lot of snark but also a lot of love.
  • Portia Perez had one in Nicole Matthews. For all of her meanness, Perez seemed to genuinely like Nicole, who served as her tag team partner and Morality Pet. She was the only friend Portia seemed to have.

    Theatre 
  • A Very Potter Musical shows the formation of one between Lord Voldemort and Professor Quirrell.
    Quirrell: It's a comedy of sorts/When you're bound to Voldemort
    Voldemort: And I'm happy as a squirrel/As long as I'm with Quirrel
    Voldemort & Quirrell, in unison: We'll lead 'em to the slaughter/And we'll murder Harry Potter
  • Thomas Jefferson and James Madison of Hamilton, although it would be a stretch to call them villainous (antagonistic, sure, but not straight-up villains). Burr also tries to get in on the fun in "Washington on Your Side", but is ultimately rejected through his ambitious politicking in "The Election of 1800". Bizarrely, King George III is implied to have one with Jefferson, as he is seen gleefully making it rain with copies of the Reynolds Pamphlet in "The Reynolds Pamphlet" alongside Jefferson.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Pathfinder adventure path "Legacy of Fire" posits a close friendship between gnoll assassin Rokova and troglodyte cleric Grundmoch, despite the fact that both of them are Chaotic Evil servants of Rovagug. This actually becomes a plot point, for when evil genie Zayifid kills and replaces Rokova, Grundmoch notices, outs the genie to the PCs, and is actually quite willing to ally with them if it means Zayifid ends up dead. A Spanner in the Works caused by friendship between monsters. Not something you see everyday.
    • Grundmoch actually seems to have a talent for this. His personal bodyguard is a gibbering mouther called The Gargler, which the text notes he has managed to not only train, but befriend. The Gargler is loyal to Grundmoch, and will attack anyone who threatens him without any regard for its own safety.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade: Granted this is enforced more by collective blood bond (and a healthy dose of brainwashing/conditioning/Stockholm syndrome), but Sabbat packs tend to have this by default. It's a magically enforced friendship, but such Cainites will eagerly face Final Death for each other. It's those in the Camarilla that have a hard time standing each other. In fact, while regular, unenforced friendship is possible (there are clear examples of this, foremost being the coteries), it's heavily implied to be against Kindred nature as a whole. Ironically, it's the bad guys (or worse guys) that are most likely to employ the Power of Friendship. Unless they're the player characters, of course.
  • For some values of villain and friendship, Khans Vlad Ward and Marthe Pryde of Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon respectively in BattleTech. As Crusader Clan Khans, they are two of the most prominent figures to try and bring a full scale invasion back to the Inner Sphere, and they should by all rights be at each others' throats as their predecessors were. They happen to be powerful political allies and sometimes lovers whose forces happen to occasionally shoot at each other out of old grudges and honor-rivalry.

    Video Games 
  • Bowser and Dr. Eggman take an instant liking to each other in the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series, and form a Big Bad Duumvirate in the story modes. Unlike Dr. Eggman's other team up with a video game villain that turned sour note , and Bowser's general attitude towards other villains in his home series, these two bad guys get along quite well and maintain a steady alliance throughout, mostly due to their Commonality Connection, and they really dislike Sonic and Mario. Bowser Jr and Metal Sonic form a steady bond in the same series as well.
  • Case 03: True Cannibal Boy: The original Cannibal Boy considers each individual member of their soul merger a friend and they're upset when Brucie assimilates two of them. Justified because they're all from the same village that abandoned them.
  • Deus Ex: Bob Page and his dragon Walton Simons. Bob even comments on their strong relationship, during the opening cutscene.
  • Bahamut Lagoon has Sauzer (Big Bad) and Palpaleos (The Dragon), who have been friends for a long time.
  • In the Castlevania series, several manuals/bestiaries claim that Dracula and Death are this. Sadly, aside from Portrait of Ruin and possibly Lament of Innocence, protagonists rarely see this in action.
    • It should be noted that even though Dracula does use Soul Steal on Death once (in the aforementioned Portrait of Ruin), Death told him to do it as a last-ditch effort to defeat Johnathan and Charlotte.
  • Touhou Project: Toyosatomimi-no-Miko and Mononobe-no-Futo, the scheming immortals.
  • Shezar and Mudou in Duel Savior Destiny tend to fight a lot and threaten to kill each other, but considering their personalities, the fact that they haven't done it is a pretty good indication of their friendship. When Mudou dies before Shezar in Mia's route, he's the only one of the bad guys to actually get upset about an ally falling while the rest of them basically shrug and call him replaceable.
  • Hazama and Relius from BlazBlue seem to be pretty friendly with each other, despite both of them being head-screwing world-exploding sociopaths that are the cause of almost everything wrong in the world for the last century or two. Heck, it's implied that being such big assholes actually helps them get along. The reality is much muddier, as Relius' Astral quotes in Chronophantasma express increased frustration at having to rein Hazama in, and Terumi (Hazama's alternate personality) has a victory quote stating he always hated Relius' guts. Little wonder Relius gets horribly broken and Hazama comes down with a sudden case of death by the end — they were so confident in their ability to rein in the heroes and the Imperator that they started letting their true colors slip.
    • The matter gets clear up when you look at Relius's Astral Finish. When Relius performs his astral finish on Hazama, Hazama is practically given the VIP treatment in comparison to the other characters; While he does seem to be confined in a magical circle, Hazama is sitting comfortably in a chair completely unrestrained. The whole finish consists of Relius giving a stern talking to Hazama for getting cared away, while Hazama looks legitimately apologetic, and the astral ends with Hazama getting nothing more than a punch to the chest.
      • Not to make too fine a point, but the only other person who gets better treatment from Relius in the astral is Relius himself!
    • Meanwhile, when Relius performs the Astral finish on Hazama's Terumi form, Terumi seems to somehow get it worst than everyone else: In this finish, Terumi is restrained to the very same chair Hazama was sitting on in front of a gigantic mirror exposing his ghost form. Relius then gives his usual speech that makes it look that Terumi is about to getting the typical “lab treatment”; when the doors close and Terumi screams FAR LOUDER than everyone else about the pain, proving that Relius managed hurt his ghost form. So yeah, it's pretty clear where everyone stands.
  • Gym Gingnham, psychopathic Blood Knight Big Bad of ∀ Gundam and depraved rapist Psycho for Hire Yazan "I'm gonna violate you" Gable of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam fame become fast friends when they meet up in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.
  • The demons Decarabia and Forneus of the Ars Goetia aren't mentioned in the original text as having any relationship to each other, but are best friends in two out of five the Shin Megami Tensei games in which they both appear, even getting a combination attack together in Persona 3. Probably because, again unlike in the Goetia, they're both depicted as sea creatures, a starfish and a ray respectively.note  It more or less started in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, where Decarabia's found waiting for Forneus at the site of the Hachiko statue.
  • WildStar has the Draken and the "Chua." The former love killing things. The latter dedicate their lives to making better, more efficient ways of killing things. They got along nicely.
  • Cassius and General Gaius in Dust: An Elysian Tail were evidently close friends and shared the same vision of the future. For this reason, he doesn't order Dust's death, and the final fight has Gaius pleading with Cassius to remember.
  • Resident Evil:
    • Albert Wesker and William Birkin, at least as much as two sociopaths could be. Placed in charge of one of Umbrella's facilities as teenagers, the two were noted to be close and conspired together on many occasions. Their partnership remained well into their 30s, with Birkin actively aiding in Wesker's plan to betray Umbrella and steal their research. Birkin's death at the hands of Umbrella agents seems to have genuinely made Wesker very cross, something rare for a man infamous for using and throwing people away.
    • Alfred and Alexia Ashford were also quite close in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, being twins with some serious Incest Subtext going on. Alfred went completely haywire after Alexia's "death", going as far as to go full Norman Bates and dress up as her, and the first thing the Veronica Virus infused Alexia does upon waking up is cradle Alfred and comfort him as he dies, and then go straight for Claire and Steve. Note that this only counts in Code Veronica; in Resident Evil The Dark Side Chronicles Alexia got a somewhat contested rewrite and couldn't care less about Alfred.
    • Despite being a bitter, nihilistic egomaniac, Ozwell E. Spencer gets along well with his butler Patrick, who comments on how Spencer trusts him implicitly and treats him well despite typically only "having nothing but contempt or distrust for those around him." Adding to this is rather than having the man killed (as he typically does to those around him who know too much and are of no further use to him), he merely sends him away once the man's work is complete, effectively sparing the butler of the same brutal fate that befell Spencer and his security staff. Resident Evil: Resistance even features a soundbite where he talks to Patrick, not only politely asking for his slippers but even thanking him. Patrick's unquestioning, unswerving loyalty probably played a big part in this, though a file found in Spencer's estate does state Patrick and Spencer grew up together and implies they may have been Childhood Friends.
  • Ellen and The Demon from The Witch's House share a... complicated relationship. On one hand, they seem to mostly be working toward their own goals, Ellen often gets annoyed with The Demon, and he is willing to pull a You Have Failed Me on Ellen. On the other hand, they do seem to get along over their shared love of evil, and The Demon usually greets her in a friendly way, often addressing her with a "Yo". In one of the game's endings, he addresses Ellen as "My fair witch", he taught her how to read and write, and instead of pulling a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness he kept his part of their deal.
  • In Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, this seems to be the case between Archie, the Team Aqua Leader, and his Perky Female Minion Shelly. In the Aqua hideout, Archie had a photograph of him, Shelly and Jirachi taken approximately twelve years ago.note  He seems to be close to Matt too, who sees him as a brother. This is in stark contrast to Maxie of Team Magma in the other game, who doesn't seem to care at all about the female Admin and accuses his Dragon of trying to usurp the position of leadership (when the guy's true intent is to prevent the terrible mistake Maxie is about to make).
  • Lex Loathe and Glyde are damned near inseparable in The Misadventures Of Tron Bonne with the latter even jokingly mocking the former's utter lack of morals which they both laugh over. This carries over to Mega Man Legends 2 (where it's implied Lex is dead), where Glyde still keeps his portrait in his flag ship.
  • In Warcraft III, the death knight Arthas and the lich Kel'Thuzad have a very real camaraderie throughout the Undead campaign. Their bond grows so close, and they grow to trust each other so much, that it's easy to forget that Arthas actually killed Kel'Thuzad when they were respectively still a paladin and a necromancer. Or that they're both agents of a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Far Cry 4 gives us Pagan Min and one of his Co-Dragons Paul "De Pleur" Harmon. Although he doesn't seem to care too much when Paul is killed, Min is shown chatting amiably with Paul and even mentions at one point he travelled all the way to the United States once to visit Paul's family. His other two dragons, Yuma and Noore, aren't treated nearly as well (he ultimately lures Ajay to kill the former, and the latter is forced to do his bidding because her family is held hostage).
  • Bacon and Arcane Olga from original Shadow Hearts. Bacon uses no less than three previous Arc Villains and two Big Bads from previous installments as Unwitting Pawns, yet Olga is the only one he speaks candidly about his plans with seemingly just cause he enjoys her company and her Undying Loyalty keeps her from being a security risk.
  • From the Super Mario Bros. series, Wario and Waluigi. It's not entirely clear if they're just friends or if they are supposed to be brothers, but they clearly are on good terms. It says a lot that the only characters they share good chemistry with in the spinoff games are each other.
  • Street Fighter:
    • The Dolls are a Brainwashed and Crazy Amazon Brigade, but even in their brainwashed state they seem to genuinely care about each other. In Street Fighter V, when März was held captive in the Kanzuki Estate with Birdie looking over her, Aprile bursts in, knocks Birdie away, and rather than attacking Birdie again she immediately begins asking März if she's okay.
    • Balrog and Ed. When Balrog first found him, he only seemed interested in using Ed as a tool for his own gain, but by the time of V, the two have grown to genuinely care about each other. Even Menat's win quote against Balrog says that Ed's important to him. When he and Ed eventually part ways, Balrog almost sounds like he's about to cry.
  • Steve Haines and Devin Weston in Grand Theft Auto V serve as separate main antagonists that are a thorn on the heroes' side and also happens to be friends with each other (albeit they are only seen in one scene together). The two men share a lot in common being vile and sadistic scumbags first and foremost, though ironically, while Steve seems to genuinely care about Devin, its revealed that the latter doesn't care about him in return, blowing him off to Franklin and calling him a clown that he wouldn't even employ in his shopping malls.
  • Orc captains in Middle-earth: Shadow of War can sometimes be Blood Brothers with each other. If you kill one, the other will show up right after, ready to avenge his closest friend. He'll even resist the Brand through the power of his grief and anger.
  • Outlast:
  • Reinhard and Mercurius from Dies Irae have a... complicated relationship. Most of the time, they simply seem to tolerate each-other since their goals align. They sometimes butt head or even clash. However eventually it becomes clear that in their own strange ways, they view each-other with the highest respect, being the only ones besides themselves they can view as an equal. Not even in the all out free-for-all final battle do they lose this respect with both loudly proclaiming their friendship to each-other as they prepare to finish the other off.
  • In the Kirby series, though never outright confirmed, dialogue and actions involving the two heavily imply that Marx and Magolor are longtime friends.
  • Soul Nomad & the World Eaters: Revya, as the Devourerlord, forms one with Gig in the Demon Path, both of them enjoying the death and destruction that they're causing throughout Prodesto. Even at the end of the Good Ending, as horrified as Vigilance is to know all the evils he's committed as Gig, he still fondly remembers his time with Revya, saying that Gig was very lonely before he met them and hopes that they get together and do something fun should they ever meet again. When Vigilance leaves, Revya is distraught and doesn't bother to fight back when the heroes decide their fate.
  • Heart of Evil: Sergeant Kilmore and Colonel Kurtz are apparently friends, as Kilmore respects Kurtz's plans and ideology and helps him while attempting to kill Percy.
  • Spider-Man (PS4): After the Sinister Six are formed, Vulture and Electro seem to really hit it off, working together with perfect coordination, cracking jokes together, and complimenting each other’s skills. Contrast that with Scorpion and Rhino, who are just barely holding back from killing one another, and especially with Dr. Octopus, who callously tosses aside his supposed friend Mister Negative the second he stops being useful.
  • Undertale:
    • Going down the Genocide route as a Villain Protagonist has the Fallen Human form one of these with Flowey because he recognizes that your player character is now his childhood best friend, who like him has returned from death as a soulless being. While other routes let the player character befriend the lovable monsters of the Underground, Flowey is their only "friend" in Genocide. To his credit though, he seems to honestly care about the Fallen Human, confiding in them and expressing the desire to just live together with them on the surface. At the end of the route, he realizes that the Fallen Human would probably see him as an obstacle to be eliminated since he'd ruined their original plan, and tries to save himself by running off and warning the king of the Underground about them coming. He gets what's easily the most vicious and brutal death of the game, crying and begging his friend for his life as they hack him into pieces.
    • Although debated by fans along with everything else having to do with the Fallen Human's morality and motives, it's worth noting that Flowey's friendship with them is implied to be reciprocated even during their murderous rampage. They are pleased to have the Best Friends Forever locket "back where it belongs" if the player equips it, and although the player character had just killed other enemies in the same scene without player input, by contrast they do not automatically kill Flowey when he begs for his life, which some fans interpret as them hesitating, and the player has to choose to kill him by pressing Z. THIS is what the game seems to deem the Moral Event Horizon for the player, because making the Fallen kill Flowey is the point where you can no longer reset to undo the Genocide and escape the fallout; before that, you can reset at any point and the Fallen won't make a peep if you try for another route, but after killing Flowey, the Fallen will insist on "erasing this pointless world" whether you agree or not, will accuse you of thinking you are "above consequences" and demand your soul before letting you play the game again, and will use this to permanently taint your Golden Ending.
    • "You" (either the Player Character or the player themself - it's complicated) and the Fallen Human are another example in Genocide, possibly meant to be the Fallen Human replacing Flowey with you as their new friend and partner. Despite how callous and insulting they are to monsters in this route, they show you significantly more patience and help, their remark that the Best Friends Forever locket is "right where it belongs" if you equip it can be interpreted as them calling you their best friend, and they are nothing if not polite and grateful to you in the ending. If you agree to erase the world and move onto the next with them, they seem to feel pretty chummy with you, saying "We'll be together forever, won't we?" Even if you pick every choice they dislikenote  and get them angry enough to call you out on it, ultimately they still see you as their "partner" and help you everytime despite disapproving of your actions. If you believe the popular theory that the Fallen Human is also your narrator in other routes, this makes the Genocide partnership a darker version of the more lighthearted, teasing Odd Friendship implied to exist between the player character and narrator.
  • Witch's Heart: Lime and Charlotte seem to have a genuine friendship. Their rooms are right next to each other, they spend a lot of time together, Charlotte's rabbit plush was found in Lime's crane game, and Charlotte went along with Lime's ploy to mess with Noel in Noel's route. There are some hints of it being one-sided on Charlotte's part, but ultimately neither betrays the other.
  • Sengoku Basara: Toyotomi and Hanbe are genuine friends with each other, with Toyotomi treating Hanbe with the utmost kindness, and Hanbe being genuinely loyal to him.
  • Five Nights at Freddy's: Circus Baby seemed to be genuine friends with the other animatronics, especially Ballora. All of them truly seemed to care for each other as True Companions. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, however, reveals that the other animatronics had a falling out with her and kicked her soul out of their shared animatronic body.
  •  Umineko: When They Cry: Bernkastel and Lambdadelta have a very complicated relationship. They regard each other as enemies, rivals, friends, and lovers at different times. Lambdadelta holds a grudge against Bernkastel for besting her in the game, but she is also highly attracted to her, and wishes to have her return the feelings. The two go back and forth between trying to kill each other, having slumber parties, having sex, and talking about how much they would like to express their love for each other by slowly torturing each other to death. Both of them do get along very well when tormenting and killing people. It seems that Lambdadelta genuinely loves Bernkastel in her own Blue-and-Orange Morality way, while Bernkastel, being a sociopath, doesn't really care about anyone, but does consider her a good lover, as well as a valuable ally and a source of entertainment just valuable enough that she would prefer they rule together.
  • Welcome to the Game: Adam and Lydia are revealed to have this. He guided her on how to explore the Deep Web, they were stated to be friends, and she is shown to have joined his group in the second game.
  • Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: Captain Slag and his first mate Rusty Pete are Heterosexual Life-Partners, with Slag treating Pete very well for a henchman. During Slag's death scene, Pete is very broken up. Pete eventually rebuilds Slag, and they later get a radio show together.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Marluxa and Larxene were friends before they became Nobodies. After joining Organization XIII, they plotted together to take over and overthrow Xemnas. The manga shows them going off to get wasted and celebrate their success at one point. In Kingdom Hearts III, Larxene strongly implies she ever worked with the organization out of loyalty to Marluxa.
  • The Sons of Samedi in Saints Row 2 are a brutal Caribbean gang themed on Hollywood Voodoo. Their leader is a Scary Black Man called The General. His Dragon is an Ax-Crazy Witch Doctor called Mr. Sunshine. Both of them are pretty vicious individuals, but they seem to thoroughly respect one another. At one point in the game, The General cuts off Mr. Sunshine's left ear to punish him for losing their drugs to the Saints, and explicitly states that he took no pleasure in having to hurt his friend, but a price needed to be paid for failure. Mr. Sunshine calmly accepts his punishment, and shrugs off his missing ear.
  • Advance Wars:
    • In Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, Flak and Lash seem to have such a thing going on, at least to the extent a guy with the IQ of a ball peen hammer and a socially stunted Manchild can have. The other Black Hole COs at best have superior/subordinate relationships and at worst actually taunt each other about failing to take their respective territories — Flak and Lash actually seem to like each other and back one another up like with Lash setting a trap for Sami with Flak backing her up on Day 7 to wipe Sami out, Lash setting up Black Cannons to help Flak take Orange Star, and Flak agreeing to be a guinea pig in her experiments to pay her back for the support. In Dual Strike they even get unique win quotes when teamed up, and a decent 110% firepower bonus.
    • Hawke and Lash begin to have such a thing in Dual Strike, stemming from the duo being out of the loop of the Bolt Guard and Von Bolt. While Hawke does still more or less treat Lash as a subordinate whom he can order around and confide in he does care about her well-being, while Lash admits at the end of the game that she choose to defect with him because she enjoys his company.
    • Played for Laughs as something of a Development Gag with Adder and Koal, where the duo share such a thing despite Adder only being available in VS. mode and not appearing in the main story. As Koal is effectively a reskin of Adder (with very slightly tweaked mechanics), the ever-narcissistic Adder takes an instant liking to him: they get a decent 110% Tag Break when paired, and all of their win quotes are them remarking on how similar they are or how well they get along.

    Webcomics 
  • Homestuck: Jack Noir and the Draconian Dignitary, as seen here and the next page. They seem to actually be Moirails (compare with the definition of Moirallegiance here).
  • Goblins has Dellyn Goblinslayer and his dragon Sarral Caine, two evil adventuring buddies who've been through thick and thin together. Dellyn considers Caine to be the only person around that can be depended on, and is visibly shocked and grief-stricken when he finds Caine's body.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! has the two Rogue Canadians Scientists, who seem to be genuine pals.
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • Xykon and Redcloak show a veneer of this, laughing together over tormenting heroes and minions. In fact, Xykon is callously abusive towards Redcloak, while Redcloak sees the undead Xykon as nothing more than a powerful tool that he tries to manipulate to his own ends. The Monster in the Darkness thinks of the rest of Team Evil as his friends, but they very obviously do not reciprocate.
    • Tsukiko firmly believes that she and Xykon are friends, allies, and soon-to-be lovers. Xykon sees her as an expendable pawn and is indifferent (aside from amusement with the method of execution) when Redcloak feeds her to her own wights.
    • Tarquin and the Vector Legion appear to be a straight example: their ploy to control the Western Continent would never work if they were trying to backstab each other. Indeed, it requires a high degree of cooperation and implicit trust in each other, and they've been pulling it off for decades. In particular, Tarquin refers to Malack as his best friend, and murders his son Nale in chilling Tranquil Fury when Nale kills him. Laurin's reaction to Malack's death suggests that she was also fond of him. Miron is friendly enough with Tarquin to nickname him Tarkie, and chats with Laurin about her daughter's plumbing business. They are even fine with Malack's ultimate goal being rather different from that of rest of the Vector Legion and he is willing to hold off on it for their sake. Because as an immortal vampire, he would be able to carry out his mass ritual execution of the continent's population after the human members had lived it up like kings for decades and then died of natural causes.
    • Thog sees Nale as a friend, though Word of God is that Nale keeps Thog around for his combat ability and has no real concern for him. Nale and Sabine would be a straight example, but have edged into Unholy Matrimony. Nale seemed to be more genuinely friendly to the drow wizard Zz'dtri and both show surprising loyalty towards each other. Nale is genuinely horrified when the latter is killed, even trying to save him before being forced to flee.
    • Back when he was a young human, Xykon had a genuine one with fellow apprentice Yydranna. He accepted her being chosen as their boss's Dragon over him, she gave him advice about his tendency to go with raw power over tactics, and they parted on pretty good terms for mass-murderers.
      Yydranna: If I'll ever see you again, I'll have to ruthlessly crush you.
      Xykon: I'd be disappointed if you didn't try.
    • Goblinoid clerics Redcloak and Jirix have, like, the only genuine and loyal comradeship Redcloak's had with anybody since his brother died years ago. Redcloak makes a point of warning Jirix not to ever think of Xykon in this way, because such a friendship would never be mutual.
  • Cucumber Quest: Queen Cordelia has always been very close to her henchwitch, Peridot. In fact, the two share a mother-daughter bond, with Peridot declaring that since Cordelia is a queen, she herself is already a princess.
  • In Exterminatus Now, Silas Morth and his lieutenant Janus seem to have this They are both unrepentant backstabbing bastards (Petterner cultists, duh), they both know that about each other and wouldn't have it any other way.
    Janus "Thank you, Silas. It's been a... a relentless siege of constant paranoia working with you. no hard feelings for trying to murder you?"
    Silas Morth: "I'd've been genuinely disappointed if you hadn't."
  • Spinnerette: Dr. Universe is a Benevolent Boss to Greta, and she is very loyal to him. He even helped her with her Weight Woe, telling her to embrace her body.

    Web Original 
  • Brennus: The Dark, and his Co-Dragons Wyrm and Kraquok. The three of them of having been working together since the twenties, after all, and are basically the original Super Villains of the setting, yet they're as tight-knit as an evil team will get. A flashback even shows how hard they grieved when one of their team-mates was killed in a mission gone wrongnote .
  • While Moist in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog arguably qualifies as Horrible's Dragon more just by default than anything, the two are clearly best friends as well as supervillain and (only) henchman.
    • Moist and Dr. Horrible seem to be friends with other supervillains, such as Pink Pummeler and Conflict Diamond.
  • Rich Burlew (author of The Order of the Stick) wrote an article on giving TTRPG villains personalities that extended beyond acting purely to further the plan. The example he gave was a campaign in which two villains who were working together and whom the heroes fully expected to backstab each other, because they just couldn't believe that the villains really were best friends. When the players tried to induce such a betrayal by having the heroes pass intel about one villain to the other, they were shocked when no attempt was made to exploit the information.
  • In The Irate Gamer, Evil Gamer and Satan seem to be pretty good friends. In the Zombies Ate My Neighbors review, Satan and Evil Gamer were shown having a friendly conversation in Hell, and Satan even agreed to bring Evil Gamer back to life. In the Monster Party review, Satan and Evil Gamer made a deal where evil would help Satan get to Earth so he could Take Over the World if Satan killed the Irate Gamer. Satan ended up befriending Irate Gamer instead and went to hang out with him and Ronnie at a bar. Evil got mad at Satan for not killing the Irate Gamer, but Satan suggested that they all Go-Karting with Bowser, even offering to get Evil Gamer some cheesecake. In the Silver Surfer review, Satan congratulates Evil Gamer for thinking of a robot invasion before he did.
  • In Worm, when Skitter takes charge of the Undersiders, either Tattletale or Bitch could count as The Dragon. In both cases, Villainous Friendship is in play.
    • The trope is fairly common throughout the series. Villains usually work in teams and are often very close to their teammates. Relationships between different teams, however, are generally somewhere between openly hostile and polite but distant cooperation.
  • Marik and Yami Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series have a strained but ultimately prevailing friendship throughout much of the series. Of course, they may have only gotten this far because Bakura's still holding out for something else.
  • Due to the tons of characters in The Frollo Show, several villains have a close relationship with each other:
  • In RWBY, Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan seem to genuinely care about each other and get along well. Also the case with Mercury and Emerald, though more Vitriolic Best Buds.
  • Zig-zagged with the Ginyu Force in Dragon Ball Z Abridged. While none of them are particularly broken up about Guldo dying, Burter and Jeice are depicted as genuinely being best friends, to the point that Burter's loss reduces Jeice to a blubbering mess. After all the others are killed, Ginyu asks the heroes to give him a moment of silence. Naturally, Vegeta doesn't.
  • In Red vs. Blue, mercenaries Locus and Felix have a pretty hostile relationship, but seem to genuinely care for each other. Both of them work hard to protect each other in battle and occasionally engage in friendly banter. Subverted. Felix, the manipulator that he is, was exploiting Locus's PTSD to make him think that he needed him. Locus makes a Heel–Face Turn after realizing this.
  • Silver Skull and Cobraman from The Aquabats! Super Kickstarter! team up to menace the heroes. They come off sounding less like a pair of villains trying to kill them and more two buddies throwing barbs at the opposing team, giggling and building off each others' taunts. Once they think they've won, they go off to play cornhole.
  • Helluva Boss: Millie has one with Blitzo. While the crew genuinely tends to not get along that well (aside from Millie and her husband Moxxie being Happily Married) despite Blitzo's attempt to make them more like a family than an organization, Millie genuinely appreciates him, and he treats her well in return.
  • In Ace Attorney according to an AI, Kristoph Gavin and Matt Engarde appear to be friends in #5. Kristoph successfully defends Matt from being charged for killing Juan for using expensive cooking oil, and offers to get Manfred von Karma charged with bribery in order to prevent him from coming after Matt, both things for which Matt is honestly grateful.
  • S&D Tier: The series follows two supervillains, Alex and Morgan, who are best friends and eventually roommates. Alex is nigh-omnipotent and the most dangerous villain in the universe, having killed multiple heroes; Morgan has a hilariously lame power and focuses on overly-complex heists. Despite this, they get along famously... and Alex is in love with Morgan.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Deconstructed by Azula's Quirky Miniboss Squad. The friendship is genuine on Azula's part, but she doesn't comprehend that causing Mai and Ty Lee to fear her results in them not liking her. They eventually betray her, and Azula's first thought is that they should have been more afraid of her.
  • Beast Wars the Predacon flyers Waspinator and Terrorsaur somewhat develop one. While not unwilling to get one up on each other as Predacons do, the two are often the only ones who legitimately work together without issue and look out for each other to make sure they get back to base. Seeing as both have a case of bad luck more often than not it is likely a case of birds flocking together. With Terrorsaur's death in the season 2 premier, Waspinator would get the short end of the stick and have to put himself back together whenever he got scrapped after.
  • Christy and Dark Heart in Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation, due to a Deal with the Devil, that eventually leads to Love Redeems.
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): Seen with some of Skeletor's henchmen, oddly enough. It's most obvious with Trap-jaw and Whiplash's friendship (which comes across as Whiplash having a rather one-sided boy crush on Trap-Jaw), but Trap-Jaw seems to be pretty chummy with Beastman too (of all Skeletor's henchmen, the two are the most likely to appear as a duo), and Webstor and Kobra Khan seem to get along quite well also. Tragically, I don't think we'll ever know how Khan really felt about his Snakemen buddies killing Webstor in the 2002 series.
  • She-Ra: Princess of Power had its own example in the form of series Big Bad Hordak and Imp, both of whom show each other far more loyalty than they do anyone else.
    • The 2018 Netflix reboot adds in the Quirky Miniboss Squad of Catra, Scorpia, and later Entrapta, whom Scorpia dubs Super Pal Trio. Later subverted when Entrapta and Scorpia leave Catra in seasons 3 and 4, respectively; the former as a result of Catra outright betraying her and shipping her off to Beast Island, and the latter becoming sick of Catra's abuse. Entrapta and Hordak also develop a genuine friendship as intellectual equals.
  • The villainous team in the third season of The Legend of Korra all get along very well. Zaheer and Ghazan give each other a firm handshake upon meeting each other again (and friendly chatter on how Zaheer gained airbending following Harmonic Convergence), Ming-Hua light-heartedly teases their "ugly mugs" but is very grateful to see them when they spring her, and jokes about how they rescued her before Zaheer's girlfriend. Helps that they are legitimately well-intentioned revolutionaries, so their relationship is truly that of friends drawn to a common cause.
  • Megatron and Soundwave of the various Transformers franchises definitely qualify. In fact, when reborn as Galvatron, Megatron showed open grief and rage at Soundwave's death, and cared enough for him to bring him back to life.
  • Transformers: Prime has Breakdown and Knock Out, The Brute and the Deadly Doctor respectively, who are in fact extremely good friends. Knock Out takes Breakdown's demise and Silas' use of his corpse as a cyborg body very, very badly. Knock Out and Starscream also qualify, since they share a mix of Evil Genius, Butt-Monkey, and Dirty Coward traits and easily sympathize with each other as intelligent but rather histrionic villains.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • While not exactly "villains", Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are two friends who love to bully and antagonize the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they are always antagonists in episodes where they play a role. It's quite telling that the first key event to trigger Diamond Tiara's self-doubt that would lead to her Heel–Face Turn in Crusaders Of The Lost Mark was Silver Spoon having enough of her crap and abandoning her.
    • An offer of this is what sways Discord into helping Tirek conquer Equestria. Unfortunately it's far from a real friendship and Discord gets bitten in the arse hard for it.
    • Cozy Glow seems genuinely fond of Lord Tirek, spending nearly all her time imprisoned with him trying to befriend him and get him to return her affections. Tirek however finds her annoying and doesn't like her, but at least tolerates her attempts at friendship to a degree. She also tries to encourage Queen Chrysalis to be friends with her and Tirek, but Tirek and Chrysalis detest her and each other. After putting up with their arguing and refusing to listen to her, she slowly starts to get annoyed with Tirek and Chrysalis as well. This comes to a head when Tirek and Cozy Glow get into an argument and start blaming each other. The three eventually do manage to bond over their shared hatred of the heroes and start working together much better. They eventually admit that it feels good having others there to help them. Even so, despite their vastly improved teamwork and fondness for each other, they refuse to actually become friends, agreeing to work together just long enough to backstab Grogar.
  • Pinky and the Brain are Well-Intentioned Extremists trying to Take Over the World to make things better. Pinky obviously cares a lot about Brain, viewing him as a true friend. Brain often gets annoyed with Pinky and harms him, but despite this, he does in fact care about him. When Pinky sold his soul to get Brain the world in "A Pinky And The Brain Halloween", Brain rescued him because he missed him and ruling the world was no fun without him. In the Christmas episode, Brain tears up when he finds out that Pinky wrote a letter to Santa asking for Brain to be given more respect.
  • Spliced: Mister Smarty Smarts and his minion Octocat are often annoyed and frustrated by each other, but they're there for each other when it counts, as shown in the ending of "Octocataclysm".
  • Depending on the Writer, the League of Super Evil can be Vitriolic Best Buds or uneasy allies ready to betray each other at a moment's notice.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: All the recurring villains seem to have a friendship with each other. Then again, it's easy to see how the villains get along with each other, since Mojo Jojo is Affably Evil, HIM is soft-spoken, and all that. This goes to the point where they're seen discussing Even Evil Has Standards together, being willing to stand together when they think that even villains like themselves had enough, and even opened a Beatles-themed band with each other.
  • Wander over Yonder: Lord Hater and Commander Peepers frequently spend time together when not attempting to kill Wander or take over the galaxy. Peepers appears to be genuinely invested in Hater's success. In the episode "The Buddies," after finding out that Hater had half of Wander's "Best Buds" necklace, Peepers burst into tears and tore open his shirt to reveal his half of the same necklace. The end credits animatic depicts him screaming, destroying the posters and statues of Hater in his room before tearfully fixing them, and crying in the shower.
    Peepers: But I thought we were buds!!!
  • In Invader Zim, the title character's bosses, the Almighty Tallest, are co-rulers who both function as The Caligula and enjoy every minute of it. They often bicker but seem very close, joking around about ways to hurt Zim and their mutual love of junk food.
  • Darkwing Duck has maniacal and childish supervillains Megavolt and Quackerjack, who are clearly nuts made in heaven. Though they do have their differences (one is obsessed with electricity and the other with toys for starters) they are very accepting of each other's interests and hobbies to the point of dividing their time. Also of each other's insanity as Megavolt once complained to Quackerjack about his imaginary friend Mr. Banana Brain that he always takes his side.
  • Voltron: Legendary Defender: Lotor and his generals. However, in Season 4 he straight up kills one of them after she turns out to be a spy. This prompts the remaining three to turn on him, causing their whole friendship dynamic to fall apart. However, as far as we know, the three who turned on him are still friends.
  • South Park: In the Coon and Friends trilogy, Cartman forms one with Cthulhu, getting him to act as loyal hired muscle by treating him like a friend.
  • Castlevania has Dracula and Isaac. The two outright refer to each other as friends, Isaac is the only one who Dracula trusts with his true motives instead of his stated ones, and in the end Isaac is the only named lieutenant who stays loyal to Dracula. During the Final Battle of Season 2, when Isaac makes clear his willingness to die defending Dracula from Trevor, Alucard and Sypha, Dracula's response is to teleport Isaac to safety so he can survive.
    Dracula: You would give your mortal life to preserve my immortal one? You are the greatest of your people, Isaac. You have a soul, I think. Perhaps that is more valuable to the world to come, than a dusty collection of books and apparatus. Or perhaps you simply deserve a better fate, than to die instead of me.
    Isaac: I choose my death, as I chose my life.
    Dracula: Then I regret only that I have taken that choice from you. (throws Isaac through the Transmission Mirror)
  • Futurama:
    • Morbo is good friends with Richard Nixon. It says a lot that Morbo was the only person to support Nixon, and he's one of the only humans Morbo seems to like.
    • Robot Santa is good friends with the Chanukah Zombie, who has been known to invite Santa to luaus (They are also friends with Kwansabot, but he's not a villain).
  • Kim Possible: Dr. Drakken and Shego. They have a very complicated version of this. Although Shego is technically a mercenary hired by Drakken to act as his Number Two, their relationship is less boss and minion and more Psychopathic Manchild and snarky nanny. Drakken is rather incompetent at everything except creating mad-science gadgets, and relies on Shego for things like opening a pickle jar. Shego gets annoyed with her boss's idiocy and is prone to snarking at and insulting Drakken despite him being her employer, and isn't afraid to harm him, likely because she knows he needs her and won't fire her. Drakken himself is not above mind controlling Shego or replacing her with another sidekick. Despite all of their hurdles however, they continue to work together, and they have shown care for each other. The two have saved each other on several occasions, and Drakken has stated that he considers Shego part of his "evil family". Whenever Shego is replaced, she feels jealous. Drakken has shown that he can be a Benevolent Boss at times, even paying for Shego's hotel during her Christmas vacation. By the end of the series, the two start dating.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): Bebop and Rocksteady are best friends. Whenever they are not doing work for the Shredder, they pass the time reading comics, watching cartoons, and playing video games together. They sometimes get along better than the turtles.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Most of the villains have this, with a theme of Evil Is One Big, Happy Family, as they are shown to engage in activities such as yearly scheduled villain barbecues and villain award events. The major exceptions are Toiletnator and Knightbrace.
  • King Arthur & the Knights of Justice: Queen Morgana and Lord Viper are a case of Platonic Life-Partners. Morgana is a fairly decent boss to her troops, with Lord Viper being her loyal second-in-command. Although Morgana is his queen, he addresses her in a casual manner, usually addressing her simply as "Morgana" without using the honorific of "queen".
  • Amphibia: Captain Grime has one with his second-in-command, Commander Sasha, taking her advice and giving her some in return, complementing her intelligence, and is willing to do things that go against his serious nature for her. Though the biggest indicator he might actually care about her is when he saves her from falling to her death in "Reunion" then looks genuinely distraught at her injuries, shooting Anne a Death Glare for her part in it. Continuing into season 2, Sasha and Grime become each others' emotional backbones after the events on Toad Tower, leading to them both to help each other undergo Character Development, becoming more sympathetic and willing to toss aside their evil plans when something far more dangerous comes into play.
  • The Collector and Emperor Belos in The Owl House. They have a pretty amicable relationship despite their contrasting personalities and motivations, with the former notably being the only person/thing that can playfully mock Belos without incurring his wrath, as well as one of the few that Belos seems comfortable talking honestly and cordially with. It's actually entirely one-sided on the Collector's part. While Belos doesn't necessarily hate the Collector the way he does all the other Boiling Isles inhabitants, he still sees them as nothing more then a dangerous tool to be used and discarded, and he has zero intention of keeping his promise to free the Collector from their prison.
  • The Lion Guard:
    • Janja's two main hyena henchmen, Cheezi and Chungu, are extremely loyal to him, even after he kicks them out of their clan. Despite constantly getting annoyed with them for their stupidity, Janja does come to appreciate them more after being betrayed by the two hyenas he uses to replace them, Nne and Tano. He is shown to be very concerned when they are nearly killed by the fire Scar causes, which leads to the three making a Heel–Face Turn.
    • It is revealed that Scar turned evil after encountering two animals that shared this; a lion and cobra. The lion convinced Scar that they could conquer the Pride Lands together, but had his cobra friend infect Scar with his venom in an attempt to blackmail Scar into being their henchman and helping them take over the Pride Lands for themselves. This got them both killed by Scar.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's enemies seem to have this dynamic. Man Ray and the Dirty Bubble are shown to get along well, and it's revealed that many of the villains used to take part in a book club together. The Dirty Bubble even mentions that he went on vacation with the Jumbo Shrimp once.
  • In OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, the Big Bad Duumvirate Lord Boxman and Professor Venomous start out as tenuous business associates, but as Boxman shows Venomous how fun being evil can really be, the two develop a genuine friendship that eventually blossoms into romance.
  • In Reboot Megabyte actually seems to consider Herr Doktor as a friend and treat him quite well. Herr Doktor's competency, Undying Loyalty, and being every bit as gleefully sadistic and evil as Megabyte likely plays a big part in this. It's quite telling that the "good" doctor is the only character ever in the entire series besides Megabyte himself to get to ride around in Megabyte's limousine, that he's the only viral binome to remain consistently loyal to Megabyte, and that he even apparently found a way to reinfect himself and get the viral green icon and sclera back when the system restart cured all of the infected binomes.
  • Hey Arnold!: Though they started off as enemies, "New Bully On the Block" ends with Wolfgang and Ludwig becoming friends with each other and bullying the fourth graders together.
  • ¡Mucha Lucha!: El Malefico seems to be genuine friends with his minion Slurf. He even agrees to take Slurf with him to the surface world after he asks nicely, plus he is never seen abusing Slurf. The two seem to get along well.
  • Harley Quinn: All the members of Harley's group are True Companions who mostly get along, though Dr. Psycho is often disliked by Ivy due to his misogynist views, and Dr. Psycho himself often gets annoyed with Clayface for his stupidity. Harley and Ivy especially have this dynamic, as is typical of their relationship. Clayface was also shown to have been friends with King Shark before he recruited him into Harley's gang. After the events of season 2 however, Psycho is no longer friends with anyone.
  • The X's: Glowface has a genuine friendship with his butler Lorenzo Suave. At the end of one episode, Glowface apologizes to Lorenzo for mistreating him earlier, and they share a touching moment.
  • The Light in Young Justice all seem to get along pretty well, unlike the typical infighting and ego clash usually seen in supervillain teams. Even the ones who aren’t explicitly friends have cordial professional relationships. Vandal Savage and Ra's Al Ghul in particular are described by Word of God as "old friends" (both being immortals, their acquaintance likely goes back centuries); even after leaving the Light sometime between Seasons 2 and 3, Ra's remains in contact with Savage, and in Season 4 Savage makes a point of offering to include the Al Ghul family in the Light's last-resort emergency planetary evacuation plans, while also knowing Ra's well enough to doubt that he'll accept.
  • Transformers: Cyberverse:
    • Clobber and Lockdown are a pair of low-level grunts in the Decepticon empire but they're close as anything often palling around and groaning about the work. In season 3 Clobber makes a Heel–Face Turn and the Autobots and Decepticons agree to a truce. With a border erected between their halves of Cybertron, Lockdown and Clobber still keep in touch often chatting when on patrol in spite of being enemies. Lockdown is eventually inspired to make a Heel–Face Turn of his own to save Clobber in the finale movie.
    • While Megatron can still be a Bad Boss as is his wont, his initial reaction to Sky-Byte is disconcertingly chummy, smiling broadly and patting him on the back.
  • Montgomery Burns and Waylon Smithers from The Simpsons, albeit the latter's feelings are more than friendly. They're pretty much inseparable and Smithers is Burns' Only Friend since he considers everybody else too far beneath him.
  • Infinity Train: Agents Mace and Sieve are a ruthless pair of Rabid Cops determined to execute MT for breaking the mirror code. They're also best friends and clearly care about one another on deeply unprofessional level. Thus when MT kills Mace, Sieve goes absolutely insane.
  • Robot Chicken: The sketch Horror Friends Forever focuses on famous horror villains Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers getting along. Michael enters a room where college students are having sex. Seconds later, Jason emerges from the closet in said room. Confused, Michael lets Jason kill the couple. He does so and beheads the male college student. He breaks off the head and offers part of it to Michael. They go on a killing spree, together, and a song about friendship is sung. They are eventually shot to death by the relative of a victim. As they die together, they hold hands which drops blood to form the shape of a heart.
  • Total Drama: In the second season of the reboot, Julia and MK form an alliance out of respect for each other's gameplay styles in the prior season. As the season progresses, it's clear that the duo, both of which having previously expressed disgust at the idea of making friends, are bonding with each other, constantly complimenting each other about their various sabotages and even when Julia gets MK voted out, MK's not mad and the girls share a hug before MK leaves. Come the finals and, while MK does get on her nerves a bit, she's clearly throwing her all into helping Julia win.
  • Hazbin Hotel: Adam, the leader of genocidal angelic legions is friends with his right-hand Lute, calling her a badass for how many demons she's killed and fist bumping her, and they are later shown to spend their off time hanging out with each other. When Adam is dying Lute freaks out and rushes to his side and Adam starts smiling when he sees her.

 
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DIO and Pucci

In a flashback, DIO assures Pucci's faith in him by offering an opportunity to steal his Stand, and only receives praise for his reverence.

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