History Main / ALighterShadeOfBlack

* ''ComicBook/SonicAndMegaManWorldsCollide'': [[Franchise/MegaMan Dr. Wily]] turns out to be this to [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Dr. Eggman]]. Both team up to conquer their respective worlds together and initially share a VillainousFriendship, but Dr. Eggman is revealed to be highly unstable and violent, at one point jettisoning Dr. Light from a floating fortress. When Wily found out, he was appalled: he wanted his intellectual rival defeated and humbled, not ''killed''. [[spoiler:In the end, when Sonic and Mega Man defeat them, Wily accepts his defeat and allows their universe to revert to normal. Eggman, however, directly attacks Sonic in the midst of his attempt to restore their own universe [[EvilIsPetty out of spite]], ranting that if he can't have the universe [[InTheirOwnImage remade in his image]], then he'd rather doom all of reality than let Sonic restore it; this results in Sonic's world being [[CosmicRetcon irrevocably altered]].]]

* In ''Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'', [[VideoGame/MegaMan Dr. Wily]] ends up being the lighter shade of black to [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Dr. Eggman]]. Both team up to conquer their respective worlds together, but Dr. Eggman is revealed to be highly unstable and violent, at one point jettisoning Dr. Light from a floating fortress. When Wily found out, he was appalled: he wanted his intellectual rival defeated and humbles, not ''killed''. [[spoiler:In the end, when Sonic and Mega Man defeat them, Wily accepts his defeat and allows their universe to revert to normal. Eggman, however, tried to launch a Hail Mary at Sonic while the universes were unfusing, resulting in Sonic's universe being irrevocably altered.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' we have the BigBadDuumvirate, [[ArchNemesisDad Relius]] [[MadScientist Clover]] and [[AxCrazy Terumi]] [[{{Troll}} Yuuki]]. Both of them are seemingly caught in a "How far beyond the MoralEventHorizon can you go" contest, but despite the fact that they're almost evenly matched as far as accomplishments go, Relius is still a lighter shade of black than Terumi is. First and foremost because most of his atrocities were committed in order to [[ForScience satiate his own scientific curiosity]], and secondly because he is [[PragmaticVillainy pretty pragmatic in his villainy]]. Compare to Terumi who [[CardCarryingVillain doesn't even pretend]] [[ForTheEvulz to have a rationalization]] for all the shit he does and often goes out of his way to ruin people's lives just because... His behavior is sort of [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as Terumi avoids getting [[{{Retgone}} erased from reality]] by anchoring his own existence in the world [[GodNeedsPrayerBadly through people's hatred of him]], but any sympathy points this could've earned them are ultimately DoubleSubverted, because he really ''does'' get off on pushing people beyond the DespairEventHorizon. [[spoiler: The fact that the fourth game revealed that he's actually Takehaya Susanoo no Mikoto, the [=BlazBlue=] 'verse's own take on {{Satan}}, doesn't help his case, either.]]
** ''Chronophantasma'' reveals that Relius is capable of being portrayed as an extreme version of WellIntentionedExtremist. All three main bad guys (The Imperator, Terumi and Relius) aim for destroying the [[DeusEstMachina Master Unit: Amaterasu]], which can cause a genocidal damage to the current world and reset it, but it turns that Relius [[spoiler:does so because he's frustrated that the Master Unit's {{Groundhog Day Loop}}s prevents the world from making progresses and prevents advancement of his goal of creating the Perfect Doll. While he is still pretty selfish in that he only cares for his own project, his intention can be portrayed as being beneficial for the rest of humanity trapped in depressing loops. If he completes the project, he could either leave humanity alone, or try to inject the Perfect Doll for humanity, which in his twisted mind, may have a chance to be considered a beneficial improvement for overall humans (though probably other people will not agree). Compare to Terumi, who just wants to [[ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil turn the world into his own playground of evil]], filled to the brink with endless despair for himself to drink in, and the Imperator, being Izanami, who just wants everyone to die and reduce the world to inert seithr.]]
** Relius' case got even lighter by ''Central Fiction'', whereas [[spoiler:it was revealed that Master Unit Amaterasu has been abusing her world reset ability just to get her desired ending of her being plugged out of the unit and no longer having to do her duty of observing the world, which ignores not only his desire to progress on his project, but also towards the other suffering that the cast experiences, with or without Terumi's interference, an utter selfishness that drove former hero Nine the Phantom utterly mad and devised a plan to destroy the Master Unit to free the world from its machinations, which Relius is totally on board for. It's still for his own selfish desires, but it somehow became a bit more relatable.]]

Or maybe the villain is such a MagnificentBastard that it's easier to side with them. Especially if [[OmnicidalManiac their opposition is a threat to]] ''[[EvilVersusOblivion everyone]]''.

* In the two ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' movies, the Predators are this to the Aliens. In the [[Film/AVPAlienVsPredator first movie]], not only does this lead to an EnemyMine situation where the last surviving human character teams up with the last surviving Predator, but it's made abundantly clear that the Predators are ''by far'' the lesser threat, as the Aliens will cause global extinction if they reach civilization (which, as many of noted, [[TrailersAlwaysLie invalidates the famous tagline]] [[BlackAndBlackMorality "Whoever wins... we lose"]]). The [[Film/AliensVsPredatorRequiem second film]] is a bit better about this trope, with the Predator gruesomely killing a fair number of people without an EnemyMine in sight, but to the humans, it remains a significantly smaller problem than the Alien swarm in addition to the many EvilVirtues of [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy its species]].

** ComicBook/DoctorDoom has some very similar traits. Certainly, he is an AGodAmI [[InsufferableGenius massive egomaniac]] and rules the nation of Latveria as a despot with armed Doombots on each corner and an enforced CultOfPersonality. At the same time, he keeps his word, provides an excellent quality of life for his citizens (Latveria's health and education infrastructure makes the United States look like a podunk backwater), and seeks to TakeOverTheWorld in order to make life better for everyone (admittedly at the cost of armed Doombots on each corner and an enforced CultOfPersonality). At least once, he's been replaced as Latveria's ruler by someone who turned out to be lacking those positive traits. The Fantastic Four have to deal semi-regularly with people who want to destroy the world for reasons that range from understandable but still kind of harsh (Galactus) to plain dickish and weird (Annihilus). And Doom ''also'' refuses to have anything to do with the Red Skull[[note]]mostly because Doom's mother was Romani[[/note]]. In the {{Cyberpunk}} Marvel 2099 universe, a re-awoken Doom was actually one of the heroes - his takeover of the United States was actually a positive development, with the corporations brought back under control, and he even made a HeroicSacrifice to deal with the Phalanx.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' has no good guys. On one hand you have a cult trying to summon a dark god, murdering anyone they want to and experimenting on the rest. On the other side you have one of their failed projects, a sadistic [[EverythingsDeaderwithZombies revenant]] named Caleb who was one of those cultists and also is murdering anyone he feels like. At least Caleb is fighting to avenge his wife [[spoiler: and best friend]] and has a [[DeadpanSnarker sense of humor]].

* Hayley Stark in ''Film/HardCandy'' is a sociopathic ManipulativeBitch whose modus operandi is [[DrivenToSuicide driving her victims to kill themselves]]...but she only targets [[PaedoHunt child predators]], such as the male protagonist. It's up to the viewer to decide who to root for.

* The ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' BigBad, Lord Recluse, is the lesser of about 200 lesser evils. he is a PragmaticVillain with several EvilVirtues he’s imposed upon his army/government and as such the reason there is even a national government and civilians have a decent life expectancy. That said, he is still a highly competent, CardCarryingVillain, meaning he has VetinariJobSecurity for his Big Bad status, despite this trope.

* The ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' BigBad, Lord Recluse, is the lesser of about 200 lesser evils. he is a PragmaticVillian with several EvilVirtues he imposed upon his army/government and as such the reason there is even a national government and civilians have a decent life expectancy. That said, he is still a highly competent, CardCarryingVillian; Thus he has VetinariJobSecurity for his Big Bad status, despite this trope.

* In ''Fanfic/PrincessOfTheBlacks'', Jen Black is a [[LadyOfBlackMagic Black Witch]] who runs a child brothel but she's not a psychotic terrorist like Voldemort and his followers nor does she keep a stable of potential sacrifices around in case she needs them like fellow Black Wizards Menagerie and Priest. Even the brothel is from her days as one of it's employees and she acts as a {{cool big sis}} for the children working there.

** Most (non-Dark) Eldar default to this. Like the Imperium, they consider all other races to be worthless compared to their own citizens; unlike the Imperium, they usually don't [[AbsoluteXenophobe actively try to exterminate outsiders]] that don't get in their way, and mostly just want to be left alone. The Necrons who aren't utterly psychotic {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s are similar in that regard.

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' is an interesting example. On one side, the Gods of Olympus, famous for toying with or outright squashing humanity when they feel like it, but also the sources of wisdom, love, agriculture, and even the Sun itself. On the other, a completely psychotic killer who thinks nothing of slaughtering anybody in his way, but with basically sympathetic motives for bringing war against the gods, and who ultimately [[spoiler: grants his enormous power to humanity after bringing down Olympus]]. In the end, which side is Lighter comes down to the viewer.

* World Wrestling League Tercias champions Los Rabiosos consisted of two thugs who only cared about money and a whiny backstabbing hypocrite, which still made them better than Spectro, Kronya and Vassago, the murderous arsonists of Legio. However, Rabiosos would later get some PetTheDog moments through haciendo la diferencia while the later only got worse by [[VillainTeamUp picking up]] Mistress Glenda Lee and El Profe, turning it into BlackAndGreyMorality.

* In ''Film/FreddyVsJason,'' Jason is often read this way, since at least he's not a children-killing scumbag with pedophilic undertones who stretches out his victims' deaths out of sheer sadism. That and Freddy can go just about anywhere whereas Jason only sticks to his home place. On the flip side, Jason racks up a ''way'' bigger body count than Freddy does (which is actually Freddy's motive for fighting him-- he is killing kids Freddy has targeted), is clearly out of control, and is slaughtering teenagers by the dozen seemingly ForTheEvulz, so... Also, on a metaphysical level, there's the fact Freddy explicitly steals the souls of his victims, whereas Jason just kills people.

* ''ComicBook/PoisonIvy'' is often this to ''ComicBook/TheJoker'', to whom she is often presented as a {{Foil}}. Specifically, she really does love Harley, whereas the Joker just sees her as a convienent pawn/[[DomesticAbuse punching bag]], and while she's a bad person, she has an [[GaiasVengence actual reason for her villainy]], whereas the Joker is basically just [[ForTheEvulz "I love being evil! HAHAHA!"]].

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* ''Manga/DeathNote'': [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Rem]] [[LampshadeHanging agrees]], while Light Yagami may be a bastard he isn't as bad as [[spoiler:Kyosuke Higuchi]], though that's debatable as Light is genuinely evil and dangerous.

** Vegeta himself serves as the lesser evil to Frieza during the Namek Saga of ''Z''. It gets to the point where Krillin agrees to use the Dragon Balls to make Vegeta immortal because as evil and nasty as Vegeta is, Frieza is even worse.

* In ''ComicBook/XMen'' while ComicBook/{{Magneto}} is often portrayed as a ruthless villain, he wanted to [[WellIntentionedExtremist create a better world for mutantkind free from]] [[FantasticRacism human discrimination and persecution]]. This is a stark contrast to many other X-Men villains such as Sebastian Shaw, William Stryker, and Apocalypse; where these villains have more selfish purposes (and in the case of Stryker, genocide against mutants). And of course there is Magneto's [[EvenEvilHasStandards disgust of the]] ComicBook/RedSkull [[note]]The fact that the Red Skull is a Nazi who participated in the Holocaust while Magneto is a Jewish Holocaust survivor makes Magneto even more sympathetic[[/note]].

* ''Manga/AkameGaKill'': The Jaegars can be very ruthless, but they are not barbarians. They don't indiscriminately kill the Empire's citizens unless they suspect them to working with LaResistance. Every member at least have their own share PetTheDog moments. This is very stark contrast to Wild Hunt where they are willing to kill the Empire's citizens for any reason ([[ForTheEvulz even for fun]]). In fact, considering the state of [[CorruptPolitician the Empire's government]], the Jaegars come across as the [[NobleTopEnforcer the best possible hope of protection for the Empire's citizens]].

* PlayedWith in ''Literature/TheFirstLaw''. The wizard Bayaz is a grumpy {{Jerkass}} who assembles a team of hardened killers ([[AndZoidberg and Jezal]], who is still a soldier and TheFightingNarcissist, just a bit green) to find a secret weapon to help him defeat the cannibalistic slaver armies of the EvilSorcerer Khalul, and near the end they thwart a separate plot by another renegade wizard to bring TheLegionsOfHell into the world as well. [[spoiler: It turns out that Bayaz might be the ''greater'' evil of the three, as he turns out to be a massive ManipulativeBastard who played every character in the book like a fiddle, and the other evil wizards are driven in part to avenge crimes he commit in the past against them and their master and is a megalomaniac bent on WorldDomination, and the armies of Khalul even offer to spare the capital city the protagonists are defending if they just hand over Bayaz to them. His vision might be a bit less dystopian than the other two evil wizards, but Bayaz is the most unprincipled of the three and is largely responsible for the other twos' descent into villainy in the first place, and is actively exploiting their greater threat to further his own ends anyway.]]