History Main / NobleDemon

* ''Anime/{{Raideen}}'': Prince Sharkin is a literal example as he's the AlienPrince of the Demon Empire who aims to take over the Earth. In spite of his evil actions, he abides by a code of honour. [[spoiler: It comes to claim him when he commits {{Seppuku}} to preserve his honour after losing to Raideen in his final battle.]]

** ''[[Roleplay/FireEmblemOnForumsWonderfulBlessing Wonderful Blessing]]'': Mammon and Leviathan. Both are powerful generals of Hellrealm, but they have sympathetic aims (to end the ForeverWar, albeit in favour of the demons, so they can go home and start the family they wanted to) show a distaste for going too far and and have sympathetic backstories [[spoiler: as victims of a coverup of an AncientConspiracy]]. [[spoiler: They perform a HeelFaceTurn upon having the silencing curse on them removed, and realising that Serena holds the key to ending the ForeverWar.]]

* [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderZuko Prince Zuko]] in the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Multiple times he has a clear opportunity to coerce Aang by threatening either bystanders or captured prisoners, but he never does. During their first fight, he clearly sees that Aang will surrender instantly to protect innocent bystanders, but never exploits this, and keeps his word to leave the village in peace if Aang surrenders. When he disembarks his ship in the first episode he shrugs off Sokka's attack using non-lethal force instead of just roasting him to make a point. When he has Katara prisoner, he tries to bargain with her and appeal to her better nature rather than threaten or coerce her, and he forces pirates to help him capture Aang rather than use Katara as bait. Likewise, when he has Katara and Sokka prisoner, he still insists on fighting Aang one on one rather than try to use them. [[spoiler:It's later revealed an entire driving point of his character is his honour: the whole reason he's hunting the Avatar is being sent on a SnipeHunt as punishment from his father for speaking out of turn during a meeting... to say it was wrong to use inexperienced Fire Nation troops as [[WeHaveReserves front-line fodder]]. He struggles back and forth with his honour and his desire to return to his country for much of the series and eventually it culminates in a full HeelFaceTurn where he becomes Aang's firebending teacher.]]

** Jaime Lannister is probably the best example; his biggest evil act was the murder of King Aerys after swearing to protect him, but what most characters don't know (or conveniently forget) is that Aerys was a crazy son of a bitch, who, if he had lived just half an hour longer, would have ordered his capital city burned to the ground with [[GreekFire wildfire]], killing hundreds of thousands of civilians as well as the enemy. Jaime himself laments that he's loved by one for a kindness he never did, and reviled by thousands for his finest act--though, despite a sympathetic [=PoV=] and some heavy-duty character development, he remained pretty unrepentantly demonic until ''A Storm of Swords''.

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'': Seto Kaiba. The "noble" half is mostly due to his [[MoralityPet little brother]], and the "demon" half is mostly due to his competition with his adopted father growing up.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': the demonic Nosferatu Zodd is a centuries-old BloodKnight who lives for battle and killing. Despite his love of carnage, he is never seen harming non-combatants or engaging in rape or torture like many other Apostles do. He also treats the protagonist Guts as a WorthyOpponent, relishing their fights but willing to let him go on occasions when Guts is too weakened from a previous battle to defend himself.

* ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'' establishes that [[ConqueringAlienPrince Richter]]'s aim is to exterminate the human race so that the [[AngelicAliens Baam-seijin]] can have a new home after their old planet was destroyed. Despite assaulting his sister for falling in love with a human, everything he does is motivated by a love for his people, and he goes out of his way to honour their personal requests and look after their loved ones.

* {{Wrestling/Walther}}/Gunther is a brutal and unpleasant perennial {{heel}} who often denigrates and insults the accomplishments of other wrestlers, such as claiming that his record-setting Intercontinental Heavyweight title reign in the WWE diminishes every other holder of that title in the promotion's history. But unlike many heels, Gunther considers the ring and mat of professional wrestling sacred, bravely meeting all challengers head-on and winning through athleticism and technique rather than cheating or cheap disqualification wins, and is angry whenever his stable tries to put their thumbs on the scales of a match in his favor. He also invokes curmudgeonly VillainRespect for his opponents when they meet him on his terms and give him a run for his money.

* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Early villain [[spoiler:Accelerator]] becomes this after his character development and HeelFaceTurn to Type IV/V AntiHero near the end of the first season. Although he [[NeverHurtAnInnocent secretly wants to be a hero]], he still thinks of himself as a villain no better than the ones he now kills (and [[CardCarryingVillain proclaims this loudly]] even to those he has rescued) since [[TheAtoner he doesn't believe he can be forgiven]] after [[spoiler:slaughtering 10031 clones]]. Much later in the novels [[spoiler:he ditches this trope and being a CardCarryingVillain entirely and shifts to a [[GoodIsNotNice Type III]] AntiHero, declaring that villainy was just not working out for him and instead moves to AboveGoodAndEvil]].