History Main / NominalVillain

** ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'': Ecliptor is the second-in-command and parental figure to Astronema, and the only one among the villains who actually cares for her. When Astronema regains her memories and turns on Dark Spectre, Ecliptor shows his love for his surrogate daughter to be greater than his loyalty to his evil master and fights to protect her. [[spoiler:This results in him being brainwashed and turned into a cyborg to prevent further disobedience.]]

** ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'': Brad Barrett, aka Kamen Rider Thrust, is a motocross racer who was framed and blacklisted for sabotaging another racer by [[BigBad Xaviax]]. Xaviax convinces Brad to enter and win his "Battle Club" in order to get the evidence that will clear him but is horrified when he sees Kamen Rider Camo get vented (the series' stand-in for death), as he didn't believe anyone would be truly hurt. Despite this, Brad continues serving Xaxiax due to the dirt the villain has on him, even though it is clear he finds the entire situation appalling. [[spoiler:He is vented by TheDragon Kamen Rider Strike, who feared that Brad would eventually side with the heroes.]]

** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'': Takatora is in the unenviable position of trying to protect Earth from an alien invasive species. When a human mutates into a monster, he goes out to ShootTheDog and executes them because there's no cure. The company he works for is manufacturing protective equipment, but they can only squeeze out a billion units while the world population is ''seven'' billion. As a result, they're trying to manipulate various resources to create a mass die-off to bring the number down to something more manageable. Takatora finds all this reprehensible, but he genuinely doesn't see any other way out for humanity as a whole. (There's also a bit of naivete here, as Takatora thinks his coworkers are just as altruistic when they're really trying to exploit the situation for their own gain and conspiring against him.)

* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'': Garou is a villain who goes by the name "Hero Hunter" and fights on the side of the Monsters. [[spoiler:However, it turns out that Garou has never actually killed any heroes and is only presenting himself as a villain in hopes of uniting the world in their hatred against him.]]

** In ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'', Kirby is tasked with retrieving the Star Rod that Dedede took away from the Fountain of Dreams and divided among his subjects. However, he only did that to keep the true threat sealed away

** Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio were orphans raised by the Horde and, as such, were just fulfilling orders without questioning.[[spoiler: When Catra takes over and starts bullying everyone without even explaining what they were doing, the trio gives up and runs to the Crimson Waste. And they took Imp, that was on his own after Hordak was abducted by Horde Prime.]]
** Scorpia was there basically for the same reasons, and also because the Scorpions' kingdom was the first territory taken by the Horde, but she never liked her job and preferred making friends. She leaves the Horde temporarily to accompany Catra, when the latter is exiled to the Crimson Waste, and even tries to talk her into staying there, after Catra suceeds in taking over a gang of local bandits.[[spoiler: After going back to the Horde, Scorpia stays only because she is worried about Catra, but has enough of the latter's mistreating and defects to join the Rebellion.
** Entrapta apparently didn't see much difference between both sides of war. She joins the Alliance of Princesses because she wants to make friends, but everybody tolerates her only for her habilities with techs. After she is mistakenly left in the Fright Zone during the rescue of Glimmer and Bow, Catra convinces Entrapta the princesses abandoned her on purpose. She prontly joins the Horde [[BetterOffWIthTheBadGuys because she feels more comfortable there, she thinks Catra and Scorpia are her friends (well, Scorpia is... sort of) and because she loves Horde technology]]; and, afterwards, she also falls in love with Hordak. [[spoiler: After Catra almost kills her and sends her to Beast Island, Entrapta becomes more conscious of the destruction caused by her inventions, and makes her best to atone.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind was raised by criminals and then had his attempts of making friends at school rejected, because of his appearance and the trouble caused by his inventions. He decided to become a villain because that was what society expected from him, to get people's attention and because he thought that was the only thing he was good at. Roxanne wasn't even scared when he kidnapped her because she knew Megaman wouldn't hurt her ([[spoiler: differently from Hal, whose actions she couldn't predict after he became Titan.]]), hinting that he didn't kill people... until Metroman's death. And Megaman didn't even expect him to die, he was as shocked as everyone, before celebrating his victory, and regretted that afterwards. After he starts dating Roxanne in disguise, he gives back the art he stole from the museum and cleans up the city because she complained of the trash in the park. And, after [[spoiler: Hal decides to be a villain, Megaman does everything he can to stop him and atone for his mistakes. ]]

* ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|2020}}'':

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* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse: In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', the only reason Pietro and Wanda Maximoff join Ultron is their desire to get revenge on Tony Stark and because they're sincerely convinced Ultron is a legitimate alternative to the Avengers in protecting the world. [[spoiler:When Wanda manages to read Ultron's mind and see his plan for destroying mankind and Earth, they decide to turn against him.]]
* Franchise/MonsterVerse: In ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'', Dr Emma Russell is a Monarch researcher who joins forces with Alan Jonah and his men, aiding them in waking up King Ghidorah because she believes it will help Earth heal from the damage humanity has done to the planet. When she realizes that King Ghidorah plans to alter Earth's environment to better suit his anatomy (and that Jonah wants this to happen so all of mankind will die), she joins the protagonists to assist Godzilla in defeating him.

** ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog 2|2022}}'': Knuckles only works with Eggman because the scientist offers to help him find the Master Emerald and their shared enmity with Sonic. Even then, Knuckles only hates Sonic because of the war between the echidnas and the owl tribes, the latter of whom Sonic's adoptive mother was from. [[spoiler: After Eggman reveals his true colors and Sonic saves him from drowning, Knuckles joins forces with him and Tails to stop the madman.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': While the Galactic Empire is indisputably an evil organization, some of its members have various sympathetic motivations and do not act villainous in any way despite being brought into conflict with the Rebel Alliance. For some, their allegiance carried over from the Clone Wars, but for others, there's little information on their motivations.

* ''WesternAnimation/Megamind'': Megamind was raised by criminals and then had his attempts of making friends at school rejected, because of his appearance and the trouble caused by his inventions. He decided to become a villain because that was what society expected from him, to get people's attention and because he thought that was the only thing he was good at. Roxanne wasn't even scared when he kidnapped her because she knew Megaman wouldn't hurt her ([[spoiler: differently from Hal, whose actions she couldn't predict after he became Titan.]]), hinting that he didn't kill people... until Metroman's death. And Megaman didn't even expect him to die, he was as shocked as everyone, before celebrating his victory, and regretted that afterwards. After he starts dating Roxanne in disguise, he gives back the art he stole from the museum and cleans up the city because she complained of the trash in the park. And, after [[spoiler: Hal decides to be a villain, Megaman does everything he can to stop him and atone for his mistakes. ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Megamind'': Megamind was raised by criminals and then had his attempts of making friends at school rejected, because of his appearance and the trouble caused by his inventions. He decided to become a villain for these reasons: 1) because that was what society expected from him; 2)Because he thought he was "good" in being "bad"; 3) To get the attention of people, since he believed that they never would love him as they loved Metroman.
Roxanner wasn't even scared when he kidnapped her because she knew Megaman wouldn't hurt her ([[spoiler: differently from Hal, whose actions she couldn't predict after he became Titan.]]), hinting that he didn't kill people... until Metroman's death. And Megaman didn't even expect him to die, he was as shocked as everyone, before celebrating his victory, and regretted that afterwards.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3131342/1/Yang_Yin?__cf_chl_tk=eUAem9_oPH8IKwqb7TMcK2YdcA9z65gMCN34lm.12CY-1652874433-0-gaNycGzNCf0 Yang Yin]]'': The fanfic is a retelling of ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' which focuses on Koichi and the four kids who were seen with Angemon in episodes 40 and 41. In this fic, the main five Digidestined from the anime are brainwashed slaves of [[AdaptationalVillainy Ophanimon]] and it takes quite a while before they are freed.

!! Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''ComicBook/PowerGirl (2009)'': Diane Dorst is an environmental activist who comes into contact with a magic book that transformed her into Zoraida the Elf Queen, who tries to go full GaiasVengeance on the world. After Power Girl undoes the transformation, she gets Ophelia an internship at an environmentally friendly firm to help her best channel her activism.
* ''ComicBook/Transformers2019'': It is a plot point that despite the Decepticons being ObviouslyEvil with shades of PuttingOnTheReich behaviour-wise, many Transformers continue doing their jobs simply because they don't much care whether it's the Autobots or the Decepticons in-charge. One of the Decepticons mentions that virtually all the high-level engineers or technicians left to join the Autobots, meaning they have to make do with the lower level, less skilled ones to run infrastructure.

* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': The only reason Pietro and Wanda Maximoff join Ultron is their desire to get revenge on Tony Stark and because they're sincerely convinced Ultron is a legitimate alternative to the Avengers in protecting the world. [[spoiler: When Wanda manages to read Ultron's mind and see his plan for destroying mankind and Earth, they decide to turn against him.]]
* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': Dr Emma Russell is a Monarch researcher who joins forces with Alan Jonah and his men, aiding them in waking up King Ghidorah because she believes it will help Earth heal from the damage humanity has done to the planet. When she realizes that King Ghidorah plans to alter Earth's environment to better suit his anatomy (and that Jonah wants this to happen so all of mankind will die), she joins the protagonists to assist Godzilla in defeating him.

* ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'': Agent Stone works as an assistant to the [[EvilGenius evil]] and [[InsufferableGenius insufferable]] Dr. Robotnik, but seemingly has no bad intentions, and puts up with Robotnik's [[BadBoss abuse]] while keeping a positive attitude the whole time.
* ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2'': Knuckles only works with Eggman because the scientist offers to help him find the Master Emerald and their shared enmity with Sonic. Even then, Knuckles only hates Sonic because of the war between the echidnas and the owl tribes, the latter of whom Sonic's adoptive mother was from. [[spoiler: After Eggman reveals his true colors and Sonic saves him from drowning, Knuckles joins forces with him and Tails to stop the madman.]]

** [[Film/ANewHope ISB Chief Wullf Yularen]] firmly believes the Empire are the good guys in the Galactic Civil War and acts the part in stark contrast to everyone around him, being nothing short of unfailingly courteous to everyone he meets and treating all of his men with respect.
** [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack General Maximillian Veers]] serves the Imperial military and is ambitious, but he is a devoted family man and even tries to defend his fellow Imperial leadership when he senses [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness what Vader has in store for them.]]
** Captain Lorth Needa is merely doing his duty as an admiral under orders to capture the Millennium Falcon when it outmaneuvers his Star Destroyer. On a demand from Vader to give an update, he voluntarily delivers the news himself to spare the crew a worse fate.
** [[Film/RogueOne Galen Erso]] is coerced to work on Imperial Project STARDUST, and does so, though he installs a weakness in the project as a way of fighting back from the inside.
** [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Grand Admiral Thrawn]] willingly serves the Empire because he believes the Empire are the best hope of the Chiss Ascendancy of surviving the oncoming threat of the Gryssks. While serving as a member of the Empire, he is ruthless, but he [[VillainRespect shows respect to Phoenix Squadron]] and treats his subordinates well, even when they fail him.

** [[Literature/LostStars Ciena Ree]] started out having a rose-colored view of the Empire when she joined as a pilot. However, as she witnessed the atrocities committed, her view changed until she began to view working for the Empire as a FateWorseThanDeath.

* ''Film/TripleThreat2019'': Payu and Long Fei initially accompany a band of mercenaries who raid a village to free the mercenary leader Collins. Despite nominally being on the side of the mercenaries, Payu and Long Fei do not kill anyone, and once they realize that they are not on a humanitarian mission like they thought, they turn on Collins and his crew, freeing the prisoners who would have been killed by Collins' explosives.

* ''Series/Dark2017'': This can apply to [[spoiler:any character who has [[WellIntentionedExtremist the intention]] to either end the suffering inside the knot or save their loved ones, in particular Noah, Claudia, Adam and Eva. All of them are okay with deceiving and murdering people for their goals but don't show other motivations like cruelty. Even the Unknown is just doing what he and his mother consider necessary to keep [[StableTimeLoop the loop stable]] and doesn't act out of personal malice.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'': Jeanne spends most of the game as an adversary to Bayonetta, but is revealed to be under a spell after the fourth battle with her. After being freed, she aids Bayonetta in the final battle against [[spoiler:Father Balder]].
* ''VideoGame/Bayonetta2'': [[spoiler:Balder]] relentlessly pursues Bayonetta and Loki because he has been deceived by Loptr into thinking Loki murdered his lover Rosa. He turns on Loptr when the deception is revealed. [[spoiler:It is also revealed that Balder imprisoned [[GodOfChaos Aesir]] within himself, suggesting that his evil actions in the first game were a result of Aesir corrupting him]].

** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'': Silver only tries to kill Sonic because he has been deceived into thinking Sonic will cause the BadFuture he comes from. When he learns Sonic is innocent, he ceases his attempts on the blue hedgehog's life.

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** In the SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' Ghazan is a genuinely chummy person even by the standard of the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Red Lotus]] (the other members don't qualify for some reason or another, like Zaheer's extremism or Ming-Hua's sadism), even being told to stop fraternizing with Bolin.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Thunder and Lightning are brothers causing havoc around Jump City out of sheer amusement. Once Beast Boy calls him out on the danger their "fun" is causing, Thunder starts to realize the severity of the situation and questions his and his brother's actions throughout the episode, making their actions seem less evil and more naïve and playful at best.

* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': The only reason Pietro and Wanda Maximoff join Ultron is their desire to get revenge on Tony Stark and because they're sincerely convinced Ultron is a legitimate alternative to the Avengers in protecting the world. [[spoiler:When Wanda manages to read Ultron's mind and see his plan for destroying mankind and earth, they decide to turn against him.]]
* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': Dr Emma Russell is a Monarch researcher who joins forces with Alan Jonah and his men, aiding them in waking up King Ghidorah because she believes it will help Earth heal from the damage humanity has done to the planet. When she realizes that King Ghidorah plans to alter Earth's environment to better suit his anatomy she joins the protagonists to assist Godzilla in defeating him.

* ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2'': Knuckles only works with Eggman because the scientist offers to help him find the Master Emerald and their shared enmity with Sonic. Even then, Knuckles only hates Sonic because of the war between the echidnas and the owl tribes, the latter of whom Sonic's adoptive mother was from. [[spoiler:Once Eggman reveals his true colors to Sonic, Knuckles joins forces with him and Tails]].

If a "good" antagonistic character serves good rather than evil, they're a HeroAntagonist. A nominal villain is similar to but not necessarily a TokenGoodTeammate. A Token Good Teammate is a character who is more principled than whatever antihero or villain team they are part of and they themselves could still be evil in some way. Some examples can also be a PunchClockVillain. Compare and contrast NominalHero, an "evil" character who happens to be on the side of good.

* ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'': Brad Barrett, aka Kamen Rider Thrust, is a motocross racer who was framed and blacklisted for sabotaging another racer by [[BigBad Xaviax]]. Xaviax convinces Brad to enter and win his "Battle Club" in order to get the evidence that will clear him but is horrified when he sees Kamen Rider Camo get vented, as he didn't believe anyone would be truly hurt. Despite this, Brad continues serving Xaxiax due to the dirt the villain has on him, even though it is clear he finds the entire situation appalling. [[spoiler:He is vented by [[TheDragon Kamen Rider Strike]] who feared that Brad would eventually side with the heroes.]]

And some are genuinely and thoroughly ''good people'', but serve a villainous cause anyway. They're on the side of Evil, but their motivations are entirely Good.

* '''Apathy:''' Some people don't see much, if any difference between working for the good guys and bad guys.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Suzaku starts out this way. He joins up with Britannia because he [[WideEyedIdealist incorrectly]] thinks that the system can be changed from within, and that [[AntiHero Lelouch's/Zero's]] methods are too extreme and ultimately harmful toward the people of Japan.

* ''ComicBook/Transformers2019'': It is a plot point that despite the Decepticons being ObviouslyEvil with shades of PuttingOnTheReich behaviour-wise, many Transformers continue doing their jobs simply because they don't much care whether it's the Autobots or the Decepticons in-charge. One of the Decepticons mentions that virtually all the high-level engineers or technicians left to join the Autobots, meaning they have to make due with the lower level, less skilled ones to run infrastructure.

* ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'': Sybok is on an emotional quest to find God and willing to kidnap diplomats and hijack a ship to accomplish. Despite this, he is unfailingly well-mannered and compassionate, and doesn't even kill anyone, which is quite rare for a ''Star Trek'' movie villain. [[spoiler:In the end he sacrifices himself to buy the crew time to escape the entity.]]

* ''Series/Dark2017'': This can apply to [[spoiler:any character who has [[WellIntentionedExtremist the intention]] to either end the suffering inside the knot or save their loved ones, in particular Noah, Claudia, Adam and Eva. All of them are okay with deceiving and murdering people for their goals, but don't show other motivations like cruelty. Even the Unknown is just doing what he and his mother consider necessary to keep [[StableTimeLoop the loop stable]] and doesn't act out of personal malice.]]

* ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'': the entirety of the War was a case of GoneHorriblyRight, in which all of the villainous characters heavily underestimated how successful their sabotage attempts would be against their victims. However, Souma in particular knew ''nothing'' about these plots when he first joined Akatsuki, believing it to be a wonderful new idol unit which would soon do great things, and totally unaware that it was created solely to carry out the Student Council's wishes. When he finds out the specifics of what Akatsuki was planning to do to Kanata, a close friend of his, he was very upset and tried to convince his seniors not to, but was expelled from the unit for this. After a lot of soul-searching and crying, he decides to try to stay in Akatsuki in the hopes that he will be able to change it from the inside, as they have already begun to engage in some real idol activities and turn into a legitimate unit. As a result he knowingly goes along with some of Akatsuki's later activities, particularly during the main story when they stand as a barrier to Trickstar against ''fine''. However, he works hard for Akatsuki only in the hope that it will someday break away from ''fine'' entirely and become a great, audience-pleasing unit that won't hesitate to challenge ''fine'' itself. And he is actually successful: Kuro and Keito both come to realize their mistakes due to [[MoralityPet Souma's positive influence]] and become extremely protective of him, and in Quarrel Fest, Akatsuki does finally escape from its unhappy origins and become the great idol unit Souma always believed it could be.

** In the SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' Ghazan is a genuinely chummy person even by the standard of the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Red Lotus]] (the other members don't qualify for some reason or another, like Zaheer's extremism or Ming-Hua's sadism), even being told to stop fraternising with Bolin.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfLegendia'': Stingle the Viscous is one of the 3 Terrors in Vaclav's army who's not in it ForTheEvulz. He desperately needed money for medicine to heal his sick daughter and joined Vaclav's army in the hopes of gathering ingredients from his apothecary. He even went so far as to kill the parents of another child to achieve his goal, and {{MyGodWhatHaveIDone he's not}} {{TheAtoner proud of it.}}

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Thunder and Lightning are brothers causing havoc around Jump City out of sheer amusement. Once Beast Boy calls him out on the danger their "fun" is causing, Thunder starts to realize the severity of the situation and questions his and his brother's actions throughout the episode, making their actions seem less evil and more naïve and playful at best.

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* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': the reason Pietro and Wanda Maximoff join Ultron is their desire to get revenge on Tony Stark and because they're sincerely convinced Ultron is a legitimate alternative to the Avengers in protecting the world. [[spoiler:When Wanda manages to read Ultron's mind and see his plan for destroying mankind and earth, they decide to turn against him.]]

* ''ComicBook/PowerGirl (2009)'': Ophelia Day is an environmental activist who comes into contact with a magic book that transforms her into Zoraida the Elf Queen, who tries to go full GaiasVengeance on the world. After Power Girl undoes the transformation, she gets Ophelia an internship at an environmentally friendly firm to help her best channel her activism.

* ''Film/TransfomersRevengeOfTheFallen'': Wheelie is a Decepticon spy at first. His surprise at Jetfire's defection suggests that he was only serving the Decepticons out of fear and was unaware that being a Decepticon was a choice. He pulls a HeelFaceTurn in earnest after this.

* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'': Garou is a villain who goes the name "Hero Hunter" and fights on the side of the Monsters. [[spoiler:However, it turns out that Garou has never actually killed any heroes and is only presenting himself as a villain in hopes of uniting the world in their hatred against him.]]