History Main / PoliteVillainsRudeHeroes

* ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'': The [[FauxAffablyEvil gentlemanly]], [[TheDandy elegant]] Captain Hook and versus the bratty Peter Pan.

** Also from the first game, [[CorruptPoliticain Alderman Richard Hughes]], who politely invites the Playa onto his private yacht, offers them champagne, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and then reveals he's going to murder them and put forward his plans of gentrifying Stilwater to get rid of the gangs]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'', Bayonetta is pretty flippant and mean to the angels she fights; the big bosses among them, the Cardinal Virtues, are very pleasant in conversation. Also done with [[BigBad Father Balder]], who also maintains his manners with Bayonetta while she outright loathes him. Though in Balder's case, he crossed the MoralEventHorizon three times in one scene, and even AxCrazy Bayonetta is disgusted by what he's done.

Depending on how this is treated in the context of a story, it could serve as a PetTheDog moment, or alternatively, it could serve as a sign that the villains really, REALLY don't deserve respect and hence the heroes will not give it to them. Then again, that would by its very nature imply the villain's at least humble enough to be polite to the heroes... or at least not too proud to pretend to be.

* ''Film/TheMcKenzieBreak:'' Conniving Nazi Willi Schluter is a FauxAffablyEvil professional military man, while his opponent O'Connor is a gruff, boorish alcoholic.

Done poorly, the *audience* may dislike the heroes more than the villains if the heroes come across as unlikeable resulting in JerksAreWorseThanVillains, where the audience hates the heroes for being jerks more than the villain.

* Played for laughs in the ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' article "Movie Heroes are Finks", featuring two pages of [[http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg78/evalana/madheroesvillains01.png typical]] [[http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg78/evalana/madheroesvillains02.png scenes]] where the bad guy has the good guy at his mercy, with annotations taking everything polite or nasty in the conversation out of context; to further drive the point home, Mort Drucker only uses caricatures of actors that audiences would instantly recognize as either heroes or villains (Eli Wallach vs. John Wayne, Vincent Price vs. Gregory Peck, etc.). The exchange between Errol Flynn and Edward G. Robinson provides the page image.

* From Music/RhapsodyOfFire there are some, well, interesting lines spoken by the main hero against the BigBad Akron in "The Mighty Ride of the Firelord", including calling him bloody bastard, spit on him and threaten to burn him and ''[[WhatTheHellHero eat his brains]]''. [[spoiler:Granted, he has just [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath raped to death Princess Airin]] and killed the warrior Arwald, but still...]]. They also don't exitate to refer to the Queen of the Dark Horizon as the "God-forsaken Bitch".

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNJAk-5bFo8#t=1m50s this]] exchange between [[spoiler:[[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Hank]] and [[VillainProtagonist Walter]]:]]

* In ''Series/{{Spooksville}}'' Ann [[BitchInSheepsClothing always acts nice to Adam but is a literal witch who almost always has ulterior motives,]] while Sally [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold is rather rude and sarcastic but actually does care about Adam, and is usually completely right in distrusting Ann.]]

* This is the impression Chirs Sims and David Uzumeri had when they [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/27/recap-smallville-episode-1-1-pilot/ watched]] the pilot episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Pa Kent is a dick who eventually pushes Lex into supervillainy.

* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'': Raziel is one of the more moral characters in the series, which is saying something considering that it runs on BlackAndGreyMorality, and displays far less respect towards Kain and Moebius than they show him in turn.

See also SoftSpokenSadist. UglyHeroGoodLookingVillain is this applied to looks.

* In ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', Muhyo's old friend and schoolmate Enchu was a NiceGuy while they were attending school together. After Enchu loses his mother and gets passed over for the Executor job, he becomes AffablyEvil. Muhyo, however, is a [[BrutalHonesty brutally honest]], [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] and rude JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* A stape dynamic of the ''Rance'' series. As the titular protagonist is a self-centered {{Jerkass}} without much of anything in the way of a moral compass, he is often contrasted by antagonists who are AffablyEvil, [[NobleDemon Noble Demons]], or outright [[TragicVillain Tragic Villains]]. In almost every instance, [[GuileHero Rance]] eventually ends up defeating his polite villain opponent by playing dirty and exploiting the same qualities that make them seem like better people than him. To further drive the point home, these scenes are often framed in such a way so as to make ''Rance'' look like the villain when taken out of context, with the sequence where [[spoiler:he stabs Ithere in the back in ''Rance 03'']] in particular depicting him [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver under black and red lighting]] and looking just about as un-heroic as humanly possible.

-->'''Light:''' [[FoeYay He was supposed to call me back!]] I wanted [[EvilGloating to gloat]] some more before my flash mob tore him apart! A child I have never met before ''LIED'' to me! His parents should've taught him better... Oh! Oh, [[ParentalAbandonment orphan]]. Right.

* Deliberately invoked in the penultimate book of the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series between team leader Jake and his infested brother Tom. Tom, playing up his role as SmugSnake to the hilt, is attempt pleasant banter with the Animorphs, but neither Jake nor his team is having any of it. A few pages later, he betrays them and tries to have them all killed.
* This sort of contrast happens a lot between Harry Dresden and "Gentleman" John Marcone in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Marcone is usually polite to Harry; Harry rarely shows Marcone much respect in return, since Marcone is a mob boss. This happens a lot between Harry Dresden and practically any villain he talks to; the supernatural [[BigBad big bads]] of the Dresdenverse generally try to maintain a pretense of civility, and Harry... [[FirstPersonSmartass generally doesn't.]]
** Harry actually [[JustifiedTrope justifies this]] by saying that you never show fear or weakness to a predator. His snarkiness is actually an attempt to keep them off-balance and stop them from thinking that he's an easy target.

* ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'': Elphaba is a caring, compassionate young woman whose nonconformist appearance and personality lead her to become Public Enemy No. 1 in Oz just for refuting the wizard in his attempts to persecute the Animal population. The Wizard, Madam Morrible, and Glinda (though the latter is really more of an {{AntiHero}} than a straight-up villain]] use charm and proper etiquette to manipulate the people of Oz to keep them in power. Elphaba and Glinda highlight these differences at the beginning of "Defying Gravity".

I hope you think you're clever!\\''

''I hope you're happy!\\

-->'''Elphaba''': I hope you're happy!\\

to feed your own ambition!

I hope you're happy!\\

I hope you think you're clever!\\
'''Elphaba''': I hope you're happy!\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': When he is in a good mood, Eustace Strych (a recurring villain) is polite, superficially charming, has stereotypical mannerisms of the highest social status, and speaks in a formal manner; while Jimmy, TheHero, is a blunt, rude boy with NoSocialSkills.
* In Book One of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[CorruptPolitician Councilman Tarrlok]] uses charisma and a carefully-cultivated sophisticated persona to bribe, blackmail, and cheat his way to being the most powerful person in Republic City; he doesn't even show off the full extent of his Waterbending prowess until [[spoiler: Korra accosts him at his office after work hours]]. Brash, hot-blooded Avatar Korra struggles with social diplomacy and tact due to her sheltered and isolated upbringing, often preferring to solve a dispute through brute force. Korra, however, unlike Tarrlok actually cares about helping the city's citizens rather than treating her position as a vanity project.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Grand Admiral Thrawn is a WickedCultured strategic genius who is polite enough to tell off a subordinate for disrespecting a captive rebel in her own house, which the Empire has taken over as a headquarters. The rebel in question, Hera Syndulla, is just as abrasive towards Thrawn as she is towards all the other Imperials she's interacted with. Pretty much all of the ''Ghost'' crew are pretty rude and snarky, as a matter of fact.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' plays with this. Sector V and the rest of the Kids Next Door can be rather snarky and disrespectful, but can be polite and respectful. The Delightful Children From Down the Lane are polite to all adults and keep the attitude towards their foe, but it is easy to see the hate and malice in their voices.

* In ''FanFic/EvilAndHam'', Taylor is genuinely struck by the fact that the multiverse's worst villains as a general rule are far more polite and welcoming than the trio of bullies she's used to facing. She strives to maintain that standard when she becomes the supervillain Arachne.