Classic Villain

The one(s) on the right.

"In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch villain's going to be? He's the exact opposite of the hero!"

— The Villain, Unbreakable

A quintessential villain, who acts as an evil foil to the hero's personality and is a main block to his journey towards his destiny. These villains will always end up existing as an obstacle to, or as a consequence of, The Hero's Journey, and they generally have the following characteristics:

• Representing a particular sin or vice, most often Pride, Greed, Lust, or Wrath.
  • If the hero represents a particular virtue, the Villain's vice will often be the inverse (see the point below about opposites). Also common (especially when the Hero is an Anti-Hero) is a vice they share in common, but one which the hero overcomes and the Villain embraces.
• Visually different from the rest of the characters. Villains often dress in dark secondary colors while the bright primary ones are reserved for the heroes (if a villain's outfit does use a primary color as a significant element, it will almost certainly be red, and probably a dark/blood red rather than a bright cheerful cherry red), and they will not uncommonly have a "spiky" or angular appearance... see the page image of the cast of Aladdin, and note pretty much everything about Jafar. This also includes speaking differently than the rest of the characters (e.g. Jafar's regal-esque accent and Scar's eccentric drawl. Or they're just Evil Brits).
• Befriending the hero, or, at the very core, has a level of deception which may or may not be known by the audience. Often uses that deception to further their own ends. This plan generally moves the plot, and is essential to the hero(es)'s character development/journey.
• Achieves part of said ends before the final battle, usually this is what brings the deception to light.
• Has a dramatic Final Battle against the hero, during which the visuals are of a noticeably different scheme, such as during a storm, or with fire in the background.
• At their core, behind it all, Classic Villains are the complete opposite of the heroes, lacking the strengths the hero does, while being strong where the hero is weak. They may contrast in a Hammy Villain, Serious Hero dynamic.
• An iconic death, usually brought on by the character's own flaws.

In a nutshell, a villain who is iconically evil and represents a certain sin deep down, who deceives the heroes to further his own ends, is essential to the heroes' Character Development, and is defeated iconically in a super-dramatic final battle, usually due to his own flaws.

This is extremely common in Disney Animated Canon, where it could be said that any given villain follows this formula, though the Trope Codifiers may be in the works of William Shakespeare, where, likewise, any given villain could fit this mold perfectly. Such a character is often a Satanic Archetype, as Satan is a clear shorthand for evil in Western culture.

While not particularly subtle or original, these traits are widely used for a reason and Tropes Are Tools is fully in play. Used correctly as a structure (and not an exhaustive list) these traits highlight both the hero and villain in contrast, hopefully making both more memorable and giving them chemistry with each other, justify the villain's actions in terms of his emotional traits, and gives them a sendoff that feels appropriate to the audience.

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Example subpages:

• Disney
• Anime & Manga
• Films — Live-Action
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Comic Books

• Batman: The Joker. Greed and Pride often motivate his evil deeds, but he's largely defined by Wrath; the thief had "one bad day" years ago that led to him falling into a vat of chemicals and emerging as a Monster Clown. Batman, though a vigilante, is on the side of law and order; by comparison the Joker loves destruction and chaos. The men are aware of their status as foils to each other; in fact, Batman was unintentionally responsible for the Joker's origin. Because of this, the Joker believes he is the only one who can kill the Bat — and he will stop others who try to beat him to the deed.
  • The Dark Knight pushes the Order Versus Chaos theme further: while we know this Batman's backstory, the Joker's is never revealed (instead of his appearance being permanent, he wears makeup). The only motivation for this Joker's crimes is to create mayhem and encourage others to let go of their own moral codes in hopes of stopping/avenging it, and he openly admits he needs Batman as a foil because it makes things fun.
• Doctor Doom. Pride/Envy/Wrath and Ambition in all of their forms. Convinced that he is superior to everything on earth, he is obsessed with proving himself more intelligent than his arch-rival, Reed Richards and also with destroying Richards because he blames him for scarring his face. Aside from his vendetta with Richards, Doom is obsessed with world domination. Perhaps one of the more obvious contrasts, Doom sports a Badass Cape and Power Armor compared to the relatively simple designs the Fantastic Four have in their uniforms.
• The Dread Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension and long-time foe of Doctor Strange. Pride and Ambition. Dormammu aesthetically actually is not very different from Strange in attire, as both utilize the Badass Longcoat. However, Dormammu is nonetheless a great challenge to Strange, as both are powerful sorcerers, but both also are willing to get their hands dirty in Good Old Fisticuffs. However, Dormammu is a Dimension Lord plain and simple, and his prideful desire to take Earth's dimension has led him to become Strange's Arch-Enemy, even with a more powerful Eldritch Abomination lurking out there. After all, pride is what Strange had to overcome in order to become Sorcerer Supreme, and Dormammu is dominated by his pride. Furthermore, his pride often leads him to making foolish decisions, like the time he stopped to beat Strange in a fist fight rather than obliterate him with his full magic power. Even more, while he might be a thinker, he is still a Smug Snake, leaving his complex plans constantly beaten down just because he stinks at Xanatos Speed Chess.
• Obadiah Stane from Iron Man, especially in the movie. Greed and Envy. In addition to Bald of Evil, he is also rather tall and imposing, and is a smooth talker in contrast to Tony's more brash way of talking. While Tony is naive, and thus allows evil acts to happen through inaction, Obidiah is cunning and manipulative, causing many of the events in the storyline. Throughout the movie he pretends to be helping Tony Stark brave the wrath of the stockholders (after his decision to get out of the weapons business), while secretly closing him out. Partway through the movie, it is revealed that he not only is closing Tony out of the company, but he tried to kill him and is illegally trading weapons / dealing with terrorist organizations. Stane's Iron Monger suit in the movie also heavily contrasts with Stark's. While Stark's armor is sleek, colorful, and outfitted with weapons designed for efficiency and precision, the Iron Monger is grey, bulky, and heavily relies on Gatling guns, missiles, and excessive overkill. Stane is eventually brought down thanks to Stark's assistant, falling into the prototype arc reactor after he stole Tony's second miniature version.
• Red Skull. Ambition, Wrath and pure Hatred. The living embodiment of the horrific evil of Nazism, fed by a difficult childhood where murderous violence was his only release. Unlike Captain America, who is a direct warrior who inspires his fellows into fighting for the greater ideal of America while recognizing his nation's failings, The Red Skull is a manipulator and schemer who seduces his own followers with his foul ambitions of domination and extermination of all who dare oppose him, first in the name of the Third Reich and then for himself alone. He's evil enough that he's not only despised by heroes, but nearly every other comic book villain, and the Nazis themselves.
• Superman: Lex Luthor. Ambition and Pride with heavy helpings of Wrath and, depending on the writer, Envy and Greed. The Trope Maker of Bald of Evil, Lex Luthor is nowadays a Corrupt Corporate Executive who excels in manipulating the moment and cares little for the fates of people who get in his way, in contrast to Superman, who not only feels that no one is above the law, but has that whole Truth, Justice, and the American Way thing. Lex, who is perfectly fine with ruining the lives of those he needs to get ahead and breaking the law to cement his power, is constantly defeated by Superman, who saves those whose lives he ruins and tends to stop his law breaking before it starts, and despite his Villain with Good Publicity status, Superman not only repeatedly refuses to look away, but pledges to expose and defeat him. As time went on, Lex began to become obsessed with Superman, and, in the current continuity, gave away his Good Publicity status for good (or, at least, for a while) to try to kill Superman with a battle suit and Kryptonite-laced steroids. Is eventually defeated by his own Pride and Wrath, throwing away his status for revenge. There is also the fact that, while Superman is physically strong, Lex's strengths come from being intelligent.
• Transmetropolitan: The Smiler. Greed, Pride, Wrath, and is eventually taken down by his Lust.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Circe is a Proud, narcissistic, shapeshifting Wicked Witch who often uses lies and half-truths. Her opponent is a humble sincere warrior princess who carries the Lasso of Truth.
  • The Cheetah is another example, this being of the Envy and Greed variety. She is a villainous take on the Adventure Archaeologist trope; rather than being depicted as a somewhat roguish but charming and heroic adventurer, Barbara is a manipulative, greedy, murderous thief. She cares for no one but herself and has no respect for foreign cultures, only interested in plundering their treasures for her own collection. Whereas Diana is a beautiful and lauded figure granted powers by the gods which acted as gifts to her already present grace, Barbara's gifts from her god put her in excruciating pain and suffering. She sees Wonder Woman as a flawless figure whose popularity and monumental support from friends and gods alike is an insult to Barbara's constant suffering and misery, hence her hatred.
  • Ares traditionally is an example of Wrath taking the role of an Evil War God who derives his power from conflict, from either almost starting World War III or attempting to seize power of Olympus. This stands in stark contrast to Diana's role as a loving ambassador for peace. In addition, in comparison to his fellow Olympians who often dress in robes and togas, he's usually adorned in layered blued armor decorated in spikes and skeletal motifs with a helmet that cover all but his eyes.

Films — Animation

• Balto: Steele is a Pride and Greed villain. Steele is a pure bred Siberian Husky, with black and white fur and quite literally the top dog of the town, while Balto is a grey furred mutt, part husky and part wolf, and the towns outcast. Steele seeks above all praise and adoration from the other dogs, being a Glory Seeker to go with his ego, so much so that he's willing to kill Balto for trying after refusing his help, tries to get his sled team killed for siding with Balto, and willing to condemn an entire town full of children to death all so he can pass himself off as a sympathetic hero to the other dogs. Fittingly Steele and Balto's social positions are switched Balto not only rescues the sled team and the towns children, in turn exposing Steele.
• Corpse Bride gives us Barkis Bittern as a Greed and Wrath villain. Your classic Gold Digger and The Bluebeard, Barkis seeks to marry young rich women for their inheritance, before murdering them and looting their riches. He does this to Emily and plans to do this to Victoria, only to discover that her family is at risk of going to the poor house, at which point he attempts to kill her and Victor out of spite. In appearance Barkis is a buffish, older, confident and cruel man, with the protagonist Victor being a scrawny, timid, and young Nice Guy.
• Kung Fu Panda: Tai Lung (envy, ambition, wrath) fits everything aside form the deception part. His appearance is at least slightly special — he's a rare animal, a snow leopard — and he's an Evil Brit by voice. More importantly, the hero's quest is defined by the demand to defeat him, whereas Tai Lung defeats everyone else before facing the hero, Po. He's the complete opposite of Po: absurdly talented from the start and foiled by inner weakness, whereas Po appears as a ridiculous prospect for a kung fu master but prevails in the end by finding confidence. They have a dramatic if humorous Final Battle, and Tai Lung is defeated in a way that highlights his underlying weakness and Po's strength.
• Kung Fu Panda 3: Kai of many nicknames is filled with Greed, Pride, Envy and Wrath. Visually, he draws parallels with Po, with both being large and mostly black and white. However, Kai is also bigger than Po, and has a lot of Green in his motif, and wields dual blades on chains contrasting with the fists of the kung fu masters. Furthermore, his backstory actually showed he had a connection with The Mentor of the franchise, but turned against him when his greed and pride lead to him stealing the Chi of others. Now years later, he's filled with Envy and Wrath as he's been gone for so long, people only remember him through his connection to Oogway. And he seeks to take everything for himself, while Po gives of himself to his friends and new family. Is ultimately undone when his greed and lack of control leads Po to defeat him via power overload.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Sunset Shimmer. Vice: Ambition and Pride. A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil for Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer wants to study powerful magic like the hero Twilight Sparkle, but Sunset wants to do it as a means to get even greater power, and repeatedly insists she's earned things that she clearly hasn't. Her color scheme uses intense reds and yellows, compared to the softer blues and purples of Twilight, and the more muted color schemes of the other characters. Twilight's quest is to stop Sunset from corrupting a magical artifact and return it to its rightful owner — Twilight herself. Sunset becomes Drunk on the Dark Side when the artifact corrupts her because she tries to use its power for her own selfish, short-sighted desires to get revenge on Princess Celestia and her homeland, but Twilight and The Power of Friendship stop Sunset's plans before they can come to fruition. While defeated, Sunset doesn't die, instead seeing the error of her ways and turning good.

Literature

• The Dresden Files Nicodemus Archleone bears Pride in a large swath. He has lived for over two thousand years working as a partner, as he sees it, to a Fallen Angel within his mind. He regrets nothing he has done in his time on Earth as evidenced when he looked upon the Archangel Uriel and his halo's guilt-inducing light and laughed. So caught up in his own brilliance and pride, he can see no flaws in himself. Hero Harry Dresden, likewise suffers from Pride, but his is about his own high expectations for himself. He holds strongly to the ideal "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" and any failure in that responsibility, any person he couldn't save or suffered collateral damage from Harry's choices (even if there had been no choice to give a better outcome) weighs on him heavily. He has a minor breakdown at one point over his continued "failings." And when Harry is just winged by the aforementioned angelic halo's light, he averts his eyes and feels guilt over every bad choice he made.
• Everworld has Senna Wales. Senna represents Pride, Wrath, Greed and Envy. She desires to gain all the magic necessary to overthrow the gods, thus supplanting their positions. She also feels great resentment towards those who've had easy lives while she had to work for all she has.
• Harry Potter: Voldemort, without a doubt. Ambition and Pride, snake-headed, hissing speech, his time as Tom Riddle in the diary, and everything else. In the end, it's his excessive pride or arrogance that lead to his downfall, since his egocentric worldview means that 1: he constantly underestimates his opponents, even after he is beaten a dozen times, 2: he's a bad judge of character, as he cannot comprehend love and friendship, and doesn't see Snape's Heel–Face Turn and the Malfoy family's betrayal coming, and 3: he refuses to admit he needs and relies on others, treating them as pawns instead of comrades (see the above spoiler for how that worked out).
• Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. Greed and Ambition to control everybody in Middle-Earth. Though he is incorporeal throughout the book, his ring serves as the primary obstacle to the Fellowship. His powers of deception are entirely unmatched by anybody else in Middle-Earth; his early exploits include fooling a Númenórean king into starting a war against the Valar, which ended disastrously for his kingdom. He even ends up twisting Saruman into serving him (who, incidentally, is also very good at convincing others and thinks he will double-cross Sauron, something Sauron knows all too well). Sauron commands vast armies through his will alone. Frodo and Sam sneak into a fiery volcano to destroy his ring, and he is completely broken.
• Masks of Aygrima has two examples:
  • The Autarch embodies Envy, Pride, and Ambition. His outfit as ruler of Aygrima is a while cloak and gold mask, making him visually distinct from others. His use of propaganda and thought policing makes everyone in his kingdom fear and respect him. His desire to maintain his power as he ages causes him to envy the young and drain their vitality for himself while planning to steal the body of the main character so he can stay in power. His constant abuse of his special Gift to maintain power contrasts Mara who works against the addictive nature of her Gift and desires a normal life.
  • The Lady of Pain and Fire represents Envy, Ambition, and Wrath and stands as a dark reflection of what Mara could turn into if she doesn't fight her Gift. she's described as being dressed entirely in furs and constantly flanked by a pack of wolves which makes her stand out visually. She despises the Autarch for causing her fathers death and desires to tear through Aygrima in order to usurp him uncaring of the destruction that would be caused by the plan. She befriends Mara by pretending to be a kindred spirit who managed to fight off the effects of her Gift, when in reality she's every bit the violent, egotistical monster Mara fears she'll become. Ultimately she's undone by her own Evil Gloating getting her shot in the head by Mara, and later when she hijacks her body, her over confidence gets her conciousness destroyed by the Autarch.
• Triumvirate Holdings from The Trials of Apollo represent Ambition and Pride. They are a group of Godhood Seekers (they already attained minor godhood, but they seek to become major deities) who manipulated events in the prior books of the series, and are each shown to be incredibly selfish (mirroring our hero Apollo who slowly learns a lesson in humility). Two out of three of them die at the hands of Apollo in a final battle (while one is killed by Frank to avenge Jason). The Beast particularly fits the bill here; having child spies in Camp Half-Blood that he manipulated, dressing in expensive purple clothes, and trying to burn down the home of the gods.
• Warrior Cats' main villain Tigerstar represents Ambition and Wrath, and is a visually menacing dark brown tabby with unusually long claws. In the first book he's a mentor to Fireheart and is thought to be one of the greatest warriors of ThunderClan, but he secretly kills the Clan deputy and later plots to kill the leader in order to become leader himself. Eventually he does get his wish by becoming leader of ShadowClan, but by this point he's determined to rule the whole forest and especially to get revenge on Firestar. Just when everything seems like it will come to a head in a final battle, Tigerstar's iconic death - being split open and dying nine times over - comes not at the claws of Firestar, but those of Scourge, another villain he thought he could control. Many books later, he tries to get revenge from beyond the grave, which ultimately does lead to a final dramatic battle between Firestar and Tigerstar, and it ends with them mutually killing each other (with Tigerstar's spirit ceasing to exist.)

Psychology

• Some psychologists have theorized The Dark Triad, three offensive non-pathological personality traits—Machiavellianism, sub-clinical narcissism, and sub-clinical psychopathy—that are conceptually distinct but are associated with manipulation and exploitation of others, grandiosity, pride, egotism, antisocial behavior, impulsivity, selfishness, callous and unemotional traits, and remorselessness. Individuals with high scores in these traits have been found in workplace leadership positions, violent delinquency, internet trolls, cyber-criminals, and the alt-right.

Tabletop Games

• Most villains in Magic: The Gathering is either this or Light Is Not Good. The core premise of the game is that each color represents certain concepts, leading to villains that fit this trope. Examples:
  • Yawgmoth, the Machine-God of Phyrexia represents Ambition and Greed, with no qualms about little things like consent or the natural order. When portrayed in human form, he's a black-clad goth with eyeliner.
  • Yawgmoth's successor, Elesh Norn representing Pride and Wrath, decked out in blood red and bone white. As a white villain, she represents white's desire for order and community but stripping away free will.
  • Nicol Bolas represents Ambition, Pride and Wrath, an enormous black dragon, is one of six primordial dragons and the most evil by far.
  • Tezzeret represents Envy and Wrath, a flunky villain who has sided with all of the above at different times. He sports distinctive dreadlocks and a prosthetic magitek arm.
• Strahd Von Zarovich from Ravenloft is a villain whose main vice is Lust, as he has continually pursued the various incarnations of Tatyana, even though he can never have her. He is also very visually distinct in all of his appearances, although he is often said to pose as his own servant. He is also sometimes depicted inviting the PCs to his Castle, such as in the computer game Strahd's Possession. While he has never been killed, any battle in which the PCs face him is likely to be in Castle Ravenloft, a very dramatic place for a battle.
• Warhammer:
  • Heinrich Kemmler was the first unique named character created in the Warhammer-verse, and is also a very classical villain as the Big Bad of the module The Lure of the Lichemaster where he plots the theft of artifacts from an abbey. An evil necromancer, Kemmler represents Greed and Pride, constantly hunting down ancient artifacts and scraps of Dark Magic lore to increase his own personal power.
  • Malekith the Witch King. He represents Pride and Envy, not to mention the idea that Ambition Is Evil. He and his Dark Elves dress in all (spiky) black in contrast to their more brightly-dressed Elven brethren.

Theatre

• William Shakespeare:
  • Julius Caesar: Caius Cassius. Envy, possibly Ambition. He is also described as having a "lean and hungry look". While pretending to be Caesar's friend, he conspires to assassinate him, and it is not entirely clear (as is often the case with Shakespeare motives), whether he truly believes the stories he feeds Brutus about how Caesar is attempting become dangerously powerful, or whether he is simply jealous of his position and wishes to take it. In any case, he manipulates Brutus and others into conspiring and killing Caesar. His plan backfires when Marc Antony rallies the people of Rome against them, and they are forced to fight in a war, in which Cassius eventually takes his own life after being defeated.
  • Iago from Othello is a classic example of Envy and Pride. Though not visually distinct, he has lots of asides and soliloquies. Iago has a bit of a reputation among critics. Some serious critics contend that Shakespeare wrote him to be a perfectly primal and archetypal villain, turning him into the embodiment of the Classic Villain, explaining why he is so successful and iconic. Applying this characteristic to him makes him come off as a Humanoid Abomination during the play due to how amazingly, egregiously Villainous he is. Also, while he may have no real physical differences to the Good Guys, his speech patterns vary quite a lot; he is the only character in the play to speak both in normal prose (the sign of a common man) which he does in his guise as a humble soldier and loyal friend, and in iambic pentameter (the sign of greater intelligence, education and importance) which he does during his manipulations and soliloquies.
  • Richard III, physically distinguished by his hunch back and limp. His opening soliloquy makes clear his Ambition arising from Envy of the healthy: "... to command, to check, to overbear such as are of better person than myself". A twisted body creates a twisted mind.

Toys

• BIONICLE: Makuta Teridax. Pride, Ambition and Envy. A shapeshifting master of shadows determined to seize the power and respect the Great Spirit Mata Nui had by embarking on a millennia-spanning plan involving putting him to sleep and taking control of his Humongous Mecha body, and going after the whole universe from there. The deception is shown in the prequel chapters, where he impersonates a ruler and turns a city against its heroes in order to further his plot. At his core, as he once described himself and other characters brought up again in Shut Up, Hannibal! moments, he is nothing, lacking true purpose after turning his back on his intended destiny of helping Mata Nui achieve his ultimate goal. It is that rejected destiny that ends up killing him, severe head trauma from a falling chunk of the planet he was supposed to help re-assemble.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney's antagonists tend to be prideful people who contrast with the main characters.
  • Manfred von Karma represents Pride. He murdered a man who dared stain his perfect win record (which ruined his reputation as the best of the best), but adopted said man's son and essentially blackmailed him by making him believe he was responsible for the murder. The first game is about Phoenix taking him down to save Miles, exposing von Karma's blackmail over him, and the latter's character development is partially about growing past von Karma's wrong teachings and pursuing the truth instead.
  • Morgan Fey of the second and third games represents Envy. Beneath the firm and strict aunt facade she puts up towards Maya and the rest of Kurain Village, she was jealous of her younger sister's superior power, which caused her to lose the position of Master and head the branch family. She manipulates her eight-year-old daughter (among others) to help her get rid of Maya so her descendants can be the head family instead. She's even dressed the part; Fey acolytes tend to wear pink or purple, Morgan is wearing black and red.
  • Dahlia Hawthorne of the third game represents Wrath, a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who deals with people getting in the way of her plots via attempting to murder everyone involved. She even conspires with Morgan to kick off the Grand Finale of the original trilogy. She also dabbles a bit in Pride, as she doesn't care about anyone except herself.
  • Kristoph Gavin of the fourth game is Pride again, as he sets off an elaborate plan to get Phoenix disbarred (and succeeds) all because he got chosen as someone's defense attorney over him.
• It's weird how well Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club! fits these points in spite of being anything but a conventional villain. Vice? Envy; she's the only unromanceable character in a Romance Game and tries very hard to change that. Visually different? She can't look very different due to the nature of the story, but there are many subtle hints that she's special. Even though everyone wears the same school uniform, hers is a bit different, and she's the only one with a normal hair colour. Her non-Japanese name is also a hint. She's also the only character who directly faces the screen, which turns out to be anything but random. Deception? She pretends to be just another game character, even though she's got Medium Awareness and sees everything totally differently, and pretends to be a friend to the others like she used to be before she went mad from the revelation of being Trapped in TV Land. She uses this to try to further her agenda of getting chosen as the love interest. Ironically, though, it turns out she wasn't deceiving the player on purpose, thinking they already knew about her Medium Awareness. Achieves part of their goal before the final climactic confrontation? She deletes everything else in the game when nothing else works to get to be with the player. The final confrontation, then, is when she's trapped you forever on a date with her in a room with creepy space outside the windows and with dynamic lighting effects not seen before in the limited Visual Novel graphics of the game. Iconic death? You have to delete her character file, like she did to the other characters, while she's lovingly staring you in the eyes. Opposite of the hero? This may be coincidental, but the Player Character is an unambitious loser whose role in the game is to get all the girls falling in love with him, while Monika is a class star who's unromanceable because of her predetermined role in the game. Much more deliberately, she's also a Foil to the player in the sense that the game aims to evoke Video Game Caring Potential in the player and then shock them by having Monika apply Video Game Cruelty Potential. Obstacle for the hero's goals? Yeah, you can just forget about trying to date anyone else with her around, or playing a nice cute romantic game for that matter.
• Kotomine Kirei from Fate/stay night. He personifies... well, everything evil, but Ambition and Wrath mainly. He's one of the most physically imposing characters in the entire cast, has a deep voice provided by Joji Nakata, and he (barely) pretends to be allied with the heroes until he does something utterly evil ( kidnapping Ilya and showing off his basement full of peeled orphans in Fate and trying to force the birth of Angra Mainyu in Heaven's Feel) to break the illusion. In Heaven's Feel Kotomine's parallels to Shirou become quite obvious with the classic climactic conclusion being resolved by Kotomine's lack of purpose outside the emptiness that is at both Shirou and his own core. Shirou's nature lies in defining himself through others, which is the same as Kotomine. The reason it is a virtue for Shirou and a vice for Kotomine is that Shirou's self definition lies in aiding others while Kotomine's is in harming them. Lastly, in each of the routes he suffers a karmic and ironic death as a result of his past actions, which in two out of three routes happens when he confronts Shirou in a climactic final battle.

Web Animation

• RWBY: Adam Taurus may be a member of the White Fang, but but beneath his charisma, he has none of the good intentions and noble qualities of his compatriots. Ambitious and power hungry to a fault, he is a toxic Control Freak who is obsessed with getting his way, and he has been explicitly described In-Universe as a living embodiment of spite. He's willing to do anything he deems necessary to lash out at those he feels have hurt him, whether the punishment is truly warranted or not. As Blake's most obvious foil, his clothing sports a heavily angular appearance with no shortage of black and red.
• Nazo from the Sonic the Hedgehog fan animation Nazo Unleashed. Is Pride through-and-through. He's an embodiment of evil Chaos Energy who desires to destroy the entire world and the Master Emerald so that he can be the most powerful entity in the universe. He accesses the power of the Chaos Emeralds in a similar way to Sonic and Shadow and eventually he becomes Hyper by using the Super Emeralds just like Sonic and Shadow. He is defeated because Sonic and Shadow are fighting for their friends and they all give their fusion Shadic the rings needed to destroy him, and Hyper Knuckles and Super Tails, both friends of Sonic, assist them.

Webcomics

• The Other aka Lucrezia Mongfish from Girl Genius is practically selfish Pride given flesh, is constantly trying to decieve people, lacks any remorse, and seeks to dominate everyone. In terms of personality she's practically the opposite of our heroine Agatha - in fact when possessing her body, the reason people can tell is because "Agatha" is acting unlike herself in every way. The only box that the Other doesn't check at some point is the appearance-based one, since she's a Body Snatcher who resembles whoever she is possessing.
• Xykon from The Order of the Stick, who mainly embodies Greed and Ambition with a streak of Pride. Visually distinct by virtue of being undead, complete with white-on-black speech bubbles. He's Roy's opposite in many ways: ruthless and sadistic (in a pretty Chaotic Evil way, though it's not explicitly stated) versus Lawful Good, Obfuscating Stupidity versus cerebral leadership, lots of one-liners versus Roy's Straight Man. Any deception on his part has yet to be revealed, but given his character and the nature of the plot so far it would not exactly be a surprise. That said, despite not having the attention span for much real scheming, he's pretty decent at manipulating people when he can be bothered (see the climax of Start of Darkness).
  • He even plays into his Sorcerer class in a dark mirror of Roy as the Fighter. Not only are they a full caster vs the epitome of a completely martial class, but where Xykon embraces the stereotype of Sorcerers as brute force magic users, Roy actively defies the stereotype of Fighters as Dumb Muscle. That said, both of them have a sore-spot when it comes to other people looking down on their class choice based on those stereotypes (Roy insists Fighters are/can be more than that, while Xykon likes to demonstrate just how effective magical brute force can be).

Web Videos

• The terrorist in Doom House. Deception: originally pretends to be the cop to get Reginald to move out of the house. Obstacle to the hero's goals: he wants Reginald out of the house, while Reginald just wants to live in his new dream home in peace. Achieves part of his ends before the final battle/dramatic final battle: well, he sure seems menacing with his final attempts to get Reginald to move out, accompanied by special effects, although who knows what the heck is going on. Iconic death brought on by his own flaws: gets the creepy doll that was on his side thrown at him, falls down the stairs, and dies clutching a board. Foil to the hero: underacting instead of overacting.
• Dream SMP: Dream. Vice: Pride (most prominently seen in the god complex he develops in Seasons 2 and 3) and his Virtue Is Weakness attitude. A masked man associated with the colour green who manipulates and hurts other members of the server (and especially Tommy) in order to maintain the status quo of the server — himself being the ultimate power on it, with no major factions or rebels to threaten his rule. He almost succeeds in this with the annihilation of L'Manburg in the Doomsday War and eventually the Disc War Finale in his vault in the shattered savanna. However, this is where his Virtue Is Weakness attitude became his downfall, as he cut off all of his friends and potential allies due to said attitude, who turned against him alongside Punz, a mercenary who was willing to betray Dream as soon as Tommy (who is characterized by his attachments, which Dream shuns) paid him more. This ultimately ended with Dream being carted off to the prison he built for potential 'dissenters', with two of his canon lives lost to the teenager he abused. This ultimately turns out to be a subversion as it's later revealed that the Disc War Finale was somehow staged by Dream and Punz in the first place, and that Punz turns out to be a Fake Defector.

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