"Villains aren't bad guys. They're just... misunderstood. Villains know what they want and they go for it. I can respect that."
— Marina, Splatoon 2
This is the Super-Trope for the cases where villains have qualities that make them more likable. This kind of thing easily leads into Anti-Villain when more than a smidgen of these tropes is added. See also the Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness. Contrast Hate Sink (which is when a character is intentionally made to be unlikable) and for some examples, Complete Monster (where the villain is so repugnant and despicable that there's nothing positive to say about them).
May or may not be Unintentionally Sympathetic.
Evoking Admiration
- Memorial for the Antagonist: The heroes respect the villain in death.
- Worthy Opponent: Someone admires their adversary for being a challenging and honorable opponent.
For the audience:
- Evil Is Cool: Audiences find the villain to be awesome.
- Love to Hate: The audience loves the villain precisely because of how vile they can be.
- Magnificent Bastard: The audience likes the villain because their plans are far grander in scope and execution than those of the heroes.
- Rooting for the Empire: The audience actually wants the bad guys to win.
Attachment to Other People
- Antagonist in Mourning: The bad guy feels sorry for the hero's death.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: A cold-hearted person shows signs of warming up and becoming nicer.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The villain cares about their mother.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Not even bad guys lack people that they love and care about.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The character is often a jerk, but sometimes proves that they're not a completely bad person, even becoming good guys.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Character has the redeeming quality of owning a pet cat that they love dearly.
- Morality Pet: A loved one of the villain who brings out their positive qualities.
- Sympathy for the Hero: The villain shows sympathy or pity for the hero.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: The villain cares for their children.
Bravery
- Villainous Valour: The villain shows great bravery when they're in danger.
Friendliness
- Affably Evil: The villain is a friendly sort in spite of having evil intentions.
- Friendly Enemy: The bad guy is so chummy with the hero that it's easy to forget that they are the hero's enemy.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: The villains are friendly and polite, while the heroes are rude jerks.
Good Intentions
- Obliviously Evil: The villain doesn't know that what they're doing is wrong.
- Non-Malicious Monster: A non-sapient creature that isn't malevolent and is only acting out of animal instinct with no concept of morality.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: The villain believes that their actions are okay if the result is making the world a better place for everyone.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The villain is only doing wrong because they have noble intentions.
Having a Sense of Humor
- Evil Is Hammy: The villain is a Large Ham.
- Laughably Evil: The villain has numerous humorous moments and quirks.
- Hammy Villain, Serious Hero: When the villain's funny antics contrast the hero's seriousness in those moments.
Intelligence
- Evil Genius: A villain who is highly intelligent.
- Villain Has a Point: The bad guy makes a point that the Hero acknowledges as true.
- Wicked Cultured: A villain who has a taste for the finer things in life.
For the audience:
- Strawman Has a Point: The audience agrees with the points made by the character they are supposed to be against.
Morality
- Anti-Villain: The villain has noble and sympathetic motivations.
- Even Evil Has Standards: There are some misdeeds so heinous that even villains refuse to do them or are appalled by them.
- Lovable Rogue: (When they’re not the hero) Breaks the law for their own benefit, but is still likable nonetheless.
- Never Hurt an Innocent: The villain only wants to bring harm to people who have actually done them wrong. Innocent people who did nothing are to be spared.
- Noble Demon: The villain has a genuine Code of Honour.
- Noble Top Enforcer
- Villainous Ethics Decay
Normalcy
- Go-Karting with Bowser: The heroes and the villains socialize without harming each other.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The character is only a villain as their job. Off the clock, they're as normal and friendly as any other person.
- Villains Love Entertainment: Just like anyone else, villains like to have fun.
For the audience:
- Villains Out Shopping: Showing the bad guys taking a break from villainy and doing the same things normal people do is a good way to humanize them.
Pitifulness
- Driven to Villainy: Someone's misfortunes drives them into becoming the bad guy.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: The villain wants to be better and tries to demonstrate it, but nobody will accept their change (or doesn't believe it) despite genuinely trying. Ultimately the villain stops trying to be good and decides if they will be treated like a villain, then they will just be a villain.
- Forced into Evil: The villain became a villain because they had no choice.
- Tragic Villain: The villain became evil because of sad misfortunes they endured.
For the audience:
- Alas, Poor Villain: The villain dies and their death is portrayed as sympathetic.
- Harmless Villain: The villain is incapable of being a real threat.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The villain keeps failing and getting humiliated no matter how hard they try.
- Jerkass Woobie: The audience feels that even though this character was bad, they still didn't deserve the misfortunes they suffered.
- Minion with an F in Evil: A henchman who is too nice and ineffectual to be evil.
- Mook Horror Show: The hero beating up the bad guys is shown from the bad guys' perspective and has the hero portrayed as being like a movie monster.
- Villainous Underdog: The villain is severely outclassed by the hero, but keeps trying to defeat them anyway.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: An unfortunate character's misery drives them to attempt to cause a lot of destruction and death.
Sex Appeal
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Women find bad men more attractive.
- Sexy Villains, Chaste Heroes: The villains have more sex appeal than the heroes.
For the audience:
- Draco in Leather Pants: The audience portrays a character as being nicer when they are canonically a horrible person.
- Foe Yay Shipping: Fans ship the hero with the villain.
Understanding Their Point of View
- Freudian Excuse: A villain or jerk is the way they are because of something bad that happened to them in the past.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: The hero has some emotional attachment to the villain.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Someone who takes a life is portrayed as having a sympathetic and justifiable reason for killing the person.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Someone admits feeling bad for the bad guy.
For the audience:
- Cry for the Devil: The audience feels bad for the villain.
- Start of Darkness: The moment in the villain's life where they first became evil.
