Love to Hate

"A hero is a hero, but everybody loves a great villain."

— Ferb, Phineas and Ferb, "Out of Toon"

This villain trope is for the characters we love to hate.

"Love to hate" is a term used to describe villains we enjoy. We love them for various reasons, such as excellent character development, being hilarious, getting the best writing, having a memorable personality, or being lucky enough to have a top-notch performance by their actor. But at the same time, the fans still want to see the baddie get their comeuppance in the end. There is still hatred, after all. Also named Heel Hate.

Faux Affably Evil, Affably Evil, Laughably Evil, Magnificent Bastard, and Card-Carrying Villain are sub tropes for different reasons. Being a Large Ham definitely helps (see also Evil Is Hammy). An Anti-Villain is often one of these due to the character development they often get. A villain who's The Scrappy or Creator's Pet is typically not eligible for this trope as are some villains who cross the Moral Event Horizon.

Not to be confused with Draco in Leather Pants, which is when a villain's fandom will gloss over the actual nastiness of a villain and insist that he or she is just misunderstood, i.e they throw their sympathy to them even though they don't deserve it; in this, fans acknowledge the atrocities the villain has done but they like them for their villain traits. Also not to be confused with when the heroes would love to hate the villain, but just can't manage it.

This is someone whom the fans enjoy and even maybe respect because of their unapologetic evilness. Their shamelessness is cathartic to us, and they retain their awesomeness as time goes by without Villain Decay.

In order to be eligible, a villain must be generally well-regarded/well-liked by said fandom while the same fandom still acknowledges they're a villain. Being here means that said villain is part of the pantheon of great villains. Therefore, it is possible for a Complete Monster to be listed here (for example, The Joker, Pennywise, and Red Skull).

Compare Hate Sink, where a character's intended role is to be hated by the audience. They can fall under this trope if viewers find them engaging despite being someone for them to root against. Also compare Jerkass Dissonance, where a character becomes beloved in spite of being so detestable. Can also overlap with Rooting for the Empire if the villain is so entertaining the audience actually WANTS them to win.

See also Evil Is Cool, a major cause of this sentiment.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Big Bill Hell's: Bill Hell is a grade A Card-Carrying Jerkass and an open scam artist with no redeeming features, but he's so blunt and up front about it, not to mention hilariously over-the-top, it's almost impossible not to laugh at his ad.

Anime and Manga

• Several villains in the Dragon Ball franchise: Tao Pai Pai, Freeza, Cell, Buu, Broly, Cooler, among others. They have amazingly cool appearances and powers, after all.
  • Goku Black from Dragon Ball Super is shown to be a smug, arrogant bastard who is fully willing to commit mass-scale genocide to create a "utopia" free from mortals. Yet, his speech patterns that is helped by Nozawa's voice acting, the way he performs them in gracefulness, and being an overall badass villain has made him one of the most beloved villains in the series.
  • On the other scale of the duumvirate is Zamasu. He is shown to be a racist, narcissistic, and manipulative Supreme Kai who desires to commit genocide of all mortals but the way he does it is completely hypocritical considering that he is fully willing to commit genocide on all the gods. Yet it is these qualities that make him well-loved by the fandom, though not quite as much as Black.
• Inuyasha: Naraku, and his Quirky Miniboss Squad minions Kagura, Kanna, Hakudoshi, and the Band of Seven all have their own legions of fans.
• Berserk: Griffith of course, at least whenever he's not getting the Draco in Leather Pants treatment. He's a horrific Complete Monster, however he's so charismatic and cunning that it's hard not to watch him almost flawlessly put his plans into action.
• One Piece:
  • Admiral Akainu: Manipulative Bastard, Determinator, and unstoppable Hero Killer. Akainu is many things, but a forgettable villain is never one of them.
  • Blackbeard, Sir Crocodile, Arlong, Eneru, and Spandam as well. All of them unrepentantly evil but all so entertaining because of it. Especially Blackbeard for being very, very effective for a coward.
  • Doflamingo as well. He is similar to Crocodile, who terrorized Dressrosa for years without anyone even noticing, plus he is one of the few villains who are A Father to His Men. Didn't stop him from killing his own brother Corazon, though.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion gives us some unusual characters to hate: Bardiel - the angel that possessed Unit 03, causing Shinji to maim his best friend in the anime, and to kill him in the manga; Zeruel - the angel who nearly destroyed NERV HQ, nearly killed Misato and the Bridge Crew, then nearly killed Shinji; Arael - the angel who raped Asuka; Armisael - the angel who not only mimicked Rei's personality (or lack of it) deliberately, but also mocked her through her imitation and drove Rei to kill herself and her EVA, so that Shinji wouldn't be harmed by the angel; finally, the Mass-Production Eva Series - the S2 Engine-equipped machines who fought Asuka, regenerated after she defeated them, devoured her EVA, and skewered her within it.
  • And don't even get started on Gendo Ikari. They don't nickname him The Bastard King for nothing.
• Digimon: Myotismon was far and away the record holder for the evilest villain until Kurata topped him by far. Both characters seem to be treated like The Joker in fandom - people can't get enough of talking about how so sick and twisted they are, but it's definitely love.
• Monster: Titular character Johan Liebert, whose sheer evil is such that he becomes loved instead of hated.
• Future Diary: Yuno Gasai for being an unrepentant irredeemable mass-murdering psychopath who just happens to be "cute" and causing more of the action than our male lead does out of her massive misunderstanding of "love" for him.
• Several villains from the Gundam franchise:
  • Gihren Zabi of Mobile Suit Gundam. He's universally acknowledged as the biggest psychopath in the show and loved for it.
  • Also from Mobile Suit Gundam, Char Aznable is treacherous, hypocritical and sociopathic at times, but he's also an extremely skilled pilot able to mount a serious threat to the protagonists and has such a charisma to him that it's hard not to enjoy him whenever he's onscreen. It also makes it all the more fun to root against him when Amuro Ray finally settles his rivalry with him in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
  • Paptimus Scirocco is a Manipulative Bastard who deceives and betrays just about everyone, while Yazan Gable acts as Scirocco's enforcer and has a bloodthirsty love of killing. Despite this, the two of them are among the most enjoyable characters in Zeta Gundam even as they're doing despicable things. Scirocco for being the only intelligent character in a show full of immature children, and Yazan for being a Badass Normal Hero Killer in a series where Newtypes are usually the only characters to achieve anything of import.
  • Haman Karn of Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ. She's a devious bitch who does some very bad things, but she's so ruthless and diabolical you can never truly loathe her even if you're rooting against her. ZZ also has Glemmy Toto, who's enough of a bastard to make Haman seem nice (particularly in the manga).
  • Katejina Loos of Victory Gundam is well-loved for her insane personality, being a major Hero Killer and her memorable moments in the series, and at the same time hated for all the horrible things that she has done to the point where her fate is considered to be fitting punishment by many fans.
  • Rau Le Creuset of Gundam SEED, who singlehandedly talked the world into self-destruction while coming off as a seemingly impossible combination of Char Aznable, Emperor Palpatine, and Hannibal Lecter.
  • Gundam 00 gives us both the main villain and his top enforcer.
    • Ribbons Allmark is a Smug Snake, The Chessmaster, and the poisonously smug leader of the Innovators, making claims of godhood while believing himself to be the savior of the humans he wants to rule over. He is also one of the most skilled Gundam pilots in the franchise, being the original pilot of the first created Gundam in the series proper, and orchestrating the events of the series while playing the world like a fiddle.
    • "Prince" Ali Al-Saachez also qualifies for being a rogue-ish, smooth-talking Psycho for Hire who gladly admits he's the worst kind of person. Despite his monstrous personality and status as a Hero Killer, he wins serious points for his Ace Pilot skills being enough to rival all of Celestial Being's Gundam pilots, his tendency to bitch-slap the occasional asshole as much as he does step on less deserving people, and the hammy, bombastic personality he exudes in combat. As loathsome as he is, he is made of evil awesome.
  • Desil Galette of Gundam AGE is also heading in this direction. A seven-year-old Sociopathic Soldier who becomes the hero's archenemy? That'll get you on the fandom's radar.
• Agon from Eyeshield 21 is this to parts of the fandom. He's just such an over-the-top depiction of a Jerk Jock (with absolutely no traces of a Freudian Excuse to justify it), that even those who despise the character will agree that the series was at its emotional best when Agon was the main antagonist.
• Not strictly a villain, but Puella Magi Madoka Magica's Kyuubey has this going for him. Quite popular, and quite hated. However, this is also a big-time case of Base-Breaking Character since there's plenty who flat-out hate him for it, and some who defend his actions. It gets murkier after Rebellion when he does something that causes him to lose much of his excuse while simultaneously receiving long overdue karma.
• Izaya from Durarara!!, at least to the part of the fandom that does not simply love him.
• Medaka Box: Kumagawa Misogi is a compulsive liar, manipulative, twisted, and pisses off the protagonist on a whim. Fans still love him because he's a hilarious and entertaining character.
• High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World: Duke Glaux Einzgarm is a corrupt POS who backs the Principles Party not because he believes in their ideals, but because he wants to accumulate wealth for himself and his cronies. He also proves to be a more interesting antagonist than the previous ones, since he knows how to use Elm's democratic process and two-party system to his own advantage, as opposed to the other aristocrats relying on brute force. While it's satisfying to see the protagonists expose his crimes and put him in his place, all the antagonists who outlast him won't be able to contribute as much to the Democracy Is Flawed aesop, since they aren't manipulating the system from the inside.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Dio Brando is well-loved by fans for his incredible dickheadedness, unabashed desire to use others and control the world, being smart, starting a memorable Memetic Mutation, and being an all-around For the Evulz monstrous, bastardly cool villain.
  • Kira Yoshikage stands as one of the most popular JoJo villains, he actively and unrepentantly serial-kills for 15 years, and after his initial defeat, runs circles around the protagonists without even trying. And when he does try he shows to be a very good Magnificent Bastard.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Hunter J stands as one of the most popular villains, especially among those that were originally created for the anime, for being a ruthless and astonishingly effective Psycho for Hire; she's one of the few villains that threatened to outright kill Ash, and is one of the very few Pokémon villains to even win on multiple occasions, only being stopped because her clients were apprehended instead. She also never suffers any serious Villain Decay throughout her appearances, and proved so formidable that it requires the might of multiple Legendary Pokémon to finally bring her down.
  • Lysandre is considered by most to be the anime's most effective Big Bad, being an Omnicidal Maniac and Manipulative Bastard toward Alain. The anime removes all of his sympathetic qualities from the games, but this is widely considered a good thing, as the sheer scale of his scheme has yet to be topped by any other villain.
• Spy X Family: Fiona Frost, a.k.a. Agent Nightfall, is a selfish, bitterly resentful agent who covets Agent Twilight and wants to disrupt the family he created for the mission. However, she has become a popular secondary character for many fans because her one-sided secret love for Twilight and the actions she takes because of it are pretty hilarious to watch. Her Kick the Dog antics typically result in little more than sheer embarrassment for her. It also helps that other <WISE> Agents, including Twilight, do not think highly of her because of her cold Jerkass nature.
• Two antagonists in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime:
  • Marik/Dark Marik from the Battle City arc. While Marik was Mr. Fanservice despite the acts he committed, Dark Marik was so twisted and Axe-Crazy.
  • Dartz from Season 4. He's the evilest villain in the series' history considering the things he's done compared to the other villains. What is even more amazing is that Dartz is from a Filler Arc.
• Then there's Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL which has Vector. He has done terrible things not just to the heroes, but the other villains as well. This has caused the fandom to hate him, but also love him for being a Large Ham.
• The Homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist, especially Wrath. Kimblee also gets a lot of love from the fanbase, for being the well-dressed Breaking Speeching bomb-throwing SOB that he is.
  • Envy is this for the saner contingent of the fanbase (those who don't try to put him in leather pants) since it's easy to see him as cool, yet still despise him not only for killing Maes Hughes but for starting the Ishvalan War. Then there's Pride for being a Creepy Child and The Dragon to Father, plus how unsettling he is.
  • For Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), it wouldn’t be difficult to find a fan who tells you how much they love Dante then immediately lists out the reasons she is a horrible, despicable person that should never be forgiven. It is usually because her goals are rather realistic and believable but still so completely petty that you can’t help but like her and get disgusted by her at the same time. Plus, she is quite good-looking (at least, after she took over poor Lyra’s body).
• Fate/stay night:
  • Kirei Kotomine, who does Evil just-because, making a nice Foil for Shirou who does Good just-because. Both have their arses kicked with much gusto.
  • There is also Kirei's servant Gilgamesh, a colossal prick who longs to make the heroine Saber his, wants the whole world to himself, and, like Kirei, loves to do evil just cause. He also has the power to back up his smug attitude.
  • The other Master/Servant pair to receive such accolades is Ryuunosuke Uryuu and Bluebeard/Caster from Fate/Zero. They both are shown to be quite the bombastic performers for the theatrics. They even discuss this trope, with Ryuunosuke claiming that in his world-view, God is a playwright writing the greatest tale known to man and thus loves all of his characters no matter how wicked they are; after all, what good is a tale without a villain? Caster embraces Ryuunosuke's ideology and decides that the pair shall honor God by performing an act of villainy unmatched so far in Creation.
• Light Yagami from Death Note. He is loved for his habit of outgambitting and manipulating everyone around him, as well as for his hamminess (this includes both his original VA, and dubbed VA). Though there is a subset of the fandom that either outright put him in leather pants, or root for him despite admitting to his malevolent nature.
• Several villains from Fist of the North Star, especially Jagi, Amiba, and Souther. They are three of the evilest villains in the series and are very popular with the fans.
• Rurouni Kenshin: Shishio Makoto is a brutal Social Darwinist who causes many atrocities in the series, yet his odd sense of honor makes him the perfect adversary to Kenshin due to his genuine desire to make Japan strong.
• Medusa from Soul Eater straddles this line, depending on whether you like her villainy (to the point that in the manga, she gets exactly what she wants even in death) sufficiently compensates for her horrid abuse of Crona.
• Kill la Kill:
  • Nui Harime is a unique case because she holds this view In-Universe; her philosophy is that all extreme emotions are interchangeable, so the more you hate someone, the more you love them. She lives by this rule and makes damn sure to earn everyone's love/hate. She fits out-of-universe as well since she is vile, sadistic, and despicable with a Trollish streak that would make Yuuki Terumi proud, which makes it very satisfying to hate her guts.
  • Satsuki is also like this, before it's revealed that she was Good All Along. Her elitist, hypocritical, and outright reactionary attitude is sure to make the audience hate her as much as Ryuko does, especially since, unlike Nui, there's a greater chance of encountering someone like her in real life.
  • Ragyo Kiryuin is one of the most awful parents in fiction due to her Parental Incest and No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Satsuki but she makes very over-the-top entrances that fit right in the show and is a Large Ham making her pretty enjoyable to watch. She also has one of the best songs in the show.
• Ladd Russo from Baccano! is a deranged Serial Killer who brutally kills several people throughout the story, including a child. On the other hand, he's just so goddamn happy about what he does that it's hard not to like him, and the child he killed was an immortal, anyway.
• Orochimaru and Danzo Shimura are considered the greatest villains in Naruto.
• Sword Art Online:
  • Of the villains, Kayaba is the most charming of the bunch. It also helps that he's an Affably Evil Badass Bookworm VR junkie with high moral standards.
  • Death Gun is a depraved Serial Killer with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but he's so theatrical and intimidating that many fans want to see more of him before his eventual defeat.
  • Quinella is one of the most loved Big Bads in the series. Despite how monstrous she is, she's just so much fun to watch.
  • PoH is one of the most evil villains in the series and is beloved because of this. His raise in popularity increases in War of Underworld due to the legitimate threat he poses, especially when he logs back in with an army of Chinese and Korean players, his rather hammy mannerisms, his actually rather tragic backstory, and just how cool and intimidating his abilities and weapon are.
• Elfen Lied:
  • Director Kakuzawa though only in the manga, where he shows how much of a villain he is.
  • From the same manga we have the Unknown Man. Despite only making a small appearance, he quickly proves to be the most monstrous villain in the manga. A sadistic Psycho for Hire with the operative word being "psycho". He's also a depraved rapist and pedophile who nearly rapes Mayu. Yet because of this, he's one of the most memorable characters of the manga despite his brief appearances. If fans are talking about him, it's because they love talking about how sick and twisted he is.
• Seraph of the End:
  • Ferid Bathory. He has done some incredibly horrendous acts in the past (he kills Yuu's entire adopted family when they tried to escape) but also his carefree attitude makes him so hated but also liked.
• Tokyo Ghoul: Shuu Tsukiyama has tried to eat Kaneki and his friends multiple times. However, his mannerisms Evil Is Hammy and his constant moans of arousal for Kaneki's scent have made him one of the fandom's favorite characters to hate/love. He even has his own nickname: Trashiyama.
• Made in Abyss: Bondrewd the Novel, The Lord of Dawn is a complete bastard who experiments on children and even killed his own daughter for an experiment, but his charismatic personality, fighting ability, and cool character design make him a very compelling antagonist.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Endeavor is an awful person, effectively being the Token Evil Teammate for the superheroes. He's abusive towards his family, rude towards just about everyone else, only saves people for the fame and glory, is childishly jealous of All Might, and has done more evil than most of the actual supervillains. He's also widely beloved as one of the best antagonists in the series; his despicable behavior really makes him stand out and he's legitimately badass, with a great design. Many fans eagerly hope that the heroes eventually fight him, not only because he deserves it, but because such a battle would likely be really awesome.
  • Stain is an extremist with a rather skewed view on what a hero should be but is so badass about it that the fans ultimately love him for it.
• Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle: Fugil starts out very hated due to his betrayal of Lux and mockery of the latter's ideals. After later volumes flesh him out, he's generally considered a well-written villain due to having his own warped definition of heroism, having a backstory as a Fallen Hero, constantly debating against Lux, occasionally helping Lux for his own agenda, and being a Strong and Skilled Drag-Knight. The combination of his combat prowess and Jerkass behavior makes Lux's victory against him in Volume 19 that much sweeter.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! has an In-Universe case for the Fictional Videogame Fortune Lover. Hate Sink Alpha Bitch rival Catarina was utterly adored for her status as an entertainingly aggressive and bitchy villain who acted as a cathartic Asshole Victim in almost all of the routes including her, to the point that when the Fortune Lover II sequel was made, it specifically followed off the "Friendship" route because it was the only route that gave a perfect excuse for her continuing to antagonize the characters, and thus setting up more situations for her to act as an entertaining jerk. Of course, the actual main-story reason for such an occurrence is as a setup for the Catarina with her Past-Life Memories that became a Nice Girl to experience new plots and meet new characters.
• Komi Can't Communicate: Yamai Ren is about as close to 'villain' as a Slice of Life series like this can get, and it is clear that beyond her over-the-top Psycho Lesbian antics she is NOT meant to be liked. But again, her antics can be pretty damned funny.

Comic Books

• The Anti-Monitor, first introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths as effectively the Big Bad of the entire DC multiverse, remains beloved for being such a colossal, epic threat that led to what still remains one of the most dramatic and memorable Crisis Crossovers in not just superhero comics, but perhaps all fiction. Despite being the textbook example of a Generic Doomsday Villain — he has no real personality, backstory, or motivation beyond "destroying the multiverse" — his demonstrations of grand destruction is of such an impressive, appropriately apocalyptic scope that one can easily take him as the multiverse's biggest monster, and as a result, it's hard to not find him memorable.
• The Joker in Batman, due to being so dang funny.
• X-Men:
  • Magneto. There's a reason he's never completely Heel-Faced.
  • Apocalypse from the same series, as one villain so dangerous and detestable even Magneto wants him dead.
• Doctor Doom of Fantastic Four. He's an egotistical prick and dictator who blames everyone else for his own flaws, but few villains can match his sheer charisma and theatricality.
• Superman:
  • Lex Luthor. Being an ordinary human who serves as a credible arch-nemesis to the original Flying Brick through his sheer intellect and ingenuity has a way of doing that for a villain.
  • Brainiac is one of the few villains who can go toe to toe with the man of steel. His cold desire for Knowledge at any cost and status as the thematic Evil Counterpart to Superman make him one of the most well-liked members of the Superman Rogues Gallery.
• Captain America: The Red Skull, even though he's a former Nazi. It helps that he was only into Nazism for the oppression and mass murder. He derided the whole race ideology as hogwash despite occasionally paying lip service to it.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
  • Nack the Weasel. He's a greedy, somewhat charming, and amoral bounty hunter whose inability to win has won him many fans. Unlike other villains, Nack is smart enough to know that Sonic outclasses him and tries to work around this.
  • Dr. Finitevus, for his awesome-looking evil overlord Evilutionary Biologist appearance and sophisticated demeanor. His exceptionally high intellect and being an expert Chessmaster easily make him one of the most awesome and popular villains from the comic books.
  • Dark Enerjak, particularly the Knuckles incarnation, due to being such a far cry from his original counterpart's descent into Butt-Monkey territory. He is one of the few villains to be such a bastard, yet is so badass and monstrous that he just deserves respect. He was able to defeat almost all the main cast in one fell swoop.
  • Scourge the Hedgehog, being an evil version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Being so snide and sadistic has never looked this entertaining.
  • Lien Da, a sexy, sadistic assassin wearing revealing, provocative leather outfits, and is a whip-toting combatant.
  • Adaptational Villainy made Dr. Eggman into this. He's way more dangerous here than in any other incarnation and takes an almost sadistic glee in his bouts with Sonic, and considers it all part of an elaborate game where he's the mastermind.
• Loki of The Mighty Thor. Gotta love the brotherly hate they feel towards each other but gotta hate his attitude. Up until he died and came back as a mischievous pre-teen Magnificent Bastard. It's only a matter of time until his inevitable turn back to evil, but right now he's all love. Or not. The child committed Heroic Suicide and a copy of the old consciousness took over his body. This old-new Loki's still not evil though, the kid was so much love that gave them yet another chance, which they're determined to use... sadly nobody else wants them to change, including an evil future version of themself, who is this trope full stop. Loki's truly Loki's own worst enemy. For what it's worth, there are fans (maybe even the majority of them), who would like them to stay split for the obvious reason to neither lose the version they love, nor the one they love to hate.
• Spider-Man villain Boomerang is a slimy, lying asshole who has canonically thrown one of his best friends off a bridge for a quick buck. And yet he's just so freaking snarky, charismatic, and hilarious that fans love him. He's so popular that he managed to star in a short-lived book of his own.
• Ultron of The Avengers. Oh yes. He is possibly one of the evilest characters in the Marvel universe, and fans love him because of it, not despite. Imagine someone with the intelligence of Hank Pym only completely amoral and basically immortal.
• Thanos is one of the Marvel Universe's most popular villains. He may be an insane and Omnicidal Maniac but he has such charisma and he's so powerful and intelligent that fans can't help but love him for it. Some even root for him against the heroes. Speaking of which, Thanos was able to defeat powerful heroes like Captain America and Hulk as if they were ants. That's how strong he is.
• Shazam! gives us Dr. Sivana and Mister Mind. Sivana for being a likable Affably Evil mad scientist while still being a threat, Mind for being the Marvel Family's most ruthless and terrifying villain.
• Darkseid of the New Gods is a prime example of this, his fans agree about how appallingly evil he is being a part of what makes him such an awesome villain.
• Judge Dredd: The Dark Judges are evil inhuman monsters, and their leader Judge Death in particular is a unmitigatedly horrible sociopath. However, their over-the-top sadism, hammy-ness, and dark humor make them very entertaining villains at the same time.
• My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic:
  • Nightmare Moon has been a victim of Villain Decay. Her debut had her fail to be anything more than a nuisance before her defeat, even her original confrontation with Celestia was over surprisingly fast and she still failed to do anything else. Her entire established history on the show had her fail to live up to her villainous reputation. Here, she shows more cruelty than ever before, retroactively took over as the Big Bad in the comics arc that implied she was a pawn, and even in defeat, was able to spend her 1000 year banishment inflicting nightmares on ponykind as revenge. Her finally showing why she became associated with Nightmare Fuel in-universe has been well received.
  • Chrysalis' issue has made her more this than ever. The reveal she's existed for at least 1000 years prior and spent much of it not being sealedaway. What she and the changelings did during this time, and their origins, are even darker than what was expected of them, raising their threat level. Chrysalis shows impressive brilliance throughout, like having a changeling impersonate her, letting her get the drop on everyone despite suspicions of "her" behavior being a trap and break out. Scoring the first straight case of The Bad Guy Wins in the series has left fans excited for what she'll do next.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): On top of Ghidorah's Evil Is Cool representation from canon; its extra characterization in this story (especially Ichi/Eldest Brother's malice towards Monster X) and Ghidorah's plan to turn Vivienne into a hopelessly Ax-Crazy cudgel of its will are enough to ensure the readers still enjoy Ghidorah's personalities, while also rooting against its goals and wanting to see Viv and San triumph over and defeat it.
• Code Prime: The Decepticons in this iteration embody Evil Is Cool to a complete extent. But Megatron in particular gets a tone of praise from the readers, from being the one calling out Suzaku on most of his wrongdoings and questionable morality, to being a worthy opponent for Lelouch for everything he's done throughout the story, down to the very destruction of the Britannian Empire itself. One could say that Megatron is the embodiment of the kind of person meant to represent the kind of person Zero Requiem is meant to host the world's hatred, the only difference being that Megatron actively relishes in it. It's because of these that Code Prime's Megatron is an archetypal Iron117Prime villain fitting the qualities to a T.
• Yuuma Seta, from Continuance is generally considered an awful father to his son Souji(the protagonist of Persona 4), alternating between neglecting him and treating him as a means to an end. At the same time, he's also considered a well-written and complex character, and some theorize that he may actually care about his son to a certain extent.
• The Big Bad Checker Monarch from Getting Back on Your Hooves is basically the My Little Pony equivalent to Frollo or Umbridge: A villain so loathsomely evil and so subtly terrifying that it's honestly amazing. Bonus points for the writer STILL managing to maintain Original Flavour despite her inclusion.
• Kingdom Hearts: The Antipode:
  • Zexion is a nasty, manipulative Smug Snake who rivals Larxene in terms of sheer cruelty, yet his charisma and use of deception over brute force make him quite an entertaining villain.
  • Larxene herself is easily one of the most sadistic and vicious antagonists in the series, yet her Large Ham and Deadpan Snarker tendencies make her one of the funniest.
  • Hans is every bit as vile and two-faced as he was in the animated film, with special mention to the scene where he taunts Elsa. And due to his extended role in Antipode, he not only gets to fully realize his potential as a manipulative, cold-hearted villain; he absolutely steals the show in the process.
• lies of attrition: Chrysalis is a manipulative, lying, evil mastermind with an Evil Is Petty streak a mile wide and a habit of putting the heroes on edge just for her own sick amusement, but she does it all with such style and flair that she ends up stealing the show with every appearance.
• Caecilia from Stray Dog Records is this for the writer, who genuinely admitted to missing writing this Ax-Crazy, hammy, Alpha Bitch of a character when the story ended.
• Super Danganronpa Another 2 has Kanade Otonokoji, the Chapter 3 culprit. Initially, she seems to be a very shy, submissive girl who's often pushed around by her older twin sister Hibiki. However, Kanade not only proves to be a huge help in investigations and trials, but she reveals she's a lot more forceful, stern, and even cruel when she wants to be. All of this culminates in the third trial with The Reveal that not only is she really the dominant sister, but she's a ruthless, manipulative Serial Killer who's murdered and maimed well over 60 people for getting too close to her sister. A sister who she's also sexually attracted to and has been gradually breaking down psychologically into her submissive puppet. Thanks to this, she also executed the longest and most complex murder situation in the entire game, killing Cool Big Sis Setsuka just for getting too close to Hibiki, and in the end, she gets both herself and her sister killed so they could be together in death. All of this has come together to make the character simultaneously one of the most popular and despised characters among the fanbase.

Films — Animated

• Pick just about any Disney animated villain. Any one of them:
  • Peter Pan: Captain Hook is a ruthless pirate out to murder the Kid Hero, but he's so Laughably Evil and unlucky while still being a genuine threat that it's hard not to enjoy him.
  • Sleeping Beauty: Maleficent is one of Disney's most beloved villains thanks to being a cool Dark Action Girl with her impressive powers, genuine cunning, and iconic One-Winged Angel form.
  • Cruella De Vil is one of Disney's most popular villains despite her goal being to literally murder puppies, thanks to being quite funny and hilariously over-the-top about her evil.
  • The Jungle Book: Shere Khan is one of the film's most popular villains thanks to his Faux Affably Evil, Wicked Cultured personality and being a sincerely badass threat to the protagonists.
  • The Black Cauldron: The Horned King]] is quite popular for being a genuinely terrifying Knight of Cerebus with a genuinely creepy appearance, and for John Hurt's excellent vocal performance.
  • The Great Mouse Detective: Professor Ratigan is quite popular, thanks to being a gloriously hammy Diabolical Mastermind voiced by the ever-charming Vincent Price.
  • The Little Mermaid (1989): Ursula is beloved not in spite of, but because of how unrepentantly and gloriously evil she is, on top of being genuinely badass.
  • The Rescuers Down Under: Percival C. McLeach is an Evil Poacher who tries to murder the Kid Hero by feeding him to crocodiles and enjoys killing animals despite knowing they're sapient. He's still quite loved by fans for being a genuinely funny Large Ham voiced by George C. Scott with some truly golden lines.
  "I didn't make it all the way to third grade for nothing!"
  • Aladdin: Jafar is quite popular for his entertainingly bombastic personality, his genuinely funny and humanizing moments with Iago, and being quite creative with his magic once he becomes an Evil Sorcerer.
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie Boogie is a monstrous sadist, but he's still beloved by fans for being an entertaining Large Ham with a great Villain Song.
  • The Lion King (1994): Scar is an evil tyrant who murders his own brother, but he's also one of Disney's most beloved villains thanks to being a gloriously snarky, hammy Evil Brit voiced by Jeremy Irons, and for having a truly amazing Villain Song.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): Judge Claude Frollo is a racist Knight Templar, but he's beloved by fans for being a surprisingly complex and serious villain.
  • Hercules: Hades is evil, no doubt about it, but he's also beloved even by people who don't like the movie thanks to being a charismatic Motor Mouth with all the funniest lines.
• DreamWorks Animation has made a bunch of memorable villains as well:
  • Megamind has Hal Stewart aka Titan, a Psychopathic Manchild who creeps on his coworker Roxanne and flat-out tries to kill her once she makes clear that she isn't interested and tries to stop him. He's a popular character for being both an innovative idea for a Big Bad, his mindset becoming more and more repulsive as time goes on, and the fact that his fake adorkability actually being incredibly creepy is played 100% straight from the very beginning, something which is still not seen all that often.
  • Kung Fu Panda 4 gives us The Chameleon who wants to Take Over the World, is a Bad Boss, psychologically abusive towards Zhen, and firmly believes that Virtue Is Weakness, but her seriousness and lack of humor make her perhaps the most creepy Big Bad yet. In the end, she gets a savory defeat for all the trouble that she caused.
  • Big Jack Horner from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is generally seen as one of the highlights of the movie due to how comically and unapologetically evil he is, being favorably compared to how classic animation villains used to be instead of more recent, complex twist villains. Many fans even consider him to be the most wicked villain in the whole Shrek franchise, rivaling the likes of Rumpelstiltskin.

Films — Live-Action

• The Joker (played by Heath Ledger) from The Dark Knight. He is genuinely admired for being one of the most realistic representations of the original Joker, and for being incredibly monstrous and comical at the same time.
• Erich von Stroheim is practically the Trope Namer, as "The Man You Love to Hate" was the nickname he earned for his silent-era villainy.
• Lennart Jähkel's performance as the despicable Leif Bäckström from The Hunters, along with a healthy dose of hammy moments, has made the character one of the most famous Swedish movie villains.
• The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Take Alan Rickman's usual villainous angle and add in plenty of glorious scenery-chewing.
  • Pat Buttram's Laughably Evil take in the 1973 Disney animated film is a lot of fun as well.
• Hans Gruber in Die Hard. Sharp dresser, Deadpan Snarker extraordinaire (de rigeur for a character played by Alan Rickman), and thinks nothing of executing hostages for little more than wasting a few minutes of his time. To date, still the best villain of the franchise and one of the most memorable villains in the medium itself. As he says himself, he's no common thief; he's an exceptional thief.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gives us The High Evolutionary. Even with an abundance of villains, the High Evolutionary still manages to stand out as one of the cruelest and most detestable Big Bads in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is just as beloved because of this. It helps that Chukwudi Iwuji's intense performance makes the character an all the more enjoyable to watch and root against.
• American Psycho: Patrick Bateman is an awful human being, but Christian Bale's performance is so hilarious and meme-worthy that it becomes impossible not to enjoy every second he's onscreen.
• The robbers, Harry and Marv, in the first two Home Alone films. They're just competent enough to pose an actual threat to Kevin, but also bumbling enough to be entertaining.
• Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise the Dancing Clown from It (2017). Although he was intended to be a Hate Sink, plenty of human characters have this role, such as Al Marsh, Beverly's incestuous father, Sonia Kasprak, Eddie's overprotective mother, Norbert Keene, the local pharmacist and implied hebephile, Patrick Hockstetter, the most memorable and dangerous of the Bowers Gang, and Greta Keene, the daughter of the aforementioned Norbert Keene. Pennywise is a monster, both literally and figuratively, but he still has some cool qualities.
• Star Wars:
  • Darth Vader, for being huge, imposing, having an awesome bass voice, and just generally being a giant badass. Hints of pathos and Hidden Depths round out the package, although actually seeing into those depths in the prequels was far less satisfying to some.
  • Emperor Palpatine, for being so delightfully, card-carryingly, cacklingly, hammily EVIL. Unlike Vader, he is just as fun in the prequels, since we get to see him play the protagonists like fiddles on top of everything else.
• Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Who doesn't love a monster who sings like that?
• Almost many of the James Bond Big Bads fit this trope to a tee, as it helps that many of them are damn cool as well. But a few villains stand out for being memorable:
  • Goldfinger: Auric Goldfinger whose perfect blend of cruelty, charm, brilliance, and wit have made him the most famous Big Bad in the film series. His henchman Oddjob also ranks as one of the most popular henchmen in the entire franchise.
  • Ernst Stavro Blofeld is by far the most personal of all of James Bond's enemies, since he's his Arch-Enemy. He's also the Trope Codifier for Right-Hand Cat, The Blofeld Ploy, and Diabolical Mastermind. Being played by great actors such as Telly Savalas, Donald Pleasence, and Christoph Waltz also helps.
  • Blofeld's henchmen Dr. No, Rosa Klebb, Red Grant, Emilio Largo, Mr. Wint, Mr. Kidd, Le Chiffre, Mr. White, and Mr. Hinx also qualify.
  • Live and Let Die: Baron Samedi, to the point that he even makes an appearance as a playable character in GoldenEye (1997).
  • The Man with the Golden Gun: Francisco Scaramanga and Nick Nack. The former is an Evil Counterpart of 007 and played by Christopher Lee, who later played Dracula, Saruman, and Count Dooku. The latter ranks as one of the most popular henchmen, especially due to his height.
  • The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker: Jaws ranks as one of the most well-liked henchmen in the franchise to the point that he's one of the few villains to actually survive his movie, even having Joker Immunity. His popularity is probably the reason that he ends up surviving and making a Heel–Face Turn. The Big Bad of Moonraker, Hugo Drax, also qualifies as he's one of the darkest Bond villains.
  • A View to a Kill: Max Zorin who stands out as one of the most psychotic villains that Bond has ever gone up against, yet his actor Christopher Walken puts on such an awesome performance that he becomes really enjoyable to watch onscreen. His Dragon May Day also counts as well, being a Dark Action Girl.
  • Goldeneye: Alec Trevelyan to the point that on top Bond villain countdowns, he usually ranks near the top when it comes to Bond villains that have never appeared in an Ian Fleming novel. Being a Diabolical Mastermind that serves as one of Bond's best Evil Counterpart helps. His henchmen General Ourumov, Boris Grishenko and Xenia Onatopp are also pretty great villains in their own right and just as evil as their boss.
  • Tomorrow Never Dies: Elliot Carver is a truly despicable Big Bad, but his Evil Is Hammy theatrics and Chewing the Scenery via his actor Jonathan Pryce make him an utter blast to watch.
  • Skyfall: Raoul Silva who's able to fluctuate between being a giggling goofball and a dangerous murderer with little provocation. Sometimes being both at the same time. This has made him one of the most popular Bond villains in recent times.
• Lampshaded by Tony Montana in his "Say Good Night to the Bad Guy" speech towards the end of the movie.
• Se7en: John Doe. Sure he is a completely horrible person, but no one can deny that he is one of the most intriguing and interesting serial killers in all of cinema, in part because of the acting performance of Kevin Spacey.
• Col. Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds. He's far too much fun for his own good.
• American Pie series: Though not a true villain, Steve Stifler, particularly in the first two movies, has been dubbed this in the commentaries by the directors.
• King Ghidorah of the Godzilla films, who's had the longest run of any villain in the franchise, and typically ranks just behind the Big G himself in popularity polls.
• Dollars Trilogy:
  • In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Angel Eyes. Mainly for being played by Lee Van Cleef, and has become one of the most iconic badasses of his era.
  • El Indio from For a Few Dollars More. He spends much of his screen time in a drug-induced haze but is still a scary and efficient villain.
• Frank from Once Upon a Time in the West. Henry Fonda's great, and wildly against type, performance certainly helps.
• GoodFellas:
  • Interestingly, Tommy DeVito was incredibly memorable in this film. Of course, Joe Pesci's great performance earned him a well-deserved Oscar.
  • Jimmy Conway as well, but rather is to be played by Robert De Niro, who always wears a growing fanbase that appears as a villain.
• Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. The Wicked Cultured cannibal is such a Wicked Cultured villain that in spite of appearing in about 15 minutes he's one of the movie's main draws. To the point a sequel book centered on him was commissioned, and the character's debut got another movie adaptation to get more out of Anthony Hopkins.
• Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. He lacks any redeeming qualities but his skill set and dark humor make him extremely memorable.
• Agent Kruger from Elysium is a despicable, psychotic, and sociopathic Psycho for Hire but he's a runaway hit with viewers and critics, thanks to Sharlto Copley's performance and the sheer badassery he emits.
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The T-1000, a terrifying, awesome presence that even when evaded always finds new ways to track and hunt its prey.
• TRON: Fans absolutely love the Master Control Program, thanks to his famous Verbal Tic and claiming to "run systems 900 times better than any user". Sark, as well, because he fought Tron as a giant after having his head split open by the latter. It helps that they are both voiced/played by David Warner.
• Immortan Joe from Mad Max: Fury Road is an absolutely disgusting misogynistic Evil Overlord, which makes him fit this trope perfectly and makes his Karmic Death all the more satisfying.
• Kate Winslet makes Jeanine from the Divergent films such a bitch that she's incredibly entertaining to watch.
• Butch Cavendish from The Lone Ranger (2013). William Fichtner plays him so over-the-top loathsome and hateful that he's a blast to watch. Critics such as Brad Jones of Midnight Screenings stated that even though he hated the film, Cavendish was the best part about it.
• Mars Attacks!: The Martians are very evil, but also very humorous. They are far more popular than any of the Earthlings in the film.
• In Graveyard Shift, Warwick is supposed to be a Hate Sink, but him being an insanely quotable Large Ham with an utterly bizarre accent makes him one of the most entertaining parts of the film.
• Peter Stegman from Class of 1984 may be a brutal, petty, and loathsome sociopath who commits lots of vile acts, but Timothy Van Patten's performance and his sheer badassery make him very fun to watch and he is one of if not the perfect representation of how not all teenagers are innocent and are just as capable of evil.
• Oz the Great and Powerful's take on the Wicked Witch of the East, Evanora, is a brilliantly effective villain - who manipulates everyone in the story effortlessly and has come darn close to winning when the story starts. She's also played by Rachel Weisz, who is clearly having a ball in the role.
• Vera Farmiga gives a tour de force of a performance in The Many Saints of Newark, so perfectly capturing Livia Soprano's volatile toxicity that critics and fans alike have cited her as one of the best and most memorable parts of the film.
• Brick Top of Snatch. is the worst sort of London Gangster, but is very well-written and played with a menacing charisma by Alan Ford that makes him as fun to watch as it is satisfying when it all comes crashing down for him.
• Zorg in The Fifth Element. With his weird plastic outfit, hammy scenes, and gun, he's one of the most ridiculously over-the-top things in the whole ridiculously over-the-top movie. It helps that he's played by Gary Oldman, who is a master of these characters.
• Osmosis Jones: Thrax the Red Death — one of the deadliest and coolest germs out there.
• Rebel Moon: Admiral Noble has been described as the evilest, most inhumane villain Ed Skrein has played and possibly of all of Zack Snyder's filmography, and because of that reason alone (along with his badass design), even before the film's release, he has become beloved by the fandom. This skyrocketed after the TUDUM Brazil 2023 event, where Skrein, in-character as Noble, sent out a threatening message to the entire audience in a manner that was reminiscent of General Zod in Man of Steel.
• RoboCop:
  • Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop (1987) is a shameless Cop Killer and an effective Psycho for Hire but his one-liners and the energetic performance by Kurtwood Smith make him one of the most memorable villains in the franchise. It's also so satisfying to see Alex Murphy give him his just desserts and put an end to his ruthless gang.
  • Cain in RoboCop 2 is one of the creepiest villains in the series. He likes to kill minions just for being loose ends who have outlived their usefulness, and is utterly sadistic to those who rat on him. Tom Noonan really makes the character his own, with his emotionless delivery and confident gait like he's one step ahead of his enemies. When he gets transformed into a giant cyborg, Robocop confronts him for a climatic battle and delivers his comeuppance.

Literature

• Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Also Nom Anor, a recurring villain of the New Jedi Order are probably the two most popular Star Wars villains who never appeared in any of the movies; Thrawn because of his being Wicked Cultured and cool under fire, Nom for being deliciously and unapologetically treacherous and duplicitous while also being the Only Sane Man of his fanatical species, and both for being certified Magnificent Bastards
• Some readers of These Words Are True and Faithful say that what they enjoy most is seeing how Ernie, the Villain Protagonist, gets himself into trouble and ultimately gets his comeuppance.
• Harry Potter:
  • Dolores Umbridge is an interesting example. There are eviller villains in the series, to be sure, but none of them are quite so passive-aggressive about it, nor are many of them the type of people readers might actually encounter in real life. As a result, Umbridge is more fun to hate even than the Big Bad.
  • Bellatrix may be a better example because she actually has enjoyable qualities as a character - she's badass, sexy, hopelessly insane, and Helena Bonham Carter gave a fittingly psychotic performance in the films. By contrast, Umbridge's character mostly exists to be a Hate Sink.
  • Voldemort himself qualifies, seeing how he was voted the #1 villain in a poll that decided which character was the best literary villain.
  • Draco Malfoy and his father Lucius, whenever they're not getting the Draco in Leather Pants treatment.
  • Vernon Dursley, Harry’s abusive and wizard-hating uncle. While the rest of the Dursley family gradually comes to respect Harry, Vernon never ceases to be petty and mean. Nevertheless, thanks to his many quotes and blunders, as well as Richard Griffiths’ scenery-chewing film portrayal, Vernon contributes to many funny and meme-worthy moments.
• Venandekatra the Vile from the Belisarius Series can be like this. Just the sheer effort of cramming so much evil and vice into the same character is amazing.
• Older Than Steam: Honest Iago of Othello is thouroughly despicable with no redeeming qualities, and yet his sheer evil and theatricality make him a delight to witness. There's something inherently enjoyable about seeing him act like an angel in front of his supposed friends only to plot their downfalls when their backs are turned.
• Joffrey Baratheon from A Song of Ice and Fire. One of the biggest, shallowest, spoiled douches in the series, but oh so fun to loathe.
  • Also, Walder Frey (even in-universe). His case is so bad, it infects most of his family — particularly after a certain incident. To the point that other families (be they greater, lesser, or simply hopeful to become a House) openly make it a sport to bait Freys in any way they can get away with. Also... murder them.
  • Ramsay Bolton is just horrible. So horrible, it's hard to look away.
  • Cersei Lannister is a secondary character throughout the first three books. She's an interesting combination of callousness, ruthlessness, and motherly protectiveness. In the fourth and fifth books, she becomes a POV character and we see from her thoughts and actions just how unfit she is to rule seven kingdoms. She enters further into "Love to Hate" territory when many of her schemes backfire in her face, usually to comic effect.
  • Euron Greyjoy... is getting there. He's a more sophisticated Ramsay Bolton with better looks, more charm, bigger plans, and even more abuse of his family. That is, if he isn't actually just a little bit too scary to count as this trope.
• Paradise Lost: Satan is incredibly well-spoken and says almost all of the best lines of the story, making him the favorite character of just about every reader, yet he's such a self-contradictory and self-aggrandizing jerk that he's still an effective villain.
• The Pendragon Adventure: Saint Dane is the biggest monster in the entire series bar none but his intelligent dialogue, personal rivalry with Bobby, and status as a Magnificent Bastard make him one of the most popular characters in the series by far and an interesting villain in general.
• Dracula is this, whenever he's not receiving the Draco in Leather Pants treatment.
• Almost every Big Bad from the Dragons of Requiem series counts. Many of them are fully fleshed out in each trilogy and make sure they go well out of their way to murder and torture as many innocents as possible in excessively brutal, creative ways. Dies Irae, in particular, is so over-the-top in what he does that it's impossible not to enjoy how much he relishes in his wickedness.
• Spoiled Brat and the queen of Aesop Amnesia, Reva Dalby from Fear Street is a mean-spirited brat who has repeatedly endured horrific encounters each holiday season, swears to be a better person, and does absolutely nothing to follow up on it. R. L. Stine has stated that he loves writing her because she's so bitchy, so this was the intended reaction.
• George Wickham of Pride and Prejudice. He starts off as the charming, handsome victim of Darcy's selfishness, but a few strokes of Darcy's quill expose him as an unprincipled cad who seduces people's younger sisters. Janeites take every opportunity to gleefully trash him.
• Carrie - Chris Hargensen is the Alpha Bitch who torments Carrie throughout the story. She's such a delightful brat that she's among the more memorable characters in the story. Nancy Allen, who played her in the 1976 adaptation, didn't realise how evil she was because she assumed the character was functioning more as bumbling comic relief.
• Blood Meridian: Judge Holden is considered by many to be one of the most terrifying villains in all of literature, which is also why he is one of the most memorable villains in literature due to how nightmarishly compelling he is.
• Spy School: Murray Hill may be a petty and immature Dirty Coward with a Chronic Back Stabbing Disorder, but his hilarious dialogue and The Chessmaster ploys keep him entertaining.

Live-Action TV

• 24:
  • Nina Myers may be a heartless Sociopath who killed Jack's wife, and Charles Logan may be a manipulative, weasely Smug Snake, but they are by far two of the greatest recurring villains in the series. There's even a poll on the 24 Wiki asking users who their favorite recurring villain is, and well over two-thirds of the voters chose them.
  • Ira Gaines, Mandy, Stephen Saunders, Christopher Henderson, Jonas Hodges, and Margot Al-Harazi as well for being actual threats-to-America villains. Specifically for the political storylines, one can't ever go without mentioning Sherry freaking Palmer.
• Babylon 5:
  • Alfred Bester may have not been the Big Bad of the entire series, but every time his shuttle arrived unannounced on the station, both the viewers and the officers at flight control and customs instantly knew that he came to do something horribly and unspeakably cruel to some people on the station. And it would be awesome. Not helped by the fact that he is the head of the agency that protects society from criminal and insane telepaths and when he takes part in an operation personally, he's usually Necessarily Evil. But he doesn't need to be so smug and boastful about it all the time. The major exception is when a business magnate comes up with a diabolical plan to enslave all telepaths with a virus. As he explains it with his calm fanaticism, your major reaction will be that you'll want to warn Bester of this threat, although the means which Bester does learn of it is despicable in itself.
  • Neroon, one of the leaders of the Minbari Warrior Caste. He is a strong contestant for the show's greatest badass, having it made to the top in the galaxy's most powerful military where Asskicking Leads to Leadership. For him, he and his fellow warriors are the only ones capable of saving the Galaxy in a war that started a thousand years ago, while having to put up with incompetent politicians and priests, and he doesn't take crap from anyone, having no hesitation to kill everyone who gets in his way. But unlike most characters, he doesn't seem to seek any personal gain, doing what needs to be done.
  • Mr. Morden. Nearly every time he appeared, he exuded a massive aura of confidence and menace that let the viewer know he was up to no good. He was the leading Manipulative Bastard of the series, in part because the "associates" he represented could grant many services to those he wished to manipulate. He also wore a nice suit.
• Better Call Saul:
  • Chuck McGill is a smug, conceited hypocrite driven by envy and rage to destroy his deeply flawed yet loving brother, which earned him a lot of hate from the fandom. He is, however, also considered just as compelling to watch as any of the series' other characters to his complexity, how formidable he is as an antagonist, the genuine good points he makes about Jimmy from time to time, the humorous moments that come from his arrogance, and the tragedy of his bizarre mental illness (which is never played for laughs or as weakness). There's also Michael McKean's powerful and layered performance, which makes Chuck as fascinating to watch as he is eminently hateable. Notably, Chuck's death at the end of Season 3 has been met not with cheers or triumph but with genuine sadness from the fandom. On the flipside, his guest appearance in a flashback in the series finale was met with universal approval by the fandom.
  • Lalo Salamanca, in contrast to most of his family, is both effortlessly charming and completely ruthless, with an unpredictability and pragmatism that keeps the audience guessing as to what he's going to do next. He is both physically intimidating and intelligent enough that Gus Fring actively fears him, showing a side of Gus never seen before. He's a total departure from most other villains in the Breaking Bad universe, and a perfect foil for Jimmy and Gus both.
• Another good one from The BBC is Madame President Servalan from Blake's 7. Dear God, she usually walks away with whatever she's after and makes the alleged heroes look like idiots in the process. Evil, but you just can't help but admire her sense of style.
• The Boys (2019)
  • Homelander, a Super Supremacist who is utterly despicable but so well played by Antony Starr that manages to take command of every scene he's in, balancing humor, depravity, and outright horror with remarkable ease.
  • The Deep is a sleazy, abusive scumbag, but the show spends a lot of time showing how truly pathetic he is. It can be tremendously cathartic and entertaining to see him constantly fuck up and in constant fear. It's aided by Chace Crawford's shamelessly self-pitying performance.
  • Stormfront's Smug Snake personality gives her an incredible presence thanks to Aya Cash's excellent performance, and once she's outed as a racist sociopath (and eventually, an actual Nazi!) who's not only a Distaff Counterpart to Homelander but somehow angers the man himself, audiences quickly embraced her as the ultimate Hate Sink.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel:
  • Glory. She's just so mean and so awesome.
  • The Master (no, not that one). He's so hilariously hammy.
  • The Mayor, in all his Affably Evil greatness.
  • Angelus is one of the most sadistic monsters in the Buffyverse but has such a great personality and is the most personal of the villains that he elevates here as he is fun to watch and someone you want to see get their ass kicked.
  • Pre-Heel–Face Turn Spike mixed coolness with being a genuine threat, so much so that his arrival helped with Growing the Beard.
  • Faith who before her return to good, provided the perfect Evil Counterpart and Foil to Buffy.
  • Drusilla for being rather quaint yet, a Creepy Awesome variety. She managed to kill a Slayer with hypnosis after all.
  • Lilah Morgan, the delightfully evil Wolfram & Hart lawyer. She's a scheming ruthless bitch without a conscience and yet she's just so much fun.
• Chuck: Both Daniel Shaw and Alexei Volkoff are the show's most iconic villains for very good reasons. Shaw for his charisma and intellect after his Face–Heel Turn as well as being the most despicable bad guy on the show making him just fun to hate because of it. Volkoff for being a delicious mix of being fun, goofy, and hilarious along with being insane and ruthless at the same time.
• On Dallas, Magnificent Bastard J.R. Ewing was given this nickname.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Master. Always evil, always hammy, always a bastard.
  • Davros as well. There's a reason even casual fans know his "to hold in my hand" speech.
  • His creations, the Daleks, also qualify. They are Nazis by any other name but are so iconic and cool that the franchise would not be the same without them.
• "Dirty" Den Watts from EastEnders was a classic soap example.
• Friends: Amy Green is as hateable as possible, being a self-centered Spoiled Brat Brainless Beauty with severe Lack of Empathy. But Christina Applegate is so funny in the role she's always considered one of the best guest characters the show had.
• Game of Thrones:
  • The evil Joffrey (like his book counterpart) is so despicable that his actor Jack Gleeson gets a lot of praise from the fandom for making him so easy to hate. It helps that he's so often and so thoroughly put in his place by characters like his uncle Tyrion (Tyrion slapping Joffrey is a major meme) and grandfather Tywin.
  • Tywin himself, even more so than his book counterpart, if for no other reason than being portrayed by the incredibly charismatic Charles Dance. A Deadpan Snarker and nearly always the smartest guy in the room. He rules his family (and often the Seven Kingdoms in every way that matters) with an iron fist and can often be pointlessly cruel, but his perfect poise and utter lack of self-doubt make it fascinating to watch him work.
  • Just like in the books, the monstrous Ramsay Bolton is just so vile and despicable that it is hard to look away. It certainly helps that he is given a tremendous performance by Iwan Rheon who somehow manages to make this vile monster weirdly charismatic. Ramsay also shows that although he’s even viler than Joffrey, unlike Joffrey, Ramsay is actually highly intelligent and cunning and does his dirty work himself. Ramsay is probably the most vile and despicable character in the series but that only makes him more fun to watch.
• Sue Sylvester from Glee is so petty and nasty and just so entertaining. Even people who dislike the show feel she does a great job.
• Heroes:
  • Adam Monroe definitely counts, being both cool and sexy and an Anti-Villain to boot. His powers only enhance his badassery.
  • Sylar. Watching him trap and trick people was way more fun than it should have been.
  • Linderman, due to his Wicked Cultured personality, a complete Magnificent Bastard, and theatrical presence courtesy of Malcolm McDowell himself.
  • For a somewhat non-villainous example, Niki's violent alter-ego Jessica, named after her dead sister, is so beautiful and badass that it is hard not to root for her, especially when she is protecting Micah and tearing through bad guys like they were pieces of paper.
• Homicide: Life on the Street:
  • Luther Mahoney is a vicious and utterly ruthless drug dealer who kills anyone in his way, from fellow crooks to innocent civilians, and disgusts the detectives with his sheer evilness. However, he quickly became an Ensemble Dark Horse thanks to being effortlessly charming and clever enough to consistently outwit the detectives, making him a very entertaining presence and his downfall all the more cathartic.
  • Gordon Pratt is an utterly loathsome and racist Smug Snake with no redeeming qualities. However, he's quite popular among fans thanks to being memorable for just how unlikable he was and still managing to be a genuinely wily opponent, making it especially satisfying when Pembleton exposes him as being a Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
• Kilgrave from Jessica Jones (2015) is arguably the most disgusting and repulsive villain in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet, David Tennant's natural charm and charismatic performance shine through and make every scene he appears in a disturbing highlight.
• Justified: Dickie Bennett is an sleazy Jerkass and all-around Hate Sink who exists to make other characters look better by comparison, but he's one of the most popular villains in the series thanks to successfully alternating between humorously incompetent and genuinely menacing on a dime, being a very quotable Cloudcuckoolander, and for Jeremy Davies's excellent performance.
• Kamen Rider has several despicable villains who get this honor. Helps that several of them are also very cool to go along with their evil:
  • Kamen Rider Ryuki has Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja, an uncaring serial killer who subverts just about anything resembling redeemability. His parents died in a fire...that he caused out of boredom. He saves a little girl...for monster bait and doesn't care she's going to die. He wanted to reunite with his brother...because he hadn't died in the fire and he wanted to make sure he knew what a horrible person he was. But every single time, he looks cool doing it and it's fun to see him be so horrible.
  • Kamen Rider 555: Masato Kusaka has a strong claim to being most hated character of the entire franchise in the Western hemisphere. To the point where the Western fandom gave a collective cheer when Kiba kills him by breaking Kusaka's neck. Notably, this is a good thing because we're SUPPOSED to hate this guy, so it's not much of a problem. Fans both in the East and West have even declared September 13 (A play on his activation code "9-1-3") "Masato Kusaka Day", celebrating how much of an asshole this guy is. Even his own creators and voice actors have joined in and are proud to have created such a following. So, good job?
  • From Kamen Rider Gaim there's Professor Ryoma Sengoku, hands down. He's a total monster willing to use anything and anyone to achieve his goal had a hand in killing Mai, and destroy Kaito's hard-earned power up. But on the other hand, his hammy and memetic behaviors are hilarious.
  • Kamen Rider Drive has Medic Roidmude, a coldhearted, sociopathic bitch with intentions of eugenic purging, manipulative plotting, a habit of constantly showing up Brain to the point of making him a Jerkass Woobie, and she has enough cruelty to supplant Heart as Drive's Arch-Enemy almost entirely by virtue of the fact that she really is just that evil. She is considered to rightfully be one of the best villains in the show because of this.
  • From Kamen Rider Ex-Aid is Kuroto Dan, an insane, egomaniacal sadist who makes sure to give people a bad day when he's not planning things out. He's insanely petty, going to the absolute extreme when his ego is the slightest bit bruised, he boasts about his genius with a ridiculous hamminess in both speech and facial expressions whenever he feels like, and if you want him to get punched in the face, that's normal considering how much he feels the need to taunt his opponents at a range where they could easily do so, but rarely end up doing. While it's fun to see him get beaten up, it's more fun to see him just be a horrible human being that does everything in an over-the-top manner.
  • Kamen Rider Build gives us Blood Stalk/Evolt, a thoroughly cruel megalomaniac who wishes to wipe out all life in the universe and loves to Kick the Dog For the Evulz. But his cool factor and his fun and laid back personality with lots of bright colors added in to make him an enjoyable antagonist when onscreen. Taken even further by his upgrade into Kamen Rider Evol. You thought the other evil riders and pseudo riders in Build were walking swag factories of puppy-kicking hate and balls-blasting epic. In comes Evolt who pretty much exists to exclaim the virtues that evil gets all the cool toys.
• He's not exactly a villain, but in Leverage, Magnificent Bastard John Sterling. Never. Loses (by Word of God) — and yet, despite the trouble he makes for Our Heroes, you can't help but enjoy every moment he's on-screen.
• Ben Linus on Lost, a Manipulative Bastard who for every despicable moment has another where one can't help but admire him.
• Charlie Gimbert from Lovejoy: 'Smooth and oily and yet hard as nails.'
• Pete Campbell from Mad Men, while not necessarily a "villain," has this effect on a lot of viewers, as a creepy, shameless climber with few sympathetic qualities (and those who exist seem to exist within his non-sympathetic ones - e.g. his greater awareness of social progress and attempts to get the other writers and execs to realize this, is something he leverages to advance his career).
• Once Upon a Time: Most of the villains, like Rumplestiltskin, Regina, and Captain Hook, quickly went through badass decay with their sympathetic backstories and quests for redemption. There are few major exceptions to this, though:
  • Peter Pan, on the other hand, is well-loved for finally being a villain that's content to be nothing more than an obnoxious, pint-sized, sadistic little monster. His British accent and childlike demeanor only further his cruelty and his awesomeness. He is also omniscient and remained always one step ahead of the heroes in his plans.
  • Zelena has kind of a sad backstory, but apart from the supernatural elements it's just really mundane, and mostly used to highlight that she made bad choices. She goes after a much more popular character who had it worse and did nothing to her, only to get defeated in apparent Badass Decay... and then come back stronger and crazier. Her only redeeming qualities are her honesty (to herself), her courage, and her determination to work as hard as she can to get the life she feels she deserves. To top it off, in an alternate reality where her life would be perfect, she's still a ridiculously spiteful Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, for no reason.
  • Cruella has a comically tragic backstory that explains everything she did, we swear! It features a stuffy abusive mother who hates jazz music and fun, mysteriously becomes a serial widow, locks her daughter up in an attic, destroys her favorite flowers and sends her dalmatians to intimidate her baby daughter. Except mommy had to lock her up because Cruella was a child serial killer who used her beloved toxic trumpet flowers to poison her father and stepfathers. The attic was her mother's only alternative to actually sending her own flesh and blood to jail, and the dalmatians were her mother's only companions and protectors. None of it stops Cruella from killing the dogs and her mother, make herself a coat, and plan a killing spree. Dressed like a fabulous flapper. And occasionally playing Angry Birds.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023): Ares is an extremely petty and rude god who tries to kill Percy when tries to prevent the war between Zeus and Poseidon from happening, but he is also very over the top, and Adam Copeland is having so much fun with his role that he becomes so entertaining to watch even when the audience is rooting against him.
• Power Rangers:
  • Lord Zedd, as he was one of the scariest, intimidating, and badass villains in his first appearance as well as one of those not based on Sentai footage. He even retains some of this after his Villain Decay as it can be seen that he actually had more victories AFTER his marriage to Rita than before it.
  • Through a non-canon example IVAN OOZE from the movie. He's bound to make you laugh at some point in the movie. Being played by Paul Freeman certainly helps.
  • Astronema, for her good looks and attitude, badassery, and much darker personality compared to the earlier villains.
  • Trakeena, very similar to Astronema, but with only a more genuinely evil personality and desire to destroy the Power Rangers. It helps that she actually developed from a Spoiled Brat into a vicious alien warlord capable of holding her own against the Rangers and sending her own men to destroy her enemies as suicide bombers.
  • Master Org is one of the most ruthless and menacing villains in the entire franchise, with no redeeming or even comedic qualities. Dr. Viktor Adler, in particular is childish, hateful to even his own minions, and was even willing to kill a baby and his parents out of petty jealousy. Despite this, Master Org was actually liked by fans for his ground-breaking evil instead of being despised. He was also able to successfully destroy all the Wild Zords, nearly kill the Rangers themselves, and overall darken the entire series with his mere presence. Master Org may be a monster and many other things, but he is certainly anything but forgettable.
  • Vexacus is a menacing yet delightfully hateable villain in a sea of otherwise incompetent villains or villains who have limits. He is not afraid to darken the setting of this otherwise lighthearted series nor amuse us with his snide remarks and sarcasm. He is also a dangerous and cunning warrior whose badassery on the battlefield makes him a popular villain.
  • Mesogog, whose Deadpan Snarker tendencies, creepy appearance, and cold, calculated reasoning have made him one of the most popular villains in the franchise.
  • Venjix is very popular due to being the most dangerous, successful, and perhaps the most evil villain ever conceived in the franchise, having destroyed most of the world in the backstory and keeping the RPM Rangers on their toes as a constant threat that never suffers any Villain Decay. When Evox was revealed as the latest incarnation of Venjix, fans were ecstatic at seeing how his storyline ends.
  • Serrator, due to being such a badass villain, always wiping the floor with the Rangers. His sophisticated, teacher-like demeanor also highlights his coolness. The only thing that matches Serrator's awesomeness is his sadism and evil.
  • Vrak, like his Sentai counterpart Brajira, is often considered to be one of the redeeming factors of Megaforce. He is easily described as many things: a sadistic, sociopathic master manipulator who often plays everyone like a piano, a badass warrior who often gives the Rangers a hard time, and one of the most evil and ruthless villains in Power Rangers history. Plus, his numerous menacing, cool forms, ranging from a cyborg to an insectoid armor, are also considered one of his awesome features. There's a reason why he is also one of the most popular villains in the franchise. Being based on an equally cool, manipulative Sentai counterpart helps, too.
• Psychopath Diary: In-woo. Yes, he's a psychopathic serial killer who's willing to kill Dong-sik and Bo-kyung, but he's so damn entertaining to watch.
• Shameless (US) has Frank Gallagher. He is an unrepentant alcoholic and substance abuser with no work ethic (or any ethics, really), no qualms about playing the system to his advantage, and is undeniably a top contender for the worst father in all of TV. Yet he is just so utterly pathetic and William H. Macy plays him so well that it's hard not to feel invested in him.
• Silicon Valley: Big Bad Gavin is undoubtably a terrible person, but his helpless fury towards his constant misfortune makes for some of the funniest parts of the show.
• Smallville:
  • In sharp contrast to the Draco in Leather Pants treatment received by his son, Lex, Lionel Luthor. He's just so good at what he does that it's hard not to admire him, even as you root for the heroes to stop him. There's a reason the fans nicknamed him the Magnificent Bastard.
  • Brainiac receives similar treatment. He's utterly cold and never shows a hint of emotion or remorse. And that's why the fans love him. James Marsters' snarky performance helped.
• Snabba Cash: Ravy may be a ruthless gangster and really formidable SOB, but his actor does an amazing job at bringing out that personality that it makes him a very interesting and entertaining villain to watch.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • Gul Dukat, the former Prefect of Bajor, is continuously scheming to retake the planet while sincerely protesting that he was the best thing to happen to it, and all those Bajoran rebels just didn't understand. He doesn't see any evil in himself, genuinely loves his daughter, and wants very badly to have a Worthy Opponent relationship with Captain Sisko—at the same time, he stalks Kira, throws himself in with a doomsday cult, and beats an injured Sisko with a crowbar at one point. More often he gets Draco in Leather Pants, but Marc Alaimo's nuanced and charismatic performance means that he's universally considered a great character.
  • Weyoun, played by Trek veteran Jeffrey Combs, is another popular villain. Weyoun has smarm down to a science (helped along by genetic engineering), always trying to convince whoever he's talking to that they really will appreciate that dagger in their back, it's a mark of the new friendship between them and the Dominion. The moments when he experiences Clone Angst give him just enough sympathy.
  • Kai Winn is the queen of passive-aggressive behavior. She is almost universally reviled by fans because of just how well-written she is (many can say they know someone like her on a small scale). She's nearly as smarmy as Weyoun and bitter at Sisko for taking her place as Bajor's religious leader; it's a plot twist if she shows up and isn't the cause of the A-Plot. Her actress, Louise Fletcher, compared her to a pope: not the international modern versions, but the ruthless, conniving medieval pontiffs who made the Inquisition famous.
• Crowley from Supernatural is this due to his savviness and moments of being a Magnificent Bastard.
  • Azazel and Lucifer also qualify for similar reasons.
  • Zachariah is an absolute scumbag, but no one will deny that he's an incredibly effective one.
• Super Sentai:
  • Doctor Kemp of Liveman is a pompous and self-absorbed egomaniac, but because of how much of an unrepentant narcissist he is, he's an incredibly fun villain to root against.
  • Count Radiguet from Jetman, considered one of the most evil villains ever produced by Sentai, is also loved for his cool design, badass scenes and his interactions with his own allies and the Jetmen, while hated at the same time for his sadistic personality combined with the horrible things he inflicted on the Jetmen and so many others.
  • Seventh Spear, Sandaaru, from Hurricaneger due to being so damn awesome and so evil at the same time. Bring a formidable badass into a sea of incompetent, over-the-top, and humorous villains, and you get one memorable villain.
  • Long from Gekiranger, for having a badass final form and being a Manipulative Bastard easily able to match the aforementioned Radiguet in terms of vileness.
  • Dokokou Chimatsuri from Shinkenger, the main antagonist. He has fought the titular heroes more than once and basically flattened them without breaking a sweat. He manages to reduce an apparent Dragon-in-Chief Akomaru to Big Bad Wannabe whenever he appears on-screen. His volcanic temper and obnoxiousness are also both amusing and terrifying to watch, and his demonic appearance just adds on to his awesomeness.
  • Buredoran (aka Brajira) from Goseiger, due to being an expert chessmaster as well as being Manipulative Bastard par excellence. He's well-liked to such a degree that it's to the point where some fans outright admitted that they're just watching the show because of him.
  • Enter from Go-Busters has proven to be quite popular amongst fans, who like him not only because of his enjoyment of being the bad guy but also due to being a quite credible threat, being able to go toe-to-toe with the Go-Busters in fights and succeeding in several of his missions.
• True Blood’s villains often either fall into Draco in Leather Pants territory or aren’t memorable enough to earn the love of the fans, but three stand out as this trope. Russell Edgington is a hilarious Large Ham who steals every scene that he’s in, but he also has zero actual redeeming qualities, meaning that while fans were highly entertained by him, they also rooted for his defeat and loved to see him finally meet his end. Steve Newlin, a corrupt preacher turned vampire, was already quite Camp as a human, which then got escalated into straight-up Large Ham status as a vampire, and then he even became best buddies with Russell Edgington himself too. He wasn’t sympathetic enough to be a rootable character at any point, but he was nonetheless consistently entertaining. Finally, Sarah Newlin was a surprisingly effective Badass Normal who, unlike most of the Big Bad lineup, managed to become one of the show’s all-time greatest threats without any powers at all. She was a completely despicable character, but entertaining and awesome enough to still be someone the fans loved to hate.

Music

• Ice Cube claimed to be "The Nigga Ya Love To Hate" on his debut album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, because of the firestorm of controversy surrounding him at the time.
• Disturbed has a song called "Love to Hate", but it's more about people hating for the sake of hating than anything else.
• Erasure has a song "Love to Hate You", but it's not this trope.

Professional Wrestling

• The role of a heel wrestler is to get the audience to hate them in a way that makes them long to see said heel wrestler get humiliated and ultimately be defeated. If a heel is not a wrestler or someone else who normally gets similarly punched/choked/stretched, then their job is to make the fans want to see them get punched/choked/stretched all the more. If someone becomes hated in a way that fans do not want to see them at all, that's X-Pac Heat. For instance, fans could make money selling rocks to throw at Dutch Mantel and Ox Baker, two of WWC's most successful heels; while The Gangstas (New Jack, Mustafa, D'Lo Brown) ended up scaring people away from SMW (not hate, fear, which was bad for business), and X-Pac matches were deemed to be good bathroom breaks (the worst for business).
• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is great as a babyface, and superb as a heel. He's famously one the greatest and most charismatic talkers in wrestling in large part due to his sharp wit and having a hilarious comeback to everyone around him, and as a heel, he gets to take it out on the fans, and it produces some of the loudest outrage you'll ever hear near the ring. From his run as Hollywood Rock from the early 2000's to the Final Boss Rock of the early 2020's, his smug, despicable behavior draws heat in the best way possible, and fans eat up every minute of it.
• Breakout star Gorgeous George was hated by audiences, but he was also the highest-paid athlete in the country, showing how vital a good heel can be.
• Fans prefer Edge as a heel.
• Chris Jericho is this in spades. No matter what, even when he is the most despicable heel in the company (especially during 2008 in WWE), fans just can't get enough of him and look forward to seeing him get every bit of Laser-Guided Karma he might have coming to him. He is just so charismatic that he can play both sides equally as convincingly.
• Ring of Honor fans had a special hatred for Jimmy Rave. They would bring toilet paper rolls to the shows for the purpose of throwing it at him in place of the usual streamers.
• When UltraMantis Black declared his fatigue regarding the human species and became a supervillain, he was met with chants of "Oh Thank God" in Chikara. Apparently, they had been waiting for an excuse to boo him.
• Vickie Guerrero was one of the prime examples, especially whenever she shouts "Excuse Me!", until her last appearance...
• Which was against Stephanie McMahon, who belongs here as well. As of August 2014, she and The Authority are possibly the most hated faction in the WWE.
• It's no surprise that Steph is here, as her father was one of the best heels of all time: Vince McMahon. While he does tend to occasionally be face nowadays, the consensus is that he is much, much better as a heel.
• You can essentially say the same about Stephanie’s husband and the other leader of the Authority: Triple H.
• Bully Ray seemingly goes out of his way to be a heat magnet, and it works magnificently. Case in point: Lockdown 2013, where his betrayal of the Hogan family as president of the Aces & Eights got energy drink cans tossed into a caged ring from all over the arena.
  • Going back to the Dudleys' original run in ECW, Bubba Ray described them as "the definition of the word 'heel', we were the worst of the worst," bordering on Hate Sink; they weren't afraid to cut incendiary promos where they would directly insult the crowd, nearly causing riots in some cases, and compelling people to pay good money to see them get beat up. In a WWE-produced retrospective of the Dudleys' ECW and WWE careers, Bubba Ray mentioned that they went to the lengths they did because heels are supposed to be hated, not "cool" like contemporary heel groups such as the nWo or D-Generation X.
• Rusev and Lana during their Russian nationalist phase.
• Paul Heyman, for sure. Especially when he’s with Brock Lesnar.
• Tommaso Ciampa is on his way to achieving the status of the ultimate heat magnet due to brutally betraying his tag team partner Johnny Gargano and destroying the fan-favorite team. Since coming back from a knee injury, he's been met with a chorus of boos and "Fuck you, Ciampa!" shouts.
  • Ciampa was so hated as a heel that, during his feud with Gargano in NXT, his entrance music was no music. He would simply walk out, with no announcement and no music, and the crowd booing would be deafening.
• Michael Cole was legitimately hated (both for the right and wrong reasons) during his heel gimmick. However, people tend to look back on this era more positively, praising his work as one of the few truly unlikeable heels in modern WWE.
• MJF is perhaps one of the most recent examples of how a Heel manages to get enough heat from the crowd, so much that they love to hate him! He's the quintessential Hate Sink of All Elite Wrestling, whose despicable actions rank from backstabbing Cody Rhodes to calling the Midwest Area as "Mid" (as in mediocre).
• After years of receiving X-Pac Heat from the IWC for being WWE's designated top star, Roman Reigns achieved this trope after finally pulling his long awaited Face–Heel Turn. Roman received far more positive reactions as a heel than he ever had as a face and all he had to do was lean more into his more arrogant and despicable traits and fans couldn't get enough of it.
• In contrast to his father, Dominik Mysterio proves himself to be a natural-born heel in the mold of MJF, as he plays an unrepentant prick to a degree of legitimacy way above most wrestlers, let alone those of his age, to the point that certain crowds have been known to refuse to so much as let him speak. As a result, the fans love him, way more than they ever did as his dad's babyface sidekick. Notably, when he became the NXT North American Champion due to interference from Rhea Ripley, the crowd instinctively cheered in genuine joy for Dom's first singles accolade... then remembered who he was and booed him out of the building.

Roleplay

• Clio Gabriella of Survival of the Fittest, full stop. This is a girl who relishes her kills. Yet to quote one of the members of the site:
  Clio is an absolute bitch who will eventually get what's coming to her. But, you know, Clio could easily be a character that I actually WOULD hate just on principle alone, were it not for how she was written.

Tabletop Games

• Virtually any "villain" faction from Warhammer 40,000 will have its own dedicated fans and players:
  • Chaos Space Marines — Powered Armor clad warriors covered in Spikes of Villainy, driven insane by thousands of years of hateful war and the machinations of the Dark Gods. These guys look like they stepped off a Heavy Metal album cover.
  • Orks — Laughably Evil, the green tide is full of murderous interstellar fratboy hooligans who will cut a bloody swath across the galaxy for no other reason than because it is damn good fun. This is reflected in their unpredictable, uncomplicated, and crazy style of gameplay.
  • Dark Eldar — Cruel beyond belief, wearing armor covered in blades, the Dark Eldar will capture and torture any who are not swift enough to get out of their way (and very few are) simply because they like watching others suffer. Not only are they swift and deadly, but they look gorgeous doing it.
• There are a few characters in Warhammer, for example; Nagash the Undying. He usurped the throne, almost single-handedly destroyed a nation, and planned to turn the world into a realm peopled by only undead obedient to him; he's the most feared and far-reaching villain in-universe outside of the Chaos Gods. At a meta-level, when Games Workshop started the End Times, to get everyone's attention they opened by literally bringing him back from the dead.
• Exalted: The Deathlords have something to hate for everyone, but the biggest target for love-to-hatedom is Mask of Winters.
  • Chejop Kejak is the Anti-Villain that any Solar players would love to hate. This is the guy who spends every day manipulating everyone and everything just so he can tell himself that Usurpation was the Right Thing. He doesn't care about how many Fair Folks / Death Lords / Third Circle Demons you slaughter, to him he's always right and you're always wrong. And he's got 50 or so fate-ninjas to shut you up, even though said fate-ninjas really should be directed in helping you save the world.
• Individual villains in Dungeons & Dragons number in the thousands. Many are forgettable, but some have become beloved of fans for being a Magnificent Bastard (Raistlin, Vecna, Fzoul Chembryl) or for being That One Boss (Acecerak is probably the foremost example.) Since individual villains inevitably die at some point, evil organizations are even more common as the faction players love to take on - the Archdukes of Hell, the Zhentarim, or the Scarlet Brotherhood, for example.

Video Games

• Nearly any villain from the Ace Attorney series. Each villain is thoroughly explored and wonderfully played. Case in point: Matt Engarde. He drove a woman to suicide, had a man assassinated, and had Maya Fey kidnapped as a bargaining chip, at which point she was nearly starved to death. Why? To preserve his image. He also manages to sneak a glass of bourbon into the detention center. His reveal to Phoenix Wright was top-notch, and the fact that he taunts you about Maya's capture makes him all the better. He forces a Sadistic Choice on Phoenix (get him convicted and have Maya killed, or get him off the hook for the sake of Maya) that makes him question his moral beliefs, but Phoenix can turn it around and turn Engarde's choice-forcing back at him (Engarde pleads guilty and is presumably executed or given life in prison, or Engarde pleads not guilty and is assassinated by the very man he hired the moment he's out of police custody) for one of the most satisfying moments in the game.
• Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon:
  • Iguazu has ended up on the recieving receiving end of this due to how strong his hatred is of you, to the point that he ends up becoming the final boss of the Golden Ending just so he can kill you.
  • V.II Snail gets a similar reception due to the sheer amount of contempt he holds for you and his Smug Snake tendencies, while also being a genuinely deadly opponent. He's seen as a very entertaining villain, making it ultimately satisfying when he's finally killed.
• Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie is loved for her Rhymes on a Dime (at least in the first game), diabolical plans ranging from stealing beauty to destroying a whole island, and being Laughably Evil in general while still very much a threat.
• Batman: Arkham Series has a lot of great villains in Batman's Rogues Gallery, but these ones here stand out for how amazing, but at the same time evil, they are:
  • The Joker, as for usual, is a monstrous psychopath and one of the vilest enemies that Batman faced in his entire life. But at the same time, he is a cunning mastermind and is incredibly hilarious in a twisted way. The fact that even after his death at the end of City he still manages to make his presence felt at Gotham says a lot about his strength and influence.
  • Scarecrow here is the embodiment of Evil Is Cool. In Asylum, his fights are easily one of the creepiest and most iconic parts of the game. Especially his third encounter, for exploiting not only Batman's fears, but the players' fears as well. In Knight, he gets upgraded to Big Bad and clever chessmaster, successfully taking over Gotham City in one night. Also, how many villains can boast on how they, not only discovered Batman's secret identity, but also revealed it to the entire world besides Scarecrow?
  • The Riddler is such a smug bastard that you can’t help but chuckle at his antics. It also helps that he’s legitimately pretty funny and is the only one of Batman’s foes in the games that can go toe to toe with him in the intellect department. It’s no mean feat for a character for whom the delicate balance of keeping him smart enough for Batman but not having him dumbed down by constantly getting beaten by him has proved difficult.
• In The Binding of Isaac, there are many late-game bosses that give players a lot of grief, from Mother's tight Bullet Hell patterns to Delirium's erratic teleporting, but while those bosses may be technically worse, The Bloat remains one of most profilic hated bosses in the game, to the point of having an entire subreddit dedicated to hating him.
• BlazBlue: Both Hazama and Relius Clover exude this trope to the max. Hate their depravities, but admire their awesomeness while doing so, making them really solid villains to the series. Hazama started losing this as the series went on, but then Chronophantasma brought in a playable version of his alter-ego Terumi, winning him a few points back.
• Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2 is a character who goes out of his way to insult and belittle the player characters but in such a way that he's a little bit awesome in the process. By the end of the game, you want him dead but he's entertained you for hours.
• Yuna from Breath of Fire IV game can be counted, as well. Despite being a Smug Snake and Karma Houdini, he is considered to be one of the best villains in the series by most of the fandom.
• Bug Fables has Mothiva, who is as narcissistic and shallow as they come, but fans love her precisely because her meanness and selfishness make her a fun and compelling heel in a game where the main villain's relationship with the heroes is rather impersonal. It helps that her boss fights are fun and are accompanied by awesome music.
• General Sarrano from Bulletstorm, who taunts and swears nonstop at the player until you are FINALLY able to kill him at the end of the game...or so you think.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare:
  • Vladimir Makarov, Big Bad of the entire Modern Warfare trilogy, is arguably the most popular villain in the entire Call of Duty franchise even to this day, and for very good reasons. He's vicious, intelligent, and utterly detestable, making his gruesome death at the hands of Captain Price all the more satisfying.
  • General Shepherd from the second game is no slouch in this department either, with his betrayal and subsequent burning of Roach and Ghost firmly solidifying him as a bastard in every player's eyes. He also puts up one hell of a fight in the end, nearly taking out Soap and Price all by himself while injured.
• Dracula from the Castlevania series, who just continuously keeps coming back, just to get killed and then revive and then get killed and, you get the picture. His Fountain of Memes Castlevania: Symphony of the Night incarnation is especially popular. Beyond that, he's traditionally voiced by Norio Wakamoto, the king of Japanese evil ham voice acting, in Japanese voice tracks.
• Yuuya Kizami from Corpse Party. A sociopath who spends the entirety of the game hunting down and viciously murdering his classmates and friends. Also one of the most popular characters in the fandom, largely in part due to an amazingly hammy performance from Tomokazu Sugita that makes his deluded arrogance so fun to watch.
  • In addition, the Big Bad is a sadistic child killer whose M.O. is trapping innocent schoolchildren in a nightmare world and tormenting them in creatively cruel ways. Also loves to taunt them. Yet they’re nonetheless loved for it, and watching their evil in action is a major draw of the franchise. Sachiko the Girl in Red is also an ancient evil in the form of a little girl, and is a Magnificent Bastard comparable to Monokuma for the way they love to drive the cast to despair, being a Mascot Villain, and tricking the party into thinking she’s on their side.
• King Dice from Cuphead quickly caught on with fans thanks to his design, theme song, and his admittedly creative yet fun boss fight.
• Monokuma from Danganronpa. He is a teddy bear who cracks bear puns like no one's business, has an awesomely twisted theme song, and indulges in innuendos and black comedy. He's also more than happy to manipulate high schoolers into murdering each other for no reason other than to make them suffer ultimate despair, crushing their hopes and dreams at every opportunity. And yet, he's proven to be one of the most popular characters in the entire series. By extension, there’s “his” true identity, the Ultimate Fashionista Junko Enoshima, who loves to pull off complicated gambits and, oh, destroyed the entire world.
• Aldrich and Sulyvahn from Dark Souls 3 are the leaders of The Church Of The Deep and the most evil characters the Dark Souls series. In stark contrast to the other foes found in the series, the two are completely unambiguously evil committing an abundance of atrocities either for power or pleasure. Yet they both have very large fanbases where discussions are always made on how awesome they look like as bosses and how hard they are to defeat as bosses. They are loved by Dark Souls veterans for putting such a challenge, while newcomers love to hate them for the same thing. This all makes it extremely satisfying for both parties to have them killed by their hands.
• Eliphas the Inheritor and Gorgutz in Dawn of War. The former for his dark charisma and wit, the latter for laughs.
• Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening gives us Arkham (and, by extension, Jester). He manages to be one of the most vicious villains in the entire Devil May Cry franchise, and at the same time one of the most iconic (second only to Vergil). Him being incredibly hammy and a cunning Manipulative Bastard help a lot.
• Dragon Age: Origins gives us Rendon Howe and Loghain Mac Tir. In contrast to the incoherently violent, Always Chaotic Evil Big Bad of the game, Howe and Loghain had identifiable intelligence, with dialog that provided players heightened impetus. The battle with the Archdemon has inevitability beyond the need for motivation, but the confrontation with Loghain is character-driven and approaches with increasing dramatic tension.
• Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: Of the antagonists, Sho Sharker is rather humorous when he sucks up to his Zetacorp allies and when he snarks at the party, but at the same time, he can be a chilling antagonist when he gets an advantage and kidnaps Akira for the sake of his sick hunting game. As much as one may have laughed at his antics, he's still the propaganda arm of a fascist state and it's very satisfying to defeat him on his own show.
• The Thalmor from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Almost Nazi Elves, the fans adore massacring any Thalmor patrols they see on the road for a variety of reasons, not limited to their smugness, various acts of dickery, and complete openness about trying to kill or enslave anyone who opposes or looks directly at them. They get more hate than any of the series' heralds of the apocalypse! As the cherry on the top, if you dig into the obscure lore one can find that the Thalmor in their own way are would-be heralds of the apocalypse.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Kefka in Final Fantasy VI. He's an unapologetic sadist who also throws in plenty of Large Ham moments and several of the game's best lines. He also tops off an epic Final Boss fight that manages to thematically complete all of the themes of the game. Also, the theme to said final battle is a multi-movement tour de force that remains a fan favorite to this day.
• Five Nights at Freddy's: William Afton is a horrific Complete Monster and Hate Sink no doubt about it, yet he's more often than not beloved by the game's fanbase for kickstarting the events of the series and being a terrifying and all-too-real depiction of a child Serial Killer. Although he arguably suffers from Villain Decay later on, his presence in the series remains unforgettable.
• Lord Brevon from Freedom Planet is an out-and-out unrepentant asshole and a total monster who commits several atrocities throughout the game, such as subjecting poor Lilac to a brutal combination of physical torture, Electric Torture, and breaking speeches, using Milla as a hostage to keep the heroines from retrieving the Kingdom Stone and then turning Milla into a monster and forcing them to fight her (after which they confront him in a rage with refusal to forgive him which he simply replies to saying he doesn't need forgiveness from people "putting his homeworld at risk for an oversized battery" that he describes the Kingdom Stone as), and, in Milla's story, attempting to strangle her to death in a fit of seething rage. You're really not supposed to like him, but at the same time, Brevon is such a total bastard of a villain that the game's story wouldn't be half as effective without him, and become quite memorable in his own right.
• God of War Ragnarök:
  • Odin is the Top God of the Norse Pantheon, and throughout God of War (PS4) we hear stories about what a manipulative and cruel monster he is. Ragnarök proves that he's every bit the tyrant described in the previous game. However, between his charmingly Faux Affably Evil demeanor and Richard Schiff's charismatic performance, he proves to be quite entertaining to watch whenever he's onscreen.
  • Heimdall is Odin's most loyal follower and a Jerkass of the highest caliber. He's unbelievably smug and mean-spirited to everyone, something done with so much earnesty that it somehow loops around to entertaining. It also makes his well-deserved beatdown from Kratos all the sweeter.
• Alex from the Golden Sun series. He's among the few fictional characters to graduate from Smug Snake to Magnificent Bastard over the course of three games.
• Grand Theft Auto:
  • Frank Tenpenny from San Andreas is a corrupt, self-serving bastard who's behind some pretty despicable acts, but he's often highly entertaining and gets some of the best lines in the game. His voice actor certainly helps.
  • Ryder as well. He's a favorite among the fandom, as he manages to do enough humor during missions, in spite of being a megalomaniac jerk. Also notable for his voice actor, who is the rapper MC Eiht.
  • Interestingly, Ray Bulgarin from Grand Theft Auto IV has a large fanbase, but mostly because he's a flatly efficient antagonist.
• Hatoful Boyfriend: Doctor Shuu. He's an unapologetically Ax-Crazy Mad Scientist who literally murders you in his romantic route and is pretty creepy otherwise... and he takes to the role so well, you can't help but love the bastard. He's even this in-universe, as during one route in Holiday Star the human girl comments on how much she misses the fluffy little heretic.
• Erol from the Jak and Daxter series, who is a colossal Jerkass to Jak from the second his character is first introduced to just before he blows himself up. As if that isn't enough, he comes back from the dead in the third game and takes over the position of Big Bad.
• Hades from Kid Icarus: Uprising. He's sadistic, cruel, and a massive Troll, but he's also one of the most entertaining characters in the whole game with his hammy, snarky, and flirtatious attitude. Scott Bullock's killer voice acting really sells it. By the time you finally fight him, you'll wanna kick his ass, but he's kept you laughing for hours.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Vanitas from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is starting to get this. Despite being associated with and created by Master Xehanort, it seems that no amount of evil can quite push him past the Moral Event Horizon in the eyes of the fans, even though he's Made of Evil.
  • There are Organization XIII fans who aren't so eager to get them in the leather pants. These fans concede that Evil Is Cool but point out that they are absolutely the bad guys.
  • Master Xehanort himself. His debut game established his creds, but The Reveal that he's been gathering copies of himself from many timelines, and made plans for several potential futures further cranked up his competence, effectiveness as a villain and dastardliness all at once.
  • Braig/Xigbar: He has always been known for being snarky, toying, and casually sadistic, and despite his evil nature his personality makes him one of the franchise's most memorable characters. Then it's revealed that he's actually Luxu, a once-naïve and adorkable character who became jaded by waiting centuries or millennia to see his friends and mentor again.
• The King of Fighters: Most of the series' Final Bosses tend to qualify if only because, well, they're SNK Bosses of the highest caliber, straight from the Trope Namer themselves. With some exceptions like Krizalid or Original Zero, these are the stand-out examples:
  • Rugal Bernstein is a bastard of the highest order. Murderous, petty, and with a nasty god complex on top of that, he's committed some of the most vile atrocities before the series even began, such as the murder of Heidern's entire 50-man battalion, killing his wife and daughter, and taking his eye from him for good measure. It's for this reason and his notoriety as an SNK Boss (especially in his debut game and 2002) in general that he's the shining example of this trope in the franchise.
  • Ash Crimson is a rare Villain Protagonist example. He's a cocky, conniving, treacherous little brat that pulled the wool over the eyes of both his own teammates and Those From The Past, the likes of which included its leader Saiki, who also happened to be his ancestor. Additionally, he also Depowered Chizuru Kagura and Iori Yagami, taking their powers for his own personal gain and earning the ire of one furious Kyo Kusanagi and Yagami himself (so much so that they actually put aside their differences to get back at him for what he did to Chizuru). And despite all of this, in the end, it was for a much nobler cause, as he intended to use the Sacred Treasures' namesake artifacts to aid in his quest to stop his ancestor from summoning Orochi for his own ends, outright sacrificing his entire existence in doing so. In his tenure as the arc protagonist of KOF, Ash has earned quite a reputation in-universe and out, making him one of the more memorable characters in the series (for better or worse), as a result.
• The Last of Us: David is the superficially charming leader of a cult of ruthless cannibals and an Ephebophile who completely upends the series normal Gray-and-Grey Morality due to how monstrous he is. Fans widely love him as a villain due to just how utterly terrifying he is, the profound impact that he has on Ellie's Character Development and Nolan North's charismatic and shockingly against-type performance (most didn't realize it was him until the end credits).
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak has Gerard Dantes and Melchior who are the Big Bad and The Dragon respectively. They cause a lot of destruction, mayhem, and actually kill people onscreen, including nuking an entire village just because they could. They're also well-beloved by fans due to the fact that the Trails Series, especially Azure, and the Erebonia arcs had villains who were all over the place, making the most of them Unintentionally Unsympathetic, with some of them going with the Karma Houdini route. Kuro makes sure that these two, alongside all of Armata if the player chooses to, die at the end of the game.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Ganon(dorf) from The Legend of Zelda. His appearance, personality, and very nature have evolved and varied vastly from game to game, but he provides the player, like Bowser, with a villain who's perfect to hate while still being cool and highly competent. He's become the third member of the Power-Wisdom-Courage Triforce dynamic with Zelda and Link, with a well-established Memetic Badass reputation.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has Ghirahim, the camp but creepy villain who's become very popular with fans. And while not necessarily a villain, Groose was loved for being a hilarious Large Ham even before he stopped being a jerk to Link.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has Zant. Not only does he serves an imposing yet despicable villain who completely ravages Hyrule and his realm, but whose psychotic tantrums makes him fun to watch. This all accumulates to his Villainous Breakdown where players enjoy watching before killing him with satisfaction.
  • And then Hyrule Warriors puts them together.
• A rare exception to the Smug Snake not being eligible is Zetta from Makai Kingdom. Hilarious to watch, and intentionally done to be a parody of the Smug Snake.
• Saren Arterius from Mass Effect and, once finally revealed, his boss, Sovereign. Few villains are as effortlessly terrifying.
• Omega from Mega Man Zero 3. Despite being a one-shot villain, he's easily one of the most popular in the franchise, earning him a spot as an Optional Boss in Mega Man ZX. Contrast with Weil who benefits from Diabolus ex Machina retcons.
• Weil earns a special place in Mega Man history for being one of the few recurring Mega Man villains not to suffer from Villain Decay. Rather than being the Final Boss in every game like Wily and Sigma (who were turned into complete jokes because of it), he keeps to manipulating things from the background, only personally taking on Zero in the final game of the Zero series.)
• Prometheus and Pandora from Mega Man ZX due to how their battles never fail to entertain, especially the one where you fight both of them at once.
• Many villains from the Metal Gear series. These examples except Volgin and Sundowner are also Anti-Villains themselves.
• Metroid:
  • Ridley is beloved for his design, which is badass to the hilt, and for his apparent Joker Immunity, as well as the Awesome Music that tends to accompany his fights.
  • There's also both of Samus' Evil Knockoffs, Dark Samus and SA-X, the former for providing some of the best fights in the Prime trilogy, and the latter of which is frequently cited as one of the scariest damn things in the entire series. Dark Samus even got into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate alongside Ridley.
  • Metroid Dread introduced Raven Beak, a megalomaniacal Chozo with an eye towards conquering the galaxy. Between the novelty of his being an evil Chozo (a species more known for being Benevolent Precursors), his incredibly thrilling Final-Exam Boss fight, and his upstaging the somewhat contentious character Adam Malkovich by posing as him for most of the game, which both fans and detractors of Adam seem to like for different reasons, he's quickly become one of the highlights of Dread and a villain easily able to hold his own with the likes of Ridley in the hearts of fans who dearly want to punch him in the face.
• Make no mistake about it, Kano of Mortal Kombat is a bastard, through and through. A gun runner, smuggler, realm-traitor, and unrepentant sociopath, the heroic members of the cast openly despise him and even his fellow bad guys can only just barely tolerate him. Despite this, his over-the-top ham and equally over-the-top Australian-ness have cemented him as a character who's both fun to watch and fun to watch getting his ass kicked.
• Tubbs from Neko Atsume is a fat cat with a tendency to come into the player's yard and wolf down an entire food bowl instead of just a small bite like all of the other cats, then lounge next to the bowl with a smug, give-no-craps look on their face. Oh, and Tubbs will only eat food if it was paid for; they won't accept the free Thrifty Bitz. They're also one of the most popular cats amongst fans, who adore Tubbs because of these habits.
• In NEO: The World Ends with You, Tanzo Kubo is as hateable as the reapers can be. Easily the slimiest out of the cast of the reapers, his cocky demeanor while also having Xander Mobus' performance gained him a lot of fans. And that's before revealing himself as a Dragon-in-Chief and executing a very well thought out plan that almost has him win against the protagonists.
• Overwatch has Hanzo Shimada, who had tried to kill his own brother Genji (though he failed) and to this day is a bit of an asshole if his in-game interactions mean anything. Sure, his cinematic implies that he is trying to atone and become a better person, and lore seems to suggest that he was forced into the action, but so far all we've seen is him being a major dick. Everyone likes him despite and maybe because of his asshole-ish behavior and snarky voicelines.
• Persona series:
  • Persona 4: Tohru Adachi who is quite monstrous but his Off-Model facial expressions and genuinely funny lines make him a very entertaining and popular villain.
  • Persona 5:
    • Fans generally agree that Kamoshida is one of the best-written and most delightfully despicable antagonists in the game. Some have gone as far as criticizing the game for peaking too early due to this.
    • The only other antagonist to rival Kamoshida in this category is Masayoshi Shido. He is responsible for ruining the life of the Player Character over the pettiest reason and is willing to murder innocents, including his own son all to improve his career. Fans seem to enjoy his onscreen appearance and love hearing his speeches, though clearly not as much as they love giving Shido the ass-kicking he deserves.
• Pokémon :
  • Ghetsis from Pokémon Black and White who is very liked to the point that fans were ECSTATIC when a clip from the trailers showed that he would be returning in the sequel, with a legendary of his own (Kyurem) no less
  • Lusamine from Pokémon Sun and Moon is loved due to being extremely well-written while being hated because of vileness and being an abusive Evil Matriarch, to the point of being compared to Ragyo Kiryuin. In fact, she was loved so much as a villain that her Adaptational Heroism in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and the anime was very contentious.
  • The seemingly-friendly Volo from Pokémon Legends: Arceus basically combines the despicableness and manipulative nature of Ghetsis with the good looks and insanity of Lusamine. All of this, along with adding a really formidable Pokemon battle, makes him stand out as one of the most memorable and beloved villains in the whole series.
• Portal's GLaDOS is a sadistic AI akin to SHODAN, with a propensity for creative insults and guilt-tripping. Until the sequel, anyway.
  • Wheatley, too, post-Face–Heel Turn, for being just as hilarious and very Affably Evil to boot.
• In Punch-Out!!, Aran Ryan and Super Macho Man are booed on sight for good reason (the former for being a blatant cheater and the latter for being an egotistical Jerkass), and yet they both have quite a few fans in real life; especially Aran, whose craziness and cheating made him one of the most memorable opponents.
• Red Dead Redemption 2: Micah Bell is a top contender for the most evil and flat-out despised character that Rockstar has ever created, but that is just precisely what makes him so memorable. He is an out-and-out racist psychopath of the highest order, who also happens to be an excellent gunman, accelerates Dutch's growing Sanity Slippage by pushing him to make more reckless and immoral choices, makes an excellent foil for the immensely likable Arthur Morgan, acts as a retroactive, overarching antagonist for the original game's story and just serves as a wonderful lightning rod for players' ire.
• Resident Evil: Albert Wesker is a brilliant Chessmaster, one of the most powerful characters in the series (Super-Speed, Super-Strength, and Healing Factor) with martial arts skills that let him use moves out of the Matrix (he's basically the only character in the games to be able to do this). His voice acting and being a Man of Wealth and Taste make him charismatic and popular with fans. He's also one of the evilest characters in a series full of them, wanting to take over the world and become a god. Possibly overlaps with Awesome Ego.
• Iris Zeppelin from RosenkreuzStilette. Even though she's easily the evilest villain in the series, she's so cute that she's able to infatuate anyone into loving to hate her, and she's quite known for her hamminess. It even helps that the fights against her are accompanied by some of the most epic songs to grace the doujin game franchise.
• More than anyone else in Saints Row 2, Shogo Akuji, leader of the Ronin, so much that his fate goes unpitied, and makes Ax-Crazy Johnny look reasonable. And almost as hated is Maero's girlfriend Jessica. Perhaps the comparison to these two makes the Big Bad look a little more sympathetic; by the time of his confrontation, the player's character has generated a little of this trope on himself/herself.
• Part of the appeal of the Shin Megami Tensei series is that many games feature God — and not just any god, it's YHVH, the Abrahamic God — as the Big Bad and a subset of those games feature him as a Final Boss that you can kill, whether you like showing you're above massively powerful deities or are not terribly keen on Abrahamic religions. YHVH's cabal of four Archangels — Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel — fall under the same boat for many of the same reasons. Hell, in one ending of Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, humans' power of observation — more specifically, you and your comrades' refusal to believe in Him, refusal to accept what he claims to offer for humanity — reduces him to a mere demon like all of the other gods He's subjugated.
• Neyla of Sly 2: Band of Thieves. Intended to be a Hate Sink, but she has spawned plenty of fan art, and as of Thieves in Time, plenty of fan theories link her with Penelope's sudden Face–Heel Turn.
• Dr. Eggman/Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog. A rare case of Villain Decay actually making him more popular (due to being more sympathetic). Contrast with Eggman Nega.
  • Mephiles the Dark is one of the few redeeming things about the 2006 game, being absolutely vile and scarily competent. How many Sonic villains can boast about killing Sonic as a villainous deed?
  • THE END in Sonic Frontiers is a malevolent Omnicidal Maniac that is basically responsible for all the nasty stuff that happened in the Sonic Universe but it's also beloved by the fanbase for how creepy it is, for how surprisingly dark it is for a Sonic the Hedgehog villain, its chiling Badass Boast during its boss fight and how it was able to manipulate Sonic for the entire game.
• Gig from Soul Nomad & the World Eaters. One of the evilest characters Nippon Ichi has ever made, but done with such awesome comedic wit and more awesome acting (Yuri Lowenthal FTW) that he is practically universally loved by the Nippon Ichi fan base. And he’s on your side.
• Possibly the most popular villain in the Suikoden franchise is Prince Luca Blight from 2 for this reason. He is an unrepentantly cruel, deranged sociopath who commits horrific atrocities throughout the game; from slaughtering bands of children to outright genocide. Yet, because he is so over the top while still being terrifying, combined with his impressive track record in battle, he is often seen as the most memorable part of the game.
• Bowser, the usual Big Bad of Super Mario Bros., who gets to come back from just about everything, from burning in lava to falling to the bottom of a bottomless pit, because he's such an entertaining boss — his popularity is such that he named the Go-Karting with Bowser trope because people want to play as him in many spin-off titles.
  • As well as Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings. Like their father, they each have two-dimensional motives and a mean streak, but all make for such an entertaining boss.
  • King K. Rool from Donkey Kong Country is liked for his Laughably Evil behavior, his persistence in defeating the Kongs, and his supreme Acrofatics. Fans rejoiced when he got a reveal trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Dimentio from Super Paper Mario is beloved for his suave charm, playfully witty one-liners, and being a Manipulative Bastard, as well as being able to kill the heroes at one point and almost destroy the multiverse.
  • King Boo also deserves mention here, notably his Luigi's Mansion incarnation. Fans loved him for the same reasons as Dimentio, such as being a full-on Manipulative Bastard, his snarky lines, and being a surprisingly dark villain for a Mario game. It helps that he's also the official Arch-Enemy to Luigi.
  • And Fawful from Mario & Luigi. He went from being The Dragon to Cackletta, to a salesman, and to a full-fledged Big Bad over the course of three games. He also speaks in Engrish and uses hilariously clumsy metaphors and similes. He's so entertaining and yet so terrifying at the same time that he made quite the impact on the fanbase.
• SHODAN and her/its speeches are essentially the main draw of the System Shock series. No other villain makes their taunting feel so bizarrely immediate, or so strangely personal.
• Tales of Destiny 2 has Barbatos Goetia, a Sociopathic Soldier who will gladly betray his allies and kill innocents if it means getting himself recognized as a hero. Despite that, he's one of the most popular Tales villains due to being an entertaining Large Ham voiced by Norio Wakamoto and using Anti-Everything That Could Help You tactics in his boss battles. People don't soften the evil things he's done, but love him for his vileness and intelligence.
• Tattered World: The Narrator stands out for the sheer level of vile he brings to the otherwise optimistic setting- you know you're a piece of work when you're introduced with a tyrant reign over a remnant of reality and somehow only get worse from there. But he's just so well-written that even the players who are baying for his blood (which is the vast majority) are at the same time entertained by his dramatics.
• The 5th installment of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni introduces Erika Furudo. She's a (self-proclaimed) Great Detective who washes up on Rokkenjima and proceeds to hijack the gameboard. She's a Canon Sue, Parody Sue, and Black Hole Sue, and while the narration won't stop gushing over her the characters in-universe can't stand her, especially after she pins all the murders on Natsuhi, kills Beatrice, gets into a fight with Maria over candy and makes her cry, and tricks Battler into a logic error with a Wounded Gazelle Gambit. Erika is completely ruthless and amoral. Despite that, she is a fairly popular character. Also, in-universe Battler acknowledges her as an opponent in the end and is upset at her absence at the after-party.
  • The witches in general are this, due to their trollish nature. Big Bad Beatrice is a Magnificent Bitch who desires to make Battler her slave. Erika’s master Bernkastel and Lambdadelta may also qualify after being revealed as the true villains.
• Undertale:
  • Flowey, a talking flower. Looks silly and childish, right? Well, his first course of action after introducing himself to you is to trick you into running into bullets aka "friendliness pellets", then soon afterwards changing from his innocent-looking smile into one of his signature Nightmare Faces while declaring his intent to kill you. This and his subsequent, spoilery appearances make for well-lauded sources of Nightmare Fuel, especially in the Neutral path when he force-closes the game on you, hijacks the game and your save file, and shows up in a terrifying One-Winged Angel form capable of using Save Scumming against you. Never have the words "FILE x SAVED/LOADED" (commonly associated with emulator savestates) been so effectively terrifying.
  • Chara, the Fallen Child. At least, to those who consider them evil, they’re a chilling Deconstruction of the typical RPG hero, killing for the sake of power, manipulating those around them to accomplish their goals, even roping the player into a killing spree, and generally being a cruel Omnicidal Maniac and perfect partner to Flowey.
  • On a less serious note. Jerry, The Friend Nobody Likes, who is "spared" by conspiring with the other monsters to ditch him mid-battle, and is an unbelievably durable Stone Wall just to make sure murdering him on the Genocide run is just as annoying. And even then, the Fallen Child on a "No Mercy" run is willing to spare him at the start of battle, which has been interpreted as either the Child not wanting to bother taking the time to kill him, or deciding that having him be an obnoxious presence to other monsters is crueler than just killing him outright. Jerry is even hated in Neutral and Genocide speedruns because killing him takes longer than finding another encounter and killing them. Thanks to all this, hating Jerry is more a fandom in-joke than an actual expression of malice. Even the "hate art" focuses mostly on how much the other characters hate him.
• Lezard Valeth of Valkyrie Profile. Somewhat problematic because half of his fanbase is in the Draco in Leather Pants camp, but even those that find him abhorrent believe the series wouldn't be half as good without him.
• Deathshead, Frau Engel, and her lover Bubi from Wolfenstein: The New Order have this trope in spades. All of these three are sadistic monsters and we love them all for being just that. This trope was also somewhat reflected in Yahtzee's review of the game.
  Yahtzee: One of the first things we do is watch a soldier shoot a room full of hospital patients before we stab him right up the lebensraum, and the principal villains only need to smile and play card games to become infinitely hateable.
• The Game Masters from The World Ends with You are quite nefarious but are still well-loved by the fans for various reasons.
  • Yodai Higashizawa is fairly well-liked as a villain due to his various food-related puns, intimidating stature, cool Noise design, and surprisingly gracious reaction to his defeat at the hands of Neku and Shiki. Being voiced by Travis Willingham also doesn’t hurt.
  • Sho Minamimoto is a Jerkass with zero redeeming qualities, yet his loud and eccentric personality, coupled with his hilarious math-related catchphrases, make him one of the most popular characters in the game.
  • Mitsuki Konishi's coldness and cruelty would normally make her a Hate Sink, yet she is loved by the fans due to being perceived as one of the more attractive characters in the game, as well as due to the fact that she poses a far greater threat than the previous Game Masters.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1 gives us the despicable and utterly deplorable Metal Face. He's an arrogant, sadistic brute, a colossal Troll, and a massive Smug Snake of the highest order. He killed Shulk's best friend Fiora during the raid on Colony 9 and later taunted Shulk about her lovely screams. Yet it's because he's such a despicable bastard that makes him one of the most memorable characters in the whole game. Tim Watson's hammy performance definitely helps.

Web Animation

• RWBY:
  • The wisecracking Affably Evil Roman Torchwick. He's a sadistic criminal who annoys everyone he meets...but the show would be less funny without him, which leads to his death when Cerebus Syndrome kicks in.
  • Adam Taurus cements himself as this in his brief appearance in Volume 3. Even the show's writers are disgusted by him, and to say the fandom would really like to see him get his comeuppance is an Understatement. Brutally maiming Yang, one of the most universally liked characters on the show, will do that. Word of God also suggests that Adam was an abusive boyfriend to Blake in her time in the White Fang.
  • Co-Dragons Mercury and Emerald also get some of this, especially Mercury, who is a snarky Jerkass who is one of the most capable fighters in the series. It helps that the fight scenes that he is involved in tend to be some of the best in the show. The "hate" part comes into play mainly due to their involvement in Yang being framed, and then topping it by murdering Penny.
• Red vs. Blue: Felix was a notably Base-Breaking Character before The Reveal of his true nature. After this, that aspect had significantly reduced and he became one of the most popular characters of The Chorus Trilogy with many people appreciating his manipulativeness, charm, humor, and skills as a badass fighter. All in spite of his unrepentant dickishness (and not in an endearing way like the protagonists). Many still hated his guts at the same time, but he was a highly entertaining character. His extensive Humiliation Conga in the penultimate episode of Season 13 in addition to Locus turning on him had many cheering.
• Happy Tree Friends: The scheming duo of Lifty and Shifty, even though they're both divisive characters to some people (Especially Shifty). However, they both also have a good amount of fans who enjoy them for their witty humor, memorable moments, and getting their comeuppance in the most hilarious ways possible.
• Evelyn Claythorne from Meta Runner exists only to make viewers hate her as much as possible. Thankfully, she gets some satisfying Villainous Breakdowns at the end of the second and third seasons (she was not present in the first season), which make her rude and entitled (and later, downright evil) behaviour worth tolerating.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick:
  • Played for Laughs with Faux Affably Evil Cloudcuckoolander Xykon and Evil Twin Nale, among others.
  • A lot of the fandom's love for Xykon stems from the fact he's a convincingly written For the Evulz who still manages to be a Brilliant, but Lazy Cloudcuckoolander.
  • Miko's fall from grace turned her from simply Scrappy to this. When she killed the Cool Old Guy, the hatred she'd garnered up to that point reached critical mass, in-universe and out.
  • Tarquin, who manages to be smug, Genre Savvy, helpful, and balance competence with being a Large Ham, is a meta-example. He knows he's an evil archvillain, and will eventually get defeated by a dashing hero, but he's entirely okay with that because at least he'll be an awesome villain whom everyone will like more than the hero.
• 8-Bit Theater: Black Mage Evilwizardington. He's a completely amoral jerkass whose evil is so audaciously horrible that it becomes funny and the character is beloved by fans.
• Looking for Group has Richard, the Token Evil Teammate warlock who embodies the trope Chaotic Evil. He's as big of a scumbag as he possibly be and constantly commits horrendous crimes (zapping a guy into dust is probably one of the least evil things he's done) but he's just so damn hilarious.
  Richard: (after seeing the child of a man he just killed crying over his father's death) This day just gets more fantastic!
• Vriska, of Homestuck. To some, anyway.
  • Lord English/Caliborn. He's an egotistical, rude, misogynistic, obnoxious, creepy, and self-centered little shit but very few people actually dislike him. This may be because nearly every scene he appears in is fucking hilarious.
  • The Condesce maybe even more. She's a horrible empress of a Proud Warrior Race who isn't below subliminal imagery and brainwashing people into doing her bidding...but is also revered by the fandom due to her being magnificent, petty and her younger reincarnation being Sophisticated as Hell.
• Chase Brenton from Rain (2010) is a truly despicable and slimy human being. But the sheer depravity of his actions are what make him a great antagonist.
• The Living Words aka Story the Wild Card Manipulative Bastard Anthropomorphic Personification who manipulates because, well, "It Amused Me" and also the readers, no matter how they might deny it, from Roommates. The readers want to congratulate him/her/it and kill him/her/it but really not sure in which order. The guy did stuff like manipulating two children and killing one of them, just for the sake of the Rule of Drama.
  • To a lesser extent the Shadow Child aka Disbelief, an Affably Evil, Creepy Child with Mind Rape powers and Ninja Props. The thing is that the kid is just damn cute and at least more honest, which actually makes him harder to hate. And the kid mind-raped the cast once for no other reason just because he could.

Web Original

• The Federal Epidemic Containment Agency (FECA) from the live zombie game/event Dead Town. Within the narrative, FECA agents routinely shoot at the protagonists, even calling airstrikes on them and more or less ignoring zombies to instead attack the heroes. The Dead Town creators say that FECA merchandise is the most popular they sell. There is a button with a cartoon man in a gas mask that reads, "FECA: We're Here to Help." Even though FECA did not help when you play Dead Town, they're fun to hate.

Web Videos

• The Sorceress and Destorm from Escape the Night are not the most likable characters in season two, being the Big Bad and Token Evil Teammate respectively. But in season four, they are brought Back from the Dead and decide to team up with the heroes, making them very unpredictable and entertaining to watch. The Sorceress hamming it up like no one else and DeStorm relishing in trolling his teammates made them far more entertaining then the other characters on the show. Special mention goes to the Sorceress who murders the far less popular Collector and takes over as the Big Bad of the show.
• Aunt Despair and Uncle Lies from The Nostalgia Critic are horrible people who traumatize their kids (and treat Critic like shit), but they're ensemble darkhorses because a lot can relate to knowing parents like them, and Uncle Lies being like Ask That Guy Back from the Dead really doesn't hurt.
• The BOSSFIGHT series by Liana K gives us the character Zarkazaan - a parody of Straw Feminists merged with a JRPG Wicked Witch. She's a delightfully outrageous Know-Nothing Know-It-All who speaks in a Kim Kardashian voice and makes for a very effective antagonist. Her ultimate comeuppance of being literally banished to hell in the finale is quite cathartic.

Western Animation

• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: The Queen of the Crown — you don't often see a villainess with that kind of leverage over The Hero. Nor are eighties cartoon foes that creative with Mind Rape.
• Adventure Time:
  • The fanbase takes a real liking to the dreaded, unfunny, dark, murderous and with No Sense of Humour terror that is the Lich, mainly because he took such a drastic turn from the show's usual silly tone. The base was intrigued with him long before he made his first full (non-cameo) appearance in season 2. The love got boosted when he cleverly outsmarted Finn in the season 4 finale by exploiting his heroic traits and using them against him.
  • Magic Man. Mainly because he's funny, despicable and scary at the same time.
  • Lemongrab. An awesomely creepy, nightmarish, weird character who moved all the season 5 into Darker and Edgier territory.
  • Big Destiny as well. Despite being a greedy bully, he's entertaining to watch and has some memorable lines.
• American Dad!: Roger Smith is a petty, murderous sociopath, and yet he remains one of the most hilarious characters in the series.
• Amphibia:
  • Once he was revealed to be Evil All Along, King Andrias was praised by fans for his status as the ultimate villain of the show and taking it into Darker and Edgier territory. He maintains a cheerful, eccentric and somewhat silly personality, even after his true colors are revealed and whilst conducting seriously evil actions, making him quite an entertaining and watchable villain; whilst his implicitly tragic backstory with his two friends, and the signs that he's genuinely capable of making emotional connections yet will sacrifice them like chess-pieces with sheer ruthlessness that would make Tywin Lannister proud make the character all the more dynamic. At the same time, all of the sheer needless, petty and Kick the Dog that Andrias conducts left and right on everyone who ever comes within ten feet of him, never mind him aiding the Core in turning Amphibia into a Polluted Wasteland and his active efforts to kill Anne and conquer Earth, very much make the audience root against him. The increasing Cry for the Devil he racks up as his true feelings on his evil plans and actions are further fleshed out, culminating in a surprisingly tear-jerking end to his menace, only makes the character's appeal even more universal.
  • Darcy. They combine Faux Affably Evil and a ruthless ambition with the personality quirks of a thirteen-year-old to form an overall Psychopathic Womanchild personality which is amusing and terrifying and all-around entertaining to watch. At the same time, the sheer savage bloodlust with which they conduct themselves in "All In" (putting even Andrias' cruelty to shame) makes the audience cheer the heroes on when they start handing Darcy the latter's own ass, nevermind the Core's violent possession of Marcy beforehand to achieve this form.
• Archer:
  • Malory is a binge-drinking control freak who abuses anyone who gets in her way, but her behavior is so over-the-top and mean that it's hilarious rather than cruel.
  • Barry becomes this after he becomes the show's Big Bad, for similar reasons as Malory.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Pre-Heel–Face Turn Prince Zuko is an Anti-Villain example. Considered the most well-developed character in the show.
  • Princess Azula, Zuko's sister, is one of the nastiest characters in the series. She casually manipulates and intimidates people and is perfectly willing and able to kill if it advances her agenda. However, her charismatic way of villainy is very entertaining to watch, as well as how effective she is as a villain since the term Magnificent Bastard really applies to her.
  • Long Feng is the Treacherous Advisor to the Earth King who is very effective at keeping a Government Conspiracy going on. Like Azula, Long Feng is a very charismatic villain, but not on her level, as he, unfortunately, experiences when dealing with her.
  • Zuko is hardly a character whose villainy is enjoyable and Azula is cool enough to qualify as hate to love. But Zhao on the other hand, he's got that kind of obnoxiousness only the best Smug Snake can provide: making you groan on sight yet strangely liking it.
• Avengers Assemble:
  • Red Skull is pretty much everything that makes a "Take Over the World"-type villain enjoyable. Liam O'Brien's killer voice acting really sells it.
  • Squadron Supreme became this in season 2 for being a hyper-competent threat whose episodes were generally some of the better-written episodes in season 2. The fact that most of them are voiced by voice actors who play DC superheroes made fans fall even more in love.
• Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a lazy, selfish Jerkass with absolutely zero humanizing or redeeming traits. However, his penchant for Insane Troll Logic, his genuinely funny snarky comments, and his over-the-top personality makes him hilarious to watch. The fact he usually gets his comeuppance doesn't hurt either.
• Batman: The Animated Series: The Joker was already this, but Mark Hamill's performance made him even more lovable while being as monstrous as ever.
• Ben 10: Omniverse gives us Malware. He's a psychopathic Galvanic Mechomorph who has proven to be Ben's most vile antagonist to date. He's a villain so devoid of any moral compass that he once threw an oil tanker at a busload of kids to escape from Ben. Yet he is one of, if not the, most beloved villain in the show mainly because he's such an irredeemable psychopath which really helps him stand out among the Denser and Wackier nature of the show. The fact that he's one of the very few villains in this show to not suffer Villain Decay definitely helps.
• Bianca Dupree from Beverly Hills Teens may have been an awful Alpha Bitch, but she's the main reason most fans watch the show.
• A Classic Disney Shorts villain: Pete, in almost all of his performances especially the ones performed by Jim Cummings. A sizable portion of the Goof Troop fandom loves him for being three-dimensional and a consistently hilarious Chew Toy due to Laser-Guided Karma (and because he's played by Jim Cummings) despite hating him for reasons that would normally make a character into The Scrappy such as being a Manipulative Bastard without being a Magnificent Bastard and deliberately tormenting The Woobie. However, that doesn't mean everyone feels this way: he gets a fair share of Draco in Leather Pants and complete hatred too.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog:
  • Katz. Unlike other recurring villains in the series, he is incredibly popular in the fandom, mainly because he's incredibly scary and creepy.
  • Eustace is also this to an extent. In spite of his grouchy and callous personality, he is well-liked by some fans (although he's a Base-Breaking Character) due to his humor, entertainment, and memorable lines. It also helps that he gets his comeuppance in the most hilarious ways.
• The Dragon Prince: Finnegrin is a sadistic, abusive, and power-hungry pirate who is extremely verbally abusive to his bodyguard Elmer and tries to have Rayla killed out of spite against Callum. He also lacks any complex qualities most of the show's villains have. Despite this, he is often liked for his cool and threatening presence, as well as Tariq Leslie's performance, with fans admitting that he and the pirate story arc are some of the best things about Book 5.
• Family Guy:
  • Carter Pewterschmidt. Despite being an extremely obnoxious man, he's very entertaining to watch at times.
  • Of course old Stewie, the original Breakout Character.
• One of the most memorable villains of Futurama is Robot Santa Claus, a robot version of Santa who is programmed with nigh-unachievable standards of "nice" and punishes "naughty" people with lethal force.
  Robot Santa: Mobsters beating up a shopkeeper for protection money. Very naughty. Shopkeeper not paying protection money! Exactly as naughty!
  Robot Santa: Your mistletoe is no match for my T.O.W. missile!
• Gravity Falls has Bill Cipher, yellow Eye of Providence with limbs, wearing a top hat and bowtie. He has a weird sense of humor, charmingly manipulative, and hadn't actually been 'defeated' until the finale. It's so amusing to watch him that it's equally easy to forget that he's an Eldritch Abomination Knight of Cerebus plotting The End of the World as We Know It, and pure Nightmare Fuel material.
• Hazbin Hotel:
  • Adam is a vulgar, petty, misogynistic, arrogant, genocidal, self-righteous jerkass, and he's a genuine threat to the cast as the leader of the Exorcists who is also obstructing Charlie from convincing Heaven that Sinners can be redeemed; but he's such an overgrown, goofy child about it (especially when he's off the clock) that it's nigh-impossible to completely hate him. Plus, he's a killer at singing. All of this makes him a very amusing treat to watch.
  • The Vees.
    • Vox is a cruel, exploitative Corrupt Corporate Executive who hypnotizes entire masses into buying his morally-questionable products, doesn't seem to care about his teammate and implicit boyfriend Valentino's sexual abuser habits, and he spitefully outright shrieks at Sir Pentious to kill himself in the second episode for failing so quickly at a task. But he's perpetually suave and charming, with a very smooth voice courtesy of Christian Borle — an effect that's heightened by how he seems to be the minder to Val's impulses — and his exasperation at being forced to play the babysitter when his teammates are in a bad mood makes him come across as very human and relatable. It also helps that he has an intense obsessive rivalry with Alastor, but his insecure-looking if stylish efforts to undermine the Radio Demon in the Quarreling Song and the final outcome of that make Vox's efforts come across as nothing but cute.
    • Velvette is a young, blunt, brash fashionista who dominates Hell's social media, and a bitch in multiple senses of the word. She's a brazen upstart relative to the non-Vee older Overlords who is deliberately as rude as she can be to all their faces, she's a Smug Snake who thinks she's hot shit due to the Vees' immediate success and wants Hell to go to war with Heaven in a bull-headed manner, and she deliberately undermines Carmilla and insults Zestial to her own ends. But she's also more cunning than she looks, she has a stylish design, her pride and brazenness give her a certain appeal, and she absolutely slays in the "Respectless" duet. It also helps that Velvette, though not a Benevolent Boss by any means, isn't confirmed to be anywhere near as horrible to her employees as the other two Vees are towards theirs^note Vox casually sends his lowest earners up to Valentino's apartment to be used as target practice, while Val uses his position as a porn director to prolifically abuse his stars..
    • Even Valentino, who is easily the most detestable of the trio for his vicious exploitation and abuse of Angel Dust and his misogyny, is entertainingly goofy in his temper tantrums and self-absorption when he isn't in the same room as Angel — especially when Charlie at his set or Niffty at Consent are causing him grief, plus his accent is absolutely delicious to listen to.
• Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) is fondly remembered as someone we loved to hate.
• The Legend of Korra:
  • Amon. The man is a thoroughly twisted piece of work, but his coolness, awesome voice, and Magnificent Bastardry made him as popular as Azula in just three episodes.
  • His brother Tarrlok might be an even better example of the tropes' classic definition. Audiences detest him and they enjoy doing so.
  • Varrick in season 2. Normally someone performing the actions he did would result in some massive hate against said character, but his charm, genuine politeness, and being a prime example of underestimating the goofball keep him being likable.
  • Zaheer from the third season is one of the best-regarded villains from Korra, due to his complexity. He genuinely believes he is doing the right thing, tries to prevent innocent casualties in his plans, and follows a complex philosophy about freedom. Compared to Earth Queen Hou-Ting, who is a one-dimensional dictator, Zaheer is very entertaining to watch.
• Skullmaster of Mighty Max was an incredibly powerful, threatening, and dangerous villain who threatened to eat a child's heart in the opening scene of the first episode but with the voice of Tim Curry, there's no way not to love this hateful monster. The fact that he never suffers Villain Decay, but instead becomes significantly more threatening as the show progresses only sweetens the deal.
• Moral Orel: Clay Puppington is a narcissistic, abusive, remorseless, sadistic sociopath whose melodramatic tendencies make him as memorable as he is terrifying.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Princess Luna's Nightmare Moon also has her share of followers. Of course, since her plan was to bring The Night That Never Ends (and in order to achieve this she was willing to kill members of the main cast) she is less loved by some and more respected by others.
  • Discord. Being Laughably Evil makes him fun to watch but very easy to hate. Being voiced by John de Lancie went a long way to making him this and earning him the Fan Nickname DisQord from Star Trek. Not so much "Hate" now that he's performed a permanent Heel–Face Turn, but he's still pretty damn cool nonetheless and still enjoyably a jerk but now in a more Poke the Poodle fashion.
  • Queen Chrysalis, the elderly changeling with shapeshifting powers, she almost fooled the entire cast (except Twilight), and her plan led to defeating Celestia in a fight and a commendable Near-Villain Victory. This Manipulative Bitch is so nasty, hammy, and outright intriguing that fans can't not admire her.
  • King Sombra, the Equinoid Abomination who was intriguing to the fandom because of his Sauron-like portrayal. Couple that with the fact that they showed outright pony slavery in his backstory, and the Series 5 finale showing what the world would look like if he won and you have a villain the fandom loves to portray negatively in fanfiction and fanart.
  • Lord Tirek. This giant, demonic centaur showed up and completely laid waste to Equestria, blew up Twilight's library (nearly killing Owliscious in the process), imprisoned Celestia, Luna, and Cadance into Tartarus, and engaged Twilight Sparkle in an epic, Dragonball Z-esque duel.
  • Starlight Glimmer, for a while, for being a villain who outright stole the cutie marks from ponies, thus denying them what made them special. Her end-of-season arc revolved around time travel to ensure that Twilight's friends never saw the sonic rainboom and never got their cutie marks as a result, in doing so always leading to an apocalyptic scenario for Equestria in some way every time. That is until she was redeemed at the end of the episode.
• The Beast from Over the Garden Wall is loved and loathed for similar reasons to The Lich, above. Though not as powerful, The Beast is plenty Creepy Awesome, a Humanoid Abomination constantly shrouded in shadows with particularly eerie Glowing Eyes of Doom. The one fully illuminated shot of him we get is suitably nightmarish. He has a powerful evil presence, as well as a Manipulative Bastard streak. He sings, too! In addition, the fact that he seems to embody the concept of giving up on life and being Driven to Suicide makes him a surprisingly mature threat, likely to get a reaction out of anyone who has struggled or seen a friend/relative struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts.
  Come, wayward souls, and wander through the darkness
  There's a light for the lost and the meek
  Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten
  When you submit to the soil of the earth
• HIM from The Powerpuff Girls. More or less like Katz, Him is admired for being a villain incredibly efficient and frightening in several of his early appearances (albeit while still managing to get in lots of charismatic and amusing moments like the rest of the Rogues Gallery).
• Viral siblings Megabyte and Hexadecimal are considered two of the coolest characters in ReBoot.
• Randall and the Ashleys from Recess have always tried to make any unpopular kids suffer. It helps that they receive no consequences for their actions.
• Samurai Jack:
  • Aku. A Shapeshifting Evil Overlord who takes evil to ridiculous levels simply to watch his victims squirm. He has a very unique design, is created from pure evil, and also tends to be pretty funny. It also helps that he was voiced by Mako, who is on full ham mode the entire time.
  • The Demonic Spirit from "Jack and the Haunted House" doubles with Creepy Awesome, and it's possibly the most frightening and disturbing creature that ever appeared in the series. Unlike Aku, this being is played completely seriously, with no humorous quirks to detract from the insane nightmare that is this creature.
  • Scaramouche the Merciless. Despite the fact that he's an Ax-Crazy Psycho for Hire, he's very entertaining to watch.
  • The High Priestess. She serves as a major role to demonstrate how Aku is not the only malignant character in the whole story. And unlike Aku, she's a completely serious character. And her final fight was an incredibly cathartic moment.
  • The Dominator from "Episode XVCI" is a colossal dick, but his role in the story is held up as an example of how a one-shot villain can be just as scary and terrifying as the main antagonist. His chilling voice certainly helps.
  • Both the Omen and Inner Jack. They serve as a more psychological threat to Jack, making the narrative much more complex and interesting than before.
• The evil and creepy Professor Pericles the parrot from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. He is evil, sadistic, and very ruthless. Sometimes, he would even haunt people or would try to murder the Mystery Incorporated, or even his master, Mr. E.
• The Simpsons:
  • Mr. Burns. He manages to be quite admired by fans, especially for his efficiency as a villain in the first seasons.
  • Sideshow Bob. More or less the same as Mr. Burns. In more recent seasons, he has become quite savvy with his plans to kill Bart, making him even more beloved.
• Skull Island (2023): The Kraken. Its personality and all its actions against the cast are utterly despicable, making it highly cathartic when Kong puts the creature in the ground, yet it's anatomically and visually a very beautiful and fascinating mix-and-match marine monster to behold, and it poses a scarily powerful, competent and personal antagonistic threat to the cast whose presence can be felt very keenly and sends all humor out the window, making an effective Big Bad.
• South Park: Eric Cartman (after crossing the Moral Event Horizon). Most of the time, he's just so utterly despicable that you just want to punch him in the face, repeatedly. (So it was extremely satisfying when Wendy did exactly that at some point.) However, if you remove him from the show, it suddenly becomes a lot less funny.
• Mumm-Ra from ThunderCats (1985) and Thunder Cats 2011 for being such a Large Ham. His 2011 incarnation deserves special mention due to his Adaptational Badass treatment. The first episode alone had him committing an act of regicide and slaughtering the King's Praetorian Guard all without using the One-Winged Angel form.
• Transformers:
  • Beast Wars:
    • Doubly so with Beast Wars Megatron, yeeeeesss.
    • The case could be made for Tarantulus, especially once they start playing up his Mad Scientist tendencies in later episodes.
      Tarantulus: (getting the drop on Dinobot and Rattrap) DIEEE, MAXIMALS!
      Dinobot and Rattrap: (look over from their bickering) SHUUUT UP! (WHAM)
  • Blackarachnia before her High-Heel–Face Turn, in earlier appearances of season one especially.
  • Transformers: Animated:
    • Megatron, due to being a Magnificent Bastard who's considered by many fans to be one of the best incarnations of the character.
    • Starscream certainly qualifies. Hilarious and sometimes very deadly, the guy steals every scene he appears in.
    • Also Meltdown, given he's one of the only human villains that actually poses a threat to the Autobots. Even if he is dwarfed by the Decepticons.
    • Sentinel Prime is a rare "hero" example. For his sheer jackassery and being an arrogant, abrasive foil to the modest, friendly Optimus Prime, he ends up being a lot more tolerable than he should be. Maybe it's because of his frequent blunders on-screen.
  • Transformers: Prime:
    • Megatron looks to be running for most threatening and psychotic Megatron to date. His sadistic tendencies, brutal methods of engagement, and overall creepy voice brings out his inner-monster to many.
    • And Starscream, who's both effective and threatening, but also humorous as well.
    • Soundwave. Threatening, intimidating, menacing, perpetually silent. He's essentially the show's version of the Slender Man. Yet he's one of the most popular Decepticons in the show and widely considered the most badass incarnation of the character to date.
    • Airachnid is for all intents and purposes, a Cybertronian Serial Killer put on a kid's show. But her monstrous sadism and bitter rivalry with Arcee make her beloved by quite a few.
    • Shockwave, whose cold, calculated maneuvering mixed with an incredible killing power as well as having a great, intimidating voice has made him one of the most popular Decepticons on the show.
• Villainous runs on this, most notably Black Hat. He's the absolute Anthropomorphic Personification in the CN multiverse, being the Greater-Scope Villain for the entire network and is, as you would expect, a smug, sadistic monster. However, he's just so funny and awesome, viewers love him. Behind him, but still significantly this trope are his subordinates Dr. Flug and Demencia, as they are entertaining in their own ways.

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