The One Thing I Don't Hate About You

"Now, you fellows have said some pretty mean things, some of which were true... under that fiend, Boss Grissom. He was a thief and a terrorist. On the other hand, he had a tremendous singing voice."

— The Joker, Batman (1989)

Alice has nothing but disdain for Bob and all that he stands for. Well, almost everything. In spite of herself, Alice can't help but admire one attribute of Bob's. Not an important attribute, mind, but something completely irrelevant: Bob is morally bankrupt and a complete ignoramus, but he has great taste in shoes. And he cooks the best chili you've ever tasted.

For added punch, the attribute Alice professes to admire may be the one thing Bob is the least proud of.

A form of Damned by Faint Praise, but with the negative side made explicit instead of implied. Compare with Worthy Opponent, Actually Pretty Funny, Bad News, Irrelevant News, and Love the Product, Hate the Producer. Compare and contrast with Sympathy for the Devil and Sympathy for the Hero.

---

Examples:

Anime and Manga

• In EDENS ZERO, adventuress and "B-cube" online video maker Rebecca has an Alpha Bitch rival, Labilia, who spends almost every moment they're in the same scene putting Rebecca down and bragging about how much more popular her own videos are. As much as they hate each other, Rebecca has to admit that Labilia is a very talented B-cuber who puts a lot of work into her videos.
• In Failed Princesses, while Kanade Kurokawa disliked Nanaki Fujishiro for bullying her, she did admire Fujishiro's beauty and self-confidence, both traits Kurokawa felt she herself lacked. As a result, Kurokawa admired Fujishiro despite not liking her, a sentiment that influenced their relationship even after they became friends.
• In Isekai Quartet, Albedo claims that Valentine's Day is "the one holiday foolish humans celebrate that [she] approve[s] of".
• In the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, even Judai can't help but compliment Saiou for managing a "Zero Turn Kill" (which is winning a duel without even getting a turn) against Prince Orgene.

Comic Books

• In ElfQuest, the Wolfriders and the trolls who live nearby get along fairly well as elf and troll tribes go — which is to say that they aren't trying to genocide each other and even engage in some trade. As it stands, they still have total contempt for each other's way of life, and no small amount of personal enmity. However, when one elf and his wolf-friend contract "the foaming sickness" (rabies), the elves (lacking a magical healer) take him to the trolls' tribal elder/herbalist to be treated. The treatment is arduous and likely to fail, and the troll herbalist believes that the elves' efforts "make no sense". When told it's not about sense, she responds: "Anything for family, eh? I can fault you elves in all ways but that."
• Venom (2021): While Doctor Doom despises Kang the Conqueror for many reasons, he at least feels Nathaniel is a Worthy Opponent of sorts, not some uppity jumped-up American commoner like Eddie Brock.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) fanfiction, there's a bit of a variation with San. He has no love lost for his brothers and openly hates Ghidorah after his Character Development, but the one thing about being a part of Ghidorah that he remembers fondly are the feelings of power and freedom that came with being able to fly.
• The Arithmancer: Snape grudgingly admits that Hermione's potions publication was impressive and that he wouldn't be opposed to teaching her if she elected for independent study.
• Born to Be Wilde: Even after murdering him in cold blood, Simon has to admit the crime boss Mr Big had good taste in music, as he learns after coming into possession of his car.
• In Ruined With You, Nathalie notes that, while Gabriel Agreste may have been a supervillain who terrorised Paris for years, she still owes him for hiring her despite being underqualified because he saw her potential. Adrien privately acknowledges that she has a point, and that Gabriel did this a lot.
• The Sanctuary Telepath: Janine detests Tesla with everything she has but even she's forced to admit that the vampire has great intelligence... and a good taste in wine.
• The Stronger Evil: As much as Shendu personally hates Jade for all the times she's crossed and foiled him and escaped his vengeance, he can admit in his mind that her bravery is the one trait he can admire in her.
• This Bites!: Lucci actually rather likes that Soundbite can make Hattori talk on his own.

Film - Animation

• Moana: While beating Maui to death in his Villain Song, Tamatoa admits admiring one thing about him; His tattoos, which the vain Tamatoa sees as comparable to the gold he covers himself with, both of them trying to wrap their entire bodies in beauty.

Film - Live-Action

• Batman (1989). The Joker makes a TV broadcast to Gotham City.
  Joker: Now you fellows have said some pretty mean things, some of which were true under that fiend, Boss Grissom. He was a thief and a terrorist. On the other hand, he had a tremendous singing voice.
• In The Big Lebowski, Walter, a Jewish convert, learns that the Germans are not Nazis, but nihilists.
  Walter: Nihilists, fuck me... I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it's an ethos.
• In Dr. Strangelove: British officer Lionel Mandrake was discussing his time as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp:
  General Ripper: No, I mean when they tortured you did you talk?
  Mandrake: Ah. Oh, no, I don't think they wanted me to talk, really. I don't think they wanted me to say anything. It was just their way of having a bit of fun, the swines. Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras.
• In Full Metal Jacket during the Boot Camp sequence, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman has nothing but disdain for "Gomer Pyle" even when compared to the other grunts, even going so far as to "encourage" the other marines to "motivate" Pyle (in other words, haze the shit out of him). However, Pyle proves himself to actually be quite good on the rifle range, which actually elicits a compliment from Hartman. Unfortunately by now he's already snapped, and it's done to Foreshadow how he'll eventually kill Hartman and then himself.
  Hartman: Outstanding, Private Pyle! I think we've finally found something that you do well!
• Played with in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: After Kingsley Shacklebolt and a couple of other aurors fail to arrest Dumbledore, Kingsley comments that the man certainly has style. While his employers might think he's playing this trope straight, the audience knows which side Kingsley is really on.
• In Out Cold the characters comment that the new company that's taking over the ski resort is "ruining our town" but their coffee shop sells delicious beverages.
• Shaun of the Dead: Pete hates Ed for being a disgusting slob and a freeloader who lives on his house's couch, but he admits with a grin in conversation that Ed has a great sense of humor at times.
• From The Spy Who Loved Me:
  Bond: Mmm, maybe I misjudged Stromberg. Any man who drinks Dom Perignon '52 can't be all bad.
• From Top Secret!:
  Deja Vu: You've got to hand it to the Germans, they make great cars.
• In UHF, the Engineered Public Confession of the Affiliate Owner ends with "But, there is one good thing about broadcasting to a town full of mindless sheep: I always know I have them exactly where I want them!"
• In Vertical Limit, the Pakistani military officer admits that despite the Indians being their mortal enemies, they make really good tea.
• Zoolander: Every time Mugatu mentions Hansel in a conversation, he immediately adds "He's so hot right now," to the extent that it borders on a Verbal Tic. This continues even after Hansel has joined the protagonists in exposing the Ancient Conspiracy that Mugatu works for.
  Mugatu: It's that damned Hansel! He's so hot right now!

Let's Play

• In The Dark Id's Let's Play of The 3rd Birthday, during the credits of the game, he trashes on each and every single member of the staff for everything that went wrong with the game until he gets to the composers Yoko Shimomura and Mitsuto Suzuki and praises their music as the only thing he loved about the game.
  Id: Yoko Shimomura and Mitsuto Suzuki? You both did the only good jobs in this game. Nice work. Most of that soundtrack was lovely.

Literature

• In the Catwoman novel Tiger Hunt, Selina is pursuing a criminal with a tiger gimmick and reflects "How can someone who loves tigers be all bad?" Subverted when she finds his interest is in killing tigers to gain their strength and thinks "This was how."
• Ciaphas Cain's opinion on the tau, as opposed to the blistering hatred and/or terror he feels about every other alien species he encounters (not irrationally).
  Cain: Say what you will about the tau, and I've said plenty over the years, they know how to put on a good war.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld: In Going Postal, Vetinari and Gilt share a mutual one of these after a third character shows his profound ignorance about the game "Thud".
  "Gilt and Vetinari shared a look. It said: While I loathe you and every aspect of your personal philosophy to a depth unplumbable by any line, I'll credit you at least with not being Crispin Horsefry."
• Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files hates local crimelord Gentleman John Marcone. On the other hand, he has to admit that whatever else you say about the guy, he's got "balls that drag along the ground when he walks". Furthermore, every time Harry tries to hate the guy, he's reminded that Marcone may be a ruthless, hardened crime boss with connections from the CCPD to the Capitol...but he's also a Friend to All Children, and he will come down hard on anyone who tries to hurt them.
• Enemies & Allies: Luthor loathes Lois Lane due to his rampant misogyny and her investigation into his affairs, but in his last scene, he shows grudging respect for her objective writing while covering his trial.
• The Fear Street novel One Evil Summer has a scene where the main character, Amanda, digs through the belongings of the villain, Lilith. Amanda at one point muses that even though Lilith is horrendously evil, she does have great taste in shoes.
• In Florida Straits, the one thing that Joey Goldman genuinely respects his pigheaded and pompous half brother Gino for is that Gino is utterly certain in what he wants out of life.
• In Book One of Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Ms. Plithiver thinks to herself that there is something very wrong with Kludd. He then coughs up a pellet and she reconsiders that no bird with such a noble digestive system could be completely bad. If only...
• In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore pulls off a dramatic escape from about half a dozen senior Ministry of Magic personnel, including two top Aurors (granted, one was secretly on his side). And he makes it look easy. Phineas Nigellus Black, who disagrees with Dumbledore on a large number of topics, has to admit that the man has style.
• In The Princess Diaries: Book 5, Mia is at a completely different end of life and the political spectrum from her Grandmere, and the two often fight because of that. Nonetheless, Mia is comforted when she bemoans that her boyfriend doesn't appreciate prom and Grandmere immediately understands.
  "Well, never mind. Your grandfather was the same way. Do you know that if I had left it up to him we'd have been married in a clerk's office, and gone to a coffee shop for lunch afterwards? The man simply had no understanding of romance, let alone the public's need for PAGEANTRY."
• In Shadow of the Conqueror, Lyrah hates the air that Dayless the Conqueror breathes and the ground he walks upon, but him saving Highdawn from total destruction still impresses her.

Live-Action TV

• Angel: Angel and Spike are bickering like five-year-olds as usual, but then...
  Angel: There was one thing about you...
  Spike: Yeah?
  Angel: Yeah, I never told anybody this, but... I liked your poems.
  Spike: You like Barry Manilow!
• Black Lightning: Technocrat (or just TC) hates the ASA for experimenting on him and keeping him in suspended animation for 30 years, but he gives them props for his cool name.
• Evoked in Cobra Kai with Johnny's dickish rich abusive stepfather, who tries to turn this into "the one thing you shouldn't hate about me" in order to make himself look better compared to Johnny's real father. Johnny makes it very clear time and time again this isn't even remotely good enough to redeem the old man in his eyes, and is well aware that his stepfather is just doing this to Victim Blame him for not loving the old bastard in spite of the abuse, which of course is a driving factor in what drove him into the arms of the psychotic John Kreese — even if Kreese only did it for his own selfish needs and in a very destructive way, he actually did give the kid some affection and encouragement.
• Doctor Who: Cassandra hates Rose Tyler murderously and considers her a chav, but when she possesses Rose, she does admit after being briefly horrified that Rose has some impressive assets.
• Game of Thrones:
  Tyrion: (to Cersei) You love your children. It's your one redeeming quality. That and your cheekbones.
• On Legends of Tomorrow, a reincarnation of Big Bad Vandal Savage shows up as a neighbor of Ray and Kendra when the pair are in 1950s Oregon, bringing a tuna casserole as a housewarming gift. Aboard the Waverider, the crew is appalled at Ray digging into it during the briefing.
  Ray: Say what you will about Savage, but the man makes a mean casserole.
• Luke Cage (2016) hates Cottonmouth, but respects his skill as a keyboardist. Cottonmouth actually wanted to be a musician, but was forced into continuing his family's criminal legacy.
• The West Wing has a memorable scene of President Bartlett and a prominent Republican opponent having a sitdown. While it's obvious there's a certain amount of respect between the two, it opens with each (in surprisingly good humour) going through a lengthy list of their disagreements with the other, before getting down to the one thing they see eye to eye on:
  Bartlet: We agree on nothing, Max.
  Senator Lobell: Yes, sir.
  Bartlet: Education, guns, drugs, school prayer, gays, defense spending, taxes - you name it, we disagree.
  Senator Lobell: You know why?
  Bartlet: Because I'm a lily-livered, bleeding-heart, liberal, egghead communist.
  Senator Lobell: Yes, sir. And I'm a gun-toting, redneck son-of-a-bitch.
  Bartlet: Yes, you are.
  Senator Lobell: We agree on that.
  Bartlet: We also agree on campaign finance.
  Senator Lobell: Yes, sir.

Professional Wrestling

• During the UltraMantis Black-Brodie Lee match at CHIKARA JoshiMania Night III, December 4, 2001, commentators Leonard F. Chikarason and Gavin Loudspeaker talk about how Mantis is "devious, he's underhanded, but still the fans love him. Brodie Lee is just rotten and mean." They say that Brodie has "no redeeming qualities." Then Chikarason says, "Well, his fiancée's kinda nice." Jon "Brodie Lee"/"Luke Harper" Huber is married to Synndy (aka Synndy Synn), a former valet/manager turned wrestler who competed from 2004 to 2007 for NWA Upstate (Rochester, New York), New England Championship Wrestling (Massachusetts), the Pure Wrestling Association (Ontario, Canada) and NWA Empire (Buffalo, New York).
• From "Exotic" Adrian Street's song "Sweet Transvestite with a Broken Nose":
  "I hate Joan Collins
  But love her taste in clothes"

Theatre

• Near the climax of Hamilton, (as in Real Life), Alexander Hamilton endorses Thomas Jefferson, his longtime rival, for the presidency. His reasoning for this unlikely endorsement is that, as much as they disagree, Jefferson genuinely fights for what he believes in. Aaron Burr, by contrast, is seen as an unprincipled opportunist.
  I have never agreed with Jefferson once
  We have fought on like, seventy-five different fronts
  But when all is said and all is done
  Jefferson has beliefs —Burr has none!
• In Jesus Christ Superstar, Caiaphas and several priests discuss what a problem Jesus is, and start concocting a plan to kill him before he starts threatening their power base. In the middle of warning how dangerous he is, Caiaphas admits "One thing I'll say for him, Jesus is cool" in regards to Jesus keeping his movement completely peaceful. Some performances change this line to an insulting line about his "infantile sermons" devoid of the original's Totally Radical energy.
• Much Ado About Nothing has the proudly misogynistic Benedick roast Hero when asked what he thinks of her. The only commendation he's willing to give is that she's good looking, which he can't even outright say but feels the need to hide with negatives "Were she other than she is, she were unhandsome". And shortly after, when he realizes his best friend Claudio is falling for Hero, he then downplays his one positive for her even more by noting that Hero's cousin Beatrice (and the Love Interest he insists he can't stand) is far better looking.

Video Games

• Borderlands character Athena was raised as an assassin by the Atlas corporation, only to be betrayed by them when they trick her into destroying a village that contained her sister. Her hatred for them is enough that in Tales From the Borderlands, encountering an Atlas scientist makes her apoplectic with rage. She will admit one nice thing about Atlas, though: they made the best lattes.
• The instruction manual for Doom has only one nice thing to say about the Arch-Vile, and it's not much:
  "One of the worst of a bad lot. You can't think of enough rotten things to say about him. He's fast, hard to kill, casts spells, and resurrects dead monsters! At least these suckers are rare."
• In Hades, the titular God of the Dead holds a profound dislike for most of his Olympian relatives, his little brother Zeus in particular. However, even he has to admit that Zeus has got a nice beard.
  Hades: You wish to meet your uncle Zeus someday? Imagine me, with a luxurious white mane, without a modicum of self-control. That's your Zeus.
• In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser will admit that, for all he hates Fawful, the midget is a great cook.
• In the Mass Effect trilogy Miranda and Jack absolutely hate each other, partially because of all the inhumane experimental shit Cerberus, to which Miranda was affiliated with in the second game, did to Jack but also because of Miranda's Ice Queen demeanor and her being genetically modified to be perfect. Both of them join Commander Shepard's team, and if they both manage to survive the plot to the third game's Citadel DLC they can join the party Shepard throws, by which point they'll finally start to come around a little bit after a couple of drinks with Miranda admitting that she finds it admirable how Jack's come a long way from what Cerberus did to her. Jack is caught off-guard by the admission:
  Jack: Wow. (Beat) Thanks. I still really hate you, but you have fantastic tits.
  Miranda: (laughs) All right. I can live with that.
• In Undertale, despite Mettaton being Alphys's friend, Undyne doesn't like him very much, but admires his luxurious lifestyle as an idol for the Underground.
• In Wasteland 3, Morningstar is a Sentient Vehicle intended as a presidential limousine for Ronald Reagan. When he encounters the Gippers, a faction of religious fanatics who worship the long-dead Reagan as a god, Morningstar is incensed as the real Reagan was a devout Christian and would have found the deification blasphemous at best... But he is impressed by their giant animatronic Reagan statue, which he deems a fine homage to the "Elder Statesman".

Visual Novels

• Havenfall Is for Lovers: JD dislikes Hikari, but respects her taste in anime.
  JD: Oh, jackpot. This is one of Hikari's favorites.
  MC: And…that's a point in its favor?
  JD: The worst thing about Hikari is that she actually has impeccable taste for super specific things. It's awful.
• In Heart of the Woods, Madison "Maddie" Raines, accompanying her best friend Tara Bryck to Eysenfeld for one last episode of the Vlog Series Taranormal, takes an almost instant dislike to Morgan Fischer, who invited them there, since Maddie believes that Morgan is lying about the supernatural phenomena in Eysenfeld. Despite this, Maddie notes that the lunch Morgan makes is decent, and laments that it's probably the only nice thing she'll have to say about Morgan all trip.
• The Shell: Reiji Tokisaka rightfully despises Makoto Rokushiki, a vicious serial killer and the murderer of his fiancée. Still, even he can't help but admit that the man is a genius psychiatrist, when he isn't actively trying to manipulate his patients into committing murders.
  Reiji: Not at all. I simply guessed after talking to your psychiatrist. He may be an inexcusable criminal, but he's still brilliant.

Web Animation

• Dot Dot Dot. Axman13's scathing (and epically point-missing) game review ends with:
  P.S the only reson im giving this a 1 is beacuase the voices where pretty good. but thats it!

Webcomics

• Bobwhite: Marlene and Ivy frequently make fun of Cleo for her awkwardness and her CloudCuckoolanderishness. Then they visit Cleo in her metal shop class and are briefly impressed.
  Marlene: Wow. I will never make fun of her again.
  Ivy: Yes you will.
  Marlene: Yes I will.
• City Face: Every time Magpie55 posts beneath the comic, he does nothing but insult City Face and pigeons in general. Then City Face starts doing the human businessman dance, and Magpie55 can only write "whoa he's actually pretty good at that..."
• Homestuck. Terezi confronts Vriska, who used to be a friend but has now gone too far and must be brought to justice (i.e. stabbity death).
  Terezi: MUCH 4S 1T P41NS M3 TO 4DM1T 1T, YOUR FRUITY OR4NG3 F41RY SU1T SM3LLS... D3L1C1OUS.
• Housepets!: Thomas Milton, the estranged nephew of Henry Milton, hates his uncle for leaving him out of his will and giving nearly all of his money to his pet ferrets instead. Despite this, when he learns that his uncle hid a large portion of said money and deliberately made sure everyone (Thomas included) had a fraction to prevent a potential inheritance crisis, he admits the trick is rather genius.
• In The Last Days Of Fox Hound, Revolver Ocelot has one nice thing to say about The Patriots:
  Ocelot: (after having Liquid's arm grafted onto him) Say what you like about The Patriots, but their health plan rocks.

Web Videos

• The Angry Video Game Nerd:
  • After playing the video game adaptation of Independence Day, The Nerd admits that he prefers the video game adaptation of Top Gun despite their similarities since, if nothing else, Top Gun was at least a part of his childhood.
    Nerd: Top Gun may be a piece of shit, but it's a piece of shit I might have some affection for.
  • The Tiger R-Zone is #1 on his Top 10 Worst Video Game Consoles list, in which he describes it as "a shitty version of the Virtual Boy, as if the Virtual Boy wasn't already shitty enough." However, he also says that the one thing he has to give Tiger credit for was including a headstrap for it, the lack of one being one of his main complaints against the Virtual Boy.
  • He also admits that the The Legend Of Zelda C Di Games have nice music.
  • When being forced to play Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle, he does begrudgingly admit that the game has "the shortest sweetest password he's ever seen".
  • While he otherwise has nothing nice to say about the video game adaptation of Friday the 13th, he admits that the day to night cycle works quite well and, unlike Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, shows that such things can work in an NES game when done right.
  • He has absolutely nothing nice to say about the Amiga CD32 and everything associated with it, finding it all to be complete garbage with absolutely no redeeming qualities in any of it, save for one game called Bubba 'n' Stix which he quite enjoys and considers to be a hidden gem on the console.
  • As much as he doesn't like the Alien³ video game adaptation on NES, he's at least willing to admit it has a killer soundtrack.
  • He despises Superman 64 overall, but he admits that Parasite's boss battle and the level leading up to it are not bad.
  • Believe it or not, he even has one nice thing to say about the abysmally bad Shovelware game Life Of Black Tiger, where he admits the concept of switching to the perspective of the human antagonists and showing their side of the story after finishing the game as the tiger is an interesting (though still poorly done) concept.
  • He likes one single thing about the entire Hydlide franchise: that Super Hydlide lets you put up to 8 characters for a name. Mostly because he can fit almost any curse word he likes.
    Nerd: And with that, we have the last nice thing I will ever say about this game.
  • After all the many times he has trashed on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, he finally admits in The Movie that despite all its shortcomings it was actually quite innovative for its time and that it's honestly impressive it was made in only five and a half weeks.
  • While he's otherwise not a fan of the censorship of the home ports of Mortal Kombat (1992), he admits that he thinks Raiden and Sub Zero's censored fatalities (a fatal electrocution for the former and freezing and shattering the opponent for the latter) actually make more sense than their original fatalities (Raiden explodes their head with electricity and Sub Zero's infamous spine rip). He even goes as far as to say he prefers Raiden's censored fatality over the original.
  • Of all the LJN games he's reviewed (and yes, as of episode 200 he's reviewed all of them), the one out of all of them he actually likes is Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage. While every other LJN game ranges from terrible to "playable" as far as he's concerned, he actually finds Maximum Carnage to be a good Beat 'em Up with stimulating (if repetitive) gameplay, great sound effects, and an awesome soundtrack.
• YouTuber Calvin Dyson's otherwise excoriating review of the infamous James Bond game 007 Legends has a surprising amount of praise: of note, he enjoyed the level based on Moonraker, the opening theme tune being a bombastic orchestral remix of the iconic Goldfinger theme song, the performance of Toby Stephens reprising his role as Gustav Graves and doing a better job of it than the actual film, and the game's version of Ernst Stavro Blofeld combining traits from different versions of the character into one instead of just using one version.
• The one thing Youtuber decino actually likes about the Beta BFG9000 of Doom, a weapon so lame that id Software completely revamped it before release and decino actually had to mod it with auto-aim just to show it off, is it's at least an effective and economic means of killing Cyberdemons.
  "It's actually quite good at stun-locking Cyberdemons. 80 projectiles will pretty much guarantee a pain state, and 100 cells to kill a Cyberdemon with relative ease is pretty okay. And... that's pretty much the only thing the Beta BFG is good at."
• In Epic Rap Battles of History:
  • Despite berating Lance Armstrong for his cheating, Babe Ruth genuinely congratulates him for beating cancer.
  • Ronald McDonald admits that Burger King's onion rings are pretty good, despite hating everything else about the mascot and his restaurant.
  • Sigmund Freud chews out Mother Theresa for her more questionable practices and methods, but begrudgingly admits that her message was an admirable one.
  • Pennywise hates pretty much everything about the Joker, but praises Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the character in Batman (1989).
• On Fact Hunt it's a Once per Episode gag for Larry to take a pot shot at Peter Molyneux, and he has said some terrible things about the man. In his "10 Companies EA Bought, Then DESTROYED" video however he admits that Molyneux was good at shielding Bullfrog Productions from EA's Executive Meddling and was the reason they remained successful unlike so many other companies under EA's thumb. He goes on to describe that Molyneux leaving to form Lionhead Studios was basically the death kneel of Bullfrog as EA swooped in, assumed control, "took them over like The Borg" (as Mike Diskett of Bullfrog described it) and basically drove the studio into the ground.
  Larry: See? I can say nice things about Molyneux!
• Game Grumps:
  • Usually inspired by Danny's much more optimistic outlook on even bad games, Arin often will begrudgingly admit to liking at least one aspect of a game he otherwise dislikes or even hates. For the "Auto Mario" levels of Super Mario Maker which he thinks are mindless clickbait garbage that don't deserve to be the highest rated levels he admits that he does find them creative, for Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric which he thinks is a glitch-riddled Christmas Rushed unfinished trainwreck he admits that the game's graphics are very gorgeous and inspired, and in spite of the many many bad things he has to say about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword he eagerly admits that he loves Groose.
  • That said, not even Danny liked the terrible indie horror games Arin wanted to play for Ghoul Grumps in 2017, as they were all at best incompetently made and at worst deliberately made with as little effort as possible to scam money out of their customers. The Youthdrainers was no exception, being a game that can't even be completed even if it doesn't glitch out, but the duo has one nice thing to say about the game:
    Arin: I actually like the logo.
    Danny: Yeah, me too! It looks good! It looks like a CKY album.
• Though Jarvis Johnson genuinely believes Troom Troom is the worst channel on all of Youtube, he at least gives them this much credit:
  Jarvis: At least it doesn't exploit the algorithm in like such an Elsagate way as 5-Minute Crafts does, so I'll give 'em that.
• Mangs dislikes Grimm of Advance Wars, thinking his weakness of -20% defense is crippling, and that Grimm's +30% attack doesn't even come close to balancing it out. However, he loves Grimm's Yakuza-style design and theme music.
• Sometimes The Nostalgia Critic will find something nice to say about movies he otherwise thinks are garbage. In fact, the one movie he's gone on record as saying has absolutely zero redeeming qualities is The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, to which he's actually asked if there's anyone out there who likes that movie to contact him and explain why. Otherwise, towards the end of the review he'll often point out something positive, so for some of his most extreme examples:
  • Though he believes Moonwalker is overall a self-indulgent, incoherent mess of a movie, he thinks the "Smooth Criminal" sequence is brilliant and spends a good chunk of the review praising it.
  • For Jack Frost (1998), while he dislikes pretty much everything about it, he admits the movie looks really nice with good cinematography and winter colors.
  • For Ernest Saves Christmas, he begrudgingly admits that he watches it every year because, in spite of all its flaws, it has the absolute best Santa Claus ever in a movie (played by Douglas Seale, most well-known for voicing the Sultan in Aladdin).
  • While he otherwise hates Warriors of Virtue, he adores the villain Lord Komodo (played by Angus Macfadyen of Braveheart and Equilibrium who spends the entire time on the verge of bursting into laughter) for at least being entertaining in how cartoonish and over-the-top he is and for not trying to take the movie seriously like all the other actors.
  • While he mocks Judge Dredd heavily, he admits that it makes it a guilty pleasure that's at least fun to watch.
  • He actually really likes the interactions between Annabelle and her father in A Simple Wish, saying that he actually found himself invested in their relationship and even in whether or not her father gets the part in the play. Unfortunately, he really dislikes everything about the film, especially Martin Short's over-acting, which takes up the vast majority of the movie. He goes far enough to admit that if the movie didn't have any of the magical fairy godmother aspects and just focused on the relationship of a single father juggling his professional life and his relationship with his daughter in the wake of losing the mother, that he'd probably like the film.
  • Though he really doesn't like Chairman of the Board, he does appreciate Larry Miller's character for providing some genuinely funny material.
  • While Son of the Mask is one of his most hated movies of all time he does admit that the car that Tim summons up, which he dubs "the Charlie-Sheen-Mobile", is fucking awesome.
  • During his team-up review of Digimon: The Movie with JesuOtaku, for as much as he hates pretty much everything about it as it's effectively three non-related movies haphazardly cobbled together "with only bad puns and Smash Mouth songs holding it together'' (as JO puts it), he admits the animation is top notch during the fight scenes.
  • He's disdainful at best when it comes to most aspects of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but he praises the Lotus Casino sequence as both a clever update of the Island of the Lotus Eaters and a well-executed metaphor for addiction.
  • While he utterly despises The Neverending Story III, he at least appreciates that Jack Black as the Big Bad of the film is aware of how bad the movie is and trying to have some fun with it. He elaborates on this in Doug's Top 10 WORST Cliches and explains how he dislikes The Bully cliché since they're rarely interesting or entertaining or developed characters, but cites the way Jack Black plays bullies in this and Airborne as one of the few movie bullies done right since Jack is well aware that it's a stereotype and is playing it in a way that's clearly mocking the stock bully character and in a way that the character is clearly enjoying what he's doing instead of just being a Plot Device.
  • He's of the opinion that Richie Rich is largely a boneheaded movie that completely fails to deliver humor by having entirely unrelatable characters, he admits to liking three things. He finds it incredibly badass that Richie walks past the chair Laurence Van Dough has drawn for him to sit at the seat behind the CEO's desk instead, he admits that Cadbury is very likable for his Papa Wolf and Parental Substitute attributes, and is greatly amused by the Surprisingly Realistic Outcome of what the Rich family keep in their vault and Laurence's Tranquil Fury response to it.
  • He's pretty scathing about Dunston Checks In, due to his firm insistance that MONKEYS AREN'T FUNNY, but he does admit that the father's (played by Jason Alexander) first reaction to seeing the ape is pretty funny, and that Paul Reubens' character (who plays his part with withering intensity) is the only one "to put any energy into [that] stinker".
  • He otherwise largely writes off Once Upon a Forest as yet another shallow and preachy Green Aesop delivery vehicle akin to Ferngully and Captain Planet, but he does at least praise how the film has a more nuanced depiction of humans by not depicting them as complete monsters: the movie does depict evil humans with poachers, but it also shows that the poison released was accidental from a vehicle crash rather than deliberate or careless polluting, and in the end a group of humans who are cleaning up the spill actually help one of the main characters by freeing him from a poacher's trap. He also praises it for having a little bit more of an edge by actually keeping the victims of the poison dead rather than using magic or some other means of miraculous recovery to make Death Is Cheap for the sake of a happy ending.
  • While he's ultimately not a fan of The Emoji Movie, he praises the movie for having some detailed and colorful backgrounds and admits that the film actually does have a touch of creativity buried beneath the derivitive story, Product Placement, and Flat Characters. He also admits to finding it amusing that emoticons are portrayed as the elderly, and actually likes Gene's rather clever rebuttal to Jailbreak's callous quip about always looking out for number 1: "What good is being number 1 if there are no other numbers?"
  • The one genuine bit of praise he has for FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue is that he was interested in the idea of the fairies becoming intrigued and tempted by the human world, though he is quick to point that since it's not handled well and just makes the characters come off as Unintentionally Unsympathetic as they're forgoing what is supposed to be a rescue mission in favor of playing around with human things.
• Everyone at OneyPlays is thoroughly unimpressed by Yooka-Laylee, feeling that while it's not nearly as bad as it was made out to be it's also absolutely unremarkable and really not worth playing as everything in it ranges from unlikable (the unskippable cutscenes and character designs) to just mediocre (the gameplay and graphics). The one thing they genuinely like and praise however is how, even with dynamic lighting the game still renders a perfectly circular shadow directly under your character when jumping so you can line up your jumps during platforming segments, noting how frustrating some of the platforming in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was by comparison without such a feature.
• While not often, Rerez sometimes admits to liking one aspect of the bad bootleg consoles or awful games he plays:
  • For the "Coolbaby", a knock-off of the NES Classic loaded with a ton of roms and weird hacked games, he compares the two controllers and notes that, while the NES Classic does literally everything better, the Coolbaby at least has a much longer controller cable and lists it as "one point in Coolbaby's favor".
  • For the Wireless 60, he gives them credit for openly admitting on the back of the box that their product does not compare or compete with consoles like the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii. He praises them for this, because if nothing else at least they're honest.
  • For his review of the RetroPlay Controller, he doesn't like even one of the 200 games on it, finds it so small that it's difficult to use, and found it to be poorly designed with a reset button that was too easy to accidentally bump and a loose AV cable that caused graphical glitches, but he does praise one aspect of it. Despite it only running on three AAA batteries, it was energy-efficient enough for him to play all 200 games without once having to change batteries.
  • For his review of the Venturer Plug N' Play he praises the physical build quality of the device itself, noting how it is solidly built with good "clicky" buttons. He goes as far as to liken it in quality to an official controller for the Sega Genesis.
  • For Morph Man, he and Shawn admit that, in spite of everything else the game did badly, it at least did have decent 3D-generated graphics by 1993 standards.
  • Subverted with Ride to Hell: Retribution. He and Shawn do like the motorcycle customization system, finding that it gives a lot of options, has a nice interface, and is overall presented in a very nice manner. The problem is, is while using it the game repeatedly crashed — because they were ultimately unable to use the one thing the game does well, they criticized it rather than praising it.
• In Some Jerk with a Camera's review of The Haunted Mansion (2003), Count Jackula actually becomes paralyzed at how good the set design and zombie makeup is compared to how utterly abysmal the rest of the film is. Even Jerk admits that, despite the movie's flaws (and it has many), the atmosphere, set, and costume design were halfway decent, and some of the fan appeal actually worked out okay as appealing to a fan of the ride (namely, him).
  • Jerk admits that while he hates almost everything about Escape from Tomorrow, he can't fault the fact that the actors were actually quite good, even the child actors. What brought it up was the protagonist, Jim, shitting his brains out from the "cat flu", doing so with such conviction despite the fact that it will likely be the only thing he is ever known for.

Western Animation

• In Batman: The Animated Series, both Batman and Harvey Bullock get one of these for each other at the end of "A Bullet for Bullock". Bullock admits that, as much as he hates the Bat, that Batman is genuinely doing good for the city, while Batman learns that despite all of Bullock's many shortcomings the man is at least an honest uncorrupted cop.
• The finale of Cybersix has Von Richter say one good thing about the titular character:
  Von Richter: ...Cybersix is my greatest failure, but she has courage, and I admire that.
• At the end of the DuckTales (2017) episode "The Duck Knight Returns!", Drake Mallard and Launchpad decide that Jim Starling, while an Ax-Crazy attempted murderer, did inspire them through childhood through his Darkwing Duck show.
• The Legend of Calamity Jane episode "I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia" involves a group of Neo-Confederates who are trying to assassinate President Grant. The gang's leader at one point declares, "Grant may be a red-handed murderer, but he gets the trains to run on time."
• In The Legend of Korra, as much as Korra hates Unalaq, she does admit she respects his spirit powers.
• From The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Impeach Fuzz", the Mayor really gets angry at Fuzzy Lumpkins:
  Mayor: FUZZY! You can throw away my things, and I don't mind the hay on the floor, and the chicken wire's a nice touch, and I kinda like that beat-up old flivver. But no one, I mean no one, wears my mayorin' hat! Now give it back!
  • Well, okay, that was three things, but as the rest of the episode showed, the hat was enough for him to take about 100 levels in badass and beat Fuzzy to a pulp.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Colonel Homer", where Homer's new job as Lurleen Lumpkin's manager is driving him away from his family:
    Marge: You've got a wonderful family, Homer. Please don't forget it when you walk out that door tonight.
    (Homer leaves.)
    Bart: Much as I hate that man right now, you gotta love that suit.
  • In "Brush with Greatness", the teacher of Marge's art class blasts her high school art teacher for criticizing her work:
    Teacher: The man was a fool! But one must admire the strength of his conviction.
  • Both Marge and Homer regard Judge Constance Harm as a evil, harsh, sadistic, and unforgiving disciplinarian (which she is) but in "The Parent Rap", they think her house boat is kind of cool.
• From South Park:
  Head of the FBI: Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but the son of a bitch knows story structure.
• Tangled: The Series: In the middle of "Beyond The Corona Walls", Lady-In-Waiting Cassandra confesses to Princess Rapunzel her view on Eugene, Rapunzel's Love Interest:
  Cassandra: Rapunzel, we all know that Eugene and I don't always agree on everything but over the last year or so I've noticed something that makes him less detestable: He loves you, Rapunzel, more than anyone has ever loved anybody.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), the one thing that the Turtles admire about the Foot is the hats worn by the Shredder's Elite Guard:
  Raphael: Nice hats!
  Michaelangelo: Yeah, we thought so, too.
  Donatello: Say what you will about the Foot, but they do not skimp on the headgear.

Other

• Essentially the main point of "separating an artist from their art;" namely, acknowledging one's creative abilities while still holding them accountable for misdeeds.
• John Lydon famously disliked Sid and Nancy, criticizing it for its inaccuracies, its sensationalizing and romanticizing a tragedy, and what he saw as glorifying heroin abuse and trying to make a quick buck off two untimely, tragic deaths. However, he did praise Gary Oldman's performance as Sid Vicious, saying it was quite good.
• Many otherwise scathing in-depth reviews of The Twilight Saga will usually make a side-note that the plot of Eclipse and the new characters introduced are actually pretty good; this is quickly followed by the reviewer bemoaning the fact that the book never focused on the interesting parts, but rather spent page after page on Edward and Bella, the two least interesting characters. Similar comments are sometimes made about the werewolf pack scenes in New Moon.

---