Villain Takes an Interest

Master Albert: Two of the cyphers have been broken. I wanted to stall her longer... but she's developing faster than I expected. Excellent, Ashe! It pleases me.
Ashe: Hunh!? What do you know about me!?
Master Albert: I know everything about you! As if you were my own daughter. I want you to grow! Evolve! Show me your strength!

— Mega Man ZX Advent

So you have a pair of Arch-Enemies: a hero and a villain. And then... The villain gets interested in the hero.

The hero and villain are very similar to each other, and both grow aware of that fact. But they have different reactions. While the villain genuinely wants to take the hero under their wing, the hero is opposed to any friendly interaction — but may fear the villain has a point. The kind of obsessive behavior and mind games this generates on both ends is a prime source of Foe Romance Subtext.

If the hero and the enemy do end up becoming mentor and student, the ensuing relationship can range from the worst kind of Training from Hell to a downright parental role. Both will still probably end up at odds. And it'll end badly for at least one of them.

The Hero will usually consider The Mentor to be their Arch-Enemy and be very personally devoted to taking them down; The Mentor character is typically more amused by this than anything, and may take the role of a Stealth Evil Mentor. The presence of this trope may lead to a Mind Game Ship, a Teacher/Student Romance, or both.

Related to We Can Rule Together, but rather than offering a position, offers a study period. Note that this requires a mentoring role. A Worthy Opponent offering a team-up doesn't cut it.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In 3×3 Eyes, Benares initially thinks little of Yakumo. From the Moon arc onward, he started to respect the younger Wu and his power more and more, to the point that during the Humanization Ritual he claims he would have preferrd to have Yakumo serving under him and warns him to release his Juuma summons if he doesn't want to die after losing his Wu status.
• Berserk: When Guts first runs into Nosferatu Zodd, he puts up the best fight Zodd's ever seen from a human in three centuries. Which isn't saying much, as Guts and Griffith combined can't kill him. However, on seeing that Griffith has the red Behelith, Zodd spares the two of them, even going as far as to save Guts' life during a siege (Zodd was watching him fight an enemy general from several miles off when Guts lost his sword, Zodd immediately threw his own sword between them, allowing Guts to win). When Griffith starts the Eclipse, Zodd accepts the Skull Knight's request to interrupt their duel when he sees it'll save Guts. And later still, when Guts is prevented from taking a ship by Emperor Ganishka's attack, Zodd and Guts more or less willingly team up to send him back despite Zodd now being The Dragon to Griffith.
• Bleach:
  • Aizen's done this to a few characters. Orihime, for example. Once her powers came to Aizen's attention, he became very interested them. And when Masaki killed one of his hollow/shinigami experiments 20 years before the story began, Aizen became extremely interested in her. This interest extended to her son Ichigo and a good chunk of his Evil Plan revolved around nurturing and observing Ichigo's potential.
  • In the final arc, Yhwach takes an interest in both Ichigo and Uryuu. Ichigo because of his complicated bloodline, and Uryuu because he was the only mixed-blood Quincy to survive the Holy Selection nine years ago. He succeeds at getting Uryuu on his side.
• Kohei Kakihara and Chiko from The Daughter of Twenty Faces. Kakihara is fascinated by her fighting spirit. His obsession to take away everything Twenty ever had may have something to do with this as well.
• In Dr. STONE, Hyoga from Tsukasa's Empire of Might becomes impressed with Senku's scientific skills after using a mix of scattered chemicals on the battlefield into workable dynamite that forces both sides into a stalemate. The reason is that unlike Tsukasa, who believes only the young should be unpetrified to keep the new world pure, Hyoga believes only the exceptional humans should be permitted to survive, and he wants Senku to join his side after Hyoga stabbed Tsukasa through the lung, by force if needed.
• Fate Series:
  • In Fate/Zero, Kirei Kotomine takes an interest in Kiritsugu Emiya, believing the two of them are very similar. He's wrong and is not happy when he realizes this.
  • In Fate/stay night, Kotomine meets Kiritsugu's adopted son, Shirou and takes a similar interest in him. To his delight, he finds that unlike Kiritsugu, Shirou is just as empty as himself.
• Gauron/Sousuke in Full Metal Panic!. The first time Gauron saw Sousuke, Sousuke was acting like a Creepy Child and throwing the dead bodies of all the soldiers he killed into a fire. And Gauron, being a messed up Ax-Crazy Psycho for Hire, took an instant liking to Sousuke. He asked Sousuke to come with him (with definite overtones of "there's candy in my van"), but Sousuke (wisely) refused. It's just too bad that Gauron isn't the type to take no for an answer and continues to mess with him any chance he gets.
• Hunter × Hunter:
  • Gon gains the attention of the Ax-Crazy Blood Knight Hisoka after successfully stealing his badge in the Hunter Exam. He sees Gon as a future Worthy Opponent and gets uncomfortably excited about the prospect of the fighting him, which is why he is content to spare his life for the moment.
  • Gon gets hit with his again by Phantom Troupe member Nobunaga, who sees similarities with the kid and his dead friend Uvogin and tries to force him to become a member.
• Haman Khan finds herself intrigued by Judau in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, and alternates between fighting him and trying to make out with him.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Stain actively likes Midoriya, who is one of the very few people he believes embodies what it means to be a hero. This is a major factor to why he saves a captured Midoriya from a flying Nomu.
  • Later, the League of Villains undertakes a large scale attack on the Training Camp where UA's classes 1A and 1B are currently located (alongside 4 pro-heroes), all (primarily, the League says they have multiple targets but the only thing mentioned in relation to that is that they've got orders to kill Izuku) to kidnap one Katsuki Bakugo, whose desire for victory and literal explosive temper have caught the eye of the League's leader Shigaraki. Things do not go as intended once they get Bakugo back to their HQ.
• Naruto:
  • Orochimaru isn't just interested in Sasuke's potential, he wants his body too. (No, not like that.)
  • It's later revealed that Orochimaru tried to do the same thing to Sasuke's elder brother, Itachi. But he apparently stopped after he received an asskicking by him.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi: For the dubious amount of villainy, Evangeline after defeating Negi says she won't kill him, because she found interest in him, but it's only when he ask her to teach him (after witnessing her power on a more serious level) that they become mentor and student.
• During One Piece's Wano Arc, Kaido is impressed by Luffy's raw strength and irrepressible determination, enough so that he orders his minions to imprison him and break his will so he can become one of his soldiers after he thrashes him in a matter of seconds.
• Kyosuke to Kaoru in Psychic Squad. Incidentally, Kaoru also has a regular mentor, and the ultimate question of the plot is whether Kaoru will ultimately side with Minamoto or Kyosuke.
• Vampires in Seraph of the End usually find no interest in what humans are up to and hardly interfere in their affairs. Ferid is the exception as he is attracted to Mika and Yuu for their blood and their good looks.

Comic Books

• Ra's al Ghul to Batman. He sees Bats as a mirror, and was once interested in him being the successor of his organization, The Demon.
• In Birds of Prey Lady Shiva takes an interest in training Black Canary.
  • Shiva also took an interest in Cassandra Cain. Not because the teenager was her long-lost daughter but because she was one of the few on the planet who had a real chance of killing her in a fair fight.
  • She also eventually feels this way about Huntress after the latter takes Canary's place during a battle to the death in order to save her friend, and gives Huntress the honorary name "Iron Owl" due to her refusal to go down without a fight despite being completely outclassed by Shiva in terms of skill.
  • In fact, Lady Shiva is said to have a standing offer to anyone to train them, hero or villain. The price is that anyone who accepts, will have to face her in a Duel to the Death one year after they leave her tutelage.
• Ghostbusters (IDW Comics) has an arc that establishes Gozer's sister, the god of chaos Tiamat, as taking an interest in forcing a confrontation with the ghostbusters because the ants she once tortured for amusement now have the means to wreak merry havoc with the fabric of the universe.
• In the Green Lantern comics, Sinestro has taken an interest in Soranik Natu, the current Lantern from his home planet of Korugar. Where Sinestro was hated for being a Knight Templar tyrant (and the next Korugarian Lantern, Katma Tui, was hated by proxy), Korugar is coming to love Soranik. Both are viewing the peoples' growing devotion to her as practically asking her to be a dictator herself, which Sinestro views as her bringing order where he can't anymore while Soranik is greatly troubled by it. And it's no help at all that Sinestro is Soranik's biological father.
• Judge Dredd: The main character of The Fall of Deadworld, Judge Fairfax, was once an acolyte of Judge Death, who still wants to recruit him as one of his lieutenants after they had a falling out. Fairfax just wants to ride out the apocalypse.
• In the Ultimate Spider-Man line, the second Spider-Man, Miles Morales, is approached by his uncle, the super thief Prowler, for training. Little does he know, the Prowler needs Spider-Man to deal with the extremely powerful Maximus Gargan—the Scorpion.
  • Some tellings of Spider-Man give him this sort of connection to Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin. Especially when the Green Goblin's son is not living up to his father's expectations.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW): Like Ra's Al Ghul to Batman, the IDW version of the Shredder has decreed that only Leonardo is fit to inherit leadership of the Foot Clan.
• X-Men: Emma Frost offered her mentorship to Kitty Pride. Kitty didn't want to even think about it, and Emma was sincerely suprised why anyone wouldn't want to be like her. Emma and Kitty would develop a relationship over the years that included murdering and resurrecting each other.

Fan Works

• All For Luz:
  • Antagonistic Governor Rodger Maxwell readjusts his plans to deal with super-humans as soon as he witnesses Luz use All For One viewing her as the perfect solution to contain the power boom that occurred which is leaving the government in shambles.
  • The Golden Guard sees Luz, the new All For One user, as ripe for the molding her into becoming the liberator of The Boiling Isles from his Evil Uncle, though he's more of an Anti-Villain.
• Taskmaster in the Ben 10/The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes crossover Avenging 10 take an interest in the Ultimatrix. He primarily wants it as an extension of his Awesomeness by Analysis abilities, as doing so would allow him to not only gain the skills of other heroes through his own abilities, but replicate their powers through the Ultimatrix.
• Dr. Emil Hamilton in Ben 10: Unlimited. While most of Project Cadmus show more concern at the possibility of more transformations unknown to them, Dr. Hamilton suggests using the Ultimatrix to help create Super Soldiers with regeneration and other abilities.
• Szayelaporro Granz in Bleach: Ultimate Alien. Unlike other examples involving the Omnitrix or Ultimatrix, he also holds high interest in the individual transformations, particularly in the remake, as he is ecstatic to be given the withered arms of Swampfire and pieces of crystal made by Diamondhead after Ben's fight against Baraggan Louisenbairn. Eventually, he's able to use an arm from Four Arms that Grimmjow ripped off to create a Hollow version of a Tetramand, and plans to enter Ben's universe and explore the possibility of submitting other alien species to Hollowfication. Furthermore, he's later revealed to use the aforementioned arms and shards to create Hollow versions of a Petrosapien and Methanosian, which Aizen sics on the heroes during his invasion of Fake Karakura Town.
• The Chaotic Masters:
  • As an extension of how he and the other Chaotic Masters would seduce heroines into their harems during their original reign, in the present day the Collector has his eye on Raven, and mentions how he finds Jade interesting.
  • Being a Gadgeteer Genius, Jack Spicer is instantly smitten when he meets Uncanny Valley, the teen android girl member of the United Heroez.
• In the sequel of Child of the Storm, one of Surtur's strongest minions - a literal dragon - claims this of his master in regards to Harry, claiming that Surtur wants to take him on as a no-strings-attached student in the belief that he would come to see that Surtur was right and that he should ally with him of his own free will. Word of God indicates that it's actually telling the truth, but Harry, who's familiar with the well-earned reputation dragons have for manipulation and has heard speeches like this before (and wasn't interested then), laughs in his face.
• Code Prime: In Chapter 7 of R1, after Soundwave learns that Lelouch is Zero as well as a thought dead prince of Britannia and tells Megatron, Megatron decides to keep this information secret from both Charles and his crew, having taken an interest in what Optimus sees in Lelouch. The same is true for Suzaku, as Chapter 13 of R1 reveals that Megatron wants Knock Out to upgrade the Lancelot as he's taken an interest in both it and Suzaku, planning to turn Suzaku into a "human" Decepticon. By the end of R1, Megatron has given up on Suzaku, deeming him a lost cause.
• In Frozen Turtles, after learning about Elsa's ice powers, Shredder becomes interested in trying to harness them himself. Initially, he tries to get Elsa herself to join him, but once it's made clear that she never will join him, he instead becomes obsessed with trying to combine her DNA with mutagen to be infused into him. When he becomes Super Shredder, he succeeds in this regard, and becomes far more dangerous.
• Upon meeting Danny Phantom in The Ghostly Leaguer, Darkseid becomes convinced that he is the key to the Anti-Life Equation and immediately targets him after gaining control of Brainiac.
• Hell Is a Martial Artist: Hild initially takes an interest in Ranma due to him being a natural magnet for chaos; the more she learns about his circumstances, the more outraged she becomes on his behalf... and more attached as well.
• Heroes of the New World: When Izuku and Yamato join the Whitebeard Pirates, Marshall D. Teach quickly takes an interest in Izuku. While nobody knows about Teach's true nature yet, this can only end badly.
• Given that Ben Tennyson showed up out of nowhere and chose to help his sworn enemies without much of a reason, DIO becomes more concerned about him and has his assassins be cautious about him in JoJo's Alien Adventure. After finding out about Ben's shapeshifting abilities with his fight against Forever, though, he takes an interest in the Ultimatrix, particularly its evolutionary function, and has his assassins bring him alive, intending to use its power to become Ultimate DIO.
• The Last Seidr: After Harry has to use magic to save Agent Coulson, Loki takes in interest, believing him to be one of (if not the) last member of a race of Asgardians called the Seidr (hence the title).
• Ridley and Mother Brain in Metroid 10 take an interest in Ben Tennyson and the Omnitrix. Ridley sees the Omnitrix as a powerful weapon and offers to make Ben his trusted lieutenant, while Mother Brain holds an interest in studying the Omnitrix for her own purposes.
• In My Shinobi, Dougen is intrigued by Naruto after his first outburst of power. However, they're pragmatic enough that they order Homura to kill him if he ever gets in the way of their plans; ultimately, they're more invested in denying the good shinobi from being able to utilize such a powerful asset than claiming him for themselves.
• Soul Chess: Aizen took an immediate interest in Lelouch the day they first met, after Lelouch defeated him in a game of chess. At first he sought to make Lelouch an ally, but once it became clear that Lelouch would rather stand against him, he settled for making the former prince his main rival instead. Unfortunately, he greatly underestimated said rival and was subsequently killed and sent to hell for his troubles. By the end of the fic, Aizen came to hate Lelouch so much that his two main priorities were:
  1. Kill the Soul King and take his place.
  2. Screw over Lelouch as much as possible.
• A Supe of a Man: Stan Edgar takes an interest in Clark when he displays record-breaking strength and speed at just 9 years old, seeing him as a more stable alternative to Homelander. Stillwell would also like to be Clark's agent and bring him into the Seven. Eventually, Homelander takes an interest in Clark and becomes (wrongly) convinced the young Supes is his son that Vought secretly created.
• In the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton story From His Vantage Upon the Moon, Victor von Doom would have requested Reed Richard to overlook Earth-10000 (the Ben 10 universe) for fusing into the Marvel Cinematic Universe due to how volatile it was. However, he allows it since the Omnitrix would prove a viable weapon against the Mad Titan Thanos. He also takes an interest in bringing in the Kara Zor-El from Earth-16, who died in the destruction of her Krypton and would be the closest hero they would have to a powerhouse like Superman.
  • A post would confirm that the other series infused with the Kryptonverse were deliberately chosen by Doom and Reed because of valuable powers, races, and innovation to protect Earth from Thanos. Of the examples given, the Omnitrix and Voltron brought as weapons for humanity, the world's of Big Hero 6 and Mass Effect to increase technological development, the Diamonds to act as Earth's defense by their desire to protect Steven, the Dragon Balls and the Miraculouses brought in to wish back the lives lost to Thanos, and the gods of the Riodanverse to increase Earth's defense.
• A Waterbending Quirk: All For One finds himself becoming fascinated with Katara, and not unjustifiably: her waterbending comes with a myriad of powers, like hydrokinesis, cryokinesis, Healing Hands, and bloodbending. This fascination heavily increases when he finds out her powers do not come from a Quirk. Similarly, Dabi also becomes obsessed with her, recognizing how close she is to Shoto, and seeking another way to make Endeavor suffer by harming his child.
• A Moth to a Flame: Since Marcy is directly descended from certain members of the Core's Mind Hive, they are significantly more invested in convincing her to become their host willingly.
• How on Earth?: Grandfather immediately takes an interest in Nigel Uno/Numbuh One after learning the latter is his only biological grandchild. With Nigel's father and uncle both inadequate successors for a variety of reasons, Grandfather plans on molding Nigel in their stead, and takes the first step by activating Nigel's latent superpowers.
• The Color of the World: Unlike in canon, Muzan Kibutsuji actually takes interest in Tanjiro after he sees his Hanafuda earrings through Yahaba's eyes^note In this story, Tanjiro was the one who stayed at the Kamado house and got turned into a demon, but Muzan never saw the Hanafuda earrings because Tanjiro's ears were covered at the time, realizing that as a demon, he could become a useful pawn if he were to capture him and place him under his control. Because of this, he orders all of his servants, from the Twelve Demon Moons to even minor followers, to actually capture Tanjiro should they ever find him. Hearing from Akaza how the latter was overpowered by Tanjiro's Blood Demon Art actually makes Muzan want to capture him all the more if he's become strong enough to repel an Upper Moon, to the point he's too busy laughing to punish Akaza for his failure. He briefly succeeds in getting Tanjiro to his lair and injecting him with his blood before Tanjiro escapes, with Nezuko and Zenitsu helping Tanjiro come to his senses before he can eat anyone. Losing Daki and Gyutaro doesn't even faze Muzan unlike in canon because he now intends to replace them with Tanjiro as soon as he captures and brainwashes him.
• In What If Bulma Trained Like Goku?, after overhearing Raditz's defeat on their scouters, Vegeta and Nappa decide to head to Earth in order to investigate how Bulma was able to stand up against him, with the intent of either recruiting her or killing her themselves.
• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Ghidorah is pleased by watching Monster X's (particularly Vivienne's) capacity for brutality in an Unstoppable Rage in Chapter 13. The right head (Ni/Elder Brother) in particular had the least interest in Vivienne out of the three until this point.
• For His Own Sake: Kagura is intrigued upon first learning about Keitaro and how close he's become to Nagisa, deciding to target him in order to torment the latter just because she can.
• What Goes Around Comes Around: Marinette managing to defeat Gabriel when he reveals that he knows her Secret Identity and attacks the Dupain-Cheng Bakery earns her the respect of both Gabriel and Emilie. In fact, they decide that they want to make her their daughter-and-law and successor, in a dark mirror of Adrien's own sense of entitlement towards her. Learning this horrifies their son, especially since they intend to use the Wish to make it so, and merge him and Felix into their 'ideal' concept of what they want their son to be as well.
• Angel's Egg: The very moment that All Might revealed he has a son, All for One immediately begins scheming how to spin that to his advantage.
• Apotheosis: Izuku takes an interest in Ochako, Tenya and Shouto, both for their Quirks and their respective attitudes towards heroism.
• Cain: The ending implies that Shigaraki is reaching out to Katsuki, hoping to exploit his hatred for Izuku and All Might.
• Daymare: After experiencing the raw power of Izuku's Quirk firsthand, Mincement decides to ignore how Shigaraki wanted him to murder Izuku, declaring that "That is strength to be admired."
• The Emancipators: Shigaraki notices that Izuku has an outright murderous expression as he comes after him at the USJ. Later, he picks up on Izuku's Briar Patching during his match with Monoma, remarking on how ruthless he's being... and how interesting that is.
• Failure to Explode: Following the Sports Festival, Shigaraki takes note of how close Monoma and Ochako are, scheming to target the latter.
• Green Tea Rescue: The Meta Liberation Army becomes interested in Izuku following his performance in the U.A. Sports Festival. After learning about his connections to All Might and Endeavor, they act upon their interest by sending his father back to Japan, expecting Hisashi to recruit him on their behalf.
• Inheritance: All For One is intrigued by Izuku's ability to hold multiple Quirks at once without any issues.
• Naive Melody: Inko finds herself faced with this after news spreads through the underground network of villains that she escaped from her father, One For All, spurring several to start hunting her down.
• One for All and Eight for the Ninth: Three villains take an immediate interest in Izuku after the Sports Festival:
  • All for One realizes that Izuku is the new bearer of One for All.
  • Stain immediately identifies Izuku as somebody with the potential to become an equal to his idol All Might.
  • Re-Destro tries to offer Izuku a sponsorship deal in his civilian guise.
• Peace's Apprentice: Following the USJ attack, All for One watches the footage of the incident and remarks to Detnerat that he's specifically interested in three students. One is Bakugou; another is implied to be Kaminari; the third is unclear.
• Think Before You Speak: While Shigaraki's lack of interest in following the news means that he's not initially aware that one of U.A.'s students seriously injured another during a training exercise, once he does find out about it, he naturally wants to learn who was responsible.
• What it Means to Be a Hero: In Chapter 27, the League of Villains sends Kurogiri to contact Katsuki and offer him a chance to join their organization.
• Yesterday Upon The Stair: Tomura's interest in Izuku is intensified here thanks to how they interact, and when he kidnaps him alongside Katsuki, All for One takes the opportunity to try and tempt Izuku into becoming another apprentice.
• Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison:
  • Factors into Kabuto's backstory in this 'verse: Danzo learned about an orphan who was using his healing skills as a way to make money and promptly kidnapped him, forcing him to work for him. Then Orochimaru took an interest in the boy...
  • Kabuto, in turn, takes an interest in Sakura during the Chuunin Exams; initially because she's much warier of him than her teammates, then due to how she handled Orochimaru sending Dosu, Zaku and Kin after Team Seven. He also offers her a cryptic warning about Root in this vein:
    Kabuto: Beware the roots of Konoha. They never see the light and if they grasp you, neither will you.
  • Following the Wave Mission, Haku and Zabuza are intrigued by how Sakura conducted herself, particularly her participation in a Viking Funeral.
• Glass Marionette: Kabuto becomes intrigued by Kankuro, as he can't quite seem to puzzle out how the puppeteer gets his information... unaware that he's dealing with somebody who has memories of a past life where Naruto was a fictional series they followed.
• Orochimaru becomes intrigued by the main trio of time travelers in A Wrinkle in Time. He states that he needs Sasuke for his eyes, so it doesn't matter whether or not he has talent. However, he wants those three for their talent, seeing it as being wasted on Konoha. It's incredibly ironic, seeing as the three time travelers in question are Naruto, Shikamaru, and Lee, who were all "dead lasts" in the original timeline, for lack of a better term.
• Three's A Crowd:
  • One of the reasons why Sakura wants to keep her unusual condition hidden is because several of her fellow civilian-born classmates disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Like her friend Akiko, who excelled at her shinobi lessons:
    Sakura: I went to her house one night. We were supposed to do our homework together. But, when I got there, the house was empty. The door was open, and there was furniture in the house, and food in the kitchen, but Akiko and her parents weren't there. The next day, the teacher announced that Akiko had an emergency in the family and they decided to move out of Konoha.
    Shikamaru: What actually happened?
    Sakura: I don't know. But she wasn't the only one. Nothing good happens to civilians who get too much attention.
  • Mizuki notices how Sakura's skills have improved and offers her special tutoring in her taijutsu. He's not happy when she turns him down, and it's unclear whether he simply wanted to take credit for her success or had even nastier ulterior motives.
  • Shikaku also recognizes that this is a very real threat, which is why he advises Shikamaru to keep the fact that Sakura has been teaching herself Sunan-style puppetry techniques to himself.
• Your Heart a Haven of Thorns: Danzo didn't pay much attention to Sakura, even after she became part of Team Seven alongside Naruto and Sasuke. But after she comes out of the Forest of Death missing an arm and with a new tiger summons, and shows off some surprising abilities during the preliminary matches of the Chuunin Exams, he immediately orders one of his lackies to start spying on her, musing that "a lowly pawn on the board had suddenly been upgraded to a queen".
• your move, instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue): Danzo takes an interest in Team 14, particularly Sakura, when they manage to continue surviving while so many of their fellow Child Soldiers are cut down. Doubles as Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, as he doesn't understand why the trio aren't responding the way he expects to his Propaganda Machine, nor why the trio are becoming so influential... as they serve as a living reminder to their fellow shinobi that Konoha are sending children out to fight and die in their name.
• Luz Clawthorne: After learning about Luz and her condition, Emperor Belos becomes intrigued and assigns the Golden Guard to monitor her. After he receives confirmation that she's a cambion, he offers to help Luz control it so long as she joins him, which she refuses. After that, Belos does all he can to keep tabs on Luz and her progress.
• The Evil Queen: Makoto becomes fixated on "rehabilitating" Akira, ostensibly in order to protect their school's reputation. However, it swiftly becomes clear that she also finds him attractive, and is abusing her position to try and gain more control. This culminates in her Blackmailing him into spending time with her, threatening to have Kawakami fired if he doesn't comply, and attempting to force herself upon him as a "birthday present" to herself.
• Giovanni in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines takes an early interest in Ash after his first encounter with Jessie, James and Meowth, and orders the trio to keep an eye on him. Later chapters reveal he views Ash as a possible means to curb Bloodliner threats, including the Bloodliner King himself, thus eliminating some of his direct competition in the criminal world.
• Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness: In Act III, it's revealed that this why Kiria didn't simply kill Tsukune and the others back in Act II; having seen the power of Tsukune's inner ghoul firsthand, he decided that it would be useful in his plans. Unfortunately for Kiria, he discovers the hard way in the final chapter of Act III that Evil Is Not a Toy.
• A Rabbit Among Wolves: Sienna Khan starts out tepidly supportive of Jaune and his plans. But seeing Jaune wins victories in both the battlefield and in the world of PR, she becomes interested in making him her champion.
• My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator:
  • All for One desires to recruit the Slayer into his ranks, or at the very least, take the Slayer's Quirk, unaware the man doesn't have one.
  • Curator is mesmerized by the Slayer's brutal slaughter of the Steel Sabers and Chainsaw, viewing it like "A ballet of carnage" and "Gory poetry in motion".
  • The Meta Liberation Army is also highly interested in the Slayer, especially since he destroyed the Steel Sabers.
  • Anti-Hero example, with Lady Nagant eager to see what the Slayer's all about, seeing him one-shot Endeavor and hear about the slaughter of the Sabers.

Films — Animation

• The Batman vs. Dracula: Initially, Dracula is quite intrigued by Batman, due to their similar motifs. He even offers Batman a prominent seat at his table. After Batman rejects the offer, though, Dracula vows to kill him.
• Treasure Planet does this, especially when it's becoming apparent Silver was Evil All Along. Subverted past the climax, however, when Silver slips into a somewhat benevolent role and loses his edge.

Films — Live-Action

• Star Wars:
  • Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader have strong elements of this, minus the Foe Romance Subtext because, well, squick. The fixation leads to both Last-Second Chance and We Can Rule Together moments. Of course, from Vader's perspective, he is neither villainous nor beginning an interest.
  • Also the Emperor toward Luke, believing (rightly) that he is stronger than his father.
  • Palpatine has it to Anakin in the prequels too. He became something of a father figure to the young Anakin in the hopes that he might one day corrupt him to the Dark Side, though he didn't go full-on until he realized how much more powerful Anakin had become than his previous apprentice, Count Dooku.
  • Speaking of Dooku, he has expressed interest in recruiting Obi-Wan Kenobi to his side so they can overthrow Palpatine together.
  • Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens offers to teach Rey in the ways of the Force (in the middle of a duel, no less!).
• Watanabe of Unbroken is fixated on Zamperini. He even tells him that from the moment they met, he knew they were alike and that they could have been friends if not for their opposing sides. Zamperini mainly just seems creeped out by the attention.

Literature

• In the Alex Rider series, the Big Bad of the third book Alexei Sarov takes an interest in Alex. He takes him hostage and tries to convince Alex to accept him as his new father due to Alex's similarity to Sarov's dead son.
• In the Nevermoor series, Ezra Squall's primary motivation in most of his interactions with Morrigan is to convince her to let him become her Evil Mentor, insisting that he is the only one who can truly teach her how to master Wunder (which is actually true—not least because he murdered every other Wundersmith) and that he sees himself in her. He alternates between praising her abilities and strength, telling her she's better than everyone else at Wunsoc... and screaming abuse at her and reacting with anger whenever her good nature wins out over self-preservation. Why, exactly, he chose to spare Morrigan out of dozens of children who had Wundersmith abilities, letting her live and deciding she was going to be his heir, is a mystery.
• In The War of the Ancients, it's implied that Broxigar's prowess during his final stand against the Burning Legion, during which he managed to lightly wound Sargeras himself is one of the reasons the Burning Legion tried to recruit the Orcs.

Live-Action TV

• Better Call Saul:
  • At the start of the Sandpiper case, HHM is representing the plaintiffs while Schweikart & Cokely represent Sandpiper. Rick Schweikart begins to take an interest in Kim after seeing her legal talent in action, as well as seeing her put into an unwinnable situation without any support from HHM, and makes clear he's interested in recruiting her to his firm. Midway through season 4, Kim accepts his offer and brings in a new big client with Mesa Verde.
  • Throughout season 2, Mike Ehrmantraut engages in moves against the Salamancas. When the Salamancas begin threatening Mike's family, he retaliates by robbing one of their money couriers. His actions get him noticed by Gus Fring, who realizes that Mike could be very valuable to his operation. Using appeals to Mike's nature to provide for his family, he's able to convince Mike to join his operation by the end of season 3. Mike spends season 4 working as the supervisor to a crew of German engineers secretly building a basement for Gus to fit a meth lab into, then season 5 starts working as an enforcer and advisor to Gus.
• In Cutie Honey: THE LIVE, Panther Claw member Mayumi Karasugawa takes a keen, unhealthily obsessive interest in Sister Miki after initially believing her to be Cutey Honey. Even after she knows who is who, she still relentlessly pursues Miki.
• Daredevil (2015):
  • In season 1, after Matt and Foggy exonerate Karen from Fisk's attempt to have her framed for murder, Fisk takes an interest in the amateur lawyers and tells James Wesley to start files on them, figuring they may be of use. A few days later, when a hitman of his is arrested during a botched assassination job, he has Wesley hire Nelson & Murdock to defend the hitman.
    James Wesley: I represent a consortium with diversified interests in the private sector, both domestic and international. From time to time, we scout the landscape for promising talent to put on retainer.
    Foggy Nelson: [smirks] Retainer?
    Matt Murdock: Why are you approaching us? Why not a larger firm, Mr., uh—
    James Wesley: Confederated Global Investments is my employer.
    Matt Murdock: That's not what I was asking.
    James Wesley: It's the only name relevant to this discussion, Mr. Murdock.
    Matt Murdock: Oh. So, why us?
    Foggy Nelson: Obviously, the larger firms aren't able to provide the same hands-on attention that we pride ourselves on at Nelson & Murdock.
    James Wesley: It's a fair question. I'm here because my employer does extensive business in Hell's Kitchen, and who knows it better than two local boys who graduated from Columbia Law, cum laude and summa cum laude? [motions to Foggy and Matt, respectively]
    Foggy Nelson: Ah, the summa part is politics.
    James Wesley: [laughs] You set up shop right here in your backyard, despite the fact that both of you were made... a very lucrative offer from Landman & Zack in Manhattan, where you interned.
    Matt Murdock: So you've done your homework.
    James Wesley: My employer expects no less.
  • In season 3, while the FBI are transporting Fisk to the Presidential Hotel, they are ambushed by an Albanian hit squad, who kill several of Fisk's guards and almost get to Fisk. Just as they're about to break into Fisk's overturned car, Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter appears on the scene and kills all of the assassins with ruthless efficiency. Fisk immediately takes an interest in Dex, and spends the next few days worming his way into Dex's life, turning the mild-mannered FBI agent into an unstoppable assassin who looks at him as a father figure.
• Game of Thrones: The Night King takes particular interest in both Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen as opponents after his respective first encounters with them.
  • To a lesser extent, Tywin Lannister becomes very fond of the precocious young girl he finds among the prisoners at Harrenhal, making her his new cup-bearer (ie, personal servant). Unbeknownst to him, the girl is Arya Stark, a very important potential hostage that his family was actively looking for at the time.
• Supernatural: In the episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, Ep21), the Yellow-Eyed Demon sees himself as Sam's mentor and Sam as his creation. Sam sees the Yellow-Eyed Demon as his Arch-Enemy.
  Yellow-Eyed Demon: That's why I'm here, Sam. I wanna give you the inside track. You're tough. You're smart. You're well-trained, thanks to your daddy. Sam — Sammy — you're my favorite.
  Sam: You ruined my life. You killed everyone I love.
  Yellow-Eyed Demon: The cost of doing business, I'm afraid.

Tabletop Games

• Curse of Strahd: Whenever newcomers enter Barovia, Strahd von Zarovich takes an interest in them in order to determine whether any of them is worthy to be his successor. However, he eventually decides that none of them are worthy as a successor, but he doesn't arrive at this conclusion immediately.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: After being beaten by Ann in their first encounter upon seeing the extent of her Super Mode, Absalom, a Blood Knight with interest in strong opponents, teleports out with a promise that he isn't done with her yet.
• In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of Knowledge, is revealed to be very interested in those who are Dragonborn. In ages past, he seduced the First Dragonborn, Miraak, into becoming his champion in exchange for great power. In the main quest of the Dragonborn DLC, Mora orchestrates the situation as such to allow Miraak to think he could plot against Mora in Apocrypha, using the opportunity to secretly groom the Last Dragonborn as his replacement, and thusly allowed Miraak to become a threat the Last Dragonborn could not ignore. The Last Dragonborn foils Miraak's plans, Mora kills Miraak in a combination Impaled with Extreme Prejudice/You Have Outlived Your Usefulness killing, and the Last Dragonborn takes Miraak's place as Mora's champion, whether he/she likes it or not.
• In the Ensemble Stars! main story, Eichi genuinely thinks very highly of Trickstar's skill. In particular, he tries to recruit Hokuto and Subaru for his top-tier unit fine, as he believes there he could truly bring out their full potential. (It also has the added benefit of converting the current biggest enemies to fine, but he isn't lying about any of this, either.) Subaru rejects him immediately, as Eichi assumed his love of money means that he would be easily tempted by greed, but Subaru actually just likes shiny coins and has no interest in becoming wealthy. Hokuto is much more troubled, as his parents are both celebrities in the entertainment industry, and joining a high-level unit like fine seems like the logically 'correct' decision to follow their legacy. When he does (temporarily) join, Eichi seems to be genuinely trying to mentor him, teaching him that betrayal and sabotage are the only way to be successful in the entertainment industry. Naturally, Hokuto echoes this statement back when he switches back to Trickstar.
• In Fallout: New Vegas, even if the Courier kills Vulpes Inculta of Caesar's Legion, Caesar himself will eventually offer the Courier full amnesty and a place at his side in the Legion, explicitly admitting he's impressed by how the Courier gets what they want.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Terra and Kefka in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
  • Zenos in the Stormblood story of Final Fantasy XIV conquered both Ala Mhigo and Doma, but finds that Victory Is Boring since neither nation was able to put up much of a fight. When the player character faces him in a battle for the first time, it's a Hopeless Boss Fight and he easily defeats them. In a rematch, later on, the player character has grown stronger but still loses to Zenos. Zenos has then taken quite an interest with them, seeing their potential strength and encourages them to keep fighting and to grow stronger. By the third fight, the player character is evenly matched and Zenos is very ecstatic seeing his opponent being able to stand up to him. After the final fight against him, Zenos loses but is satisfied that he found a Worthy Opponent and calls the player character his friend before slicing his throat to kill himself. Thanks to Zenos having an artificial Echo, he does not die and hijacks a soldier's body to continue his obsession with hunting down the player character in order to have the biggest battle the world would ever know.
• In I Expect You To Die 2, Agent Phoenix's repeated interference with Dr. Zor's plans gains her interest, with her promising to contact them if they survive the current crisis.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: Georg Weissmann tries to convince Estelle to join Ouroboros under the rationale that she can reunite with Joshua this way. Though this is a ruse because he only kidnapped her to lure Joshua out of hiding.
• Mega Man ZX Advent:
  • The Big Bad has his entire plan unfold down to the smallest detail (it's implied that the plot of the last game went exactly as he intended it to, though who won between The Hero and the villain there could have gone either way as far as he cared), but he never saw Ashe coming, mostly because she was never supposed to be a Mega Man - she can only megamerge because she has Albert's blood as his descendant. This surprises Albert, but he notes that it makes his plan more interesting, anyway, so he decides to enjoy himself watching her progress. Interestingly, if the other protagonist is chosen, Albert is far more dismissive, since Grey, while not a foe Albert accounted for, was still a factor in the first place and thus nothing new to him.
  • It actually gets taken a step further, as the Co-Dragons also take an interest in each of the protagonists. Prometheus likes Ashe's spirit and feels they're exactly alike due to what he thinks are similar motivations, eventually coming to view her as a Worthy Opponent. Pandora, meanwhile, is the least dismissive of Grey out of all the major antagonists, and even gives him a little bit of insight into the duo's motivations.
• In The Silver Lining, Graham has a strange vision where Manannan claims his real plan had been to treat Alexander as an apprentice and surrogate child. Alexander's reaction to the revelation is a combination of squick/horror/disbelief.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic:
  • The Sith Inquisitor is this for Padawan Ashara. They need Ashara's aid to get into the old Taris Jedi Temple. Now, being as you're Sith and she's a Jedi Padawan, there's already a problem. No matter how it goes, she ends up as your unofficial apprentice. The Sith Warrior does the same with Jaesa on Alderaan, as her ability to see through lies would be very useful to the Sith. Of course, it's entirely on you to live up to the evil Sith reputation or decide to be more Light Sided.
  • In the Imperial Agent storyline, after the prologue missions on Hutta the Agent catches the attention of Darth Jadus, who wants them to swear personal loyalty to him. When you confront him at the end of Act I, he offers you the chance to serve as his personal agent and help him in his plans.
    Keeper: Congratulations, you just made a friend on the Dark Council. I don't envy you.
• Touch Detective: The first time Mackenzie stops the Cornstalker, he gleefully declares her as someone worthy enough to be his rival... much to Daria's chagrin, as she sees the Cornstalker as her nemesis.

Web Animation

• Hazbin Hotel: After Charlie's pitch on the news for the Happy Hotel bombs miserably, Alastor offers to help the hotel not because he believes it will succeed, but so he can get his kicks from seeing the patrons repeatedly try and fail to redeem themselves. This, coupled with the fact that Alastor is the most powerful and most dangerous demon in Hell, naturally makes Charlie suspicious of him, but she accepts his support anyway considering he's the only denizen of Hell willing to help.
• RWBY:
  • In Volume 2, Cinder takes a very strong interest in Pyrrha Nikos after learning about her abilities, and has her put on "the list."
  • In Volume 4, Salem orders Tyrian to capture Ruby Rose alive. It's unclear why she wants Ruby, but it's mentioned that her followers have "dealt" with people with Silver Eyes in the past.
  • When he catches up to Team RNJR, Tyrian briefly mentions that, aside from Ruby, there's something about Jaune Arc, but doesn't elaborate.

Web Comics

• In Drowtales, Snadhya'rune Vel'Sharen sets her sights on Ariel Val'Sarghress due to the latter's bloodline, which contains a potent Anti-Magic ability and Ariel's own unique sorcery. The first inklings of it appear all the way back in the third chapter, but it's not until chapter 47 that the two meet face to face and immediately attempts to earn Ariel's favor. It ultimately fails because Kalki attacks Ariel, and Snadhya is so incensed by this that she later murders Kalki in cold blood for disrupting her and outliving her usefulness. Previously this method had worked flawlessly when Snadhya recruited her other "proteges" or students who showed unique abilities, including Mel'arnach Val'Sarghress, Ariel's sister (actually her mother).
• Sinfest: In what some may consider a cruel twist of fate, the Devil only begins taking an interest in Lil'E after the little devilkin gets his memory wiped and his personality reset to a more milquetoast one. This precedes the reveal that "Lily" is actually the Devil's biological son, ultimately resulting in Lily being moved into the Devil's Big Fancy House presumably for training as his heir. Of course whether or not Satan is the actual Big Bad of the strip or a Designated Villain is open to interpretation.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: Double Subversion. The Core initially doesn't care about Marcy Wu whatsoever, only recognizing her as being spoken of in the prophecy and ordering Andrias to kill her. However, once Marcy proves herself to be actually quite smart, the Core starts to become interested in her, eventually deciding to make her their newest host in order to foil the prophecy.
• Big Hero 6: The Series: Obake has taken a paticular interest in Hiro, to the point where some of his evil schemes amount entirely to testing Hiro and seeing how he reacts. To a lesser extent he seems interested in the other members of Big Hero 6 as well, but Hiro is the one with his focus.
• Danny and Vlad from Danny Phantom. Vlad is fixated on Danny's mother, Maddie, and ultimately hopes to steal her away from Jack. Add the fact that Vlad and Danny are pretty much the only half-ghosts in existence, and Vlad sees Danny as the perfect Child Substitute. Naturally Danny doesn't see it this way.
• Rex and Van Kleiss from Generator Rex. Although it seems that he is more interested in Rex's nanites than the boy himself. Van Kleiss himself supplied that he would be happy if Rex was a vegetable as long as he was still breathing. Unlike some other examples, Rex takes advantage of this without entering such a relationship. In the episode "Alliance" Rex uses guile and half-truths to undermine Van Kleiss in various ways. Most notable of them is getting Circe to defect from the Pack. Circe was convinced that Van Kleiss wants to take Rex in like he did with her. So when Rex is forced into an arena with No-face for a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Rex makes it clear to the onlooking Circe that Van Kleiss places no value on him other than his life.
• The Bog Lady from I ♡ Arlo is hesitant at keeping everything in the swamp in order, but it's Arlo whom she's especially attached to. She secretly showers him with love, care, and protection ever since the day he first entered the swamp as a baby, something he completely had no idea during his time there. After learning of his true heritage from Edmée on his fifteenth birthday which in turn allows him to finally leave the swamp and begin his journey, this enraged the Bog Lady over losing the one thing she grew attached to all those years; thus she hatches a scheme by casting a dark curse over the swamp, getting Ruff and Stucky to trap Edmée as bait, has Arlo lured to her by a ransom note she ordered the hunters to write out, sinks the yacht used for the way back home, separates him from his friends, and once she finally has him all alone, demand he apologize for leaving her and never do it again. Naturally, he refuses.
• The Owl House: Emperor Belos takes a special interest in Luz Noceda after their battle in "Young Blood, Old Souls". This is because he recognized her as the same person who helped him meet The Collector in the late 1600's when he was still Philip Wittebane. In addition to wanting to ensure Luz lives on as she is part of a Stable Time Loop, Belos also wants to "save" her from the Demon Realm, and opts to murder her once the former has closed, and Luz has rejected the latter.
• The Secret Saturdays: The second season sees V. V. Argost take a decided interest in Zak Saturday after its revealed the boy is Kur reborn. He even becomes a Stealth Mentor, using his show, of which Zak is still a fan, to covertly give Zak clues to interesting artifacts and cryptids in an effort to develop Zak's powers. Argost is entirely direct with Zak about the nature of their relationship from the beginning though, stating that he will use whatever opening Zak naively gives him to steal the Kur power from him. Van Rook also takes a particular interest in Drew Saturday, despite his otherwise mercenary nature. Ultimately its revealed after he performs a heroic sacrifice for her that he's in love with her.
• Star Wars Rebels: Darth Maul quickly takes a shine to Ezra Bridger and seeks to make him his apprentice. Everyone and Ezra says no but Maul is so unhinged/determined that he honestly seems oblivious to any protests. Maul is making more progress with his protagonist than other examples but his own ruthlessness is spoiling his attempts. This interest is later hinted to hinge on Maul projecting onto Ezra his longing for his former apprentice and brother, Savage.
• Storm Hawks: Master Cyclonis is very interested in Piper due to her natural talent in harnessing the power of crystals, an ability they share in common. The interest was originally sparked when Cyclonis attempted to infiltrate the Storm Hawks and befriended Piper to achieve that goal. Of course, there are hints afterwards that Cyclonis's interest in Piper goes...beyond her potential as an asset.
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • Robin and Slade. The similarity is emphasized whenever they fight each other, and especially when they fight together, as their fighting styles are nearly identical.
  • To a somewhat lesser extent, this is observable between Cyborg and Brother Blood as well.
  • Slade and Terra have a bit of this, too. Terra allows him to mentor her and...things go downhill. To make it worse, in the comic storyline this was based on, the two were actually in a sexual relationship, though Terra was slightly older (but still underage).
• Ultimate Spider-Man is a Spider-Man franchise that justifies Peter's and Harry's friendship through this. Harry was nice one day and decided to give Peter a ride home instead of letting him walk through the rain. Harry's father, Norman, had heard of Peter's good grades and encouraged the friendship in the hopes that Peter would be a good influence.
• Big Bad Nerissa in W.I.T.C.H. has an obvious interest in Caleb since he's her son. She tries to persuade him to her side and he flat out denies her.
• Xiaolin Showdown: The main plot of the second half of season 2 revolves around Chase Young trying to bring Omi to the dark side. He succeeds in the season's finale, after Omi exits the Yin Yang World with only one of the two yo-yos, leaving his good chi behind.
• Young Justice (2010): In "Evolution", Darkseid is working with Vandal Savage because the meta-gene potential of humanity could be a useful tool in solving the anti-life equation. Darkseid also seems impressed by how brazen Savage is in the face of overwhelming might.

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