Basic Trope: A villain cares deeply about their family and friends.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz loves his family and friends, despite his reign of tyranny.
- Exaggerated: Evulz is a mass-murdering despot who has no qualms about exterminating other families. But he'll give his life to save his own family.
- Downplayed:
- Evulz mentions a wife and kids, and it's implied but not shown that he cares about them.
- Dracone may be rude and somewhat selfish, but he has a few people he really cares about.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
- Justified:
- Familial and social bonds tend to be strong for most human beings, and even evil-doers are no different.
- Evulz is an Affably Evil Nice Guy who's an Evil Overlord only because it puts enough bread on the table.
- Evulz is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is an Evil Overlord because he sincerely believes his actions create a better world to leave to his daughter.
- Evulz used to be named Goodly, but after his family was murdered by police officers he lost all faith in humanity or human goodness.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- Evulz's family turns out to actually be a Dysfunctional Family.
- Truth in Television: Evulz may seem to be a good friend and family man, but in reality he's a complete sociopath who has no genuine affection for anyone. He'll remorselessly double-cross people who care about him.
- Evulz turns out to not be evil at all, just misunderstood.
- Double Subverted:
- Well, a mildly dysfunctional family. They do care about each other deep down.
- On first impressions they're quite dysfunctional. If you look closer though, they turn out to be simply a Quirky Household.
- Despite being incapable of love, he still feels an immense sense of duty and obligation to his family.
- Parodied:
- After a long and hard day of work (committing extremely depraved acts of villainy), Evulz returns home to show some Sickeningly Sweet love to his family.
- Evulz's idea of spending quality time with his family is by having them help out with torturing and killing his enemies and innocent bystanders.
- Zig Zagged:
- Evulz's family relationships are complicated. He loves some of them dearly, but could care less about others.
- Evulz is only able to consider his loved ones through the extent that they are things he owns; he cares, just not in a normal or healthy way.
- Averted: Evulz never ever brings up the subject of family or friends. He may not even have any.
- Enforced: The author is attempting to make a somewhat sympathetic villain.
- Lampshaded: "You must think that I hate everyone, don't you? But that's not true."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited:
- Evulz embraces his child, in order to make a hero hesitant about harming him in front of a kid.
- The heroes use Evulz's family to force him to do what they want, e.g., saying they'll hurt his daughter if he doesn't turn himself in.
- The hero befriends Evulz's daughter, and through her is able to convince Evulz to undergo a Heel–Face Turn.
- Defied: Evulz has NO loved ones. He has a severely dysfunctional family, there is no love between them, and everyone would gladly betray each other. Their mutual hatred is no secret.
- Discussed: "I suppose love always prevails, no matter how evil your heart is."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Evulz may be a loving husband and father, and a great friend to a few people, but this shouldn't excuse his heinous crimes against humanity.
- Evulz is a terrible role model, as he's teaching his kids that it's okay to be cruel to strangers.
- Evulz's enemies know that targeting his loved ones may be easier and bring greater sorrow than targeting him directly.
- Evulz refuses to take action against his loved ones, even as they become liability to his evil enterprises. They become a constant millstone that he refuses to take off, resulting in various drama, problems and eventually his empire fracturing.
- Evulz' love for his family seems genuine, but as the story goes on, it becomes increasingly evident that his "love" is conditional on his family remaining ignorant of the depths of his villainy, or is built on them being forced to love him as a means to soothe his ego and unwillingness to actually change his ways. When the family reaches a breaking point and makes it clear to him that they aren't pawns who exist solely to allow him to justify his heinous actions, he does not take it well at all, his mask breaking to reveal the depths of his willingness to lie to himself.
- Reconstructed:
- The story presents him as a protective Papa Wolf, which will only milk more sympathy for him, even if he is an asshole otherwise.
- Evulz sincerely admits regretting most of his deeds but going on with them for a variety of reasons, while trying to stay as humane as possible by being a good family man.
- Raising his kids in a good way makes it more likely there won't be an Evil Overlord in the next generation.
- Played For Laughs: A sitcom-style show about a villain juggling family life and acts of evil.
- Played For Drama:
- Evulz's family gets caught in the middle of his Evil Versus Evil conflicts.
- Evulz serves The Empire because if he doesn't, his family will be killed.
- The Kids want to become just like their beloved father, much to Daddy's dismay.
Back to Even Evil Has Loved Ones
