Basic Trope: A hero sympathizes with a villain.
- Straight: Alex feels sympathetic for Emperor Evulz, a ruthless villain bent on taking over the world.
- Exaggerated: Alex has sympathy for every single villain, even those who remorselessly committed a number of atrocities that are impossible to forgive and have no sympathetic backstories or qualities whatsoever.
- Downplayed:
- Justified:
- Alex feels that Emperor Evulz had a horrible past that lead to his path of evil. He might have even seen that past firsthand.
- Alex beliefs Evulz to be a He Who Fights Monsters reflection of himself. note
- Alex is just a sympathetic person in general, or at least too sympathetic for his own good.
- Emperor Evulz hasn't done anything too bad, which helps warrant sympathy from Alex.
- Alex knew and connected with Emperor Evulz deeply before the latter turned to a life of villainy.
- Inverted: Sympathy for the Hero — Emperor Evulz sympathizes with Alex's traumas.
- Subverted: It were to seem that Alex has sympathy for Evulz, until he learns that Emperor Evulz's real reason for villainy is out of pettiness (i.e., having his shoe accidentally stepped on by a stranger).
- Double Subverted: Then Alex learns that the stranger who stepped on Evulz' shoe went totally berserk, accused Evulz of ruining his own perfectly good shoes, beat the ever-loving shit out of him, then murdered his loving wife and daughter for good measure. Alex finds himself sympathizing with Evulz once again.
- Parodied: Emperor Evulz's reason for villainy? He lost his blue crayon. Alex immediately sympathizes with him as soon as he learns this.
- Zig Zagged: Alex can't decide if he should feel sorry for Emperor Evulz or if he should feel No Sympathy for him.
- Averted: Alex doesn't have any sympathy for Emperor Evulz.
- Enforced:
- "It would be interesting to have the hero take pity on an evil villain. Let's write it down!"
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: People wanted to know how Alex, a former Warrior Of Light, became Evulz' second in command, so this prequel was commissioned.
- Lampshaded: "You, a do-gooder, have taken pity for a purely evil villain like me?"
- Invoked: Evulz makes up false stories about his past to get Alex to sympathize him.
- Exploited: ...just to get Alex unguarded and successfully defeat him.
- Defied: "Why would I ever pity an evil, heartless, and immoral scumbag like you?!"
- Discussed: "You sympathize with that madman?!" "Well, yeah. He's had a hard life, and everyone is human."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: The other heroes declare that Evulz is a monster who deserves to get shoved down a wood chipper feet-first. Alex looks visibly uncomfortable.
- Deconstructed: Alex gets called out and shamed for sympathizing Evulz who has committed heinous crimes against others and feels no remorse for them.
- Reconstructed: Alex turns it right back around and points out that even if Evulz is responsible for his own actions, his Trauma Conga Line of a backstory still deserves to be addressed so that nobody else has to suffer the same way and potentially become another villain.
Back to Sympathy for the Devil
