Even Evil Has Loved Ones

"If I have children and subsequently grandchildren, I will keep my three-year-old granddaughter near me at all times. When the hero enters to kill me, I will ask him to first explain to her why it is necessary to kill her beloved grandpa..."

- Evil Overlord List, #143

Being evil doesn't mean negative emotions 24/7 against everything and everyone, except in particular cases. Even evil characters (and real people) can feel and show love. Often, that love is twisted, a cause for villainy, or an act. Sometimes, though, a work can show an evil character's love as genuine and deep. This often serves to humanize the character, to give the hero doubts about fighting him/her, or even to provide a weakness for the hero to exploit.

Compare Even Evil Has Standards, Unholy Matrimony, Morality Pet, Mad Scientists Beautiful Daughter, Daddys Little Villain, and Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas. If the evil character in question is a Mook, and said love brings them in conflict with their own boss, that's Even Mooks Have Loved Ones. Can often overlap with Moral Myopia when the villain sees no problem with their own methods, until those methods are turned on the ones THEY love.

Anime & Manga

 * For many fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gendo Ikari is really an evil bastard. He definitely did, however, love his wife Yui, and, in the movie, is shown to love his son but not know how to take care of him, which is why he makes such a piss poor parent to poor Shinji.
 * Played straight and averted in Death Note where
 * Even then.
 * But the whole reason was because Light set things up that way to avoid having to kill her.
 * Rather horribly averted in the film The Last Name, in which he
 * Pokémon Special's'' version of Giovanni, with
 * Game Freak gave Giovanni this very loved one for the Video Game Remakes HeartGold and SoulSilver,.
 * Fun fact: It was actually already hinted at (somewhat vaguely) in the Sevii Islands quest in Fire Red/Leaf Green. This is foreshadowing for PokéSupe, as it did come out before the FR/LG section of the manga, but who knows how long the manga writers had been planning that.
 * They may have been sociopathic assholes, but the three Trinity siblings of Gundam 00 did really love and protect each other..
 * Yark Dore from Gundam AGE might have no regrets whatsoever for being the mastermind behind "The Day the Angel Fell," but he is shown to be a genuinely kind and caring father to his son Arabel.
 * This trope drives the plot of Basilisk. Two clans of blood thirsty killers, with their loyalties held close to their hearts, spiral the Cycle of Revenge to tragedy.
 * In Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the homunculi, but he shows affection for his wife.
 * Another homunculus, Pride, also shows affection for one person: This is particularly surprising, as Pride is by far the most evil of all the homunculi.
 * There are also who turn to the path of righteousness when they find out their families will likely become victims of the evil plot.
 * Also implied with, but.
 * Flame of Recca does this. Despite being a sadistic bastard of an assassin, it's made pretty clear Kurei has underlings who care for him. He clearly returns their loyalty, although in his own way, mourning them if they die and swearing revenge on their killers. Neon even falls in love with him, and they become a couple. As it turns out, he intends to take revenge on Kouran Mori because Mori murdered Kurei's first love.
 * Johan Liebert in Monster has loved ones, too, but it makes him more, not less, disturbing. Because to find and reunite with his estranged twin sister Anna, he actually kills her adoptive parents. Note that this one is an "iffy" case, because it's hard to tell if Johan actually loves her, or if she's simply his favorite experiment, as he may be incapable of love at this point.
 * from Bleach appears to be evil to the core, but
 * Even before that, look at Jerkass-bordering-on-Complete Monster Mayuri Kurotsuchi. While he would probably have anyway, he does so in a really horrifying manner and is especially angered after Szayel's.
 * Or because Szayel called himself perfect, which Mayuri was enraged at. He doesn't show any indication that he's bothered by the other fact.
 * It's debatable, and a large part of it depends on one's ability to track Mayuri's extremely inhuman reasoning; storing a poison in Nemu's body is quite pragmatic when dealing with hollows of unknown abilities but a known tendency towards cannibalism, but on the other hand, it does mean that dying by Mayuri's hand is relatively quick and painless while consuming Nemu like Szayel did resulted in him taking an eternity to experience his own death...
 * Several of the Arrancar also demonstrate this tendency, most pointedly Tia Harribel and Coyote Starrk, who are both very attached to their Fraccion.  Even Loly and Menoly, two arrancar girls who are noted mostly for their psychotic grudge against Orihime, appear to have genuinely loved each other, as Menoly supported Loly despite her massive and justified doubts about   and Loly went berserk when
 * The Fraccions also share such feelings, as
 * Suboshi from Fushigi Yuugi had a twin older brother named Amiboshi, and even when he had jumped off the slippery slope after thinking the kid was dead (as in,, he still cared for his twin. learnt it the hard way, indeed.
 * Also, Nakago and Soi, though it doesn't seem so at first.
 * The Noah from D Gray Man genuinely care for each other.
 * This backfires badly in Hunter X Hunter. Gon assumes the Ryodan don't have emotional connections. When he discovers that they, too, suffer from the loss of loved ones, he becomes furious at their hypocrisy for inflicting that pain on other people.
 * Dark Oak of Sonic X acts like a Complete Monster,.
 * Kurojaki from Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. He's one of the strongest and most ruthless villains in the manga, but he cares deeply about his son. When he thinks the little pup has been killed, he's devastated and goes into a beserk rage as he takes on the entire pack of dogs at once.
 * Before The Reveal, Naruto fans considered Itachi completely evil and heartless. Then we found out how much he cared about his little brother. There's no denying that Itachi worked for the bad side and did horrible things, but every evil deed he ever committed was done to protect Sasuke.
 * Debatable. Protecting Sasuke was just a wish of his. His main motivation for all horrible deeds he commited is actually  Whether that makes it better or worse is up to the reader.
 * In Mai Hi ME, Alyssa and Miyu are willing to destroy the school to advance the Searrs' plan, but they deeply care for one another (albeit in Alyssa's case, not quite as much as for her father), in spite of the fact that they are not considered as human by the rest of Searrs (Alyssa for being an artificially created Hime and Miyu for being a robot). Similarly, Nao, one of the more antagonisic Hime who did not become so out of love, considers her mother her most important person.
 * In Muhyo and Roji, the Cortlaw siblings vary in alignment (Mick is definitely evil while Kid is more innocent and a victim of manipulation), but they all care for each other, and seek to bring their parents back to life.
 * In the spin-off manga of Dragonball Z, Neko Majin Z, we find out that FRIEZA of all people has a kid...who, apart from having a tendency to be Affably Evil (when he's not playing soccer with the protagonists), seems pretty well-adjusted.

Comic Books
"Liebowitz: You shouldn't have threatened my family. You shouldn't have beat up my boy."
 * The Hood is a textbook example of this trope, using some of the proceeds from his criminal activities to pay for his mother's care while also supporting his pregnant girlfriend Sara.
 * The main villain the Hood "fights" during his first mini also counts; he loves his family greatly and was trying to find a mutant to be part of his supervillain squad because his daughter was one and asked him to hire some more.
 * In Frank Miller's To Hell and Back, the corrupt precinct captain Liebowitz lets the local crime lords run their businesses without interference, but when they worry he might be wavering, they threaten his family.


 * Doctor Doom's adoration of his deceased mother, Cynthia, is possibly his only unambiguously good trait.
 * During DC's One Year Later event, several minor Batman villains were killed off, one of them a mutated biologist named Orca. During the storyline, it's revealed that Orca was married to a normal human, who's interviewed by the police regarding the circumstances around her death. While a little humor is taken from the relationship (the man remarking that he had a thing for big women) the pain of loss is treated seriously.
 * Marvel villains Absorbing Man and Titania are both basically mean, violent thugs, but are married and genuinely love one another.
 * Darkseid, the self-proclaimed God of Evil and the Anthropomorphic Personification of Tyranny, once loved a good woman named Sulli and was loved in return. Darkseid's evil mother had Sulli poisoned, and any good in him died with her.
 * Mr. Freeze often tries to help his ill wife.
 * So does the Kingpin.
 * Used very well with the Kingpin who appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, as Daredevil decides that the only thing a man like him would understand is  and Spider-Man has to try and convince him that   All this happens while the Kingpin and his henchmen are in the room, by the way.
 * Despite General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross/Red Hulk being a type III Anti Villain, it is clear that he loves his daughter Betty.
 * From what we've seen in flashbacks, he loved Betty's mother Karen too; her death from cancer left him emotionally devastated.

Film
"Floop: You hesitated.
 * The Devils Rejects has the firefly family.
 * Briefly used in the first Spy Kids movie when Floop informs the Big Bad he has built soldiers for him and to demonstrate their effectiveness asks him to disarm one. Then an evil robot kid looking exactly like his son runs in the room, the Big Bad does nothing and the kid knocks him to the floor.

Lisp: I had to - he's my son.

Floop: Are you sure?

[kid's eyes flash]"

"Batman: He must have friends!
 * In The Proposition, Charlie Burns is a criminal, but he loves his little brother Mikey and wants to protect him, almost enough to kill his other brother Arthur at Captain Stanley's order. Arthur is a Complete Monster, but loves both his younger brothers and the rest of the Burns gang intensely, and thinks Charlie quite reasonable in choosing to buy Mikey's freedom with Arthur's life.
 * Darth Vader of Star Wars fame has Luke Skywalker; you can tell by his hesitance to kill and instead try to force a Face Heel Turn he really cares. This ends up being what ultimately causes Vader's Heel Face Turn in Return of the Jedi.
 * Bill, /The Bride and Vernita from Kill Bill are all merciless murderers as well as loving parents. Also, Budd's sword has the inscription: "To My Brother Budd, The Only Man I Ever Loved. Bill"
 * The anguish on Vernita's face when she realizes her baby girl Nikki is about to walk in on a deadly situation is perfectly played.
 * The Bride's horrifying dilemma about killing Bill in the end stems from the fact that she finds out  The scene in which The Bride   is perfectly played as well.
 * Bill's Parental Substitute Esteban is a ruthless and Affably Evil pimp, but he fondly remembers Bill himself.
 * In Best Seller James Woods' amoral hit man character is shown to have grown up in a loving family who he cares for. They have no idea what he does for a living.
 * In The Dark Knight, the mob are shown in several scenes sharing camaraderie. One in particular has two gang bosses (The Chechen and Salvatore Maroni) eating dinner together. Subverted (predictably) by the Joker.

Maroni: Friends? Have you met this guy?"

"Simon:"There's a difference between not liking one's brother, and not caring when some dumb, Irish flatfoot drops him out a window.""
 * Pando, the main antagonist of Two Hands, is an Affably Evil gangster and a killer -- who has a young son whom he clearly adores, watching kiddie TV with him and praising him for the origami pterodactyl he made. This goes back to the main theme of the film that bad people have some good inside them and good people have some bad inside them, as represented by the yin & yang.
 * In the Mexican film El Infierno, which deals with the violence of the drug cartels, "Cochiloco", one of the most ruthless drug cartel enforcers takes the protagonist to his home and introduces him to his wife and children. Cochiloco then glosses over this by saying "What? You thought I lived in a cave and ate human meat?".
 * Max Shreck in Batman Returns convinces The Penguin to capture him instead of his son Chip.
 * Karl in Die Hard grieves over McClane killing
 * Used again the Die Hard With a Vengeance when Simon reveals that McClane killed his brother,, despite Simon revealing that he hated his brother.


 * In a similar vein to the Die Hard films, Jet Li's character, Wah Sing Ku, at the end of Lethal Weapon 4 is attempting to flee Riggs and Murtaugh with his brother, all the other villains having been killed. When Murtaugh shoots Ku's brother while aiming for Ku himself, Ku sticks around and tries to kill Riggs and Murtaugh in revenge.
 * Vogel (Nazi war criminal) in The Debt is married to a nurse at his office, who is horrified when told that her husband has had a heart attack.
 * Mallory Knox in Natural Born Killers. She killed or helped kill dozens of complete strangers, but she doesn't lay a finger on her younger brother and even stops Mickey from hurting him as well.
 * In Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, the Nazi spy villain loves his daughter very much. At one point, the heroes try to use that against him by tricking her into going off on a trip to the country with one of them while the other tells the villain she's been kidnapped and will be killed if he doesn't release the diplomat he has abducted. At the end of the film,.
 * Gru in Despicable Me, though in a lesser extent. It came as a surprise that
 * Loki in Thor. Despite everything that happened, he loved his brother, his mother, his father, and his friends. It's partly this love that he uses to justify his actions; from getting Thor exiled to.

Literature
""How could I not love him....That is not to say that I approved of everything he did or much enjoyed the company of the man he became, but every little girl needs a big brother to protect her, and Tywin was big even when he was little.""
 * Sawney Rath in the Redwall book Taggerung did seem to start out genuinely liking his adopted/stolen son Tagg. Then of course Tagg went and messed everything up by being of a good species, and Sawney tried to have him killed, and things went downhill just a tad. Ferahgo, in Salamandastron, openly announces that if he finds out his son Klitch is in on the plots against his life, Klitch will be allowed to live "because he's my son".
 * An odd version in Good Omens: Although it's everything they've supposedly been working toward for millennia, Crowley (a demon) and Aziraphale (an angel) decide to go up against Heaven and Hell together to prevent the Apocalypse because they've gotten kinda fond of Earth and humanity after six thousand years and they'd rather not have it completely destroyed in a blaze of hellfire and divine glory.
 * In John C Wright's War of the Dreaming, a number of the main heroes are very distant descendants of main villain Azrael de Gray; he mostly prefers to not kill them. Enslaving them in an And I Must Scream situation is a perfect alternative, though.
 * In the Harry Potter series, the entire Malfoy family has virtually no morally positive traits, save for that they genuinely love each other, culminating when
 * Narcissa's sister, Bellatrix, who's pretty much the worst Death Eater also seems to have a close relationship with her; she calls her Cissy, and she's confident that Narcissa wouldn't hurt her, because they're sisters.
 * And in strong enough to provoke a Heel Face Turn.
 * In the Sherlock Holmes novel Hound of the Baskervilles, the escaped Serial Killer Seldon is still loved by his older sister Elisa. Upon seeing Elisa's completely heartbroken reaction after Seldon is accidentally killed by the Hound (Seldon was wearing old clothing belonging to the Hound's intended victim, and smelled like him as a result), Watson comments "Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him."
 * Very common in A Song of Ice and Fire; many villains are saved from being truly despicable by their love for their families. In fact it's quicker to list the subversions/aversions/inversions:
 * The Late Lord Frey is a bastard to everyone, but anyone who dares to mess with his children or grandchildren had best be prepared to suffer... and it's this reflex which caused him to cross the Moral Event Horizon.
 * Actually, subverted,
 * Subverted with Roose Bolton and his bastard son Ramsay; they're close because they're both very nasty men.
 * Subverted with Cersei Lannister, who was entirely motivated by the desire to protect her children, but was and thus still deeply unsympathetic.
 * Both subverted and played straight with Tywin Lannister. Tywin is borderline abusive to all three of his children, though in different ways. However, he is genuinely close to his brother Kevan and sister Genna. Genna says it best:


 * Notably averted with Gregor Clegane, who straight-up murdered most of his family (father, little sister, and at least two wives), earning him both Complete Monster status and the undying hatred of his younger brother Sandor. Inverted with Sandor himself, whose hatred of Gregor is part of what makes him such a compelling character.
 * In the Star Trek Enterprise Relaunch, Admiral Valdore cares little for the appalling loss of life in the war of aggression he's waging. Indeed, despite some slight disquietude he shows little restraint in using near-genocidal tactics against Coridan. However, his love for his wife and children is always shown as completely genuine and admirable.
 * The protagonist of the Villain.net series is a kid named Jake. First the idea of being a supervillain seemed like fun, but when it costs him his family, he decides that becoming the greatest supervillain in the world is the only way to get them back, or else the only way to exact revenge.
 * Sunlight Gardener and Morgan Sloat in The Talisman genuinely love their sons. However, Sunlight's child and Morgan Sloat's twinner's son died years ago. He does not care about Sloat's son at all.
 * Horris Quaiche from Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space goes from Loveable Rogue to insane religious leader and dictator to borderline Complete Monster, but he genuinelly loved his tragically deceased lover (whose death triggered his descent into madness in the first place).
 * In Mortal Instruments, the Big Bad Valentine seems to actually care about Jace.
 * Thaddeus Valentine from Mortal Engines has his daughter Katherine who he truly loves and cares about..
 * In Animorphs, Visser One is pushing for a slow, secret conquest of Earth instead of the violent conflict Visser Three favors. An open war could result in the death of billions, and that might include.
 * Tigerstar, the Big Bad of Warrior Cats had a mate and kits. So did his brutal, Blood Knight mentor Thistleclaw, and the eventually villainous Antpelt (minus the kits for him).

Live-Action TV
"Lilah: Is everything alright? Are they taking care of you? - No, mom, this is Lilah. You called Lilah. Do you need anything? Do you need money? - No - mom, I can't come over. I'm in Los Angeles. You know that. - Don't cry. Mom, please, stop it."
 * An episode of Burn Notice has Michael do this once: Brennan the arms dealer is back for revenge, and he's holding Michael's brother hostage to get him to do his bidding. Michael is forced to comply, all the while surreptitiously contacting Sam and Fiona to try and find something they can use to make Brennan release his grip. In the end, Michael strings together the clues they find and figures out Brennan's weak point: he bluffs Brennan into thinking he's got an assassin positioned in Europe to kill his beloved daughter. Brennan is shocked that Michael would pull such a dirty trick and surrenders.
 * In NCIS Rene Benoit, aka, is the father of Jeanne Benoit.
 * Also let's not forget Ari Haswari who was
 * From Canadian drama show Flashpoint, one episode has a drug lord begging the man holding a gun to his fellow drug lord ... and brother.
 * From the first-season Law and Order episode "The Secret Sharers": The victim was a drug dealer and paroled rapist who was believed to have been murdered in retaliation for raping the murderer's girlfriend. His parole officer said that he was one step over a slug. Yet he regularly gave money to support his young daughter. One of the detectives said "Hey, you think he's crap? I think he's crap!...but he had a little girl who thought he was Mister Rogers."
 * Gul Dukat from Star Trek Deep Space Nine has a half-Bajoran daughter, Tora Ziyal.
 * Cardassians in general are subject to this trope, as Cardassians are generally polite, considerate and loyal. It's just that they also happen to be loyal to a power-hungry facist government. In one instance, we see a Torture Technician being visited by his daughter while he is at work, and offering her kindly fatherly advice on how to care for her pet. Right in front of the man the father is currently tasked with breaking.
 * In an interesting use of the trope from Star Trek the Next Generation, one of the Borg drones goes absolutely apeshit when his comrade, Torsus, is killed.
 * The Femme Fatale from Angel.

""We can, you know. [Vampires] can love very well, if not wisely.""
 * In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if you hurt the Mayor or Faith, expect the other to come looking for you.
 * Spike genuinely loved and cared for Drusilla, in stark contrast to Angelus, Darla, and even Drusilla herself. Indeed his Establishing Character Moment has him instantly switch from threatening his future Mooks to worrying about whether Drusilla is cold after she had wandered into the room.
 * Drusilla loved Spike (and Angel), if not with the same level of devotion that Spike had for her. Drusilla herself said it best.

"Eames: True love. Probably his only redeeming trait."
 * Angelus, however, is completely incapable of love, despite him and Darla being passionately evil, they both have ditched each other or ratted the other out at times in the past, just so one of them doesn't get killed, leaving the other to face the wrath of their pursuers. Angel, on the other hand clearly loved Darla. As a human, it terrifies her, as a vampire, it sickens her.
 * Angel encounters a vampire couple who show this for each other while he's dealing with the news that Buffy has died (again). After Angel stakes the woman, the man turns himself into an unstoppable killing machine (with a very short lifespan) for a shot at vengeance. Angel ends up feeling guilty because his months of brooding over Buffy seems to pale in comparison to the love this completely evil monster felt for his mate and his reaction to her death.
 * One Law and Order Criminal Intent villain was a con artist who had a mark's son murdered just to advance his scheme to defraud her. However, he did deeply care for one other person besides himself: his partner. Goren ended up exploiting his desperation not to hurt her to force a confession.

"Boelyn: Taylor's a complete bastard, and then some...but he loves his son. He'd sooner slit his own throat than hurt Lucas."
 * Alias: Arvin Sloane cares deeply about his wife, Emily; later, he bonds with his daughter (from a different mother), Nadia. Sark also expresses some emotion after death.
 * In the ever-confusing The X-Files plot surrounding Samantha Mulder and whatever became of her, at one point it is said that the Big Bad, CSM, rescued Samantha from her captors and raised her as his own. She points out that he was a caring and loving father.
 * Terra Nova: From Boelyn's point of view prior to, Commander Taylor fits this trope.

": I killed ... and I loved him. What makes you think I'd care for you or Dad?"
 * From Glee: Sue Sylvester's genuine affection for her sister.
 * Volkoff from Chuck shows some hints of really loving his daughter Vivian.
 * On Babylon 5, Bester tries to play this card with Garibaldi in an early appearance, portraying himself as just a misunderstood family man. Garibaldi isn't having any of it. Later, it comes out that Bester really does have a true love: his mistress, a rogue telepath who ends up being abducted by the Shadows to become part of a Shadow vessel's Wetware CPU. Bester does not handle this well.
 * In an episode of Criminal Minds called "Parasite", a conman who tricks uses romance as one of his main weapons to trick people out of their money suffers a psychotic break. He may have been a cheating murderer at that point, but he did genuinely care about the safety of his wife and son.
 * On Twenty Four, many of the terrorists have family members who can be used against them, particularly when their love of those people is greater than their loyalty to the mission. For example, Jack breaks the initial Big Bad of Season 2 by pretending to kill his family, and Dina Araz of Season 4 cooperates with CTU to guarantee the welfare of her son (while pointing out that if he dies, she doesn't care whether the US gets nuked.
 * Subverted with.


 * This turns out to be a big part of Number Two's motivation in the remake of The Prisoner. Two loves his coma-stricken wife very, very much.
 * Ransik, the Big Bad of Power Rangers Time Force, genuinely loved his daughter Nadira despite being a mutant terrorist.
 * In Warehouse 13, H.G Wells -- even after 110 years, the only thing she genuinely cares and mournes for is her daughter, Christina.
 * In The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, Molly Hardy is Shirley's nemesis and quite the manipulative Magnificent Bastard, but when she learns that her horse has to be put to sleep it's the first and only time we see her cry.
 * The rural Kentucky villains of Justified provide numerous examples of this trope. In season two, Mags Bennett used her three sons as henchmen and showed great warmth toward her adopted daughter, Loretta.
 * In season three, Boyd's criminal enterprize includes his cousin Johnny and his girlfriend Ava, to whom he is very loyal.
 * Also in season three, Detroit mob lieutenant Robert Quarles has a wife and children back home. Quarles makes a point of talking to his son on the phone and mailing him postcards during his exile in Kentucky. Later in the season, however, as Quarles' schemes unravel and he plunges deeper into Oxycontin addiction, he ignores phone calls from his family., Duffy suggests that Quarles go home. Quarles says that he has nowhere to go, suggesting that things may not be rosy at home.

Music

 * Slim Shady is entirely amoral, and loves his daughter.

Religion

 * The Bible mentions this to make a point: If evil people know how to give good gifts to their children, then how much more does God know how to give gifts to His? Also given as one of the reasons we are supposed to love our enemies: Even evil people love those that love them, so there is nothing really extraordinary about loving those that love you.

Tabletop Games

 * Warhammer 40000 has the infamous relationship between Nurgle, Chaos God of Disease, and Isha, Eldar Goddess of Healing. It's kind of one-sided, but it's the closest to nice that a Chaos God can ever get.
 * More generally, this is Nurgle's relationship with all his worshipers. He genuinely loves everyone, even his enemies, and will offer comfort and succor to all who suffer the travails of the condition of being mortal. That said succor involves making a person comfortable with the idea of decaying into a bloated and twisted form for however long they may last, and that refusal will result in his followers battering a person until they accept Nurgle's love is irrevelant to the affection he feels for them.
 * Warhammer: Warriors of Chaos has a character named Valkia the Bloody. She has a rule called "Consort of Khorne"; it lets her reroll on the Eye of the Gods table if she doesn't like the results. The reason she can is because her patron god, Khorne, who went so far as to resurrect her following her first death, can't stop watching her. This is a god whose throne is made of Nothing but Skulls, mind you.
 * Rich Burlew covered this as a way to make villains more fleshed-out in his Villain Workshop articles. In the presented example, two villainous siblings were honestly planning to divvy up the world between them and rule without fighting each other, but the heroes believed Evil Cannot Comprehend Good and assumed they were both gearing up to backstab the other. This led to a very shoddy attempt to play one side against the other that failed in the worst possible way.

Theater

 * Naturally, Shakespeare gets in on the action:
 * King Lear: When Edmund realizes that both Goneril and Regan loved him (or at least as close to love as they could get), he resolves to save Cordelia's life. Unfortunately, her death happened You Are Too Late.
 * Macbeth: As Harold Bloom remarked, the Macbeths are the happiest married couple in Shakespeare.
 * Shylock of The Merchant of Venice is a fairly unpleasant Loan Shark, but he is shown to mourn his deceased wife and truly loves his daughter.

Videogames

 * In Dragon Age, Loghain Mac Tir may be ruthless and paranoid, but he loves his daughter Anora..
 * Also,
 * Anora also had genuine reason to fear Arl Howe.
 * Speaking of Arl Howe, you meet his son Nathaniel in the expansion Awakening - who plans to kill your PC for murdering his father. (Nathaniel, though, didn't know exactly what his father was doing. . .)
 * Though you may debate whether anyone in Dragon Age II is really 'evil' due to the omnipresent Grey and Grey Morality, even if you play Hawke as a dog-kicking madperson with a tendency to let dangerous blood mages go/sell out innocent mages to the Templars when all they wanted was a taste of freedom, he/she still cares about his/her family.
 * It's thought that Darth Vader thinks of Starkiller from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as a son. Thank god he didn't raise Luke.
 * Neverwinter Nights mostly averts this, as its villains are mostly the cackling Omnicidal Maniac sort, but the module-creating community does have some examples.
 * Alex in the Bastard of Kosigan series has definitely crossed the Moral Event Horizon, but her dialogue hints that she still loves the player.
 * Neverwinter Nights 2 Mask of the Betrayer might not count as Akachi isn't technically a villain, but his love for the Red Woman and his brother do help bring him back to himself and end the curse that is killing your player.
 * On another note, Arraman himself still loves his brother and has a tendency to not attack you when he really ought to.
 * Overlord has the title character gain a mistress partway through the game. Rose is prim and a bit condescending... although even later in the game, you can dump Rose for her sultry sister Violet.
 * Overlord II stars the son of the previous Overlord, after said Overlord vanished at the end of Overlord: Raising Hell (while his mistress was pregnant). He has one childhood friend Kelda, who in turn becomes his first mistress. Even in the stage of the game when both are children, Kelda is the only character who likes the Witch-Boy and doesn't treat him like the Enfant Terrible he is, instead trying to protect him from bullying while developing a crush on him.
 * In Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem 5: Thracia 776, Yurius is evil as they come, but even though he's monstrous, twisted, and possessed by a Dark God, he still loves and adores the rather good, if mis-sided, Ishtar (and despite abhorring the evil he commits, she loves him very much in return). To note: In 4, there's two points where you encounter the couple as bosses... and the game lets you have the dreaded Berserk Staff...
 * The Super Mario Bros villain Bowser with his seven Overlord Jrs and one Daddy's Little Villain. For this clan, taking over the world is like a family vacation! He even makes sure they each get their own little kingdom to play in/rule-with-an-iron-claw!
 * In Castle Crashers, after you defeat the Conehead Groom a big, burly cyclops enters the scene, picks up the Groom's body, and cries. He then escapes with the Princess. When you finally catch up to him, he's holding a funeral for his pal. Whether the groom was his son, father, or just a good friend is unclear.
 * Throughout Bio Shock, it's implied that Andrew Ryan had an illegitimate child. Later, it's revealed that
 * The Panda King from Sly Cooper series has Jing-King.
 * In Sengoku Basara 3 we have Otani Yoshitsugu, a leprous Misanthrope Supreme Evil Sorcerer whose stated goal in life is to make every human just as miserable as he is. Yet, for all this, he remains completely loyal and dedicated to White Haired Pretty Boy Ishida Mitsunari, because Mitsunari already is that miserable and is very good at spreading said misery around.
 * In Saints Row 2, the Boss looks like an amoral sociopath (and don't be fooled s/he is), but God help you if you dare to touch any of the other Saints. You will be ended in some particularly gruesome ways. A Villain Protagonist to the hilt, yes, but one who cares about their people at least...
 * Saints Row 3 leaves it up to the player to decide whether the Boss cares enough to prevent Saints from being killed or whether they're just a convenient excuse for the next rampage.
 * Dracula genuinely loved both of his wives; it was their deaths that prompted him to go evil. Twice. In Symphony of the Night, he expresses remorse upon finding out that his actions go against his second wife's last words. He is also implied to have some feelings towards his son Alucard, even though Alucard is his enemy.
 * In Alpha Protocol, Alan Parker is a cold and calculating person who considers everyone he works with as expendable and has no problems with eliminating them if he sees it as necessary..
 * A Villain Protagonist version, Alex Mercer from Prototype shows he deeply cares for his sister Dana.
 * In Prototype 2, James Heller was getting ready to kill  but spares him when he finds out the man has a family he cares deeply about.
 * In Prototype 2, James Heller was getting ready to kill  but spares him when he finds out the man has a family he cares deeply about.

Webcomics

 * Order of the Stick makes it clear that an "evil" alignment does not prevent a character from having loved ones. This was especially clear in Start of Darkness, which subverts/inverts it when.
 * General Tarquin, Lawful Evil father of, demonstrates this trope quite blatantly, celebrating his long-lost son's homecoming by throwing a festival that culminates in spelling out said son's name using the burning corpses of escaping slaves nailed to the side of a mountain.
 * They weren't corpses. At least not when they started burning.
 * Tarquin's right-hand Malack lost three offspring in a revolution. Even years later, he wants to be a father again but can't find another true love and is unsure about adoption.
 * Enor and Ganji are fairly amoral, greed-driven bounty hunters who are willing to kill friends and family members of their collected bounties should they come asking. However, they truly do care for each other, which is another Kick the Dog moment when Tarquin orders them to fight each other in the gladiator arena, which he sent there because they "tried" to extort money from him by playing out another Star Wars reference in a long string of them.
 * Nale and Sabine seem to honestly care about each other, even though she's apparently keeping the secret about from him.
 * The ancient black dragon was probably evil before she ever decided to avenge herself against Vaarsuvius, but she had a very specific beef when Vaarsuvius killed her only son.
 * And the only being capable of inducing empathy in Belkar is his cat, Mr. Scruffy.
 * In Blip, Incubus and Succubus care for each other very much; their loyalty to each other is stronger than their loyalty to their boss. In fact, when Incubus was seriously injured, Succubus seemed willing to sacrifice herself to save his life.
 * In Evil Plan the Webcomic, supervillain Dr Kinesis still visits his clueless family for the holidays, and even looks out for his sister, objecting to her fiance as any suspicious sibling might.
 * Captain Snow in Archipelago (of all people) has . He is also rather protective of his nephew... but also averted in that, though he seems to regret that.

Web Originals

 * In Dragonball Z Abridged Jeice and Burter show tremendous friendship for each other. On the rest of the Ginyu Force? Over Guldo's death they were discussing the last time they masturbated.
 * Ginyu as well. He is shaken by Burter's death, calling it a hefty loss, Recoome's is what sends him out for revenge and after Jeice's he voices genuine distress, even pleading with his foes for a brief moment of silence of mourning.
 * In Survival of the Fittest, Danya is usually presented as a Complete Monster who orchestrates the game for no known reason and treats most of his subordinates like crap. However, versions one and three gave him a Pet the Dog moment when announcements showed him visiting his family, who he loves dearly and is viewed as a hero by.
 * The Woobie of Danya's Evil Minions, Dorian, has been shown to be working with the terrorists to provide for his mother.
 * Clio Gabriella: murderess, psychopath, and just really wanted everyone else on the island dead...except for her boyfriend, Simon Telamon, who she'd been searching for since the beginning of the game, and truly believed that even though the premise of Survival of the Fittest really didn't allow for anything past the next week, that they could be together.
 * Friendship Is Dragons features Rainbow Dash as a Chaotic Evil Barbarian. When the GM argues that this means she doesn't fit the Element of Loyalty, Dash's player argues the point using this. Yes, she fully intends to do Evil and selfish things in the future, but that doesn't preclude her being faithful to her True Companions. She does what she wants, regardless of what others say, and that includes having friends she refuses to betray.
 * Diamanda Hagan threatens to kill The Nostalgia Chick's puppy, friends and BFF Nella if she doesn't shout the word "paaaaink" in a cameo for the former's review. As you can imagine, Chick's pissed off about this.

Western Animation
"Xanatos: "Now you know my weakness."
 * Xanatos of Gargoyles is mad protective of his son Alexander and loves his wife Fox (who herself wasn't exactly a hero). When Oberon asks them to give up their son, it does not go too well.

Goliath: "Only you would regard love as a weakness.""

"Jenny: No, I understand. Family does come first."
 * This also counts for several members of the Third Race, even if they tend to be more chaotic than straightforwardly villainous. Oberon and Titania clearly care about each other, and Titania also has a good relationship with, at least before she started scheming. Puck, likewise, seems rather attached to the Xanatos family. And the Weird Sisters, who may have been the real Big Bads of the series, considered Demona and Macbeth "our responsibility" and "our children."
 * Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender loves her father Ozai and seems to be a Well Done Daughter Girl just like Zuko, albeit one who's used to getting the attention she craves. She also seems to love her mother, Ty Lee and Mai, though because of Ozai's teachings these feelings are somewhat twisted.
 * Azula is, in some ways, also fairly affectionate toward Zuko. She slowly warms up to him after he returns home in Season 3. That doesn't, however, include THAT scene...
 * Iroh genuinely cared for his son Lu Ten and his brother's kids. However, he spends the series being a Cool Old Guy, so this only applies when he was the Fire Nation's foremost commander.
 * Gorillaz: His exact motivations are unclear, but Murdoc seemingly panicked and rushed to help when discovering that
 * Kale in 'Princess Gwenevere and The Jewel Riders, otherwise cold and heartless, genuinely cares for her dragon, calling it her "big baby" as his "momma".
 * Mr. Boss, from Codename Kids Next Door, despite siding with Father and claiming to be a child-hater, has 3 kids of his own that he marks as an exception to his hatred. One of his kids is Fanny, a.k.a. Numbuh 86 of the Kids Next Door themselves, no less. In turn, Numbuh 86 also unconditionally loves her father, despite being one of the most militant, borderline Knight Templar KND agents.
 * My Life As a Teenage Robot: In "Humiliation 101", Jenny tries to avert an embarrassing presentation by her mother. She calls up her entire Rogues Gallery only to find they're all too busy to come to Earth and make a scene. The last on her list is Skippy the Wonder Puppet:


 * And in "Planet of the Bikers",.
 * Oroku Saki of the most recent version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has one shred of humanity in the fact he truly loves his adopted daughter Karai.
 * Hoggish Greedly from Captain Planet and The Planeteers may be a supervillain, but he truly loves his son Junior. The one time his polluting put his son in harm's way, he performed an Enemy Mine with the Planeteers to fix it.
 * The first most prominent antagonist of Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy had Nergal who went on to marry Billy's aunt, Aunt Sister, and produce their son, Nergal Jr - Billy's cousin. He still remained a villain, but was considerably more easy on Billy and often spoke of his love for his wife.
 * Allthough his evil can be debatable, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb deeply cares for both his daughter AND his arch-nemesis.
 * The Monarch and his wife Doctor Miss The Monarch (formerly Doctor Girlfriend before she got married) are frequently considered the strongest, most loving relationship in the entire Venture Brothers show, even if they are deranged supervillains.
 * The X Men Evolution version of Mystique seems to genuinely care for her son, Kurt, despite trying to take out the rest of the X-Men.

Real Life

 * Almost if not always Truth in Television.
 * Hitler had a dog he was very found of, so much so he became completely inconsolable when she died. His wife Eva also had two dogs of her own. After he and Eva committed suicide, the surviving dogs were killed. The people in the bunker were more affected by the deaths of the dogs than Eva's death.
 * There's also pictures of him interacting with fawns.

"...and when the hero launches into an explanation of morality that goes way over her head, that will be her cue to pull the lever and drop him into the pit of crocodiles. Children love crocodiles as much as they love evil overlords, and it's important to spend time with the grandkids."

- The rest of # 143