Affably Evil/Literature: Difference between revisions

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has a few:

** The master healer Qyburn looks like "some child's favourite grandfather" and seems to be a genial and competent man in an otherwise psychotic band of mercenaries. It's later revealed that {{spoiler|he is a [[Mad Doctor]] who was expelled from the ranks of the Citadel for performing vivisections on humans. In spite of his atrocities and work as a [[Torture Technician]], he always seems to maintain a demure and professional demeanor.}}

** Roose Bolton, whose banner is a flayed man and lives in the [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Dreadfort]], lives up to his family's reputation. Still, unlike his [[Bastard Bastard|bastard son]], he can be quite a nice man if you are not his enemy.

* How has no one mentioned Aro from [[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]? The man is nothing but friendly and charming to Edward, Bella, and Alice, even going so far as to ask after Edward's father. But yet, he's a power-hungry maniac who attacks the Cullens unprovoked because he wants the talented members of the family to join his coven.

** Also, James. He wanted nothing more than to eat Bella but yet he was completely kind to her all throughout the torture session and always had a smile on his face.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'':

** The White Court is labeled as the most dangerous of the three vampire courts because many of them act like this. The rest are [[Faux Affably Evil]], but are still quite skilled at being friendly and nonthreatening up until they rape you to death or kill you through sheer terror. In particular, Lara Raith is shown to be a genuinely civil and affable woman who tries to limit bloodshed and talk out her issues with others, before resorting to cat's paws to kill her competition in inordinately elegant manners. In ''Turn Coat'', Lara hangs a great big lampshade on this. "A monster. A habitually neat, polite, civil, and efficient monster" as she's feeding wounded employees to her kin. One of the creepiest scenes in the whole series.

* From Jacqueline Carey's ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'': the main villainess, {{spoiler|Melisande Shahrizai}}, is evil through and through, but she is always smiling, calm, and collected. Not even engaging in Maniacal Laughter when it might be appropriate. She's intelligent, charming, very pleasant company, and will even give you a fabulous farewell party before killing you off.

* From ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'':

** Lucius Malfoy from the same series is a partial example. His ''tone'' is almost always even and coolly polite, but his ''words'' tend to range from mildly to extremely insulting to whoever he's talking to.

* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' has [[Manipulative Bastard|Sol]], who, although a bit self-centred, is seen as nice and polite by most cats who meet him...Until he starts playing mind games and manipulating them ''[[For the Evulz|for fun]]''.

* Nyarlathotep in ''[[H.P. Lovecraft|The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath]]''.

* George Wickham in ''[[Pride and Prejudice]].'' He is described as quite charming and "amiable", which causes both Elizabeth ''and'' Lydia to fall for him. It is only when Elizabeth finds out the truth from Darcy, {{spoiler|that Wickham tried to seduce and then elope with his sister Georgiana in order to get access to Darcy's fortune without having to do a day's work}}, that his true character comes out. And then, Wickham {{spoiler|runs off with Lydia}}, nearly ruining the Bennet family until {{spoiler|Darcy pays him to marry her}}.

* [[Artemis Fowl]], {{spoiler|at least, in the beginning. Later, he makes a [[Heel Face Turn]] and becomes an [[Anti-Hero]].}}

* Napoleon in Naomi Novik's [[Temeraire]] series.

* Captain Shannon from ''[[Ben Elton|The First Casualty]]'' is the personification of what the corruption war can do to the human soul. He is convicted that his merits in combat and the horrors he experienced first-hand pardon him for every atrocity he commits, like raping indiscriminately or {{spoiler|murdering a [[Warrior Poet]] who got disillusioned with the war and was about to come out with it}}. He maintains a nonchalant and amicable demeanour most of the time, and apparently is sincerely devoted to the cause of victory and is concerned with the morals of his comrades in arms, at that.

* O'Brien from ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. Rather disconcerting, given how he manages to do this while torturing Winston.

* Mule from [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Foundation]]'' series is a more suitable target for pity than anger: he's ugly, sterile, and physically weak, but is amiable enough to befriend the protagonists. Too bad he's a psychic bent on conquering the Galaxy.

* The ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' has Bauchelain, who can calmly explain to the woman he's just raped why he should not have raped his manservant instead.

* [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]] deconstructs this trope with [[The Captain]] Nemo, who is a [[Wicked Cultured]], [[Nice Guy|extremely polite person]] that prefers to put the protagonists in [[Gilded Cage|Gilded Cages]], rather than destroy them. He really is a good, noble human being [[Moral Event Horizon|who cruelly destroy his enemies]] in his fight against [[The Empire]]. How can a truly good man do those terrible things? [[Villainous Breakdown|Because he is slowly but surely losing his sanity through the novel, and in the end he becomes a]] [[Death Seeker]]. [[An Aesop|The whole point of the novel is to show that]] [[Science Is Bad|a submarine like the Nautilus could be used as a ]] [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]], and any human, no matter how good and noble, will discover that [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]].

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Henry "Hank" Jellicoe most certainly has elements of this, complete with the reveal that he had reporter Virgil Anders beaten up to the point of being wheelchair-bound and put in a [[Gilded Cage]] for calling him a "monster" in a book he was writing about Jellicoe title "Man, Myth, Monster" in ''[[Deja Vu]]''. Although the fact that he talked to Anders like they were best friends for a few minutes after putting him in the cage would indicate that Jellicoe is actually [[Faux Affably Evil]].

* Lorthas, the [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[Boundary's Fall]]'' series, exhibits this trope, always ready with a smile, a polite word, and often enough with a bottle of wine to share. He does have dungeons, but when he finds out how [[The Dragon]] is treating the prisoners there, orders conditions improved.

* The Leucrotta in ''[[The Orphan's Tales|The Orphans Tales]]'' is actually a fairly nice guy, if you don't try to fight him. Even then, he'd mostly kill you because that's his role in the story, not because he actually dislikes you.