Affably Evil/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Wheatley from Portal: "Hello! This is the part where I kill you!"
  • Bob Page from Deus Ex and Deus Ex Human Revolution. While in reality, he is a short tempered man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, he frequently puts on a friendly approachable face to those who do not know his true intentions. To the public at large, he is a wealthy philanthropist. To his workers, he is warm and caring, will not shy away from using smilies in his emails, and will insist on being called Bob, opposed to the more formal Mr. Page or Robert.
  • Fallout:
    • President John Henry Eden from Fallout 3 has a kind voice broadcast across the wasteland on Enclave radio; it will lift your spirits as you traverse the wasteland hearing about how the Enclave will come and begin to transform America back the way it was before the nukes fell (unless you played the other Fallout games). He is similarly polite and gracious when you meet him in person. What he doesn't mention is that his bold new vision requires killing off pretty much everyone.
    • President Richardson of Fallout 2 is very similar in character, greeting the player in a friendly manner ("I am the president of the United States, and you are...?") and then going on to explain his plan of genociding the entire continent with a virus he intends to release. He's also so gullible that you almost feel bad for him when you have to kill him to get his security card. If you pick the right conversation paths, he admits that he really doesn't like what he's going to do and derives no pleasure from it, but he's come to accept that it is ultimately the right thing to do (to him, anyway).** The player can easily become this trope if played evil while still picking the friendly speech options.
    • To a lesser extent, Mr. Burke, as well. A nice suit, a sweet hat, and a smooth voice makes him incredibly charming. Oh yeah, he also wants to destroy an entire town with a nuclear bomb, all because his boss made an off-hand complaint one day. Nice guy.
    • And Alister Tenpenny for that matter. He wasn't "cool", but he was polite and kind as hell.
      • Of note is the fact Tenpenny specifically asked Burke to evacuate Megaton before blowing it up. Burke... didn't really bother, but Tenpenny doesn't know that. Tenpenny's only truly negative point is being a ghoul hater... and to be perfectly fair to him, the ghouls in the tower's vicinity gave him very little reason to be polite to them. Other than that he's largely just not terribly bright, in spite of being the boss.
    • The add-ons to the game have their fair share of affably evil characters too. The Pitt gave us Ashur (assuming you see him as evil after certain reveals towards the end of the DLC), while Point Lookout gave us Tobar.
    • Another great Fallout example would be the citizens of Andale.
    • In Fallout: New Vegas, this includes most senior Legion members and Benny.
  • Dr.Robotnik/Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog has his moments of this trope throughout his various depictions. This is most noticeable in Sonic X and its subsequent comic, and in the movie, where he makes a big show of holding the President and Sara hostage, but gets along with them marvelously well whenever Sonic isn't around.
    • In Sonic Heroes, he is described as "a romanticist, a feminist, and a self-proclaimed gentleman", but also as possessing a mania that often obscures this side of his nature.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:
    • Shelly de Killer from Justice For All appears to be a rather intelligent and likable man who just so happens to brutally murder people for a living.
    • Within five minutes of meeting you, Police Chief Damon Gant has probably given you an affectionate nickname, laughed uproariously at something funny you said, and extolled to you the many virtues of swimming. Oh, and he framed a child for a murder he committed so that he could use her apparent guilt to manipulate her sister, the Chief Prosecutor, essentially giving him complete control over both the police and the prosecutor's office. But other than that, he's a nice guy. In-game dialogue states that if you're short on cash, he's the man to ask to borrow from.
    • Investigations: Ernest Amano is a pretty friendly and conciliatory person who happens to be a Corrupt Corporate Executive whose business group is in cahoots with an international smuggling ring. He even tries to get his guilty-as-sin son acquitted for murder, but drops the idea when charged with obstruction of justice.
  • Final Fantasy likes this trope, in between its Omnicidal Maniac villains.
    • Rubicante is quite polite and articulate for an Archfiend. He restores the HP of the party prior to battling them, he's outraged when he learns of his Mad Scientist subordinate Dr. Lugae's cruel experiments on humans, and his first appearance has him easily defeating Ninja prince, Edge, where Rubicante praises his current abilities and potential, and encourages him to train and become stronger and then return for a rematch.
    • Gilgamesh was an over-the-top goon whose respect for the heroes' fighting talents after they'd beaten him a few times grew into actual affection to the point that he sacrificed himself (with a strangely amusing Final Speech) to protect them from one of the Big Bad's meaner minions. He also has a devoted fanbase, probably explaining his many, many reappearances.
    • Seymour Guado invites the heroes to his mansion, lays out food for them before seeing them, proposes to the heroine, and is generally mild-mannered and soft-spoken when he isn't trying to kill your party members or scheming to kill everyone in the world because he thinks death is a release from the pain of a sad life. Even when preparing to engage your party members, he manages to sound affable:

"Ah, of course. "Protect the summoner even at the cost of one's life." The Code of the Guardian. How admirable. Well, if you're offering your lives, I will have to take them."

    • Final Fantasy XII's Vayne Solidor is cultured, polite, affable to the public, and an extremely talented speaker. One entire scene centers around him getting so fed up with a merchant refusing to drop "Lord" from his title, he invites him to dinner at the palace! Arguably, Vayne isn't so much evil (though he does have his moments) as a Machiavellian statesman, ruthless in his pursuit of personal power and glory.
  • The Ur-Quan Kzer-za of Star Control, while the rulers of a brutal slave empire spanning a quarter of a galaxy, are actually pretty nice guys when you talk to them. They do any of the following: fully accept surrender and mention that your crew will be treated well and taken back to Earth, acknowledge your status as a Worthy Opponent, mention that they are protecting their thralls from much, much worse things in the galaxy, and entreat you to go home should you win against them, as the more of their ships you destroy, the less likely they are to win their current war with their Omnicidal Maniac kin. They also give the races willing to fight for them an absurd amount of autonomy, find a new (and very nice) homeworld for the defeated race, avoid wasting resources whenever possible, accept the wishes of the races they've beaten, and generally conduct themselves with honor whenever possible. All of these things, quite naturally, aid in their downfall. Moreover, it's an established fact that they never insult foes. And this fact can be exploited by PCs too.
    • The Kzer-Za let you go unmolested for warning them about the Neo-Dnyarri. This does allow you to go right back to opposing them, but it does make sense even from a less affable perspective: the Dnyarri are the reason the modern Ur-Quan are the way they are, and the Ur-Quan remember very well. Anything you do, the entire Doctrinal War between the Kzer-Za and the Kohr-Ah, is small fry compared to the possible return of the Dnyarri.
  • The villains of the forgettable game Night Trap, who are a nice family who donate to charity and have friends over. Of course, they eat the friends, and the charity they donate to is zombie vampires...
  • Tsukihime - A certain vampire victim turned vampire herself is an example. She is a nice, sweet girl, who honestly loves and cares for the main hero. She just happens to require sucking blood to live, is beginning to get a perverse enjoyment of it, and happens to sometimes get the sudden urge to go "fufufufu". She's rather pitiable, and Shiki agrees. It's Satsuki, if you hadn't guessed, and he pities her so much that he grants her the only peace he can...a quick death.
  • Dimentio from Super Paper Mario is a good example of this trope, always wearing a pleasant smile and showering the heroes with compliments. "Well met, lady. Your beauty is as refreshing as a slap to the face on a crisp winter's day", or "If they make greeting cards to thank people for helping with evil plans, I owe you one."
    • The greeting card one isn't really this. In context, it's a huge insult to injury.
    • Count Bleck is also a good example of this. He uses polite language and never punishes his minions physically.
  • King Dedede, of the Kirby games, is almost always the villain through being possessed, or a misunderstanding (on Kirby's part!). Awesome examples include Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards and Super Smash Bros Brawl. King Dedede saves a few characters' lives, and then hugs Kirby when he finds out that he's OK.
  • Dagoth Ur, the final boss of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. When you confront him, he politely explains why his plan to spread blight disease and create a giant magical killer robot are really in the best interests of his people. He answers every question you put to him (whether he's telling the truth, lying or mistaken is up to the player). Finally, he offers you the opportunity to buff yourself up before you start to fight him. Though the last part is largely because he needs Wraithguard (the gauntlet you need to hold the weapons required to thwart him) in order to bring his plan into action. And if you approach him without the items needed, he'll politely point out you have come unprepared and that you can not win as you are, suggesting you return when ready to face him.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion:
    • Lucien Lachance.
    • Most, if not all, of the Dark Brotherhood are likable people (save for maybe M'raaj-Dar), if you can get past the fact that they're all murderers.
    • As well, some of the Daedric Princes (like Sheogorath) can be quite pleasant.
  • Shadow Hearts:
    • Albert Simon, the primary villain of the first game, has the appearance of an elderly British gentleman and often acts the part when he's not brutally slaughtering anyone in his way. When beaten, he acknowledges that you're better, and heals you up. When you finally defeat him, his biggest regret is that he didn't get a chance to show you the new world he was going to create. Not in a spiteful "look upon my works ye mighty" way, mind you: he really thought he was creating a paradise, and wanted the heroes to be able to enjoy it with him.
    • The sequel's big bad, Kato, fits this trope, too. He considers Yuri his friend, and tells him so, even after Yuri fatally wounds him in battle.
  • Kane of Command & Conquer, the resident Big Bad Magnificent Bastard, is a strikingly erudite, educated, and charismatic leader who seems to somewhat genuinely care for his followers. Even when confronting his hated enemies of GDI, he always shows them a little smile and offers a few words of respect, even while mercilessly taunting their powerlessness or promising to gut them like the swines they are.
  • Team Fortress 2:
    • The Sniper slips into this, given his credo about his line of work: "Be polite, be efficient; have a plan to kill everyone you meet." That, of course, being an old US Marines Badass Creed.
    • The Engineer is a much more obvious example: he's described as an "amiable, soft-spoken good ol' boy", and generally behaves as such, but, at the same time, doesn't have any concerns about killing people based on the dominant colour in their wardrobe.
    • The RED Spy, specifically. He is a cold-blooded killer, and hot-blooded lover. Of the BLU Scout's Mom.
    • You'd think that The Medic was one, but no. Healing is just a side-effect that pays the bills for his evil experiments.
      • The recent Meet the Medic video may have changed this. While operating on The Heavy, they share some pretty friendly banter. It's quite clear, however, that he has no problem endangering The Heavy's life with his experiments. After all, he claims that the sound of The Heavy's heart exploding is simply, "The sound of progress!"
  • Many of the villains in Metal Gear Solid have a lot of innocent blood on their hands, but many of them are surprisingly nice people if they encounter Snake in a situation where nobody would gain anything by fighting. Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, Grey Fox, Fortune, Olga, The Boss, Ocelot (in MGS and MGS3), and Big Boss murdered dozens of people and took part in large scale terrorism. But you wouldn't suspect that when you meet them at any place where they are not trying to shoot you. But then, you meet people like Psycho Mantis, Vamp, and Volgin, and realize that some people just need to die.
  • World of Warcraft.
    • Drakuru. Turns out, he was using you all along, which isn't a big surprise. He accomplishes his goals and is transformed by the Lich King himself. What is a surprise, however, is that he immediately asks for your forgiveness for the deception and invites you to be his right hand man, both out of gratitude and to make up for tricking you, and because the Lich King apparently has some interest in you personally. The story continues in later quests, ultimately ending in you betraying and killing him. Of course, his "gratitude" would have involved you ultimately being turned into his right-hand ghoul, the lowest rank of the Scourge, while he would be living it up as a Death Knight. It is worth noting, however, that despite being (disguised as) a ghoul, Drakuru didn't treat you as such. Ghouls are footmen at best, but you'd have been an officer, far above the cannon-fodder and privy to Drakuru's most guarded secrets. The guy really believed he was doing you a favor. Of course, it could also be that the ghoul graphics used for your character just represent generic undead-ness.
    • Arguably, any likable warlock falls into this category, including Player Characters.
    • Nexus-Prince Shaffar, the final boss in the Mana Tombs, also comes across as this. As you barge into his operation, his reaction is to say that he was not expecting company and, somewhat apologetically, that he is preoccupied, but promises to tend to you..."personally", all the while using a tone as though he's about to break out the champagne and offer you a drink.
    • Bwonsamdi, the Loa of Death in Battle for Azeroth seems like a fun and jovial guy (although his jokes can get a little annoying) if you disregard how he consumes souls to gain power over the other Loa and makes dark pacts with mortals that tend to be heavily stacked in his favor...
  • Persona 3: Shuji Ikutsuki, hands down. He's kind, he makes silly puns, he always answers your questions and generally aids in the mission to bring down the twelve Arcana Shadows. Although it turns out that he's just been using the protagonists to bring about The Fall, in addition to being fairly clearly insane. A cutscene in FES reveals that his jovial personality was indeed genuine, showing him making up puns in complete solitude where there would be no need to maintain a pretense. Even his motives for bringing about the Fall seem more along the lines of Dark Messiah, rather than Omnicidal Maniac.
  • Subverted with Adachi in Persona 4. Whenever you meet him in the game, he's frequently shown to be clumsy and incompetent, but a pretty nice and reasonable guy. He even lets the protagonists go in order to pursue Namamtame. Needless to say, this is all an act. He's actually an Ax Crazy Complete Monster who committed the murders largely for the fun of it, and would be quite content to let the world succumb to the world of the shadows. He even mocks his victims when recounting his experiences with the protagonists. That said, he can be pretty damn funny in an insane, monstrous way.
  • GLaDOS from Portal. The computer attempts to put you at ease and encourage you, right up until the moment that it needs you to die. It even thanks you while it does it.
    • Wheatley from the sequel is pretty much this trope personified after his betrayal. Even when you're within 20 feet of his lair, he reveals a mashing device, and politely asks Chell if she wants to kill herself rather than have him do it. That, and how could you possibly be horribly evil when Stephen Merchant is your voice actor??

Wheatley: Think of it not as a death trap, but as a death option!

  • Vladamir Lem from Max Payne. Starts off as Max's ally in the first game, but by the second, he fills the role of the Big Bad. Never loses his suave demeanor or his cordial disposition: "Max! Dearest of all friends..."

Vladimir Lem: (answering machine) I'm coming to kill you, old man. You really know how to piss me off, you know...Would it have killed you to say "thank you" for once in your life? To say "Vlad, my son...can I call you my son because I sure do love you like one." "Vlad my son, you are a true prodigy. Everything you touch turns to gold." Oh...wait, it is going to kill you! I'm done doing your dirty work for you. You should be proud. I have learned all you've taught me. I'm coming to show you.
...
Vladimir Lem: What the fuck is wrong with you, Max? Why don't you just die? You hate life, you're miserable all the time, afraid to enjoy yourself even a little! Face it, you might as well be dead already. Do yourself a favor, give up!

  • One of the most evil bastards in all of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is Mike Toreno -- who, it turns out, is a fairly nice and friendly guy, who just happens to be the scariest person you'll ever meet. It helps that he has the best line of dialog in the entire game:

Torino: I wanted to see what you were made of.
CJ: (Angrily) What it look like I'm made of? Pudding?
Torino: (Calmly) No. Anger, and hate. That's why I like you.

    • And then there is CJ himself, who will have no problem shooting or running over unarmed civilians, assassinate people who never did a bad thing to him and generally steal, maim and kill. However, most of it is because he is given no other alternative in order to keep his family--blood and otherwise--from being harmed and is genuinely nice and polite (outside of whatever the player makes him do) to the people around him. Compare this to Tommy who alienates and belittles his inner circle and Claude who repays the women who save his life by killing the brother of one and then shooting and killing the other for talking too much.
  • Kirei Kotomine of Fate Stay Night is a perfectly polite fellow who never lies to you or avoids answering questions. He lets his enemies come right up to his base of operations and helps you out in the third scenario, where it's revealed that he tried very hard his entire life to be a decent person. Unfortunately, he failed, so now he wants to destroy the world mostly For the Evulz.
  • Chaos Lord Eliphas the Inheritor from the Dawn of War series is a very suave, witty, and charismatic villain. Widely considered one of the most popular characters in the series.
    • In the new Dawn of War 2 expansion pack, Retribution, the Great Unclean One is decidedly gregarious, laughing and chortling...as he infects anything he touches and cleaves everything in two with his giant, blunt, filth-encrusted blade. But he loves you! And he just wants you to feel Nurgle's love!
      • Ulkair, the Big Bad of the earlier Chaos Rising is simply an unusually powerful Great Unclean One, so it's not too surprising he fits this trope. He seems to genuinely enjoy fighting the Blood Ravens in a jovial way even as he chides them about how it's useless to resist him, and takes his defeat in good humor -- after all, in the long run, they're doomed either way, so why should his losing matter?
  • Jeremy from Fatal Hearts is polite, charming, studious, a diligent worker in both his mundane job and his more esoteric activities, interested in the environment and the welfare of others, and an all-around gentleman. Unless he thinks you're too stupid to live. In which case, he kills you.
  • The Suffering:
    • Dr. Killjoy. He's modeled after Vincent Price, so he's naturally the most charismatic individual in the two games; in fact, he's so urbane you might just forget that he's a mass-murdering Mad Doctor with a fetish for film projectors and blood. Plus, being a psychiatrist, he genuinely wants to help cure the main character- it's just that his methods are just a tad...unorthodox.
    • Blackmore was a particularly affable character in his own right: in all of his dealings with Torque, he treats him like a somewhat misguided little brother - appropriate, considering that Blackmore is a Split Personality of Torque - and continually tries to convince him to join his gang rather than kill him. And then, there was the way he called Torque "my little one".
  • Edgar Barrett from Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy was Nick Scryer's mentor and best friend before joining The Movement, and still retains some of his old warmth and humour. As such, he treats his own boss battle as little more than an extremely lethal game, shouting happily "JUST LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS, HUH, NICK?" while telekinetically hurling fuel tankers at him.
  • The Temple of Shadows from Fable hold poker night every Friday and left the instructions for their special torture device nice and visible next to it.
  • The Reapers from The World Ends With You tend to be rather normal people, essentially (aside from the Officers, most of whom are sadistic and/or certifiably insane), who are just doing their job - which happens to be permanently erasing the souls of the dead from existence to prevent themselves from meeting the same fate. Kariya, for example, is rather friendly, and 777 lives a double-life as a popular rock star thanks to the Reapers' ability to exist on the living and dead planes.
  • Shiranui Gen-An gets this treatment in the Samurai Shodown series. He boasts of becoming the King of Evil. Yet at the end of the day, he's just a disfigured oni-like creature with a glove inspired by Freddy Krueger, a loving wife, and kids he even brings to work. See his ending in Samurai Shodown VI (American numbering).
  • Helena Blake, a crime lord in Mass Effect, may qualify. She's polite, friendly, and charming in her dealings with you. Whether or not she's even evil is open to interpretation.
    • The same goes for Aria T'Loak in Mass Effect 2, her mild god complex aside, she is entirely reasonable and rather friendly. She's also a ruthless crimeboss running a stationwide society built on slavery and murder.
    • This might be a possibility in Mass Effect 2 with the Illusive Man. He runs a pro-human organization, Cerberus, that committed awful acts that includes the assassination of one of the candidates of a political party, running live human experiments, using a helpless autistic biotic girl as their future weapon, and silencing anyone who knew too much about them. Despite all that, he's very polite to Commander Shepard when they first met and he uses his charm to have the Spectre join their cause. He also saves your life, at the cost of billions of credits and nearly two years of hard work, for no other reason than that he believes your story about the Reapers and wants to help you save the galaxy. Or so he claims.
      • Mass Effect 3 heavily implies he was simply exploiting this trope to get Shepard to go along with his plans.
  • Lucifon (a.k.a. Satan) of Princess Maker 2 appears less a sinister Anthropomorphic Personification of evil and more a guy you can have a (rather corrupting) drink with. It's arguable that he's just doing his job, though he takes a certain pride if he can get your daughter to take his place at the end of the game.
  • Montfort from Visions and Voices. He just wanted to be an awesome mayor!
  • Dr. Ned (who is totally not Dr. Zed), from the DLC for Borderlands. He offers you brownies before remembering that he's trying to kill you for discovering his evil plan.
    • Similarly, General Knoxx from another DLC falls under this. He believes to be the Only Sane Man in his group and actually apologizes over having to kill you.
    • There is also Mr. Shank. Despite having a really scary name and having an army of cannibal escaped convicts, he's actually a pretty nice guy. Really, he's only trying to kill you in self-defense. He watches you on security cameras while talking about how one of his henchmen who he is totally not in love with or anything makes great chilli-cheese fries. When you kill him, the person who contracted you to kill him starts getting all teary-eyed remembering the good times they had together.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has Caellach, a mercenary who becomes one of the six generals of The Empire. His greatest ambition is to become a King, and he's also That One Boss, since he has an item that negates critical hits. If you fight him with a certain character, the two reflect on their past together, and invites him to switch sides.
    • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn sees Sephiran, who is introduced and interacts with the protagonists as an almost saint-like figure in the first game, a devoted servant of the Goddess Ashera, until it is revealed that he is the mastermind behind the plot to awaken Ashera and wipe out all life with her divine wrath, having totally lost faith in the world after the Serenes Massacre. Also, he's over 1,000 years old.
  • Gnarl in Overlord always acts in a calm, polite manner, something that simply doesn't cross the minds of most of your other minions. Even after siding with the original Overlord, and betraying you at the end of the first game, he still refrains from berating the player, and, instead, compliments you on doing a good job.
  • Dr. Warumon from Twinbee, an Expy of Eggman, is a laughable example of this.
  • The Arch-Vile of Doom. Bobby Prince sums it up best:

"The Archvile is an evil healer. Anyone getting in his way is blasted with fire and disintegrated. This includes other demons. But, after he has wrought his destruction, he then goes around and reanimates all of the demons. Because of this interesting dual personality, I decided to give him a very evil laugh as an active sound. For his death sound, I recorded a young girl saying 'why,' pitch shifted it down and mixed it with other sounds. The Archvile just doesn't understand why anyone would want to kill him as he sees himself as only doing good for his fellow demon."

  • Luxord from Kingdom Hearts is a textbook example. Though it really doesn't show until 358/2.
    • Xigbar, while he can be alot more of a jerk, also qualifies, as does (possibly) Demyx.
  • The Dwarf Fortress player community is quite welcoming and helpful to new players, showering them with links to tutorials for the nigh-incomprehensible interface and helping them troubleshoot newbie mistakes and dwarven intelligence. They're also infamous for pushing Video Game Cruelty Potential to new and exciting extremes for the sake of convenience, lulz, and the dwarven way.
  • Tales of the Abyss has a lot of these, since nearly every antagonist is a Well-Intentioned Extremist to some degree. Van Grants in particular: while he has a fair few Kick the Dog moments when he first shows his true colors, outside of this he is polite toward the protagonists, and offers genuine praise to Luke and Tear when they become strong enough to pose a serious threat to his plans. He was also a very kind and devoted elder brother to Tear, and even after his betrayal Luke still sees him as more of a father figure than his actual father.
  • Hazama, from BlazBlue, is so friendly-acting, polite, and funny at times, that it's easy for the audience to forget that, since he is actually Yuuki Terumi, he's also the kind of person who's crosses the Moral Event Horizon for nothing but the sheer evilulz before he's even woken up.
  • Graf Michael Sepperin from Rosenkreuzstilette is truly a nobleman at heart... and a Well-Intentioned Extremist at that. He organized the coup against the Empire and is even willing to become the Devil himself in order to protect Iris, and not to mention he doesn't underestimate Tia's willingness to protect those she loves without letting anyone be sacrificed, nor does he underestimate her well-enough knowledge that there's no sense in fighting for the Empire. And after his defeat, he tells her that she can find Karl in his prison and is even willing to let her know that Karl himself made an attempt on Iris' life.
    • And speaking of Iris, she earns a spot in this trope as well. She's very polite and sophisticated, even if she orchestrated the whole war and killed her own father and had Karl imprisoned for his attempt to kill her. Her friendly demeanor even allowed all of RKS to trust her without knowing she started the coup for kicks.
  • Who here thought Drakath in Artix Entertainment games wasn't too nice to be evil? Sure, he was a bandit in Dragon Fable and even gratituded into the Champion of Chaos in Adventure Quest Worlds, and even sided with the Sinister Seven as a Darkness Dragon in the original Adventure Quest, but admit it, even he isn't that cruel and depraved. He reacts with outrage at Sepulchure with "...Master? What have you done?!" once he turns his baby dragon into a Dracolich in Dragon Fable, and not to mention he helps the AQW hero defeat Ledgermayne because he knows Ledgermayne simply needed to learn the hard way that nobody disobeys him and gives his thanks to him/her afterwards. He is also shown to be polite, as shown when speaking with Master (the main villain of the Skyguard storyline).
    • Chaos Shogun Kitsune treats his fellow Yokai with deep respect and tells them not to worry when the hero is coming to Yokai Island without heeding his warning and tells them that they have a guest to prepare for. Even when he wants to claim the island for all Yokai by stealing the Hanzamune Sword and using it to free the O-dokuro, he's rarely if ever pointlessly cruel.
    • Chaos Lord Wolfwing isn't really that evil, he's just a lonely guy who wants to build his own clan of Werepyres so he won't have to feel so alone. Even if he's willing to cause Chaos and Chaorruption to do so.
    • Zahart, despite being willing to have his Djinn Tibicenas, the eighth Lord of Chaos, do away with others just to remove them from his search for the Heart of the Sphinx, is nice enough to answer the hero's question about what uncovered the ancient city that the Sandsea oasis community is just part of. When Zhoom interferes with his attempt to dispose of the hero after that, Zahart is even nice enough to give in to Zhoom's demands for him to release his friend, and orders Tibi to release him / her. Later, he is facing away from his slave while ordering Tibi to do away with him after receiving the Heart of the Sphinx, possibly because it's suggested that even he can't stand watching brutal murders (the killing was so brutal that it was censored anyway).
    • Master, while planning to use the Skyguard to create enough mayhem to become a Chaos Lord himself, treats his minions with deep respect when he's not being called by his real name (since having that happen to him usually leaves him having his Dreamweaver make them relive their worst nightmares with her powers). He tells the Dreamweaver to give the recruit she casted her spell on plenty of time to realize how foolish his words were.
      • The Dreamweaver is also quite affable, acting polite especially while disguised as Granny V or Invidia.
  • Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny gives us Gogandantes! Greatest Swordsman of all the Demons! While the other Genma seem perfectly happy with eating children and destroying the mortal realm, Gogandantes' only goal through the whole game is to prove that he is indeed the greatest swordsdemon around by beating Jubei Yagyu. He acts with chivalry and honor, at one point saving the life of Oyu and--aside from an impenetrable magical shield--faces Jubei on equal footing, one-on-one. This conduct earns Jubei's respect and he even honors Gogandantes' last request; to tell Gogandantes that he is, in fact the Greatest Swordsman of all the Demons.
  • Tor Anwyn, the Warlock promoter of Might and Magic VII. We know he is evil because of the other persons and things associated with the Path of Dark in that game, and because the Heroes game put the Warlocks as evil since Heroes I. He's always polite, even when asked to promote a Light-aligned party - where other such promoters are inclined to disparage you as a do-gooder, not cruel enough, or not cold-hearted enough for the job, he reacts by apologizing and explaining that the way of the Warlock requires you to be on the Path of Dark, so he's simply not able to oblige. He's not exactly harmless, though: what all that means is that he trains other evil folks into becoming more powerful.
    • Also applies to most everyone in the town of Nighon. They are allied with the Dark Path, but unlike other such towns, simply being there while on the Path of Light will not cause the inhabitants to turn hostile. You can even gain some Side Quests while there.
    • Even in Dark-aligned towns where that is a problem has shopkeepers that will gladly do business with heroes on the Path of Light. Although, those on the Path of Dark can expect the same courtesy in Light-aligned towns.
  • Uthar Wynn and Yuthura Ban, headmasters of the Sith Academy in Knights of the Old Republic are well-spoken, polite, and don't seem to be powered by the constant combination of anger, malice, and batshit crazy as most of the Sith you'll encounter. Uthar will gladly acknowledge a job well done, and congratulate you on your progress. Yuthura is quite patient and erudite when explaining the Sith Code, doing more to explain the Sith in six minutes than Lucas bothered with in six movies. Still, they are Sith, and are pleased when you kill off one of your fellow students or aid them in a double cross you can double-cross both of them by playing them off one another. Uthar's "final test" for a student is to have them kill an acquaintance in cold blood, for no other purpose than to prove their superiority. Depending on the Player Character, the situation can end with one of them dead and the other returning to run the academy, both of them dead, or Uthar dead and Yuthura walking away from the Sith.
  • Hades from Kid Icarus: Uprising definitely qualifies. Sometimes, Pit will be fighting against him and his forces; other times, he'll be sharing humorous banter with Pit, Palutena, and the other gods and goddesses. Hell, even when Pit is fighting against him, he still remains nonchalant. That said, he is still very much evil, and crosses the Moral Event Horizon near the end of the story when it's revealed that he's deliberately causing humans to war against each other so he can harvest their souls to power up himself and the Underworld Army.
  • Patches from Dark Souls. The guy tries to murder you, possibly twice, is directly responsible for killing two other characters, but is pretty funny and amusing.
  • The Baldur's Gate series contains two heads of a Thieves' Guild who seem to be Affably Evil, though it could be an act.
    • In Baldur's Gate, Alatos "Ravenscar" Thuibuld, the head of the Thieves' Guild in the city of Baldur's Gate, invites your characters to his guild and offers them employment in stealing some particular McGuffins. He acts politely, but by the time you are talking to him, he makes it clear refusing is no longer an option after you have been there and seen him and the other members. It also turns out that the client who "ordered" this burglary was intent on disposing of the people hired to do it, and Thuibuld lets you and him nuke it out between yourselves, without particularly caring who wins but acting nice afterwards too.
    • In Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Aran Linvail, the Shadowmaster of Athkatla, offers to make a deal with your party to get you ahead int he plot. He sounds very amiable and reasonable (even though piles on extra demands after you've already paid), and he might not even appear particularly evil if not for the reminder of the torture going on at the other end of his base. However ruthless he really is, one may assume he's still the lesser evil compared to your other option at this point, Bodhi.
  • Jade Empire has Master Li, who is the Player Character's master as well as the true Big Bad. Even after being unmasked, he's reasonably polite to the PC.
  • The Dragon in Dragon's Dogma
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