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{{trope}}
{{quote|''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 [[Complete Monster|particular cases]]. Even evil characters (and real people) can feel and show love. Often, that love is [[Victim Falls For Rapist|twisted]], [[Love Makes You Evil|a cause]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|for villainy]], or [[Was It All a Lie?|an act]]. Sometimes, though, a work can show an evil character's love as genuine and deep. This often serves to [[Character Development|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 Scientist's Beautiful Daughter]], [[Daddy's 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
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* For many fans of [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]], [[Magnificent Bastard|Gendo]] [[The Chessmaster|Ikari]] is really an [[Love Makes You Evil|evil]] [[You Bastard|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, [[Parental Abandonment|which is why he makes such a piss poor parent to]] [[Break the Cutie|poor Shinji.]]
* Played straight and averted in ''[[Death Note]]'' where {{spoiler|Light does indeed care for his family, even well beyond his descent in morality. Otherwise though, he has no emotional attachments to anyone outside of his parents and sister.}}
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** Rather horribly averted in the film ''The Last Name'', in which he {{spoiler|writes his father's name into the Death Note in order to stop it being analyzed. It doesn't work - and what's worse, Soichiro gets to watch while he does it. [[Even Evil Has Standards|Even Misa was horrified at that and broke down in tears]]. And just when we thought it couldn't get worse, it did: Light ultimately dies in his father's arms, [[Freudian Excuse|begging him to believe that he acted as Kira to put justice into effect]].}}
* ''''[[Pokémon Special]]'s'' version of Giovanni, with {{spoiler|his son Silver.}}
** [[Sure Why Not|Game Freak gave Giovanni this very loved one]] for the [[Video Game Remake
*** Fun fact: It was actually already hinted at (somewhat vaguely) in the Sevii Islands quest in Fire Red/Leaf Green. This is foreshadowing for [[Fan Nickname|PokéSupe]], as it ''did'' come out [[Captain Obvious|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 ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' did really love and protect each other. {{spoiler|And Nena [[Cry Cute|genuinely cried and mourned]] when Michael and Johann got killed.}}.
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* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' {{spoiler|the Fuhrer}} is one of the homunculi, but he shows affection for his wife.
** Another homunculus, Pride, also shows affection for one person: {{spoiler|his "mother", Mrs. Bradley.}} This is particularly surprising, as Pride is by far the most evil of all the homunculi.
** There are also {{spoiler|two chimera henchmen}} who turn to the path of righteousness when they find out their families will likely become victims of the evil plot.
** Also implied with {{spoiler|Van Hohenheim}}, but {{spoiler|it's a [[Red Herring]]. He's not evil at all, but for a while viewers are given the false implication that he and [[Big Bad|Father]] (who doesn't have loved ones at all) are the same person}}.
* [[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. [[Musical Assassin|Neon]] even falls in love with him, and they become a couple. As it turns out, he intends to take revenge on [[Complete Monster|Kouran Mori]] because Mori murdered Kurei's first love.
* Johan Liebert in ''[[Monster (manga)|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 [[Complete Monster|he may be incapable of love at this point.]]
* {{spoiler|Gin Ichimaru}} from ''[[Bleach]]'' appears to be evil to the core, but {{spoiler|at least somewhere amidst the many, ''many'' things he did [[For the Evulz]] was a long and subtle plot to kill his boss Aizen for hurting his only friend, Rangiku, when they were both kids.}}
** Even before that, look at [[Jerkass]]-bordering-on-[[Complete Monster]] Mayuri Kurotsuchi. While he would probably have {{spoiler|killed Szayel}} anyway, he does so in a really ''horrifying'' manner and is especially angered after Szayel's {{spoiler|abduction of Nemu Kurotsuchi, his daughter, which was followed by a truly squicky [[Moral Event Horizon]] involving her}}.
*** 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 [[Blue and Orange Morality|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. {{spoiler|When Tia thinks hers have been killed, she becomes furious and would have killed Toshiro almost instantly if he hadn't been quick enough to set up a decoy maneuver he'd been saving for ''Aizen'', while Starrk in the anime seems to lose his will to keep fighting when Lilinette dies protecting him, and is soon slain by Kyoraku.}} 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 {{spoiler|attacking Orihime a second time}} and Loly went ''berserk'' when {{spoiler|Menoly was killed. }}
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* 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 {{spoiler|protecting the Leaf Village. He's even willing to brainwash Sasuke AGAIN to keep it standing.}} Whether that makes it better or worse is up to the reader.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation]]'', 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 [[Big Bad|FRIEZA]] of all people has a kid...who, apart from having a tendency to be [[Affably Evil]] (when he's not [[Go-Karting with Bowser|playing soccer with the protagonists)]], seems pretty well-adjusted.
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== Comic Books ==
* [[The Hood]] is a textbook example of this trope, using some of the proceeds from his criminal activities to pay for his [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas|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 ''[[Sin City|To Hell and Back]]'', [[Dirty Cop|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 {{spoiler|and break his son's arm}}. {{spoiler|His response is to splatter his contact's brains across an interrogation room.}}
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* [[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 [[wikipedia:File:Orca batman.jpg|big women]]) the pain of loss is treated seriously.
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** From what we've seen in flashbacks, he loved Betty's mother Karen too; her death from cancer left him emotionally devastated.
== Fan Works ==
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' [[lemon]] fanfic ''Offering to the Demon King'' depicts [[Villain Protagonist|Ganondorf]] as a brutal, warmongering despot who wants to conquer Hyrule, kill Link and force Princess Zelda to be his [[Sex Slave]]. However, he also treats his concubines kindly and is a loving father to his children.
== Film ==
* [[The Devil's Rejects]] has the firefly family.
* Briefly used in the first ''[[Spy Kids]]'' movie when [[
{{quote|
'''Lisp''': I had to - he's my son.
'''Floop''': Are you ''sure''?
''[kid's [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|eyes flash]]]'' }}
* In ''[[The Proposition]]'', Charlie Burns is a criminal, but he loves his little brother Mikey and wants to protect him, almost enough to [[Sadistic Choice|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. {{spoiler|In the end, they team up to bust Mikey out.}}
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* In ''Best Seller'' James Woods' amoral hit man character is shown to have grown up in a loving family who he cares for. [[Don't Tell Mama|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.
{{quote|
'''Maroni''': Friends? Have you ''met'' this guy? }}
* Pando, the main antagonist of ''[[Two Hands]]'', is an [[Affably Evil]] gangster and a
* 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?". {{spoiler|However, later a rival kills his whole family in vengeance, triggering his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].}}
* Max Shreck in ''[[Batman Returns]]'' convinces The Penguin to capture him instead of his son Chip.
* Karl in ''[[Die Hard]]'' grieves over McClane killing {{spoiler|Karl's brother.}}
** Used again the ''[[Die Hard With a Vengeance]]'' when Simon reveals that McClane killed his brother, {{spoiler|Hans}}, despite Simon revealing that he hated his brother.
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* 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. {{spoiler|Riggs then shoots Ku underwater after they fall off a pier while fighting.}}
* 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.
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* 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 [[I Want Them Alive|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 {{spoiler|Narcissa Malfoy lies to Voldemort to save her son ''and gets away with it''.}}
** Narcissa's sister, Bellatrix, who
** And in {{spoiler|Snape's case, his love for Lily is}} strong enough to provoke a [[Heel Face Turn]] {{spoiler|before the books even ''start''}}.
* 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 [[Lampshade Hanging|"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]]. {{spoiler|Robb Stark insulting his daughter led to the Freys switching sides and a massacre of the Stark forces known as the Red Wedding.}}
*** Actually, subverted, {{spoiler|When Catelyn wishes to exchange Robb for his grandson at the same Red Wedding," a son for a son", Aegon the jester, he lets him die, because "That one is a Grandson, and hardly any use." She slits his throat and Robb dies. I think that, it's not about love, for Frey, but for Family Honour, an extension of his own. I think something alike is explicitly stated in the books.}}
** Subverted with Roose Bolton and his bastard son Ramsay; they're close because they're both [[Ax Crazy|very]] [[Torture Technician|nasty]] [[Complete Monster|men.]]
** Subverted with Cersei Lannister, who was entirely motivated by the desire to protect her children, but was {{spoiler|doing it for selfish reasons, since it was prophecised that all of her children would die before her}} 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:
{{quote|
** 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 Dot Net|Villain.net]]'' series is a kid named Jake. First the idea of being a supervillain [[Evil Is Cool|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.
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* In ''[[Animorphs]],'' [[Magnificent Bitch|Visser One]] is pushing for a slow, secret conquest of Earth instead of the violent conflict [[Big Bad|Visser Three]] favors. An open war could result in the death of billions, and that might include {{spoiler|the two children she gave birth to through a previous human host}}.
* 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).
* ''The Limbo Line'' by Victor Canning was about an organization that kidnaps defectors and ships them back to the Soviet Union to be brainwashed into saying that they tried the West and decided to come home because communism is better. A subplot is the head of this group, Oleg, developing a romance with his secretary, Ludmilla. When he's killed:
{{quote|She moved mechanically, not allowing herself much room for thought, for thought was only misery. What happened now had no significance. It did not matter what she did, or where she went, because for her there did not seem to be anywhere to go, or anything to do, that would ever lighten the darkness that had settled over her.}}
== Live-Action TV ==
* 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.'' [[Moral Myopia|Brennan is shocked that Michael would pull such a dirty trick]] and surrenders.
* In ''[[NCIS]]'' Rene Benoit, aka {{spoiler|La Grenouille, the [[Chessmaster]] target of the entire preceding season's [[Long Game]] sting operation}}, is the father of Jeanne Benoit.
** Also let's not forget Ari Haswari who was {{spoiler|Ziva's half-brother.}}
* From Canadian drama show ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|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 & Order|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:
** 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
* The [[Femme Fatale]] from ''[[Angel]]''.
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* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', if you hurt [[Parental Substitute|the Mayor]] or [[The Dragon|Faith]], expect the other to come looking for you.
** [[Breakout Villain|Spike]] genuinely loved and cared for [[Mad Oracle|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.
{{quote|
*** 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.
*** The vampire couple were James and Elizabeth, who were actually old friends of Angelus and Darla (dating back to before Angelus sired Drusilla or met Spike). James was acting both out of vengeance for a lost love and outrage at being betrayed by an old partner -- throughout the entire episode he apparently shows no awareness that Angel even has a soul, calling him 'Angelus' the entire time.
* 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.
{{quote|
* ''[[Alias (TV series)|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 {{spoiler|Lauren's}} 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 {{spoiler|Lucas Taylor taking over Terra Nova}}, Commander Taylor fits this trope.
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* From ''[[Glee]]'': Sue Sylvester's genuine affection for her sister.
* Volkoff from ''[[Chuck]]'' shows some hints of really loving his daughter Vivian.
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* On ''[[24|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 {{spoiler|Marie Warner}}.
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* 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. {{spoiler|Too bad she's secretly the real Number One. Her coma is powering the Village (which is actually a [[Dream Land]]) and it will [[Dream Apocalypse|be destroyed]] if she ever wakes up for longer than a day.}}
* Ransik, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'', genuinely loved his daughter Nadira despite being a mutant terrorist. {{spoiler|This is what causes him to be one of the very few [[Power Rangers]] main villains to find redemption. Even better, it's [[Redemption Earns Life]].}}
* In ''[[Warehouse 13]]'', [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|H.G Wells]]
* 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 (TV series)|Justified]]'' provide numerous examples of this trope. In season two, [[Evil Matriarch|Mags Bennett]] used her three sons as henchmen and showed great warmth toward her adopted daughter, [[Morality Pet|Loretta]]. {{spoiler|After the deaths of Coover and Doyle, Mags killed herself by drinking poisoned moonshine.}}
** 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. {{spoiler|After the Detroit mob cuts ties with Quarles}}, Duffy suggests that Quarles go home. Quarles says that he has nowhere to go, suggesting that things may not be rosy at home.
* In the episode "Bad Day to Be a Hero" of the [[Magnum P.I. (2018 series)|2018 ''Magnum, P.I.'' reboot]], the primary villain is a mobster that ships destitute foreigners over on fraudulent (and highly illegal) indentures and forces them to stay while he [[Made a Slave|sells their manual labor.]] The police detective finally breaks him in interrogation by holding a nightmare before him of his wife prosecuted as an accessory and his children split up into different orphanages.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
** 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 [[Defeat Means Friendship|battering a person until they accept Nurgle's love]] is irrevelant to the affection he feels for them.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]: 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.
* [[The Order of the Stick|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.
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== Theater ==
* [[The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples|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 first, sending Edmund an unmistakeable message of [[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 Jessica.
== Videogames ==
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** 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 [[Kick the Dog|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. [[Training
* ''[[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.
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* In ''[[Fire Emblem]] 4: Genealogy of the Holy War'' and ''[[Fire Emblem]] 5: Thracia 776'', [[Final Boss|Yurius]] is evil as they come, but even though he's [[Complete Monster|monstrous]], [[Child Eater|twisted]], and [[Demonic Possession|possessed by a Dark God]], he still loves and adores [[Anti-Villain|the rather good]], [[My Country, Right or Wrong|if mis-sided]], [[Dark Magical Girl|Ishtar]] (and despite abhorring the evil he commits, she loves him very much in return). [[What the Hell, Player?|To note: In 4, there's two points where you encounter the couple as bosses]]... [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|and the game lets you have the dreaded Berserk Staff...]]
* The ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' villain Bowser with his seven [[Overlord, Jr.|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!
** Despite being a textbook example of being an otherwise barbaric, power-hungry, bloodthirsty alien overlord, {{spoiler|Elder Princess Shroob}} from [[Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time]] loves her sister {{spoiler|the younger Princess Shroob who you see for most of the game}} and is so heartbroken by her death, that one of the main reasons she wants to fight Mario, Luigi, and their baby selves is because she wants to avenge her dead sister.
* 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 [[
* Throughout ''[[
* 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, [[In Love with Your Carnage|because Mitsunari already is that miserable and is very good at spreading said misery around]]. {{spoiler|When Mori and Ieyasu make him realize at the end of one of his campaigns that this means he has someone he actually ''cares'' for, he suffers a [[Villainous Breakdown]].}}
* 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. [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|You will be ended]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|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.
*** ''Saints Row 4'', however, assumes that the Boss took the 'you genuinely care' ending as canon.
* [[Castlevania|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 [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|eliminating them if he sees it as necessary]]. {{spoiler|However, with enough research, Mike can find out that he's the father of Madison Saint James. If Madison is killed by Conrad Marburg, Mike can inform Parker of the man who killed his daughter, which will result in [[Papa Wolf|him trying to take revenge]], or at least try to}}.
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** {{spoiler|Later it turns out that "Alex" is actually the virus using his body as a form, and the original Alex was in fact just a [[Complete Monster]]}}.
** In ''Prototype 2'', James Heller was getting ready to kill {{spoiler|Colonel Rooks}} but spares him when he finds out the man has a family he cares deeply about.
== Webcomics ==
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** 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.
** [[Evil Twin|Nale]] and [[Horny Devils|Sabine]] seem to honestly care about each other, even though she's apparently keeping the secret about {{spoiler|working for the Three Fiends}} from him.
** The ancient black dragon [[
** And the only being capable of inducing empathy in [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath|Belkar]] is his cat, [[Morality Pet|Mr. Scruffy]].
* In ''[[Blip]]'', [[Horny Devils|Incubus and Succubus]] care for each other very much; their loyalty to each other is stronger than their loyalty to [[Satan|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]]'' ([[The Sociopath|of all people]]) has {{spoiler|his [[Back
== 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 [[Hidden Agenda Villain|no known reason]] and [[Bad Boss|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 [[There Can Only Be One|premise of Survival of the Fittest]] really didn't allow for anything past the next week, that they could be together. {{spoiler|Ultimately, he accidentally distracts her once they do meet and she's shot right in front of him. [[Alas, Poor Villain|She crawls to him, begging for him to save her even though she knows fully well she's beyond saving, and dies in his arms.]]}}
* ''[[Friendship
* [[Diamanda Hagan]] threatens to kill [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s puppy, friends and BFF Nella if she doesn't [[It Makes Sense in Context|shout the word "paaaaink" in a cameo for the former's review]]. As you can imagine, Chick's pissed off about this.
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== Western Animation ==
* Xanatos of ''[[Gargoyles]]'' is [[Papa Wolf|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.
{{quote|
'''Goliath''': "Only you would regard love as a weakness." }}
** This also counts for several members of [[The Fair Folk|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 {{spoiler|her daughter Fox}}, 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."
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* ''[[Gorillaz]]'': His exact motivations are unclear, but Murdoc seemingly panicked and rushed to help when discovering that {{spoiler|the real Noodle was alive and under attack by pirates. It can't be just for the sake of the band, because he still has Cyborg Noodle, which he used to make the Plastic Beach album. Real!Noodle served as his [[Morality Pet]] before her disappearance, so...}}
* 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".
* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' has this as a major theme for the villains.
** Mr. Boss
** Cree ''supposedly'' still loves her heroic sister Abby/Numbuh Five, but since she spends most of the time [[Kick the Morality Pet|kicking the morality pet]], [[Unintentionally Unsympathetic|very few actually believe that]] [[The Scrappy|and most people despise her all the more for it]].
** Toiletnator [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|isn't all that evil to begin with]], yet he shows [[Undying Loyalty]] to the aforementioned Mr. Boss, who unfortunately seems to ''despise'' Toilenator [[Pet the Dog|most of the time]] and tries to discourage him from showing up at the villains' social events by giving him invitations with false directions (for some reason, [[Villainous Valour|he never seems to consider simply not inviting him at all]]). In a canon comic, Toilenator {{spoiler|turns out to be the long-lost twin brother of Sid Beetles ([[Arch Enemy|Numbuh Four]]'s father), and the two get along swimmingly well.}}
** [[Big Bad|Father]] has [[Understatement|fucked-up]] relationships with [[Abusive Parents|his father]], [[Evil Uncle|his nephew]], and his {{spoiler|not really}} [[Creepy Child|children]], yet the only person he seems to care for and has a ([[Green-Eyed Monster|more or less]]) healthy relationship with is his brother, {{spoiler|the KND's greatest hero Numbuh Zero}}, mostly due to the fact [[Because You Were Nice to Me|he's the only one who treated him with genuine love and affection in his mostly crappy life]].
** As [[Card-Carrying Villain|horrible]] as he is, [[Bigger Bad|Grandfather]] does genuinely love his sons, even if said affection is twisted due to his [[Blue and Orange Morality|bizarre morality]]. He's very fond of his eldest son ({{spoiler|the aforementioned Numbuh Zero}}) due to his brave and rebellious nature, and [[Evil Parents Want Good Kids|begrudgingly accepts his choice to be a hero despite his wish to have him by his side]]. As for his youngest son (the aforementioned Father), while he was [[Abusive Parents|horrendously abusive]] to him due to his [[Dirty Coward|cowardice]], he's ''truly pissed'' at learning he only awakened him out of fear rather than love.
* ''[[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 [[He Who Must Not Be Seen|Skippy the Wonder Puppet]]:
{{quote|
** And in "Planet of the Bikers", {{spoiler|the [[Dominatrix]] Space Bikers turn out to be a respectable elementary school staff on their home planet, and the mention that one has a kid on the way even causes Jenny to [[Squee|D'awww]]}}.
* Oroku Saki of the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|most recent version]] of [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] has one ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|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 ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
*
* 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 [[Comedic Sociopathy|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.
* In ''[[Futurama]]'', most of the missions Farsworth sends the planet express crew on are the type he doesn't expect them to survive, and while they always do, they're rarely in very good shape afterwards. However, in "The Sting", he does ''not'' want to send them on the same mission that killed his previous crew, openly admitting that their demise was particularly agonizing.
* In ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'', General Grievous seems to have a soft spot for Gor, his [[Right-Hand Attack Dog|Right-Hand Attack Monster]]. When he finds out that he's been killed by a pair of Jedi and their Clone Troopers, he sounds genuinely ''sad''. It's perhaps the one truly sympathetic trait this sociopathic killing machine has going for him.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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* 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.
* Russian tsar [[w:Ivan the Terrible|Ivan The Terrible]] loved his wife intensely; her death only served to make him worse.
* Al Capone tried to stop the gang wars in Chicago because he didn't want his son to grow up without his father and used the money from his criminal activities to support his sisters. He also had a close relationship with his siblings and mother.
* Gangster Jimmy Burke Was a greedy man who had no problem hurting children and backstabbing others. However, he was said to cry like a baby after his best friend Thomas Desimone was murdered and regularly sent his adoptive parents money in appreciation for what they did for him.
* Stalin loved his daughter, adopted son and youngest son deeply. He was grief-stricken when his first wife died and considered suicide over it.
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