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Villains -- and heroes -- seemingly afflicted by Greed can be [[Pet the Dog|humanized]] by demonstrating that it is not the money they are after; they need it to buy something of actual value. At the same time, their Greed may threaten to transform their goal into a [[Tragic Dream]].
May lead to [[Death by Materialism]]. [[Gold Fever]] is a [[Sub-Trope]]. Often goes hand in hand with [[Villainous Glutton|gluttony]]. Compare [[Lust]], which is desire for abstract concepts as opposed to material possessions. If a greedy character is featured in a musical, expect a [[Money Song]].
For the less sophisticated, there's [[Giant Food]]. Compare [[Love Hungry]].
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* Kakuzu for ''[[Naruto]]''.
** Also, Shiranami. He even stated that the reason he killed his father, who was protecting the expensive forbidden jutsu, was because he's greedy.
* Nabiki of ''[[Ranma ½
** Genma accidently knocks his wife off a cliff in his attempts to steal a 20 dollar medal to pawn.
* Greed from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|as his name would imply]]. However, the positive qualities related to his sin are also inspected: He is so possessive over his minions that it crosses to being actual loyalty and caring. Even Greed himself eventually addresses the fact that while things like wanting money, food, power, etc. seem worlds apart from wanting to protect people, they're also still both forms of desire.
** In addition, despite his desire for "Money, food, women, everything!", he's able to keep his desire under enough control that it doesn't ruin him, and he ends up working for the good guys (under the guise that they work for ''him'', of course).
** While Ling Yao has nobler beliefs than the previous example, he embodies some of these qualities as well, having goals such as becoming emperor and obtaining immortality, but being absolutely against sacrificing his followers or letting them sacrifice themselves for him. {{spoiler|This serves as foreshadowing as to why he ends up becoming the second Greed}}.
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== Fairy Tales ==
* [[Cinderella (novel)|Cinderella]]'s [[Wicked Stepmother]] is often depicted as wanting Cinderella's inheritance for her daughters' dowries.
* In "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/47junipertree.html The Juniper Tree]", the [[Wicked Stepmother]] murders her stepson so that her daughter will inherit everything.
* [[Hansel and Gretel]]'s [[Wicked Stepmother]] begrudges her stepchildren their food and has them abandoned so they will not have to feed them. Although sometimes she has the excuse that there is a famine, in some variants, she just resents spending anything on them.
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== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', this is the [[Planet of Hats|hat]] of the Ferengi, who have built an entire ''society'' out of greed and avarice. While they even have a codified system of rules governing this behavior, going around said rules if it's for a profitable goal isn't considered a bad thing. Thus, things like theft or piracy are only considered bad ''if you get caught''.
** On the bright side, the Ferengi don't practice racism, slavery, or genocide because they consider it bad for business (fewer customers->lower demand->[[Fate Worse Than Death|LESS PROFITS]])
** It's almost a case of [[Blue and Orange Morality]] for them, as any action which is not profit-seeking is seen as disgraceful (whether it was acting out of Charity or Revenge, if there's no profit to be made, it's just WRONG).
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* Subverted in the ''[[Penn and Teller Bullshit]]'' episode "World Peace," where they argue that greed is the key to world peace, since war is usually bad for profits.
** The Ferengi (see above) would disagree vehemently. While "Peace is good for business" is one of the most important Rules of Acquisition, the very next rule is "War is good for business", and [[Planet of Hats|they would know]]
* Parker on [[Leverage]]. From the episode "The Nigerian Job": "My money is not in my account. That makes my cry inside... in my special angry place." From "The Homecoming Job": "I don't like stuff.. I like MONEY."
* The villains of ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'', the Greeed (sic), are literally made out of desire. The hero Eiji has no desires due to [[Survivor Guilt]], which allows him to use their powers easily. Interestingly, it slowly becomes apparent that having no desires is a ''bad'' thing, with the [[Big Good]] believing that desire is necessary for life and encouraging his workers to be ambitious as long as they are not [[Pride|prideful]].
* One of the primary vices of the mercenary Jayne Cobb of ''[[Firefly]]'', though he's usually smart enough not to let this drive him to do stupid things. Unless the money's ''too'' good...
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* Swindle in ''[[Transformers]]'' is defined by his greed. In ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', he sells off parts of his fellow Combaticons to a shady arms dealer to make himself a profit. In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', Megatron comments that he'd sell his own motherboard if the price was enough.
* Mr. Krabs from [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] is very greedy. He always gets angry when something happens to his money. In fact, in ''Jellyfish Hunter'', he got Spongebob to capture most of the jellyfish for their jelly. [[Moral Event Horizon|It turned out Mr. Krabs was processing and killing them in horrendous conditions in his factory]] and Spongebob was appalled when he found out.
** Mr. Krabs put a toe over the [[Moral Event Horizon]] when he sold his most loyal employee, [[SpongeBob]], to the Flying Dutchman for the grand total of...sixty-two cents. Even Squidward, who ''hates'' [[SpongeBob]], called him out on it. Cue [[My God, What Have I Done?]]...and then the Flying Dutchman dumps [[SpongeBob]] back onto Mr. Krabs, partly because [[Status Quo Is God]], but mostly because he's ''[[Pity the Kidnapper|too damn annoying]]'' to keep in Davy Jones' locker.
* Kaz from ''[[Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi]]''.
* "A good candy taken in greed always turns sour." Greed is a recurring theme in conjunction with candy hunting on ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]''. Number 5's old-partner-now-rival Heinrich uncovered a tomb of candy but ignored the warning "Share not, and only taste asparagus," which sure enough happened when he refuses to share the candy. When a candy pirate named Black John didn't share the licorice he cut down on an island but hoarded "it all for himself," he and his crew were cursed by being pretty much turned into licorice [[Gargoyles]]. The [[Noodle Incident]] at Guatemala also turned out to be Heinrich performing a ritual to get perfect caramel that cursed him at the same time; the only way to break the curse is to share the caramel.
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* Lucius on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. Not his main sin (that would be [[Pride]]) but definitly present, as noted by his demand for more gifts at his birthday and his willingness to [[Arranged Marriage|marry Beezy off]] in exchange for a large dowry.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': Dragons have greed as a racial weakness. The more they acquire, the larger they get, and the more they want. Spike ends up trapped in this loop in "The Secret of My Excess".
** [[Birds of a Feather|Oddly enough]], despite being the bearer of the Element of Generosity, [[The Fashionista|Rarity]] [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2
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* Scott Boras has a reputation among baseball fans as the most vile agent in the game because of the way he always tries to drive up the price of his clients, which can often lead to them ending up nowhere until the season has almost started when his asking price is too high. After all, since his salary is based on percentage, the more money his clients make, the more money he makes.
* When [[Ayn Rand]] was a Hollywood scriptwriter, she worked with a woman who stated her aim in life as follows. "If nobody else had a car, I wouldn't want one. If anybody has two cars, I want two. If someone else has a better house, I want it, etc". Rand was unable to understand why anyone would define their own value only in terms of what other people have. Her heroes, of course, function on love of their own work, although they insist on getting full payment for it.
** Not to say she didn't have her own share of it. Selfishness and self-interest as the highest virtues? Altruism as evil? Heroes who were often wealthy and powerful while anyone who didn't have talents in the top 1% as "Moochers" and "Looters" out to grab what belonged to the John Galts of the world?
* Let's see what Mother Nature have to say on this. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAqPQs0UfCQ Pelicans steal fish herded by penguins]. Penguins pinch those they can reach in time. Then a pelican stuffs his beak-sack so much that he have problems with lift-off and half of the pack converges to pluck the poor bastard.
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