Noble Demon/Literature

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Examples of Noble Demons in Literature include:

  • Gentleman Johnny Marcone of The Dresden Files. He runs a cut-throat criminal empire, but he will not tolerate rape, and he likes for his business to be done cleanly. He is renowned for "disappearing" any gangster who hurts/tries to sell drugs to a child. He is fine with Harry and works with him when their interests coincide, and, as of Ghost Story is funding La Résistance as a way of keeping the Fomor off of his territory.
  • Crowley of Good Omens is possibly the Trope Codifier: a demon situated on Earth whose assigned mission is to spread sin among humans and, in fact, was the original serpent who tempted Eve. However, six millennia of living with humans influences him to the point where he's become fond of humans and doesn't like the idea of them being wiped out in the Apocalypse - in fact, he actively tries to prevent it. There's also the fact that his best friend Aziraphale is an angel who's supposed to be his sworn enemy. Aziraphale could be considered a mild inversion of the Noble Demon, as while he sincerely believes in and commits himself to goodness, he displays decidedly un-angelic traits such as materialism, pettiness, and going on drinking binges with a demon.
    • Not to mention that Aziraphale actively works against Heaven's plan to bring about armageddon just as resolutely as Crowley works against Hell's. The story implies that the actual differences between the two afterlives aren't as big as advertised, and that God isn't actually actively on either side.
    • When you've spent 6,000 years on Earth with no other supernatural entities but each other for company, an Agreement is pretty much inevitable. Crowley is still Evil, but not too evil; and Aziraphale can be Good, but not too good. And they should probably thwart each others' plans once in a while for, you know, appearance's sake. And there's nothing wrong with the occasional cup of tea together. And Crowley's car is a much better means of getting around so it's surely OK to ride together once in a while, when necessary (although Aziraphale just cannot come to appreciate Crowley's taste in music).
      • Not even Crowley can appreciate Crowley's taste in music. Any cassette left in his car for more than two weeks, no matter how soothing or classical, metamorphoses into a Best of Queen album, which was bad enough before Freddie Mercury starts giving him messages from the demon commanders of Hell.
    • And living together in cottage somewhere in the South Downs just makes it easier to keep an eye on each other's misdeeds/good deeds; it's certainly not fraternizing, nothing friendly about that at all.
    • And when Crowley rushes into a burning building without a second thought because he thinks Aziraphale may be inside...
  • The demon featured in "The Friar's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales, while declaring himself motivated by purely evil intentions, expresses a willingness to act toward good ends by punishing members of the Corrupt Church of the day. He also avoids the Literal Genie behavior of other demons, only actually taking what people damn (e.g. saying "Damn you" to a person, animal, or object) when they truly mean it.
  • The "demon king" Asmodeus from Jewish folklore is an excellent illustration, being portrayed as a wise and sometimes morally superior Worthy Opponent to King Solomon, as well as observant of Jewish traditions down to attending synagogues.
    • This portrayal influenced the presentation of demons in Isaac Singer's short stories. A notable example would be the titular character and narrator of "The Last Demon", who ends up with this distinction and acts as an Antagonist in Mourning after the entire town he tempts is exterminated by the Nazis. He ends up trapped without future victims, as his evil depends upon luring people away from good, making completely evil people of no use to him.
  • Older Than Feudalism: Similarly, in the Ramayana, Ravana's brother Vibhishana is one, both figuratively and literally. He makes a Heel Face Turn and joins Rama.
  • The A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin have quite a few theoretically villainous or antagonistic characters that act rather decently, at least to some people. These include Jaime Lannister, Sandor Clegane, Jaquen H'Gar, and Petyr Baelish, all of whom have acted decently towards protagonist characters when they didn't have to. Then again, the series tries to show all of its characters as three-dimensional and well-developed.
    • Your mileage may definitely vary on Petyr Baelish; the only character he's kind to is Sansa, and that's only when he's not sexually harrassing her. His nobler moments come off as squicky to some.
    • Jaime Lannister is probably the best example; his biggest evil act was the murder of King Aerys after swearing to protect him, but what most characters don't know (or conveniently forget) is that Aerys was a crazy son of a bitch, who, if he had lived just half an hour longer, would have ordered his capital city burned to the ground with wildfire, killing hundreds of thousands of civillians as well as the enemy. Jaime himself laments that he's loved by one for a kindness he never did, and reviled by thousands for his finest act—though, despite a sympathetic PoV and some heavy duty character development, he remained pretty unrepentantly demonic until A Storm of Swords.
      • He also threw the young son of his host out of one of the higher windows of a castle, permanently crippling him. He becomes much more sympathetic when (two books later) we realise that he did it for the great love of his life (not a nice lady herself), that he had intended the child to be killed instantly, and that he is deeply remorseful for it, considering it his own Moral Event Horizon. Of course, by the time his PoV comes up, he has other things to worry about, so it's not looked at in great depth.
  • Raistlin Majere of the Dragonlance books. An embittered, power-hungry Magnificent Bastard with a slew of Pet the Dog moments and a love/hate relationship with his twin Caramon.
    • Also, the Knights of Takhisis, who modeled themselves after the Knights of Solamnia. They are Card Carrying Villains who follow an evil goddess but stress chivalry, respect for their enemies, and loyalty to their comrades in arms. They frown upon the backstabbing, self-serving ways of their predecessors, the dragonlords.
  • The title character of The Bartimaeus Trilogy is a literal Noble Demon (he prefers to be called a "djinni," though; "demon" is rather rude).
  • In Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, the Devil himself appears in the guise of a man named Woland, with an entourage of mischievous and ruthless pranksters who wreak havoc upon 1930s Moscow. However, his actions often serve the purpose of exposing the greed and hypocrisy of his victims, and the ordeal he imposes upon Margarita is designed to bring out her better nature, for which he rewards her and the Master. Some interpretations of this novel describe Woland's actions as inspiring good through instigation, rather than through example, as Christ does.
    • Well, yeah, that's certainly one view, but don't forget that Woland's a very complex and deliberately ambiguous character so much so that almost every critic you read is going to have a different take on him. At the end of the day, his motives are always pretty opaque and Margarita and to some extent the Master excluded pretty much everyone's a target, with some not-exactly-evil folks getting pretty traumatised by the end. Plus, it doesn't really seem that he's always doing what he wants to - It's both implicit and explicit that Woland has no real dominion over this world. He's more of a catalyst than a force in his own right - he sets up the situation, but ultimately can't force anyone towards anything they don't choose and which isn't in their character - and that he's ultimately answerable to a higher power and its bigger plan. He's pretty powerless and being as opaque and multidimensional as he is, we can't say that a souped up Woland who isn't held in check wouldn't just be a soulless jerk on a rampage. Basically, his whole behaviour could be explained as not being able to do anything -but and if he had more power and more free will, well...
    • Or he is generally fine with being whichever part of the greater picture he is and appreciates irony, but also enjoys doing nasty things to those "asking for it" (like throwing "free money" up for grabs, that turns into trash and angry wasps later). It's hard to tell, that's the point.

I am part of that force which wills forever evil and works forever good.

  • Rob S. Pierre in the Honor Harrington series is a ruthless Dolist manager who clawed his way up to become the head of the People's Republic of Haven. He did it mostly to fight off the other factions who would have done it anyways and been worse than him, and he actually has a plan to fix everything. It actually works, and when a democratic revolution after his death establishes a stable and free government, they owe his efforts at fixing the economy.
  • Hrathen of Elantris. He's one of the top priests of the Corrupt Church, has a menacing (and largely accurate) reputation in his own right, and he's every inch the Magnificent Bastard, but unlike other leaders of his religion, he really does care about the spiritual wellbeing of his followers, derives no pleasure from unncessary destruction, and executes a Heel Face Turn after his Ax Crazy Complete Monster of a sidekick decides to pole-vault the Moral Event Horizon without Hrathen's consent.
  • Damodara, a Malwa noble from the Belisarius Series, starts off as being a Reasonable Authority Figure (especially in comparison to his gratuitously evil peers) and insists that not ruthlessly executing subordinates for failures is purely a pragmatic thing to do. Later, after having been in command of the highly honourable Rajput army, even he has trouble convincing himself that his actions are those of a purely pragmatic nature.
  • Sorceress Arachnia in Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, before her Heel Face Turn. Justified in that she was very lonely and was committed to the path of an Evil Sorceress mainly because The Tradition was pushing her along.
  • Daemonhost Cheruabael from the Eisenhorn series demonstrates some shades of noble behavior, especially towards the end of the story.
  • Roger Zelazny's Lord Demon had retired for a time before the story opened. Before that, he was known for hacking down armies with his sword.
    • And in Zelazny's Lord of Light, the demon king not only helps the hero in his war, but develops (by posessing the Buddha) a sense of shame and remorse. By the end. he's only a demon in form and desire for power.
  • Baron Balaz from Vampire Hunter D novel Pale Fallen Angel. He's a vampire, but also a protagonist due to his extreme sense of Honor Before Reason.
  • Don Simon Ysidro from the Barbara Hambly novel Those Who Hunt the Night - despite being a vampire - has a distinctive sense of honor due to his nobility (noblesse oblige).
  • Zoltan the Magyar from the Young Bond novel Blood Fever.
  • General Ashal from Jingo.
  • For a Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis surprisingly fits this trope. For one thing, when Plagueis takes Palpatine under his wing, he makes it very clear that, although he is going to make Palpatine's training a living hell, he will not attempt to continue with Darth Bane's legacy of backstabbing, and intended to share everything he knew to Sidious expecting that he'd do so in return. Unfortunately, Sidious still managed to continue the legacy.
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