Token Evil Teammate

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Evil. But not all that smart...

Castor: Let's be honest Arudin, you're more evil than most of the villains we face.
Khagoth: Meaner too.
Arudin: I am not evil! I am just... colorfully pragmatic!
Khagoth: Whatever.
Castor: We're going to bed, Captain Evil.

Dungeoncrawl Inc.

Just because the main characters are fighting to oust the Big Bad doesn't mean they're heroes... at least, not all of them. In a team composed of good or morally pH neutral members, there will often be one Token Evil Teammate. Narratively, this character can serve as an entertaining and pragmatic Foil to his more strait-laced colleagues, giving Wisdom from the Gutter and might even act to solve difficult moral dilemmas. If the Heroes start putting Honor Before Reason, the Token Evil will often remind them that sometimes unpleasant methods are needed to save the world.

These characters are often Played for Laughs as the Heroic Comedic Sociopath. A lot of the humor they provide is of the Crosses the Line Twice variety, doing obscenely wrong things because it's shocking and unexpected, and it's a form of escapism for the viewer.

Despite the name, the Token Evil Teammate has a lot of leeway as to his Character Alignment. There are lots of kinds of Anti-Heroes, Anti-Villains and outright Villains who can fill this role. Regardless of character type, the mainstays of this role are usually: snarkyness, jerkyness, Ambition Is Evil, and a tendency to be the Butt Monkey for their behavior. It should also be mentioned that 'treachery' was not on that list. The thing with the Token Evil Teammate is that evil does not mean incapable of friendship. While they are usually out for themselves first, they will often have reasons to stay loyal to their team as a whole, or at least individual members.

Sometimes they'll (very) begrudgingly admit that they like their teammates, or at least find them less intolerable than they say, and frequently they find their association either lucrative, entertaining, or even enjoyable. If it's pointed out by somebody that they're not as bad as they make themselves out to be though, they'll generally tell them to shut up, or to take it back. For extra points, this can be done in a very loud, very rude way.

If they do betray their teammates, expect The Captain to tighten the Morality Chain or Restraining Bolt and use various threats like Death Glares to bring them back in line. Why don't they kill him or at least kick him out? Because sometimes you just need the firepower, and they can "do more good than harm" (or at least less harm) on the good guys' side than dead or cut loose. Kind of like controlling a brush fire to good ends.

Some variations include:

  • Sometimes the Anti-Villain joins the heroes to fight a second villain who's worse, but is still evil on the side.
    • Outright villains who do this are more the bag of Strange Bedfellows, since the team ups are rarely stable enough to outlast the episode. Still, it's not unheard of for some to do a Heel Face Turn not long after such team ups.
  • They're in it for the money. Or the opportunity to loot, pillage, rape and plunder. Bribes and financially based threats keep them in line.
  • B.E.F. (Best Evil Friend): Maybe there's a hero who's a friend or family, and they stick around to help loved ones out of duty. But don't expect them to be too helpful for anybody else.
  • The evil friend is The Starscream and sees the heroes as the best way to topple the existing Big Bad.
  • The Poisonous Friend is the Knight Templar of the party, willing to do anything for his buddy's ideals.
  • They were recruited because they have skills, talents and a general attitude that the heroes know will be useful, even if they don't like having them around.
  • They have an ulterior motive for joining the heroes, and the heroes' plans will further their own agenda.
  • Sometimes they're just in it For the Evulz. The hero is on an exciting, heroic quest that will save the world, but it also involves a lot of killing people, and they've got nothing better to do right now. They want to cause chaos and rain down carnage, and this is the best way to do it.
  • Who Watches the Watchmen? In a setting where a Balance Between Good and Evil matters, or just any setting with Gray and Gray Morality, having somebody on your team with some shaky morality can help keep things in perspective. See Your Approval Fills Me with Shame, and Even Evil Has Standards.

Please note - a villain who occasionally sides with the heroes against the greater evil does not belong here; there are other pages for them, such as Even Evil Has Standards.

Contrast Big Bad Friend for where the team-mate's evil nature is a shock revelation, and Psycho Sidekick for when a character like this is the only back-up for a lone hero. For the inversion, see Token Good Teammate. Also see Good Is Not Nice and Affably Evil. Usually, but not always, a Nominal Hero.

No real life examples, please; Calling Real Life people evil is an extremely bad idea.

Examples of Token Evil Teammate include:

Anime and Manga

  • Mayuri Kurotsuchi from Bleach. He isn't part of the Five-Man Band, but he is on their side, for what it's worth... Despite being clearly more evil than many of the villains, Mayuri has to date shown absolutely no interest in switching sides.
    • Strangely enough, it also seems that Mayuri only joined Soul Society when Kisuke tempted him with the idea of the possibility of Klingon Promotion, yet he was apparently never The Starscream.
    • Also, Kenpachi. Despite his adorable lieutenant, he's an Ax Crazy Blood Knight who has no problem physically assaulting his own underlings. He explicitly stated that he didn't care if Ichigo was a friend or enemy; he was powerful, and that was reason enough to try to kill him.
  • Ikki from Saint Seiya is of the Aloof Big Brother and Loners Are Evil variety. While he was purged of much of his evil in the first tournament arc, his involvement in the service of Athena is usually restricted to making sure his younger brother is safe...and killing off his attackers in brutal ways.
  • Mugen from Samurai Champloo shows shades of this. He has no restraints and is far more willing to do evil than his companions
  • Xellos from The Slayers, though its hard to remember sometimes since he's so Affably Evil.
    • Calling him a teammate is a bit of a stretch. While he may hang around the heroes, he only helps when it furthers his own goals, otherwise he wouldn't so much as bat an eye. There's also the not so minor fact that he wants to destroy existence.
    • Case in point, Slayers Try when Xelloss actually did betray Lina in order to recruit Valgav. When Lina found out, she merely hit him on the head a few times.

Lina: Xelloss is a monster, so we expect that of him.

    • It also helps that he's a top-level demon with powers just slightly below that of the series Big Bads (most of whom were only just barely beatable by Dangerous Forbidden Technique or Combined Energy Attack); really, the gang put up with him since he mostly just hangs around and mooches off them, and they probably couldn't dispose of him even if they wanted to.
      • Or rather they could, but it would be very difficult, and possibly risk destroying the world...
  • Hiei (who later becomes an Anti-Hero) in Yu Yu Hakusho.
  • Technically, they're all villains, but among the Knights of the Round, you have a conflicted ex-idealist, an amiable Ace Pilot, a Martial Pacifist, a Rei Expy, three lady knights we don't know much about but seem nice enough... and then there's Luciano Bradley, aka the Vampire of Britannia, aka the Homicide Genius, who specifically joined in order to kill people.
    • Lelouch and Diethard are This for The Black Knights. The former is a rare example of a Token Evil Teammate who is also the Team Leader.
      • Diethard once again is this along the leader himself when he joins Schneizel. Hey, he's the one who justified sacrificing their official leader claiming that baits are not allowed to talk.
  • In Ouran High School Host Club Kyoya is a subversion of this trope. It is commonly accepted amongst the group that everything he does is for the sake of personal gain and profit, but Haruhi manages to prove otherwise on occasion.
  • Darker than Black: November 11 plays the Best Evil Friend Variety when working with police officer Kirihara who is one of the few people he'd risk his life for and go out of his way to help. In general, Contractors are supposed to be the Token Evil Teammates of the intelligence agencies which use them for their powers and ability to kill without remorse. The main character of the series, Hei, is a subversion. Contractor-hating human Huang is Hei's Handler and frequently berates him for having qualms about missions and not acting as evil as a Contractor is supposed to be.
  • In The Prince of Tennis, Hiyoshi Wakashi is sort of the Hyoutei team's token evil teammate (his not so secret aim is to "overthrow" the captain, and he tends to be rather cynical). Also a Sixth Ranger.
  • Barry the Chopper in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. While most of the cast are trying to do what's best for the country, Barry just wants to get rid of the Homunculi so he can be free to start killing again.
    • Also later, Greed.
  • Faye Valentine of Cowboy Bebop occasionally fits this trope. There are times when she seems to genuinely care about the crew, while other times she's an outright bitch to everybody and seems to only care about herself. She has also stolen bounties that rightfully belonged to another crew-member at least a couple of times as well.
    • Then again, she's barely a team member in the strict sense. Half the time she's on the Bebop, she's restrained while they check her belongings.
  • Evangeline of Mahou Sensei Negima. Since she plays the role of the Old Master in the protagonist team, she makes token attempts to bring The Hero over to the dark side. (Which seems to have worked.)
  • Dragon Ball Z has many; the good guys seem perfectly fine associating with darker characters, so long as said characters aren't actually doing anything evil"
    • Vegeta is probably the biggest example, becoming this Trope after his Enemy Mine with the good guys against Frieza. Until the very end of DBZ, the only reason he helps the heroes is because no one else can kill Goku. That, and the fact that he has no interest in letting a villain destroy the Earth since, you know, he lives there now.
    • Before Vegeta, Piccolo could be considered this, though being around Gohan as caused him to change for the better, reluctant as he is to admit it for a time.
    • Lunch qualified in the original series. Well, half the time.
  • Chizuru in Student Council's Discretion. She's a little bit scary. Unless you happen to be Kurimu.
  • Russia from Axis Powers Hetalia, based on Real Life. Has a nice Freudian Excuse, though.
  • Narciso Anasui from Part 6 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
  • The Keroro Platoon in Keroro Gunsou has Sergeant Major Kururu, a Jerkass Mad Scientist with a fondness for tormenting his teammates, and pretty much everyone he comes in contact with. One of the earliest excuses for the frogs don't make progress is that Kururu won't invent anything useful unless it strikes him as interesting at the time.
    • And the frogs themselves are, at least in theory, a Token Evil Team to the Hinata household, seeing as they're supposed to be taking over the world. They don't really ever make much progress, though.
  • Yulia Tymoshenko in The Legend of Koizumi. She frightens Vladimir Putin.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn: Mukuro Rokudo has explicitly stated that the only reason he is working with Tsuna and his group is so that he can eventually steal Tsuna's body. In a similar vein, Mukuro's counterpart from the first generation of Guardians, Daemon Spade, was stated to be a backstabber.
    • Despite what some fangirls will tell you and despite the fact he's almost always accompanied by an adorable bird pet, Kyoya Hibari isn't a much better person than Mukuro and Daemon. However, the first Cloud Guardian, Alaude, was said to be similar to him in his younger days but he got better (despite remaining cold and aloof), so it's possible Hibari might grow up as a decent person. As it stands, however, Kyoya is not one.
  • Agon from Eyeshield 21 becomes this in the World Cup arc. He only joined Team Japan because he wanted to win the three million dollars and isn't above threatening his own teammates to do so.
    • How could you not mention Hiruma?
  • Arguably, Hallelujah from Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Slightly subverted that he's Allelujah's Super-Powered Evil Side.
  • There have been several Token Evil Teammates throughout the various Gantz rosters, but the two that stick out the most are Nishi and Izumi. Nishi is mostly a nihilistic Jerkass whose actions are usually at least understandable, whereas Izumi is far more damaging.
  • After Ayato Naoi joins the SSS in Angel Beats!, he still retains his snarky, Jerkass personality, regularly insults the entire SSS ("except you, Otonashi!"), and uses hypnosis on the other members mostly For the Lulz.
  • Diana, one of the Selacao from Eden of the East is introduced as a Serial Killer known as the "Johnny Hunter", who has been killing men by castrating them with a cigar cutter. She turns out to be a Serial Killer Killer of sorts, only targeting rapists. In the film, The King of Eden, she's become considerably nicer and is a loyal ally to the heroes, but notwithstanding this and her selectivity of victims, she's still a mass murderer.
  • Zebra from Toriko possibly counts.
  • In Flame of Recca, Recca has control over 7 dragons, all of them are more or less amiable (Not to mention one of them is his Bumbling Dad), except one certain dragon named Setsuna. He hates Recca, wants nothing more than to kill him and be free, and resume his old life... as a mass-murdering Complete Monster. Recca still beats him down to submission.
  • Arlong in One Piece was this in the Sun Pirates. While there were other unsavory characters in that group, Arlong would be the first one to suggest violent terrorism towards humans. He even wanted to kill a slave just for being human.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, the Numbers Club seems willing to overlook Anna's violent attitude and Tokunosuke's reputation as a thief and con artist so long as they oppose the Barians.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, the Lancers have a few of them. Sora and Dennis are both cruel sadists who have committed numerous atrocities, but are still accepted as allies by the protagonists; even after Dennis double-crosses them, they are still willing to give him another chance. Gloria and Grace - assassins working for the Professor - eventually defect to the Resistance, but show no signs of truly wanting to do Good after doing so; they consider it "training". Momnoro counts too, defecting to the Lancers partially because they don't give him much choice and partially because he's terrified of what the Professor will do to him if returns to Duel Academy.

Comic Books

  • The X-Men like this. Sabertooth has been on the team at least twice (though one of those times it was a situation where they didn't want to kill him, but didn't trust anyone else to deal with him - he was an involuntary teammate).
    • Not to mention Juggernaut, Magneto, Mystique... at least Juggernaut and Magneto went to genuine Heel Face Turns.
    • Wolverine is usually the Token Anti-Heroic teammate for whatever team he's on, though the lines can blur when he becomes a Darker and Edgier anti-hero. Particularly striking examples are when he's the only member of the Avengers who's willing to kill, much like he was in the early days of his X-Men tenure.
  • Also X-related, Magik from the New Mutants spent her whole time on the team battling her demonic side, but that didn't stop her from being the first to suggest killing some bad guys. When the other kids would tell her they don't kill, she would compromise by sending the villain to Hell. Not quite sure how that was considered better.
    • To be fair, Magik was suffering heightened dark magic influence at the time due to Asgard's higher local mana level. She's not usually that bad.
  • An adult version of Magik from an alternate universe filled this role for a while in Exiles.
  • The Comedian of Watchmen, who ended up being kicked off the team after trying to rape one of the other members. Whether or not the other members are any better than the criminals they go after is debatable (excepting both Nite Owls, whose biggest flaw in both cases is being largely ineffective), but The Comedian is definitely the worst of them and seems to thrive on torturing and killing people. He even kills a pregnant woman (carrying his own child!) back in Vietnam.
    • He's also more or less the exact opposite of Captain America (comics) (consider his stars-and-stripes patriotic outfit), inverted on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
    • It's also implied that while the Comedian had always had a short temper and a ruthless streak, he didn't cross the line into full-blown sadism until much later, and his relationship with the rest of the team was becoming strained long before he tried to force himself on Silk Spectre.
  • L.E.G.I.O.N. had the Comedic Sociopath Lobo working as a core member of the team because he lost a bet to team leader Vril Dox... and Lobo never goes back on a promise.
  • Feral from the first X-Force team fit the bill perfectly. She was a Face Heel Turn waiting to happen (and it eventually did).
    • And in X-Statix, you had a bizarre inversion-subversion mix with Arnie Lundberg, the Mysterious Fan Boy, as a token good teammate in a team made up of people who don't care about morality at all. Arnie is an idealistic kid who believes being a hero is its own reward, and as such is easily the most moral member of the team ever. He's also easily the one who has inspired the most fear, having terrorized his hometown with his Reality Warper powers with a total lack of remorse. Eventually friend of the team Lacuna takes it upon herself to kill him before he can cause any more harm.
  • Though Hsu and Chan aren't exactly the most moral duo, Gila Mobster fits this role perfectly in their misadventures, using methods which the titular brothers insist that he keep to himself and carrying out several odd jobs for local mafias and corporations which actually leads to him trying to murder Hsu in Brand Loyalty.
  • Loki "Trust me! I'm the God of Lies!" Laufeysson in the Danish comic Valhalla, based on Norse Mythology. Mostly saved from being hateful by being comically inept.
  • Princess Lucinda for the line-up of the second volume of Witch Girls Tales.
  • When the six Infinity Gems were split after Infinity Gauntlet, they were split among five known members of Adam Warlock's Infinity Watch, with the Reality Gem given to an unknown sixth member, eventually revealed to be an extremely potent version of this trope: Thanos - not only an enemy of Adam Warlock, but the one who Adam had taken the Gauntlet from. It's unknown if Thanos ever actually tried using it, though.
    • He once used it to temporarily revive Captain Marvel from the dead, who he then informs that he contemplated using the Gem to make Death love him. Captain Marvel then speculates that the reason he was revived at all was so that he could talk Thanos out of such a plan, Thanos knowing it was a bad idea to begin with and subconsciously providing the means to stop himself.
  • There tends to be at least one during in Teen Titans during any time. Rose Wilson (Revenger) and Damian Wayne (Robin) were the most recent
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Both Hyde and Nemo are Sociopathic Heroes, but it's the Invisible Man that really takes the cake.


Fan Works

  • Sailor Moon Abridged: Sailor Mars was originally a slightly bitchy Shinto priestess/Action Girl. Now she's an Ax Crazy Goth Emo Teen Satanist. She makes no bones about her various attempts to kill Serena and regularly alludes to mass (offscreen) sacrifice of her temple's patrons. During her off-duty hours she regularly abuses drugs, gets off on enemy attacks and fantasizes about dying horribly and spending eternity in hell. And the viewers went wild.
  • Ike of the Pokemon fanfic Pedestal first met the protagonists by attacking the narrator and ferociously declaring that he would rip them to shreds. After joining the party, he still plans to murder Namnar after a certain period of time, and after years of working with Des and Carlita, still comes very close to attacking them. Eventually, Ike morphs into a Sour Supporter.
  • Makuhita of the fanfic The Retelling Of Pokemon Colosseum is definitely an example.
  • The Team mage in Dragon Age: Wardens not only could care less about his fellow wardens and often sits back and lets them struggle...he actively murders other soldiers on a whim or turns them into bombs regardless of if they were dying or not.
  • In Kara no Kyoukai: Mana Ryougi is this to The Emiya Clan. She, like her mother, had a very skewed morality, but unlike her mother, she mostly works as a contract assassin, trading blood for money with few restrictions. The others have mixed feelings about her. Kiri and Aleksi have issues with her lack of loyalty to any particular cause and her willingness to interfere with them if she is paid to. On the other hand, Touma idolizes and respects her for her efficiency, iron will, and dedication to standards that she hammered into him when she trained him as an assassin. Everyone else is somewhere in between.


Film

  • Ed Harris' character in National Treasure 2
  • The Indiana Jones series features a lot of Evil Teammates. Even after it comes to light that Allison Doody's with the bad guys, there's still some teamwork between her and both Indy and his father. It's pretty well established that Ray Winstone's character in the fourth Indiana Jones movie, but Indy takes him along for the ride anyways.
  • Hannibal Lecter acts this way to both Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs and Will Graham in Manhunt/Red Dragon.
  • In the movie The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising.

Sorceress: I am not evil! I'm Chaotic Neutral!
Everyone: (deadpan) You are evil.
Paladin:...and a whore.

    • As it happens, Paladins (in Dungeons & Dragons) have the special ability to Detect Evil and are forbidden from associating with evil people, so the paladin may have been violating his oaths by adventuring with the Sorceress.
      • Then again, they did keep sending him out of the room or erasing his memory when they were killing peasants, torturing the bad guys or performing other evil acts.
        • Technically, this would still affect his Paladin powers until he Atoned for the misdeeds (though he would have to find out that he had done them by some means). In D&D, not knowing that you did the deed/allowed it to happen is not an excuse to let the Paladin off scot-free—it's just not as bad as if he intentionally did those things.
  • Ajax in The Warriors, who fits this role in so many ways. He was recruited for his brute strength and fighting ability, he's a lecher and potential rapist, he threatens to become the Evil Chancellor, and he's unexpectedly good-hearted toward weaker members of the gang.
  • Archer Maggott from The Dirty Dozen is a bigoted, psychotic, woman-hating, murdering rapist, and Major Reisman knows it. But given that Maggott is also a trained G.I., and the operation needs all the help it can get, Reisman needs him. Maggott doesn't mind volunteering for the mission once he realizes it could save him from the hangman. Ultimately he goes completely insane, attempts to kill his teammates, and almost sabotages the entire operation, but for a while at least he was a warm body with a machine gun.
    • Victor Franko, being a member of the Mafia (and a convicted murderer), having no respect for authority, and making several attempts to escape and/or undermine Reisman's authority, might also count. He got better, though.
  • The Swedish Chef in the 2011 version of The Muppets. He finds a pile of mouldy talking vegetables in a fridge who've been waiting for him to come back and let them out for years. He promptly burns them to death, giving him a higher body count than most Disney villains.

Literature

  • Although he's not evil, Mundungus Fletcher from Harry Potter is a criminal and a con artist. He was disliked by the other members of the Order of the Phoenix because he was considered untrustworthy. He did eventually end up stealing from a member of the Order, and unwittingly giving a horcrux over to Dolores Umbridge.
    • He also abandoned Mad-Eye Moody during battle, possibly causing the latter's death.
  • The Discworld novel Unseen Academicals introduces Dr. Hix, the Unseen University Professor of Post-Mortem Communications. By university statute he is required to commit acts of moderate evil on a regular basis, which makes him the Faculty's designated Deadpan Snarker.
    • Dr. Hix's presence at all is explained as by having an official department for dark wizards, they have an excuse to deal with unofficial dark wizards. With Fireballs.
    • Hix was technically introduced in Making Money, but then he was a minor functionary, and since he wasn't on the University Council, he A - was not allowed to do anything evil, and B - still spelled his name "Hicks".
  • By about halfway through the series, Rachel from Animorphs was getting there. It's heavily implied that she started out with nothing but a tendency towards pragmatism and ruthlessness that was slightly more pronounced than the other team members. But the group kept needing someone to do the smart thing, instead of the right thing, and Rachel kept volunteering, and it became a part of her character. As she put it in a later book, "They needed me to be the bad guy. And I needed them to be the good guys. Because if they were good guys, and I was on their side, then that meant that I was a good guy too. Even if I was different."
  • Raistlin Majere from Dragonlance Chronicles.
  • Mogget the white cat/albino dwarf from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Trilogy is actually a powerful Free Magic elemental who attempts to kill the nearest Abhorsen whenever he is freed from his binding. He frequently travels with and helps the protagonists in his bound form (though sometimes, especially during the last book, his motives and loyalties seem questionable). Still, he does come through for the good guys in the end when he lends much-needed assistance to bind Orannis, because he just loves the living world too much.
  • In The Druid of Shannara, Pe Ell plays this to Quickening's group, specifically inducted into the group because he was evil enough to bring about Quickening's necessary death.
  • In Azure Bonds, the red dragon Mist is this, but as Akabar notes, Mist's evil was rather petty, especially compared to that of the vile god Moander, whom Mist laid down her life to destroy. Olive Ruskettle, however, is a much more serious example, as she does betray the heroes, although she eventually pulls a Heel Face Turn.
  • By Freedom, Loki/Gragg realises that he has become this, since the Darknet community has largely evolved beyond its early disaffected-and-misfits days to encompass many normal people and has little need of sociopathic hatchetmen like himself.
  • Lokor in Star Trek: Klingon Empire. Of all the Klingons who consistently follow Klag's authority and have yet to pull a Face Heel Turn, Lokor is basically the one guy who has the fewest scruples in screwing people over to get them to toe the line and not buck the system, and most of his methods are disturbing in their effectiveness. On the other hand, he's also unbelievably useful and indispensable to the point that Klag trusts him implicitly.
  • In the tenth Haruhi Suzumiya novel, Kimidori revives Ax Crazy Ryoko Asakura because "Your potential usefulness was marginally greater than the threat you present."
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, Robb Stark has one in the form of the cruel and ruthless Roose Bolton, who's more than willing to use monsters like the Brave Companions and allows his soldiers to Rape, Pillage and Burn freely. He even goes as far as to turn against Robb purely out of opportunism at the Red Wedding, with his forces joining the massacre of his former allies and him personally killing his former king.
  • In the first N.E.R.D.S. book, Jackson Jones sort of counts, considering he was against the nerds before getting his braces, and being the only on a team of nerds to have been popular at one point.

Live-Action TV

  • Sydney's mother from Alias, among others like Sark.
  • Snarky, cynical Turlough is like this to the affable and vulnerable Fifth Doctor after making a deal with the Black Guardian to assassinate the Doctor. He redeems himself in the end,[1] but throughout his run as a companion he's just as liable to run away or betray the Doctor as he is to heroically rescue his friends, and even strangers.
  • T-Bag in Prison Break.
  • More of a "token pragmatist", Tyr in Andromeda was both invaluable and tried to sell out the ship/crew at least once per episode. It helps that Nietzschian pragmatism can be used to justify any action. Even Beka Valentine, a Han Solo-esque rogue, had far more loyalty and backbone.
    • Who was himself inspired by Avon from Blake's 7.
  • Oddly enough, the show House features its main character Dr. Gregory House as one of these. He's a brilliant diagnostician, as well as a snarky jerkass with an addiction to painkillers, and he's made it quite clear that solving complicated medical mysteries is really just a fun game for him. Failing to save a patient's life is usually more of a blow to his ego than a source of sorrow.
    • Naaaaaaahhhhhhh... not really. He says he doesn't care about the patients, but it's clear on many occasions that he does, usually trying to give them life lessons that are not always on the cynical side. He's definitely not evil, just a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
      • Yes but, to be fair, the heart of gold is buried deep, deep, deeeeeep down.
  • Dr. Smith from Lost in Space. While not outright evil, he's propelled largely by self-interest and tends to have such poor judgment it can become a real liability. The aborted movie franchise did make Smith substantially more malevolent and intelligent.
    • This is really a case of Villain Decay. Early episodes showed him to be much more malevolent and the show itself was much more serious. It quickly devolved into slapstick. Also, in the earlier episodes Smith's unquestionably necessary skills as a doctor prevented the Robinsons from simply flushing him out the airlock, whereas in the later episodes he contributes nothing to the team and all he ever does is get in the way with his self-serving schemes.
  • Major Charles Winchester of M*A*S*H. He's not above trying to get something out of his forced residence at the 4077th (especially if it's at the expense of his tent mates), but he does do his best to take care of the patients. Turns into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold later in the series.
  • In Farscape, everyone is quite morally ambiguous—especially by the final season. However, in that season, Scorpius definitely qualifies. Earlier on, there's Rygel, who constantly tries to sell out and undermine the rest of the team and unashamedly jumps on any opportunity for profit.
  • Tom Zarek of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica likes to portray himself as a staunch defender of the little guy, who had to resort to extreme measures to try to empower his disenfranchised people, and yet ordered things like bombing convention centers, tried to have the president assassinated when there were less than 50'000 known survivors of humanity, ran an illegal black market which had previously included the exploitation of children, and had sold his position numerous times. While he does seem genuine in at least some of his outspokenness, the fact that he could be blackmailed with this information says something about his character.
    • And then, well... let's say season 4 gets a lot more definite on the subject of his character.
  • Ben fits this trope in the sixth season of Lost. He's still a manipulative sociopath, but this time he's on the losties' side.
    • Sawyer pretty much filled this role in the first season, or at least he was the token Jerkass.
  • Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been nearly every level of this. He started on the road with the one time team up variety. When he got a chip put in his head to prevent him from hurting humans, he joined the Scoobies as the Token Evil Teammate, since killing demons was the only way he could get his kicks. This didn't stop him from working with Adam or being a general asshole - they only kept him around because he was occasionally useful and they didn't want to kill someone physically incapable of fighting back.
    • Faith believes that her Slayer powers give her the right to steal and generally run amok (eventually leading to the accidental death of a person). She soon goes from Token Evil Teammate to straight villain and The Dragon for Mayor Wilkins.
    • Anya's pining for her lost vengeance demon powers and lack of sympathy for humans qualified her as an Evil Teammate to begin with. Soon enough, though, she was just as goody-goody as the rest of the group, just odd.
  • Illyria on Angel hangs out with the main cast because she's been denied the power to Take Over the World, and isn't really sure what to do with herself otherwise. Occasionally she helps them out. Though she sometimes seems to be more closely aligned to the heroes than she claims.
  • On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Garak eventually comes to fill this role.
    • "Evil" implies that we have any clue what his real priorities are. He's more like the Token Magnificent Bastard Wild Card Expansion Pack Past teammate with a fondness for Blatant Lies, manipulation, and being (or at least being suspected of being) a Double Reverse Quadruple Agent.
    • He's an exiled Cardassian who was an agent of the Obsidian Order, that race's secret police. He is quite the magnificent bastard, possessing skills like interrogation, spying, hacking, blackmailing and of course, assassination.
      • He's not a bad tailor, either.
    • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Gul Dukat works with the crew of Deep Space Nine and forms a mutual trust with Sisko to eliminate a greater evil far more often than Sisko should trust him. At some point in the series, the two become mortal enemies.
  • How I Met Your Mother has Barney Stinson, the embodiment of this trope. A Ladykiller in Love Casanova to the extreme who works for Mega Corp, which is implied to have all sorts of really evil things going on with North Korea and even somehow contaminating the drinking water in Lisbon for some reason? Yeah, pretty evil.
    • The other characters occasionally wonder why they even hang out with Barney when he's being exceptionally assholish. The reason, of course, is that he's like family to them, and no matter how horrible he acts, they can't bear to abandon him, as Ted realized in season 3, and Marshall in season 6.
  • Chuck Bass is the Token Evil Teammate of Gossip Girl's Non-Judging Breakfast Club. True he's mellowed, but a guy who's attempted to rape another team member definitely counts as evil.
  • The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Reprogrammed Terminators like Cameron, Weaver and those employed by the Resistance fit this category to a T. Cold, logical, unstoppable and brutally pragmatic (Cameron would kill anyone she even suspects of being a threat, and Weaver slaughtered an entire warehouse of people for working for Skynet when John Henry intercepts an unsecure communication) -- be glad they're on our side. Of course, "Sometimes they go bad. No-one knows why."
  • Possibly Tom Price in the 2008 remake of the BBC drama Survivors, only his position as the Big Guy of The Family has kept the other survivors from killing or permanently banishing him, and even then, only barely.
  • On Stargate Atlantis, Todd the Wraith occasionally allies with Atlantis versus Replicators, Genii, other Wraith clans etc.
    • Stargate Universe's Dr. Rush is the only person smart enough to help out his crew mates most of the time. Which he stranded them on in the first place. He also is arrogant, doesn't care about what happens to anyone else on the ship and by now completely insane.
  • As referenced in the Andromeda example above, Avon from Blakes Seven might just be the prototypical sci-fi evil teammate: snarky, argumentative, cynical, and in favor of self-preservation over doing the right thing. He repeatedly claims that he’d sell out the rest of the crew in a heartbeat if it was to his benefit. It’s not clear how much of his attitude is a bluff, but he certainly is more… morally pragmatic than Blake is. Avon is a bit of an odd example because after season two, he’s the protagonist.
    • Arguably, the only thing that stops him from leaving the Liberator is the Liberator In the final episode of season 2, he tells Blake he's done with Blake's revolution and will only help if he is given Liberator. Blake agrees and Avon is content enough to follow Blake on what could easily be a suicide mission.
  • Being an Expy of Dr Smith, Brad Spitfire from French-Canadian science-fiction comedy Dans une galaxie près de chez vous fits this trope completely: cowardly, greedy, power-hungry, Nazi-loving and all-in-all hated by every other members, the only reason hasn't been Thrown Out the Airlock by now is because he is the only one scientist on board, and his skill are greatly needed.
  • H.G. Wells on Warehouse 13 goes from pure villain to a member of the team. Artie is certain she'll betray them at any moment.
    • And as it stands he was right. She eventually betrays the group to wield one of the most powerful and destructive artifacts there is that nearly causes a mass earthquake capable of wiping out all life on earth after (in her eyes) seeing the future world decay so horribly over the years from her time.
  • Jayne from Firefly is very much this for the main characters. He always points out when they're about to do something more honorable than profitable and was a prime example of Recruiting the Criminal... well, enemy criminal. He's Only in It For the Money, and is probably the staunchest proponent for getting rid of the Tams, though the one time he tried to do so in Ariel, he got betrayed by the guy he worked with and almost got Thrown Out the Airlock for it by a furious Mal.
    • Also, in Serenity, after River gets triggered and Mal still keeps her on the ship, Jayne tries to kill her in order to get the Alliance off their backs.
      • However, Jayne definitely shows that he has good in him. Whether it be his shame of betraying Simon and River after Mal was about to throw him out of the airlock (it wasn't just fear but legitimate shame), or him eventually advocating in favor of doing the right thing near the end of Serenity.
  • Guerrero of Human Target. He is intensely loyal to Chance, but that seems to be about it as far as morals go. Threats, torture, murder? Check, check and check.
  • Arguably Damon from The Vampire Diaries. He's not even LIKED by most of the team, and the main reasons they keep him around is that he's Stefan's brother, it means they know where he is and what he's and will lend a hand if it serves his purposes. In Season One, they let him stick around because he was too strong to fight. In Season Two he's more of a team player, but maybe that's because Bonnie has proven that she could (and almost DID) kill him if angry enough with him.
    • Elijah joins them in Season 2 despite being rather antagonistic earlier in the season.
  • Cara on Legend of the Seeker might qualify as this after her Heel Face Turn. Although she's extremely loyal to Richard and eventually admits, albeit begrudgingly, that she cares a lot about her teammates, she seems to really enjoy killing and torture, and finds the other characters' displays of love and affection nauseating.
  • Similar to House, the main character (or one of them) in White Collar is more or less this: Neal Caffrey is a Boxed Crook working with the FBI in exchange for not being in prison. Subverted inasmuch as Neal shows signs of reform—to say nothing of the fact that, as a good-natured forger and con artist, Caffrey wasn't terribly evil to start with.
  • Nathan from Misfits isn't quite evil, but he's a bullying, self-obsessed, borderline-sociopathic Ted Baxter of epic proportions, who is regularly suggested to have some kind of undiagnosed mental illness.
  • Hobbes from V is a mercenary wanted by the FBI who is forced to join the Fifth Column after the Visitors frame him for a crime he didn't commit... which is not to say that he hasn't also committed other crimes which were just as bad or worse. In the V: the Final Battle mini-series from the 80's, Michael Ironside portrays merc Ham Tyler, whose was initially distrusted by the Resistance as being a warmonger.
  • Sam in iCarly. If the plot requires anything that isn't lawful, Sam will suggest it and carry it out.
  • Santana in Glee has increasingly become this in the second season. Quinn can flip in and out of this role.
  • From time to time Pierce Hawthorne on Community fills this role.
    • Chang sometimes does too. For example when Pierce endangered Annie's anti-drug play it was Chang who saved it.
  • Supernatural dances around this a lot. Season 3 gave us Bela, who while pretty evil wasn't exactly a team player, and Ruby, who turned out to actually be The Mole. Finally, however, season 5 gave us Crowley, who, while still perfectly willing to kill innocent people and send souls to hell, proved to be a valuable member of Team Free Will.
  • Luther has Alice Morgan, at least after the finale of the first series. Even though Luther's a policeman and she's an unrepentant murderer and sociopath, the two have an understanding and friendship of sorts and are perfectly willing to help each other with their various problems.


Myths & Religion

  • In The Bible, Joab son of Zeruiah acts this way for David, ostensibly commander of David's army but doing evil things like disobeying David to kill David's son Absalom and his intended replacement Amasa. Unlike many examples of the type, he does get killed for it eventually, though it's puzzling as to why David didn't do it after the first.


Tabletop Games

  • Dungeons & Dragons
    • In the original adventure The Keep on the Borderlands, there are opportunities for NPCs to join the party, and some of them are of evil alignment.
    • In the same vein, Temple of Elemental Evil (or at least Troika's computer remake) features many joinables, the majority of them are evil aligned (a few good joinables and several neutrals exist though).
    • In the original AD&D, the Assassin is the most likely candidate for this role, as the class in question requires an evil alignment. Blackguards can be this in 2nd Edition.
    • Doresain is a demi-god who was once a mortal elf who worshipped Orcus, eventually starting to feed on the flesh of fallen enemies as a sign of devotion to his god; Orcus was impressed, and turned him into the first ghoul, later making Doresain his exarch. Despite this, Doresain is still on good terms with Corellon and the rest of the elven pantheon, the stated reason why the paralysis caused by regular ghouls does not work on elves.
    • Similar to Doresain is Abbathor, the dwarven god of Greed, a concept widely recognized as the biggest flaw of the dwarven race. Abbathor has sided with the rest of the dwarven pantheon in wars against gods of the orcs and goblins, so they accept him as one of their own. His inclusion among them is very much a living analogy of a fault dwarves have that they just can't shake.
  • A Token Evil Teammate is an all too common occurrence in any group of players, regardless of system or original intent of the campaign. This can be a major source of friction among groups of players, and must be dealt with extremely carefully.
    • Often goes too far and gives you one Token Good Player instead.
  • Black Robe Wizards can fill this role in a Dragonlance game.
  • Seltyiel, the Lawful Evil half-elven Eldritch Knight/magus in Pathfinder, who's canonically the paladin's pet project.
  • Magic: The Gathering: Crovax, in the short time between becoming a vampire and undergoing a Face Heel Turn.
    • Deconstructed later on in the story arc, in which Urza takes a team of the multiverse's most powerful planeswalkers to Phyrexia to perform a raid on the plane in his efforts to destroy Yawgmoth...including the Evil Sorceror Tevesh Szat, who had posed issues to Dominaria in the past. As it turns out, he ends up turning on his comrades and slaughtering a few of them. And Urza was fully expecting this to happen - he hired Szat just because he had hoped he would betray the team so that he'd have an excuse to siphon out the souls of Tevesh Szat and his victims and use them as bombs. Really, by this point the only thing keeping Urza anywhere close to the side of good was the fact that he was doing this in order to kill someone a hundred times worse than he was.

Video Games

  • Canderous in both Knights of the Old Republic games; he's something of a Proud Warrior Race Guy. There's also HK-47, who is a Killer Robot. It's not the fact that his standard greeting in KotOR 2 is "Is there someone you want killed, master?", it's how viscerally he enjoys it...
    • Kreia in KotOR 2 if the player character is light-sided, as she believes in balance above all else, and so gives "evil" advice when players do good things.
    • There are others who start out evil, and can be redeemed, in KOTOR II - G0-T0 comes to mind.
  • E-123 Omega from Sonic Heroes and Sonic Chronicles.
  • Neverwinter Nights provided Grimgnaw, a Lawful Evil monk with the creepy turned Up to Eleven.
    • Aribeth de Tylmarande in Hordes of the Underdark is a Fallen Hero Paladin who ended up as The Dragon in the first campaign. You can either make her the Token Evil Teammate, or convince her to seek her god's forgiveness, in which case she regains Lawful Good alignment.
    • Nathyrra from the same campaign is not an example. She is listed as Lawful Evil purely because of game mechanics on the Assassin Prestige Class and acts completely Lawful Good.
    • Neverwinter Nights 2 has Bishop, a Social Darwinist ranger; Ammon Jerro, a warlock who is determined to defeat the Big Bad by any means necessary, including murder and consorting with fiends; and Qara, a Sociopathic Hero sorceress who has no qualms about "solving" problems by blasting everything in sight (and does not react well to people trying to prove that it doesn't solve anything).
    • One-of-Many, an undead Hive Mind, could possibly be this in the expansion Mask of the Betrayer, but this would largely be averted (provided the player doesn't choose to make a sudden Heel Face Turn) by the fact that the PC would have to make a consciously evil choice to get him/it/them/? instead of Okku (the corresponding good character).
    • Leaving aside the fact that Storm of Zehir lets you hand-craft your own party, T.E.T. and all if you so desire, among the cohorts are the deep gnome wizard Chir Darkflame (Chaotic Evil), the aasimar Shadow Thief Belueth the Calm (Neutral Evil), and the half-drow warlock Quarrel (Chaotic Evil).
  • Bowser in Super Mario RPG.
  • Gig in Soul Nomad and The World Eaters.
  • Nix in In Famous 2.
    • Nix is more of an Anti-Villain. While she is willing to kill it is more due to her traumatic experience and wanting to get revenge. After the plot twist, she is willing to sacrifice her life to stop the Beast who will destroy everything, compared to her counterpart Lucy, who joins with the Beast to save herself.
    • Not really noble goals fighting the Beast. When you fight her in the Evil ending she basically says that she's only fighting the Beast because of desire for vengeance and because she doesn't want to be part of a crowd of Conduits
  • The Silencer, of the Crusader series. An unusual example, given that he is the player character.
  • Warlocks and Death Knights seem to serve this role in World of Warcraft. Warlocks fit the role very loosely, since they indeed horribly kill their enemies and steal their souls, but their class quest chain is dedicated to resisting the Burning Legion's influence and not succumbing to evil.
    • As well as the entire faction of the Forsaken, who are not saints.
    • And Death Knights feed by the very act of killing, which is perfectly suited to the role of adventurer..and thus not really fitting the trope very well. All of what made the DK class "evil" was because they were compelled to do Arthas' will, which disappears after the Knights of the Ebon Blade rebel.
      • On the other hand, many of the Knights of the Ebon Blade take questionable approaches to fighting the Scourge, from being willing to fire even while risking hitting web-wrapped "human shields" to destroying the soul of an enemy commander.
    • In Wrath of the Lich King, the Wyrmrest Accord is an alliance of four dragonflights of Azeroth against Malygos' foolish crusade. The Black dragonflight is part of the alliance.
  • Korgan Bloodaxe in Baldur's Gate 2. His Chaotic Evilness is to the point where some people LEAVE YOUR PARTY if the right dialogue goes down. He is also immensely badass—just look at his name.
    • To be specific, Korgan will chase Aerie out of the party by verbally abusing her. If you're playing the expansion, however, Aerie instead starts verbally insulting him right back—at which point Korgan reveals it was a Secret Test of Character to see if she was able to stand up for herself or not—and now that she's proven that she does, he no longer has a problem with her.
    • The Baldur's Gate series is pretty rich in villainous PCs. In Throne of Bhaal, this extends all the way up to bringing the villain of the first game Back from the Dead as a recruitable party member!
    • We also have Edwin, snarky Gender Bender wizard who talks to himself frequently about fireballing the party as they sleep. He also hated Dynaheir, Minsc's partner in BG1; in BG2 she's dead, and he mocks Minsc about it, showing zero sympathy. He seems to be driven by ambition and thinks the PC is a quick route to power - and despite mutinous mutterings, Edwin is one of the most loyal NPCs in the game, and it is perfectly possible to go through the game with a Good party, high Reputation, good deeds left and right, and all Edwin will do is some amusing snarking about it.
    • And, of course, Viconia the Neutral Evil drow unless you're romancing her in TOB, which sends her to True Neutral.
  • Etna in Disgaea 2. Though not in the first one simply on the basis that you don't play the good guy.
  • Magus in Chrono Trigger.
    • May be an aversion seeing as how he becomes the dark lord of the monsters because he can use magic and is simply using them as tools to keep the humans off his back until he can summon the true Big Bad Lavos and destroy him. In the magic kingdom story arc he sets the villains against you so you don't get in his way while he again plots to destroy Lavos. After that effort fails, both sides figure out he's more interested in destroying Lavos than he is in opposing the heroes (who, incidentally, also want to destroy Lavos) and he decides to join forces with you - if you let him.
  • Ignus in Planescape: Torment; he is technically Chaotic Neutral, but he's an Ax Crazy Pyromaniac. The main character could become this as well, depending on how you play.
  • Myron from Fallout 2, who's evil extends to potentially drugging and raping a female PC with a very low intelligence score. He is intended, to all appearances, to be a character that nobody will like (being annoying, beyond the Moral Event Horizon, AND bad in combat), and which everyone will only use for his abilities. He's easy to keep in line just with threats, since he's so pathetically weak in every way. Even if you let him live, he gets brutally murdered in some back alley in the epilogue, regardless of your actions. Even the writers couldn't stand him.
    • Jericho from Fallout 3 was formerly part of the Raiders, who are notorious murderers, rapists, sadists and possibly cannibals. Though he nominally works as a part-time protector for the settlement of Megaton, he usually ends up getting drunk off his ass and reputedly attempted to rape one of the local residents. A player with bad karma (and 1000 caps) can convince him to come out of retirement and become a companion.
    • Joshua Graham was originally supposed to be one of these in Fallout: Van Buren, where he was known as The Hanged Man. However, due to the fact that J.E. Sawyer decided that this did not make for an interesting character, Graham appears in Fallout: New Vegas as a deeply conflicted yet incredibly brutal Atoner. Also, Ulysses was originally meant to be a Legion-affiliated companion (and in the game was a former Legion spy/scout) but was cut from the game proper, though he becomes the central figure of the Lonesome Road DLC.
      • In DLC Dead Money, Dean Domino plays this role, being practically responsible for everything that went wrong with the Sierra Madre due to being jealous of the creator. If the player gets on his bad side, he will try to kill you off near the end.
  • Dr.Shantotto in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
    • What, the cute, little avatar of destruction with a sweet little laugh? Surely you jest!
    • Arguably Kain in Dissidia 012, who attempts to kill all of his teammates, and does not participate in the final act of the 012 cycle (with Lightning, Tifa, Yuna, Vaan and Laguna, all of whom (except Lightning) are very optimistic and kind-hearted characters).
  • Ceville from the game Ceville is one. He, in fact, is the disposed former tyrant of the kingdom - your first act while playing as him is sending the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf into slave labor and stealing all their possessions. He never really changes his personality or attitude during the entire game. The only real reason he tolerates Lilly is because she's useful in his quest to get revenge and (sorta) take back his kingdom. Despite being a stereotypical evil tyrant though, Ceville shows quite the amount of intelligence and foresight; he's well aware that he can't just kill, say, his favourite cook if he wants food later and dwarven exploitation of the elves and the forests is bad (if only because they're greedier than he). Of course, once he comes to see how greedy and evil the senators can be, he starts to get appreciative of the new 'democracy' in his former kingdom. Paraphrasing his words, they're just as bad and decadent as he was, they just can hide it better.
  • Reaver in Fable II: he's arguably more evil than the game's main villain, being not just a mass murderer but cold-blooded and sociopathic. The only thing that keeps him from being a far greater threat to the world is his lack of ambition and scope.
  • Joshua of The World Ends With You. He starts as the protagonist's partner and foil in the second level of the game, fakes a Heroic Sacrifice, and ends up as the Big Bad and the Man Behind the Man in The Reveal. Not bad for a smarmy git.
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn has a few. First is Izuka, the Mad Scientist from PoR who ends up with Daein again in RD, who utilizes deplorable tactics for the cause, though he was serving two other causes at the time, all three of which sought very different ends. Second is Soren, who really seems indifferent to everything other than Ike, and is more suspicious of others' motives than his teammates. Finally Shinon, an unabashed racist who never repents even given the somewhat Anvilicious race-based events in the game.
  • Anyone with the Darcsen Hater potential in Valkyria Chronicles. Cezary is a Dirty Coward who only became a sniper to stay off the front lines, besides being a complete Jerkass. (even to the player) And then there's Theold Bohr, a Might Makes Right, Social Darwinist, bully and utterly unrepentant Jerkass who calls Darcsens heretics. Rosina isn't quite as bad as the other two (she only dislikes Darcsens because they tend to be skinny, and she has a thing for macho men) but she can still be a jerk sometimes. Given the nature of the game, most players don't even touch them.
    • The third game stars a penal brigade. Most of the assigned are either innocent (such as the main character, who was framed for treason by a corrupt general in case he witnessed proof) or sentenced for comparatively minor crimes (stealing ingredients for food), while those with actual crimes tend to be sympathetic (a historian who broke into classified archives and trespassed on historical sites, refusal to follow suicidal orders, perpetual drinking to forget their destroyed native country). A few members however absolutely deserve their placement like Gloria Darrell (stealing arms), Cedric Drake (a gangster convicted of several murders) and Gisele Fleming (a serial arsonist who dislikes everyone).
  • Morrigan in Dragon Age is the daughter of the infamous Witch of the Wilds, Flemeth, and while she claims to be an ultra-pragmatic survivalist, most of her actions show her to be rather cruel, disapproving of virtually anything you do that isn't sadistic and cruel. Oh, and you later learn that the only reason she joined you was so she could birth a child with the soul of an Old God. Of course, she arguably does have standards... just not many.
    • There's also Zevran, an assassin who initially opposes the party, but can eventually be convinced to join you. Even if he does, he never quite drops his "evil assassin" nature. Unless the PC - who can be of either gender - romances him and convinces him to turn against his old assassin's guild in the endgame, in which he becomes a bit Heroic Neutral.
    • The sequel has Anders, an insane Well-Intentioned Extremist mage possessed by a vengeance demon who eventually carries out a terrorist attack to incite a revolution, and Isabela, a pirate who stole the qunari's most sacred relic and is willing to let the qunari go to war with Kirkwall to save her own skin. Of course, the rest of your teammates have their own flaws (particularly Sebastian, who vows to recruit an army and raze Kirkwall to the ground if you spare Anders after the Chantry attack) and the game is set in a Crapsack World with Gray and Grey Morality, but these two particularly stand out.
  • Mass Effect 2 gives you the psychotic former lab rat Jack, the revenge-obsessed mercenary Zaeed, and the asari sex demon Morinth (who you can only recruit if your Shepard agrees to kill one of her other teammates instead).
    • Jack and Zaeed, while they don't end up being fully redeemed, can at least be convinced to see things in a Paragon fashion, Jack by helping her deal with her past and convincing her that you're not merely out to just use her and Zaeed by punching him in the face and threatening, at gunpoint, to let him burn in a factory like he would have done to innocent hostages.. Morinth, on the other hand, is a monstrous character who has no intention of ever-changing and enjoys what she does.
    • Mass Effect 3 has Javik, though he's not so much evil as he is just brutally pragmatic and ruthless in dealing with the Reapers. He also has zero tolerance for synthetic lifeforms and believes that they have no right to exist.
  • Suikoden V has Nakula, an Ax Crazy killer who makes absolutely no attempt to hide the fact that he wants to brutally murder one of your other teammates.
    • A little elaboration is needed. He's not "evil by design". Rather, he's just insanely pissed one of your other teammates murdered his father, and though he really wants said teammate to die (who even acknowledges he's right to be so angry), he's willing to be professional enough to put his grudge aside to aid you, even against his own people, mostly because they gave him up for dead.
  • Green Goblin and Venom eventually join your group in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 after you free them from being controlled by the Fold, a hive mind of nanite-possessed people. Judging from their dialogue with other characters, where they're total Jerkasses, they're not too happy about it. The partnership between them and the heroes is a strict Enemy Mine to take down their common foe.
  • A lot of the hirable mercs in the Jagged Alliance games are either Axe Crazy, massive Jerkasses, or both. They'll ignore orders if they're busy trying to kill a baddy, annoy other team members so much that they quit, or (in some instances) murder teammates that they dislike between missions.
  • As of the true ending for BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, the main group of heroes have two of these in the cases of Jin and Kokonoe. Though to be fair, they're not so much evil as "total prick" and "amoral Mad Scientist", respectively. However, this might be subverted that Jin is put under tutelage of Jubei, one of the few unflappably good persons in the universe, meaning it's just a matter of time until he stops being a Token Evil Teammate. Kokonoe on the other hand is standing on the edge of the Moral Event Horizon and seems undeterred by that fact, too, so the only thing "good" about her right now is that she fights Terumi.
    • Speaking of Terumi, he was the Token Evil Teammate of the Six Heroes. He only allied with them out of nececity when he realized that the Monster of Mass Destruction that he had secretly created wasn't controlable, and since it was now indiscriminately destroying the world, as opposed to destroying it the way Terumi wanted it to be destroyed, it simply HAD to be put down. When the monster finally had been killed, one of the heroes, a witch named Nine, managed to catch whiff of the fact that it had been Terumi who set it loose in the first place, so he simply HAD to kill her... Guess who of the two people mentioned in the above paragraph Nine was the mother of? I'll give you a hint: It wasn't Jin.
  • Okage has one (kind of) in the form of Stan. Evil King Stan believes himself, clearly, to be evil, and thus goes along with Ari to destroy the other Evil Kings and regain his power to do...evil things, apparently. Ironically, a majority of the Evil Kings Ari defeats ends up joining their group.
  • Jagi becomes this in Hokuto Musou for the Hokuto side in Dream Mode, choosing to take his chances with his brothers after royally pissing off Thouzer. Mind you, Jagi was one of the biggest Complete Monster in the series, although for this one mode, his brutality has been toned down with some hilarious moments.
    • This also extends to Raoh of the Hokuto Side, since by default, he's the ruthless Big Bad, and even when he's a Noble Demon, he's still got the evil within him.
  • In Namco X Capcom, amongst multitudes of good heroes, one of the members you can get is Tekken's Heihachi Mishima, one of the chief antagonists of the series. Though to be fair, he's on the 'Thou' part on the Eviler Than Thou deal against Devil Kazuya...
  • In the original translation of Final Fantasy Tactics, Gustav Margueriff seems to be this for the Death Corps. Aside from his Marquis-kidnapping shenanigans, which damaged the reputation of the Corps (just as the guy who was paying him off to do it intended), his Brave Story biography had it that he was kicked out of a knightly order for his war crimes (i.e. rape and pillaging) before joining up with The Idealist Wiegraf's forces. The new translation, however, completely inverts his background—the rest of the order was full of war criminals and Gustav left in disgust, though this doesn't stop him from making life difficult in the present.
  • Iori Yagami plays this for his official teams in Ko F 2001 and XI.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny, everyone who had joined forces to fight the Unbreakable Darkness is doing it for good reasons, may it be to stop the Eldritch Abomination from destroying everything, to fix the mistake they did for unsealing her in the first place, or because they're completely loyal to both their master and their newfound friends and would like to have fun times after beating the threat. Well, everyone that is, except for Lord Dearche, the Evil Overlord-like Humanoid Abomination who's only doing it because she plans to take the unlimited power of the Unbreakable Darkness and use it to kill all her non-Material allies so that no one would stand in her way as she begins a reign of darkness! She was slightly annoyed when her fellow Materials protested her plans since that would mean that she'd kill their new friends too. Damn minions straying from their original mission of bringing chaos to everything and becoming all nice behind her back...
  • Margrid The Sly joins your party in Guild Wars. She's a member of the Corsairs, a ragtag group of bandits you've been fighting since level 1. It just so happens she can provide you with a quick escape from one mission, and she has no qualms with helping you as long as you can pay up. She ends up joining you permanently, though (she claims) it's more for money and treasure than the chance to be a hero.
  • When running a kingdom in Mount & Blade Warband your reputation is unmodified by the actions of your underlings. Thus if you are playing as a "good" king you'll want some underlings with negative personality styles to raid enemy towns (destroying their ability to wage war) for you.
  • Monster Girl Quest Paradox allows you to recruit almost every named character, so there are plenty of these. Some noteworthy examples are Ilias (the Big Bad of the first game, who wants to exterminate all monsters - though she does undergo Character Development), Mephisto (an Obviously Evil Chancellor who's openly an agent of one of your enemies) and Alicetroemeria (actually the infamous tyrant Black Alice, who has the same personality as the game's Big Bad).
  • Lance in the Epic Battle Fantasy series is introduced as the Final Boss in EBF2 before joining the party in subsequent games, although his past as a villain is barely mentioned and he is not exactly evil, just an unpleasant jerk. EBF5 re-introduces him as a sociopathic Arc Villain and Evil Overlord wannabe forced to join the party as punishment for his misdeeds, and he remains completely unapologetic during the whole adventure, refusing to admit that he did anything wrong and essentially blaming the entire world for who he is. Only by the end of the game he starts feeling genuine regret over his life choices.

Web Comics

  • Arudin from Dungeon Crawl Inc. is this, though he insists he's merely "colorfully pragmatic." His most vile deeds occured years before he joined the comic's Five-Man Band, when he was an agent of the elven terrorist organization Eldreth Veluuthra. He did a Heel Face Turn and nowadays he's mainly a snarky Jerkass.
  • Black Mage of Eight Bit Theater is absurdly evil. In one arc, it is revealed that his Signature Move, hadoken, is powered by love. That is, he siphons love out of the universe to fuel his power. This has the added effect of raising the divorce rate with each blast. Of course, all the Light Warriors save for Fighter are amoral to some extent.
    • Honestly, Thief and Red Mage are bad enough that classifying Fighter as the Token Good Teammate would probably be more accurate.
    • While the Light Warriors as a whole are inept, stupid, violent, destructive and selfish, Black Mage stands out because he wants to destroy the world and everyone in it for no real reason. It's suggested that its his own presence that causes the rest of the Light Warriors to be what they are.
  • Richard in Looking for Group (pictured above) is this. On page two, we see him use an innocent bystander as a human shield. He then gleefully considers the prospect of killing the man's wife and young son, to "complete the set." The rest of the party is grey or good (Cale).
    • Oddly enough, despite Richard killing Cale the first time they met (he got better), and Richard's constant Crossing the Line Twice, by now Cale misses him so much when he is not around that he set his own hands on fire reminiscing. When Richard returned, there were hugs.
    • Remember: that orphanage attacked him. It was self-defense.
  • Belkar in Order of the Stick. A Chaotic Evil Card-Carrying Villain Jerkass, but Roy is allowed into heaven partially because his influence limited the amount of evil Belkar would otherwise have done. Interestingly, this may be the first non-intuitive trope used without at least a Lampshade Hanging.
  • Bun-Bun from Sluggy Freelance is a sociopath through and through, but the other characters keep him around partly out of sympathy, partly because his raw toughness comes in handy, and partly because he'd kick their asses for trying to get rid of him. Over the years, the cast has gotten quite good at "Bun-Bun-fu", arranging situations so that it's in Bun-Bun's best interest to help them.

Riff: I'm going to sweeten the deal! What do you think of this, Bun-Bun?
Bun-Bun: (unimpressed) It's an empty wallet.
Riff: (points to bad guy) And I bet his is full of cash and credit cards. And you've got to bodily throw one of us out.
Bun-Bun: Fair enough! Time to mug and take out the trash!

    • Even more blatant a recent arc, where Bun-Bun goes up against Oasis under the guise of doing it only for a huge pile of cash, only when he finally encounters her he has this exchange:

Bun-Bun: I'll get right to the point, Red. You simply have to stop messing with and killing the dweebs in my life. They suck, I know, but they're my dweebs. You're making me mad. But you know what's going to make you madder than me?
Bun-Bun: I know where Torg is and I'm not telling. So what are you going to do about it, Crazy-Pants?

    • Each time he got drunk he would tell the rest of the cast that he actually appreciates them...
  • Girl Genius: Baron Wulfenbach seems to keep Bangladesh Dupree on the payroll because it's better to have her using her destructiveness at his call rather than simply running loose. Of course, that leash isn't very tight.
    • Bangladesh is also a case of Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work -- while the Baron has sufficient conviction to order a village burned to the ground if necessary to stop a contagious zombie plague, to name just one example, he's also aware that he needs minions willing to accept such orders or he might as well not bother to give them in the first place. And he's directly Lampshaded that rather than turn good men into broken men by forcing them to do such things it makes more sense to just keep Dupree on hand for the more horrific missions because, seeing as how she's a psychopath, they won't bother her at all.
  • Luke from Freak Angels decided one day human morals really weren't his thing and has been going downhill ever since.
  • Bezzler the thief in Nodwick essentially stole everything he could get his hands on and nearly bankrupted his party several times before Yeager slipped him a "Magic Helm of C'ntrol-Ault-Delete" (and again until Nodwick dealt with him after this wore off). Although in day-to-day life Yeager seems to play this role despite not being officially evil (often helped by Artax), largely due to his tendency to treat henchmen as Acceptable Targets.
    • YMMV Bezzler fits right in as far as his lawful good replacement Nodwick is concerned too well he's a henchman abusing thief like Yeegar and Artax. Arguable he is just skilled.
  • Ken in No Need for Bushido is a Sociopathic Hero Jerkass who is something like a combination of Mugen and Prince Zuko but without either of their noble qualities. He's shown brutally mugging innocent people several times as a way to keep the group in-funds, and his good teammates are willing to tolerate this.
  • Bob in Bob and George is evil, but still hangs out with his brother George and the rest of the main cast. He even saves George from trouble a few times. However, none of this stops him from occasionally trying to take over the world or kill everyone.
  • At first, the Trolls in Homestuck seem to have one in Terezi "gallowsCalibrator" Pyrope. In Act Five, however, we meet the other Trolls; compared to Vriska "arachnidsGrip" Serket, Terezi is a saint.
    • To elaborate: the worst thing Terezi has done was leading the protagonist to get himself killed by taking on enemies stronger than he could manage in an alternate timeline, and she did this knowing he would be back. Vriska, on the other hand, forced one of her teammates to jump off a cliff and paralyze himself, then mind controlled another teammate into murdering his lover, and forced Terezi into staring into the sun until she went blind. Terezi has killed trolls during her time as Vriska's partner in FLARP, but according to her, she only killed the "bad" ones, while Vriska just killed everyone.
    • Also note that the Trolls as a whole are a race of violent Jerk Asses who have no qualms about infanticide or culling other "weak" members of their population. And they still all hate Vriska.
      • Not all of them. That particular honor goes to Eridan instead.
    • By the end of Act 5, both Vriska and Eridan received Laser-Guided Karma deaths (albeit with a good bit of "Alas, Poor Villain" for Vriska), leaving Gamzee as the Token Evil Teammate of the survivors.
    • To the surprise of no one, among the less violent pre-Scratch trolls, the Token Evil Teammate was Meenah, whose post-Scratch counterpart is The Condesce.
  • Mike from Its Walky and Shortpacked. While not exactly evil, he takes being a Jerkass up to eleven.
    • When he's sober. When he's drunk, he turns into a nice guy.
  • Galatea in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob seems to be very slowly growing a set of morals, thanks to her family's influence. She at least acknowledges that hurting innocent people is bad, but she still believes conquering a planet and setting yourself up as dictator is okay as long as no one gets (immediately) hurt. Bob pointed out that people would inevitably get hurt in the long run, and that gave her pause. So, she's gettin' there...
  • Trudy of General Protection Fault, who was quite over-the-top evil in the first few years, literally as well as figuratively kicking dogs. As Cerebus Syndrome set in, she became a slightly toned down villain who was manipulating the rest of the cast to take over the world. After being defeated and forced on the run, her ex-boyfriend Trent took over her position, proving to be the most selfish and amoral of the GPF crew during his time there. The fact that both of them were in the same position gets lampshaded.

Nick: Do they make marketing people in a less maniacal flavor?

    • The trope isn't played completely straight with Trent, however. Dwayne shows more patience with his antics than he really deserves, though it's fair to say his feud with Fred isn't entirely one-sided, but Trent does eventually push the Team Dad too far.

Trent: "Fired?! On what grounds?"
Dwayne: "Let's see. Harrassing a fellow employee. Attempting to murder said fellow employee. Disrupting the workplace with frivolous lawsuits. I don't like you, I'm through defending you to my employees, you just attempted to pull my wife's clothes off..." (He forgot to mention installing a wireless router without permission.)
Trent: "I think I get the picture..."

  • In Gods Playing Poker, Cthulhu himself is generally on the side of hurting people and eating souls, although the actual group doesn't do much literal heroing, being mostly composed of holy figures of various faiths.
  • Most of the characters in The Last Days of Foxhound are at least a little evil, but either Psycho Mantis or Ocelot are the default evil guys.
  • In Darths and Droids, it's R2-D2 of all people.

Web Original

  • Many of the characters from Red vs. Blue can occupy this role depending on their current motivation. Sometimes Church; most often, Tex. After season 2, when the teams are frequently allied against a greater threat, Sarge views the Blues as a collective Evil Teammate.

Western Animation

Bender: From now on I promise I'll never be too good or too evil again. I'll just be me.
Leela: Do you think you could be a little less evil than that?
Bender: I dunno. Do you think you could survive a 700 foot fall?
Fry: Good old Bender.

  1. after half a season of plotting