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{{trope}}
[[File:Yandere fox hugs her crush.jpg|thumb|350px]]
{{quote|''"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"''
|'''[[Mark Twain]]'''}}
▲{{quote|''"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"''|'''[[Mark Twain]]'''}}
The villain stands poised for victory; he stares out at the ensuing carnage - all is going according to plan. The audience, sure of his intentions and motivations, hates him, loathes him, wants him to die, and knows deep down that they have every right to.
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The audience begins to see the bigger picture: evil isn't born, [[Rousseau Was Right|it's made]]. After a lifetime of [[Dark and Troubled Past|rejection, dismissal, cruelty, and hate,]] who wouldn't become a villain? And when that cruelty comes full-circle back to the originators, why are they the victims? Finally, the biggest question pops into the audience's mind: what if? What if someone, even one person, had shown even an inkling of kindness or love to them? What if someone stood up for them? [[Love Redeems|Love can change]], right? Then couldn't it also prevent?
It's easy to hate, but it's nearly impossible to understand or forgive, especially when we're so convinced that we are in the right, until we get hit right in the face with the facts. At this point, one feels what can only be described as anti-schadenfreude, and when one's sympathy or empathy for a villain's position reaches its peak, that's when you '''Cry for the Devil'''. Of course it is possible to present the villain in a sympathetic light from pretty much start to finish. That counts too.
This trope tends to invoke [[A Million Is a Statistic]] for the sympathy accorded to his victims.
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Is supposed to be a possible end-result of a [[Freudian Excuse]] done well. Frequently used to build the [[Tragic Villain]]. A particularly compelling version of this can even overturn a character's [[Complete Monster]] status, at least in the eyes of some fans.
[[Alas, Poor Villain]] is a [[Sub-Trope]] where this happens as the villain dies (or otherwise undergoes a downfall).
Compare [[Satan Is Good]], [[Sympathetic Murderer]], [[Monster Sob Story]], and [[Jerkass Woobie]]. Not quite the same as [[Sympathy for the Devil]]—that's when ''characters'' in story sympathize with a villain, not just the audience. See also the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]. Can overlap with [[What Have I Done]]. See also [[Unintentionally Sympathetic]], when a character wasn't ''intended'' to be sympathetic, but is, in the eyes of the audience, anyways.
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* An in-story example happens in ''[[Code Geass]]'', with {{spoiler|Nunnally crying for a dying Lelouch during [[Silent Scapegoat|Zero Requiem]]. Sort of a subversion, since Nunnally is crying after what Lelouch has actually done what he planned to do all along.}}
** It also does it ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|insanely]]'' well with Mao in episode 15. He's introduced as a completely diabolical [[Smug Snake]] who tries to kill our [[Anti-Hero|hero]], Lelouch, and chase down C.C. and seems unstoppable with his mind-reading skills. Then C.C. confronts him and invokes...{{spoiler|pictures of Mao together with her as a ([[I'm Taking Her Home with Me|cute, huggable]]) little boy as she promises to stay with him forever...!}} And once he's taken care of for the episode, C.C. relates that {{spoiler|she found him as a ''six-year-old orphan'' and gave him [[Telepathy]] that he lost the ability to control and which ultimately caused him to go insane...}}By the time {{spoiler|he finally dies, [[Mercy Kill|it isn't]] a [[Karmic Death]] [[Let Them Die Happy|at all...]]}}and shouldn't very well be, since it wasn't even his fault he was insane!
* Diva's backstory in ''[[Blood
* The ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga does this for Wrath{{spoiler|/King Bradley. He was part of an experiment to create the leader of Amestris which involved a [[Training from Hell]] beginning in childhood, and then being put through a painful transformation into a homunculus. What makes the character somewhat sympathetic is that, because he had no real identity prior to the transformation, any human that did exist was killed, and you can see Bradley's [[Pet the Dog]] moments as the vestige of humanity in him. Nevertheless, he's still an extremely cruel [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] [[Adolf Hitler]]}}.
* Twice in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'', and literally at that. The first is when Gretel tells Rock about her and her brother Hansel's lives as orphans, {{spoiler|snuff film "stars"}}, and hit-children, literally making Rock break down in tears {{spoiler|before Karma catches up with her, just like it did with her brother}}. The second is anime only, showing Balalaika before, during, and after the Soviet War in Afghanistan.
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* Precia Testarossa in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] [[The Movie]] First''. Unlike the TV version, the viewers ''are'' shown her [[Start of Darkness]] and get to know exactly why she is the [[Big Bad]]. It's quite hard to fully hate someone {{spoiler|who tried her best to be [[Parents as People|a good single working mother]] for her daughter, Alicia, whose life was shattered because the corporate executives she worked under [[Ignored Expert|didn't listen to her warnings]], who worked hard [[Ill Girl|despite declining health]] to return what she had lost, and who never forgave herself for failing to fulfill [[The Promise]] of spending more time with her now dead daughter}}. It certainly helped that this version of Precia was less of a [[Evil Laugh|maniacal-laughing]] psycho than the TV version, {{spoiler|and more of a grieving mother with a [[Fatal Flaw]]}}.
* In ''[[Soul Eater]]'', we discover how Crona's mother treated him. She locked him in a dark room (and he was terrified of the dark) with Ragnarok, who repeatedly beat him, as punishment for his refusal to kill another living creature. She kept doing it again and again until he finally gave in, and it's implied that he never had any friends or received any compassion until Maka reached for him.
* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Speed Grapher]]'' receives this near the end of the series. Suitengu Choji is cruel, manipulative, and merciless to those who owe him money or stand in his way, and uses a helpless teenage girl to further his plans. Then, in a flashback episode, the audience sees that Suitengu and his little sister were sold off to pay some of the debt his parents incurred. He was forced into the military to fight for whoever bought him, while his prepubescent sister was sold into prostitution. {{spoiler|Years later, he finally tracks her down, only to find that she's [[Break the Cutie|so broken]] that she doesn't recognize him, and he euthanizes her before weeping, distraught, over her body.}} Everything that he did since was a part of an elaborate plan for revenge against the people directly responsible for his ruined life and the society that allowed it to happen.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin]]'' relates events prior to the main [[Mobile Suit Gundam]] series from the perspectives of its main characters, protagonists and antagonists alike. A lot of characters from the Principality of Zeon (the "villain" side) are portrayed more sympathetically in this arc, with a lot of focus put on Char Aznable {{spoiler|and how an entire life suffering the Zabis' machinations turned him from Zeon Deikun's smart and passionate child to the bitter villain he is in the main series}}.
* In the ''Yandere Fox Girl Short'' by barikios, a great deal of attention is given to the kitsune's emotions. In fact she is the only character shown expressing grief (admittedly it is pretty short and only 2 characters are depicted, but she shows grief multiple times, plus after the main comic there are stand alone images of her being sad). She comes off more as someone who's mind is ravaged by disease than as "a person who is evil". The sorrow she feels when [[Et Tu, Brute?|she is 'betrayed' by the person she loved]] in particular makes you feel bad for her. Of course when the hero goes on the phone and hears his girlfriend’s health is recovering, you get the sense that what he did was necessary and that there was some [[No Ontological Inertia]] going on.
== Comic Books ==
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* In-universe, [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] cries for his [[Arch Enemy]] and [[Cain and Abel|adopted little brother]] Loki when Loki sacrifices himself at the end of [[Siege]] to save Asgard from his own backfiring scheme.
* Spending your childhood in a Nazi concentration camp would have a dark effect on anybody. Is there any surpises that [[X-Men|Magneto]] sees all men as the kind who would exterminate a people based on a minor ethnic difference, and, as such, would certainly act quicker against mutants?
== Fan Works ==
* There is an ''[[Iron Man: Armored Adventures]]'' fanfic that does this for Gene Khan. In the order they occurred, he's {{spoiler|seen his father shot in front of him, had his house burned down, his now dirt poor and homeless mother married a man who later killed her, spent the majority of his childhood being beaten and verbally abused by said man, and then his step father casually admitted to raping and killing Gene's mother just to hurt Gene even more.}} To quote the author, 'he never had a chance at being normal'.▼
* Used so often by ''[[Naruto]]'' fanfics that it's become something of a [[Dead Horse Trope]] in that field. A large number of fanfics try to make the Kyuubi into a likable character using this strategy. Apparently, the savagely murderous and vile Kyuubi was just angry because somebody was picking on it or its family; the resulting murderous rampage that killed hundreds and orphaned just as many was a mistake it's very sorry for. Oh, and it's a girl.▼
** This backstory has been in use for several years now and has changed little since then, even ignoring key revelations in the manga that would negate it.▼
*** The funny thing is, {{spoiler|Kyuubi really isn't all that bad when you get to know him!}}▼
* ''[[My Immortal]]'', arguably. Satan was rather calm and nice (in fact, much more sane and likeable than the protagonist herself) and never did anything directly bad. Dumbledore even demonizes the goths and punks at the school, but Satan seems to ride this off. And he becomes Voldemort, who harasses the main characters constantly.▼
* ''[[A Period of Silence]]'' does this for its main villain, Allucinere. Once an orphan known only as Maya Tromper, she {{spoiler|watched her family burn to death when she was very young.}} Despite spending her youth in an orphanage, she managed to find joy in the form of Esme, a kind, outgoing, somewhat impulsive brunette who formed a perfect contrast to her more reserved nature. They eventually fell in love, but on the night of their high school graduation, {{spoiler|Maya and Esme run into a man named Lazario, who arranged for the death of Maya's parents. He shoots Esme right in front of her, which causes her to snap.}} It wasn't what drove her over the edge, but it does give a certain context to her actions that inspires more of a tragic "what could have been" reaction from the audience rather than simple hatred.▼
* There's a slew of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' fics that give one-shot villains [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|Gilda]] (from "Griffon the Brush-Off") and [[Miles Gloriosus|the Great and Powerful Trixie]] (from "Boast Busters") some sympathy, [[Character Development]], and a shot at redemption, sometimes with [[Freudian Excuse|a tragic back-story]] thrown in for good measure. There's also a bit of fanart and fanfic out there that depicts [[Alpha Bitch|Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon]] in a sympathetic light, either giving them some [[Character Development]], showing them as [[Lonely Rich Kid]]s who only have each other as friends, or even having one or both as victims of [[Abusive Parents|emotional neglect or abuse]]. There's even one or two such fics for [[Prince Charmless|Prince Blueblood]] (from "The Best Night Ever"), who most fans regard as completely unsympathetic.▼
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* Loki in ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]''. On the one hand, he's a conniving, power-hungry liar, willing to betray his brother and doom him to permanent banishment while he usurped the throne. On the other hand, he's a deeply damaged young man who's ''convinced'' he's [[The Unfavorite]], especially after finding out he was not only adopted, but from an enemy race, and is ''desperate'' for his father's approval and affection.
** Made even sadder because he already ''had'' his father's approval and affection but convinced himself otherwise. And also because he's obviously going down a darker path, being the [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[The Avengers (film)|Avengers]]'' movie.
▲* There is an ''[[Iron Man: Armored Adventures]]'' fanfic that does this for Gene Khan. In the order they occurred, he's {{spoiler|seen his father shot in front of him, had his house burned down, his now dirt poor and homeless mother married a man who later killed her, spent the majority of his childhood being beaten and verbally abused by said man, and then his step father casually admitted to raping and killing Gene's mother just to hurt Gene even more.}} To quote the author, 'he never had a chance at being normal'.
▲* Used so often by ''[[Naruto]]'' fanfics that it's become something of a [[Dead Horse Trope]] in that field. A large number of fanfics try to make the Kyuubi into a likable character using this strategy. Apparently, the savagely murderous and vile Kyuubi was just angry because somebody was picking on it or its family; the resulting murderous rampage that killed hundreds and orphaned just as many was a mistake it's very sorry for. Oh, and it's a girl.
▲** This backstory has been in use for several years now and has changed little since then, even ignoring key revelations in the manga that would negate it.
▲*** The funny thing is, {{spoiler|Kyuubi really isn't all that bad when you get to know him!}}
▲* ''[[My Immortal]]'', arguably. Satan was rather calm and nice (in fact, much more sane and likeable than the protagonist herself) and never did anything directly bad. Dumbledore even demonizes the goths and punks at the school, but Satan seems to ride this off. And he becomes Voldemort, who harasses the main characters constantly.
▲* ''[[A Period of Silence]]'' does this for its main villain, Allucinere. Once an orphan known only as Maya Tromper, she {{spoiler|watched her family burn to death when she was very young.}} Despite spending her youth in an orphanage, she managed to find joy in the form of Esme, a kind, outgoing, somewhat impulsive brunette who formed a perfect contrast to her more reserved nature. They eventually fell in love, but on the night of their high school graduation, {{spoiler|Maya and Esme run into a man named Lazario, who arranged for the death of Maya's parents. He shoots Esme right in front of her, which causes her to snap.}} It wasn't what drove her over the edge, but it does give a certain context to her actions that inspires more of a tragic "what could have been" reaction from the audience rather than simple hatred.
▲* There's a slew of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' fics that give one-shot villains [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|Gilda]] (from "Griffon the Brush-Off") and [[Miles Gloriosus|the Great and Powerful Trixie]] (from "Boast Busters") some sympathy, [[Character Development]], and a shot at redemption, sometimes with [[Freudian Excuse|a tragic back-story]] thrown in for good measure. There's also a bit of fanart and fanfic out there that depicts [[Alpha Bitch|Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon]] in a sympathetic light, either giving them some [[Character Development]], showing them as [[Lonely Rich Kid]]s who only have each other as friends, or even having one or both as victims of [[Abusive Parents|emotional neglect or abuse]]. There's even one or two such fics for [[Prince Charmless|Prince Blueblood]] (from "The Best Night Ever"), who most fans regard as completely unsympathetic.
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* In ''[[Portal 2]]'', {{spoiler|[[GLaDOS]], after she gets her "face" ripped off and her systems shoved into a potato.}}
* ''[[NieR]]'': Quite simply, if you don't cry for {{spoiler|the Shades}} when you realize what they are, you literally posses the antithesis of a soul. {{spoiler|Arguable, given how they aren't even really villains to begin with...}}
* ''[[Cuphead]]''; ironically for this Trope, the Devil is one of the few Bosses in the game nobody feels sorry for, along with Mr. King Dice and {{spoiler|Chef Saltbaker}} from the DLC. Everyone else, however, is different. Most of the bosses are nasty, some seem downright sadistic, ''all'' are trying to kill Cuphead and Mugman (and with some, like Cala Maria, it seems likely they've killed people before), but then you remember why the duo is fighting them - these are debt-runners trying to defend themselves from having their souls taken, making the whole game one big [[Mook Horror Show]].
== Web Animation ==
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==
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'': despite his nickname, Ysengrin is not a nice wood wolf. We first see him trying to instigate a war and attempt to skewer a 12-year-old girl for a percieved slight. Then you find out the [[Blessed with Suck|incredible toll]] his powers have taken on him...
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'': in the prequel book ''Start of Darkness'', we learn why Redcloak turned evil: {{spoiler|he's doing what he thinks is the only thing he can to save the goblin race from being slaughtered without provocation like his entire tribe was.}}
** Averted with Xykon. The author states outright in the foreword that Xykon is not only evil, but a jerk as well. The backstory was designed so that the audience would have no sympathy for him. (Beyond the first panel, at least.)
*** Bizarrely, the scene where Xykon realizes he can no longer taste the terrible coffee at the evil diner is still rather affecting, just because his love of coffee was his one and only humanizing trait. Not even a particularly good or noble trait, but a human one, and it's both sad and terrifying when that is gone.
* Lots of this in ''[[Sinfest]]'', including, but not limited to, [
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In-story example in ''[[She
** Bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]] here: Hordak borders on [[Complete Monster]], sure. Yes, he kidnapped Adora and tried to mold her into his [[The Dragon|Dragon]] and weapon... but he still raised her.
*** Not very well, though. She not only rebelled against him, her father for all purposes, but also fails to be [[Daddy's Little Villain]] by not being [[Pragmatic Villainy|Pragmatic Evil]] enough to kill him off. Too scrupled to be a good villain and far too stupid to be an effective hero with the self imposed [[Thou Shall Not Kill]].{{verify}} So sad.
* Azula from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. With her [[Villainous Breakdown]] in the series finale exposing her repressed inner problems, particularly regarding her mother, many expressed pity for the sociopathic princess, including Zuko and Katara (who had just defeated her), much of the fanbase, and even [[Word of God|Mike and Bryan]] themselves.
** A little bit earlier, Katara discovers an old drawing of a smiling, happy, innocent-looking baby. Zuko then points out that it was a drawing of [[Big Bad|Fire Lord]] [[Complete Monster|Ozai]] himself, which does more to put a face and a history on him than three seasons of characterization previously, as well as remind everyone that Ozai is human, too.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Emotion Tropes]]
[[Category:Diabolical Plots]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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