Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Anti-Villain

    Concept »

    The inverse of an anti-hero. An anti-villain is a villain that portrays him/herself as someone who is just and altruistic while is secretly working towards an otherwise nefarious and villainous goal. Common archetypes of anti-villains are politicians and religious figures who craft a wholesome and good-natured image to hide their evil intentions; this may even sometimes include doing good deeds, but only as a temporary measure to potentially further their true ambitions.

    Short summary describing this concept.

    Anti-Villain last edited by captainofthestars on 01/31/23 12:14PM View full history

    Examples of Anti-Villains

    DmC Vergil

    In both of his appearances in Devil May Cry 3 and DmC Devil May Cry, Vergil is an antagonist to Dante. In DMC3 Vergil is trying to acquire as much power as possible (as well as Dante's locket), but it's for the sake of beating Mundus, the evil demon lord that killed Vergil & Dante's parents.

    In DmC, however, Vergil is portrayed much more altruistically for most of the game, as he operates an underground resistance against Mundus and his demons that rule the world. Though while he wishes to save humanity from the demons, it is only so he and Dante can then take their place to rule over the human race. He feels that they require supervision due to their numerous weaknesses, both physically and mentally, and that he & Dante as Angel & Demon hybrids are the only ones fit for such a position. What sort of methods Vergil would use to rule over humanity is unknown, as Dante immediately opposes the idea and fights back once Vergil reveals his true intentions. However his treatment of Kat, often openly referring to her as expendable, hints that Vergil's rule may not be entirely unlike that of Mundus.

    The Last of Us - David

    During the Winter portion of the game, Ellie is scrounging for food and inadvertently comes into contact with a man named David. While initially mistrustful of him, David goes to great lengths to assist Ellie by working alongside her to defend an onslaught of infected, to also providing medicine so she can help look after Joel. However, it is eventually revealed that David is in fact trying to court Ellie into his group for sexual purposes; when she refuses he then instead opts to kill her and use her as food.

    sizepositionchange
    sizepositionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    bordersheaderpositiontable
    positionchange

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.