Sympathetic Fictional Villains?

Okay, here's a thread I ganked over from The Volokh Conspiracy, I thought it was too good to pass up.  Some basic categories are laid out below to consider:

I. The supposed villain turns out not to be villainous at all.

II. I sympathize with the villain because I disagree with the story's ideological message.

III. The villain isn't really responsible for his actions.

IV. The villain turns out to be the lesser of two evils.

And now, a few rules to consider:

1).  Historical characters are eligible ONLY if they have appeared in a work of fiction or mythology (see Rule 2)

2)   For purposes of this exercise, mythology and religious source documents count (I AM *NOT* CALLING ANY RELIGIOUS TEXT A WORK OF 'FICTION'), because they constitute an too important source of stories and characters to be left out - yes this is arbitrary, maybe ham-handed and uncouth, but I couldn't see cutting out the Iliad, or the Bible for that matter...

3) All fictional works are fair game: movies, operas, concept albums, short stories, video games, novels, I think you get the idea...

I'll post my own in a day or so...

Comments

[Dyrim]

The Day Watch in the NightWatch Series...

-D.

[MOGS]

Dyrim: elaborate please, if you can keep it spoiler-free?

[Dyrim]

So...in the series there are "Others" who can enter the Twilight, kind of a magic dimension of the world. The first time they enter it, the mood their in determines if they're a dark or light other (read evil and good). There's treaty between the two side so they don't all kill each other. The Day Watch are dark others who "guard" the light others to keep them from converting too many people to doing good things.

As for why I don't necessarily see them in a negative light...I just think about what would happen if their balance was upset...

You should read the books :) they're Russian and confusing.