Sympathetic

Antagonists who are sympathetic due to one or more factors and/or who are either heavily played for sympathy in spite of their evil deeds or have some factors that make them sympathetic.

This includes:

• Villains who have a genuine tragedy, usually in the form of a Freudian excuse, such as being heavily abused (physically, psychologically, sexually, etc.), growing up in poverty or war, losing loved ones, etc. (e.g. The Postman, Stinky Pete, Lady Arkham, Sephiroth, Hama, Todd H. Watson, Alice Angel Joker (2019), The Toad, Dabi, and Sweet Pete).
• Villains who have redeeming qualities/migrating factors and/or humanizing moments that paint them in a sympathetic light due to showing a nicer side to them (e.g.Henry J. Waternoose III, Sandman, Mr. Krabs, Baek Jun Ki, Tiffany Valentine, Hiro Shishigami and Esdeath).
• Villains who are shown to be insecure or have insecurities about one or more things, which is played for sympathy (e.g. Makima, Master Chen, Lou, The Lady, SMG3, Prince Charming, Walter White, Plankton and Waluigi).
• Villains whose defeats, deaths or some other horrific events are portrayed sympathetically (e.g. Riddler, Alex DeLarge, Niles, Montgomery de la Cruz, Utsuro, Isaac Grossman, Squidward Tentacles, Megatron, and Oh Il-nam).
• Villains who have a combination of all four mentioned factors (e.g. Erik Killmonger, Cletus Kasady, Grant Ward, the Penguin King Andrias, Darth Vader, Andrew Detmer, Azula, Cassandra, Davy Jones, Sweeney Todd, Rui, Galactus, Rameses, Odio, Cheon Seojin, Herrscher of the Void Darth Maul, Kylo Ren, Loki Laufeyson, Josh Washington, Ken, Prince Hans and the version of Adolf Hitler from Downfall, and Tai Lung).

While very rare, Hate Sinks can be sympathetic if their sympathy is up a bare minimum, if the sympathy they get is very small and don't distract too much for their loathsome traits. although the sympathy should be near the bare minimum amount of sympathy a villain can get (e.g. Akemi Hinazuki, Arlong, Conquest and Zira).

NOTE: Not every villain that has a Freudian Excuse or is insecure falls under this category, as the story can make them unsympathetic at all, or their crimes are so bad that any sympathy they had is long gone. as they can remain completely unsympathetic, or their actions ultimately nullify any sympathy they once had, as despite this the story may choose not to give them any sympathy at all, or eventually invalidate it (e.g. The Tortured One, Daisuke Hiyama, Shredder, Ichika Sakura, Mother Miranda, Randall Boggs, Lord Shen, Princess Morbucks, Ultron, Superman, Doma, Earl of Lemongrab, and PAL).