Tragic

Villains who although acting for evil, selfish or unethical goals have understandable and traumatic reasons that serve as a Freudian excuse, mitigating factor and/or redeeming quality for their motives and purposes; hence audiences can sympathize and connect with them on a human level. Most are not in full control of themselves due to being evil not by choice but instead being victims of forces beyond their control. This also applies to Organizations and/or Hostile Species whose members are driven by tragedies.

Villains who are tragic or sympathetic often suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD, become Delusional, Insecure and/or Egotists because their experiences twist them towards insanity; many of them can also be Fallen Heroes and/or Vengeful, if not both. Some may even become Addicts because of their traumatic experiences.

There are three ways to deem a villain as tragic:

• Villains with painful backstories giving them negative emotions and shaping them into destructive and hateful beings. However, their broken hearts cause their actions since they were forced into darkness and their unfortunate pasts made them distrustful and misled. This can happen if they were rejected/loners, bullied, scarred, became addicts and/or suicidal, lost loved ones, had an abusive family/creator and so on (e.g. Atrocitus, Andrew Detmer, Spinel, Tyrion Lannister, Joker (2019), Darth Vader, Mitsuko Souma, Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Tai Lung, President Haltmann, SCP-049 and Count Bleck).
• Protective villains committing crimes to save those they care about. They are only looking out for whoever they love or care for the most but use extreme measures to do so and are confronted by heroes or even the ones they are protecting making it more difficult to save them (e.g. most versions of Mr. Freeze, Johnny Klebitz, the Puppet, Cersei Lannister, Walter White, Satō Matsuzaka, Soto and Yokai). However, not every protective villain is automatically tragic.
• The Possessed and/or Brainwashed controlled, corrupted or indoctrinated by an evil presence. Therefore they are not willingly evil but manipulated by the higher powers controlling them (e.g. Cujo, Gollum, Arthas Menethil, Ice King, Jack Baker, Winter Soldier (MCU), and Queen Sectonia). To these villains frequently death without regaining their memories or their original personalities is considered blessing, should they ever recover only to realize what they have done during their state of being brainwashed/possessed would often shatter their minds and souls. Some who are indoctrinated (like Strelnikov) start off with honorable intentions but start to let power go to their heads.

Tragedies are sympathetic and mitigating factors and Freudian excuses for many villains’ villainies and most of the time, some of these villains have a chance/choice to redeem themselves at the end of a story. Often times, sympathetic factors including tragedies can involve a villain being mentally unstable, in love, suffering from immense psychosis on a daily basis or dissociative identity disorders (DID) and being addicts, sympathetic nihilists or suicidal are among examples of being tragic villains as well. Having a very sympathetic backstory or being protective and/or possessed/brainwashed pawns are most common ways a villain can be tragic. Suffering from a horrific and cruel mutilation and had done absolutely nothing to deserve their fates can also make the villain tragic. Being exiled or shunned unjustly is also another factor, but that rarely ever happens.

Tragic villains can cross as many lines as they can and still be tragic if they retain their sympathetic background/nature, empathy and/or their feelings (i.e.: being Faux Affably Evil, having racial or xenophobic views, destroying their own innocence or even having a misanthropic nature and/or being genocidal or cataclysmic). An antisocial villain is hard to qualify as tragic as they lack empathy and feelings, but if they suffered such horrific events in their lives that is so sympathetic to the point it twisted their moral center make them become such a violent person, they may qualify, as long as their legit tragedy doesn't contradict their otherwise ruthless nature (e.g. Prince Hans, Dabi, Penguin and Petyr Baelish). Some of these villains can even be anti-villains and/or remorseful, or even Villains by Proxy. Some tragic villains can even be fueled with hatred and pain from their experiences or they can even become completely dominant with fear if their tragedies scarred them for life with no recovery whatsoever. Sally Williams is a very good example who got murdered by her uncle.

Note: Just because a villain redeemed themselves in the end, is an anti-villain, an extremist, a fallen hero, is insecure, has honor, are on & off and has remorse doesn't automatically mean they're tragic if they never had a tragic past to begin with (e.g. Janja, Rattlesnake Jake, Lord Business, Beavis and Butt-head, Sozin, Bowser, Gellert Grindelwald and Zaheer) or their tragic past or Freudian excuse doesn't excuse their actions (e.g. Romeo and Lil' Gideon).

/!\ Pure Evil villains CAN NEVER be Tragic. Either their so-called “tragedies” would have to be extremely and outrageously logic-defying to even be realistic, or they would simply use it to justify their evil actions and nothing more. Through their actions and lack of feelings, they manage to destroy their own innocence and as a result are no longer sympathetic. Their excuses may be what they deserved and some have faked at least one tragedy (e.g. Jagi, Chairman Drek, Commodus, Queen Ingrith and SCP-5045-1). They may also try to present their excuses as tragedies, but end up being LESS sympathetic if their excuses amount to pure jealousy or pettiness (e.g. Viktor Adler, Ahmanet, Tom Cooper, Scar, Syndrome, Professor Zündapp, Sir Miles Axlerod, Piella Bakewell, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Mysterio, Henry Evans, General Lunaris, DOR-15, Andross, Richard III, Howard Payne, and Jill Roberts).

Even if a Pure Evil villain was given reasons for what they were doing that could genuinely be considered a tragedy, their actions FAR OUTWEIGH their tragedies (e.g. Johan Liebert, Herrscher of the Void, Lord Voldemort, Koba, Ego, Isaac Ray Peram Westcott, Donquixote Doflamingo, Dio Brando, Freddy Krueger, Captain Phasma, Lady Van Tassel, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, Muzan Kibutsuji, Yhwach, Gaku Yashiro, Drago Bludvist, Bobby Earl Ferguson, Wasp King, Jafar (2019), Kilgrave, Retak’ka, Zoom, Lord Commander, the Scarlet King, Carnage, Porky Minch, most versions of the Joker, Ronan the Accuser, Frieza, Griffith, Captain Vidal, Dr. Weil, Envy, Norman Osborn, Ozai, Alexia Ashford, Hunter Zolomon, Shiranami, Poison Ivy, Bradford Buzzard, and The Batman Who Laughs). They should go under the Envious and/or Vengeful categories instead.

Being a tragic villain is a sympathetic quality and any character or even a hero are allowed to sympathize with those types of villains, no matter the lines they cross. A Pure Evil villain is not meant to be sympathized with for anything and even if they had an experience that might actually be a genuine tragedy, their villainies are so egregious to the point that whatever tragedies they may have suffered in the past are no longer relevant and they do not match up with their crimes or motives. Should a tragic villain get the help they deserve, they can finally stop their evil ways, have others accept them and move on from the experiences they suffered in their past.

Also, DO NOT add characters like these even if they are not Pure Evil:

• Villains crossing the Moral Event Horizon due to MERE EXCUSES FAR TOO PETTY to count (e.g. Ernesto de la Cruz, Turbo, Tighten, the Lemons, Kai the Collector, Rumpelstiltskin, Maleficent, Balthazar Bratt, Doctor Psycho, Plankton, Gai Amatsu, Tortoise John, Nigel, Aiden, Broly, King Arthur, Douche, Kaigaku, PAL, Mr. Krabs, Peter Griffin, Eric Cartman, Gallaxhar, Mary Jones, The Banana Splits, Guy Gagné, Boingo, and Mother Gothel).
• Villains whose crimes are so heinously horrible, no excuses or experiences justify their actions no matter how unfortunate they seem (e.g. Madara Uchiha, Dawn Bellwether, President Snow, Rob, Stormfront, Imran Zakhaev, Esdeath, Bryce Walker, Montgomery de la Cruz, Marcus Cole, Kai Chisaki, Carla Radames, Arcturus Mengsk, Wilhelmina Venable, Superman (Injustice), Kaname Asagiri and Mother Miranda).
• Villains faking tragedies and/or bringing it on themselves whilst blaming others for the consequences (e.g. King Stefan, Dark Danny, Dr. Wily, Venom, Twinbraid, Lord Shen, Lothor and Phineas T. Ratchet).
• Villains with defeats/deaths like being Betrayed but no tragedies to begin with (e.g. Naria, Lord Farquaad, Jabba the Hutt, Chantel DuBois, Dr. Zara, Helga Katrina Sinclair and Chester V).
• Villains who have had unpleasant experiences in the past, but said circumstances have nothing to do with their villainy (e.g. Dr. Robotnik, Kingpin, Tamatoa, Hervnick Z. Snerz, Commander Tartar, Hopper and Orin Scrivello)
• Villains who felt unloved or unappreciated, but ending up LESS sympathetic due to the horrible nature of their actions and how heinous they are (e.g. Randall Boggs, Douma, Daisuke Hiyama, Annie Wilkes, and Hiro Shishigami).
• Villains who were evil creations from the start with a lack of moral agency, but were in circumstances that only increased their villainy even more (e.g. Indominus Rex, Mechagodzilla (MonsterVerse), Doomsday (DC Extended Universe), the Omnidroids, Aku and Calamity Ganon).
• Villains who did indeed have a tragic past, but that past happened while they were already villains (e.g. Killian, Kingpin, Zira, First Acheron Queen, Indominus Rex, Alcina Dimitrescu and the Antarctic Queen Xenomorph).
• Villains who are only speculated to have a tragic past, but aren’t confirmed to have one (e.g. Look-See).

This is for characters whose tragedies are not only TRUE AND LEGITIMATE but STILL hold up after crossing the Moral Event Horizon.