Remorseful

Remorseful villains are characters who feel sorry for their past or present actions, but have not necessarily "turned good". With almost every of these characters, their remorse can eventually lead to theirredemption, but this is not always the case, as seen withArthur Morgan,Agent 47, andPatrick McReary. Remorseful villains are also sometimesinsecure due to their feelings of guilt leading to self-doubt about their villainous ways.

In many cases, a remorseful villain can also be aVillain by Proxy, as those never wished to be evil (however, not all remorseful villains are automatically Villains by Proxy, as it depends on how much remorse they show).

There are several reasons a villain can feel remorse, which includes:

• Feeling terrible for exceeding in their misdeeds, they may not truly redeem themselves in some cases, but they still show real concern about their actions and the consequences that affect others and the villain(s) themselves. For example,Dozle Zabi inMobile Suit Gundam: The Origin felt guilt for ordering the genocide of the Side 2 colony and its subsequent dropping onto Earth, but continued to serveZeon anyway. Similarly,Mashymre Cello inMobile Suit Gundam ZZ felt tremendous regret for his role in the Dublin Colony Drop, but continued to fight forNeo Zeon. Another example isDr. May Updale who felt tremendous regret after accidentally starting mass crime everywhere and being tricked byArlo Sabian who wanted to depopulate lower income, as well asSera who despite authorizing the Exterminations, regrets allowing them because she thinks it's the only way to protect Heaven, even looking horrified when Sir Pentious ascended.N'Jobu inBlack Panther, he was caught stealing vibranium from Wakanda as he was trying to put an end to the isolation problem that's been happening for years and had good intentions of doing so, also trying to help not only his son and lots of other people from the outside world. But, he ended up being exposed by T'Chaka and Zuri for theft and ended up killing N'Jobu as a loose end, without any witnesses and they ditchedN'Jadaka who will become a villain known as Erik "Killmonger" Stevens to avoid any further questions and his son ended up going down a dark path, which would cause the events to happen. Or inSquid Game whereLee Myung-gi repeatedly shows regret for his actions such as locking Young-mi out, killing Min-su or threatening his infant daughter and even theFront Man who regretted shooting his brother and shows some guilt for his actions later on in the show.
• Helping another villain far more evil than them, not being aware that they were tricked and then eventually get betrayed once they have no more use."Crime Wave" Clyde fromThe Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 DIC cartoons is an example as well as2012 Shredder andAdrian Gecko fromYu-Gi-Oh GX.
• Having committed atrocities in the past and now showing concern in the present on how to fix everything they've done.Anti-Pops fromRegular Show,Benny fromI Have No Mouth and I Must Scream andBryce Walker from13 Reasons Why are examples.
• Realizing their schemes didn't go as they wanted and now want to either solve it with help of the heroes or do it themselves.Shou Tucker in the 2003 anime series ofFullmetal Alchemist,Zaheer fromThe Legend of Korra andJoshua Washington fromUntil Dawn are examples.
• Being regretful about the person they've become and wanting to retire from villainy, although in some cases, they may feel like they've gone too far and are incapable of becoming better.Davy Jones fromPiriates of the Carribean is an example as well asCount Dooku.
• Realizing that they were wrong all along about what they thought and believed was the right thing to do.

Important Notes[]

• Psychopaths/sociopaths usually do not show remorse for their actions because they tend to lack empathy, guilt and/or emotional connections and act violent and twisted. However, exceptions can existif they at least show some remorse for their actions in any way possible (e.g.Prince Killmonger,King Koopa,Ralph Cifaretto,Red Skull (Ultimate Marvel),Rudolf Wernicke,Xemnas,Sofia Lamb,Penguin, andRick Prime).
• Although they are considerate of others, not all of them areAffably Evil because affably evil viilains are considerate of others even before they show remorse, if they show any at all (not all affably evil villains are remorseful either).
• IMPORTANT NOTE:Pure Evil villains can be in this category as they completely lack empathy, never feel bad about their wrongdoings and as a result are utterly remorseless. Even if there was a point in their lives where they felt genuine they will drop their repentance once their needs and wants are fulfilled (e.g.Bill Cipher,Ego,Isaac Ray Peram Westcott,Makuta Teridax,Griffith,Judge Claude Frollo,Mysterio,Emperor Belos,Scar,Junko Enoshima,Micah Bell andLight Yagami). If they somehow regret something they did, it's not because it was wrong to do, but due to the warped belief they could have done itworse or that they shouldn't have done a genuine good deed they once made because it inconvenienced them in the long run (Darkseid (DCAU),Thrax andNizam). Remorseful villains are portrayed in positive ways regardless of how terrible their acts they feel sorry for are. Therefore, if villains feel ANY remorse at all, then they are never Pure Evil, despite the fact that they may never completely redeem themselves due to their acts.
• Also,DO NOT add these kinds of characters to this category,even if they are not Pure Evil:
  • Villains whopretend to show remorse for their actions in an attempt to let the hero's guard down and kill them, these should go underCowards and/orTrickster instead (e.g.Dr. Eggman pretends to apologize to Sonic inSonic Unleashed, but then Sonic realizes it's a trap, and gets turned into a werehog.)
  • Villains who give a sarcastic apology to their foes, they should go underFaux Affably Evil and/orProvokers instead (e.g.Ernesto de la Cruz "apologizes" for seemingly killing Miguel and allowing Hector to fade away;Dawn Bellwether "apologizes" to Judy by saying she "liked her" before allowing her to be killed by a seemingly savage Nick;Zurg "apologizes" to Buzz by confining him;Queen Usurna "apologizes" to Vendel before turning him into stone and shattering his corpse;Frau Engel "apologizes" to B.J. Blazkowicz by decapitating him;Lord Brevon "apologizes" to Torque and his friends right after mocking their efforts to stop him, and then attempts to kill them).
  • Villains who merely regret not being able to commit the crimes or achieving their ambitions, or merely the failure of their crimes, instead of regretting their evil actions these should go underFailure-Intolerant andEnvious instead (e.g.Henry Bowers from the 2017 film adaptation ofIT said to Mike Hanlon that he was sad overnot being the one who killed Mike's parents;Esdeath's last and only regret (as revealed in her last moments) is her inability to make Tatsumi smile at her affectionately.)
  • Villains who look like they are feeling bad for their actions but then proceed to attempt to attack/kill the hero(es) anyway (e.g.the Lemons fromCars 2. Mater tries to talk some sense into the Gremlins, Pacers, Trunkovs and Hugos that "becoming rich and powerful beyond their wildest dreams ain't gonna make them feel better." While it does look like they are realizing they were wrong,J. Curby Gremlin raises a machine gun and tries to kill the heroes anyway because it's "worth a shot!";El Macho sounds regretful over the fact that he has to get rid of Gru since he opposes his plans, but still tries to crush him to death anyway;Odin seemed regretful by claiming "he did not want this" but still kills his sonThor anyway.)
  • Villains who are shocked to see how much damage they did, but move on without real remorse, caring about defending themselves and thinking of what crimes they could do next (e.g.Percy Wetmore was horrified at how bad he caused Del's execution to be, but only worried about what it would be like for himself to be in the chair, instead of feeling bad for what he did even after being punished by the heroes.)
  • Villains who feel regret for a few specific acts they commit, but learn nothing from it and continue to commit more acts regardless (e.g.Ursula,All For One,Lord Shen,Tuco Salamanca,Homelander,Commodus (Gladiator),Idi Amin,Eddie Low, andHoward Saint).
  • Villains who used to feel remorse for their actions but not anymore (e.g.Koba,Charles Logan,King Stefan,Rhulk, andKing Arthur).
  • Villains who are implied/hinted to feel remorse without explicit confirmation (e.g.Big Smoke claiming he's proud of his actions despite the tone strongly implying otherwise).
  • Villains who areinsecure, and have feelings of self-doubt about who they are and what they do, but are still not genuinely remorseful
• Do not addredeemed villains under this category, as redeemed villains have already atoned for their actions and moved on forward without going back to their old ways. The Remorseful category is only for villains who genuinely feel bad about at least one or two of their actions but haven’t yet redeemed themselves (although in some cases they may still try to atone for their crimes). If a villain who is listed in this category eventually redeems themselves and atone for their actions, they no longer belong here.