Villainesses Want Heroes
Sure, women like me swoon for a hero, but that's only because deep down, we think we can change them.—Sabine, The Order of the Stick
The Evil Empress wants a consort for her domain. Unfortunately, none of her male subjects is quite up to her standards. So what does she do? Kidnap the hero, of course. Once he sees how hot she is, and how they can rule together, he'll fall into her arms.
Unfortunately for the villainess, this never seems to work out. Occasionally, the hero will be forced to play along temporarily, but in the end, he will always escape the villainess' clutches and leave her all alone and lonely...until the next time she manages to finagle him into her arms.
A Sub-Trope of Villainous Crush.
Can overlap with Dating Catwoman (if the hero actually returns her affections), All Amazons Want Hercules, and Single Woman Seeks Good Man.
The villainess in question is often The Vamp and/or Daddy's Little Villain.
Contrast with Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter, since the Villain is unwilling to revoke her evil ways to woo the hero.
Anime and Manga
- Poor, poor Mamoru Chiba. In the anime, it's almost a Running Gag to have a female (and sometimes, male) Big Bad or Dragon develop a crush on him and try to steal him away. The one evil lady who didn't, Galaxia, actually killed him.
- While Slan of the Godhand in Berserk is probably incapable of feeling real love (being a God of Evil and all), she does want to make Guts her personal sex-toy.
Comic Books
- Maxima to Superman.
- Also, there's the supervillainess Dana Dearden, who goes by aliases "Obsession", "Superwoman", and "Mrs. Superman".
- In most depictions, Lashina of the Female Furies lusts after Superman.
- Enchantress to Thor, Depending on the Writer.
- There's also Hela, Norse goddess of death, who is either this or a Stalker with a Test Tube, Depending on the Writer. She's also Thor's niece by the way, but mythological gods have never been exactly picky about that sort of thing.
- The Enchantress' younger sister Lorelei also wants a piece of thunder god, and once used magic to seduce and rape him.
- Umar to the Incredible Hulk.
- Depending on the continuity, all the Femme Fatales of Gotham want Batman... or they want him dead if he won't be their boy toy.
- Evil queens of mysterious kingdoms in hidden valleys really have a thing for The Phantom.
- Cupid really, really likes Green Arrow.
- Aaron Stack, aka Machine Man, learned that his old enemy Sunset Baine, aka Madame Menace, has something of a crush on him. He was rather taken aback by the discovery.
Fairy Tales
- In Pintosmalto, a queen who attends the wedding feast manages to trick him into letting her abduct him.
- In The Daughter of the Skies, the daughter captures the hero when the heroine breaks her husband's prohibition three times.
- In East of the Sun and West of the Moon, failing the Curse Escape Clause puts the hero in the power of the witch who cursed him.
Film
- In Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg Queen wanted Picard to willingly submit to the Borg and be her..."consort"? Not technically romance, but the Borg Queen seems to sexualize her role, so it might apply.
- The seduction part is played straighter in regards to our favorite fully functional android.
- This is the plot of She.
- In the "Den" segment of Heavy Metal, the evil queen really wants to get it on with the eponymous hero. And then they actually do get it on.
- Medusa, the main villain in the last 3 Ninjas movie, offers to spare Dave Dragon if he agrees to be her "boy toy". His rejecting the offer pretty much makes her act less like this the rest of the film.
Literature
- The Seven Realms Series plays it straight with Han Alistar and Fiona Bayar. The Bayar family is a corrupt family of Wizards that has it out for Han, since Han accidentally wound up stealing a powerful magical artifact from them. Han is also a Chick Magnet of epic proportions who's good looks almost never go unnoticed by a female member of the cast. So, naturally, Fiona Bayar gets the hot for him and even attempts to seduce him by saying they can rule together.
- Tarzan was hotly pursued by his Jungle Princess Evil Counterpart Queen La, who would not take no for an answer.
- In The Last Apprentice, witches seem to really like spooks, even though a major part of a spook's job is hunting witches. Both Tom and his master, Mr. Gregory, have at least one witch who fell in love with them.
- Older Than Dirt: This trope goes back to The Epic of Gilgamesh. The capricious goddess Inanna (Ishtar) wants to hook up with the hero, Gilgamesh, because he's exceptionally comely. But he wants no part of it because, as he points out with brutal candor, every single guy she's ever spent time with lived to regret it. Result? Goddess rage.
- Howl's Moving Castle: The Witch of the Waste's love interest is the wizard Howl, who tries to escape her from fear.
Live Action TV
- Princess Ardala of Draconia for Buck Rogers, sometimes.
- Nadira to Lucas, the Blue Ranger, in Power Rangers Time Force.
Newspaper Comics
- The Dragon Lady for Pat Ryan in Terry and the Pirates.
- Princess Aura for Buck Rogers before her High Heel Face Turn for Barin.
Theater
- In the original version of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the villainous Arachne had a thing for Peter and wished to seduce him away from Mary Jane. When Julie Taymor was fired and the musical was rewritten in order to save it, the subplot was cut as Arachne was Demoted to Extra.
Video Games
- Tron Bonne of Mega Man Legends begins developing a crush on Mega Man, and tries time and time again to coax him to her side. However, she has just as much fun acting as his foil.
Web Comics
- Used in a minor way in Order of the Stick. Fairly early, Elan gets kidnapped by bandits who, as it turned out, were acting on the orders of the beautiful Bandit Queen. I guess that 18 Charisma wasn't just for show after all... (Well, it is, obviously, but... you know what I mean.) Somewhat unusual in that Elan actually goes along with it until his UST-target shows up and complains, at which point he defends himself by claiming that seducing the beautiful villainess is part of his solemn duty as a Bard.
- Sabine mentions this trope in a comedic inversion of All Girls Want Bad Boys from this strip.
- There's also the situation between Durkon and Hilgya. Deconstructed in that while she was attracted to him, and he eventually returned the favor, she was still married, and the Lawful Good Durkon could not be involved in a relationship with someone who was married to someone else
- The Other in Girl Genius.
Web Original
- The Guidelines for Evil Empresses have a lot to say about this.
I will not bed the Hunky Hero before my plan is executed, unless having him believe I am carrying his child gives me a decisive advantage.
I will not be put off by the Hero's rebuffs of my sensual advances. If he doesn't succumb to me, I will not fly into a jealous rage. Instead, I'll shrug my shoulders, send him on his way, and have him picked off as he exits the fortress.
I, and my elite guards, will never assume that we have managed to confiscate all weapons or escape aids from the captured Hero. "Interrogations" in my private chambers will only be conducted if the Hero is completely nude. This will, in fact, satisfy a number of objectives at once.
If the Hero says he is willing to betray his cause and accept my offer of ruling the world at my side, he will only be believed once that betrayal results in his cause's total destruction, at which point his demonstration of total lack of principle should lead to his immediate execution.
However insatiable my appetites are, it is virtually guaranteed that at least one of my millions of subjects is both far more gifted at satisfying them and far more loyal to me than the Hero who seeks my destruction, no matter his reputation with the ladies.
If the Hero has an evil twin, the twin will probably make a far more suitable Love-Happy Stooge.
Western Animation
- Like the comic book example above, Maxima is this to Superman in Superman the Animated Series.
- However, she soon forgot all about Superman when she meets another man to her liking...
Lobo: I'm here to get that fraggin', scum-suckin, rat-scratchin' De'Cine. And nobody better stop me!
- Similarly, Queen La plays the same role in Disney's animated series The Legend of Tarzan as she did in the original source material.
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command had this with Gravatina.
- She once went for Buzz's Evil Twin from an Alternate Universe.
- Played as high school drama in Teen Titans when Kitten, Killer Moth's Bratty Teenage Daughter, wants Robin to take her to the prom.
- Subverted. She just wanted to use Robin to make her real boyfriend jealous.
- Blackfire flirts pretty heavily with Robin in her first appearance, but this seems less to be actualy interest and more just her screwing with her sister Starfire's (Robin's canon Love Interest) head. In her second appearance, she pretty much ignores Robin entirely.
- This trope is played entirely straight in regards to Jinx and Kid Flash though.
- Actually, it's completely inverted. Kid Flash is definitely the active pursuer in the relationship, with him trying to coax Jinx into turning over a new leaf.
- Queen Tyr'ahnee of the Martians and Duck Dodgers.
- The eponymous character of Jimmy Two-Shoes is lusted after by Heloise, an Enfant Terrible Mad Scientist. Of course, sometimes she drifts into Anti-Hero territory, she's still happily working for Satan. Currently, Jimmy has no clue.
- The Disney's Aladdin TV series had as recuring villain a witch named Sadira, whose main goal was to steal Aladdin from Jasmine, though she gave up on it in her third appearance and befriended Jasmine.
- There was also Saleen, an evil mermaid who attempted the same thing. Though in one episode she turned Aladdin into a shark, which seems sort of counterproductive to this trope.
- Both Black Cuervo and her mother Voltura have this for El Tigre and his father, White Pantera. A good way to get Voltura riled is to point out that was Pantera who broke up with her; "As if I could forget!"