15 Fictional Villains We Secretly Like

Can anyone really deny the appeal of a bad boy? Well, what about a bad girl? While villains from movies and TV shows can get in the way of our heroes achieving their goals, they have the potential to be totally charming. Villains keep things interesting, inadvertently help the protagonist to grow and are sometimes brave enough to say and do what everybody else wishes they could. Honestly, sometimes villains are ridiculously attractive and they lure us in that way. Sometimes they're funny and have way more personality than their opponent whom we're supposed to be rooting for. Other times they tug at the strings of our hearts with the sob stories they try to hide, and we can't help but feel bad for them despite the carnage they leave in their wake. Here are 15 villains from movies and TV shows whom we're supposed to hate, but we just can't!

15 Caledon Hockley

We're not saying we like this villain more than the protagonist, but we don't totally hate him. Caledon Hockley, aka Cal, is the super-rich and entitled fiancé of Rose DeWitt-Bukater in Titanic, played by Billy Zane. We'll be the first to admit that part of the reason why we can't bring ourselves to loathe him is because he's handsome, and scrubs up pretty nice. We're also aware that he has endless riches to offer. But much more importantly, we kind of like Cal because although he's a douche to Rose, he just wants her to love him. Yes, he goes the wrong way about it (you treat your girlfriend like property, buddy), but he was probably raised as a spoiled brat who always got everything he wanted, and Rose's love was the first thing he couldn't have. Not really his fault. We'd still much rather lose him to the North Atlantic than Jack though.

14 Count Olaf

Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events is another villain we just don't hate. When you think about it, he really is an evil dude, so that sounds pretty bad on our behalf. He isn't above murder and deception, and his self-perception is grossly misinformed. But when it comes to Jim Carrey's portrayal of him in particular, we know why we like him. He's just too hilarious! No matter how much crap he puts the children through, we still want to see more of him because he's so entertaining. Don't get us wrong-he needs to grow a heart, stop hanging out with his band of creepy actors and clean his house ASAP, but we could watch him all day long. And in no way are we condoning the kidnapping and exploitation of orphans, but who doesn't want a slab of the Baudelaire fortune? Sure beats trying to make it as a struggling actor!

13 Mr. Burns

Charles Montgomery Burns, Mr. Burns to you, is probably the resident villain on the TV show The Simpsons. Evil things he does include setting blood-thirsty hounds loose on people who come to his door, running an extremely unsafe working environment, polluting Springfield and not giving a flying fig about it, and also trying to block out the sun in order to profit from an increased electricity usage. So he's not the nicest character in town. But he had a weird childhood! As a young boy he left his loving parents (and his teddy bear) to go and live with a millionaire, so his morals are all screwed up. And he gets enough flack for his evildoings! When he's shot, it takes ages to work out who did it because everybody in town is a suspect. Imagine having that many people who hate your guts. We also can't help but find his dependence on Smithers adorable.

12 Tony Soprano

This guy is really nothing more than a thug, but we can't believe how much we like him! The star of the hit TV series The Sopranos, Tony Soprano is a mob boss who essentially goes around shooting people. He also beats them up, swears at them, exploits them, is totally racist, tries to teach his children to be the same way, and also cheats on his wife. There's just something about him that makes him a tiny bit charismatic! He can be funny when he wants to be, and he loves all animals. Look, we'd rather he loved people and worried half as much about the murdered humans in his life as he does about the murdered racehorses. But anybody who has a soft spot for animals goes up a notch in our books. And he also struggles with crippling anxiety, which we definitely all know is no fun at all.

11 Julie Cooper

Could you really classify The O.C.'s Julie Cooper as a villain? Well, she is a terrible wife to Jimmy Cooper in the beginning by not listening to any of his financial problems (which will end up ruining her life), and she does somehow think it's appropriate to sleep with her daughter's ex-boyfriend. Not as bad as sleeping with her daughter's current boyfriend (ew, we just pictured Ryan and Julie Cooper together), but still not exactly the makings of a perfect mom. Julie's also super mean to Kirsten's sister Hailey and is vindictive and manipulative in general, but we still like the woman. Say what you want about her, but she does have a big heart, and she does have Kirsten's back in the end. Her arrogance is just manifested insecurity about hailing from Riverside, and she does love Marissa. That time she tried to have her institutionalized was for her own good!

10 Dr. Evil

Dr. Evil has to be our favorite evil genius of all time. He's always been Austin Powers' arch nemesis and is not morally above destroying the world with hijacked nuclear weapons, but he's really just a big softie. Childhood issues are not to blame for the mass murderer, but Dr. Evil never received love as a young boy, which permanently effed him up. He also has almost no relationship with his son, whom he just wants to be close to. He's hilarious, and more or less treats his evil henchmen and women nicely. He will burn them alive if they fail him, but as long as they do the right thing, he's a good boss to have. We also like watching him to see where his relationship with the Frau will go, and spoiler alert, the fact that he's actually Austin's brother basically gives us the okay to go ahead and declare our love for him.

9 Cole Turner

It's pretty safe to assume that we are not alone in our feelings with this one. Cole Turner was one of the toughest long-running villains on the TV show Charmed. He starts off as a half-demon disguised as a lawyer trying to help the Charmed Ones, but he makes the transition to good when he falls in love with Phoebe. Everything is going swell, and then all of a sudden Cole has to help the sisters defeat an even more powerful enemy, and it ends up drawing him back to the evil side. After that, he tries to be good again for Phoebe but ends up succumbing to evil and is ultimately killed off. When Cole is being bad, he really sinks low. We're talking plotting to kill Phoebe's sisters and hurting innocent people. But we love him because his chemistry with Phoebe is unmatched and because he tries so hard to be good.

8 The Grinch

In our book, anybody who hates Christmas is a villain. So in theory, the biggest Christmas-hater of all time should be the most unlikeable figure ever for us, but he's not! The Grinch has a heart that's two sizes too small and is permanently bitter, plus he's okay with letting Cindy Lou get crushed in the present-sorting machine. He's also kind of mean to his dog, Max. But we love him though! He was born a little different to the Whos of Whoville (unless the others also liked to eat china plates and knock other baby Whos hundreds of feet in the air), but he was relatively okay until the other kids at school were mean to him. Seriously, you'd hate Christmas too if it reminded you of the time you opened your heart to your crush and then everybody laughed at you. The Grinch does make a turnaround though and officially becomes a good guy.

7 Georgina Sparks

There are a few less-than-nice characters on Gossip Girl, but the one villain that we just can't hate, no matter how hard we try, is Georgina Sparks. She does a lot of nasty things, including lying to Dan about her identity then smooching off him by pretending that he fathered her child, and getting him caught up in her issues with the Russian mob. She also likes to try and lure Serena back to a meaningless life of partying and sabotages her chances at success. Unlike the rest of the Upper Eastsiders, Georgina is refreshingly honest and witty. She literally doesn't care what anybody thinks of her-an attitude which we could all stand to adopt! She has the courage to say what everybody else is thinking, and is nowhere near as boring as some of the other characters (hey, Serena). She also ends up playing for the good side in the end.

6 The Sheriff Of Nottingham

In case you're not familiar with British folklore, the Sheriff of Nottingham was basically like a big meanie who got in Robin Hood's way when he was trying to rob from the rich and give to the poor. We're unsure how the Sheriff is portrayed in every single account of the tale, but in Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves, he's played by Alan Rickman (a.k.a. Severus Snape) and he's brilliant! In this version, he's essentially a devil-worshipper who's trying to capture Robin and his merry men, but Alan Rickman makes him complex and weirdly likable. His creative points include threatening Robin with a spoon, though he doesn't follow through. Like so many of the villains on this list, the poor Sheriff was kind of doomed to a life of unhappiness from an early age-his mother's a witch who switched him with another baby so he could grow up to be important. Fail.

5 Draco Malfoy

Speaking of Severus Snape, he and evil protégé Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter universe are also characters we can't bear to hate! To be honest, we don't really consider Snape a true villain because his motives ultimately come from love, but Draco is a bad guy for most of the story. He should be the target of our intense hate: he hates muggle-borns and muggles in general, has tried to knock Harry off his broom on more than one occasion, kisses up to Dolores Umbridge and is related to Lucius Malfoy (ew). We think that we like Malfoy because deep down, he does have a conscience and a heart. He isn't able to kill Dumbledore or Harry and eventually winds up on the right side. Harry also seems to think that Malfoy is worth saving, so we do too. Hermione puts him in his place, and that's good enough for us!

4 Scar

Scar has to be one of the most hated Disney villains of all time. To be fair, he did put himself into this position. In The Lion King, he purposely puts Simba in danger by sending him to an elephant graveyard and into a canyon which is about to be overrun with a stampede of wildebeests. He overtakes Pride Rock and makes a total mess of everything by letting his pride starve, and worst of all, he kills his own brother. You'd think we'd be hating his guts, but we just can't. He's so pathetic that it's actually a little sad. This is a classic case of one child being favored from day one and the other child slowly building a resentment that will one day boil over. Mufasa was clearly like the perfect older sibling who can't do anything wrong in mom and dad's eyes. We all know that's annoying!

3 The Wicked Witch Of The West

She's by no means our favorite witch of all time, but we secretly like the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, she has a genuine excuse for hating Dorothy. Think about it. How would you react to somebody dropping a house on your sibling? Okay, she didn't mean to, but IRL she would totally still be up for manslaughter. We're sure Dorothy's good intentions are going to keep the dead witch's family warm at night… NOT. And then Dorothy adds salt by taking the ruby slippers when they should technically go to the dead witch's closest relative, ie the Witch of the West. So she's not that wicked, just rightly aggravated. The other reason we like her is because we feel bad that she has to spend eternity with green skin and a hooked nose while Glinda gets to be a pretty witch.

2 Cersei Lannister

Game of Thrones is iconic for having very few purely evil characters. But if there's one chick who's largely leaning toward the bad side rather than the good side, it's Cersei Lannister. She essentially will destroy anybody and anything to protect her family, so while that's bad if your name isn't Lannister, she would be a great mom to have. We can promise that nobody would mess with you if they knew she had your back! We also feel that Cersei has a bitter heart because she's learned to be that way-she was married to some guy who was in love with somebody else, and she's had to submit to a bunch of men who don't care about her for her entire life. There have been times when we've wanted to kill Cersei, but when her walk of shame actually made us sad, we realized that we do secretly like her.

1 Maleficent

The top villain we actually love is none other than the queen of Disney villains herself, Maleficent. We must admit that we didn't actually like Maleficent until the movie about her real story was released, but we could still appreciate that she had style back when we first saw the animated version of Sleeping Beauty. Maleficent does curse Princess Aurora to die at a young age, but let's look at the facts. Whichever version you're looking at, Maleficent was excluded from a party that everybody else was invited to. Rude! The live-action version of Maleficent's story, starring Angelina Jolie, tells us that Aurora's father is actually an ex who cut off her wings for his own selfish purposes. Would you want revenge on a guy who repaid your love with cutting off a piece of your body? Hell yes! Maleficent is largely misunderstood, and such a bada$$ that we can't help but worship her!