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"Blond guys aren't dumb. They're evil. Like in The Karate Kid and World War Two."
—Bart Simpson, The Simpsons
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Fair-haired guys in media frequently end up evil. This is especially noticeable if he is compared to a nice, dark-haired hero (think Harry Potter vs. Draco Malfoy) or if he is on the opposite end of a Love Triangle. And if his blond hair is long, you'd better hope he's an elf, because if not, that's pretty much evil incarnate. In many ways, this trope can be seen as the less extreme version of the Evil Albino.
If they're not evil, they're still jerks, although they may or may not be nice underneath, and they usually lose. Where a Betty and Veronica usually has a blond Betty and a dark- or red-haired Veronica, a male version of this setup will do the reverse.
Given that blond heroes were not rare in films 40 or more years ago, this may be a Cyclic Trope, albeit with a longer cycle time than that for female "bad hair colors". That said, it has certainly become a much more prevalent trope in the days since World War II, which may be responsible for this, since the Nazis did love blonds. On the other hand, it may be more simple: popular kids are jerks, and so are all cheerleaders. Blonde is a suitably desirable hair colour for both, therefore...
Often synonymous with Light Is Not Good; after all, blond guys are more often associated with an angelic appearance than black haired ones.
Compare Evil Redheads, White-Haired Pretty Boy, White-Haired Pretty Girl and Evil Albino. Contrast Hair of Gold. The Distaff Counterpart is Blondes Are Evil.
Anime & Manga[]
- Dragon Ball:
- General Blue.
- Also in Dragonball, when a Saiyan shifts into their Super Mode, their hair turns blond and their outlook changes for the worse.
- Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam, the probable trope-maker for White-Haired Pretty Boy, was, in fact, blond, demonstrating how these two tropes are related. Most of his many, many Expies are also blond.
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam has Jerk Jock Anti-Villain Jerid Messa and Psycho for Hire Yazan Gable both of whom are blond and evil, though Yazan is noticeably more so.
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ has Glemmy Toto, a clone of not Char, but Gihren Zabi, given a dye-job and a new lease on life. For a teenager he is frighteningly evil.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED:
- On one side, we have Ace Pilot Mwu La Flaga, who acts as a bit of a Big Brother Mentor for Kira and his friends, and is just about the coolest guy you could ever meet; and Dearka Elsmann, a Dark-Skinned Blond Ace Pilot who comes across as cocky, but is actually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold if you get to know him. On the other hand, we have cold-blooded Manipulative Bastard and Omnicidal Maniac Rau Le Creuset (actually an imperfect clone of Mwu's father) and Blue Cosmos leader Muruta Azrael.
- And Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny adds more people to this, with Rey Za Burrel, Well-Intentioned Extremist Dragon to Big Bad Chairman Durandal and Criminal Amnesiac and Manipulative Bastard Neo Roanoke who does most of Blue Cosmos leader Djibril's dirty work. Both have connections to previous blonds with Rey being a clone of Le Creuset and Neo being a Brainwashed and Crazy La Flaga. Heck, even the guy behind the Break the World incident was a blond.
- General Peters-Stahl, one of the few outright villains in Scrapped Princess. Also worth noting is that Cz, the only Peacemaker who is supposed to be sympathetic, is also the only one that isn't blond.
- Fist of the North Star has Shin and Souther. Raoh was originally blond in the manga as well, but was given black hair in the TV anime series (the newer anime versions restores his original blond hair). This is evened out by Jagi in the original anime (whose hair color was changed from the manga's black to blond), who was not only purely evil, but also the one who turned Shin evil in the first place.
- Johan of Monster is handsome, blond, blue-eyed, and absolutely terrifying.
- Chrono Crusade has Joshua Christopher, a blond, blue-eyed Ill Boy who's manipulated by the White-Haired Pretty Boy into becoming one of his minions after he puts on a pair of demon horns (which also drive him absolutely insane). However, the series also has Father Remington, another blond man who may be one of the most genuinely good characters in the series.
- Mello from Death Note has been a Mafia terrorist since he was 14, armed with guns in leather pants. Not to mention taking extreme measures to get what he wants, including kidnapping a teen girl and causing her to go through a traumatic experience that leaves her catatonic.
- A flashback story revealed that Hiruma from Eyeshield 21 has hair that is naturally black, but he dyes it specifically as part of his strategy to make himself look more intimidating. It works. Oh, and he's evil.
- Although he's amusingly psychotic to the point where it's hard not to like him to an extent, Ladd Russo from Baccano would most definitely fall under this trope, if not for undecidedly brown tan AND dark blond hair which turns gray for artisticness in Alcatra. I mean, come on. He shoots a small child's head off and constantly threatens to kill his girlfriend, among other things.
- Played with in The Prince of Tennis. Kevin Smith is an angry, bitchy, aggressive American boy who is an absolute Jerkass for quite a while...and comes from a broken family with a negligent father, also blond. When he's defeated and comes to terms with himself, he shows a sweeter side, though not losing his strong temper completely.
- Naruto himself averts this, as he's the hero, but Deidara of the Akatsuki does not. However, Naruto is the host of the Nine Tailed demon fox which is one of the most evil and ill tempered of all of the tailed beasts. His father, 4th Hokage Minato Namikaze, also a blonde male, sealed this beast inside of his newborn son, Naruto. Although this action was necessary and will benefit his home village in the long term, taking an "ends justify the means" approach does not exactly dispel the stereotype
- Kinkaku of the Gold and Silver Brothers, has sandy blonde hair and abuses the immense power of the Nine-Tails chakra to wreak havoc with his brother. Well at least they did, long ago.
- Code Geass has Prince Clovis and V.V.. The former is an insecure wreck who commits mass slaughter to cover his screw ups, the latter is just plain insane. And don't forget that Charles di Britannia had dark blond hair (comparable to Nunnally's) before age turned his hair white.
- Krad in D.N.Angel, who is also a prime example of Light Is Not Good thanks to his angelic appearance and utterly sadistic personality.
- Cain from Trinity Blood is blond, angelic looking, and a completely evil bastard.
- Fushigi Yuugi's Nakago (bonus points for being the sole survivor of his repulsive, entirely-blond tribe).
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Dio Brando. When he was twelve, he tied up his step-brother's dog and stuffed him in the incinerator. Later on in his un-life, he carjacked a sedan and had the driver plow through pedestrians on the sidewalk. He is bad news.
- Due to him being modeled after David Bowie, Yoshikage Kira, the main villain of part 4, also fits this trope.
- Brando's most loyal subordinate, Enrico Pucci, is not only this but also subverts the Dark Skinned Blond trope by being pretty damn cunning.
- By the looks of it, part 7 villain Funny Valentine is also one.
- Gin from Detective Conan, although there is conflict over whether his hair is blond or silver.
- In the "Fujiyama Gangster Paradise" story arc in Black Lagoon, one of the main antagonists is a Yakuza scumbag named Chaka, who sports a mane of blond hair (supposedly dyed, as he is Japanese) and very tanned skin. He is without doubt the most disgusting, irredeemable fuck shown so far in the series, so much that not even his fellow Yakuza like him and Badass Anti-Villain Ginji is just too happy to deal him a Cool And Unusual Death for abusing the local Yakuza Princess, Yukio..
- Star Blazers: Everybody chant! DESS-lok Desslok Desslok! DESS-lok Desslok Desslok! DESS-lok Desslok Desslok!
- Darker Than Black very much fits both this trope and Blondes Are Evil, given the huge amount of blond Contractors, who, while varying in terms of morality/likability, are all superpowered sociopaths. The high proportion of blonds might be because Contractors are generally foreign agents, and the favored way to depict a foreigner in Japan is through Phenotype Stereotype.[1]
- Yotsuba&!: Yanda is, at minimum, a big jerk.
- Vincent from Pandora Hearts, and with Heterochromia, to boot. And probably Jack. Maybe.
- Hellsing has The Major, The Doctor, Luke Valentine, and Warrent Officer Schrodinger. Also Enrico Maxwell, but only in the manga.
- Asuham Boone from Overman King Gainer is vengeful, believes in Revenge Before Reason, and is utterly obsessed with capturing co-protagonist Gain Bijou. If he has to endanger innocents or manipulate subordinates to do so, he will.
- Justin in Soul Eater. Blond haired, blue eyed priest, no less. In hindsight, it was probably too good to be true and very easily dismissed on the basis that the series has an entire cast full of oddities, as it were.
- The Oni Clan in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de is probably deliberately presented as evil foreigners, and anyone with blond hair is labelled as evil by the locals.[2] Keep in mind that while this attitude is likely intended to reflect the general time-appropriate xenophobia,[3] the Oni do actually possess destructive powers and therefore present danger. In reality, though...Akuram is corrupted by his powers; Ikutidaru repeatedly questions their plans; much of what Shirin does is of the Love Makes You Evil kind (and she isn't even blond to begin with); Sefuru has a Freudian Excuse and isn't mature enough to comprehend the situation. Then you get into the clan's backstory...
- Blassreiter: The reason Xargin is so pretty is so that you'll like it when he murders you...or turns you into a homicidal cyborg.
- Jonathan Glenn, the biggest Jerkass in all Brain Powerd.
- Berg Katse, in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
- Lucia of Rave Master
- Cornelius Alba and Lio Shirazumi in Garden of Sinners
- Apos in Mnemosyne... dear GOD!
- Knives from Trigun, who sports a considerable God complex and a pathological hatred for humanity.
- Gankutsuou:
- Magnificent Bastard Andrea Cavalcanti, actually gangster Benedetto, has perfect blond hair.
- The villainous Villefort has white hair in the present day, but flashbacks show that he used to be a rather Bishonen-looking blond.
- Marik and Bandit Keith from Yu-Gi-Oh.
- Alois Trancy from the second season of the Black Butler anime.
- The Fullmetal Alchemist Manga and Brotherhood's Big Bad Father has Blond Hair while in his Old Man Form as well as his Final Form.
- The main villain Hartmann Bezelheim from Princess Lover.
- Reda from Mon Colle Knights. Lark, on the other hand...
- Belphegor, from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, while not evil per se, is a psychopathic Knife Nut with a Slasher Smile and an Evil Laugh. He's also one of six elite assassins known as the Varia. Byakuran, the White-Haired Pretty Boy, is this troupe through and through, if you consider white a shade of blonde. Ken, on the other hand, averts this trope, despite being Mukuro's flunky.
- Every notable blond guy in Eyeshield 21 is (or was) a jerkass, with the exception of Homer and the Yuuhi Guts captain. The biggest jerks in the Pentgram are blondes, Hiruma and Agon dyed their hair blonde at some point, and former delinquents Toganou and Juumonji started out as jerks to Sena. Somewhat justified for the Japanese characters who are blonde, since bleached hair = delinquent = jerk.
- Mai-Otome has John Smith in the anime and Sergay August Taiki in the manga.
- Vicious in Cowboy Bebop, especially compared to the brunet Anti-Hero protagonist, Spike.
- Inukami!: Sea of Violence and Sekidosai.
- One Piece has Donquixote Doflamingo.
- In Saint Beast, Pandora is not only a bit of a jerk but can also be considered outright evil for his complicity in so many awful things, no matter how he feels about the acts themselves.
Comic Books[]
- Played with regarding Ozymandias in Watchmen. The obvious interpretation is that he's the villain, but, this being Watchmen, there's a lot more to it than that...
- Eddie Brock, aka Venom, in Spider-Man.
- The Dash, an evil speedster in Flare, is blond.
- The only physical difference between The DCU's Impulse and his Evil Twin Inertia is their hair; Impulse has brown hair, Inertia has blond.
- Wilhelm Ryan, the villain from The Amory Wars/Coheed and Cambria.
- Jan Arrah, Element Lad, the villain of the Legion of Super-Heroes story Legion Lost, is innocently handsome and blond. To be fair, he was blond for thirty years worth of stories before he became a villain.
- Kordax, the ancient Atlantean prince in Aquaman and the greatest villain in Atlantean history. His blond hair was actually seen as a sign of evil by the people of Atlantis, especially in the royal family, which is why Aquaman was abandoned at birth.
- One of the more notable feuds in Marvel Comics is that between the short, dark, noble Wolverine and the tall, fair, psychopathic Sabertooth.
- Neron, The DCU's lord of Hell for a time in the late '90s and early '00s, appeared as a tall, muscular, pale-skinned man with a mane of blond hair. This was not, however, his true form; he was actually some sort of weird, tentacled, plantlike thing.
- Lucifer, as he appeared in The Sandman and his self-titled series, was also a tall, blond man. This version of the character was pretty clearly inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost. And by tall, blond man, we mean that Neil Gaiman ordered the artists who drew Lucifer to make him look like David Bowie.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist and Knight Templar Lucien Draay from the Knights of the Old Republic comics definitely counts, at least until his Heel Face Turn.
- Not an actual example, but this trope has been Lampshaded whenever the fact that Captain America is pretty much the ideal of the Nazi's blond-haired-blue-eyed Aryan Ubermensch has been brought up. Incidentally, there was a period of time where the Red Skull inherited a cloned body of Cap's, pretty much keeping his appearance, blond hair and all, therefore playing this trope straight.
Film — Live-Action[]
- The store owner's son Dennis in Cabin Fever is more a case of "Blonde Kids are Psychotic", as can be seen in this scene.
- In American Pie, the four main guys are all dark-haired and (somewhat) sympathetic. And then there's Stifler.
- James Bond faces muscular blond henchmen on a regular basis:
- From Russia with Love: Red Grant, a cold-blooded assassin (but Not So Above It All in the novel, leading to his downfall).
- Thunderball: Vargas, who got the point.
- You Only Live Twice: Hans, who ends up being a victim to the Piranha Problem.
- For Your Eyes Only: Erich Kriegler, who, despite being an Olympic shooter, seems to have graduated from the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
- The Living Daylights: Necros, a Master of Disguise who strangles people with his Walkman earphones (and may be more famous as John McClane's first victim in Die Hard).
- Tomorrow Never Dies: Mr. Stamper, a bleached blond this time.
- In A View to a Kill, Big Bad Max Zorin himself is blond and the result of a Nazi Mad Scientist's breeding experiment in the 1940s.
- In a recent aversion/inversion, Bond himself is now blond and somewhat more of an Anti-Hero (although people complained about him being blond and demanded he dye it to black, which was wisely ignored).
- Another Roy, Roy Stalin in Better Off Dead. Also a Jerk Jock.
- Talbot (Josh Lucas) in Ang Lee's Hulk.
- Any villainous character played by Dolph Lundgren, but specifically Ivan in Rocky IV and the badnik in Universal Soldier. It's probably also worth noting that the only two antagonistic boxers that Rocky faced who were white were both blond, the other being Tommy Gunn.
- About 80% of all the characters Mark Rolston has played. (The other 20% were just assholes.)
- Darth Vader (yes, Darth Vader). Although his hair is burned off for most of his time as a villain, his maybe-brown hair is canonically listed as "blond".
- Jake Busey and his father, Gary, are both ash blond, and both play bad guys fairly regularly.
- Applied lightly in the film Made of Honor, where the dark-haired (and American) Tom wins the girl and the Scottish blond Colin loses her. We say applied lightly because Colin is portrayed as quite a nice guy aside from not being very good at sharing cake.
- Genesis from Suicide Club is horribly evil, and happens to be the only blond in the whole damned thing.
- The TV movie She Cried No starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar as a blond frat boy who rapes innocent freshman Candace Cameron.
- Possessive ex-boyfriend who won't accept that it's over Cole Whittier (Robert Prescott) in Bachelor Party (1984) versus witty and easy-going brunet Rick Gassko (Tom Hanks).
- Reservoir Dogs:
- The members of the heist are all assigned color-based code names, and of the lot, only "Mr. Blond" is outright evil, although he isn't actually blond-haired.
- The only blond character is Nice Guy Eddie (although it looks more like red hair at times). Total Jerkass.
- And Tim Roth's hair is sort of dirty blond/lightish brown. Symbolism?
- In Never Back Down, brown-haired Jake Tyler fights Ryan McCarthy, who's fond of luring people to his home under false pretenses and savagely beating them.
- The Karate Kid:
- Dark-haired Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio) battles Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka, career Evil Blond Guy) for the affections of fair-haired Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue). Johnny sweeps the leg, but Daniel still wins in the end.
- Zabka played another bully the next year in Just One Of The Guys and one final time the year after that in Back to School.
- Most of the Cobra Kais are blond. In the DVD commentary, director John Avildsen gives the reason why: "In case ya didn't get it!"
- In The Dark Knight, brown-haired Batman battles blond baddies. The Joker's hair is so greasy it looks dark, and cheaply dyed green on top of that, but he's definitely blond. Like Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent suffered two terrible losses and assumed a new identity. But while Batman dedicated his life to fighting crime, Two-Face tried to kill a cop's innocent child.
Harvey Dent was an interesting subversion (or untwist) of the trope—the angsty, brooding dark-haired hero mopes as his love-interest takes up with a blond, popular, media-savvy politician who wears his idealism on his sleeve. Surely, the blond rival must be a superficial jerk, incapable of truly loving the heroine and only affecting high principles for show? No, it turns out that he really is a courageous, noble, if somewhat vain man and a better match for the girl than the hero, until the poor blond man gets broken to pieces in the most horrible way.
- Justin Long is Accepted by Blake Lively after she realizes she's in another Hollywood love-triangle where the blond guy turns out to be a jerk.
- Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) in Demolition Man.
- The main hench-villain in the recent Zorro movie wasn't only blond, but wore a U.S. Army uniform. How eeeevil can one get, eh?
- John Ryder in the original version of The Hitcher.
- Cary Elwes's oh-so-British Captain Boone competes for the affections of Lena Headey with Jason Scott Lee's sensitive, dark-haired jungle boy Mowgli in the 1994 live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book. He's evil, just so you know.
- Cary Elwes is also evil in Twister.
- In She's All That, knowledge of this trope makes the plot's climax and eventual resolution very predictable, since male leads Zack and Dean are, respectively, brunet and blond.
- In Die Hard, the only noticeably blond characters are two of Hans' henchmen (who are brothers).
- And in the third film, Hans' own brother is blond.
- Valentine from the oh so wonky film Mirror Mask has dark hair, but wears a mask that has blond Bart Simpson-like "hair". It covers part of his natural dark hair. In the film, Valentine is shown to be a really friendly, helpful guy, even successful (owning a tower and such). Near the end, he sells out the main character Helena for literally all the jewels he can carry. His dark-haired side soon wins out and his guilt causes him to come back for her, though it's never told whether he gives back the jewels.
- Greg Marmalard in Animal House is the head of the Omegas, the prick fraternity that is out to shut down the Deltas. On the other hand, the Deltas are chaired by the blond-haired Hoover, who spends the whole movie desperately trying to keep his fraternity from getting kicked off campus.
- In Real Genius, William Atherton (Prof. Jerry Hathaway) and his brown-nosing sidekick Robert Prescott (Kent) constantly try to thwart, and later steal, the hero's invention.
- In Revenge of the Nerds, Stan Gable (Ted McGinley) is head of the Alpha Betas, a sadistic-jock-filled fraternity. He torments the titular Nerds for most of the picture, until he learns his lesson after Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) heroically rapes Gable's girlfriend in a funhouse. (Ah, the 80s.)
- Gage, the little blond kid from Pet Sematary. He put the 'Evil' in 'Evil Dead'.
- The bleached-blond black dude following Leana Telfer around in 1999's little-known masterly thriller The Ninth Gate.
- The blondest guy in Road Trip is Jacob (Anthony Rapp), so it should come as no surprise when he does everything he can to thwart the fair-haired Beth from hooking up with sensitive brown-haired Josh Parker (Breckin Meyer). Jacob even impersonates a teacher to make Josh miss an important test.
- The Devil Wears Prada confirms that in any love triangle, dark-haired men like Nate (Adrian Grenier) are caring and compassionate, if overlooked, while blond men like Christian (Simon Baker) are knaves who only seem like a catch until their untrustworthy shenanigans are exposed.
- In Adventureland, Em (Kristen Stewart) is torn between the awkward James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) and blond, musically-inclined repairman Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds), who claims to know Lou Reed. Ladies, here's a hint: always go for awkward. The audience soon learns that the only connections the married repairman has are with a string of underage girls.
- Played extremely straight in 4.3.2.1 where the only notable male character with (vividly bleached) blond hair turns out to be a thief and an evil would be rapist.
- In the film adaptation of Super Mario Bros, King Koopa (Dennis Hopper) is blond, which makes sense because, in the video game, he is a turtle. With red hair.
- Bradley in The Final. He's pretty pathetic, though.
- Henry from The Good Son.
- Steven from Bloody Birthday.
- Played with in the TV movie Odd Girl Out in which the only male bully is blond, but so is the innocent and sympathetic love interest.
- Ryan Phillippe as Barry Cox in I Know What You Did Last Summer. He might not be the killer, but he's still a jerk.
- The Goblin King fits. He was the antagonist...
- Many of the characters blond actor Richard Widmark played from Kiss of Death to Murder on the Orient Express were villains.
- The whole trope was probably jump-started in movies by Alan Ladd, playing the Anti-Villain Raven in This Gun For Hire (1942). Ladd started off the film with black-dyed hair, but the dye job was abandoned about halfway through. He went on to play a series of rogues, rebels, and shady characters until Touched By Technicolor in 1949.
- Dune: Paul is dark-haired, as was his father, Feyd has a reddish-tinged blond thing going, and the Baron is a redhead who leans toward blond.
- Main antagonist Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes is a blonde-haired orangutan who doesn't look so threatening, but is the most unscrupulous and evil of the apes.
- Played straight in the 1990 film of Lord of the Flies where both Jack and Ralph are given an Adaptation Dye Job to become blond and brunet respectively. In the book, Ralph was blond and Jack was red haired.
- Mark from Old School, considering his first scene is as the boyfriend of the girl that Mitch likes, it's pretty obvious what's gonna happen.
- Big Bad Jay Hamilton in Walking Tall, played by Neil McDonough.
- The otherworldly children in Village of the Damned, at least in the colored versions of the original. The remake outright upgrades them to Evil Albinos.
- John Kramer in the Saw series.
- Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Blade Runner.
Literature[]
- Lash from Black Dagger Brotherhood is a complete and total bastard.
- In the Tamora Pierce Kel books:
- The primary antagonist is Joren, so blond and beautiful that one can forget the all misogyny, arrogance, hate crimes, kidnappings, and general dog-kicking that he engages in on a daily basis.
- Ralon of Malven, who filled the same bully role in the original Alanna book, was also blond and blue-eyed. He grew up to be a rapist, was disowned by his family (and hideously scarred with acid), turned to a life of crime under the name "Claw", involved himself in the Big Bad's plot to assassinate the king, and, of course, got killed during the climactic battle. Joren's almost progress.
- In the Angels Unlimited series, the antagonist, Brice, has a bleach-blond mullet. After he goes back to Heaven, he still dresses in black, but he cuts off the mullet, spikes it, and only dyes the tips blond. I guess it'll have to do.
- Harry Potter:
- Draco and Lucius Malfoy.
- Gellert Grindelwald.
- Also, Barty Crouch Jr. from Goblet of Fire.
- Some of the minor Death Eater characters, such as Yaxley, are also blonde.
- Gilderoy Lockhart. He's not a Death Eater, but he's definitely a jerk and a fraud. At the end of Chamber of Secrets, he tried to obliviate two twelve-year-olds and planned to leave an eleven-year-old to die, intending to spin a good story about it that will paint him as the hero and the three students as unfortunate collateral damage.
- Dudley Dursley. In the film he got an Adaptation Dye Job.
- The Daimons in the Dark Hunter books are perpetually 27, beautiful, tall, blonde...and will kill you and suck out your soul to elongate their lives. Jerks.
- Joker from the Read or Die series.
- In the Sword of Truth series, the Big Bad of the first and second books, Darken Rahl, has shoulder length blond hair and is a Complete Monster of the highest caliber. For some reason, so seem to be all other "full-blooded" people of his evil empire.
- The Time Travelers Wife invokes this trope twice over: while neither Ingrid nor Gomez (the blond romantic rivals to the central couple's brunet Henry and redheaded Clare) are bad people, the former is needy and confrontational and the latter is offputtingly glib and cynical (and has a weird Communism fetish). Neither Henry or Clare view them as legitimate contenders in the Love Dodecahedron (although Henry and Ingrid dated before he met Clare).
- Discworld's Wolfgang von Uberwald, who has more blond hair than the rest of the examples put together.
- Maximum Ride uses this one. Both Jeb Batchelder and Roland ter Borcht are described as having light hair, and Maximum Ride herself has blonde hair.
- In Gone with the Wind, the blond Ashley, while far from evil, is weak-willed and indecisive, and far from the romantic hero Scarlett persistently imagines him to be.
- In Percy Jackson and The Olympians, there's Luke, who betrays the gods to join Kronos and almost causes the world to be destroyed.
- William Vanderveen of the Ryan Kealy book series fits this trope perfectly. He's blonde, incredibly attractive, seems eternally youthful, had an IQ of 180+ when he was about eight, and is out to destroy America and the rest of Western civilization because his sociopath of a father died when the CIA pulled support for political reasons, his mother committed suicide, more likely than not also influenced by the loss of their daughter/his older sister, who young William himself killed for having less than discreet relations with a local South African. So...yeah.
- In Morpho Eugenia by A. S. Byatt (filmed as Angels And Insects), this applies to both men and women: the dark-haired protagonist marries into a blond-haired family which is obsessive about bloodlines, dark secrets are uncovered, and he leaves town with a brunette.
- Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist in the Left Behind books. Also, Lucifer himself, as shown in one scene in Glorious Appearing.
- The Lannisters from A Song of Ice and Fire all have blond hair and are all ruthlessly ambitious. Though we do later find out that many of them are not all as evil as we're initially lead to believe, the trope is still played straight with Tywin, Cersei, and especially Joffrey.
- Warner in Shatter Me, who wants to use the main character whose touch is fatal as his weapon.
- The Malagash princes in Chronicles of Magravandias are commonly called the lions of Magrast in public. But privately they, and Prince Bayard in particular, are thought of as hungry wolves.
- In John Le Carre's "Call for the Dead" a German agent is killing people to cover their tracks. He, of course, does not use his real name and makes his contacts give him a nickname to use. He is then called "Blondie".
Live-Action TV[]
- Adam Monroe, the Big Bad in the second season of Heroes.
- Prince on Lexx epitomizes this trait. The show also has the Magnificent Bastard Schlemmi (later Fifi), also a blonde.
- Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He's probably intentionally invoking this trope (the guy's pretty Genre Savvy); flashbacks reveal his normal hair is mouse brown and curly. Apparently, he dyed his hair black during WWII and began bleaching it in the 70s, probably to attract dumb victims drawn to the "bad boy" association.
- On Dexter, Rita's abusive, drug-addicted ex-husband Paul is blond, contrasting with his Hair of Gold former wife.
- Vim Fuego/Alan Metcalfe from The Comic Strip Presents...episode Bad News has a huge rock-star mane of blond hair, and while he isn't evil, he is arrogant, obsessed with his own talent, violent, not above fraud, and arrogant.
- While he isn't evil either, Prince Wendell of The Tenth Kingdom is certainly arrogant, stuck-up, pompous, and a true jerk to Tony (not that he doesn't deserve it from time to time) and Wolf for the first half to two-thirds of the miniseries, up until he gets it rubbed in his face that wolves aren't the evil monsters he believes them to be and eats a major portion of humble pie after realizing he's failed to pass his test of kinghood. Humorously, even the dog he is turned into by his Wicked Stepmother is a golden retriever. (And it's being stuck in this form and losing his human self that contributes greatly to his change for the better.)
- Edie's new husband on Desperate Housewives was fair-haired, pale eyed, and extremely creepy. There was no doubt he was evil from the second he appeared onscreen, even though it had yet to be revealed what he was actually up to.
- This trope is a staple of Hispanic soap operas, though it usually applies to women rather than men.
- Alexander Lucard from Dracula: The Series. Guess who he was?
- The OC had Kevin Volchok. But it also has good blond guys (Ryan Atwood) and bad dark-haired ones (Oliver Trask).
- One Tree Hill did it exactly the other way around: blond Lucas is the good (half) brother while black-haired Nathan is more of a bad boy.
- It's nearly a trope on Hogan's Heroes. If there is a (male) prisoner, Allied soldier, or member of the underground with pale blond Aryan hair, he's almost certainly a spy.
- Eric from True Blood is the ultimate badass blond: he's a Viking vampire, sheriff of his corner of Louisiana (for the vampires) and owns a nightclub called Fangtasia. He becomes upset when he gets blood in his beautiful, blond hair.
- Degrassi the Next Generation plays this trope so often that it's ridiculous. Name a blond guy on the show. At one point or another, he has been a bully, a jerkass, a manwhore, a bad boy, or all of the above. Peter, the blondest of them all, was probably the closest thing to Chaotic Evil on the show. His hair noticeably darkened once he made his Heel Face Turn...
- Sawyer from Lost, at first. Though not evil, he was certainly a Jerkass at first, especially compared to Jack and Sayid.
- Doctor Who:
- The Master, in the Christmas 2009 finale, has a new-and-improved blond look and a whole new load of crazy to dump on the Doctor.
- Mark Gatiss wears a blond wig to play Prof. Lazarus.
- The Editor, played by Simon Pegg in 'The Long Game'
- John-Paul McQueen from Holly Oaks drove his ex-girlfriend to anorexia, had an affair with his friend's boyfriend, convinced a priest to leave the church, then later left said priest for another bloke. Also, Ste Hay is blond.
- In the short-lived BBC kids' drama Dark Future, all the villains of the story were blond. Out of the trio of schoolaged heroes, the two girls were both brunette. The villains at one point try to draw the young blond male hero into joining their cause, but then turned on him when they found out...his hair is naturally a dark brown, he just dyed it (which should've been obvious, his dark brown roots were even visible!).
- In the pilot of the Stephen King series Haven, Ted, the blondest guy in town, turns out to be a con-man and accomplice to murder who was pretending to love a woman for her money.
- The TV movie of Red Dwarf had a villain who slowly assassinated the king and tried to marry the princess. It's no wonder he was caught—his long blond hair was a dead giveaway. The princess has him eternally imprisoned and sets her sights on the kind, dark-haired doctor.
- Kamen Rider OOO has Ankh, a bird-type monster born from human desire. To blend into society (and because he was only able to regenerate an arm of his original body), he has possessed the body of a dying police officer, turning said officer's hair blond.
- Baby-faced Jadeite in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Of the Shitennou, he's the only one who's dedication to Beryl does not waver during the whole season.
- Justified has Robert Quarles (played by Neal McDonough), a sociopathic mob lieutenant.
Music[]
- "Jessie", from Rick Springfield's music video of "Jessie's Girl", is blond.
- The music video for Muse's song Knights of Cydonia has a heroic dark-haired cowboy fighting with an evil blond cowboy over a blonde woman.
- Angelspit's "Devilicious": "If you're needing a villain, baby, I'm your blond".
Professional Wrestling[]
- The Nature Boy Buddy Rodgers and his Expy Ric Flair.
- All incarnations of the Hollywood Blonds, obviously.
- Many blond wrestlers including Edge, Chris Jericho, Triple H, Jeff Jarrett, and Christian have spent the majority of their careers as heels.
- Presumably Invoked by Scott Steiner: when he turned heel at WCW SuperBrawl 1998 and joined the nWo, he dyed his hair blond to accentuate his turn. He stayed a blond for the rest of his career afterwards (through good and bad).
Theater[]
- In Spring Awakening, the basic idea is that all the children are good and naive and the adults are evil. However, there is an exception to the lovable children: Hanschen, the Aryan seducer and predator who creeps everyone out and seduces this poor, awkward guy, Ernst, who has a desperate crush on Hanschen. Of course, despite the fact that this takes place in GERMANY of all places, Hanschen is usually the sole blond. Word of God has basically confirmed that this trope is being invoked on purpose (and so one assumes that the dark-haired Hanschens, understudies aside, are only that way because they couldn't pull off the desired blond).
- Brett, the Jerk Jock in 13, was played by the blonde Eric Nelsen.
Video Games[]
- Anogia from Luminous Arc 3 played this really straight, until it is revealed that all he went through is to give Miria her eyes back.
- In World of Warcraft, Arthas Menethil, a prince who would later kill his father and become the villain for the third expansion pack Wrath Of The Lich King, is blond (though in undeath, his hair turns white). In addition, Prince Kael'Thas Sunstrider is also blond.
- Geese Howard, the first SNK Boss. There's also Rugal Bernstein, the successor to the mantle. Interestingly enough, Geese is killed by a blond guy, Terry Bogard, and his son Rock is blond (with red eyes to boot). The Big Bad of Mark Of The Wolves, Kain R. Heinlein, also has red eyes and long blond hair. It's not a coincidence or anything; Kain is Rock's Evil Uncle and Geese's brother-in law. Poor Rock. He knew Kain was half-evil, but then he found out the other half was evil, too...)
- Liquid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Especially bad since Solid Snake, to whom Liquid is supposedly genetically identical, has brown hair.
- The Big Bads of Tomb Raider (and the remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary), Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, and Tomb Raider: Legends have all been blonds or platinum-blonds.
- The aptly named Mr. Blonde in Perfect Dark. Yes, it's a pseudonym andm as a matter of fact, he's not really blond; the reptilian aliens mustn't have been trying very hard, because they all use the same holographic disguise.
- None of the all-blond Branstein clan in the Super Robot Wars franchise are actually evil, although you are nominally fighting against Maier and Elzam at the beginning of Original Generation, Rai is kind of a jerk, and Elzam is an Aloof Big Brother (and A CHAR).
- The Silencer from Crusader is revealed as blond in a rarely-seen death animation. A half-subversion in that he is the protagonist, but even if he isn't evil, he is far too willing to carelessly shoot unarmed surrendering civilians for no reason.
- The Tales (series):
- In Tales of Symphonia, Kvar, Remiel, and Yggdrasil.
- Dhaos of Tales of Phantasia - although this is also a case of Poor Communication Kills.
- Miktran/Kronos in Tales of Destiny. It looks like Elraine and Barbatos in the sequel might avert this but then you fight Fortuna...and she's blonde.
- Also, the Ferines in Tales of Legendia. Then again, they could just be "misunderstood".
- When he's evil, Richard in Tales of Graces. It's best to consider that GREENS are evil in Tales of Graces.
- In the Final Fantasy series:
- Used straight with probably the first major blond male character: Emperor Mateus Palamecia, who is rather astonishingly evil.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, the protagonist, Squall, has brown hair, while his rival-turned-evil, Seifer, has blond.
- In Final Fantasy VI, the villain Kefka is an Ax Crazy blond. However, the majority of the protagonists, male and female, are blond, as well; Kefka is just, uh, more...blondier...than the rest of them.
- In Final Fantasy IV, the original SNES version, Kain is shown to have blond hair in the game's ending (it's the only time his helmet is removed, and it doesn't show in his menu portrait). In the remake, his blond hair is more prominently displayed. It might be argued that Kain isn't really evil, but as Golbez noted, those that were taken over by Zemus/Zeromus had evil in their hearts. Kain's jealousy over Rosa loving Cecil and not him is what made him willing to turn against his friend. Also, he doesn't have a problem with using brute force to get something done--he says as much to Cecil when Rydia is unwilling to go with them after Mist is burned.
- In Final Fantasy XI, you get the villains the two Zilart princes of Jeuno, specifically the
youngerolder brother, who is actually behind the first villain for the first expansion and Nag'molada for the second. - You can see that the bad guy, Dysley, in Final Fantasy XIII is blond. Don't look at his headdress, look at the hair on his back.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Llednar Twem, the form of Mewt Randell's anger, has blond hair.
- Final Fantasy VII. Pres. Shinra and his son, Rufus Shinra.
- Kristoph Gavin in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
- Albert Wesker, William Birkin, Alfred Ashford, and Jack Krauser are some of the only blond-haired men in the Resident Evil universe, and they're all pretty damn evil.
- Splendidly averted with Leon S. Kennedy, who first appeared in Resident Evil 2 as a Redheaded Hero but has been depicted as having sandy blond hair ever since — even in flashbacks to the events of part 2.
- Suikoden:
- Yuber from Suikoden is this trope and a bag of chips.
- Not to forget Jowy from Suikoden II and Gizel from Suikoden V.
- Graham Cray from Suikoden IV.
- Kazyr, one of Overlord Ulgar's evil henchmen in Popful Mail.
- The blond King Zephiel in Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi is the opponent to Redheaded Hero Roy and his gentle half-sister Princess Guinevere.
- The Country singer Conroy Bumpus in Sam And Max Hit The Road.
- Prince Maximillian of Valkyria Chronicles. En-fricking-core.
- Dick Winslow in Black Dahlia.
- Bully brings us Derby Harrington, a blond haired walking embodiment of almost every Rich = Bad trope.
- Ghost Trick uses this with Dandy and Yomiel.
- Pokémon Ranger:Shadows of Almia has Kincaid, The Dragon.
- Eternal Sonata had the snarky Count Waltz.
- Slavik from Command and Conquer - Tiberian Sun. Total blond evil.
- Raphael in the Soul Series. Heroic Siegfried (who briefly becomes big baddie Nightmare) is blond, although as Nightmare, his hair is only seen in one incarnation and it's bright red.
- Blaz Blue:
- Paging Major Jin Kisaragi.
"Brother. I'm so happy! I get to kill you again!" |
- Relius Clover is even moreso... and let's leave it at that.
- Alfonso and Ramirez in Skies of Arcadia
- Yo-Jin-Bo has Ittosai, who ranges from a ruthless Blood Knight to a Troubled but Cute Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- In the arcade version of Double Dragon, Billy has blond hair while Jimmy has brown, even though both are technically good guys. When Jimmy was turned into the main bad guy in the NES version, he underwent an Adaptation Dye Job and had his hair color switched with Billy's, becoming a blond guy in the process.
- Ludger Brink in The Dig, playing against dark-haired astronaut hero Boston Low.
- Hans Grosse in Wolfenstein 3D, along with every class of Mooks except the Mutant.
- Johan Elites, the mean and arrogant aristocrat of Mitsumete Knight.
- Luxord in Kingdom Hearts II. Also, Vexen in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.
- Nazi Colonel Dierker from The Saboteur video game.
- Double Switch: Eddie turns out to be this.
- MLB Power Pros 2008 has this when Sittch reveals that he was a spy for the Galaxy Sharks all along and dyes his hair blond.
- Deus from Asura's Wrath. He combines this with Scary Black Man.
Visual Novels[]
- Gilgamesh in Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero, President Evil back in the good ol' days and one half of an Evil Duo. However, when Black and Grey Morality moves in, he becomes more Necessarily Evil. Did we mention that he's a Stalker with a Crush too, thus enabling him to hit every interpretation on the page? No? Well, now you know.
Web Animation[]
- Broken Saints:
- The Sociopathic Soldiers—Lt. Charles and Lt. Bravado—who are about as evil as you get.
- Not to mention Gabriel, a strawberry blond whose hair seems to shift back and forth depending on the light.
Web Comics[]
- Destiny Fails Us has James, who constantly threatens his best friend with a fork.
- The website hosting the Nukees comic also includes a page dedicated to SUSBEC: tracking evil, eyeless blonds, mostly male.
- In The Specialists, Kapitan Deutschland.
- The titular protagonist of Niels, a violent, sociopath mob boss, is blonde. So is Peter.
Web Original[]
- Geraden and Hannibal both have blond hair and appear to work against the heroic Grand Alliance. Cain also ends up as an evil blond guy after his Face Heel Turn.
- The titular Dr. Horrible from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Nominally evil. Kind of fails at it, though.
- Ato, who has shades of a Heroic Sociopath anyway, turns full-blown evil while possessed by a demon.
Podcasts[]
* Michael Distortion from The Magnus Archives
Western Animation[]
- Mike Morningstar from Ben 10 Alien Force. Guilty of draining girls of their life energy just to keep him from aging.
- Trevor Goodchild from Aeon Flux fits the bill. (In the live-action movie, on the other hand, he has brown hair...and turns out to be a good guy.)
- In the DVD commentary for the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II" wherein Bender is turned into a human, it's stated that Mili Smythe "insisted that Bender be a blond man" as "blond men are more disgusting".
- Episodes of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs typically revolved around some sort of conflict between the jet-black-haired (and heroic and environmentally-conscious) Old Blood Mechanic Jack Tenrec and evil Poacher Hammer Terhune, whose most prominent physical feature was his enormous, blond flattop mullet. Additionally, perhaps the only other blond male character to appear was Shawn Russell, another Old Blood Mechanic who, in direct contrast to Jack, was depicted as being arrogant, corrupt, and greedy to the extent that he was willing to betray everything the Old Blood Mechanics were supposed to stand for.
- Remy Buxaplenty on The Fairly Odd Parents.
- Chad on Codename: Kids Next Door, who was a KND Operative until his Face Heel Turn. Of course, the penultimate episode revealed that he was a long term mole for the KND.
- In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Senate Guard Commando Captain Argyus is the first Senate Guard ever to be seen unmasked onscreen, revealing his elaborately coifed blond hair.
- Dash Baxter from Danny Phantom. Not really evil, but he is a bully.
- Boog from Fanboy and Chum Chum is also a blonde bully - however, he evidently uses dye, since, at the time the show takes place, his brown roots are quite visible.
- Bronto, leader of the biker gang "The Bronto Bunch" on The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show
- Tobey from Word Girl is blonde and could be considered evil.
- Bart Simpson Of The Simpsons.
- Geoff of Total Drama Island, while being the host at Total Drama Aftermath. He got better, though.
- ↑ which incidentally uses a Darker Than Black character as the page image
- ↑ Ironically, Shimon, who also gets bashed for similar appearance, is one of the nicest members of the main cast.
- ↑ Haruka's world is based on Heian period Japan