Can Evil Characters Engender Sympathy?
Yes, evil characters can engender sympathy if their cause is what most of us recognize as the 'greater' good. An example of this is Ozymandias, from Watchmen. He is an excellent example of an evil character who can garner sympathy from the readers/viewers. During Watchmen, Ozymandias orchestrates what appears to be a sinister plot to kill all of the vigilantes, retired or not. Near the end of the movie, Ozymandias detonates several, powerful, weapons of mass destruction in major easter cities in the United States, pinning the blame on Dr. Manhattan. The Watchmen believe he has gone man and when confronted, Ozymandias reveals that by turning the world against Dr. Manhattah, he is uniting them to stop a nuclear apocalypse. Even though Ozymandias did a clearly evil thing, we the audience feel sympathetic towards him and his cause. This is a great example of an evil character engendering sympathy.
