Villains who are motivated (even at least partially) by envy or jealousy, these are villains who typically revile and despise the hero, or even someone else, for possessing something that they lack, be it a physical possession or something conceptual and abstract, such as success, popularity, love, wealth, power, or something else entirely. Envy is a common motivation for villains even to the point of obsession. Fittingly, it is also one of the Seven Deadly Sins and is actually considered to be second only to Pride in severity. Being severely envious of someone else can also lead to early stages of mental insanity.

They can be tragic or insecure in that they are motivated, hardworking and conscientious characters who genuinely have very little success or constantly fail at their goals, all the while being forced to spend their lives constantly confronted by others' wealth and success (e. g. Aki Myojin). Because of this matter, not every villain's sense of envy is that resentful; there are times where they just simply wanted to have what others had already possessed without being fully ill-intentioned, even if they have done some criminal acts when doing so, making them the more sympathetic types (e.g. Gabby Gabby, Goldilocks).