http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PsychoSidekick

— Walter Mosley, A Red Death "Mouse was the truest friend I ever had. And if there is such a thing as true evil he was that too."

A trope common in private eye novels since the 1980s, and occasionally found in other genres. Sometimes, your morally spotless hero has a buddy who's a lot less morally spotless. Often, they've been friends for so long that a bit of moral divergence hasn't spoiled it. On the more moral end of the spectrum, the friend's a Hitman with a Heart or Loveable Rogue. In Darker and Edgier cases, the friend is actually a Punch-Clock Villain, Noble Demon or even a Psycho for Hire, but they deliberately avoid any situation that might actually pit them against one another because it would be just too painful. Of course, the friend could be just a little bit more violent or ruthless than the hero.

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When this comes in useful is when the hero has to do something that they don't feel they can do, most often killing somebody who is certain to do horrible things to them or their loved ones or innocent bystanders, but who is too sneaky or too unsuited to combat for them to be conveniently able to kill them in self-defence or some kind of fair fight. At this point the Psycho Sidekick can step in and shoot the helpless guy in the face while the hero feels some slight angst but is grateful that they didn't have to do it.

Contrasted to the case of the Poisonous Friend, in which the main character is genuinely unaware of what the friend is doing. In this case, the main character is perfectly aware of the type of person their friend is and what they do for them. Naturally, this does come across as a bit hypocritical. Sometimes the hypocrisy is ignored by the story, but more often it's lampshaded. It's sometimes explicitly or implicitly argued that the ruthless act isn't so much wrong per se, as something that would brutalise the hero to the point that they'd lose their compassion or ability to empathise with others or ability to act as a moral exemplar to others.

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Can be seen as something of an inversion of The Watson, as in the original case of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and in many others, part of the Watson's role is to smooth things over socially and upbraid the main character mildly when he becomes too much of a Jerkass, Sociopathic Hero or Insufferable Genius.

Note that if they're actually psycho, the arrangement usually won't work (but see the Walter Mosley novels discussed below).

Can also be defined cynically as The Dragon, but working for a Designated Hero. Compare Big Bad Friend for when the friend keeps their evil tendencies and plot under wraps. One of these in an ensemble is the Token Evil Teammate. Inversions may go under Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick.

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Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Future Diary: At least in the beginning while Yukki still has his moral compass in the fully upright and locked position, Yuno Gasai is what happens when you mix this trope with Yandere and shake rapidly.

Virid the Mad Prince from There, Beyond the Beyond, staying true to his name.

Paul von Oberstein in Legend of Galactic Heroes: he works for the (relatively) idealistic Reinhard, and lost no sleep when he let two million people die in a nuclear attack.

Comic Books

Fan Works

In the Good Omens fanfic The Sacred and the Profane, 'Zirah' (Aziriphale) is a chillingly ruthless Psycho Sidekick to 'Caphriel' (Crowley), who ends up having to kill him to protect Adam .

. In The Wizard in the Shadows Harry comes off as this to the rest of the Fellowship. He's well aware that he's thoroughly unbalanced and that he's the Fellowship's big gun, and fortunately gets better. But for a while, he goes off like a bomb at the merest hint that someone's threatening someone he cares about.

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Visual Novels

In Spirit Hunter: NG, Akira is well aware that Seiji uses his connections to threaten, blackmail, and even kill those who oppose them or their families, but as they've been friends for years, and Akira isn't exactly a bastion of morality himself, he doesn't dig too deeply into it.

Web Comics