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Following

Slouch of Villainy

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AlgolOnHisThrone_1609.jpg
Comes with Bad Posture of Evil!

"No other being dares to sit on couches like Darkseid does!"
— Linkara (during his review of Countdown to Final Crisis), Atop the Fourth Wall

Being a villain has its perks. In fact, it's too cool for good posture. This sort of villain will forego the egg-chairs and thrones in favor of more comfortable and casual lounge chairs, draping themselves over them in a Slouch of Villainy. If it's The Starscream doing it, expect them to slouch in their former boss's throne as a way of posthumously insulting them.

This is usually done to show how blasé and badass a character is; they're so bored and nonchalant that they aren't bothering with conventional posture and look cool in the process. This has the down side of making them less able to react if someone attacks, but that's not a problem if they have the right abilities. Don't provoke them. There's a fine line between a slouching badass and a bored tyrant.

Villains are inordinately fond of doing this in chairs that aren't theirs as well. Villains will surprise you by draping themselves on The Hero's chair, with an ambush, an Enemy Mine offer or An Offer You Can't Refuse, or to prove how badass they are prior to joining up more permanently. If there's an armrest on the chair, especially if it's a royal throne, odds are good that the character will adopt the Sitting Lion Beast pose and rest one elbow on it, with the hand tucked neatly under his chin, while sporting either a self-satisfied smirk or a glance of disdain. As mentioned with The Starscream point, this is a subtle way of insulting the person whose seat it belongs to. It's extra cool if they're drinking A Glass of Chianti.

Subtrope to Characterizing Sitting Pose; also compare with Leaning on the Furniture and Thinker Pose. Related to Rebel Relaxation and is often a case of Orcus on His Throne. A neutral (non-villain) variant is Reclining Reigner. Contrast Kingpin in His Gym, when the villain prefers to do something a bit more active than lounge around on furniture. Do not confuse with People Sit on Chairs, which is Not a Trope.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Attack on Titan, the King Fritz is seen like this, leaning his chin on his fist and staring coldly ahead. In particular, he gets a lot of focus slumped on his throne during Erwin Smith's Kangaroo Court trial. Then we find out it's a subversion; he's a puppet king being controlled by Lord Reiss, the true king. Fritz is just a senile old man who sleeps with his eyes open.
  • Dragon Ball has several examples:
    • Freeza sits in a flight chair. He flies with it, he kills people with his finger beam while sitting on it, he even sat on it when he destroyed the planet Vegeta. In his case, it demonstrates that he's a lazy, spoiled rich kid who won't even walk if one of his hideously expensive gadgets can do it for him.
    • Cooler has a similar chair. He also sits on a throne of a planet he just devasted. Then he crushes it with his tail.
    • Maoh Piccolo sits on a throne which is made of the same bone-like looking material of Namekian houses and spaceships.
    • Super Buu has terrible posture whether he's standing or sitting, fitting both his Rubber Man powerset and his rude, crude Lower-Class Lout personality. His iconic pose is a standing slouch, shoulders slumped and head cocked to one side as he watches his foes with annoyance or amusement.
  • Fate/Zero:
  • In the second opening of My-Otome Nagi is shown reclining in his throne, demonstrating his newfound Big Bad status. It's also in the first opening, but in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it split-second frame. That makes it a Spoiler Opening.
  • Mello in Death Note always sits that way.
    • Plus, Light, early on, has a weird habit of sitting backwards on his office chair, staring over the back of it. He grows out of it.
    • Hero Antagonist L has what could be called a Crouch of Heroism. He never sits normally in a chair.
  • Aizen from Bleach sits this way in Las Noches.
    • The #2 Espada, Baraggan Luisenbarn, also sits like this to fit his "king" motif.
    • The rare occasions we see him sitting down, Grimmjow is usually slouching or otherwise very casual.
    • Yhwach is introduced sitting like this, while casually blowing up some of his subordinates.
  • Akio of Revolutionary Girl Utena can do this on a quickly moving car. Yes, on. As in, on the hood. And he's driving.
  • Haman Karn from Gundam is often depicted in The Merch as slouching on a throne.
  • Also spoofed (possibly crossed with Leaning on the Furniture) in the original SD Gundam shorts (not to be confused with SD Gundam Force): In one short, involving hotels, Char attacks Amuro, Kamille, and Judau to try and steal their customers. Amuro tells him maybe he'd be able to get customers if he wasn't so aloof all the time. Char angrily snaps his fingers, at which point two of his cronies turn a table onto its side so he can lean on it and remark "But if you take out the aloofness, what's left of me?" The table then breaks.
  • Ribbons Almark of Gundam 00 usually sits somewhat more upright, but otherwise makes himself rather comfortable on his Legendary Couch Of Evil — which he seems to have stolen from Aizen. He's also fond of hugging his knee.
  • Perhaps the greatest Gundam example of all: Prime Minister Wong from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. The sprawls he executes in his flying pimp throne are magnificent.
  • Decil in episode 9 of Gundam AGE. As you can see here,◊ he does this out of boredom from seeing Flit struggle against one of his Zedas.
  • Precia of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha does this on her throne when the Redshirt Army arrives to capture her, shortly before she wipes them out.
  • In Fist of the North Star, Ken-oh, Souther and Uighur/Wigul/Wiggle show that anime villains have a proud tradition of slouching villainously.
  • Gendo Ikari's slouch of villainy, complete with Finger-Tenting, in his symbolic office in Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's noted that the office is set up specifically to intimidate visitors.
  • Creed from Black Cat sits on his throne like this.
  • Proxy One, from Ergo Proxy, is first seen by the protagonist sitting nonchalantly slouched in his insanely large chair.
  • Lordgenome in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann makes it a point to state that he was, in fact, very bored while alive. Until he actually starts fighting, he looks like he's about to fall asleep in his throne, not even paying attention to the harem he has around it.
  • Father, from the Fullmetal Alchemist manga.
  • In Naruto, Itachi does this on the seat in a temple where Sasuke finally confronted him.
  • Xanxus from Reborn! (2004) is always slouching on his throne. In fact, when he's feeling badass enough, he doesn't even bother to get up in order to kick ass.
  • Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-: Fei Wang Reed tends to do this a lot while watching his Magic Mirror TV.
  • Demon King Nobunaga sits like this on his throne of skulls in Sengoku Basara.
  • In One Piece Donquixote Doflamingo does this almost all the time.
  • Ciel from Black Butler does this often, invoking an appearance of both lazy noble privilege and confident evil.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: While possessing Johan's body, Yubel slouches across the throne in his/her throne room.
  • Lelouch in Code Geass has a habit of doing this in the cockpits of his Knightmare Frames when commanding his forces and anticipating the moves of his enemies.
  • MegaMan NT Warrior Shade Man spends most of his time slouched in his throne.
  • Kagerou Project: The series' Big Bad, the Wide-Open Eyes Snake, seems to love doing this when its possessing people, as it is shown doing this both as Kenjirou and Kuro/Konoha, sitting on an office chair and a stack of broken TVs, respectively.
  • King Dedede of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! is usually sitting on his throne. It has buttons on it that allow him to call Nightmare Enterprises whenever he wants, and also order monsters from him. It can also rotate and move around.
  • In The Promised Neverland, Dozza is the only one of the five Demon Lords who, when arriving in the Queen's throne room, sits down on the floor, cross-legged and hunched over. That being said, the other Demon Lords stand up straight and call him out on it, suggesting they dislike him for being a slob. When Geelan invades the throne room and starts attacking the nobles, he turns out to be the wisest and the strongest of the Demon Lords—not that it means much after Geelan curb-stomps them all.
  • Transformers Victory: Being much more hands off than his predecessors, Emperor of Destruction Deathsaurus is often in this pose (complete with resting an elbow on an armrest and resting his chin on his hand) when meeting with his subordinates. Or, as is often the case, berating Leozack.

    Arts 
  • In Leonardo da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper, depicting the apostles as they react to Jesus telling them that he's going to be betrayed. Judas is the one leaning on the table.
  • During The American Civil War, depictions of Abraham Lincoln by artists from the South tended to show him slouching in his chair.

    Card Games 

    Comic Books 
  • One of the 2000 AD covers shows Judge Dredd supervillain Judge Death sitting slouched over on his bone-adorned throne◊ on his homeworld.
  • On the cover of Batman Vol 2. #39, the newly returned Joker does this on a very literal throne of corpses.
  • The page quote refers to Darkseid sitting on Mary Marvel's couch while trying to seduce her to his side. Darkseid seems to generally enjoy trying out his best slouches of villainy in other people's couches when he wants to speak with them in private, and many people have had the unpleasant surprise of getting home to find the Lord of Apokolips chilling on their couch with something to say.
    • Also from New Gods, there's Metron, who is always shown in his "Mobius Chair", a kind of flying throne/computer. Metron isn't truly an example despite literally never leaving his chair, because he's not a villain (though he's not exactly on the side of the Good Guys either; he's kind of the Switzerland of the New Gods), nor does he slouch in it.
  • Doctor Doom has lounged through at least one cover this way.
  • One Sissy Villain from an in-story Slash Fic Empowered reads. (He forces Major Havoc and Syndablokk to have sex together.)
  • At the end of Identity Crisis, Dr. Light performs one of these after gaining back his impressive criminal mind.
  • One panel of The Killing Joke shows the Clown Prince of crime lounging in his chair made of a Tilt-A-Whirl cart and naked baby dolls. You can see a few of them with their doll heads torn off in that panel.
  • Lucifer does this during his comic series, slouching in the throne of Primum Mobile.
  • Magneto on the cover of Ultimate X-Men #62.
  • Chrysalis has her own Drama Couch in Issue #2 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW).
    • And then, there's Mirror!Celestia lying on her throne like on a bed in the "Reflections" arc.
  • In yet another Marvel Comics example of this trope, we have Loki who enjoys a good slouch almost every time he sits down.
  • MonsterVerse: Alan Jonah has such a sitting posture when he's being interrogated in Guam at the beginning of the Godzilla Aftershock graphic novel, whilst wearing orange prison overalls.
  • Norman Osborn is rocking this look on the cover of Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3, which is very indicative of his whole role in Dark Reign.
  • At the end of Preacher, the Saint of Killers settles down on his most recent victim's throne and goes back to sleep. For those of you who haven't read the series, his latest victim happens to be God.
  • Shazam! villain Black Adam does it in this picture, after he had killed the entire population of a country. And the Anthropomorphic Personification of Death. When Black Adam goes bad, he does not fuck about.
  • Most of the villains in the Lee/Buscema Silver Surfer series, including Mephisto in his first appearance.
  • In Superman story arc Starfire's Revenge, the titular Supergirl villain and crime queenpin often chooses to recline comfortably in a beach chair or a luxurious couch while addressing her subordinates.
  • Star Wars Legends:
  • Namor, The Sub-Mariner, while not usually a villain these days, has his moments of lounging around his throne as seen here.
  • Thanos is prone to this, often using a space-going throne to sit upon, musing. Also during The Infinity Gauntlet saga, Thanos set up a big shrine to Death in space, one that came equipped with thrones to sit on while he contemplated how to win Death's affection.
  • Overlord does this◊ as best as a stiff-metal Humongous Mecha can manage while watching gladiator games in The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers.
  • Ultron from The Avengers has done this in at least two covers◊ despite the fact that he's a robot and technically doesn't need to sit.
    • Perhaps inheriting it from his "father" The Vision is NEVER shown sitting with proper posture, and in fact is shown slouching in a chair in the very first issue he shows up in. One issue has him spending a relaxing day with his then-wife Scarlet Witch watching television and he's STILL slouching in the chair!
    • Speaking of Avengers villains, Kang the Conqueror can pull off a slouch, such as in The Kang Dynasty, when he's just levelled the UN building and shows up to make demands. On a floating bean-bag. And it's more intimidating than it has any right to be.
  • In Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons this is how Zeus is introduced in the first issue on the scene in Olympus.

    Comic Strips 
  • Flash Gordon: Ain't nobody slouches evilly on a throne like Ming the Merciless. Being drawn by Alex Raymond helps.

    Fan Works 
  • All For Luz: All For One does this on his armchair in Luz's Mental World in hisEstablishingCharacterMoment. Luz notes he acts like a king on his throne looking down on a peasant.
  • Aurane Waters in The North Remembers is seen doing this after his victorious sacking of Casterly Rock, the ancestral seat of House Lannister, with the fleet that Cersei Lannister just so happened to loan to him. He is also drinking from one of the chalices that he happened to steal along the way.

    Films — Animation 
  • Aladdin: After Jafar usurps Sultan's palace and reshapes it to his liking, he spends time slouching on the Sultan's throne.
  • Hercules: Hades does this on a throne while (briefly) conquering Olympus, and then again on his own throne in the Underworld.
  • In Kung Fu Panda, when Tai Lung encounters the Furious Five while heading into the village, the first thing he does on the broken Rope Bridge is use it like a lounge chair while taunting them.
  • Prince John in Robin Hood (1973) is seen slouching when seated in the royal box at the archery tournament. Unlike other examples of this trope, it just makes him look like the seat is too big for him, combined with the ill-fitted crown and robe, all of which belongs to his more robust brother, King Richard.
  • In the original cut of The Thief and the Cobbler, the villainous One-Eye is fond of slouching this way in a tent filled with evil music while watching a group of barely clothed bellydancers. When Zig-Zag shows up to pledge allegience to him he sighs indignantly and adopts a more menacing sitting posture by ordering the women he's sitting on to rearrange themselves into the shape of a proper throne. Unsurprisingly this one didn't make it into any of the hacked-up theatrical cuts but you can see it in all its glory in The Recobbled Cut.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Older Than They Think: Check out Jay Robinson◊ in 1953's The Robe or Peter O'Toole in 1964's Becket.
  • The Chronicles of Riddick: Riddick slouches on the slain Lord Marshal's throne due to sheer exhaustion. It becomes a Slouch Of Villainy when he notices the other Necromongers bowing down to him since "You keep what you kill."
  • A City of Sadness: Kim-tsua, one of the Shanghai gangsters who are muscling in on Wen-heung's business. He's slouching casually with a cigarette in his hand as he says that yes, he killed "Red Monkey" (one of Wen-heung's men) because he thought Red Monkey was trying to cheat him.
  • Oddly enough, protagonist Conan is pictured sitting this way during the ending narration of both films.
  • In Gladiator, Emperor Commodus slouches in whatever chair he sits in as long as it has arms to slouch on.
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: Though he's not quite a villain, King Thranduil is introduced in the extended edition sitting on his throne this way when the dwarves are brought before him, and boy is he smug.
  • Promotional material for Iron Man 3 quite prominently features the villain The Mandarin in this pose.
  • In the 1997 Ivanhoe adaptation, Prince John during Rebecca's trial, as he is both abjectly bored and very aware he's the only sane man in the room.
  • Jareth spends much of Labyrinth sprawled across his throne watching Sarah's progress in his Crystal Balls. (Fans tend to interpret this in a lot of ways, often presuming that he doesn't like his job much - given the average IQ of his subjects - and that this is the whole reason he's so interested in Sarah.)
  • Teddy delves into this at one point in Neighbors, and is called out on "villaining out" by Pete.
  • Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as shown on the movie's poster and during his opening number— though in his case it might also be to Show Some Leg.
  • Star Trek
    • In Star Trek: Insurrection, Big Bad Ru'afo practices his Slouch Of Villainy... from the depths of a plush red sofa. It doesn't really work. (In most stills, he looks like he's sitting primly on it. Maybe if he'd gone full Roman Emperor recline...)
    • In the Star Trek (2009) reboot, Kirk gets a brief Slouch Of Uppity, doing his trademark lounge in the Captain's Chair before Spock reminds him that that's not his chair.
      • Nero does it before he finds out what year he's in and promptly goes berserk.
  • Star Wars:
  • Genesis in Suicide Club uses this posture to introduce himself. Complete with over-the-top leg-crossing, first on one side, then deciding on the other. In an unsturdy wooden chair that he needs to fix first. That can't be comfortable.
  • In Superman II, Lex Luthor puts his feet up on the president's desk in the Oval Office as he tries to make a deal with Zod.
  • When Loki holds the throne in Thor, he takes this trope for all it is worth. So we really should have known better when "Odin" is sitting that way at the end of Thor: The Dark World...
  • The lawyer for the prosecution in the movie of To Kill a Mockingbird slouches with one leg over the arm of his chair.
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth: In the earlier parts of the film, when Macbeth is a hero, he affects the erect posture of a military man. Towards the end when he has become both a brutal tyrant and a murderer, he is slouching lazily on his throne. (He does this both in the scene where the messenger comes to report the approaching army, and later when Siward comes into the throne room to attack him.)
  • In TRON: Legacy, CLU does this while watching the disk tournament.
  • The Beta Baddie vampire Nerva in Ultraviolet (2006) did this. Which was quite in character, since he was a Smug Snake piece of eurotrash with fangs.

    Literature 
  • Nightfall (Series): Tristan casually sitting sideways on Prince Vladimir’s throne when he receives Myra.
  • Chris Hart talks about the distinction between Hero posture and Villain posture in one of his "how to draw super heroes and villains" books. He points out that Heroes have confidence and have nothing to hide; they stand upright and secure, well balanced. Villains are beset with inner turmoil and constantly trying to protect themselves, mistrusting the world. This even applies when they turn to react to some surprise or threat - the Hero turns with a straightening-up motion, ready to face whatever it is, whereas the Villain turns in a bowed-over fashion, already protecting his middle. Oh, and he even goes on to show the change from a Granola Girl Heroine to a super-villainess.
  • The Duc of Genua from the Discworld novel Witches Abroad does this, not because it makes him look cool and detached, but because he's never gotten the hang of chairs, being a frog turned into a human by fairy godmother magic.
    • Elves do it automatically, too, as part of their "far too cool to be human" glamour. Their perpetual lounging also intensifies their cat motif (being entrancing, pointy-eared, needlessly sadistic killers).
    • As do vampires - Maladict is described as 'able to lounge on a wire'.
      • When Polly discovers Vimes having a surreptitious smoke away from some obnoxious bureaucrats, the pose he's described as being in has elements of this (for a start, he's lying on the floor behind a bench), but subversionally, Vimes isn't a bad guy, nor does it suggest to Polly that he is; the bad posture just reinforces her assumption that he's a "scruffy sergeant" who is providentially between her and his monstrous boss "Vimes the Butcher".
    • Guild of Assassins prohibits their students from assuming upright posture.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, Jaime Lannister sprawls onto the Iron Throne moments after killing King Aerys. In doing so, he causes the honorable Ned Stark to conclude that he's a villain. It turns out he's just exhausted from all the fighting and wasn't really thinking about the symbolism when he sat down. Taking after Jaime, Joffrey Baratheon has a tendency to slouch boredly in his throne, though doing so is dangerous while not wearing armor because the throne is made of blades (which is the whole point, as you shouldn't be comfortable as a king).
  • Adam of Good Omens. Subverted in that it turns out that it wasn't a slouch of Anti-Christ, it was a slouch of (thankfully neutral) Pre-Teen.
  • Done in The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Sonny Singer from the Sunlight Home does this, or tries to. Jack isn't impressed and believes Singer is just trying to imitate Sunlight Gardener.
  • Prince Xizor, the head of the criminal syndicate Black Sun, spends a lot of time lounging in a chair that strengthens his muscles for him, in stark contrast to his rival for the Emperor's time, Darth Vader, who spends accompanying scenes training on custom lightsaber-wielding droids.
  • The Wheel of Time often describes powerful characters slouching in their seats or thrones, with one leg slung over the armrest. Rand in particular does this. Though he's the hero, he's also got a lot of inner demons. He also grew up as a shepherd.
  • Draco Malfoy does this in canon. This is exaggerated in fandom and taken to its logical extreme in A Very Potter Musical.
  • In Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, the Orlesian usurper sits on the throne of Ferelden in this manner when receiving gifts from Ferelden nobles. Subverted in that he's not even close to being a Magnificent Bastard. In fact, he's quite incompetent at running things. This post is an exile, which he hates.
  • In the Warhammer 40,000 book The Emperor's Mercy, Chaos Warlord Khorsabaad Maw slouches across a palanquin born aloft by his personal honour guard for the entirety of a Chaos Campaign. And when he gets off the throne...
  • Will in Scarlet: Tom Crooked's nickname comes from his ruthless and untrustworthy nature, but when John comments that Crooked didn't get his nickname because of his bad posture, he says it in a way indicating that Crooked does, in fact, have bad posture.
  • Lestat from The Vampire Chronicles actively prides himself on his slouch, as in this passage from Memnoch the Devil: "David saw me at once—a slouching, blond, long-haired youth, bronze face and hands, the usual deep violet sunglasses over my eyes, hair presentably combed for once, body tricked out in a dark-blue, double-breasted Brooks Brothers suit."
  • The villainous Major Esterhazy from An Officer and a Spy is introduced doing some epic slouching in a seedy bar:
    Major Esterhazy reclines with his chair pushed well back from the table, his tunic unbottoned, his pelvis thrust forward, his arms hanging down either side almost to the floor; in his right hand he holds casually at an angle, as if barely worth considering, a glass of champagne.
  • The Ink Black Heart: The big showdown meeting between Jago and Cormoran finds Jago, the monstrous asshole, child beater, sitting on a sofa, "his arm stretched along its back, ostentatiously at ease."

    Live-Action TV 
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • The Master on his black throne.
    • In "Once More With Feeling", the dancing demon Sweet abducts Dawn and challenges Buffy to come and rescue her; if doesn't, Dawn will be taken to the underworld to be his queen. When Buffy enters the Bronze, Sweet and Dawn are seated on comfy chairs on the stage. Sweet is slouching with a leg over the armrest, while Dawn is sitting upright next to him in the mock 'Queen' position.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series
  • Star Trek: Voyager. Likewise Captain Janeway of the warship Voyager.
  • Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation tends to lounge on various bridge stations every so often (although he’s usually more of a Trickster Mentor than a villain).
  • Star Trek: Enterprise. Captain Archer of the Mirror Universe does this in the command chair of the Defiant as he asks for Starfleet's surrender. As does Mirror!T'Pol when we first see her — thanks to her midriff-baring outfit, she looks a good deal hotter doing so.
  • Odd example in Red Dwarf. The Inquisitor, a robotic judge, is trying the crew individually for the right to exist and Rimmer is first. He gets into this pose, swinging his feet up and everything, then lifts his mask to reveal... Rimmer, because "it's the only fair way". The 'villainy' part probably came from Rimmer, because he's like that.
  • An example of a heroic character (sorta) doing this is Firefly's Jayne Cobb, who likes to slouch in whatever chair he can find whenever he can get away with it.
  • Ares, the God of War from Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys would often sit on his throne in this manner.
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • In an early episode, "Emancipation", Turghan does this when Abu comes to sell Carter
    • And again in the Season 3 episode, "Need," Daniel sits draped over a throne when Jack comes to speak to him. Given that Jack is being worked literally to death in naquadah mines and Daniel is so hopped up on evil sarcophagus energy that he's oblivious to it, it's an effectively villainous slouch.
    • Apophis indulges in this Trope at every opportunity. When he acquires possession of Cronus's Ha'tak in "Enemies", he positively pours himself into the command chair.
  • On Heroes, Sylar is seen slouching around on chairs as he torments Parkman's sanity at home and at work.
  • Kamen Rider Build: Night Rogue is introduced comfortably sitting in matching lounge chair. He is easily outdone by another member of Faust, Blood Stalk, who is introduced lying on a park bench in full armor.
  • In Game of Thrones, Joffrey slouches on the Iron Throne after he becomes king. Like many other things he does, this only makes him look Stupid Evil rather than villainous. Note that in the books, the Iron Throne was designed in such a way that it was impossible to slouch while sitting on it without having old rusty blades stuck in your ribs; Joffrey managed to do so somehow. In the commentaries, it was explained that the actor makes this position because the Iron Throne is VERY uncomfortable, and with all the time he spends on it, he found a way to sit in a way that made it more manageable.
  • From The Wire, Marlo likes to lean back on an armchair when he holds court outdoors.
  • The first shot of Erik Northman in True Blood depicts him slouching villainously on a dais overlooking his nightclub. Throughout the series, he manages to make every other chair he sits in look like a throne by invoking this trope.
  • Merlin:
    • When Morgana takes over Camelot at the end of series four, she drapes herself across the throne, in stark contrast to the posture of Arthur, Guinevere, and even herself at the end of series three. Glancing over the other examples, she's also one of the very few female characters to embody this trope.
    • There's also an often-seen promotional photo of Uther in a less pronounced variant of this pose, though he doesn't adopt it onscreen.
  • In Supernatural, Hallucifer is completely incapable of using chairs correctly.
  • Scorpius, Staleek and Grayza all get their turns to slouch on Farscape.
  • A non-villainous example in Children of Dune. Paul Atreides does this, presumably to show he has little liking for the ceremony and sycophantic adulation associated with being a galactic emperor.
  • Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has the Red Queen doing this when she’s listening to her subjects problems, visibly wishing to be somewhere else.
  • The demon Crowley in Good Omens (2019) tends to slouch while sitting down. Like his odd way of walking, this may be related to his true form being a snake. (The serpent from the Garden of Eden, no less.)

    Music 
  • In the Rob Zombie CD "Hellbilly Deluxe", the back of the little pamphlet that comes with the CD had picture-art of Zombie slouching on a stone throne.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Raven has made sitting in the corner of the ring in this position part of his entrance - not getting up until after ther ring bell has rung.
  • Eddie Guerrero used to taunt his opponents by lying on the top rope in the corner as though he were on a hammock.
  • HHH's epic entrance at Wrestlemania 22 started by him on a throne being raised through the floor in full Conan the Barbarian attire with titular slouch.

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • Air Defense Princess in KanColle is shown doing this pose in her official artwork, complete with malicious grin and her aiming one of her guns at the viewer.
  • Bowser is often shown doing this, such as before the final boss fight in Super Mario Galaxy 2. One of the cutscenes of Super Mario 3D Land also shows him doing this.
  • Death Bringer in the Sega Genesis port of Golden Axe, just before the final boss fight.
  • In Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, where Odin (quite the Magnificent Bastard) calmly talks about destroying a whole kingdom as bait to get the main character to show up, capture her, and then use her as bait to capture the lord of the undead while in this pose. Interestingly, it's working- albeit not quite as he expected- but the plan goes to hell as soon he gets out of the chair. This is Fridge Brilliance if you know Norse mythology- Odin's throne allows him to observe the entire world, giving him some degree of omniscience. Slouching in it is actually a huge strategic advantage.
  • Mega Man:
    • Copy X does this in Mega Man Zero 3, propping his head up with his hand and leaning on the arm of his throne.
    • Belial Sigma in Mega Man X8 as well, and he spends his entire Hannibal Lecture scene with head propped on hand and leaning over.
  • Fire Emblem:
  • Dracula does this a lot in the Castlevania series. Amusingly enough, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow player character Soma (who's the reincarnation of Dracula), can plop down on a number of flat surfaces in this position at the player's command. He also sits like this when he fully becomes Dracula in the bad ending of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow or Dawn of Sorrow, and when he is confronted in the final boss battle of Julius Mode.
    • It's genetic. Alucard, son of Dracula, can be ordered to sit down at several places in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night... whereupon he takes the same position as his father. Fallen Hero or so it appears Richter can be seen performing the classic pose when Alucard first meets him, as well as in a piece of his concept art, and Dracula loves it so much that he spends the entire Final Battle slouching on his throne. Of course, said throne turns into an Eldritch Abomination for the fight.
    • Apparently it's a vampire thing. Walter and Joachim after taking his throne do it as well.
    • The former underling-turned-hero Hector performs this in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, lounging pensively in any chair you choose to seat him in. Evidently Dracula trains his underlings to do it.
    • And Drac himself is back at in Lords of Shadow, looking magnificently bored throughout a five-hundred-thousand-strong siege upon his castle up until soldiers actually burst into the room.
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Fitting a Spiritual Successor for the Castlevania series, Gebel is seen slouching in a very Drac-like manner atop his throne in the Hall of Termination before Miriam fights him.
  • Tales Series:
    • Magnius does this in Tales of Symphonia with a hoverchair.
    • Tales of the Abyss has Dist, another hoverchair user.
    • No hover, but Yggdrasil certainly slouches all over his throne during his brief appearance in the OVA.
  • Robo-Ky from Guilty Gear really enjoys lounging arrogantly in his metal throne (in the game, official art, and fanart alike). Since he's a Do-Anything Robot, the throne is actually part of Robo-Ky and folds into his back when he stands up.
  • Specter, villain of Ape Escape, is perpetually slouching in his hoverchair. He has so low an opinion of the heroes that he even does this in battle; being a psychic, he has no need to change position, either.
  • City of Heroes:
    • Player characters can adopt a sitting pose with options tailored for different furniture such as armchairs, sofas, ledges, and barstools. Only male characters can do the slouch, possibly because female characters can wear skirts.
    • Because of the way that poses work, heroes and villains can do the slouch on literally anything. Including thin air.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Hades in Final Fantasy IX fights this way.
    • Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
      • He has two variants of this, each playing with the fact that he has two sets of arms. One is a variant on the classic "hand supporting head, arm hanging over his knee" posture, which has the other two hanging off the armrests of his throne; the other has him leaning forward, folding two hands in front of him and having the other two occupy the armrests properly.
      • The game even works the Slouch of Villainy into his ultimate attack! Chaos grows to enormous size, attacks the player with a BFS, and then makes the arena explode. And when the explosions die down, Chaos has reappeared back on his throne in his slouch of villainy while the player character drops down in front of him.
    • Final Fantasy II's Emperor Mateus is practically channelling David Bowie. He even does a slouch of villainy in mid-air after battle.
    • This◊ Yoshitaka Amano concept art for Final Fantasy V depicts the Big Bad Exdeath like this, complete with A Glass of Chianti.
    • In Dirge of Cerberus, Big Bad Weiss does this.
    • Final Fantasy XI:
      • Archduke Kam'lanaut is introduced this way.
      • The Shadowlord was seen slouching on his throne looking bored in one of the trailers for the Wings of the Goddess expansion. Apparently he knew that it would take over three years to complete the expansion and that he would have a minimal role in it.
    • Zenos yae Galvus from Final Fantasy XIV loves this trope. The first time he's properly seen has him sit down on his throne in the classic head-resting-on-hand pose (in full Legatus plate, too!), and any subsequent time he's seen sitting on anything he always uses that pose, always with a bored look in his eyes and absent smirk. This doesn't end even after he reprises his role as the main villain of Endwalker, as the trailer shows him doing his villainous slouch pose while seeing the Empire's capital burn down in front of him. It really hammers home that he takes no pleasure in anything that isn't fighting a Worthy Opponent.
  • Rugal Bernstein, archetypical SNK Boss, is shown doing this during the end credits of The King of Fighters 2002.
  • Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne:
    • Lich King Arthas at the end of the game. He's so comfortable on his new (and frozen) throne that by the time of Wrath of The Lich King, he's been literally encased in ice for years having a Battle in the Center of the Mind until he rises to go and turn an ancient giant dragon into his undead servant. Then after pulling several cameo appearances throughout the Northrend, he goes right back to slouching there, waiting for players to finally arrive and challenge him. Posing your character on his lap and taking a screenshot is customary when you first reach him.
    • Loken is also doing this when you encounter him in the Halls of Lightning instance.
  • Jin Kazama does this in Tekken 5 in his ending, in the Mishima Zaibatsu's throne, being its new owner. Of course, he isn't a villain...until the next game. And true to form, this is how you find Jin waiting for you at the top of the elevator of the Mishima Zaibatsu tower before your fight with him in Tekken 6.
  • Kira Daidohji of Arcana Heart has this as her crouching position, treating the Blob Monster she's riding in like an oversized beanbag.
  • In Overlord II, the Overlord actually gets to sit in his throne. He slouches magnificently, and gains bonus points for being able to do it in full armor. In the ending, he does so with his Mistresses, who're fawning over him.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Kingdom Hearts II, Xemnas fights two full battles this way. He happens to have the powers of all the other Organization members Sora has killed, so he commands their powers to fight for him while he sits on his throne watching. Even when attacked and fighting back with his sword, he stays sitting down.
    • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: Everyone you see sitting in the Grey Room does this. Of course, they're all morally ambiguous.
    • Master Xehanort does this, too. As a matter of fact if there is a X of Villainy/Y of Evil trope here, you can bet on him doing it. It makes you wonder why ANYBODY trusts the guy.
    • Birth by Sleep Final Mix gives us the No Heart Optional Boss, Master X's Keyblade Armor - which is nigh-identical to Xemnas's Tin Tyrant form. Naturally, he spends the first segment sitting down, ensuring you can't even reach him by creating a magical barrier with his Keyblade. When you break the barrier, he gets out of his chair and makes you regret it.
    • Master Xehanort does this again in the climax of 3D. It's a particularly advanced slouch, too, complete with his legs crossed over to one side, head resting on his fist, and an utterly bored look on his face.
    • Sora himself does it in promotional art.
  • Doctor Doom and Dormammu have this as their intro in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
    • Doom also uses it in his Level 3 Hyper Combo, where he traps the opponent in an electric chamber. Then a Cool Chair comes up from below Doom, causing him to take this position and simply watch as they get tortured. Then, as if he gets bored with the show quickly, he lazily presses a button on his armrest that blows the chamber up.
    • In Ultimate, Daredevil does this in the Shadowland stage. Since he was evil and the leader of The Hand at the time.
    • Doom again in one of his win poses in Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
  • At the beginning of Fable III, Logan does a truly impressive Slouch Of Villainy in his throne before giving you a Sadistic Choice.
  • Subverted in Epic Mickey, where Oswald did this trope, but he's not really evil.
  • The Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2. Aria, the top dog of Wretched Hive Omega, spends most of her time overseeing her nightclub headquarters like this. When Cerberus steals Omega from her between games, she relocates to another nightclub on the Citadel and can be found there plotting revenge.
    • In the Omega DLC, Aria assaults the eponymous station to take it back from Cerberus. She is supremely irritated to discover that the enemy general took over Afterlife and threw out her favorite lounging couch.
    • The Shadow Broker confronts Shepard while slouching way back behind his ominous-villain desk, giving the illusion that he's merely human-height. When things heat up, he quickly dispels that hope.
  • Quan Chi's win pose in Mortal Kombat 9 is summoning a chair shaped like a giant skeletal hand, then slouching in it like a proper hell wizard should.
  • The Big Bad of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 does this. With a CAT no less.
  • Algol does this in Soul Calibur 4. Not only does he rise from his throne in the cutscene that precedes his battles, but he also uses it in battle - he teleports in it, kicks enemies from it in a certain combo, and, amusingly, occasionally puts his opponent in it.
    • It even becomes his Limit Break in V, in which he slouches on top of the opponent, throne and all. It should also be noted that this is the strongest Limit Break in the game, taking over half of the victim's entire health bar, though in exchange it costs two full bars of the soul gauge instead of the usual one.
      • The second hit of damages comes when he crosses one leg over the other.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Ganondorf is seen in this pose when Midna and Link meet him for the first time in Hyrule's throne room.
  • Dragon Quest:
  • In Skyrim, all the jarls except for Elisif slouch on their thrones. How villainous it is varies with the Jarl and which side you take in the civil war, and whether they slouch depends on the throne; there are thrones programmed with a slouch animation, and an upright throne in Solitude.
    • Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak◊, leader of the Stormcloak Rebellion can be found on his throne in Windhelm (and your main enemy if you're an Imperial Legionnaire) usually is the only Jarl who can strike a person as "bad" (although of course, it all depends on your view of him and what side you take.)
  • Virgil in Sa Ga Frontier keeps this pose constantly, even during your "battle" with him. Though in his case it's more a slouch of bored True Neutral.
  • Ms. Gaara in ESP Ra.De. is seen relaxing while her goons do all the work holding you off the first time you meet her. When you actually do fight her one on one, she lifts up the head of a statue of Artemis, attacking while still relaxing on it! She eventually fights you seriously in her final form, only for her to grow a giant pair of wings at one point in the fight.
  • Raidriar the God King from Infinity Blade does a very convincing one, as he welcomes the ancestor of the player character's bloodline and every single one of his successors, watching them fight his black knight second in command until the moment he is challenged and gets up to fight.
  • Mr. X in the Streets of Rage series who is always seen sitting in his chair slouched over at the final level. In the first game, you can pull the trope off yourself if you get the bad ending and replace Mr. X as the new crime lord.
  • In Resident Evil 4, Leon can perform a heroic inversion in Saddler's throne by standing in front of it and using the (?) command. Considering what was between him and the throne room, the guy deserves a good slouch. It amusingly also serves a somewhat practical purpose: once he gets up, the camera points to the entrance of the room, drawing the player's attention to the treasure hidden above the door.
  • Kain does this during the intro to Soul Reaver.
  • Olaf does this in his character portrait in the first Advance Wars. He drops it in the later games, at least in part to him no longer being a villain.
  • Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: In the canonical Good Ending, a piece of artwork shows Laharl slouched like this; the grin on his face shows he has been waiting a long time to take the Overlord's Throne.
  • Hades: For a certain value of villainy, Hades himself can often be found slouching on his throne, mostly when hearing the Shades' various requests one after another. Rather than a gesture of aloofness, this is more him being bored out of his skull.

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 
  • Subverted in Broken Saints, wherein Big Bad Lear Dunham maintains a stiff and upright position whilst sitting on his mighty throne of righteousness.
  • Possibly what Draco is trying to pull off in A Very Potter Musical, but really, who knows?
  • Dr. Horrible gets his evil on while lounging cross-legged in a giant country-print armchair.
  • This is among the numerous anime tropes Girl-chan in Paradise parodies.
  • RWBY:
    • When Hazel and Adam meet to discuss the future of Haven Academy, Hazel expects a negotiation but Adam instead achieves their goal by murdering their opposition. Hazel and Salem believe that people should only be killed if absolutely necessary, preferring to make use of them first. When Hazel angrily confronts Adam about unnecessary killing, Adam simply sits down, slumping casually against the right arm of the chair, announcing with a smirk that he disagrees.
    • As one of the heroes, General Ironwood typically sits in a very straight-backed, business-like posture. After his slide into villainy in Volume 8, he slouches in his chair and steeples his fingers as he plans his next move for obtaining the Winter Maiden. The slouch lowers him in the chair so much that a sunburst pattern over the top of the doors behind him appear to be crowning his head like an evil emperor. The scene sets up just how evil his plan is later revealed to be, and kicks off his mini-arc as the protagonists' primary opponent.

    Western Animation 
  • Arcane. In "The Monster You Created", Jinx sets up two chairs, one marked "Powder" (the innocent sister that Vi knew) and the other "Jinx", the Ax-Crazy killer she has become. She signifies full acceptance of her evil side by slouching in the Jinx chair.
  • In Samurai Jack, Aku is sometimes seen lounging around on his throne - especially when bored.
  • In an interlude comic of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Azula, recent conqueror of Ba Sing Se, is introduced reclining on the Earth King's throne.
    • Additionally, in the series finale when Azula begins going schizophrenic after her father gives her his Fire Lord title, she is seen slouching in her throne room with a bored stare when Lo and Li come in to call her out on banishing her servants.
  • In Book 3 of Sequel Series The Legend of Korra, there's a scene with the Red Lotus's towering Cold Sniper Brute lounging languidly on a divan.
  • In The Simpsons episode, "Mountain of Madness". When Mr. Burns and Homer are the first to reach the lodge (by cheating, on Burns' part) they just sit and loaf while they wait for everyone else, and Burns has an odd take on it:
    Homer: Oh, these sure are comfortable chairs.
    Burns: Oh, yes, sitting. The great leveler. From the mightiest Pharaoh to the lowliest peasant, who doesn't enjoy a good sit?
  • In the Season 3 finale of Metalocalypse, band CFO/lawyer/manager Offdensen slouches rather magnificently in his command chair several times. It's unknown at this point if he is a force for good or evil, or even what those terms mean in relation to Dethklok's well-being, but the man is at least personally responsible for hundreds of deaths and instances of torture thus far.
  • Megatron from Transformers G1 usually gets his slouch on◊ while commanding his warship when it isn't at the bottom of the ocean. He even does it at the Lincoln memorial after removing the statue, a moment adapted for the third live action film.
    • His Predacon successor has been known to occasionally take it to the next level by giving orders while relaxing in a hot tub.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Man Who Killed Batman", the Joker is sitting in the shadows on a chair shaped like his face as he is introduced to Sid The Squid.
  • Professor Coldheart prefers sitting this way on his throne in Coldheart Castle in Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings. When the Care Bears show up, it looks like it's his way of saying, "This is how much of a threat I consider you."
  • The villain of the week Heavyman is never seen standing up straight in Static Shock. It soon becomes apparent as his motivation is revealed to be due to the fact that his body has become too dense to stand up straight even if he wanted too.
  • Grasshoppers: After using the gold his army brought back to make an enormous golden throne, the Roman emperor lies sideways on it, his feet and head on the armrests.

    Real Life 
  • There are dozens of portraits depicting European monarchs sitting on their thrones in various poses of rest and authority. Depending on nationality or the historian, said monarchs are framed as villains.

 
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Lio Fotia

The antihero of the movie enters the scene and sits on his throne intimidatingly.

King Olly

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Lio Fotia

The antihero of the movie enters the scene and sits on his throne intimidatingly.

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Lio Fotia

King Olly