In our Pathfinder game, we found out that one of our biggest nemeses, who had been plaguing us constantly, had their girlfriend stolen and imprisoned in a flask by evil gods, and his entire motivation was getting it back. We had the flask. Which we assumed was evil because the evil gods and our nemsis wanted it. soon as we found this out, we immediately contacted the nemesis and gave him the flask, no strings attached. He was befuddled and wary as fuck. We're like, "You got screwed. Your reasons for wanting this are perfectly understandable. Here ya go. Are we cool now?" And he's been begrudgingly helping us from the shadows ever since. :)

This is why I prefer villains who start out with a lot of friends, and then lose them all because they turn out to be shitty people. Examples: Viren, Catra, Kuvira.

What I can't stand are these Cutme Emo villains who are lonely and sad and want revenge on the world. Examples: any villain from any 21st Century comic book movie, the Star Trek reboot villains, Craig-era Bond villains. Kylo Fucking Ren.