They're actually a fairly easily-led mob, if you have the right leverage. For example, awhile back I revamped the Psychopathic Manchild page to organize every variation of the trope into types (A through D or E). These days people use the categories I set up like they've always been there.

But that ain't the half of it. A few years ago I was a pretty huge fan of the anime "Code Geass," and my favorite character was a minor villain from the middle part of the first season. Back in the day, it was hard being a fan of the character on TVTropes, since the predominant mentality was that he was a complete psycho, and there were even a few instances in which people tried to have him marked down as a Complete Monster (which didn't take, largely on account of his VERY tragic backstory). But when I was in the fandom I corresponded on FF.net with this one lady who wrote an epic story featuring this villain in order to present him in a positive light. I made an entry on TVTropes about that fanfic because at the time I thought it was hot shit--and sure enough, opinions on the character in general began to change after it got big. Since then people seem to have gotten a lot bolder about favoring this character and presenting him sympathetically, and there have even been those who tried to argue that he's more sympathetic and heroic than the protagonists!