The Baroness

File:Baroness2.gif

CO-BRA!!!

A female baddie with a chilly disposition and more than a touch of the Dominatrix about her. In Darker and Edgier versions, this will often mean a love of (other people's) pain and suffering. Softer portrayals reduce this to a fervent militarism and devotion to the ideals of whichever totalitarian bunch she works for. Naturally, she'll usually be seen sporting a German or Russian accent, along with either a natty military uniform or something black and form-fitting. Whether or not she's vulnerable to good-guy seduction and subversion is highly variable. However, she's invariably attracted to power (which the hero lacks and the Big Bad has).

Baronesses tend to come in one of two flavours: Sexpot or Rosa Klebb.

The Sexpot Baroness is, as you'd expect, young-ish and sexy. Her sadism or (in milder versions) fervent militarism is presented as at least a bit enticing to our (male) hero, who she's likely to be attracted to despite herself. Her ice-queen facade is pretty likely to crack a little before the story is over. Her chances of surviving the story are variable to good, depending on how much she lets herself fall for our hero. Most sexpot Baronesses like to Whip It Good.

The Rosa Klebb (named for the James Bond villain) is middle-aged and very much not attractive, but is more likely to be the Big Bad herself rather than just work for him. She is immune to the hero's charms, and ominous emphasis is placed upon her utter asexuality, or upon hints that she likes the ladies. Bond-type heroes will be horrified by her, like she had three heads. No matter what, she will be dead as a doornail before the credits roll. No exceptions.

(If, as with the Bond film and novel From Russia with Love, you find the two types of Baronesses in the same plot, expect to find the Klebb character with an unrequited crush on the Sexpot.)

Is this trope laced with sexism and homophobia? Of course. It hails from mid-20th-century spy and adventure stories like Ian Fleming's Bond novels, which are full of that sort of malarkey. However, in these surroundings, the Baroness will almost undoubtedly also be the coolest female character in the whole story. It also comes from the very real femdom fetish. Some guys are into "strong" women.

The stereotype of the implausibly attractive Communist or Nazi female officer, and her counterpart, the threatening, mannish sadist, is common in campier WWII and Cold War stories. The Russian example has some basis in fact, as the Soviet military did include more female officers than the US military (permitting women to fly in combat in WWII — a couple of whom became aces), but really, that just meant that they had a few more than none.

The Sexpot type of Baroness can sometimes overlap with The Vamp, but most examples of The Baroness, sexy or no, have too much self-respect to use sex as a weapon. She's more about hurting men than pleasing them. See also Those Wacky Nazis or Dirty Communists, for the kind of co-conspirators she usually works with, or Dragon Lady, for the Eastern variety. Is very often the Woman in Black.

Examples of The Baroness include:

Anime and Manga

• Aversion: The "Baroness" in Scrapped Princess is in her sixties, and not evil so much as in a different faction.
• Balalaika from Black Lagoon is actually a blend of both types with her statuesque build and her massively scarred body and face. She is described by the main characters as one of the scariest women on Earth...and they probably aren't exaggerating. Head of the Roanapur chapter of Hotel Moscow, ex-Soviet Afghanistan veteran, and Olympic-level marksman (if the Soviet Union hadn't boycotted the Olympics that she was planning to participate in). Only one person in the entire series has crossed her/gotten on her bad side and walked away with everything still intact. Said character is known in Black Lagoon for doing this semi-regularly.
  • Further proven by what she did to Hansel, a dissonantly serene child who's an Ax Crazy killer himself. Does Balalaika give a shit? Weeell..."I said KNEEL!"
  • Her mere presence is enough to make Chin tremble in fear after he tried to kill the Lagoon Company. He goes out with a bang, literally, as she ties him up and has her men fill the room with gasoline and explosives and, as an added bonus, waits until she has Dutch on the radio before flipping the switch.
• Haman Karn from Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ is a badass Lady of War Ace Pilot, powerful newtype, and the leaderess of the Neo Zeon fascist military group in the Universal Century Continuity. Despite her ice queen exterior, she carries the torch for Char and, later on in the story, is clearly attracted to and attempts to seduce Judau Ashta, who is much younger than her. She's also a master manipulator who doesn't let any situation get out of her control, and in her increasingly obsolete Quebley damn near kills Judau repetedly.
  • Rosamia Badam, also of Zeta has this as her exterior. On the inside she's actually a frightened child, terrified that the sky is going to fall on her. The contrast is stark.
  • Gundam's original Baroness is Mobile Suit Gundam's Kycilia Zabi an Evil Princess and ice-cold Lady of War who isn't afraid of climbing to power the old fashioned way. A capable admiral, she has her own dragons in Char Aznable and her Knight, M'Quve, and competes with her oldest brother, Gihren for the title of series Big Bad.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing's Lady Une is a DID sufferer, with a nice side (that's all about peace and love and tranquility) and a hardcore militaristic side that would probably spook Rosa Klebb herself. She serves as Treize Khushreneda's enforcer throughout the show; unsurprisingly, she has a crush on him.
• Gestapoko, the first "Punishment Councilor" from Kekko Kamen.
• Cornelia from Code Geass. The Picture Drama even featured her wearing a BDSM-fetishistic swimsuit.
  • Villetta as well, who, for bonus points, actually IS a baroness.
  • In the Alternate Universe manga, Nightmare of Nunnally, there's Anya.
• Miyazaki delights in turning this trope on its head - both Lady Mononoke of Princess Mononoke and Kushana of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind start out as Baronesses, but are eventually seen as sympathetic characters with hearts and morals in the end.
  • Howls Moving Castle's Witch of the Waste is very much like this as well, in the anime.
• In the Manga/Brotherhood adaption of Fullmetal Alchemist, Lust is this. Olivia Mira/Olivier Milla Armstrong, iron-fisted queen of the Briggs fortress, is very much a Sexpot Rosa Klebb, being a young, nice-looking lady with immunity to Mustang's charms (deeming him weak and foolish), and, this far, not a singe instance of using her looks to get what she wants. It's yet to be seen if she will have to choose between her pride and her ambition, and which one she will sacrifice.
• Kalifa from One Piece (sexpot variation).

Comic Book

• Baroness Paula Von Gunther, Nazi spymistress from the Wonder Woman TV series and Golden Age comics.
  • Until her Heel Face Turn in Golden Age comics, becoming the Amazons' resident Gadgeteer Genius/The Professor. She also acted, in part, as The Medic, inventing the Purple Healing Ray used on Wonder Girl in her first origin.
  • Modern depictions of Superwoman, the evil Wonder Woman counterpart of the Crime Syndicate universe, usually go for a strong dominatrix vibe. (This is part of her characterization as Wonder Woman's perfect opposite. Wonder Woman is implied to enjoy being tied up, Superwoman is implied to enjoy tying other people up.)
    • Combine that, and you basically get High Octane Fetish Fuel
• The Valkyrie, aka Liselotte von Schellendorf, who debuted in Air Fighters Comics vol. 2 #2 (November 1943). By all appearances, she was modeled on Veronica Lake (but with black hair) and her costume consisted of jackboots, riding-breeches, and a top incorporating what may well have been the most generous décolletage of any Golden Age lady. This leader of the Air Maidens, a group of female German fighter pilots, first tortured Airboy and then fell in love with him, starting a pattern of heel-face turns that had her alternate between being a foe and an ally to the teenage hero.
• Gerta Gasch in Garth Ennis' World War II comic parody Adventures in the Rifle Brigade is an over-the-top example of the Nazi sexpot version of this trope.
• Contessa in the second volume of Dogby Walks Alone.
• The second-ever story arc of the The Phantom newspaper strip ("The Sky Band") featured a female Sky Pirate captain who was the sexy version and fulfilled basically every stereotype listed on this page, including Shown Not Told whipping of disobedient subordinates. She was not known by name, but only as "the Baroness." The strip was first published in 1936.
• Cassandra Nova from the X-Men is a Rosa Klebb-type and also one of the most dangerous adversaries of the team. She is Charles Xavier's Evil Twin, made all the more threatening for being elderly, unattractive, and bald.
• Madame Hydra, a.k.a. The Viper, is a sexpot variation of the trope and one of Captain America's most prominent foes, being one of the primary leaders of the villanous organization HYDRA. Madame Hydra has also had a run-in with Wolverine, along with several other heroes.
  • It's worth noting that when Hasbro approached Marvel about doing a G.I. Joe comic book, they simply dusted off an unused proposal for a Nick Fury vs HYDRA series and changed the names. Thus HYDRA became COBRA and The Viper became The Baroness. The only significant difference between the characters is the color of their leather bodysuits. Black for the Baroness, green for Madame Hydra.
• Madame Masque from Iron Man was one of these, a leader in the Mafia-esque Maggia operation. In a rare twist, she was obviously of the sexpot variety (given her typical superheroine knockout figure), but her face was horribly scarred, thus leading to her adoption of the metal facemask from which her moniker derives.
  • The Hood doesn't seem to mind the face.
• Kaptain Natashikov in Rogue Trooper has the appearance of the sexpot, and seems to be in a relationship with General Hoffa, but otherwise generally acts like Rosa Klebb. She tortures Helm to death before being killed by Rogue.
• DC's Blackhawk comics of the 1980s (set during WW 2) featured Domino, a Nazi femme-fatale who wore form-fitting black leather from head to toe (including gloves and high-heeled boots), apparently so that nobody would suspect she was a spy.
• Mai Shen from Scion: a mysterious woman who joins the Raven Kingdom in their fight against the Heron Kingdom, but has an agenda of her own. She gets cozy with Prince Bron and eventually reveals that she's part of a race of super-powered beings. Not only does she assist Bron in assassinating his father, the king, but she gives Bron powers of his own. Generally favors tight black leather and can be quite seductive when required (she gives Bron his powers through a passionate kiss while they're both naked in a hot tub!).
• Dutch comics The Adventures of January Jones and Agent 327 feature Dritta Reich, Hitler's private pilot, who wears form fitting uniforms and is quite the femme fatale. She survives WW 2.
• The Tom Strong books had Ingrid Weiss, a Nazi fighter pilot squadron leader in bondage leather.
  • Ingrid Weiss is something of a subversion, though, in that she's portrayed exactly as creepily as she would be in real life, with everyone finding her more or less equally revolting due to her political stance. It's ultimately revealed that she drugged and raped Strong, producing a child raised in the Nazi ideals. Strong is absolutely horrified at this, but when his black wife, Dahlua, arrives and learns what Weiss has done, the resulting Curb Stomp Battle ends only because Weiss tearfully begs not to be killed in front of her son. Dahlua's attitude during this reveals streaks of a heroic version of this trope.
• Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja has Colonel Vavara Novikova. Despite being the head of the KGB's Spetsburo (Assassination Bureau), she spends much of the series running around in a low-cut evening dress and high heels...neither of which reduces her lethality one iota.
• Sin City has an organization for assassins called The Guild. There are three women who fit this mold: Mariah, Blue Eyes, and Maxine.
  • Mariah wears skin-tight outfits and seems to enjoy torture. She seduces a teenage boy in one part of the story and, in the climax, threatens to make the hero star in a Snuff Film.
  • Blue Eyes is a seductress that uses her sexuality to lure her targets in and kill them (she seems to be at least somewhat caring, though.)
  • Maxine also wears skintight outfits and enjoys performing genetic surgery and drug experiments on victims captured by The Guild. She also keeps her female hostage in the nude for some reason.
• Miss Outlash-- err, Oatlash from Preacher (Comic Book), with a few variations to fit into the overall tone of the work.

Film

• Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, a 1975 exploitation film, and its sequels. An exception to the typical rules surrounding sexuality (as per the subject), she's much more inclined to use the men she gets her hands on in any fashion possible - and then castrate them if they don't measure up.
  • Inspired by real-life concentration camp supervisor Irma Grese.
    • • Well, mostly inspired by real-life concentration camp supervisor Ilse Koch (hence the name).
• Parodied with Frau Farbissana in Austin Powers.
  • The trope is played with in the second movie, with Frau going from Klebb to sexpot, due to Dr. Evil traveling back in time and stealing Austin's mojo.
  • Parodied earlier in Casino Royale 1967 with Frau Hoffner - she runs a finger over a facial scar as she purrs to Mata Bond "You are even more fascinating zan your mother!"
• James Bond villainesses Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love and Irma Bunt in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, either/both of whom could have been the model for Frau Farbissana. Mike Myers says he was aiming at Klebb, but the German accent and worshipful attitude to the Big Bad are closer to Bunt.
  • It's worth noting that, in the book, Rosa Klebb was, as Tatiana learned firsthand, the very antithesis of sexy - and a Psycho Lesbian. She was still easily as cruel and ruthless as they come, though.
  • Anya from The Spy Who Loved Me is a goody who starts off as the Sexpot type, but rapidly defrosts.
  • Xenia Onatopp from Goldeneye is unabashedly a Sexpot Baroness and quite the Dark Action Girl.
• Madame Sebastian (Leopoldine Konstantine) in the Hitchcock film Notorious is a sterling example of the trope, far more ruthless than her Nazi agent son (Claude Rains).
• Nina from the movie Bulletproof Monk.
• Ilsa Haupstein from the movie Hellboy, very much in the mould of Dr Elsa Schneider.
• Indiana Jones has matched wits with a few:
  • Dr Elsa Schneider from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - the hot, blonde, double-crossing Austrian archaeologist who sucks on Indy's earlobe, played by Irish actress, Alison Doody. Also an example of The Vamp, Blondes Are Evil, and Evil Is Sexy.
  • Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, "Stalin's favourite scientist". And man, being a Dirty Communist aside, she's one hell of a fox (Cate Blanchett, ladies and gentlemen). She tends to the Klebb area of things, although her outfit suggests one could call her Irina Spanko. Indy plays the "guess the accent" game and correctly pins it down to Eastern Ukraine.
• Ni Chang from The Forbidden Kingdom has this down pat, complete with white hair (hellooooo The Bride with White Hair!) and even a bullwhip, albeit, she's a pre-Qing Chinese version.
• Baroness Kessler from The Ninth Gate is the Klebb style to a T, even being an actual Baroness. Nicely subverted from the usual, however, in that the crabby, old, wheelchair-bound, Satanic lesbian is actually one of the most sympathetic and helpful characters in the film.
• Rotti Largo's henchgirls in Repo! The Genetic Opera are nigh-perfect Sexpot examples of this trope.
• Ninotchka, played by Greta Garbo, is an older example of this trope, from 1939, and a goody.
• Choi from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
• The Man Who Knew Too Little plays with this trope. Upon learning from his captors that he's going to be interrogated by Dr. Ludmilla Kropotkin, Wallace Ritchie replies, "The evil torturer lady? Bring her on!" After escaping, Wallace runs into a septuagenarian dominatrix (don't ask) and assumes that she is Dr. Kropotkin. By contrast, the real Dr. Kropotkin looks like a schoolteacher--though she certainly has the personality of a true Baroness.
• Werewolf Women of the SS.
• Baroness Bombast Bomburst from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, whilst dressing mostly in lace and frills, does have the German accent and a basement full of stolen children.

Literature

• Miss Hardcastle (aka "the Fairy") from That Hideous Strength. She's the head of the NICE's police force and a Sadist. That's right, an evil policewoman who gets excited by burning female suspects with cigars, in a book by C.S. Lewis.
• Triumvir Ilya Volyova of the Nostalgia for Infinity in Alastair Reynolds' Inhibitor series is very much this in the Rosa Klebb style. She's one of the heroes.
• Madam Roberta Meserole in Night Watch. She's only semi-evil, but definitely a Manipulative Bastard. Just like her nephew.
  • Adora Belle Dearheart in Going Postal has elements of this (the cool, steely attitude and high heels that double as emergency weapons), despite being a good guy and a civilian.
• Baroness Nicola Ceaucescu from Paul Park's Roumania series is an excellent example of the Sexpot Baroness, and is also named after a real-life former Romanian dictator.
• Any Hapan.
• The Contessa Maria Sinistre - or just the Contessa - is this in H.I.V.E. She has a habit of changing sides - she starts off as a teacher at H.I.V.E., then she betrays Nero to Cypher, who promised her a continent, is recruited by Number One/Overlord to run H.I.V.E. while Nero is imprisoned, then does a Heel Face Turn and a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Reapers from killing everyone - including the children - in H.I.V.E. She ends up remembered as a hero, which is unusual for a villain.
• Colonel Irena Sedova, a.k.a. 'Bubushka', from the Young Bond novels Double or Die and By Royal Command is a sterling example of the Rosa Klebb variety.
• Bellatrix Lestrange of Harry Potter is pretty much the magical version of this.
• The Lord Darcy story "The Ipswich Phial", an Affectionate Parody of Spy Fiction tropes, has Olga Polovski, Agent 055 of the Polish Secret Service, who is definitely the sexpot version, and is also a powerful sorceress. Most men find her charming and enchanting.

Live Action TV

• Darla of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the classy, sadistic, and ruthless dragon to the Master. This actually applies better in Angel, but only for a short time in season 2 and during flashbacks.
  • For a given definition of "class", perhaps. She looks and acts as though she rents by the hour.
    • Well, she was a late-1500s woman-of-the-town who was dying of a vicious STD before the Master turned her. She seemed to begin to revert to this whenever her will wasn't being enslaved to the sheer monstrousness of her would-be childe.
• Servalan, the Big Bad in Blakes Seven, is a military commander, and swans about in luxurious frocks and is about as ruthless and as sexy as you can get.
• Jara in Big Bad Beetleborgs and Horribelle during the second season.
• As mentioned above, Helga from Allo Allo is a Sexpot Baroness. Curiously, she was briefly replaced by a Rosa Klebb when her character went on a sabbatical.
• Diana from V. Good grief.
• Tess Mercer, the Smallville version of Mercy Graves, is this. She's as pretty as any sexpot version and has a definite Broken Bird vibe, but also possesses the icy demanour and bitterness towards humanity more commonly associated with the Rosa Klebb. As for the Les Yay:

Lois: "What is it with you and the physical violence?" Tess: "The last time we saw each other things did get a little... physical, didn't they?"

• Restac, the Silurian military commander from the 2010 Doctor Who episode "Cold Blood", shows signs of being a Sexpot Baronness (beautiful, fiercely militaristic, etc.) but with a Rosa-Klebb-like lack of sexual tension, since she is a different species from the hero and very bigoted.
• Isabella Gisbourne from Robin Hood. Her Character Arc took her from one type of Baroness to the other: Sexpot to Rosa Klebb.
• Commandant Grayza from Farscape has a gland implanted in her body that secretes a substance that lets her "influence" males.
• Meg from Supernatural.

Radio

• In The Navy Lark, a played for laughs version appears in the form of Natasha Snogitoff, a spy for the Commie Land nation of Forbodia.

Tabletop Games

• Unknown Armies has a few canon NPCs that fit this mold, mostly of the Rosa Klebb variety. Notable examples include Dr. Kaiyo Atsui, a psychiatrist working for the New Inquisition who likes using rather controversial experimental treatments, and Angela Forsythe, one of the leaders of the Sleepers, who has used magical brainwashing to turn her bodyguard into an utterly devoted slave.
• Loviatar in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting is a Lawful Evil deity with decided elements of this trope, focusing on the dominatrix aspects.
• In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, female Shadow Lords tend to have this vibe, which flavor depends on what the player is aiming for.
  • The Black Spiral Dancer signature character Zhyzhak also carries certain elements of this mixed with the general batshit that is the Black Spiral Dancers — she's attractive (if bedraggled), wears bondage gear (while seemingly unaware of the sexual overtones), will kill with no provocation, and seems to be "running hot" all the time (to the point that she has a derangement that leaves her unintentionally shrieking most of the time).
• Just like the example above, the female Ventrue from Vampire: The Requiem give off this vibe, since most of them are ruthless, power-hungry Magnificent Bitches that are able to use Dominate, their clan discipline, but, once again, which flavor (or even if this trope is evoked at all) depends on what the player is aiming for.
• All female Commissars in Warhammer 40000 are this trope, thanks to their Russian-inspired military uniforms and habit of shooting cowards (on their side!) in the back of the head.
• Gretel Von X from the game Incursion is a particularly tarted-up version of this trope.
• Mutants and Masterminds Freedom City setting has an Alternate Reality Evil Twin of the Distaff Counterpart of a Batman Captain Ersatz, the Raven, known as Madam Sin, who falls very much into this trope.

Videogames

• Franziska von Karma from the Ace Attorney series is usually like this, although she becomes more sympathetic over the course of the series.
  • Arguably, the same could be said for mob princess Viola Cadaverini.
• The Butcheress from Blood Rayne, but she's also a Mad Scientist.
• The Addon in Dragon Age has one in...well, The Baroness. She's one of the very few characters in the game whose name is never mentioned, even though she is one of the bosses.
  • Knight Commander Meredith from Dragon Age II is very much of the Rosa Klebb variety, especially after the events during the game cause her to place Kirkwall under military rule.
• The SiN series features Vamp/Baroness combo Elexis Sinclaire.
• Countess Crey (usually just "The Countess"), in City of Heroes. Unusual in that she manages to be The Baroness and a Villain with Good Publicity at the same time; in fact, she's the only one who ever manages to damage your heroic reputation, though, in practice, this doesn't affect anything much outside of its own arc.
• Rider from Fate/stay night has aspects of this, despite the fact that she's Greek, not Eastern European. She actually has more disdain for her Master than her enemies and, more than once, considers just offing him, despite the consequences to herself.
• Salvatore the Great from Disgaea 3, right down to the black leather military wear.
• Rosso in Final Fantasy VII Dirge of Cerberus covers most of the requirements of this trope.
  • "Most" being "a textbook example of the sexpot variety with the sole exception of the 'enticing to our hero' part"....
• Gamemaster Konishi from The World Ends With You is Anthropomorphic Personification of this trope. And she kicks the dog, for good measure.
  • More like kills the Squirrel...
• Umineko's Beatrice fits most of the personality aspects of the sexpot to a T, with an emphasis on the sadism.
• Ferham from Mega Man X fits the sexpot example perfectly, showing a sadistic loyalty to her commander, using a whip, walking on stiletto high-heels, and having a design of a harpy. She even has an attack that hurts all of the characters and herself, making her comment, "That felt good!"
• Anna Navarre from Deus Ex.
• Hilda, from Fire Emblem 4: evil, cold personality, and perpetrator of Break the Cutie. Baroness might be her actual title, too.
  • Sonia of Fire Emblem 7 is pretty much a younger, more attractive version of Hilda.
• The Announcer from Team Fortress 2. It's hard to picture her as anything other than a Rosa Klebb.
  • The promos for the new Demoman/Soldier update include a comic showing the Announcer, a decidedly sinister female officially known as... The Administrator.
    • She does avert the sexual part, though — Saxton Hale referred to her as a "chain smoking seductress".
    • Yes, but Saxton will do anything female.
  • If it's even possible for men to be The Baroness, Medic could be considered a Rosa Klebb type.
• Commander Steele in Borderlands, complete with a Russian accent and a squad of Demonic Spiders at her command.
• Jihl Nabaat from Final Fantasy XIII.
• Matriarch Benezia from Mass Effect 1. Well, until she snaps out of it.
  • Miranda in Mass Effect 2 fits every single description of the "Sexpot" version to a 'T'. She's, well, sexy, extremely devoted to Cerberus and their ideals, and has a frosty exterior which begins to melt as she grows closer to Shepard. Despite her rigid personality, in the end, she is dedicated to helping humanity.
  • Morinth is a combination of the two archetypes. She's physically attractive, has a lust for power and dominance, and initially gives off a Dating Catwoman vibe. Despite that, personality-wise, she's a Rosa Klebb, who is ultimately immune to Shepard's charm and has no sympathy or regret for any of her actions.
• Killian Qatar from Tiberium Wars is hinted to be this. She definitely shows the conviction to be one. She is also a surprisingly sympathetic example of this trope.
• Meg from Rule of Rose fulfills surprisingly many requirements for this trope, probably entirely by accident: her fervent loyalty to the authority of the Aristocrats, which is embodied by her pseudo-romantic attraction to Diana, and her status as the group's Torture Technician. She even has the round glasses and the title! The main distinction from the standard examples of thus trope, of course, is that she isn't even in her teens yet.
• Bayonetta is an aversion, but she's more like a Baroness Ersatz.

Webcomics

• Von Pinn from the webcomic Girl Genius. She's a blond, beautiful Frankenstein's Monster who wears black leather fetish gear. She seems to be better at hand to hand combat than anyone else in the comic, is tough enough to shrug off what should be killing blows, and she's also the nanny.
  • And God help you if you harm any of the children she is charged with caring for.
  • Agatha's mother, Lucrezia Mongfish, fits this trope to a T, especially since she is the "Other". She is also known to revel in her dark side.
    • Funny that those two characters were mentioned so close together...it's quite likely that they share quite a few genes, if not nearly all of them.
      • The origin of Von Pinn is revealed at last. It turns out to be impossible. On the other hand, she, as we know her, is a product of Lucrezia's experiments.
• Butterfly of Collar 6 is called "The Sadist from Hell" and is, so far, the closest thing the strip has to a Big Bad, and in a society where consensual BDSM is the norm, she's seen as sadistic and evil for not getting the consent of her partners and using Mind Rape on them. To top it off, she's also a literal baroness from Eastern Italy.
• Meiko in Strange Aeons is overtly this, possibly to a parodic level. A chain-smoking, whip-wielding dominatrix type in service to the Nazi Big Bad.
• Major Kyra Kaines in Manaworld is this: A stunning military commander with lots of cleavage, a Nazi inspired uniform and a whip.

Web Original

• In The Gamers Alliance, the half-elven mage Shyralis holds King Marcus under a tight leash, going so far as to mindrape him if he tries to break free from her control. Vaetris also shows a rather sinister and kinky side when she is revealed as the demonic Duchess of the Eastern Horde.
• The Empress of TAROT, from the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, looks like the sexpot version, but is actually a Rosa Klebb. She's icy, deadly, ruthless, and beautiful. She's actually Catherine de'Medici, kept young after five hundred years through the power of black magic.
• Lady Hydra of the Whateley Universe, who fits this trope so tightly it turns out that, in-universe, she is the inspiration for The Baroness and didn't take revenge for such a slight because she had already retired.
• A Psychopathic Womanchild version of the trope, The Nostalgia Chick is dominating, willing to rape if she doesn't get what she wants, is morally ambiguous and was this close to ruling Kickassia with an iron fist.

Western Animation

• The Baroness (pictured above) from G.I. Joe is the inspiration for the name. In the comics, she's a perfectly capable, cold-blooded killer, but, here, in this particular medium, she's a cleaned-up-for-cartoons version of the type.
  • In the Live Action Adaptation, she was played by Sienna Miller.
• Natasha Fatale from Rocky and Bullwinkle (Played for Laughs).
• Parodied in The Venture Brothers with Molotov Cocktease.
  • And Girl Hitler.
• Hexadecimal from Re Boot, especially in season 3.
• Red Claw on Batman: The Animated Series.
• Transformers has the Rosa Klebb version in Strika.
• Madame Rouge from Teen Titans. She's not ugly, but not supermodel pretty, has the sexpot body type more or less...and is a dangerous, brutal fighter who takes great pleasure in pounding Titans and their allies into the dirt. She will not be falling prey to any hero's charms, thank you very much. Oh, and she has a Russian accent. She'd get along just fine with Viper and the original Baroness.
• Superwoman from Justice League Crisis On Two Earths takes the BDSM subtext of the early Wonder Woman comics and turns it Up to Eleven. Just watch her beatdown on Batman. Also, the fact that it's been suggested she's more of the alternate universe version of Mary Marvel adds extra Squick to her, since she may, in fact, be a young girl.
• Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes. True to form, she's in love with Jimmy.
• Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Lady Kale in Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders (whose armor even looks a lot like that of the Baroness!).

Real Life

• Kiuchi Nobuo, Japanese POW in the USSR, drew these and these pictures of Russian female soldiers in his memoirs, which fit the trope well.
  • On a related note, the German female guards of concentration camps (notably, Ravensbruck) and more than a few Soviet soldiers and NKVD officers of the correct sex fit into this role.
• Dita Von Teese had a picture of herself as this.