This may be because the title was awarded to those who rose to aristocracy as war leaders. One major exception: Dukes are usually relatively nice. this became the "Robber Baron", the derogatory term for wealthy industrialists that made their money off the backs of immigrant labor.) Maybe it's something to do with the old nickname "Sugar Baron", who makes his wealth off the labour of the poorest of the poor, and from slaves. Needless to say, Barons fare the worst in popular fiction, with one notable exception when used as a badass nickname. Interestingly, both counts and barons are fairly common titles among Continental Europeans, but rare among the English (where the rough equivalent of a count would be the earl who is usually depicted as stodgy but typically benevolent patriarch), which may suggest a regional bias in which aristocrats are cast as villains. note And Britain does have Countesses, it's the female equivalent of an Earl.) And though it doesn't show up a great deal, you should break out in a cold sweat when you meet a Viscount. (Oddly enough, a Countess has a better-than-even chance of being a decent woman. Popular titles are Count note in Britain, they're guaranteed to be foreign since the equivalent local rank is Earl - probably because in the Medieval Accent it sounded kind of unfortunate, and Baron - two titles which are rarely seen on a good guy. A variety of Meaningful Titles exist - people with feudal titles are very commonly evil. note Ironically, the word "villain" comes from the Medieval Latin word for villager or peasant, and was used derisively by the aristocrats of feudal Europe. But it was then and is now really popular to cast aristocrats as villains. It might have been an early way to appeal to the masses, or just due to the way aristocrats tended to look down on the general public. A lot of tropes have origins way back when media was still forming this is one of them.
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