Villains of the Lawful Evil alignment, also known as the "Dominator" alignment, utilize law and order to oppress or manipulate others. Many Lawful Evil characters have a set of standards such as honor for themselves and their minions, while the ones that do not are often so oppressive to others that their own personal principles are irrelevant.

Lawful Evil can be divided roughly into distinct types of characters, though some characters may overlap these categories:

1. The Tyrant: characters who hate freedom and seek to utterly enslave everything around them. To them, law and order are simply tools by which to enforce evil and will often try to make sure everyone knows it. Dark Overlords and Dystopian Rulers tend to be of this variety (e.g. Adolf Hitler, President Coriolanus Snow, Fire Lord Ozai, Thanos, Darkseid, Andross, Tywin Lannister, Loki (2010), Superman (Injustice), Kaya Shiranui, Joseph Stalin, Dr. Julian Robotnik, Prince John, Antón Castillo, Osmund Saddler, Tiger General, Charles zi Britannia, Idi Amin).
2. The Honorable: characters who, while still seeking to further their own schemes, will abide by certain rules and honor, such as keeping their word or not harming women/children, etc. (e.g. Akaza, Mr. Freeze, Vito Corleone, Zero, Stain, Dave Norton, Esdeath, Mayor Richard Wilkins, the Front Man, Gus Fring, Kokushibou, Wolf, Two-Face, Kingpin, John Kramer, Senator Armstrong, and Omni-Man).
3. The Totalitarians/Imperialists: characters or groups who favor and share beliefs of a system in which the state has unlimited power over every aspect of public and private life and often envisioned as evil empires, new world orders, supreme dictators or dictator-wannabes (e.g. Stormfront, Frau Engel, Red Skull, Soviet Union, Paul, Darth Vader, Ernst Vogel, Colonel Strelnikov, China, New Founding Fathers of America, Nazis and Galactic Empire).
4. The Enforcers: characters who are a variety of henchmen designed to enforce their leaders, big bads, bigger bads, more sinister villains or even higher villains. They often tend to be minions or right-hands to those above them. Regardless, they are always loyal towards them (e.g. The Adjudicator, Anthony Trumper, Chantel DuBois, Koopa General, Leland Coyle, Colonel Bella, Antonin Dovchenko, Ebony Maw, Alpha, Airachnid, Kenny, Chaos Sonic, Bowser Jr., Mukuro Ikusaba and Chief McBrusque).
5. The Disciplinarians: characters who hold their own standards of rules and authority over others and will punish those who violate said rules through cruel, abusive, and sadistic measures (e.g. Agatha Trunchbull, Samuel Norton, Lotso, Light Yagami, Doctor Purnell, Terence Fletcher, Margaret White, Horde Prime, Mr. Renner, Don Cody, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, Wilhemina Venable, and Commander Peepers).
6. The Fanatics: characters who are devoted to deep religious practices that tends to be leading towards divine authority, but are tending it so far to take these teachings towards malevolence and extremism {e.g. CatNap, Judge Claude Frollo, Dahlia Gillespie, Mola Ram, Carlo Ventresca, Enrico Maxwell, Enrico Pucci, Project at Eden's Gate, and Emperor Belos).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Lawful Evil does NOT mean "legal", these characters will break the legal law (if they are laws) to enforce it but follow their own code; thus a Lawful Evil character is often a criminal by society's norm but they differ from Neutral Evil in the fact that while still against the "legal" laws, they uphold a standard of their own. However, that said standard does not always mean honor. Some can even twist their standard to give themselves excuses to commit evil acts, thus making them hypocrites proving that they are abusing their standards to the point where it becomes an excuse to hurt people (e.g. Judge Claude Frollo, High Evolutionary, Sauron, Lord Cutler Beckett, Davros, King Einon, Napoleon, Dolores Umbridge, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, Grand Moff Tarkin, Light Yagami, Red Skull, King Magnifico, Agustin Allende, Lord Embryo, King Edward I of England and many versions of Hitler).

A villain being in a position of power does not necessarily equate to said villain being Lawful Evil, however. Some of these villains can be Neutral Evil where they simply crave power and use it as another means of achieving their own self-interests (i.e. Emperor Palpatine, Odalia Blight, Baron Zemo, All For One, Chaos Council, Captain Phasma, Hans Gruber, Lord Voldemort, Evil Morty, General Lunaris, Sentinel Prime, Frank Tenpenny, Griffith, Muzan Kibutsuji, Lex Luthor, and Carmine Falcone), while some can even be Chaotic Evil where they simply use their positions to spread violence, chaos and destruction for their own amusement (i.e. Violator, Deep Sea King, Morgoth, Joffrey Baratheon, Marlo Stanfield, Mandarin, Major, Aku, Black Doom, Horned King, Isaac Westcott, Edwin Epps, Joker, Monokuma, Drago Bludvist, Khotun Khan, and Thanos).