People Explain 30 Movies From The Villain’s Perspective And You May Never Look At Them The Same Again
Forty-two years ago, critic Roger Ebert said that because heroes and gimmicks tend to repeat from production to production, "Each film is only as good as its villain."
To deepen our understanding of the complex nuances that antagonists bring to their stories, let's take a look at a recent online discussion. It started when Reddit user CynicalCosmologist made a post on the platform, asking everyone "What movie is really sad when told from the 'villain's' perspective?"
It quickly went viral, and now has 5.7k comments, many of which vividly illustrate the profound change that occurs after we switch the narrative lens.

Image credits: CynicalCosmologist
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Baby's father in Dirty Dancing. Dude just wants to have a nice family vacation.
IvanaDrago:
Right? Heaven forbid he protests against his 17-year-old daughter getting seduced by the 25-year-old resort dance instructor. The dad also has to medically treat Johnny's ex-girlfriend for an infection after a back alley abortion. Of course he doesn't want his underage daughter getting involved.
CountryFriedQuinoa:
Worse, he wasn't just a dance instructor. The story is he's banging hot moms for money while giving private 'dance' lessons.
notsmartprivate:
Anyone over the age of like 25 completely understands the father's perspective.
I always thought he was a good guy for treating Penny no questions asked.
he took an oath, do no harm. even if he disagreed with what she did (which btw was super illegal back then) he knew the right thing to do was treat her and try to save her life. what i NEVER understood is how come not a single person told him the truth. like dude, your other daughter is hanging out with the man responsible for knocking up Penny. even when she tells Baby she wants to go all the way with him, Baby still doesnt tell her sister, or her dad. her sister could have very well gotten in trouble just like Penny if she hadnt caught him sleeping with another woman that night. like come on.
Load More Replies...I never really thought of Baby’s father as being the villain - it was always Robbie and the other people like Max and that rich wife. They treated Johnny and Penny like s**t from the very beginning just because they were lower class. The only time I ever thought Baby’s dad was being unfair was when Johnny actually went to talk to him to tell him how much he respected Baby.
Baby pouring coffee or whatever on Robby for his b******t was so good. Hell, just for reading Ayn Rand alone this would be correct.
Load More Replies...I always wanted the movie to end with Baby's father leaning over a chalk-outlined figure of the dance instructor and making some smart-a*s quote to Jesse Martin about how SVU oughtta look at this one.
That wasn't an "infection". It was a botched, back-alley abortion, performed by a hack with a dirty knife. Penny was in serious danger of bleeding out.
As a 14 year old this movie was my dream come true. With a daughter Baby's age, not so much. A gigolo who's 8 years older than my daughter sleeps with her, gets angry when she won't tell her father about him, gets her involved with a botched abortion, leaves, then comes back with a big romantic gesture, fully knowing he's going to break her heart when he leaves again. Yeah, no, not what I'd want for my kid either.
Man, the Grinch just wanted to hang out with his dog on the mountain, and asked his stupid neighbors to shut up.
I'd be mad too if people sang songs about what a huge piece of shït I am every year, I understand the Grinch hating Christmas.
Also, the only reason he went to live on the mountain in the first place was because sincne he was a child, everyone was super abusive and sh!tty towards him because he looked different. He got bullied, tried to move away from the cause of the bullying, and just couldn't escape it. Of course he became a bit of a pr!ck. He had never experienced kindness or acceptance for his entire life, except from his dog.
Load More Replies...Sorry, this grinch movie totally ruined the character, the story, and the song for me. Now I despise them all. Not kidding. This sucked.
Right? Dude wanted a quiet day to himself with his dog... he even lived on a mountain, far away from others (ie: He didn't park himself in the middle of downtown and start complaining)... but noooooooo the townfolk decided that THEIR POV was the only correct one and decided to force it on him... (tbf: I can't remember if the Grinch was actively harmful to the townfolk sans provocation, though.)
Plus, where did the dog come from? That's right...one of the rotten Whos dumped Max in the garbage chute. And the Grinch took him in.
We managed to get in touch with the author of the now-viral post and they kindly agreed to have a little chat with us about it.
"I was talking to a friend from work about this subject, and he said how so many examples that fit the subject of a sad backstory are simply born into a world of brutality," CynicalCosmologist said, describing the origins of the post to Bored Panda.
"One commonality of many movie villains is based on the natural world, where these villains are simply carnivores who have to hunt, kill, and destroy in order to survive. This is what made me add my comment on the T-Rex from The Land Before Time; he is fundamentally just a famished creature who has to go to great lengths simply to survive at a time of ecological disaster."
Jaws. Bruce is just trying to be a shark, man.
UrbanGimli:
THESE SHARK INFESTED WATERS!!!!!
you mean their home?
KILL THE MONSTER!!
SpookyYurt:
The phrase 'shark-infested waters' drives me nuts. Are our living rooms human-infested?? No. That's just where people live. Sharks don't 'infest' the ocean, that's where they belong.
They say the ocean is salt water because of all the tears from sharks who just wanted a hug.
Haha, that's literally the song text of Rammstein's "Haifisch"
Load More Replies...Definitely human infested, over 8 billion and planet and humanity keeps getting worse because of it ,abuse poverty war crime starvation forced births forced poverty cause of the rich parasites. World is good only for the rich. Polluted garbage more garbage from more humans. Destroy animal habitats and then kill them after they invaded their home!!! Alll cause of self entitled parasites who keep breeding more humans to suffer the cycle of overpopulation and struggling.
Load More Replies...Sharky just wants to have a wander around his home and all those pesky humans keep getting in the way.
Peter Benchley, the author of "Jaws," visited the shark exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute (MBARI). in Monterey, California. After viewing the exhibit, he said, "If I had seen this earlier, I would have never written 'Jaws.' "
“I still fear… that sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sword fishermen that happened after 1975,” said Spielberg. “I really, truly regret that.”
Ok, hear me out: Richard from Crocodile Dundee. You're Richard, Sue's boyfriend and boss (ok, off to a great start...). Your girlfriend Sue INSISTS on doing a human interest piece on some dude. You're like, "come home I miss you", and she's like "just this one more story", and you're like "ok, you're the best." So she goes off to find Michael J "Crocodile" Dundee. Within 48 hours of meeting Mick, she's making out with him. You, Richard, have no idea...but it's gotta be suspicious that she BEGS to bring him back to NYC. It's IMMEDIATELY apparent what's going on. Sue is basically drooling over Mick, she's parading him around the upper crust of New York society, they're having some moments. She even f*****g invites him to the first date the two of you have had since she got back. You're understandably salty about this...and you get punched out for it. Feeling desperate to save your relationship, you throw a Hail Mary. While visiting her family - which you're on GREAT terms with - you propose. She says yes! Crisis averted...until the NEXT DAY when she takes it back and chases Mick into the subway to tell him she loves him. It's been like a week since the two of them met. And you know the worst part? You, Richard, *paid* for all of this to happen: this whole thing went down on the newspaper's dime. And the second worst part? You're still Sue's boss. You'll be seeing her at the office on Monday. You have less than 24 hours to pull yourself together. Richard got cheated on, villainized, and broken up with in the coldest way...and his only crime was not being happy about it. He's not the bad guy in this story. **Sue** is the bad guy in Crocodile Dundee. Thank you for attending my TED talk.
This happens in a lot of movies I find, where the bf is just ditched for another man for no good reason at all, and apparently it’s ok.
The Hallmark Movie Channel built their empire upon this trope.
Load More Replies...Right. This theory falls apart the first time you see that smug, overly privileged face. That's reinforced by just about everything he says, too. No way to tilt the old empathy scale in his direction.
Load More Replies...Not having sympathy for a guy who dates employees his has supervision over.
I'm not from the generation this movie was made for, but I always found the scene where Crocodile Dundee inappropriately touches a drag queen/trans woman very weird. Think of me whatever you want, but I didn't continue watching after that scene.
The actress, Lisa Kozlowski, who played Sue, ended marrying Paul Hogan, who played Crocodile Dundee. They married in 1990 and divorced in 2014. Just an interesting tidbit.
Nah, it wasn't sue, Richard or Mick. It was fate. Richard was an entitled douche who didn't treat Sue right. Thats why she stayed away as much as she could. She felt trapped. Mick was just minding his business and living his life when this woman came along and completely upended his life in a way he decided he liked. He did not know about Richard and couldn't help falling for this fire-cracker who fir the first time in a long time feels she can be her authentic self. Sue was trapped in this relationship with her boss. Imagine the personal and business ramifications if she did break it off with him, Her career would have been tanked and her family would have disowned her. She did what she could by staying out on assignment as much as possible. When She met and fell for Mick she no longer cared what would happen if she ended things with Richard because she had a chance at something real.
Even her father was supportive of her relationship with Mick.
Load More Replies...isnt bosses dating employees considered inappropriate though? plus Richard seemed a bit racist towards mick in the restaraunt too
Other commonalities that CynicalCosmologist has noticed are personal tragedy and trauma. "Villains such as Two-Face in The Dark Knight, or Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, lost everything that they cared about, and their lifelong dreams were destroyed, due to matters that were beyond their control. Similarly, we have villains who only want to protect those they care about from some greater threat, which, for example, applies to Magneto (X-Men) and V (V for Vendetta)."
The Redditor thinks that because of the way these characters are portrayed in film, it's difficult not to see them as "hate-fueled, remorseless monsters."
"If we ever found ourselves in their shoes, however, we would understand the terrible trauma which many of these 'villains' have endured, and I think it's important to recognize this as a driver for their actions, as a human trait," they added.
Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants. All he wants is some peace and quiet.
circa285:
You know you’re a fully developed adult when you start to find SpongeBob really annoying and identify with Squidward’s point of view.
I can't wrap my head around people who hate Spongebob. I'm in my late 40s and it is one of my favorite shows to put on when I need to destress. Have the people who say they hate actually watched it?
I have and, while I don't hate it, I dislike it a lot. Even as a child/teen I found SpongeBob annoying af.
Load More Replies...Squidward didn't even want to be Squidward without Spongebob. He didn't last long in the Squid Village he found.
We Bought a Zoo - I mean damn, the ‘villain’ literally is a safety inspector and is doing a public service making sure the dangerous animals you’re keeping for public display are safe, secure and not mistreated.
I think it is just less known than the ones higher up.
Load More Replies...OK, he's more sympathetic than the nuclear regulator from Ghostbusters. I've seen HIM defended, and while he's correct that there is no way in Hell the Ghostbuster's set up isn't an apocalypse waiting to happen, he's a nuclear inspector... he should know better than to just turn off a containment field even if he doesn't know what the field is containing.
Similar for Walter Peck in Ghostbusters. A bunch of unqualified, irresponsible cowboys with an undocumented jerry-built nuclear installation in the middle of a city, led by a known scammer and sex pest who defaults to insults when confronted? Seriously, how is the EPA agent the bad guy in that scenario?
And they make fun of him for having no d**k. It's not his fault!
Load More Replies...not seen the film, but visited Dartmoor Wildlife Park, as it was then called, many times in my childhood.
Storytellers know this and, especially those who are good at their craft, understand their antagonists. George Langelaan, who penned The Fly, a cult classic sci-fi/horror short story about a research scientist turning into a huge monstrous fly, said in a January 1961 issue of Suspense magazine, "As a writer I take such a liking to villains that I try to give them a jolly good time and, in the end, to let them off as lightly as possible."
He even proposed creating The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Villains.
X-Men. Magneto was right and his backstory was very sad.
Yes and no. He was certainly right about humanity. Xavier's rosy picture was flawed. But he was wrong about the solution. One attempted genocide doesn't make another justified. He wanted to do to average humans exactly what they wanted to do to mutants. He was understandable, but he wasn't justified. That's what makes him so interesting and such a great villain.
His backstory IS extremally sad. Being hurt ourselves isn't a cart blanche for hurting others.
Magneto is a supremacist who wants to create a mutant ethnostate by conquering and enslaving the rest of mankind. He's very similar to Davros from Dr Who.
He is very similar to the ones who made his backstory so sad in the first place
Load More Replies...god no, magneto backstory is literally the proof why he is wrong. He lived through the holocaust and saw his horrors, and beacuse of that he wants to prevent mutants from experiencing the same thing (that all sounds nice). his method however, is a literal hollocaust of non mutants.
That's the Gandalf actor, isn't he? I never looked that close at this movie.
Tom and Jerry. They’re secretly friends, but Tom has to hunt him and “fail” every time. One episode the homeowners wanted to swap Tom for a cat who actually would kill Jerry, but Tom tried to stop that.
Jerry is the reason they keep Tom around in the first place, so their rivalry ensures job security and housing for both I guess
To be fair, Jerry starts a lot of the fights in these shorts, although Tom isn't exactly innocent either. Most of the time, Jerry is going after Tom because Tom did something to Jerry. Tit for tat.
Secret lovers pretending to be enemies in a society that would judge them unfairly.
At a point at which we are reading sub text into Tom and Jerry cartoons I think we may be over thinking things
Cute, but Tom wanted Jerry for himself. The stories had no continuity at all.
"The stories had no continuity at all", it was a kid's cartoon not a feature film. If you look at it through the lens of kids: cats hate mice hate cats, it makes perfect sense.
Load More Replies...I always preferred the episodes where they were getting along. Still do
This can teach us a lot about empathy. "If we extend this logic to the real world, we see how many people who landed themselves in jail have only committed their crimes out of fear, trauma, and desperation," CynicalCosmologist continued. "Sure, there are fictional and real-life villains who are psychopaths, and have no remorse at all for their actions, but many of them have much more troubled histories."
"A movie can paint a very vivid picture of what they have been through, and it can help people understand what led people down such dark paths, and hopefully get them to rehabilitate. That's why I think this discussion topic is a powerful and meaningful one; it can help make recovery much more humane and effective for many."
I recently re-watched The Little Mermaid and, well, let's just say I was rooting for her father rather than the 16yo wanting elope with a person she saw for like a minute. That said, Triton doesn't really handle the situation well.
Deep-Jello0420:
Ariel: 'I'm 16! I'm not a child anymore!'
7-year-old Me: 'Yeah! She's basically a grown up! Don't be mean, Triton!'
41-year-old Me: 'She is absolutely a child and I wonder if my parents thought that line was as ridiculous as I find it now when we watched it 30+ years ago'.
_space_pumpkin_:
'bUt DaDdY I LoVe HiM!' Sh*t makes me cringe now every time.
Yes she gave up her family, friends and literal voice for a guy who gave her a half arsed smile
Even worse in the original tale... where the entiiiiire time the Little Mermaid is on-land, the prince is clearly courting/dating the church girl... so... TLM has a teenage crush on a guy who doesn't even clearly like her back, in fact, is in love with someone else... and then she commits self-termination after he marries said girlfriend. Uh huh... GREAT STORY! How is dad the 'bad guy'???
Load More Replies...Watching with my (then) 14 yo daughter when she says, "16?! I bet everyone at the Disney Princess High School is pregnant."
Well, at least she didn't die in the Disney version. The original story was dark.
That's usually the case with fairy tales - Sleeping Beauty wasn't that happy of a story either for example or "The Little Match Girl" to stay with stories from Anderson
Load More Replies...No. Triton is one hundred percent an abusive parent. He basically does the equivalent of burning her favorite toys because she angers him.
Someone didn't read the actual story if this is what you think.
Load More Replies...She wanted to be part of the human world for a long time beforehand. The guy just happened to be the final push for her. She didn't just gave it up in a matter of seconds.
Yeah but he isn't the villain of the story. It's ursala. Did they not watch the movie?
In the original story the dude ditched her. She was left on a rock between worlds. There is a statue in ocean outside of Copenhagen of her.
Despite what many people think, Eric what not what Ariel initially fell in love with the human world. Yes, she did have a crush on Eric, and that was all Ursula saw, so that was what was offered to Ariel. At the time Ariel had seen it as the best way to get to the human world. As for giving up her voice: Ursula literally lied to her to convince her to give it up. “The men up there don’t like a lot of blabber/they think a girl who gossips is a bore/ yes on land it’s much preferred/ for ladies not to say a word…”
Lol I had the same reaction th the "I'm 16! I'm not a child anymore!" line. As a kid, I was like, "Yeah, she's almost grown up!" As an adult, I'm like, "Young lady, you go to your grotto right now, and don't come out til I tell you to!!"
Thor 1. Loki loses everything, finds out his whole life is a lie, even his skin is a lie, the people who he was supposed to trust the most (his parents) betrayed him about who he was and brought him up in a society that thought his real race were disgusting savage monsters to the point that he thought it was ok to try and kill them all, and in the middle of having a mental break down his dad goes into a coma while his mom is emotionally unavailable to give him any support because she’s busy watching the dad, and his friends betray him to go help his brother on earth, so he is completely isolated with no support system undergoing the worst crisis of his life and goes off the rails, to the point of committing suicide because he realized no matter what he did he could never gain the approval of his father or belong there as the only frost giant in all of Asgard.
It’s an epic tragedy when you look at it from his perspective.
Look how young Tom Hiddleston looks in that photo! Love Loki and his redemption story.
Not to mention that Odin set them up to be rivals. In one of the flashbacks about their past, he says to both Thor and Loki, you are both my sons but only ONE of you will be King. No mention of what the other brother has to endure for this to come to pass. Odin, through the entire series, is pretty much an absent Father who has little to no interest in what his sons are doing, until they do something that make him look bad and then he either exiles them or imprisons them and expect them to be okay with it.
Watch both seasons of 'Loki'. You'll never see Loki the same way again, ever. I mean that in a good way.
The Redditor has taken notice of many cool movie villains over the years. "I am a lifelong Star Wars fan, and Palpatine has consistently had me on the edge of my seat," they said.
"Sure, the plot developments of each era of the franchise have sparked a lot of controversies amongst the fans, but Palpatine was the mastermind behind the entire conflict from day one. He manipulated and murdered the people closest to him to rise through the ranks of the Sith order, the Galactic Republic, and the absolute control of the galaxy."
"If that's not enough, I was just as captivated by his sinister demeanor and chilling gravitas as a kid as I am today. Emperor Palpatine is the embodiment of the perfect movie villain for me," CynicalCosmologist said, explaining that they might be a little bit biased. "The actor, Ian McDiarmid, went to my postgraduate alma mater, [and] I think [that's] pretty cool."
Sound of Music -- not the N*zis obviously, but the baroness. Imagine you're a wealthy, savvy, child free woman open minded enough to date a sulking widower with a billion children he ignores in favor of travel and partying-- in other words, your lifestyle. You're not into kids but you try to be a presence in their lives when he finally deigns to introduce you to them (same time he announces that he's marrying you, so he's a super great father). You put on a cheerful face anyway, and when it's apparent the kids hate you (you are a stranger after all!), you consider sending them to boarding school where they might benefit from, say, structure and attention and schooling that they are not getting at home from their father/endless rotating nannies. Then the super virginal, younger au pair moves in, and your boyfriend suddenly decides he is totally into being father of the year again after his Austrian rumspringa, and dumps you.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-regret-to-inform-you-that-my-wedding-to-captain-von-trapp-has-been-canceled If you've never read this - it's hilarious and exactly from her point of view.
"I think it would have been particularly helpful for the eldest daughter, who seems intent on losing her virginity to the mailman." OMG! THANK YOU!!!! LOL!!
Load More Replies...The Baroness was never the villain. She, along with Max, were antagonists as they moved the plot along. Without them Maria would never have come to terms with her feelings and the Von Trapp kids wouldn't be in the show giving the father a chance to delay the nazis taking him away. The nazis were both villains and antagonists.
The only villian-y things she does were that little “talk” with Maria and also how she wanted to send the kids to boarding school (she says it in a way which she shows she definitely wants to get rid of them). Aside from that she’s pretty tame as far as villains go.
She's an antagonist, not a villain. She forced Maria to face her emotions. The comment about boarding school, not uncommon for wealthy folks to send kids to boarding school if they weren't governed/tutored at home. Since they kept running off every governess, boarding school was a valid option.
Load More Replies...Nah, still don't like that character. She just liked the Baron for his money and thought the kids would get in the way of her getting her hands on it.
the fact that OP had to preifce with not the nazis is kinda depressing
I still don't like her. She's a cold hearted beeyatch and Julie Andrews is the bomb!!
Lion King. I'm not saying Scar was right for killing his brother and running the Pride Lands into the ground, but they call him Scar because he had a physical deformity. Before he was nicknamed Scar, his parents named him Takka... Which means garbage. "Oh hi. Let me introduce you to my sons 'King' and 'Garbage'" How is that not setting your youngest up for failure?
Not seeing anything stating that A Tale of Two Brothers is non-canon. It and the other books in the Six New Adventures are meant to be canon.
Load More Replies...Scar's name is "Taka" not "Takka" and it is only ever mentioned in the book "Six new adventures", which is not considered canon. Mostly because no one from the team that created the movies had anything to do with the book.
Unless they have been officially retconned, there is nothing about them being non-canon.
Load More Replies...In which language? In Afrikaans it means branch according to Google translate.
I believe it's Swahili, from what I've read on previous BP posts
Load More Replies...His biggest mistake was to let the lionesses do all the hunting instead of the hyenas - hyenas are more successful in hunting prey
As their thoughts on Palpatine suggest, the Redditor believes the "perfect" villain is one who has a grand, thorough scheme for everything. "They consider every possibility before making their next move. An ingenious villain with an ingenious scheme leaves the viewer constantly guessing where the plot of the movie (or franchise) is going to lead; or retrospectively, piecing together the story so far and predicting the outcome."
This is why CynicalCosmologist has thoroughly enjoyed movies with enigmatic puzzles like Glass Onion, or mind-bending twists like The Usual Suspects, and we can only agree that meticulously crafted villains not only enhance the suspense but also contribute to the overall depth and richness of the story.
Titanic
Imagine you are just chilling in the ocean and a big boat comes and hit you and the boat gets all the attention.
Worse yet, the humans then proceed to cause climate change which ends up melting you
So... *blinks* climate change is revenge for the drowned? ... Wooooah... *mind blown*
Load More Replies...ohhh boy are there some CRAZY conspiracies behind this... to name just one "hitler was behind the sinking of titanic"
LOL I love how this is from the iceberg's point of view 😆 wasn't expecting that
I bet no one can even name the iceberg which that boat hit.... It's shocking....
Was it a Bill Tidy cartoon with a worried looking polar bear asking "any news of the iceberg?"
Peter Pan. Poor Captain Hook. Constantly taunted by a group of hoodlums who never want to grow up. Imagine the PTSD this guy has from losing a hand to a crocodile! Then he’s constantly taunted by these kids and their clock-filled buffoonery.
Damn kids! He's at the "get off my lawn!" stage of life and the little so-and-sos won't leave him alone!
Okay but if you read the original thing you start to see how terrifying Peter actually is. He has no empathy, he just does things on a whim, and he mistreats the lost boys. He basically just kidnapped Wendy on another whim so she could be their “mother,” and didn’t care that she wanted to go back. Not to mention it was also written by a pedophile…
There's a theory that all the pirates are actually Lost Boys that Peter abandoned when they started to get too old. This would make a lot of sense as to why they hate Peter and the Lost Boys so much.
Yeah Peter just shuns the kids that start to grow too old, this would make sense
Load More Replies...A lot of people are convinced that the original book is mostly about the fact that Peter is a child without empathy, which is basically the nightmare of most adults/parents...
He concidered children in neverland gay, innocent and heartless. It wasnt just Peter, Peter was just the only one trapped in that state.
Load More Replies...Captain Cook was stopping Pater Pan from kidnapping more boys from their homes.
I've always liked to describe Captain Hook as a victim of an act of wanton mayhem by an unsupervised amoral minor.
Theres a book called "Never Never" and it shows the story from Hook's view. It almost made me cry
There's also a book called 'Lost Boy' told from young captain hook's perspective about why he is the way he is
Load More Replies...Hang on, behind my back you call me Captain Hook on account of my hook hand. I've got black hair, why couldn't it be Captain Blackhair?!
Mrs Doubtfire because imagine how scared Pierce Brosnan was when Mrs Doubtfire tried to kill him with pepper.
Embarrassed-Ad-1639:
He also survived a drive-by fruiting.
gringledoom:
Of course your wife is going to divorce you if she comes home from her breadwinning job, and you’ve got a petting zoo running around the house, after walking out on yet another job, when you’re already on thin ice! But the whole movie is acting like his ex-wife is a mean, borderline-evil shrew! And all the judge was asking him to do was get literally any job and keep it in order to see his kids more often! I love my kids!' Fine, why don’t you show it by acting like a goddamned grown-up for once.
Pierce Brosnan was in this movie?!! What? It's been so long that I didn't even notice.
The movie was actually pretty brave for not magicially let the parents end up back together.
i was talking about this with ym husband. he's on Daniels side and thinks sally field over reacted. because he IS daniel. the goof off, the one undermining the mother, the one deciding to disregard the rules to be fun dad. i am Sally (okay in as far as the movie is concerned). trying to keep structure and balance and show the kids that actions have consequences. the one being told im no fun bc the kids need rules and boundaries. and what ticks me off is Daniel becomes an actual good parent as Mrs. Doubtfire which shows he was capable of cooking and cleaning and helping out and being responsible the whole time. the WHOLE time and he CHOSE not to until he HAD to
The scene with Sally saying "the WHOLE TIME" is forever emblazoned on my brain. She played that shock so well.
Load More Replies...Yeah but they don't get back together in the end and it's implied that the ex-wife keeps dating her new boe. They're just co-parenting after he realised that he was indeed the bad guy. Mrs Doubtfire is one of those movies where people liked Robbin Williams so much they were blind for the true story. I myself had to rewatch the movie really looking for it to realise, yep, the irresponsible daddy was the bad guy from the beginning and it's a story of self realisation, not redemption and reconciliation.
Drive-by fruiting! Still makes me laugh. I sympathize with Sally Field's character (the mom) a lot.
Am I the only one just realising that Pierce Brosnan was in Mrs Doubtfire?
“Black Panther” Killmonger was a Prince. His father was murdered by his uncle, the King. He spent his life in poverty, while his family was incredibly wealthy. When he finally got to Wakanda, he was appalled that they kept all that wealth and technology from the descendants of the diaspora around the world. I love his last quote: “Bury me at sea with my ancestors who jumped from the slave ships because they preferred death to bondage.”
The character of Killmonger totally over shadowed Black Panther! Michael B is a really talented actor!
And where in his family was anything to do with the slave trade, last I looked he didn't have a connection. T'Chaka didn't murder N'Jobu, T'Chaka killed N'Jobu in defence of others because N'Jobu was trying to murder Zuri for telling T'Chaka he nicked vibranium. He wants to start war, subjugate the world in the aftermath, and have the remaining people under his boot. He has no qualms in killing anyone who disagrees with him, even if they are of African descent.
You’re not supposed to think he’s wrong. He’s just doing it the wrong way.
Even T'Challa felt pity for him and was angry at the way he was treated by his own people and thrown out on the streets as an outcast for no legitimate reason when he was only an innocent child.
Here's the thing though: he wanted to give the tech to only one group of people... to do what with? Subjugate the rest of the world? I'm not sure what he was really trying to achieve... reverse apartheid? Even Nelson Mandela said he was opposed to both black AND white supremacy (you can Google it). I still love the movie though... when we went to see it at Eastgate (a mall east of Johannesburg that has IMAX cinemas), everybody was wearing African clothes and jewellery, even the white people. It was AWESOME.
he's basically hamlet who lost. his uncle killed his father, kept the throne, and left him behind.
As much as I love a hero, and the entire movie, I feel the same way about Killmonger.
But the movie (and characters) do acknowledge he had a valid point, because after him, they do start reaching out to the outside world. T'Challa recognizes that his father did Killmonger dirty and there's a reason he turned out like he did.
The King treated his family as one never should. Killmonger did the same. True, he was shaped by his life experiences, but that doesn't make it, or him, right. It makes him human. For every action there is an equal, and negative, reaction.
Yeah, I gotta say that 'Despicable Me' hit me right in the feels when you saw how Gru went from stealing an entire moon to being a dad. Who knew little yellow minions could make such an impact? Overall, 10/10 would ugly cry again.
He was also emotionally abused by his mother. Doesn't justify stealing the moon, but still
imagine how different things wouldve been if gru and dru had gone with different parents
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Imagine: you're 16 years old. Your father is in prison. Your home has been taken over by a N*zi cult that you've been indoctrinated into. The leader of the cult is telling you to kill your principal, someone exceptionally powerful who could easily beat you in a fight, or he will kill you and your family.
16 year old - Severus Snape, Nazi cult - deatheaters, their leader - Voldemort, principal - Dumbledore. Or so I think
Load More Replies...not just forgave, i'm pretty sure he became a ton of people's favorite character after this book. I may have been one of those people lol
Load More Replies...Also Narcissa was actually a pretty good mother who cared deeply for her child.
OR, let's say - evil, entitled bully spends entire series being awful to everyone and trying to get people killed while he actively tries to gain entry into the nazi cult, hoping to become a powerful nazi leader himself. He backtracks only when he's scared for his own self and family - not because it's the right thing to do. Do the same thing with Snape - grown adult bullies and endangers children because he got dumped when he was a teenager. Just because he wasn't out and out evil doesn't make him the hero.
He's also a bully because, like most bullies, he's been abused his entire life. He has never really experienced the warmth, love and affection he sees his peers/rivals receiving from their families and peer groups, just this overriding fear/power dynamic that has structured his entire life because he grew up in a cult of nazis. So of course, he tries to become a nazicultist because that appears to be the only way toward any sort of acceptance or meaningful accomplishment as he or his family understand it. It doesn't make any of it right, but maybe sort of understandable in a very tragic and unfortunate way. Also, I feel like he was secretly probably in love with Harry and didn't know how to deal with it. I gotta assume deatheaters are homophobic af, what with the whole "blood legacy" thing and all.
Load More Replies...Oh come on... Malfoy's soul may not be beyond redemption, but we was an evil twat.
Draco becomes more of a character to be pitied rather than hated.
I wish they had done more with Dracos character. i will forever regret we didnt get the ending where he leaves his parents side and runs to harry to toss him the wand to defeat voldermort. i know its not in the book, but sometimes a little change in the movie is better. personal opinion of course
Draco was a cowardly bully, and definitely prejudiced. But evil villain? Nah.
malfoy is not the villain in the movie. Voldemort is. Malfoy proves he is not a villain by literally NOT killing Dumbledore. How is this a villain perspective?
The hyenas in the Lion King were banished to an elephant graveyard and were hungry. It's not like the lions weren't killing things to eat themselves, but Mufasa wasn't going to let hyenas get away with that.
Of course they're going to follow the guy who promises them food. Their part in Be Prepared is "we're going to be able to eat!" And then when they do get to leave the graveyard they overdo it because they'd never been allowed to eat anything but elephants who came to die, which probably isn't an everyday occurrence.
The hyenas being scared away by lions is unrealistic in itself. If the hyena pack is big enough (which seems to be the case in the lion king if you think about Scar's death scene), they can easily steal and keep the kill from hunting lionesses. Mostly because they are incredibly stubborn and just keep attacking. Hyenas killing lions for their kills is also a thing that happens.
Hyenas are excellent hunters themselves, too - infact they have a 74% average hunting success rate compared to the 21% lions have
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Prince Nuada from Hellboy: the Golden Army. He’s the Prince of a dying race of fae, has to see his father lead his kind into darkness and obscurity, and THEN see humanity tear down everything he loved for their own greed/expansion. His speech about how the world will never see the likes of the Elemental Forest God was heartbreaking.
Zee_whotookmyname:
This isn’t the first story where humans started off living side by side with fairy tale or mythical creatures, then ultimately pushing them out to extinction. This movie did have me wishing for an alternate version where humans are the ones to lose.
Me too and yet here we be with no fairies, except parts of down town, Any City US.
Anakin Skywalkers' story from the light side to the dark side was motivated by the love he had for his mother and Padme, but in the end, he can't save his mother and nearly kills Padme. He loses them both and ends up horribly disfigured in the confrontation with his life-long master obi wan. He has to suffer the rest of his life without his loved ones, and he now is more machine than man. He can't live without his suit. The tragedy of Darth Vader is incredibly sad.
Born a slave on a desert planet with no father. Forced to join a cult of space wizards at a young age. Watches his mother die, was only allowed to marry in secret because of the wacko cult's rules. The man who offers him salvation is the devil himself. He loses all four limbs, scarred and burned to the point that he was put into a living coffin in order to survive. Enslaved to the devil himself.
Thick-Worry5028:
Never knew freedom, never allowed to live his life. Used by everyone...
I have two bojections: he was not forced in a cult, he was a slave and clearly was more than happy to join the jedi when the occasion arised, second you can leave the jedi order when you want, Dooku and Ahsoka did it, he could have asked Padme for a relatively-quiet security job on Naboo at any point but he didn't want to chose between his ambition and his love life. Still a tragedy but he had some big character flaws.
I think at some point they both discussed Anakin leaving the Jedi order to live with padme, but decided against it
Load More Replies...It’s not helped by Hayden Christensen’s acting - so wooden you could make a 3-piece suite out of it and have enough left over for a wardrobe and some shelving.
Christensen is actually a really good actor. Lucas is just absolute garbage at writing dialogs. Especially the conversations between Anakin and Padme were an absolute cringefest. There is a reason the actors of episode 4-6 improvised most of their lines.
Load More Replies...Ya know what? No. Anakin Skywalker was a colossal failure of character development. The first paragraph is what the movie WANTED him to be, but he was merely a whiny loser who couldn't control his rage, and was converted to the dark side becawz he had a bad dweam!
He's a villain, but he's a tragic one. He's still awesome and evil, but part of the old him remained. And that makes it even more tragic. Given Rogue One shows his personal fortress is on the planet where he got burned and his wife died (or so he's told by Palpatine), one could imagine Palpatine being the one to make him put it there. Hate leads to the dark side, and self loathing was clearly a big part of that for Vader.
Not only that but he was a literal child who believed nothing but good things about the Jedi, not knowing what he was getting into
Load More Replies...Wo would not go to the Darkside, everything around you falls apart en you are told to do nothing and follow like a happy puppy
Bee Movie 😂 A bee stole this man’s girlfriend.
RVelts:
It's a wild ride. I shrugged it off years ago as just being some kid's movie Jerry Seinfeld felt like making. I didn't realize how insane the plot is... the courtroom scenes, the romance, the wild ending, the snipers...
DNP96:
This man is losing his wife to a literal bee and everyone thinks he’s crazy.
It's a fun movie to watch as an adult just to see the absolute nonsense and absurdity
Back in middle school we were given the option to do a presentation on ANY topic, I being a little gremlin choose the Bee Movie, I spent 2 months on that presentation and 6 out of the 13 slides were just me ranting about how stupid the movie was. I presented it in the most dramatic way and classmates continued to talk about that amazing show through the next 3 years. That movie was stupid to a 13 year old, I want to know how grown adults that know what they are doing in life think of it.
Honey bees are 99% female - the drones just hang around the hive to impregnate new queens, then die.
I never watched this movie because the animation looked so weird and creepy. Look at that weird bee face! That's the plot though? No thank you.
Encanto.
Family obsessed with 'keeping up appearances' shun Bruno for simply telling the truth, that people naturally don't like to hear. Ends up being demonised and alone while the head narc and family lie and blame him for their failings and bad experiences.
That 'Abuela' is horrible!! As the 'black sheep' of my family this movie totally triggers me .. a grandmother blaming her granddaughter for basically everything .. f that Abuela
I dont like the way most people treat Mirabel, either, especially the grandma
Yeah, you’re an older teenage girl but you’re stuck living in the nursery while everyone else has fabulous rooms, because you don’t have your own magic door. Rubbing it into her face daily
Load More Replies...Bruno is revealed in the movie to not be the villain, but actually be the kind oddball who looks out for and cares deeply about his family, even though they hate him. The guy is a freakin saint. He sacrifices his own happiness and quality of life for a bunch of unappreciative, superficial people without a second thought. That takes an unbelievable amount of love.
I am of the opinion that Delores is evil. She heard EVERYTHING. FROM EVERYONE. And never said anything? She heard Bruno for years. She heard Mirabel about the magic dying. And never thought to speak up? She would've been happy to lose her "gift".
I think the lyrics of "Bodies" by Drowning Pool would fit Bruno's stories quite well
one thing i never understood was abuelas "we must be perfect and do everything to better the village" until i considered the times that this was probably set in, since the powers were considered a miracle that means magic wasnt common so its not too far fetched to think that one wrong move and the whole family could be burned as witches/devil worshipers
There are soooo many things wrong encanto. Makes me quite angry when I think about it.
**Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan**
Dude is allowed to live in peace and rule an untamed planet instead of going to prison. He's living his best life.
His planet gets turned into a barren wasteland, wife and some family members die, and some get a nasty case of earworms. All because some toupee-wearing space douchbag never bothered to occassionally check up on them.
Sooooo much better than the remake. Ricardo Montalban yes, Cumberbatch no.
I liked both. Both actors interpreted the role differently and both created a great character.
Load More Replies...And I shall have him! Another candidate for the 'I hope this doesn't start a trend in fan fiction' award!
Load More Replies...A couple quotes: "Ah, Kirk, my old friend. Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space." "No. No, you can't get away. From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."
Yup. And that comes across even more clearly in the novelization. It makes it clear that he and Marla had married. The three, admittedly non-canonical, Khan novels go into even more detail. He's still a villain, but he's an extremely tragic one who wouldn't have gone full-evil if Kirk had just remembered to check. And Kirk knows this, at least in the novelization.
How does Khan know, though? Maybe after Ceti Alpha VI exploded and the orbit shifted, the Federation thought Ceti Alpha V exploded... they did think it was the wrong planet at first. Also, Khan was a military dictator who ruled "a quarter of the Earth" during the '90s (then the Romulans started interfering and the timeline shifted). So he wasn't exactly innocent.
I don't blame Kirk for not checking up on him. I blame Starfleet. Kirk recorded in his logs what happened and reported. It's now his superiors job to send out the same sort of checks any colonists would get.
Cato from The Hunger Games. He’s been brainwashed to believe that the Games are an honor. He’s trained his whole life, but then he gets into the arena and it’s a lot of killing and awfulness. Then he loses, dies a long death and all his preparation and fanboying isn’t worth anything.
Wouldn't that make it worse? To know you just gave your life for ... Nothing?
Load More Replies...You lost me with this one. I mean not only do they seem to enjoy killing they actually make fun of the kids pleading for their lives. I mean you can brainwash someone into thinking that participating in games is an honor, but I don't think you can brainwash someone into enjoying murder.
Sure you can. If that is what is expected of you and you are not really given any other options for a future at all during your formative years, and if you are supposed to 'act out' for the cameras? I can see it.
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Cary Elwes' perspective in Liar Liar too.
You've had a legitimate, mostly positive relationship with your girlfriend and are now at the point where you're trying to get to know her son. There's a lot of trust invested by this point.
You've accepted that her ex-husband is an important part of her life and are happy with the arrangement of her son dividing time between you and his biological father.
In other words, you're a pretty mature family man. Except her ex-husband starts crossing boundaries and trying to convince your girlfriend to get back together with him. You don't always realise what's going on, but you get the feeling that some sort of undermining is going on between him and their son.
Meanwhile, your girlfriend is becoming more and more emotionally torn because her ex-husband keeps breaking promises and disappointing her son, but equally tries to undermine you to her and beg for further chances.
This culminates in the terrifying face of Jim Carrey appearing outside your plane window during high speed takeoff, eyes wide open and manically shouting, on the day you were originally going to move city as a "new family".
Yet despite this, you retain a godly amount of humility and gracefully back out of the relationship, knowing that Jim has won over the family and that it wouldn't be fair on any parties for the farce to continue.
Yeah, Cary Elwes is intentionally goofy at times and jumped the gun on the relationship, but the man is a bit of a saint for putting up with that.
The saving grace of Liar Liar for me was that Elwes never turned out to be a prick. They never had that scene where the incumbent boyfriend turns out to be an a*****e. Instead, although you know Elwes is gonna face some killer heartbreak, he's going to meet someone himself who loves him more than the mother. She loved having a Dad for her kid, but Elwes deserves someone who loves him... and even a kid to whom he's not so alien.
Yes, Cary Elwes suffered from some heartbreak, but after being Mostly Dead that's nothing. Besides, what is he doing dating this woman when he already had True Love?
True Love really is the best thing in the world, aside from cough drops.
Load More Replies...I think most step-parents (and new boy/girlfriends) are given the short end of the stick in movies. I mean, the wicked stepmother trope is an actual thing. And it always made no sense that the father was always sweet and kind and he married this horrible woman before he drops dead. It's so annoying. It's like they have to villainize the other person in order to justify getting the couple- who clearly had problems and divorced for a reason- back together. I also hate when it seems like they didn't address any of the issues that broke them up in the first place. But he made one effort to apologize/change and suddenly the woman forgets 3 years of misery that led to it and they get back together.
Meet the Robinsons.
Agreeable_Oil_936:
Goob just needed some sleep is all.
Geminii27:
I can understand that. I've shouted at people who wouldn't let me sleep, before.
Austin Powers. Dr Evil’s upbringing is tragic: The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a 15-year-old French prostitute named Chloé with webbed feet. My father would womanize; he would drink; he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.
gardenfella:
My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon... luge lessons... In the spring, we'd make meat helmets... When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds—pretty standard, really. At the age of 12, I received my first scribe. At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian named Vilmer ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum—it's breathtaking... I suggest you try it.
ROFL Idk why the part about inventing the question mark makes me laugh the most 😂
Pirates of the Caribbean. This pirate crew found treasure, it was cursed. They became undead, feeling nothing, tasting nothing. A shadow of their former selves. For some reason, everyone was trying to stop them becoming mortal even though it would be easier for all parties to help them restore the treasure.
Also as most pirates are on the ship when the curse is lifted, they surrendered to the Royal Navy. They were all undoubtably hung immediately after the credits role.
Jack wanted his ship back and so was trying to use the curse to his advantage. Why would the Royal Navy believe in an undead pirate curse?
The Royal Navy once brought soil from England along on ships because they thought that scurvy was caused by being too far from your homeland. They believed in a LOT of weird stuff.
Load More Replies...I mean, to be fair, some people were just trying to get them not to kill Will.
They did storm Port Royal and started killing people Kind of hard to get people to help if it is shoot first and as questions later.
Hanged* I'm sure they were hung, but I doubt BoredPanda would prove this to us...
Um, pirates throughout history are not good guys. They kill and rob innocent people. Not heroes.
Because you can be a scallywag and also a good man. They were scallywags who weren't good men. Although we are not told why other than they stranded Jack on a desert island and stole his ship.
Did they miss that the entire crew mutinied on Sparrow and left him to die? Before they got the curse? It may have been that the gold wasn't cursed until they came in contact with it.
Some were probably hung, but they were all undoubtedly hanged after the credits rolled.
Les Miserables. Javert was born inside a jail and we see repeatedly how unforgiving Paris is to children without a support system and the destitute. He miraculously manages to works his way from that to a respectable middle-class job. And that’s before Jean Valjean shows up and becomes the greatest failure of his career eventually driving him to s*icide.
He was certainly a victim of the system, and instead of trying to fix the system he instead became a cog in it.
Sometimes the system is all that you know.
Load More Replies...This is my absolute favorite musical. My favorite song is his suicide. His utter confusion and resentment of a world with no rules (that he can understand) is so real and heartfelt. It makes me cry. Then, I went to prison and got into therapy. I learned critical thinking skills. Now I can't listen to the song without acknowledging all of Javert's thinking errors. Sigh.
That's part of what makes him so fascinating. He's completely flawed in his beliefs, but he just can't see it. So seeing something that overtly contradicts what is so fundamental to who he is just ruins him. He can't live in that world.
Load More Replies...There was no reason for the foley artist to, when Javert jumped to his death, go absolutely HAM on what sounded like a bag full of crab shells.
In the latest movie anyway. It was jarring and HILARIOUS.
Load More Replies...Javert doesn’t know anything more than black and white thinking. No qualifiers, no grey zones. It’s his downfall, and while he’s flawed he doesn’t act out of bloodlust. He isn’t evil, just a tragic, flawed victim of the system.
Mr.Freeze- Batman Animated Series. It won awards I think.
BrokenWalkmanBelt:
Most of the villains, really. BTAS did a great job at humanizing Batman's villains. Mr Freeze just wanted to save his wife, Harvey Dent thought he put a kid in the hospital (but it turns out he was just in there for appendicitis) and it stuck with him his whole life and messed him up mentally, Clayface had his face mangled in an accident and was promised a miracle cure in exchange for a few favors. I could go on and on.
And if you break into the comics, we can add Joker to this list. The Killing Joke is phenomenal and Joker had a great point that all it really takes is one bad day to break someone.
It's when the Batman villains start committing weird crimes killing people that they need to be stopped. I think though that Bruce - or Batman, more likely - is the villain of his own story. There's a great bit in "Blind Justice" (comic from the '90s) in which he's pondering why there isn't justice... why can't he just live a normal life? "Then almost at once, with lacerating clarity, the answer is upon him: that's how Batman wants it. If there were justice in this world for Bruce, he'd... live his life as normal people do. But justice is blind. Blind as a bat." And the panels show Bruce kneeling next to his parents, and Batman offering his hand and child Bruce walking away with Batman. Wow. Really gives you insight into how messed up he is.
That's what makes batman - The Animated Series so great. The villains typically have a solid backstory to make the audience sympathize.
General Francis X. Hummel from The Rock. Joins the military at a young age and believes that he's fighting for his country and commands several special clandestine operations for the government and his men get killed. Because they were black ops, the US government doesn't give their families any benefits, it doesn't recognize them as having even served, and they don't even get military funerals. Hummel pleads with the Government to recognize these men and that they fought and died to further America's interests and he even goes before Congress to ask for the funds. They tell him to kick rocks. When his wife dies, he's had enough and feels he has to force their hand through taking hostages and threatening to launch VX poison gas rockets at population centers. He has no intent to go along with this plot, it's just a bluff.
This is a good one because you see he was really a good guy. He was just trying to do right by his men. And he had no real intention of hurting anyone. His mercenaries did. He's a guy who had been through a ton of hurt.
100% agree. Great idea in theory, poorly executed by guys who didn't understand that it was just about money or more killing.
The Land Before Time. That T-Rex just needed to eat.
Casca_In_Red: In the midst of an ecological collapse, a desperate carnivore pursues its prey for miles, only to be crushed and drowned by them.
FormalMango:
A baby sharptooth cries in the darkness, waiting for their mother who will never return home to them.
Principal Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off He's a (relatively) low-paid administrator who has to run this large high school of privileged white kids who think they're above everyone and know they can get away with terrible behavior. He's just doing his job of keeping kids accountable and in school, and this particular kid is just the worst. Rooney's got a building full of this type of kid and it's a gargantuan task to deal with that daily and not sink into a bottle every night.
While I get the perspective, singling out Ferris as the one he HAS to nail to the wall is weird. Especially the breaking and entering bit. In a school that size, Ferris cannot be the only thorn in this dude's side.
i think it's because Ferris was something of a folk hero and everybody knew him. Even the waste-oid guy Jeannie kisses at the end knew who he was!
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I can't believe no one has mentioned the Thing from The Thing. Poor thing crashed on a hostile planet and was just trying to survive. Humans came along and burned him and blew him up.
Poor thing.
When The Thing came to camp as the dog, the guys were letting it roam free, etc. It was surviving fine. It became a problem when it tried to integrate other living organisms into it and duplicate. At that point it wasn’t about survival.
Breeding or replicating *is* survival. A single organism without others of its species is an evolutionary dead end, a functionally extinct genetic line without a future.
Load More Replies...Yeah... The various movies had their good points, but for sheer naked horror, none of them can hold a candle to John W. Campbell's original story, 'Who Goes There?'. If you haven't read it, look it up; it's been anthologized everywhere, and you may even be able to find the full text online. Bear in mind that it was set around the time of the International Geophysical Year (1958 - 1959, I believe), so it's definitely anchored to that time period. Scary as all c**p (especially when the first time you read it, you're a 16-year old kid all alone in your farmhouse miles from the nearest human, on a stormy night, while your parents are away).
To be fair to the humans and other aliens, the Thing did absorb all of the saucer aliens and other specimens on the saucer (per lore) with the crash either being the result of it not figuring out the ship fast enough or the last alien crashing it in the hopes of killing off the thing that took over all of its mates.
Sid in Toy Story. Neglected, possibly abused child acts out his trauma, then gets further traumatised by posessed toys.
Wait, neglected and abused? I'm pretty sure I remember Sids mom calling him downstairs for pancakes.
Right, because there is no overlap between kids that are abused and kids that get pancakes for breakfast. Is that your logic here?
Load More Replies...I mean idk some kids are just psychopaths, a lot of antisocial kids hurt small animals for fun, whose to say he didn’t also hurt his toys when small animals weren’t available?
Gollums I feel like. It's debatable if he's a villain or not, I always felt sad for that greasy cave dweller.
Right? There is redemption there, but it's just out of reach.
Load More Replies...It's made very clear that he was a victim of the manipulation of the Ring and a testament to its corrupting power. Bilbo was almost turning into a similar creature before he gave it to Frodo to be destroyed. And Frodo actually fell under its spell just before Gollum... stole it back and fell into the lava.
Gollum killed to get the ring. Bilbo showed mercy. Gollum paid a horridly enormous price for his crime. Yet even after 500 years under its influence, Gollum still has a tiny bit of himself. I think he did end up loving Frodo. There were a few times that he showed kindness, or at least understanding. Had Sam not been the "nasty, suspicious hobbit" things might have ended differently. Gollum and Frodo might have tried some sort of truce to keep the ring safe. Not only was Sam the true hero, he was needed to keep Gollum and Frodo from becoming too close, because rather than saving Gollum, it would have destroyed Frodo.
Blade Runner. And it works either way, if you see Batty as the villain or Deckard.
The real villain was Tyrell all along for creating artificial life that would learn to feel and then limiting their life span to be sure it would die before that happened so they could be used as slaves, soldiers and toys without remorse.
Absolutely with you on that, it upset me that breaking that cycle wasn't the point of the story when I first read the book/saw the movie
Load More Replies...We're supposed to root for Deckard but he's thoroughly unlikable. Look how he treats Rachael. And yet he gets to live because Roy values life in the end. So Roy's the hero!
Godzilla. Especially in Son of Godzilla. Godzilla just wants to be, man. Every time he shows up people start shooting at him. That would p**s anyone off, and destroying cities is a good way to nonverbally say stop pissing me off. And as demonstrated in Son of Godzilla, he has emotions and cares for his son. And his son saves a human out of affection for her as well. These are thinking, feeling beings. And if humans would think how to befriend the Kaiju rather than destroy them we could have solid allies. Mothra is a prime example of this. He protects an entire village in exchange for their reverence. Pretty sweet deal.
This is why I hate 'monster' movies. Most of the time, they're just living their lives and then they get attacked because they look scary to humans; you think they're not gonna fight back?
It is often the message of these movies that we are the real monsters. King Kong was just chilling on his island before some a******s decided to make him a freakshow back home. The Jurassic Park dinos just do what is natural to them and we were so arrogant to think we could just make them am attraction. Nedry switching off the safety was the villain there.
Load More Replies...Agreed, I must say I like most of his work. He has a knack of approaching things from unusual angles.
Load More Replies...I love when the son rides on Godzilla’s tail. Corny as heck, but I love it.
"I saw the original - before Godzilla ever got married!" (Points if you know which TV character said that.)
Koba in Planet of the Apes. All he has been exposed to is cruelty and the worst of humanity. Then Caesar tells him he has to forgive humans and let them work on the dam. When someone has been abused and broken that badly, then told they have to ally and work with their abusers. It’s no wonder he snapped. The book between rise and dawn goes into a lot more detail such as his trainer got drunk one day slashed up koba’s face and then used a cigarette to blind him.
Kung Fu panda. Guy was built up his whole life to be the greatest kung fu warrior the world had ever seen, told by his father and mentor that his destiny was to be the dragon warrior. Then betrayed, imprisoned, and vilified when he just wanted what he'd been taught was his. Then dethroned by some outsider, and when he tries to win back his hard-earned place, defeated by dumb luck and magic.
Thai Lung is a pretty cool villain, I hope we see more of him now that he's been teased for the 4th movie
Rocky IV Ivan Drago does literally NOTHING wrong in that whole movie. He's treated like s**t by everyone, and then basically gets screwed over.
Well, he did kill Apollo Creed in an exhibition match. I’d say that’s wrong, no?
He did nothing wrong?! WHAT? He killed Apollo Creed and basically said he didn't care if he dies. He also cheated! He took steroids'! Didn't do anything wrong my a*s!
Then you find out in Creed that because he lost one fight to one of the greatest boxers ever (in the film's universe), his whole life goes to s**t. His wife ditches him, abandoning their son, and the whole establishment turns against him. Yeah, he was juicing but I doubt he was given much choice. All he wants is to achieve something for himself and his son.
Sleepless In Seattle Walter (Bill Pullman). The guy is engaged to a woman he's totally into. He does cute s**t for her and has plans with her for the future (beyond, you know, getting married). She acts super flighty and is pretty dismissive of him. He's understanding and kind. Then she abandons him to fly across the country to meet a guy she heard on a radio show and calls off the wedding to be with radio show guy. That'll do a number on anyone's psyche. Edit: Walter is not really a villain, per say. It's a romcom. But he is the antagonist to Tom Hanks' character.
Spiderman 2. Doc Oc just wanted to provide limitless, cheap energy to everyone and got turned into a monster and controlled by tentacles that he invented for the task. Lost his wife to his own failed experiment. And then committed crime to re-do the experiment, only to abjectly fail again and have to take one for the tram to put things right.
True, but his tentacles neuron net fused to his spine was affecting his decision-making to dangerous levels. Spiderman corrected that by replacing the broken chip in a later movie.
Yes. And that's why it says "... and controlled by tentacles that he invented ..." in that post.
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The bad people in Us just want to live on the surface. :(
Then maybe they shouldn't have started stabbing people with scissors.
While robbing a house is of course is bad, but the two robbers were brutally attacked and nearly killed (some of the traps at least would have killed them in real life). Home Alone.
During both 1 and 2, as soon as it gets to the invasion part, I know they were tryna rob him, but Kevin just KEPT GOING. Kevin is much more psychopathic than the robbers.
Phantom of the Opera.
PerfumedP*rnoVampire:
Idk Erik was pretty creepy and essentially groomed a young girl, but I guess it makes sense when you consider he probably had underlying mental illness on top of being socially ostracized for his appearance all his life.
I guess this one makes more sense if you're talking about the book -- If it's about the musical or movies, then you could definitely see it as grooming.
They sat in booth number 5! They must be punished (this is a joke please don’t downvote me)
Load More Replies...The original Spider Man movies. There’s not a single villain there I don’t love (except Eddie Brock.) Norman Osborne was manipulated into his crimes by the goblin suit when in reality, while not the best man, he cared about Harry, Peter and May. Otto Octavius genuinely was a kind and very smart man, who loved his wife a whole lot and really did like Peter, but was also manipulated by his suit into being a power hungry monster (right after his wife died!). Flint Marko was definitely not a bad man but God, his backstory. I couldn’t hate him, especially in the end. And Harry, poor Harry, he didn’t know what his dad was. In his eyes, Peter was a monster, and by the time he realized the truth it was too late, his dad’s demons took hold of him. Then he died trying to save his best friend.
Billy Madison. Eric Gordon might have been an a*****e but he devoted years of his life working for Madison Hotels, working his way up to become the boss's right-hand man, only for the boss's idiot son to take over because he managed to get a basic education.
Let's not forget Eric blackmailed Billy's principal to lie about Billy's recent success in school. Then when the Principal recants his lies, Eric in his frustration throws the TV remote at his secretary and puts her in a coma. When Eric ultimately loses the Academic Decathlon he pulls a gun and tries to murder his boss' son and then his his boss' son's girlfriend. Not really the actions of a tragic hero. He's lucky he was invited to attend Billy's graduation rather than being in prison for attempted murder.
citricacidx:
TBF Billy recognizes that the hotel stuff really wasn't for him and then steps down as chairman of Madison Hotels and gives the company to Carl, who had also devoted years of his life working for Madison Hotels, eventually becoming Operations Manager. Realizing the value of education, Billy decides to continue pursuing higher education and wants to become a teacher himself.
The Terminator. AI tries to rid the world of a cancerous parasite, which ultimate destroys it. It even tries to go back in time to win, only to find it's avatar in a closed time loop that created the conditions that led to it's destruction. Sad!
Skynet actually bombed the hell out of the world with nukes. It was in self defence to Norad trying to shut it down, but it was a planet wrecking overreaction.
Fun thought: skynet nor the Terminators need to be fully self aware to lead to the movies scenario. If the parameters it was given for enemy and threat were not fully clear it could have just flagged all humans as threats and used its arsenal as efficiently as possible.
Disagree. The AI's solution for curing the 'disease' was to kill the patient...Earth.
Aladdin is the story of a royal Vizier who worked his way to the top, and needs to manage a clearly incompetent Sultan and a Princess whose idea of diplomacy is to sic her tiger on foreign dignitaries. In desperation he turns to magical aid, but the thief he employed to steal the lamp decides to use that magic to seize power for himself, despite *also* having no idea how to administer a kingdom or conduct diplomacy.
i disagree with this one, jafar was clearly attracted to jasmine (who i believe was only 16??) and after he got the lamp, he basically tried to turn her into his sex slave. no sympathy for him
Agreed, he was also very power hungry, I wouldn't quite describe his actions as diplomacy.
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Anton Ego in Ratatouille
He gets a redemption arc so he comes out not the villain but dude is the epitome of a narcissist and food-critic
I like to think his story is really complex, that he had aspirations to become a great chef with Gusteaux, but that is the one time that Chef said that someone couldn’t cook. I want to see the story where he gets all tatted up and is a try-hard on the line but can’t keep up with service and can’t remember recipes. The reason he is a critic is because he thinks he is better than all else. The reason he is in turtlenecks is to hide his throat ink. It’d be such a good story.
Editing to clarify:
He doesn’t have any tattoos that I know of
He was never a chef with Gusteaux that I know of
These are things in my head
And yes he isn’t the “villain” but considering food critics are usually regarded as “the enemy” by chefs I think that is a qualifier
Skinner can also be a villain, but by that measure Collette could be a villain right up until Remi forces Linguini to kiss her to save his a*s, thus sparking a romance. She would’ve likely pushed the poor kid to quitting, and her chip on the shoulder about how she earned her place isn’t far off from Ego’s thought that not anyone can cook.
Two Face. A politician forced to deal with nefarious people. That is burned by acid by a hero. And desires to seek revenge. He loses his girlfriend do to his burns. Isn't appealing for public office anymore. And a really mentally tormented individual after the incident.
The Karate Kid. Johnny Lawrence had a cute girlfriend and was respected in his dojo, until one Daniel Larusso moved to a new town, began flirting with his girlfriend, destroyed his boombox and hosed him. Johnny tries to teach him a lesson, but Daniel recruits an older karate master, who kicks out the c**p of several minors. Daniel gets a classic car as a gift and steals Johnny's GF. Johnny is instructed by his sensei to cheat on a karate tournament, loses and his life path is screwed. Fast forward some years, Johnny is now a loser, jobless, lives in a dump, has an estranged son, knows zip about computers and social media, while Daniel is a successful car salesman, lives in a mansion, is loaded with money, two good kids and a beautiful wife. Johnny tries to start his karate dojo, only to be thwarted again by "hero" Daniel and his former sensei.
Τhat's why I loved Cobra Kai! It gives a better perspective to both their lives
Ummm…no. It was clear that Johnnys EX girlfriend wanted nothing to do with him. He couldn’t take no for an answer and bullied the new guy nearly to death. Johnny was very well trained in martial arts and decided to unleash on a skinny kid with no training simply because he refused to believe his relationship was over.
Cal from Titanic. He brought his fiancé on this brand new luxurious ship to take them to the U.S. to get married. Then she definately has an affair with this poor guy she's never met, and decides to stay on the sinking ship with said poor guy. And Cal almost DIES on the ship himself, as he was in a collapsible lifeboat that was partially flooded. Irl, this caused those in that lifeboat to have serious damage to their legs. So after this seriously traumatic night, what does our "villan" do? He looks for his fiancé that realistically should be dead, and he assumes her to be dead. Everyone does. Then he kills himself after the stock market crash of 1929. Was Cal an angel? No. But he didn't cheat, unlike Rose.
She went out dancing with a person her own age then instead of him trying to understand her/do something she would like he hit her. Glad you think a 17 year old being abused by an older man who is marrying her for her beauty and name is less evil then a girl "cheating" with a boy her own age who actually treats her like a human being.
He was abusive and literally bought Rose and then drove them further down into the wreckage trying to shoot them dead
Gothel in Tangled. Reclusive woman finds a magical flower growing in the woods. It becomes her only friend, to the point that she sings to it to help it grow. But then it reveals a secret: it has magical healing abilities which come out through the power of song. Because she knows anyone else who finds the flower will try to dig it up and take it for themselves, using the immortality the flower gave her, she dedicates her life to protecting the flower. Then, one day the super rich and powerful king sends someone to follow her to discover her secret. He orders his men to dig up the flower so it can be used to save his wife and no one else. Then, instead of replanting it so it will maintain its power, he cuts it and FEEDS IT TO HIS WIFE. Gothel devolves into a grief spiral because she failed to protect the flower, then becomes a villain obsessed with retrieving the flower and protecting it for all eternity.
She is clearly shown to be exploiting the flower for eternal youth and also emotionally abuses Rapunzel all her life. I would love to see a rewrite the way OP describes this, but it's a stretch to say that this is what the movie meant.
Like, OMG, there was this totally sad story from way back, like, in the ancient days of summer camp vibes. So, Jason, he was, like, a bit slow in the brain, you know? But he had this total dream of finding pals and stuff, even though everyone treated him like he was, like, the ultimate uncool outcast. So, Jason decides to hit up this camp, thinking maybe he can catch some good vibes and stuff. But, like, his dreams got totally crushed when a bunch of kids dissed his splash at the lake. Rude much? Anyways, Jason, in his cute goggles, was just trying to be his fab self, swimming around, on the lookout for some underwater fishy friends. Little did he know, there were these two camp counselors sneaking off to a shed for, like, some sneaky adult playtime. So not profesh! In a major bummer twist, Jason gets this mega cramp in his tummy. He's, like, screaming for help, but no one hears him. Especially not those two counselors busy doing who knows what in the shed. Ugh, the worst! And, you know, the poor dude drowns, and his bod isn't even found. Talk about a total downer for Jason Voorhees. Like, hello, world, can't we be a little less harsh? Total sadness, I can't even.
It's supposed to be a stereotype on valley girls gossipping.
Load More Replies...Let's not forget, his mother is the antagonist in the first movie and she has been driven mad by the loss of her son. Poor Jason has somehow managed to survive drowning and has brain damage as a result and manages to live in the forest despite being disabled. He lurks around the camp because it's familiar territory to him and he more than likely scrounges food and supplies there. One night he sees someone behead his mother and this is what causes him to snap.
I want to like this more because it's kind of clever, but it's also giving "trying-too-hard" vibes. Idk.
Friday the 13th, as described by a quintessential early '80s Valley Girl.
Load More Replies...Little Mermaid. Ursula was banished for being unattractive, old, and over weight.
It was the taking souls in exchange for magic favours that got her a bad rap.
Load More Replies...Kill Bill. Bill finds out the woman he loves has not only left him but is carrying their child and marrying another man. He lashes out and kills the new fiancee and nearly kills her, but does so knowing what he’s doing is wrong and hurts himself too. He saves the baby and raises her, allows the woman a chance to survive because he can’t bring himself to kill her again, and then when she does recover she hunts down all his friends and allies and his brother gets killed as well. Ultimately she ends up killing Bill as well and he dies knowing that at least she and the girl can be happy together.
He shot a pregnant woman in the head. He had no clue the baby would survive. There's no redemption for that.
Oh so a man killing someone is ok as long as he has a good reason? I disagree.
Bill: "I'm a murdering son-of-a-bìtch. There are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering son-of-a-bìtch."
Load More Replies...Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz. All she wants is her dead sister's shoes back but the bratty kid who killed her sister won't let her have them.
And then a bunch of midgets start dancing around and singing about how glad they are that she's dead. Like, seriously?
Load More Replies...I didn’t see it but I want to mention Jessica Fletcher. The villain of Murder She Wrote who was a serial killer who was never brought to justice but instead made money selling novels of her murders.
And considering that the only law enforcement was Mr Cunningham from Happy Days, she knew she would never be caught.
Load More Replies...The Santa Clause. You're a psychologist and your stepson is adamant that his father killed Santa and became him, that you went to the North Pole and met elves, etc. The father doesn't refute any of this. Of course you're gonna be worried that the father is a bad influence.
There's a book called "The Dracula Tapes," (by Fred Saberhagen, I think). It's the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but told from Dracula's perspective. "No, no. You got it all wrong! I wasn't trying to KILL Mina Harker! I was trying to SAVE her! Van Helsing was killing her with his stupid transfusions of untyped blood! We vampires have known about blood types for CENTURIES!"
I got a couple. Imagine you’re a dinosaur, just chilling, when suddenly a giant ball of fire kills you. You wake up in some sort of lab, then are sent into an enclosure. You’re a big guy and you need to eat. Plus you hate being kept prisoner, so you break out and start eating these tasty little snacks that also kept you prisoner in the first place. You’re in a completely new world, so you do the only thing you feel comfortable doing. Hunting. The second is Mr. poppers penguins. This dude keeps exotic animals in his apartment which is extremely dangerous for them and possibly illegal, so this guy tries to take them to the zoo where they’ll be safe (he can’t very well mail them back to the South Pole). Then this weirdo who is trying to replace his ex wife with penguins beats you up and steals them. You were just trying to keep them safe because you actually care about them.
Ranger Smith from the Yogi Bear cartoons. When you're a kid, he's this mean park ranger who won't let Yogi enjoy picnic baskets or have fun. As an adult, he's just trying to do his job and keep the park in order but this one bear keeps breaking all the rules and getting into trouble.
How about Khan from the remake Star Trek movie? Guy was doing everything possible to save his crew, the people he loved from being turned into weird weapons of mass destruction. Does the crew of the Enterprise help him? No. They kill him. But they did save his blood to heal the mostly dead radioactive Kirk. So it was all in good fun…
Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz. All she wants is her dead sister's shoes back but the bratty kid who killed her sister won't let her have them.
And then a bunch of midgets start dancing around and singing about how glad they are that she's dead. Like, seriously?
Load More Replies...I didn’t see it but I want to mention Jessica Fletcher. The villain of Murder She Wrote who was a serial killer who was never brought to justice but instead made money selling novels of her murders.
And considering that the only law enforcement was Mr Cunningham from Happy Days, she knew she would never be caught.
Load More Replies...The Santa Clause. You're a psychologist and your stepson is adamant that his father killed Santa and became him, that you went to the North Pole and met elves, etc. The father doesn't refute any of this. Of course you're gonna be worried that the father is a bad influence.
There's a book called "The Dracula Tapes," (by Fred Saberhagen, I think). It's the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but told from Dracula's perspective. "No, no. You got it all wrong! I wasn't trying to KILL Mina Harker! I was trying to SAVE her! Van Helsing was killing her with his stupid transfusions of untyped blood! We vampires have known about blood types for CENTURIES!"
I got a couple. Imagine you’re a dinosaur, just chilling, when suddenly a giant ball of fire kills you. You wake up in some sort of lab, then are sent into an enclosure. You’re a big guy and you need to eat. Plus you hate being kept prisoner, so you break out and start eating these tasty little snacks that also kept you prisoner in the first place. You’re in a completely new world, so you do the only thing you feel comfortable doing. Hunting. The second is Mr. poppers penguins. This dude keeps exotic animals in his apartment which is extremely dangerous for them and possibly illegal, so this guy tries to take them to the zoo where they’ll be safe (he can’t very well mail them back to the South Pole). Then this weirdo who is trying to replace his ex wife with penguins beats you up and steals them. You were just trying to keep them safe because you actually care about them.
Ranger Smith from the Yogi Bear cartoons. When you're a kid, he's this mean park ranger who won't let Yogi enjoy picnic baskets or have fun. As an adult, he's just trying to do his job and keep the park in order but this one bear keeps breaking all the rules and getting into trouble.
How about Khan from the remake Star Trek movie? Guy was doing everything possible to save his crew, the people he loved from being turned into weird weapons of mass destruction. Does the crew of the Enterprise help him? No. They kill him. But they did save his blood to heal the mostly dead radioactive Kirk. So it was all in good fun…
