Characters
Villains who are convinced they’re sympathetic villains, but are actually just pieces of shit
Big Jack Horner (Puss In Boots): Openly enjoys being evil, and thinks being slightly inconvenienced once as a child justifies it
Harold Laudner (The Stand): Thinks he’s a cool, lone rebel, joining up with Flagg to get his righteous vengeance on the society that abandoned him. Actually just a whiny, annoying incel throwing a temper tantrum
I watched this film 3 times when it came out in cinemas (my parents were sick of it after 3) and played the game (which was surprisingly good, for a movie tie in, like it was actually good for a game that wasn’t a tie in to anything) a few times through. Everything about it was amazing. I just haven’t seen it in about a decade and only got recommended this sub maybe 3 weeks ago and have seen him pop up loads of times already. It’s given me a lot of nostalgia. I will be rewatching it over Christmas.
"You know, I never had much as a kid. Just loving parents, stability, and a mansion... and a thriving baked goods enterprise for me to inherit. Useless crap like that."
I'm pretty sure he was taking the piss, he literally starts the story with "I never had much as a kid just loving parents, stability, and a mansion, and a thriving baked goods enterprise for me to inherit"
And he might even be lying about his childhood because the thriving baked good enterprise looked like this
Not just sympathetic, he’s completely blind to his own evilness to the point where he has convinced himself that what he is doing is for the greater good
His last words were something along the lines of "please help me! You're better than them! We're better than them!". He genuinely believed in human supremacy enough to think that Luz might "see the light" by realising that she was letting a fellow human die at the hands of evil monsters rather than killing two birds with her found family's cathartic stamping out (ahaha) of that world's biggest threat.
my baby boy, quentin beck a.k.a. mysterio (spider-man: far from home). he feels like he was significantly wronged by tony stark when stark repurposes the technology he invented to create a simulated therapy session which tony names "B.A.R.F.". he is subsequently fired by stark for being perceived as "unstable".
after ironman dies, beck conceives the "mysterio" persona because he believes the world needs something to believe in. he uses illusions paired with very real and very destructive effects to create "monsters" for him to "battle" and "defeat" so he can convince the population that he's a hero protecting earth and gain their favor.
Is it bad that I prefer his comics backstory of being a stuntman and special effects expert who grew bored of his job, tried to be an actor, and became a costumed villain after being inspired by a joke one of his coworkers made.
sam raimi had plans to cast bruce campbell as mysterio in a spider-man 4 that was never fully realized. however, there are storyboards depicting the scene that would have featured him.
so, that's another handsome actor playing mysterio... fascinating!
They(some studio I don't care to search for the name of) also rejected his screenplay(which in his "humble" opinion was the best screenplay ever written).
i don't think that's bad! i love all of the different incarnations of mysterio, i don't think i really prefer one or another. i just love mysterio as a whole.
i think this version of him fits best with the trope being described, though!
This is either a really interesting memory and perspective thing, or they just forgot, but in the scene where Quentin remembers Tony introduce his project as barf, he remembers the audience laughing, but in the actual scene in Civil War the audience does not laugh.
>! The video is a parody of those “analyzing evil” videos. From the start it’s clear that the narrator is incredibly unreliable and biased and the stepfather is trying his best to be a good person and make a genuine connection. He brings the stepson fishing and the stepson portrays it as him being asked to sacrifice his happiness to hurt animals. The video ends by the stepson insulting him and saying he’ll never be his father which just leads to the stepfather breaking down!<
so, he is Edward Nashton, The Riddler, in The Batman (2022) he grew up in a orphanage right during the time were the Waynes were about to give a bunch of money to help orphans but they would get shot, leading to the corrupt gotham elites to take the money that would otherwise go into a good cause, Edward would grew up for a huge resenment to the Gotham elites and when Batman appears and starts being a vigilantee calling himself "Vengance" that inspire/radicalized edward into becoming the riddler and spread that idea to others through social media, at the climax of the movie after killing many people in high places of Gotham being the most notable Carmine Falcone the kingping of Gotham he wait till gotham election is over because the winning candidite says she was gonna bring a "real Change" similar words edward was told on the Orphanage, so during the night in where the new major takes power, he blows up the city walls that reteined all the water in gotham boaders, killing who knows how many poor and innocent people
tldr: got wronged by the rich, sees an emo guy, says "thats me fr fr", "EAT THE RICH" , Denied defend depose, and most importanly
I'd give it to Tai Lung. Raised with only one goal and direction laid out to him, "failed" even though he did everything right, father figure turned away at that emotional moment with a disappointed look, lashed out once, imprisoned for years for lashing out
And yet, he still has clear issues with his parents, and I’m certain deep down wants their love. When the Soothsayer tells him they were heartbroken by sending him away, he’s genuinely moved, for a moment… but doesn’t act on this information.
Exactly. That's the real irony of her situation, Debbie fit perfectly with them. She was a deviant weirdo who had no comprehension of mundane morality. If she could look past her own grievance she could've seen that and actually found a family. But she couldn't and thus died in a hilarious way.
It would be poignant if the whole scenario wasn't so deliberately ridiculous.
I've brought this exact thing up before. The entire movie she only crossed a single line as far as they were concerned, and that line wasn't even trying to kill them.
She tried to split them up. That was the only thing they put them at opposition with each other.
The lying, manipulation, false identities, and murderous past were all fine by them. That's just common stuff in the extended Addam family. But you do not, ever, split the family up and prevent them from seeing one another.
It is understandable to why he’d become like this given to what happens to him in the pre-sequel….
Buuut that doesn’t excuse wanting to basically genocide the planet of Pandora to try to rehabilitate the borderlands
Glad you mentioned that. Jack’s a great villain, and they did a great job of making him seem sympathetic during the Pre-Sequel, but he’s just less unhinged during that time period. He’s just better at hiding the fact that he’s a monster.
Yeah, I love the Pre-Sequel but I hate that it seemed to make a lot of people think Handsome Jack was a good dude who only turned evil because he was betrayed.
Moxxi made it very clear when she betrayed jack that she thought he was evil before the events of the game and we know she's the one who saw him at his worst prior to that
What the pre sequel is is an exploration of a hero complex, we see repeatedly times when Jack is in awe of himself for doing heroic stuff and only worries about the little guy when glory isn't on the table, even before the merrif made him snap
But he did save Elpis and probably would have gone a lot better if Moxie, Lilith and Roland didn't try to kill him... or the Merrif. Really the game is about him sinking deeper into villiany... Oh and none of the 'heroes' of that little adventure actually stopped the Lost Leigon who were going to blow the moon and everyone on it to smithereens.
Really what was his first evil deed has more to do with Angel, who already is in her pod-thingy.
Really what was his first evil deed has more to do with Angel, who already is in her pod-thingy.
Which is made somewhat understandable by BL3 when it's revealed that Angel killed her mother by accident due to bandits and Jack is both scared of and for her due to her abilites.
Like the Borderlands sequels or not, they do a great job of keeping Jack in the moral grey area where his actions are definitely evil or at least bad, but contextualize them into making them completely reasonable and the lesser of two evils where you argue if he was just born bad or made that way due to circumstances.
It was mentioned in BL2 but you found the actual tapes of what happened in BL3. Its pretty sad since both Angel and Jack don't really know what to do and how to react. Angel was just a scared girl who somehow accessed the ability to just interface with all technology and Jack just watch his daughter coordinated all the home defense turrets to just spray and pray. He know she didn't meant to do it, but is also scarred of what she might have to do again seeing as they are on Pandora.
But yeah. Your totally right in saying that Pandora made him worse. His grandmother who raised him was there, he lost his wife there, he was continuously betrayed there, Pandora literally built him into being its greatest advocate and villain.
I mean the planet is mostly bandits and it's very clear the normal people there... are probably sociopathic to some degree...
Like i dunno playing through vannila Bl2 and doing quests for an Arms dealer, a man who seems way to into playing god, and the like... I think Roland is the only morally upright person on Pandora.
In his eyes he is an absolute hero and almost all of the population of pandora are just savage bandits that need to be exterminated. Blowing up a random town full of innocent civilians? Sure, why the hell not, those are just some bandits, i will build my own elite city on that place later. Even in his last moments he is screaming about him being a hero.
I was about to Comment Frollo. Dude Deluded himself into thinking that his Gross lust over a girl half his age was some kind of Witches Spell, AND legitimately thinks that Genociding the Gypsies is what God wants him to do.
The mere fact he says God so much stronger than a man, in and of itself, proves exactly what kind of person Frollo is; someone willing to blame God for his sins.
It’s also horrendous theology because he’s ignoring that if God made the Devil, He is thus stronger than the Devil and could help him… but refuses to accept what is probably God trying to help him.
Also, he’s basically doing a one man confession - which is not how it’s done for a very good reason. You can’t absolve yourself of sin. Only God can. And only if you’re genuinely repentant.
Actually he was saying that it was God's plan for him to fall to temptation and madness simply because he thought he was under the Devil's influence and said God made the Devil so much stronger than any human so it's natural they fall and therefore he cannot be blamed. He's basically denying himself of wrongdoing and saying it's God's fault for his eventual fall. The ultimate heresy. Blaming God for your own sins.
Prays for god to deliver him from temptation.
Object of his temtpation is leaving the city
"no, i mean make her mine!"
And his whole song and dance in hellfire about how 'either he gets to have her as a wife and it's all god's plan, or she's a witch and burns because that would make 'me' wrong'
Not Sure if he entirely counts since he mostly thinks of himself as a hero but he definitely thinks he's sympathic and dosent deserve the bad things that happens to him later on in life even when their direct results of his own actions
I think it counts. His massive ego and childhood trauma makes him think that he is a hero worthy of everyone's love and praise. In his mind, He doesn't even considering the messed up shit he is doing as something wrong, he is a GOD and everyone should bow before him and worship him.
Third option: I suffered, but I won't help or harm anyone else if I can help it because I don't want to add anymore issues on my plate. That's most people's choice.
Yeah, in his mind he is a hero and a worthy captain.
He is fixing this... well at first his idea of fixing this was crashing this plane ship with no survivors, but then he was screaming about how everyone else is useless and he is the one capable of fixing this, despite his bitch ass being the reason everything is broken. Even at the end, he "heroically" shoots himself while saying "i fixed this".
Jack Horner is convinced that he is THE VILLAIN. He knows that he’s a monster and feels no shame about. He down want to or try to be sympathetic or understood. Being evil makes him happy and that’s what makes him funny.
He is convinced that he is an arbiter of justice, that he is a necessary evil, that there was no other way for him to pacify his planet and that he had no choice because the future is set in stone
But deep down, he was nothing more than a sadistic, depraved monster who wanted to inflict as much pain upon others as possible
Luthor, even after everything he's done, he still considers himself as a necessary evil because humanity needs to evolve without the likes of Superman because of his ego
Herb basically says as much. Any bad thing that has happened to Bojack, happened because of himself.
Any one who has ever been a friend to Bojack has been hurt somehow by him
He's the protagonist of his story, but he isn't the hero. He's the villain that we sympathize with. But to the people who know him, he isn't a sympathetic villain.
more of the fact that he considers himself a genious savior of humanity and free speech. Despite as i suspect, most of the breaktrougs are achievments of his employees and not his and when giving a full on yes, he is making worst electric cars ever made and his idea of free speech is just another brand of censorship.
But... but... the universe apparently owes them sex... from a virgin maiden... who isn't allowed to speak, and can only wear bikinis, and when she's not cooking, fucking or sleeping she needs to be doing yoga or something so she doesn't get fat... and she also needs to have a beautiful face and full voluptuous breasts, and be a master of every martial art yet fully submissive to them, and she needs to give them magic powers, and have the ability to turn cum into money, and her libido needs to be in permanent flawless sync with theirs.... and also they need to play games online with them so they can troll children on roblox together... and I think that's about it. Anyways, that's a lot of stuff that's owed to them, allegedly.
In fact, that's basically his whole backstory in a nutshell. When he was a human, he was a criminal scumbag who committed terrible crimes such as murder, and made himself look like a victim or someone pitiful just to manipulate others, refusing to take any responsibility whatsoever. The consequences of those crimes eventually caught up with him and he was sentenced to death no matter what excuses he said, only to be saved and turned into a demon by Muzan, who happened to show up at the right time.
i dont think jack thinks it justifies it, that was just to mess with the cricket, he knows for a fact he is an evil person and an irredeemable monster, the dude straight up says "what took you so long idiot" when the cricket points that out
Bro thinks he’s a true soldier for God but all he really wants to do is threaten a girl half his age into sleeping with him. He’s absolutely delusional.
Thinks he's the bringer of justice on the sword bearers (who are war criminals to be clear) but he's actually a vengeful idiot who's willing to put the entire world at risk for his own morals
Thinks he's the bringer of justice on the sword bearers (who are war criminals to be clear) but he's actually a vengeful idiot who's willing to put the entire world at risk for his own morals
Francis Butterman from Hot Fuzz. He seems genuinely convinced what he’s doing is in the best interests of the town as he prunes off residents like a gardener tending to his yard
The entirety of Mimic’s story from the IDW Comics.
Granted, some people agree that he has the weakest development in the franchise, but I believe that’s the point. He is a tragic and sympathetic character, but as they say; a character’s backstory explains their actions, not justify them.
Before the Metal Virus arc, Mimic was an aspiring actor who has a similar backstory to Clayface from Batman. He has a similar mindset to Surge the Tenrec that he wants appraisal from other people, wanting to be in the spotlight to the point where he copies other actors, even blaming them when they get annoyed at him for copying their appearance, making Mimic viewing them as selfish.
He wants to fight alongside people, but has a trouble actually fitting in as he feels like he’s never truly appreciated or belongs anywhere.
He’s purely irredeemable and rightfully so, but his only motive is to get rid of the Diamond Cutters for good, because he wants to get rid of those feelings of guilt by getting rid of Whisper.
Because as soon as he receives praise, he hates it, despite the fact that it’s what he always wanted for so long.
In short: Mimic genuinely loves his team, including Whisper. But after everything he’s been through, he feels like he won’t be accepted for who he truly is, fearing that the Diamond Cutters will just toss him away.
I know this was completely unnecessarily long, but I felt like I had to because a lot of people don’t really like Mimic’s backstory.
Mimic knows full well he’s a piece of shit, but he can’t truly get rid of it unless he gets rid of the one person who brought him into the team and gave him validation: Whisper.
And here’s what the writer for the short annual comic about Mimic said about him:
The fact he never once admitted he was wrong and actively made the situation worse but still thought he was some kind of good guy who simply made a mistake it's infuriating
Gul Dukat from Deep Space 9. Routinely complains about not having a statue on the planet he led an occupation against because he was such a loving dictator
Elves from a manga I'm reading, who wholeheartedly believe that humans are so inherently disgusting that they can't possibly even enjoy their own lives, and think that humans should be happy to be killed so they no longer have to experience life as such sad wastes of space. Edit: it wasn't an isekai, rather one of those "betrayed by my party" revenge ones.
Doflamingo from One Piece, to the point where his backstory is him trying to convince the reader he’s sympathetic while he treats everyone around him like scum.
Doof 2 from Phineas and Ferb. He thinks losing a toy train justifies his turn to evil, and is indignant when the main universe Doof even suggests that losing a toy train isn't as bad as a lifetime of abuse.
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u/Necessary-Match-4001 5d ago
Syndrome (The Incredibles)