If you ask me, there’s nothing like a well-written villain. The kind of “bad” guy where you know that what he’s doing is wrong, and you understand why the “hero” wants to stop him, but you have such a good sense of what’s driving the madness that you’re kind of rooting for him anyway.
For me, a cool example of this phenomenon is the entire series The Americans, where you know you’re not supposed to be rooting for the murderous Russian spies, but….can you help it?
Here are 17 other times people found themselves on the “wrong” side of the conflict in a story.
17. The Grinch is my patronus.
The Grinch.
Dude just wanted some peace and quiet.
He got bullied for no reason and ostracized into the mountains, and they STILL created enough cacophony to drive him insane.
16. He’s allowed to fight back.
Fast and the Furious.
When they are trying to hijack this guy’s truck and want us to feel sorry for the main characters when he shoots back.
Nope.
15. Nothing, that’s what.
Pirates of the Caribbean 3… But only because of the love story between Davy jones and Tia Dalma… Man’s only asking for 1 day every 10 years and she can’t even bother to make it? What the hell was she even doing that was sooo important?
I had a hard time seeing Jones as a true villain. Yeah he’s cruel and sh%t so he is bad, but I also see where he’s coming from. He’s a villain and does bad things, but a part of me felt sorry for him.
While Blackbeard, even though I love Ian McShane, was just a d%ck for the sake of being a d%ck.
14. Sanity isn’t attractive, I guess.
Bee movie. Come on, a f*cking bee wins over your girl?
The boyfriend was supposed to be the bad guy yet was the most sane person there.
13. Poor writing.
Law Abiding Citizen.
The last 10 minutes of the film makes a storytelling 180 and tries to posit it as a “see, Jamie Foxx was in the right the whole time” and it just feels shallow as h*ll.
Even if the ending was the same Butler was still far more sympathetic and had better reasons for doing what he did than anyone else.
12. They did have it coming.
I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Bunch of rich entitled kids run my a$s over and take off? F*ck them.
11. The rest of us thank you.
Cabin in the Woods
If that’s what it takes to keep the earth from being destroyed…sorry kids, thanks for your sacrifice.
10. He does have a solid ownership case.
Every Trix commercial.
The kids always take the cereal away from the rabbit – even though his face is on the f*cking box.
When I was a kid I actually wrote a letter to the company complaining about how mean the commercials were and how those kids should learn to share like I had learned to share. I complained that they were being bullies.
I actually got a reply from the company and they agreed the kids were bad for acting how they did.
They sent me a trix door hanger and some small toy thing I can’t remember but they never changed those a$shole kids.
9. Team Sharpay.
High school musical… sharpay worked hard for her place in the show and instead of whining (which was all Gabriella did) she tried help troy with his dream using her connections…
She was a little bit of a stuck up bi*ch but 100% better
8. At least that way you’re on the winning side.
After Jurassic Park III I started rooting for the dinosaurs. With everything that went horribly wrong in the first three movies they still built the park and opened it to the public?
Humanity deserves to be eaten at this point.
The dinosaurs were never the bad guys. You make an island full of carnivorous dinosaurs, it’s not their fault that their creators happen to be composed of perfectly edible meat.
7. Carnivores gotta carnivore.
Wil E Coyote. Yes he is trying to eat the Roadrunner, but he is obviously starving and just cannot catch a break, even though he tries so hard.
Sure he can get construction materials and explosives delivered from Acme, but he is clearly outside of DoorDash and Uber Eats delivery areas, or I would send him a burger.
6. Parents already get Squidward.
Spongebob
Squidward is just an introvert who wants his annoying neighbors to f*ck off.
I know Squidward isn’t actually a villain, but I always perceived him that way when I was a kid.
5. You get why he is the way he is.
X Men. Magneto.
“I’ve been at the mercy of men just following orders…….never again.” Best description of why he is who is is ever
4. He wasn’t a bad guy.
Mrs Doubtfire.
Not a bad guy per se, but Pierce Brosnan was battered for no reason in that movie. Robin Williams straight up tried to poison him at one point.
Mrs Doubtfire is one of those movies where people go back and are like “hm the guy we rooted for would be a creep and a stalker irl today”
All Bond did was meet a lady with kids and by all accounts treated them all right
3. Batman is definitely a buzzkill.
Weirdly, the old Batman movies. I was routing for Cat Woman to do her evil thing. Also Mr. Freeze. I guess it was his thing with his wife that got me.
The new Harley Quinn show has a great moment playing off Mr Freezes reasoning. Its something like Mr Freeze says “hey Im not a villain, Im trying to save my wife” – and Penguin asks “…and how are you funding that research?”
And a dejected Mr Frees replies “…through villainy…”
2. Sharks gotta shark.
Jaws 3. A bunch of idiots. The shark should have eaten all of them.
That movie is so bad it’s good. Also, I find it baffling that SeaWorld agreed to let their name be used for such idiotic characters.
Why the h*ll would you want your park to be presented as a place where your staff make irresponsible decisions and your lack of safety precautions results in multiple deaths in a short period of time? Like, that has to be the worst product placement ever.
1. You’d think kids would have learned.
Most of the Friday the 13th sequels. Dude just wants some peace and quiet around his lake.
Jason was just a guy who wanted teens to stop f*cking on his land. Seems pretty reasonable, tbh. Here’s a wild idea: let’s not skinny dip and f*ck at the lake where people keep getting murdered.
Even if they don’t believe in Jason since he’s basically a ghost, the area could be home to a serial killer who just really hates s^x and teenagers.
I’m going to have to check some of these out for sure.
What movie/villain would you add to this list? Please let us know in the comments!
