Designated Villain: Difference between revisions

* The Computer Club President from ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' could be considered this. Yes, he cheated in the RTS game, but it was only to get back the computer that Haruhi essentially ''stole'' via some rather cruel blackmail.

* In ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' (the anime), {{spoiler|Faldio's}} 'villainhood' is very poorly executed. {{spoiler|He saves everyone's lives with his desperate gamble in activating Alicia, but gets only grief and reproach from everyone, even himself - though nobody ever suggests a possible alternative to his course of action.}} That Alicia survives to live happily ever after, whereas Faldio has an ignominious death off-scene, compounds the problem. Many fans of the game hate his prominence in the anime *anyway*, so they're likely not to care.

 

 

* ''[[For Your Eyes Only (fanfic)|For Your Eyes Only]]'': Sakura largely the result of [[Die for Our Ship]]. She's labeled as a "slut", even though she does nothing more than brush off Naruto. And when she gets killed by Sasuke, no one mourns her death.

** Sakura gets this alot to the point people makes her parents evil just because.

** The situation is a bit more complex than this because in canon, every adult member of the Uchiha Clan other than Itachi—most especially including the elders<ref>And remember, the Narutoverse is a world where simply being 90+ years old still doesn't stop you from being a combatant death machine on legs, if you're a ninja. Just ask Sarutobi.</ref> -- ''actually was'' a traitor to the village and plotting murder and revolution. (Furthermore, ''are'' their non-ninja Uchihas? They are a bloodline clan, after all. Everybody with the right genes would be expected to use them in ninja service). You're entirely correct about 'what, so Sasuke was the only child then?'

* Most of the antagonists in ''[[Christian Humber Reloaded]]''. If you're not familiar with the source material, they hardly seem evil compared to Vash, since apart from marshaling their forces to attack the good guys, their canon misdeeds are rarely described in detail. This especially goes for one group of "snobs" that Vash attacks, killing thousands and doing trillions of dollars worth of damage in the course of doing so. And while there is no apparent reason for this, they are apparently meant to be seen as evil enough to deserve it.

 

== Literature ==

* Jill in ''[[The Girl Who Owned a City]]''. Her arguments in favor of voting and collectivism seem rather reasonable, but are dismissed in favor of the [[Mary Sue]] objectivist main character.

* For those who wonder what Clifford Simak was up to before writing ''Skirmish'', seek out an old work known as ''The Goblin Reservation''. [[Offstage Villainy]] is taken to the greatest extreme ever seen, with a single remark about rumors of atrocities combined with [[Beauty Equals Goodness|a hideous appearance]] being enough to condemn the entire species of the Wheelers as [[Exclusively Evil]]. [[It Got Worse|To top it off]], {{spoiler|we find out towards the end that the Wheelers were a former slave race who [[Turned Against Their Masters]], but said masters are never shown in anything other than a positive light.}}

** Cara also helped overthrow the evil overlord who was in charge of the brainwashing. So, it could be argued that she had broken her brainwashing and was already helping people without anyone forcing her to. Cara was also happy for them to kill her.

* Possibly used in ''[[Survivor (TV series)|Survivor]]: Heroes vs. Villains'', where people like Sandra and Coach could hardly be considered villains ([[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when Jeff asks if anyone thinks they were put on the wrong team); and Rob, who (shockingly) played the game more heroically than most of the Heroes. The episode where {{spoiler|he gets voted off}} is even titled "I guess I'm not really a good villain". Also subverted with Parvarti and Russel, who said "what did I do that was so bad?" and ended up being the primary antagonists season after season.

* ''[[Smallville]]'':

** [[Lex Luthor]] is an infamous example of this, performing many selfless (and debatably noble) acts throughout the first few seasons (including risking his life to save Clark's class from a hostage taker and saving his semi-abusive father from a tornado), only to be persistently described as having negative motivations all along when very few have actually been observed in him during his screentime...In later seasons, he regularly commits murders and performs unethical experiments, having crossed the line into ''actual'' villain.

** More [[Egregious]] is the way Clark himself was depicted vis-a-vis Lana. While Clark was certainly never depicted as a ''villain'' in canon, the show ''did'' seem intent on convincing viewers that Clark being uncomfortable with revealing his secret to Lana somehow makes him a horrible, nasty [[Jerkass]] who needs to learn how to "be open about [his] emotions". Worst of all, whenever Lana did something manipulative or bitchy towards Clark, the show would try to portray her as being ''justified'' simply because Clark was uncomfortable with revealing his secret to her, and the showrunners would try to portray this as being an appropriate punishment for Clark's so-called crime.

* ''Heartland'' had a rather idiotic example in their Christmas movie. We're supposed to cheer for the heroes who, among other things, rallied a town against the old man who's trying to stop them from rescuing a bunch of horses trapped by a landslide, while they mount a rescue effort. Except, the old man ''owns'' the horses in question, so he IS entitled to tell them to piss off, and he DOES have the right to shoot the sick horses to put them out of their misery! At the end, they are even wondering if they should let him have them after he has his change of heart?! To sum up those points, a bunch of strangers come into town, get themselves involved in his business, get everyone against him, deny his basic right to do what he wants with his property, and actually consider rustling them for themselves. They were going for a [[Broken Aesop]], right?

* ''[[Glee]]'':

** They arrested Faith's sister after ''framing her in the first place''. Also, they killed people who protested that the city was becoming totalitarian, including the protagonist's mother.

* Most of the Portrait Ghosts in ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]'' don't even attack, and seem fairly content with just hanging around the mansion.

* Cao Cao and the Wei forces in ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'', in keeping with his characterization from ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]''. The game runs on this. No matter who you play as, the other 2 kingdoms (and minor forces) tend to be painted as the bad guys (which makes sense, since they're trying to unite china under their rule too), so it's a conflict of interest. Except [[Complete Monster|Dong Zhuo]] and, to a lesser extent, [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|Lu Bu]].

* Played with in ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]''. During the search for Amelia, you run into Rodger, and then run into a bandit leader. He was willing to ignore you and go about his way, but the party members kept saying he looked 'evil'. The only reason you fight him is because they wouldn't stop saying that and the bandit snapped.

** It has the unique distinction of having Designated [[Villain Protagonist]]s, in the form of the Eds. They [[Butt Monkey|always lose and end up being treated like crap]] by the end of nearly every episode, and Eddy is the only one that ever deserves any of it, even if they didn't even do anything that bad. Add to this the fact that most of the rest of the cast [[Karma Houdini|gets away with]] being [[Jerkass|insufferable little assholes]] who are unconditionally mean to the Eds with [[Law of Disproportionate Response|little]] or [[Kafka Komedy|no]] provocation.

** Though Eddy's main schtick is [[Ambition Is Evil|scamming the other kids and being exceptionally greedy]], he's often forced to pay the price for attempting legitimate business ventures. More often than not, he (or the other Eds) put a lot of effort into these businesses. An example of this is an incredibly elaborate theme park ride that showcases the sort of [[Bamboo Technology]] we might expect from the future, not unlike the kind people ride frequently at Disney World. {{spoiler|They eventually manage to break out of their role in [[The Movie]].}}

* Tom from ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' is usually attacked by Jerry unprovoked. Jerry is portrayed as the hero. No matter what happens, Jerry is viewed as being right and Tom is always punished. The worst examples are when Tom is, in an episode set in the past, ''executed'' when he was ''just doing his job.'' Tom's job in this short was simply defending his home's supplies and nothing malicious. To be fair, the shorts had plenty of other instances where Tom would [[For the Evulz|pick on Jerry for fun]].

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'':