Designated Villain: Difference between revisions

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

** It has two villains: one is a true villain type - a jerk kid (Lucas) who goes against the heroes in the big video game contest; the other is a guy (Putnam) who tracks down runaway kids for a living, but everyone accuses him of somehow exploiting the kids. Given that he has an attitude and uses tactics more befitting of a child abductor than a professional private detective, there could be some off-screen truth to it.

** He also actively tries to prevent Sam (the two boys' ''father'') from finding them first just so he can collect the reward. At one point, he slashes the man's tires. Certainly doesn't justify all of Sam's interactions with him (such as trying to run him over later), but Putnam was hardly just some well-meaning authority figure caught up in a misunderstanding. The guy could actually be considered an in-universe [[Designated Hero]].

** The UK version of ''The Office'' features this trope in regards to Neil Godwin (Brent's boss) who, according to [[Word of God]], we are not supposed to like. His crimes are neatly summed up in [[The Other Wiki]] as "He is dismissive towards David's dog and shared a joke with Chris Finch at the expense of David's Christmas party date, Carol." That Christmas Party doesn't happen until the very last episode.

* ''[[iCarly]]'':

** Even then, he comes across as more of a [[Jerkass]] than a true villain

** "i Meet [[Fred]]": Because Freddie didn't like Fred's videos, Lucas Cruikshank decides to stop making them. This causes everyone in school to ostracize him, he gets kicked out of every club he was in, and his own relatives start to hate him. But then in turns out that it was all a publicity stunt by Cruikshank. Even after it turns out he was lying, [[Smug Snake|he still makes Freddie apologize and say his videos are funny]]. While he apologizes, he still refuses to say he likes his videos. This leads to [[The Scrappy|Sam]] [[Kick the Dog|beating]] [[The Woobie|Freddie]] [[Designated Hero|and knock him out of a treehouse]]. Dear, [[Dan Schneider]]: If you want us to root for your protagonists, try making them likable first.

** He is, however, stated to be prideful and obsessed with winning. It's implied he may have pulled similar tricks before.

* The Urpneys of ''[[The Dreamstone]]'', who are essentially [[Slave Mook|Slave Mooks]] to the far more malicious Zordrak, ordered into stealing the titular stone with threat of [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] or death if they fail. The heroes are generally apathetic to this situation and have no problem punishing them equally anytime they invade the Land Of Dreams (even using somewhat greyer solutions such as [[Heel Face Brainwashing]] or placing them in certain death situations, on a few occasions). Add to that their highly affable demeanor and camaraderie, and the Urpneys really linger as genuine antagonists.

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'': Mr. Burns shows some shades of this in "The Old Man and the Lisa". While attaching millions of six-pack holders together into a net which he used to catch tons of sea life, in order to make animal slurry is bad action, Mr. Burns wasn't evil in that episode as said by Lisa. Mr. Burns ''didn't know'' that he was doing something that is considered wrong and genuinly believed that was a step in recycling. He didn't even think it was an "ends justify the means" situation, but rather, he wholeheartedly thought that the means were an act of good. Even if it is an evil act, that didn't make Burns himself evil in that situation. It made him misguided at worst and he came as [[Anti-Villain]] [[Knight Templar]] kind of character, but instead we are supposed to think that he was a [[Complete Monster]] and we should have sided with Lisa, who told him that he was even more evil when he tried to be good. And Lisa later tored up the check Mr. Burns gave to her, which he gave to honor the agreement of giving Lisa ten percent of the winnings they made together, yet we should see as bribe. Mr. Burns in that episode was a ''saint'', unlike episodes like "Curse of Flying Hellfish" and the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" two-parter, where he was really evil.

* Happens all the time in Rugrats, often deliberately due to the skewed naive perspective of the babies:

** Didi hires a dog groomer for Spike and the babies just assume for no reason she is really a "dog broomer" who kidnaps dogs and cause all sorts of mayhem for her ("What else could a dog broomer be?"). True Spike didn't want to get groomed but that would make Didi the villain here, not the groomer.