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Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Difference between revisions
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[[File:not_evil_just_misunderstood_1387.png|link=Nedroid|right]]
Villains are bad, right? They have [[Evil Plan|evil plans]] that involve [[Take Over the World|world domination]], [[The End of the World
Not necessarily.
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[[Obliviously Evil]] is a subtrope (despite the name), when a character doesn't have the malevolent intent to really be considered an evil person, but causes serious harm anyway because they don't understand that what they're doing is wrong. Or, sometimes, that they're doing anything wrong in the first place.
See also [[Justified Criminal]], [[Anti-Villain]], [[Tragic Villain]], [[Misunderstood Loner
{{examples}}
== Anime ==
* Poor Gaara of ''[[Naruto]]'' started as this. All he wanted was to have a friend, but the entire village was convinced that he was a monster, and this upset him, which caused the ''real'' monster sealed in him to act up. Even after he finally [[Despair Event Horizon|lost all hope and gave in to Shukaku]], deep down, he was just a lonely child who lashed out at the world to protect himself.
* In the same vein as Gaara, Lucy from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' only wanted love and acceptance. However, she only received [[Fantastic Racism|bitter]] [[Orphanage of Fear|contempt]], which culminated in some kids beating a stray puppy she took care of, the only creature in the world she cherised, to death in front of her while mocking her misery. This, plus the [[Not What It Looks Like|apparent betrayal]] of [[Woman Scorned|the boy she fell in love with]], plus the murder of her best friend at the hand of the man who imprisoned her for years [[The Alcatraz|in a research facility]] that could be better described as [[Nightmare Fuel|a new Auschwitz]], lead young [[Only Known
* Poor, Poor No Face in [[Spirited Away]]. He's lonely, shy, and so desperate to make Chihiro happy. Sure, some of the things he did were a bit too far, but he had good intentions deep down.
== Comic Books ==
* Lex Luthor, [[Depending
* {{spoiler|Ozymandias}} from ''[[Watchmen]]''. Now ''there's'' a misunderstood villain. He single-handedly kills off half of New York City in order to avert a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union that would destroy the world. I'm still not sure whether Alan Moore was trying to portray him as the villain or the tragic hero of the story. If he's the hero, then that'd make Rorschach the villain, and he's definitely misunderstood as well.
** Wait...Was {{spoiler|Ozymandias}} the hero and Rorschach the villain, or Rorschach the hero and {{spoiler|Ozy}} the villain? [[Mathematician's Answer|Yes.]] [[Black and Gray Morality]] doesn't even ''begin'' to define Watchmen.
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== Film ==
* Jessica Rabbit from ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'':
{{quote| "I'm not bad...I'm just drawn that way"}}
* The original 1954 ''[[Godzilla]]'' film shows that he's as much a victim of the atomic bomb as everyone else.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
{{quote| "They want me to be nice, they want me to be good<br />
But I'm a simple rotten guy, tho's just misunderstood" }}
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== Theatre ==
* If anyone knows anything about the musical ''[[Wicked (
** The same could be said for the Wicked Witch of the West in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (
* Inspector Javert from ''[[Les Misérables]]'' is not evil; he's more misguided than anything else. This is evidenced near the end of the show in his soliloquy.
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== Video Games ==
* The Charr of ''[[Guild Wars]]'' have been revealed to be this in ''[[Guild Wars 2]]'', now that their side of the story has been presented. Yes, they are ruthless and militaristic, but their war against humans in the first game was a struggle to reclaim their occupied homeland, and the human propaganda painting them as [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] who love to enslave and eat humans was precisely that - propaganda.
* [[
* The {{spoiler|geth}} of ''[[Mass Effect]]''. Most [[Heroic Neutral|just want to be left alone]], and the ones you fight in ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'' are actually [[Vocal Minority|a splinter group]] that worship the [[Omnicidal Maniac|rea]][[Eldritch Abomination|pers]]. This is especially true in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', when {{spoiler|geth memories of the Morning War depict them in an extremely sympathetic light, depicting the quarians as [[Neglectful Precursors]] or even [[Abusive Precursors]]. They spared the fleeing quarian survivors and even ''want peace'' with them}}. Unfortunately, the splinter group running around wreaking havoc, and their [[Blue and Orange Morality]], mean they are all painted as [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]].
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* [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters]]
* Animals recognized for a pattern of savage attacks on humans will always have some people come to their defense claiming this. [[Grizzly Man
* Related: Pit bulls. They were bred for dogfighting, so they attack other dogs a ''lot''; however, for the exact same reason, they've also been bred to get along well with humans<ref>You don't want a dog that strong trying to bite your fingers off, after all</ref>. The end result is that well-socialized pit bulls are often great dogs, but between dogfighters and the number of people who just want a "badass" [[Angry Guard Dog]] and [[Did Not Do the Research]], they've got such a reputation for violence that the breed is actually ''banned'' in some places.
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