Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Difference between revisions

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Not necessarily.
 
Sometimes, what people call villains are just... ''misunderstood''. They aren't necessarily ''evil'' or deliberately committing bad deeds, but rather, everybody around them assume that they are the "bad guy" simply because their ideas and goals might not mesh or because they mistakenly believe them to be aiming for bad things. A villain might be misunderstood because of their appearance (for example, the Beast in "[[Beauty and The Beast]]"), as a result of family, [[Bad Powers, Bad People|by the nature of their powers]], or due to circumstances outside of their control.
A villain might be misunderstood because of their appearance (for example, the Beast in "[[Beauty and The Beast]]"), as a result of family, [[Bad Powers, Bad People|by the nature of their powers]], or due to circumstances outside of their control.
 
CanThis can also refer to characters who aren't deliberately portrayed as antagonists, but are still misunderstood in a negative light. [[Dark Is Not Evil]] is a close relative of this trope; a character who is dark but not evil is likely to be mistaken for a villain due to their scary exterior.
 
[[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- or, sometimes, that they're doing anything wrong in the first place.
[[Dark Is Not Evil]] is a close relative of this trope; a character who is dark but not evil is likely to be mistaken for a villain due to their scary exterior.
 
[[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 with a Heart of Gold]], and, for nonsapient creatures, [[Non-Malicious Monster]]. When the fandom makes dubious or obviously wrong claims that a villain is this, it's [[Draco in Leather Pants]].