The Jungle Book (novel)/YMMV

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• Designated Villain: Nag and Nagaina want to kill the humans in the bungalow for a fairly sympathetic cause - they simply wish to raise their children in the house. Yet they're described in the narration as utterly contemptible characters with no redeeming qualities.
  • Although, granted, Nag did eat one of Darzee's children that fell out of the nest...
  • Rikki Tikki murders Nagaina's family and then gloats about it to her face, similarly to protect his adopted human family. Given the regarding of natural predators in the books' narrative, it's hard to see the former act as exceptionally evil unless it's a Double Standard.
• Unfortunate Implications: In Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, we read about a heroic mongoose who fights against two cobras who want to kill the humans in the bungalow so that they can raise their children. Okay. But if, in the story, all animals are sapient like people, why should humans be considered objectively worth more than cobras? One could argue that it would make more sense for Nag and Nagaina to succeed in their plan, since the lives of three individuals would be sacrificed for the benefit of dozens more. Overlaps with What Measure Is a Non-Human?
  • If I recall correctly, Rikki-Tikki was simply defending the family he'd come to love. That, and he's a mongoose - killing snakes is just what they do.
  • If someone, be that a human or a cobra, desides they want to kill me and my family just so they coud raise their kids in my house, I'd consider them pretty evil. Human family had a kid too, now, should he be sacrificed just because cobras outnumbered humans?