Have you ever watched a movie––let's say it's a traditional story of good triumphing over evil––only to find yourself siding with the bad guy?
It happens. Growing up, I used to watch Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! all the time (I'm sorry, everyone) and I always wondered why in the world we were supposed to want The Grinch to go down there and enjoy all the Christmas cheere when the Whos are downright terrible to him. Granted, the movie takes a ton of liberties with the source material (a short and sweet Dr. Seuss book) but those liberties don't exactly make us want to spend time with the Whos either. Was that the point? Who knows? If I did have to suffer through the annoyance of the Whos, I hope I'd at least get some scrumptious roast beast out of the deal.
After Redditor LigmaLover6 asked the online community, "Which movie villain do you agree with?" people shared their selections and their reasoning. They make some pretty convincing cases.
"Not in any specific movie..."
Hades
Not in any specific movie but just the fact that he's always a villain dispite him just chilling in the underworld, doing his job, and not causing mass genocide, like the other gods, the worst thing he did was kidnap a teenage girl but compared to Zeus, THE HERO IN ALL THESE DAMN MOVIES he's not that bad.
"I'm not saying..."
Doc Ock. I'm not saying that I'd sooner rob a bank than beg for grant money, but I get where he's coming from.
"The guy just wanted..."
Dr Freeze. The guy just wanted to find a way to save his wife. Batman even once tried to help him with it.
"His people were massacred..."
General Grievous.
His people were massacred by the Jedi for reasons that were false. He was then physically crippled for the rest of his life (our side of his exoskeleton) and was told that the Jedi were to blame. He destroyed as many as he could and took their weapons as a trophy to exact his revenge for the Jedi ruining his life and pushing his people to the brink of extinction.
"He just wants..."
The Grinch. He just wants to live alone in his gaff with a dog and the who people won't stop bothering him.
"Buddy had all his people pretty much wiped out..."
Scar from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. Buddy had all his people pretty much wiped out by the government and then targets government Alchemists in revenge.
"The government and Tony Stark..."
When I saw Spider-Man Homecoming, I was like "Hey. Wait a minute." Adrian Toomes (Vulture) actually has a point here. The government and Tony Stark completely screwed him over with malice aforethought. After that opening scene, I was like "F*ck Tony Stark, I'm with Toomes on this one."
"He's an escaped slave..."`
Roy Batty. He's an escaped slave who is pissed he, his girlfriend and friends will die soon anyway from four year lifespans they were genetically engineered with. The main people he and his group kills or injures are morally bankrupt genetic engineers who became rich off slavery and corrupt racist cops.
"Making stronger versions..."
Mewtwo. Making stronger versions of existing Pokémon is basically the point of Pokémon breeding.
"He always thought humans..."
Magneto.
He always thought humans would try to destroy mutants and he was right because they tried. He might have not been completely right, but man it's hard not to feel some sympathy for him after the sh*tty hand that life dealt him early on.
"If my best friend..."
Spinel from Steven Universe: The Movie. If my best friend abandoned me for 6000 years I'd be pretty mad too.
"His outlook was no different..."
Ozymandias from Watchmen. The guy just wanted world peace. His outlook was no different from the 'sacrifice the few to save the many' calculus that nation states do today.
"He does everything right..."
King Orm from Aquaman. He does everything right as a king. Yet loses the support of his trusted advisor, loses the girl and the kingdom.
"Even though he does go a bit crazy at the end..."
Bill Foster from Falling Down. Love that movie so much. Even though he does go a bit crazy at the end, it's so relateable watching his evolution as a character throughout the movie. From the way he gets ticked off by little things all the way up to addressing real problems in society. I don't know if he is a villian or an 'anti-hero' more, but that is my pick!
"Besides being an absolute cutie..."
Richmond Valentine from the first Kingsman movie.
Besides being an absolute cutie with his lisp and his blood phobia, I think he really does have a point... To say it with more famous words: "There's too many men, too many people, making too many problems."
Hear me out. Even tho the 'perfect' thing would be something divine and inevitable deciding to decimise the numbers of human beings in the world (like a meteor or some sh!t). I feel he's got the "I know I'm the bad guy but I do what has to be done" spirit. I'm NOT(!) saying let's kill the whole humanity and only protect the leaders to come out of the apocalypse as a fucking Monarch. That's f*cked up. It would just help the planet recover. And honestly I wouldn't mind to be on the side the Meteor strikes... Just ghosting the rest of humanity getting their sh*t together and f*cking it up again for the rest of eternity sounds kinda fun.
"He had no idea..."
Sid, from Toy Story.
He had no idea toys were sentient. He showed a lot of creativity, taking apart toys and putting them back together to make something new. And Woody scarred this kid for life and ended his creative streak forever.
"He left the Jedi Order..."
Count Dooku.
He left the Jedi Order because he did not agree with the council. For example, he was tricked into killing the real Mandalorians by one of the Sith and couldn't think for himself ( I forgot where I learned this). He did have the right idea to start thinking for himself, but the reason that Dooku became a Sith — essentially going the wrong way at the last moment — is partly because he listened to Sidious: agreeing with him that the Republic was being crushed under it's own weight and that a new galactic order was needed. Dooku also saw himself as the chosen one compared to Anakin which eventually led to his downfall.
"All he wanted..."
Michael Yagoobian from Meet the Robinsons (an underrated Disney movie if I do say so myself). All he wanted was to feel accepted and win the baseball game but Louis kept him up all night.
"That being said..."
Colonel Kurtz is a good one - his anecdote about the Viet Cong hacking off the limbs of newly immunized children is perhaps the most telling indictment against U.S. foreign policy.
That being said, Christopher Nolan's "Joker" always does it for me - and Michael Caine's classic observation that: "some men just like to see the world burn" is the best summation of anti-social psychopathology on film, ever. A needed lesson for Robert McNamara, Donald Rumsfeld, and Donald Trump, indeed.
"While she was really critical..."
Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada).
While she was really critical, she did push the MC whilst her other friends and boyfriend were super negative and just dragged her down.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
@AhmedBaba_/X
@Greenshades9/X
@masonisonx/X
@NikonD330Fan/X
@elnopower/X
@ParapenteJohn/X
@andrewonseeair/Bluesky
@emer.net; @spryoldlorax/Bluesky
@dansynth54/Bluesky
@RibGoneRogue/X
@lizzicochrane/X
@rowast.com/Bluesky
@pinkmouse/Bluesky
@vicky8651/Bluesky
@fireinsp/Bluesky
