Cinematic Pseudo-Villains

[PhysicalMediaMaestro]

Not all movies have villains, but if a movie does have a villain, the villain should be bad. The villain should pose a genuine threat to the good characters and should enjoy being bad. They should be unlikeable so we all root against them.

However, some so-called "villains" actually seem like good characters when you take the time to think about it. They don't really seem dangerous or threatening, and they may even be noble in some ways. Here are three cinematic pseudo-villains to get things rolling.

1. Jonas Miller from "Twister" (1996)
His device may have been a shiny mirror image of what Jo and Bill deployed, but he didn't deserve to be assaulted for building it just because it was such a close duplicate of Jo and Bill's creation. Bill and Jonas were rivals, sure, but they both had the same noble goal of learning more about tornadoes and improving weather forecasting so people had more time to take cover. And that goal would have been achieved regardless of whether Jonas' DOT-3 or Bill and Jo's Dorothy got deployed first. Also, Bill attempted to stop Jonas from getting killed towards the end of the film, which means if Bill didn't see Jonas as a villain, we shouldn't either.

2. The Von Troikens from "The Princess Diaries" (2001)
Their only claim to being villains was that if Mia said no to being Princess of Genovia, they would have been next in line. They were undoubtedly more qualified to rule Genovia if Mia was, and given Mia's discomfort with being a public figure, I'm sure Mia would have been okay with that. Also, I had no idea they were the villains of the movie or that the movie even had any villains until the second time I watched the film with commentary from director Garry Marshall, because they got so little screen time. If they got to more to do onscreen and had sinister plans for the future of Genovia, I would not have put them on this forum.

3. The dogcatcher from "Lady and The Tramp" (2019)
In the framework of the film, the dogcatcher is a threat because he's trying to put Tramp in the pound, possibly to be euthanized later. But the dogcatcher isn't really evil, he's just doing his job. Later in the film, when he captures Tramp, and Jim and Darling want to save him, he tells them that he can't do anything because Tramp has no identification collar. So Jim and Darling ask if they can buy Tramp instead, and the dogcatcher unhesitatingly and graciously says yes.

Those are my three cinematic pseudo-villains. Let's hear yours. Have a nice day.