I find this thread questionable because of the disregard for moral ambiguity. Any sufficiently complex characters can't be boiled down into a simple binary of "good" and "evil" so easily, let alone getting into arguing which of these two categories we think each individual character belongs. A lot of the answers here amount to "they weren't
that bad" which doesn't automatically make them "good" either. Also, when you say "but people think they're evil", is "people" meant to refer to audiences or to other characters within the same movie? The answers seem to go back and forth on that one even though your post ultimately specifies audiences.
Stannis Baratheon - Game of Thrones
As a young boy stannous awaited his parents to return home. As he caught sight of there ship it suddenly crashed and he bearded witness to his parents death. In his grief when he needed his older brother the most his older brother abandoned him and Stannis was left to look after his younger brother Renley. The way I see it' this is the only character that is more loyal than that ned stark. A man who would rather eat horses dogs rats and even his own shoes then give up a castle. All for his brother the king Who he despises yet is loyal too because duty commands it. In the famous words of Stannis "Big or small we must do our duty " Stannis is a man of few words but strong actions. But unfortunately Game of Thrones fans are under the miss conception that Stannis is a power hungry evil man who sacrificed his own daughter. But again in the words of stannis what is one life in the name of the kingdom. Stannis did what he did to save all from darkness. Evan sacrificing his own soul in the process by giving up his daughter Shareen. But for a man as loyal as Stannis his brother the king gave the castle storms end too his younger brother Renley Who had done nothing to contribute and was only six years old at the time. So you could imagine the betrayal that Stannis felt. And the betrayal he felt once again when all his troubles were for nothing as the red woman's visions in the flames were misinterpreted.
What film or TV characters do you feel fans don't understand and why ?
Stannis is a good example of such a morally grey character - he almost functions as a foil to Ned Stark in showing how loyalty is not necessarily a sign of a person's goodness. More importantly, he's an example of how the road to hell is paved with good intentions as he keeps resorting to increasingly twisted means in order to achieve his goals. This ultimately made him seem no better than other cruelly insane rulers like Aegon or Joffrey and cost him everything, so while he may not be the most evil character on a show packed with him, it certainly doesn't make him a quote-unquote "good guy".
D-Fens (Sorta): Falling Down.
He's already driven his wife and daughter away before the movie begins, so I do question how good a person he was in the first place and how targeting bad people doesn't really make up for that.
I would argue that Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood) didnt start out as evil. Greed totally corrupted him and turned him from a family man into a ruthless individual. At the end, after he pushes away his son, you can tell deep down he regrets it, and despite the fact that he cruely tells his son he never cared about him, his emotions say otherwise. He has the flashbacks of playing with his son when he was a child, and you can tell he did in fact love him. The built up anger over pushing away his son spurs him to snap and kill Eli in the final scene.
Just like Charles Foster Kane, behind all the money and the power, Plainview lost himself and was internally miserable. And that was the whole point of the movie.
Again, hard to say how much it is a matter of straight-up good-or-evil but this is a guy who starts the movie by dragging himself through the desert with a broken leg to make a pittance on a silver mine so the determination to succeed has always been there. The only reason he becomes a family man in the first place is by adopting a child he's ultimately responsible for orphaning, plus there's always the question of how much he loved him and how much he was using him as a prop to maintain his "family man" image for the sake of his business (as seen when he replaces the now-deaf son with the guy claiming to be his brother).
Nurse Ratched. She is no good. But, she is not THAT bad. No.5.on AFI list of greatest villains ever??! I always thought McMurphy was way worse than Ratched. McMurphy was lazy rapist and small time crimos. One can tell that Ratched was only doing his job.
Until she tells Billy that she's going to tell his mother about catching him in bed with McMurphy's friend, thus cementing that it's not about "just doing the job" but about abusing her own power at the expense of the patients she's supposed to be healing. I definitely agree with the idea that McMurphy himself is not a good guy, but that doesn't make Ratched good by default.
ALL robots. They are only robots. They supposed to be kliing machines. I dont find them evil.
Roy Batty,Hal 9000,T 800,T 1000...
What those examples have in common is that they are all given such advanced artificial intelligence that they do reach an approximation of human sapience so that does make them a bit more accountable in terms of their own morality. Even so, Roy Batty's an ambiguous example who's neither good or evil.
Sgt Hartman. Why the hell ANYBODY would think he was villain in FMJ?? He was only doing HIS JOB. Sure, he is harsh. But,if you must prepare people.to WAR, you can't be generous.
War is the villain and he is one of its many henchmen.
Angel Eyes. Sure he's emotionless killer. In wild west you must be if you wonna survive. I always found him as solo player trying survive. He is evil sociopath and villain, nevertheless. Not THAT evil. For me, Tuco was true villian.
You've really got it backwards. Tuco is the character who's become a killer to survive (as evidenced by the scene where he talks to his brother), whereas Angel Eyes is quickly established as a ruthless killer-for-hire (Guy 1 hires him to kill Guy 2, Guy 2 tries to buy him off in order to kill Guy 1, he kills Guy 2 but takes the money and kills Guy 1 anyway). You might as well call Blondie the villain of the movie.
Oh, another one – Snake Plissken.
This is what I was talking about earlier when the question is whether it's the characters or the audience who sees him as evil - I don't think audiences consider Snake to be evil
snake plissken is a dumb character
Why?
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