- 6 weeks ago
Sometimes the line between hero and villain is blurrier than we think! Join us as we count down our picks for the most well-intentioned TV bad guys. From revenge-driven fathers to misunderstood monsters, these antagonists had motives we can actually sympathize with! Spoiler warning for various TV shows!
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00:00And the only way to stave off mankind's extinction is with a weapon more powerful than any atomic device.
00:07That weapon is fear.
00:10Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most well-intentioned TV bad guys.
00:17We'll be getting into spoilers for various TV shows, so consider this your warning.
00:21Mojo, a good guy after all. Had me fooled, but bravo, Mr. Jojo, bravo.
00:26Number 20. Rick Flagg, Sr. Peacemaker.
00:31Did anybody expect this character to slowly become one of the DCU's big bads?
00:37While Rick Flagg, Sr. didn't start out as a bad guy initially, his lust for revenge ultimately took hold of him.
00:43This military man went from battling monsters in Creature Commandos to exiling soldiers in Peacemaker.
00:59But is he really in the wrong here?
01:01Don't forget that Christopher Smith brutally murdered Flagg's son, Rick Flagg, Jr.
01:06Peacemaker.
01:09What a joke.
01:10A parent outliving their child can be horrifying, and this pain no doubt clouded Rick Sr.'s decisions.
01:24So with all that in mind, can you really blame him for how he responded?
01:28Rick was just getting justice for his dead son, and honestly, shipping Peacemaker off to another planet feels deserved.
01:35Sorry, not sorry.
01:36This is for Ricky, you piece of shit.
01:48Number 19. Bloodwork, The Flash.
01:52Ramsey Rosso became obsessed with stopping death after losing his mother,
01:56and eventually he became so obsessed with immortality that he tried infecting mankind with his special blood.
02:02This would theoretically give the world endless life.
02:06Ramsey, whatever the hell your plan is, we will stop you.
02:09I've already done it. I've cured death. But not for you.
02:16Continue our mission.
02:19Kill them!
02:22On paper, trying to stop people from dying is incredibly noble.
02:26And if anything, you could argue that The Flash is the villain for trying to stop him.
02:30All that being said, Ramsey definitely went a little bit off the deep end, even if he meant well.
02:45Look, death is an incredibly scary thing, and a concept that many people have had difficulty coming to terms with since the dawn of time.
02:52But dying is also a natural part of life, and attempts to cheat it can sometimes be costly.
02:58I'm only trying to improve your multiverse by ending death.
03:01Then I can bring every world together under one mind for singular purpose.
03:07Immortality.
03:08Those worlds don't belong to you.
03:10Number 18. Stevie, Wizards of Waverly Place.
03:14The ability to practice magic is a sweet gift, but at a certain age, wizards have to compete in a competition,
03:21and if they lose, they're stripped of their powers.
03:23It's pretty messed up.
03:24You want an explanation? Here it is. Warren won.
03:29But I don't want to give up my powers, okay? It's not fair that only one person gets to keep their powers.
03:35Stevie Nichols hated this idea and figured it was time for a change.
03:39But instead of being treated like a trailblazer pushing for reform, she's instead presented as a bad guy.
03:45How is that fair?
03:46The wizard competition was a cruel game that would only foster resentment and tear down families.
04:02Stevie had the right idea getting rid of it, and fans universally agreed.
04:06Quite frankly, it's a bummer that Alex and the Waverly Place gang stopped her because Stevie was onto something huge.
04:12Number 17. Mojo Jojo, The Powerpuff Girls.
04:24Some villains want world domination, and some genuinely just want to make the world a better place.
04:31Mojo Jojo is a unique villain because he actually managed to achieve both.
04:35In the TV special, The Powerpuff Girls Rule, Mojo gets a special key which lets him control the world.
04:41Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!
04:45Finally, I, Moto Toto, rule the world!
04:50Shockingly though, he actually transforms the planet into a world completely free of all crime and injustice.
04:57How often are there supervillains who actually change the world for the better?
05:01Maybe he's not so rotten after all.
05:03Stop global warming!
05:07Save the whales!
05:10Cure all disease!
05:14End all war!
05:17And finally, free puppies for everyone!
05:21Granted, he eventually started messing with Townsville again after he got bored.
05:25But still, look at the positives!
05:27At the end of the day, Mojo did some serious good, and no one can take that away from him.
05:33Take that!
05:35Take that!
05:37Ha ha ha ha ha!
05:39Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
05:41Number 16, Magneto, X-Men 97.
05:45Mutants are an extremely powerful yet also extremely oppressed group of people.
05:51And Magneto has only ever wanted mutants to be able to survive.
05:54The tragic fact that I did not consign those sapiens to the waste bin of history is proof
06:02of my desire to honor Charles Xavier's dream of mutant-human coexistence.
06:09We'll admit that he often goes to extreme lengths to get what he wants, but at the root
06:14of things, he means well.
06:15In fact, when his fellow mutant, Aurora Monroe, gets injured by some bigots, Magneto steps
06:21up to fix things.
06:23He scares the daylights out of some humans and delivers a warning, basically telling humanity
06:27to chill out.
06:28This is a shared world with a common future, and that my kind, like yours, have the right
06:36to live in it.
06:37Magneto is a scary yet complex supervillain who represents the idea that the ends justify
06:43the means.
06:44We can't always support his actions, but we can understand why he is the way he is.
06:48Please, do not make me let you down.
06:56Number 15, Chuck McGill, Better Call Saul.
06:59As the brother of notorious screw-up Jimmy McGill, Chuck has seen quite a lot of blunders
07:05and has more often than not had to fix them.
07:08So with that in mind, it can't be that surprising that Chuck didn't want his brother to succeed
07:12as a lawyer.
07:13You told him not to hire me.
07:17It was always you, right?
07:20Right back to when I passed the bar and tried to join the firm.
07:23You didn't want me.
07:25Was he a little harsh for not believing in Jimmy?
07:27Sure, maybe.
07:28But Jimmy also cut plenty of corners and screwed people over.
07:31And that was never going to change.
07:34After all, Jimmy would eventually become immortalized as the king of the sleazeballs, Saul Goodman.
07:39He'll never change ever since he was nine.
07:42Always the same.
07:44Couldn't keep his hands out of the cash drawer.
07:46But not our Jimmy.
07:48Couldn't be precious Jimmy.
07:50Stealing them blind.
07:53And he gets to be a lawyer?
07:55What a sick joke.
07:57I should have stopped him when I had the chance.
07:59If Chuck could get Jimmy out of the world of law, he'd be doing everyone a favor in his eyes.
08:05And the thing is, you could argue that this would have actually been true.
08:08I know you.
08:11I know what you were.
08:12What you are.
08:13People don't change.
08:14You're Slippin' Jimmy.
08:16And Slippin' Jimmy I can handle just fine.
08:18But Slippin' Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun.
08:22The law is sacred.
08:23If you abuse that power, people get hurt.
08:27Number 14.
08:28Reverse Flash.
08:29Legends of Tomorrow.
08:31All right.
08:31Eobard Thawne is a monster.
08:33And we're not arguing against that.
08:35He's done countless irredeemable things on The Flash.
08:38And he's one of the most psychotic supervillains of all.
08:42Just so we're clear.
08:43After I kill you, I'm going to kill them.
08:46And then I'm going to kill your father.
08:48I always win.
08:49However, when Thawne was on Legends of Tomorrow, that was a somewhat different story.
08:54On Legends, his motives were to get away from the Black Flash,
08:57a speedster version of the Grim Reaper who was chasing him.
09:01Whatever is hunting me is far worse than a time race.
09:09Eobard just wanted to not get killed by a deranged zombie.
09:13That's pretty understandable.
09:15All he needed to get past Black Flash was the Spear of Destiny.
09:18Sure, he later used it to rewrite reality in his image.
09:22But to be honest, that was just an added bonus of defeating the Black Flash.
09:25Don't count Reverse Flash out.
09:30I see your friend is still putting up a fight.
09:33It'll be about.
09:34All caged animals do eventually.
09:37Number 13.
09:38Shane, The Walking Dead
09:39When you're living in the zombie apocalypse,
09:41you have to make some pretty difficult decisions to survive.
09:45Shane Walsh is one such person who was known for risky choices.
09:49He was often presented as a reckless hothead doing things that were deemed too dangerous.
09:53But in actuality, he understood that you had to be tough in order to survive.
10:06Ultimately, it's eat or be eaten.
10:08And if you want to come out on top,
10:10then you need to be prepared to go to war against the zombies.
10:13Yeah, time to grow up.
10:15You already got yours.
10:17Yeah, where's Dale?
10:18He's on his way.
10:19Oh, we couldn't care.
10:20Yeah, well, we can and we have to.
10:22Hey, look, it was one thing,
10:23standing around here picking daisies,
10:24when we thought this place was supposed to be safe.
10:26But now we know it ain't.
10:27Shane's mindset made other survivors believe that he was a bad guy.
10:31But maybe he was simply a realist.
10:33In the end, all he wanted was what everyone else did.
10:37A shot to live.
10:38Now, if y'all want to live, if y'all want to survive, you got to fight for it.
10:42I'm talking about fight right here, right now.
10:46Number 12, Ozymandias, Watchmen.
10:49We mentioned earlier how Magneto represented the concept of the ends justifying the means.
10:55But he's not the only one.
10:56There's also Ozymandias.
10:58Despite being the smartest person alive,
11:00he does something pretty stupid,
11:02which is unleash a monster on the world.
11:08That being said, Ozymandias' actions,
11:14while clearly destructive and despicable,
11:16were also somewhat well-intentioned.
11:18His end goal was to achieve world peace.
11:21And the scary thing was that it actually worked.
11:24Well, for a little while at least.
11:25I envision a stronger, loving world
11:29committed to caring for the weak,
11:31reversing environmental ruin,
11:33and cultivating true equality.
11:36By crippling the world,
11:37Earth's nations essentially had no choice but to drop their rivalries
11:41and start working together.
11:43Ozymandias did some truly horrible things,
11:46yet they led to a temporarily unified world,
11:49making his legacy a complicated one to say the least.
12:00Number 11, Mr. Freeze, Batman, The Animated Series.
12:05We all do crazy things for love, right?
12:07Mr. Freeze is no different.
12:08Well, he's a supervillain,
12:10but most of his crimes are to help his wife, Nora.
12:12Rest well, my love.
12:15The monster who took you from me
12:16will soon learn that revenge is a dish
12:19best served cold.
12:23The Emmy award-winning episode,
12:24Heart of Ice,
12:25explored this dynamic beautifully.
12:27It showed us how Nora was the love of Victor's life,
12:30but a terminal illness kept her on ice
12:32until he could find a cure.
12:34The rest of the episode was all about him getting revenge
12:48on those who wronged him in his quest to save Nora.
12:51Mr. Freeze doesn't want to rule the world or kill superheroes.
12:54He just wants to get his wife back.
12:56It's this level of complexity that has arguably made Mr. Freeze
13:00one of Batman's most sympathetic villains of all.
13:03I can only beg your forgiveness
13:06and pray you'll hear me somehow.
13:10Some place, some place
13:13where a warm hand waits for mine.
13:18Number 10, Frank Grimes, Junior and Senior, The Simpsons.
13:23This father and son duo are well-remembered
13:25as enemies of the Simpson family, specifically Homer.
13:28So, how's it going, Grimey?
13:30What might not be as well-remembered
13:32is that both Franks actually had some pretty legitimate reasoning
13:35for hating Homer.
13:36In the season 8 episode, Homer's Enemy,
13:38the hardworking, down-on-his-luck Frank Sr.
13:40gets a job at the nuclear plant alongside Homer, Lenny, and Carl.
13:44This whole plant is insane!
13:46Frank is driven insane by Homer's continued ability
13:49to succeed no matter how little he cares
13:51or tries at everything he does
13:53and it leads to him electrocuting himself.
13:55Well, I don't need safety gloves
13:57because I'm Homer Simpson.
14:01Several years later, in The Great Louse Detective,
14:05Frank Jr. comes after Homer to avenge his father's death.
14:08He's dead!
14:09Like you should be.
14:10Boom!
14:11Boom!
14:12Number 9, Jeff Hope, Sherlock.
14:14Back in the first episode of BBC's Sherlock,
14:17Holmes and Watson found themselves up against a villain
14:20who's been convincing people to take their own life.
14:23When the pair finally uncover the identity of the mystery man,
14:26it's revealed to be a terminally ill cab driver
14:29named Jeff Hope.
14:30You take the pill from the good bottle you live,
14:33take the pill from the bad bottle, you die.
14:36Hope was approached by Sherlock's arch-nemesis Moriarty,
14:39who offered to leave money to Hope's children
14:42for each person he helped take the leap, so to speak.
14:45We can definitely understand how a man left with few other choices
14:49would succumb to the pressure of a manipulative figure like Moriarty.
14:52Come on, play the guy.
14:56Number 8, Niklaus Michelson, The Vampire Diaries.
15:00Getting his start in seasons 2 and 3 of The Vampire Diaries
15:03before moving to his own spinoff with the originals,
15:06it's easy to see in hindsight that Klaus got a bad rap.
15:08You are foolish and impulsive, my boy.
15:13His stepfather, Michael, mistreated him throughout his childhood,
15:16and he witnessed his brother, Henrik, mauled to death by werewolves.
15:20To make matters worse, after his mother transformed the family into vampires,
15:24he discovered he was different, even among them,
15:26born from a secret affair between his mother and a werewolf.
15:29Congratulations, you just became worth more to me alive than dead.
15:32It's no wonder this led to a volatile mix of supernatural power
15:35and repressed emotions.
15:37I had hoped to leave Mystic Falls for good, but duty calls.
15:41Nice to know you care.
15:42I don't.
15:42Number 7, Gemma Teller Morrow, Sons of Anarchy.
15:46Gemma and her husband Clay served as Sons of Anarchy's biggest villains,
15:50though things were definitely blurry at times.
15:52It's not hard to understand how Gemma turned out the way she did,
15:55considering everything she went through over the course of the series.
15:58Not to mention earlier in her life,
16:00Gemma has suffered through the death of a son and a husband,
16:03and is on the receiving end of a great deal of trauma and brutality throughout the series.
16:08If you ask her, everything she did, she did to protect herself and her family.
16:12She did this.
16:13She did this.
16:15She made a deal.
16:16Number 6, The Wildlings, Game of Thrones.
16:19Game of Thrones is truly a series full of shades of grey,
16:22from complex characters like Jaime Lannister and Theon Greyjoy,
16:25to entire civilizations like the Wildlings.
16:28For most of the inhabitants in Westeros,
16:30the Wildlings are definitely the bad guys,
16:32violent barbarians not fit to live in civilized lands.
16:36But while they may have done some pretty terrible things,
16:38they're hardly unique in that regard.
16:40And in the series' timeline,
16:41they're really only trying to get across the wall
16:43so they can survive the impending zombie apocalypse.
16:46We stay here.
16:47We're dead men.
16:49It's the folks in Westeros that perceive them to be savages
16:51that seem like the problem to us.
16:53That's our enemy.
16:54That has always been our enemy.
16:59Number 5, Ali, The Hundred.
17:02Ah, the double-edged sword of artificial intelligence.
17:05It can make our day-to-day lives easier,
17:07or it can start a nuclear war and destroy the world.
17:10Listen.
17:10Back up.
17:11Back up.
17:12What are you doing?
17:12Security protocol initiated.
17:15Door sealed.
17:16The Hundred is full of villains with viewpoints
17:18that are understandable, if not always acceptable,
17:20like Cage Wallace's attempts to cure his people.
17:22But it's truly Ali that takes the cake in this regard,
17:25simply because she never had a choice.
17:27Back up.
17:27You already have the blood of billions on your hands.
17:30Is it worth risking the rest of mine just to prove you're right?
17:33Her programming was to improve life for humans.
17:36Reducing the population was the most logical way to do that,
17:38and to Ali, that meant a lot of us had to go.
17:41Number 4, Rumpelstiltskin, Once Upon a Time.
17:45To its credit, Once Upon a Time managed to turn a creepy fairy tale imp
17:48into a sympathetic villain with a tragic backstory.
17:51Rumpel, or Mr. Gold, is tricked into accepting
17:54the corrupting powers of the Dark One.
17:56And if that wasn't enough, he later loses his son
17:58when he travels to another world,
18:00and then has his power used against him
18:01to send everyone to Storybrooke.
18:03Memories are pain.
18:07Pain is strength.
18:09His history eventually causes him to go down a dark path,
18:12but one from which he'd eventually find redemption.
18:14Seeing the complicated journey of Rumpel
18:16over the course of the show
18:17has shown us how deep his character really is.
18:19That's why I did this.
18:22For him.
18:24Hold for the boy.
18:26Number 3, Plankton, Spongebob Squarepants.
18:29Poor Plankton.
18:31Everyone hated him until we learned the truth.
18:33In the Spongebob episode, Friend or Foe,
18:35we find out the real history
18:37between Mr. Krabs and Plankton,
18:39and it's surprisingly tragic.
18:40It turns out that they were friends and partners
18:42from a young age who decided to open a restaurant together.
18:45Well, it was your fault the patty was tainted.
18:48You're the one who put too much seaweed sauce in the burger!
18:50After getting into an argument
18:51over old man Jenkins getting sick,
18:54the pair split up and rip their recipe in pieces,
18:57with Plankton only receiving the part that said,
18:59a pinch of chum.
19:00You want to fight over this recipe?
19:02I'll give you a fight you'll never forget!
19:05Well, that explains a lot.
19:08Mr. Krabs then lucks into the Krabby Patty recipe,
19:10while Plankton is left to his own struggling chum bucket.
19:14I'll show you, Krabs!
19:16I'll steal that cursed recipe from you one day!
19:19Number 2.
19:20The Man in Black, Lost
19:21From the very beginning of Lost,
19:23one of the show's greatest mysteries
19:25was the smoke monster in the jungle.
19:27It was eventually revealed that the monster
19:29was an immortal man whose escape,
19:30it was implied, would cause the end of the world.
19:33We didn't find out his history
19:34until nearly the end of the series,
19:36and to be honest,
19:37the episode didn't do a great job
19:38of making clear exactly what it was
19:40that made the island so important.
19:42But what we found out for sure
19:43is that the Man in Black was raised
19:44by a woman who murdered his mother,
19:46and who just wanted to leave the island.
19:48And why are you with them?
19:51They're a means to an end.
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20:08Number one, Mike Ehrmantraut, Breaking Bad.
20:12Mike Ehrmantraut is so captivating on screen
20:14that we almost forget sometimes he's a villain.
20:16So instead of left,
20:17I go right out into nowhere.
20:20And I kneel him down,
20:21and I put my revolver in his mouth.
20:24And I told him,
20:26this is it.
20:28This is how it ends.
20:29We saw his transition from cop to criminal
20:32in Better Call Saul.
20:34And by the time he meets Walter White,
20:36Mike's a certified baddie.
20:37And a key member of Gus Fring's meth organization.
20:41While he's committed some terrible acts,
20:43he also plans to leave all of his money
20:45to his granddaughter,
20:46who he often visits and clearly cares for deeply.
20:49It's really very sweet.
20:50The character's mix of violence and crime
20:52with noble motives,
20:53and a reluctance to hurt anybody
20:55who didn't have it coming,
20:56earns him the top spot on our list.
20:58Don't make me beat you
20:59till your legs don't work.
21:03Now tell me where to find him.
21:04You know it's the right thing.
21:06Are there any other surprisingly
21:07sympathetic TV villains we missed?
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