Bad Guy or Really Bad PR?

[The Salty Vulcan]

In a world where heroes are often defined by the villains they face, you have to wonder: Are some bad guys in fiction really all that bad or just suffer from an appalling amount of bad public image.
So which fictional characters (games, comics, films even mythologies) don't really deserve to be called Bad Guys?

Personally I think Hades copes it the worst. Yeah he's the God of The Dead and practically every thing that involves him makes him a bad guy, but he never really did anything bad in the original mythology. Hell the only thing you can really blame on him is the abduction and rape of his wife Persephone and even that just shows how socially inept he is.

So who do you find to be questionable villains?

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Barbossa from the first Pirates of the Carribean springs to mind. Sure, he doesn't hesitate to trick people, but no one else in that movie does either. Throughout the movie he is seen as trying only to redeem his crew from the curse that was placed on them but he never resorts to any underhand tactic that no one else in the movie wouldn't consider doing. In fact, placing Jack Sparrow and Barbossa next to one another, it is quite hard to figure out who is "more" evil.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Jesus of Nazareth.

Great guy, terrible PR people.

 

[Flishiz]

Essentially this can be boiled down to everyone Laura Croft has ever come into contact with.

 

[Mushroomfreak111]

Barbossa from the first Pirates of the Carribean springs to mind. Sure, he doesn't hesitate to trick people, but no one else in that movie does either. Throughout the movie he is seen as trying only to redeem his crew from the curse that was placed on them but he never resorts to any underhand tactic that no one else in the movie wouldn't consider doing. In fact, placing Jack Sparrow and Barbossa next to one another, it is quite hard to figure out who is "more" evil.

Hmm, well said.

 

[SamuelT]

Galbatorix, once again, from the Eragon series. He's the Emperor of the Evil Empire, and is Evil. Because he defends his Evil Empire from terrorists who invade it.

Oh, and he killed the man-gods who were under the control of the elves.

How's that for an antagonist?

 

[Iron Criterion]

Look at Dexter, he is far more effective than the police force yet our society would view him a evil.