Villains you felt sympathy for, but felt you weren't meant to?

[Silver]

The Sith are a big one for me. Since the Jedi's position is basically, "What is this thinking for yourself? Emotion? Pah!" and the Sith's seems to be, "I kind of like emotion to be honest." Plus there's the whole "bringing balance to the force" thing that suggests the Sith are just as valuable to the force as the Jedi. Not that Lucas would ever think that making a well thought out argument that makes his films much more mature part of the canon would be a good idea.

If you're still not understanding why I would like the Sith, this is the Jedi Code:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Whereas the Sith Code is this:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

The Sith one is just better.

You must have missed the part where they're massmurdering lunatics? Now the jedis are pretty much as far from good guys as you can get (see knights of the old republic by Dark Horse), but that doesn't make the Sith any less evil. There are dark and grey jedi however who can be quite sympathetic.

I've heard arguments about Palpatine being sympathetic with the whole "create a safe and functional society" but he cracks a few too many eggs along the way.

And when the Sith code is explained, what it actually means pretty much boils down to "kill people, it's better for you, and them, and the rest of society. Plus it's fun! And don't forget the torture".

 

[Ghonzor]

The Sith are a big one for me. Since the Jedi's position is basically, "What is this thinking for yourself? Emotion? Pah!" and the Sith's seems to be, "I kind of like emotion to be honest." Plus there's the whole "bringing balance to the force" thing that suggests the Sith are just as valuable to the force as the Jedi. Not that Lucas would ever think that making a well thought out argument that makes his films much more mature part of the canon would be a good idea.

If you're still not understanding why I would like the Sith, this is the Jedi Code:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Whereas the Sith Code is this:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

The Sith one is just better.

You must have missed the part where they're massmurdering lunatics? Now the jedis are pretty much as far from good guys as you can get (see knights of the old republic by Dark Horse), but that doesn't make the Sith any less evil. There are dark and grey jedi however who can be quite sympathetic.

I've heard arguments about Palpatine being sympathetic with the whole "create a safe and functional society" but he cracks a few too many eggs along the way.

And when the Sith code is explained, what it actually means pretty much boils down to "kill people, it's better for you, and them, and the rest of society. Plus it's fun! And don't forget the torture".

Actually, if you play TOR, you can be a Sith who argues that emotions are essential to being. And while certain emotions are bad or have their evils, others such as love are much more worthwhile. So I would have to say that the Sith aren't necessarily inherently evil. Though wielding something called the "Dark Side of the Force" does seem a bit heavy-handed in showing who the bad guys are supposed to be. The Jedi are an extreme in cutting out all emotion. While I assume it was supposed to be more cut and dry, I would have to say that there is no Black and White in the Star Wars universe.

 

[DJjaffacake]

The Sith are a big one for me. Since the Jedi's position is basically, "What is this thinking for yourself? Emotion? Pah!" and the Sith's seems to be, "I kind of like emotion to be honest." Plus there's the whole "bringing balance to the force" thing that suggests the Sith are just as valuable to the force as the Jedi. Not that Lucas would ever think that making a well thought out argument that makes his films much more mature part of the canon would be a good idea.

If you're still not understanding why I would like the Sith, this is the Jedi Code:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Whereas the Sith Code is this:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

The Sith one is just better.

You must have missed the part where they're massmurdering lunatics? Now the jedis are pretty much as far from good guys as you can get (see knights of the old republic by Dark Horse), but that doesn't make the Sith any less evil. There are dark and grey jedi however who can be quite sympathetic.

I've heard arguments about Palpatine being sympathetic with the whole "create a safe and functional society" but he cracks a few too many eggs along the way.

And when the Sith code is explained, what it actually means pretty much boils down to "kill people, it's better for you, and them, and the rest of society. Plus it's fun! And don't forget the torture".

Well yeah, they're obviously still bad guys, but I can see why someone would pick them over the Jedi quite easily. Especially since it would in theory be possible to be a Sith without being evil.

 

[Wereduck]

Cipher in The Matrix.

Considering the amazing potential for wirehead R&R the humans had at their fingertips it was phenomenally stupid to let their people get that burned out. Those guys' off-duty time could have been a nonstop mind-blowing edenic paradise, even without the technology to make it actually happen but instead they made their society a rusted-out industrial shithole.

Plus, by the end of the 3rd movie I came to agree with all of his gripes - especially about Morpheus.

 

[FaceFaceFace]

I remember watching a movie called "What About Bob?", where Bill Murray plays a neurotic mental patient who ends up stalking his therapist and ruining his life. And you were supposed to sympathize with Murray's character.

It was one of those horrible sadist movies that I hate more than anything else, where the entire premise is one guy being horribly, horrifically punished for an hour-and-a-half, and which never work because no matter how much of a jerk the character in question is there will always be a point where I no longer feel he deserves it.

For example, in the movie the therapist is portrayed as being a somewhat stuck-up person who doesn't spend enough time with his kids. And for that the film believes that it's justified for Bill Murray to get his children to hate his guts, turn everyone he knows against him, ruin his career, cause him to lose all of his money, blow up his house, and then marry his sister. I was disgusted watching it, and was rooting for the supposed "bad guy" to get some sort of reprieve the whole time, but it never came.

Oh yeah, I remember that one. I agree for the most part, but the film did begin with Bill Murray having been dumped on the guy from his previous therapist, kind of implying that he just ends up terrorizing people indiscriminately, so I saw him as more of an unfortunate force of nature, like a tornado or something, than as the "good guy." The therapist still got screwed over, though.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

Garnier d´Naplouse from Assassins´ Creed. He is described by official sources as a sadistic torturer, but the man I saw in the game was a misguided and heavy-handed man who truly wished for his patients to be cured and feel well (by his twisted view of those concepts, though). Sickening after a fashion, but also poignant.

 

[Justyn Stahll]

Ok I got one it's from a game called Live a Live (or Live a Evil, your choice )
You play through the game in diffrent timelines with completely diffrent charcters in each one with the ending boss in each one having the Odio in it somewhere
(O. Dio in the western scenerio for instance) but the final scenerio is the one of a knight called Oersted and...

Spoiler

He fights in a competion against his friend Straybo and Oersted wins, winning the hand of the Princess. That night she is kidnapped by the supposed "Demon King" and Oersted gets Straybo and attempts to save her. Along the way they bring along Hash the Hero, the depressed person who previously beat the Deomon King and Hash's friend Mr. IForgetHisName. They invade the Demons Kings fortress and Hash dies due to a sickness and Straybo who stayed behind for a second is supposedly crushed by rocks. Oersted returns in failure and saddened tat he failed his wife, his friend, and his hero. In the night that follows He waken up by ghost(?) of Straybo who leads Oersted to the supposed Demon King who is sitting on the throne, and well...Oersted kills it, but it turns out to be the King. Oersted escapes to kill the Demon king and clear his name. Only to find the Totally-Not Dead Straybo with his wife, Oersted kills Straybo and then learns that his wife who had fallen madly in love with Straybo kills herself, Oersted seeing that he had failed everybody declares that he is the new Deomon King...Odio

The poor guy goes through hell and back, TWICE, to save his wife giving up everything, just to fail in the end, Oersted is awesome if not a little crazy

Also : By the God Emperor I hope the Spoiler thing works

 

[Durgiun]

The Sith are a big one for me. Since the Jedi's position is basically, "What is this thinking for yourself? Emotion? Pah!" and the Sith's seems to be, "I kind of like emotion to be honest." Plus there's the whole "bringing balance to the force" thing that suggests the Sith are just as valuable to the force as the Jedi. Not that Lucas would ever think that making a well thought out argument that makes his films much more mature part of the canon would be a good idea.

If you're still not understanding why I would like the Sith, this is the Jedi Code:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Whereas the Sith Code is this:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

The Sith one is just better.

Thank you! In theory I agree with the Sith code, but they all just tend to be either Chaotic Evil and stupid, or Neutral Evil which makes it difficult for me to root for them. I blame it all on the assinine rule of the Star Wars universe that if you're powerful in the Force and aren't an emotionless drone that you'll become the next Hitler-Mussolini-Lenin-Pavelich hybrid.

 

[Durgiun]

One of the few times I felt genuinely sorry for a villain was in a The Walking Dead story.

Andrew St. John from Starved for Help, to be specific. In the end the guy lost his mother, potentially his brother and his entire farm. I know he killed one of my guys, but I still couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for him when my Lee walked away and Andrew just kept mewling Lee's name in a sad, defeated tone of voice.

 

[MrFalconfly]

I've actually never fallen for a "Draco in leatherpants" as the trope is called.

But I will say one thing. Quaritch. Quaritch, Quaritch, Quaritch. Look if you've already decided to be a mass-murdering General Ripper type from the start at least do it properly. Sterilize the bloody moon (preferably with thermonuclear bombs from geostationary orbit) and then do a check if anything is posing even a minor threat. If there's still a threat continue the carpetbombing until you are 112% sure that nothing lives and then you can begin to stripmine the place.

And no I don't feel sympathy for him. I just think he did what I despise most of all. A halfarsed job.

 

[ABLb0y]

Dollface from 'Twisted Metal'.

Sure, she was an insane model who murdered those who got in her way. But listen to her tearfully mourning her 'lost' beauty as she dies and tell me you don't at least feel something.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Loki in the Avengers, oh my god. I know alot of people just thought he was an evil bastard but I felt so bad for him, being overshadowed by Thor and getting his taste at the throne than getting ripped right off of him.

Maybe it's because Tom Hiddleston plays such a damn good villain too -.-

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

to a lesser extent T.I.M from mass effect

I don't even see him as a villain. In fact, if Mass Effect universe existed, I'm pretty sure I'd be for the advancement of humanity like him. I wouldn't go as far as TIM, but I don't judge him at all.

Thank you! In theory I agree with the Sith code, but they all just tend to be either Chaotic Evil and stupid, or Neutral Evil which makes it difficult for me to root for them.

Kyle Katarn from Jedi Knight games is somewhere in between. Even though he's a Jedi, he's not completely oblivious like every other god damn Jedi in the galaxy. He's an actual person. It's kind of sad that the best character in SW universe is from an old video game.

 

[nathan-dts]

The Helghast(SP?) from Killzone, sure they are space Nazis but that is kinda the ISA's fault, in fact the ISA just seems to be a bunch of twats in general, and the player character seemed to have been invented by taking every complaint about the main cast of other shooters and mixing them into one utterly hateful individual.

This. The games backstory is very good if you take the time to read through it. It's just a shame that Guerrila are trying to kill the sympathy for the Helghast by making them develop those green energy weapons.

 

[MrFalconfly]

Loki in the Avengers, oh my god. I know alot of people just thought he was an evil bastard but I felt so bad for him, being overshadowed by Thor and getting his taste at the throne than getting ripped right off of him.

Maybe it's because Tom Hiddleston plays such a damn good villain too -.-

But you still laughed when the Hulk smashed him into the floor repeatedly (followed by that priceless look after being completely and utterly floored).

 

[Infernai]

Griffith from Berserk. Yes, he was a complete maniac, but his entire world came crashing to the ground. I am not sure I would be too terribly sane either.

I admit Griffith was a character i did feel some sympathy for after Guts left the Hawkes. You can tell that Guts, however inadvertantly, had just crushed his happiness into a fine powdery substance. Maybe it was the fact it was the first time we'd seen this nigh-invincible magnificent bastard be unable to not only not predict something but completely fail at preventing it, and to see him so...distraught was a bit saddening.

My sympathies reached it's peak just before the eclipse: I mean hell, the guy had lost absolutely everything he'd spent his whole life building, he was incapable of now doing anything without assistance, and the people who had followed him so loyally were more or less going to abandon him (Although i did remember that Judeau and some of the other hawkes were gonna stay behind to help take care of him, but all the same his dream was completely gone).

After the eclipse though, i lost any sympathy i had for him as it instantly went to the rest of the Hawkes in the darkest moment i've ever seen in any anime or manga. Don't get me wrong, i understand WHY Griffith did what he did but...i sure as hell don't condone it for a second. So for however much sympathy i may have had for Griffith before the Eclipse, i sure as hell don't have any now.

 

[Easton Dark]

Warcraft:

Sargeras...

He was a defender of all things good, fighting against evil influences and chaos... and he just got worn down. After fighting them for so long, he finally gave in to hate.

 

[jhoroz]

Alma, from FEAR.

All she wants to do is hug her children....

 

[Xannidel]

I feel kinda sad for the 7 deadly sins in the Full Metal Alchemist anime (the original)

Spoiler

All they want is to be human, sure their methods of DOING so may not be the best but what other way do they know how?

 

[Eddy-16]

Megatron in the last Transformers movie.
Optimus is getting his ass handed to him by Sentinel Prime(?) and is about to die then Megatron swoops in and saves him from being murdered then offers Optimus a truce, how does Optimus repay him? By murdering the crap outta him. Poor Megatron