History Main / VillainyFreeVillain

Meet the Villainy-Free Villain, the very personification of WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous. To make sure that viewer sympathy is still squarely on the protagonist, the Villainy-Free Villain is an antagonist who compensates for his completely socially acceptable aspirations by being as much of a JerkAss about them as humanly possible. He's not a villain, but by god he sure acts like one. Its as if he doesn't care about his own well-being, but sees his actions as a wonderful opportunity to crush the protagonist's hopes and dreams.

Meet the Villainy-Free Villain, the very personification of WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous. To make sure that viewer sympathy is still squarely on the protagonist, the Villainy-Free Villain is an antagonist who compensates for his completely socially acceptable aspirations by being as much of a JerkAss about them as humanly possible, [[BeyondTheImpossible and then some.]] He's not a villain, but by god he sure acts like one. Its as if he doesn't care about his own well-being, but sees his actions as a wonderful opportunity to crush the protagonist's hopes and dreams.

Note that a character cannot qualify to be a Villainy-Free Villain if he participates in [[strike:illegal]] unethical activities. As the name suggests, this antagonist has all the aspects of the villain except the actual villainy.

** Arcana doesn't really count as a VillainyFreeVillain, though, seeing as how he [[spoiler:was more than willing to saw Yugi's legs off because Malik told him so.]]

* The snowplow man from ''Snow Day'' may very well be the MostTriumphantExample. His job, obviously, is to clear the streets of snow so life can continue on as usual the next day. But this also means the end of the kids' dreams of having the first ever double snow day after an irritatingly warm winter. Needless to say, the snowplow man is the primary antagonist of this movie, and of course gets what's coming to him in the end. DisproportionateRetribution, you say? Not really. The guy is so vile, despicable and unpleasant that he borders on CompleteMonster status. He plows the streets at full speed without stopping for the kids, forcing them to run for safety, while he crushes the sleds and winter toys they were forced to leave behind in the panic beneath his snowplow's tires. This guy doesn't care about providing money for himself or his family, oh no. He's doing this because he wants to crush the hopes and dreams of children everywhere, [[ForTheEvulz for laughs.]] There are even scenes where he honestly seems to be trying to kill the kids!

* Anton Ego of ''{{Ratatouille}}'' fits this trope to a T. He's a food critic. Food critics can, have, and do give restaurants negative reviews. But Anton detests the idea of Gusteau's being popular to an almost [[InspectorJavert
Javert]] - [[LesMiserables esque]] degree.

Javert]] - [[LesMisérables esque]] degree.

Javert]]-[[LesMisérables esque]] degree.

* Anton Ego of ''{{Ratatouille}}'' fits this trope to a T. He's a food critic. Food critics can, have, and do give restaurants negative reviews. But Anton detests the idea of Gusteau's being popular to an almost Javert-[[LesMisérables
esque]].

* Anton Ego of ''{{Ratatouille}}'' fits this trope to a T. He's a food critic. Food critics can, have, and do give restaurants negative reviews. But Anton detests the idea of Gusteau's being popular to an almost Javert-esque degree. Granted, [[HeelFaceTurn at the end...]]

Note that a character cannot qualify to be a Villainy-Free Villain if he participates in illegal activities. As the name suggests, this antagonist has all the aspects of the villain except the actual villainy.

This is a clear case of TruthInTelevision. A person doesn't have to kill or steal to be unlikeable. If you're a complete jerk to people and rub your own victories in the faces of the people they step over, you'll still be seen in a bad light.

This is a clear case of TruthInTelevision. A person doesn't have to kill or steal to be unlikeable. If you're a complete jerk to people and rub their own victories in the faces of the people they step over, you'll still be seen in a bad light.

This is a clear case of TruthInTelevision. A person doesn't have to kill or steal to be unlikeable. If they're a complete jerk to people and rub their own victories in the faces of the people they step over, you'll still be seen in a bad light.

But sometimes, writers encounter a problem. See, sometimes... what the antagonist is doing? It's not illegal, or even immoral. At all. Like, in a sports story, the antagonist would just be the leader of the OpposingSportsTeam. If, say, you're writing an inspiring story about an underdog who aspires to be a great chef, the antagonist would be a tough to please food critic, or the owner of a rival restaurant. Sure, these peoples' success would make the hero's life worse, but in real life, nobody would hold it against these people. That's just the way the world works. Surely these stories are forever bound to having both a hero protagonist AND a hero antagonist, right? ...right?

No work of fiction is complete without a villain of some sort. After all, if there's no villain, who will create the conflict? Who will the heroes confront in the climax? [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Who will sing the best]] [[VillainSong songs?]]

* Sapphira in {{Pearlie}} whose ultimate evil goal is to discredit her cousin Pearlie and have alot of people come to her spa...Yes, somebody has loads of ambition

** Jonas even has plenty of valid points that Bill is no hero. Jonas wants to make a better living and lead his own team. He even points out that Bill left tornado-chasing to be a weatherman and abandoned his idea for the "Dorothy" system.

* Mr. Putman, professional runaway child hunter from ''Film/TheWizard''. [[TheNostalgiaCritic NC]]'s review of the movie lampshades this trope at regular intervals.

* Richard "Dick" Vernon in ''{{The Breakfast Club}}''. He's really just an embittered guy who found out teaching wasn't as easy has he thought it would be and takes it out on the students in detention. He also peaks into the personnel files of other teachers.

* Any "villain" on ''{{Survivor}}'' or any other reality show is bound to be this (the casting department should've weeded out the ''actual'' psychoes). Everyone's trying to win the game; the villains mostly just annoy the other players and the audience with their bragging.

* ''{{Gargoyles}}'' has Oberon, who merely tries to reclaim his property. One of the squatters even notes that he's within his rights to do so, [[InformedWrongness but her concerns are quickly dismissed]]. (As stated in a creator commentary, "good thing our heroes are sympathetic and Oberon isn't".) Of course, then he tries to take Xanatos' baby son a few episodes later and the "Villainy-Free" part goes out the window.

* Richard "Dick" Vernon in ''[[The Breakfast Club]]''. He's really just an embittered guy who found out teaching wasn't as easy has he thought it would be and takes it out on the students in detention. He also peaks into the personnel files of other teachers.

* ''YuGiOh'' has countless examples of this. The show centers around a card game, but lives don't always hang in the balance. A particularly prominent case involves characters who show disrespect towards their monsters. Granted, they are indeed just cards, but some hologram deck manifestations, such as Arcana's Red Dark Magician, have been known to give their masters hurt looks when told they're mere tools, which suggests the holograms have some rudimentary form of feelings.

* Mr. Putman, professional runaway child hunter from ''Film/TheWizard''. [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses NC]]'s review of the movie lampshades this trope at regular intervals.

* Professor XXXL in ''CodenameKidsNextDoor''. All he wants to do is discover how to make the perfect snowcone and/or crush the PTA.

Also, for a character to qualify, he has to actually BE as unpleasant as a normal villain. Otherwise, he's just a DesignatedVillain. See also VillainWhoDoesntDoAnything.