It’s Villain Week here at Mashable. In honor of the release of Venom, we’re celebrating all our favorite evildoers from film and TV all week long. Spooky, scary!
There are a lot of male protagonists in pop culture that aren't actually heroes. They think they're heroes. We're supposed to think they're heroes. But they actually suck.
I'm talking about characters like Ross Geller from Friends, Scott Pilgrim from Scott Pilgrim. Guys who think they've done nothing wrong and everything right, but in actuality they've caused a lot of pain and problems.
SEE ALSO:The women of 'Ozark' redefine the male-centric crime genreThese unaware men permeate pop culture. And I'm not talking about antiheroes. Breaking Bad's Walter White knows he's hurting and killing people. Mad Men's Don Draper is aware of his betrayals.
The unaware villains tend to be framed entirely as heroes, or at least rational and reasonable protagonists. They don't commit crimes. They don't physically hurt anyone. But wow do they really make everyone's lives worse.
Let's look at fictional unaware man No. 1: Scott Pilgrim. In Scott Pilgrim, 22-year-old Scott is framed as the hero, needing to defeat Ramona Flowers' seven evil exes in order to establish a real relationship with her. The only problem is, Scott is already sort-of dating a 17-year-old high school girl named Knives Chau. But that doesn't stop him from pursuing Ramona.
Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera).Credit: universal picturesScott is too self-absorbed to realize that he cheated on both women. His self-absorption not only hurts both Ramona and Knives but it clearly hurt his ex-girlfriend Kim Pine and is effecting his fellow bandmates (which includes Kim). He prefers to neglect the emotions of everyone else in pursuit of focusing on himself and himself alone.
Scott's shitty qualities are repeatedly brought up to him and he prefers to ignore them completely. His roommate Wallace Wells even warns Knives Chau that she's too good for him. And he was right.
Most of the comic/movie centers around Scott's battles against Ramona's exes, which is a metaphor for Scott's own mental battle to get over the fact that Ramona dated other people. It consumes him and becomes his own personal mountain that he has to overcome while it pushes everyone away.
This kind of self-absorption is a common occurrence among heroes who are actually unaware villains. Ross Geller's biggest problem in Friendsis that he's so self-absorbed that he becomes completely unaware of how he's hurting people.
They feel like they are victims of their own shitty situations they created
While getting married for the second time, Ross said Rachel Green's name at the alter instead of his bride's. He made an insulting pro/con list about Rachel and then was upset that she was mad about it. When they were actually dating and went on a break from each other, Ross immediately had sex with another person and for years never conceded to the fact that it might've hurt Rachel and that it was a shitty thing to do. At the tail end of the series, Ross coerced Rachel to give up her dream job in Paris so they could be together in New York City.
Ross is the worst friend in Friendsand a classic unaware villain, sowing discord time after time with his stupid self-absorption.
Another of the worst, most toxic unaware villains is Tom Hansen from (500) Days of Summer, who is interested in a woman named Summer who happens to like the same music he likes. And as Tom's little sister Rachel puts it perfectly: "Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate."
Unfortunately, Tom goes all in on thinking Summer's his soul mate. When she tells him she isn't looking for anything serious, he gets angry when he wants it to be serious and she doesn't. Tom's constantly projecting his own insecurities on Summer, expecting things that she doesn't owe him, and generally being an asshole.
Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel).Credit: fox searchlightWhen Summer doesn't want to deal with Tom anymore and leaves him, Tom doesn't see any of the problems he caused and instead blames Summer for being flakey and selfish.
There are so many of these guys in pop culture. They feel like they are victims of their own shitty situations they created and they consistently fail to realize or even care about how their actions impact other people.
There's Joel from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, who pushes a relationship on Clementine despite knowing that it would eventually fail. There's Mr. Big from Sex and the Citywho leaves Carrie at the alter and then tries to repair things right after (and this is after 6 SEASONSof jerking her around). Jack Shephard from Lostthinks he knows best and repeatedly puts people's lives in peril.
Famously, pretty much all the characters in Seinfeldare unaware villains.
In pop culture, the unaware villains could be some of your favorite characters. Sometimes you have to look a little deeper to see the villainy, but it's there. The hubris of man knows no bounds.
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