[three characters looking awfully bland] The protagonists:

  • Annoying goody two shoes leader who’s a paragon of virtue
  • Nerdy scientist with no backstory who keeps doing poor puns
  • Super bland dude who’s an obvious self insert for the writer
  • People die because they’re “good” and refuse to break the rules
  • They win battles through plot armor and the power of friendship

[a cool looking grizzled character smokes a cigar in a spaceship interior, a foot up on the controls, while a spaceship blasts a mega laser outside in space] The super evil antagonist:

  • Played by the most charismatic actor available on the market
  • Keeps doing the coolest looking things (but you must hate it)
  • Has the coolest secret lair and his henchmen love him
  • Is named Adolf McMurder and genocides with a smile
  • Says an awesome one liner before murdering an orphan

[a nerdy dude in flannel points at a storyboard of the two previous images] The naive screenwriter:

  • At least this time he’s not writing women, phew
  • Has too much trust in his audience’s media literacy - About to give the super evil antagonist yet another zingy one liner
  • Surely if we show him killing an orphan the audience will hate him
  • Right, guys?… Right??…

https://thebad.website/comic/overly_cool_villains

https://bsky.app/profile/thebad.website

  • JowlesMcGee@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    The exact one that came to my mind. It’s wild that the totally legitimate movement just died overnight because their leader was revealed to be a bender. I know they mentioned the government reforms to appease non benders, and realistically the show just wanted to move on, but it definitely still sticks out to me over a decade later

    • Obinice@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      their leader was revealed to be a bender

      Now there’s a gay slur I’ve not heard in a while!

      Still, that tracks, plenty of good ideas or movements through our history have died because people found out the guy leading them was gay.