Designated Villains

[Adon]

This is to piggyback the Designated Heroes thread.  The flipside of the DH is the Designated Villain -- a person the story defines as the heavy even though their actions aren't particularly despicable.  In fanfiction, this is closely related to the Villain by Convenience -- taking someone who isn't that bad in the source and exaggerating their bad points (let alone simple attributions which don't belong) to make them evil.

In crossover fanfics, probably the most prominent Designated Villain / Villain by Convenience is Sailor Pluto.  In the source, she is undeniably heroic.  Many people attribute her an extreme desire to see Crystal Tokyo come into being to the point where she's willing to commit murder to see that happen.  This is in spite of the fact that she never demonstrates an attitude remotely like this in the source material.  With Pluto, the Sailor Senshi are often made into villains by extension, though they are often shown to be unwitting dupes.  Of particular note is that they tend to make Usagi cave in easily to the calls for blood, when that is diametrically opposed to everything we know about her.

A lot of the time DVs come about because of personal dislike for a character or an idea; the utopian Crystal Tokyo, for example.

So, can anybody think of others who have been made heavies without deserving to be?

[Dracos]

Every Single Character in Ranma 1/2 who isn't named Ranma or Kasumi.  With the most particular being Nabiki.

... I don't think anything more can be added on those ^_^;

Fearless Leader

[Kaneda]

Hmm.. none come to mind but only Anime counts right?

[Dracos]

no, from anything.  Anime was just an easy opener because they use designated villians quite a bit in it, especially in fanfiction.

Fearless Leader

[Kaneda]

Well... in that case. How about Tux-boy AKA Mamoru Chiba of Sailor Moon. I mean sure he's a wimp but in a lot of crossovers where  Usagi is paired with Ranma or someone besides him he gets shafted. Not that i'm defending him or anything. He's still a pussy but still. ^_^

[Dracos]

Xman, I'd read the description of a designated villain again.  Tuxedo mask does occassionally get used as a villain of convinence but it sounds like you are referring to the far more common practice of using him as a designated unlucky dumb smuck.   A punching bag persay.  His normal traits are rarely amplified to attempt to make him appear villainous solely on that basis.  It does happen, but generally we are shown then a possessive antagonistic Mamoru who goes out of his way to alienate Usagi in such cases.

Fearless Leader

[Kaneda]

You know in those stories they never explain the true reason why he does that. You ever wonder why?

[Dracos]

Ah, then you should have been a tad more clear.  As I said, there are fics that have Mamoru as the designated villain, but the selection where he acts like a 'pussy' generally is a different group than these.

Fearless Leader
no harm done

[Kaneda]

My apologies for the mixup. He does get used as a poor smuck though. I guess i've been influenced by all the fics where he was a jerk. I've only seen the anime though. I once heard he wasn't as bad in the manga.

[Kaneda]

A particular character that i've seen get corrupted is Relena Peacecraft of Gundam Wing. A lot of people seem to dislike her.

[Adon]

I believe it was Cat, I could be wrong, who made a point that Relena is often villified because she gets in the way.  It's common knowledge that Gundam Wing is extremely popular for use in yaoi fiction, and the traditional yaoi pairing with Heero is Duo.  But watching GW shows that isn't going to happen because of the obvious link between Heero and Relena.  In other words, she gets in the way, and people tend to villify her for that, writing her as a shrew or a whiner, when she shows she is neither.

XMan does raise a good point though that Villains of Convenience often come about out of a dislike for a character.  There are exceptions, but think about how often, say, Akane Tendo gets bashed and turned into a psycho because the writer dislikes her.

The reason I brought up the subject in the first place for both Designated Heroes and Villains is how often these perceptions become ingrained to become fanon.  So many anti-Crystal Tokyo fics have been written by now that many people see the warped dystopia as being the reality.  So many fics have been written which slam Mamoru Chiba that he's one of Delphi's most popular whipping targets, along with Akane Tendo and Chibi-Usa.

People have their likes and dislikes, sure, but the danger with DHs and DVs is that they can distort peoples' perceptions of what actually happens in canon.  There are a LOT of people who write fics with a minimal knowledge of what actually happens in canon.  Sure, diverge from canon, but know what you're diverging from first.

[Dracos]

I'm going to make the sidepoint I've always found incredulous that the ones actually most responsible for negative portrayals of Akane aren't 'Akane-bashers' but usuallly Akane fans with the KotF persona.  This opinion of mine was recently resolidified through discussions with the unforgettable Peter Suzuki who successfully managed to paint a picture of Akane that was so wretched you wondered why demon horns weren't coming out of her head...  and he was the defender of Akane.   Combine folks like him with fans that go out and attack authors who portray Akane differently than they like and it's no wonder there is a continually growing fanbase that utterly despises Akane and has that influence their work.

Fearless Leader

[Kaneda]

I always thought that GW was popular for yaoi because their were no interesting female characters besides Relena. All the main characters were male.

[Adon]

While all the Gundam pilots are male, it's a stretch to say that they're the only important characters in the series.  Besides Relena, there's Lady Un, Dorothy, Noin, and several other female characters who play a visible role.

There are several reasons why GW is so popular with the yaoi-set.  First, all the main male characters can be considered bishonen, and that attracts fangirls like honey does flies.  Second, there is a strong subtext in the actual canon with two male characters (Trowa and Quatre), and the realations between other male characters is ambiguous enough that the yaoi writers don't find it much of a stretch.  This is apparently by design -- the show's producers knew that there's a big female fanbase who likes yaoi, and they decided to broaden the show's viewership that way.

I should point out here and now that fanfiction is perhaps the WORST way to get an idea of what GW is actually like, moreso than many other series.  Most of the GW fics I've seen are only interested in romances (yaoi or not), and use the characters but little else.  GW deals with a lot of things, and romance is really a fairly small part of it.  GW fiction, in my opinion, tends to miss the forest for the trees.

[Kaneda]

Hmm... well that explains a few things. Thanks for the info Adon.^_^