User blog:Valkerone/PE Proposal - John Ratcliffe (Archived)


 * Original by Wireblade: https://villains.fandom.com/f/p/3179493162221866981

CHARACTERS' TRAITS
a pompous noble who is officially out to settle North America for the King but in reality simply wishes to make himself rich via exploiting the land, convinced the land has much hidden gold he seeks to deforest and ruin the environment, he appears somewhat comical at first but his actions are by no means comedic, he treats everyone around him as inferior and will only play "nice" if it is to manipulate others: as he becomes aware of Native Americans he seeks to wipe them out entirely, seeing them as a threat to his gold.

HEINOUS STANDARDS
as a Disney villain one has pretty high heinous standards but despite his pompous nature Ratcliffe excels - he seeks to incite genocide, mocks the misfortunes of his own men, indulges in luxury while forcing "peasants" into hard labor.. he claims to be loyal to the Crown but truly isn't as he simply wants power for himself.. he even outright rejected peace by taking a gun from his men and firing on the chief, this nearly killed one of the protagonists and caused his men to uprise.

in the second film Ratcliffe tries to incite war and genocide once more and very nearly succeeds, this time he targets the King himself - showing he truly has no loyalty to the Crown or Empire but simply himself.. he tries to murder all the main protagonists and is ultimately captured for treason.

MORAL EVENT HORIZON
incitement to genocide via the now infamous "Savages" song is one of his defining MEH but it can be argued his true MEH was when he rejected peace and demanded his men to kill the Chief, despite everyone else rejecting the idea of more bloodshed.. he goes as far as grabbing a gun for himself and opening fire, had he succeeded this would of surely sparked a genocidal war (or a massacre at minimum).

in the second film he tries to incite war and genocide once more via convincing the Empire that the Native Americans were truly savage - had he succeeded in this plan it would escalated the already inevitable conquest of North America and resulted in many more deaths.

INDIVIDUAL CAPABILITY
Ratcliffe is a manipulative, cunning man but also pompous and lazy - he much prefers having others do things for him but will take any advantage he can to manipulate events or utilize the Empire for his own means.. he may gather arms and don armor if he feels it will gather crowds to his aid or he may slink into the shadows and scheme by himself, away from prying eyes or ears (who may ruin his public reputation)

MORAL AGENCY
Ratcliffe knows fine well what he is doing is wrong but justifies it with his own greed, he claims to be loyal to the Crown but truly only cares for himself - as is evident by the fact he was willing to commit treason.

there's very little evidence that Ratcliffe was delusional or out for any "greater good", he was also very much a sane man.. he did not suffer mood swings or psychosis by which to justify his actions.

in addition his extreme racism / genocidal nature was caused mostly by the desire to clear the land so he could dig for more gold - meaning he was willing to kill off an entire culture simply for gold.. he may of seen them as savage or inferior (as many did in that time period) but ultimately that was not his driving force - thus he doesn't even really have an excuse of simple ignorance either.

NO REDEEMING QUALITIES
a genocidal, pompous and dislikable man - unlike some Disney villains Ratcliffe has no real likeable or redeemable qualities.. no one likes him in-universe and even out-of-universe he is seen as one of Disney's more unlikeable characters.

NO SYMPATHY
same as above, no hint of any tragic backstory - in fact it seems the exact opposite as he is a spoiled, pampered and wicked elitist who sees anyone below him as "peasants" or worse.

SCREEN TIME
as the main antagonist of both films Ratcliffe has a significant amount of screen time (moreso in the first film) - thus we get to know him as a character and his motives, while at first he seems a silly figure full of snobbery he quickly ramps up in heinousness as the story progresses and by the end one truly sees how greedy and cruel he is.

WORST
Ratcliffe is the only true villain in the story thus is the worst by default, even with no competitors by which to be judged he is one of Disney's more evil entities in the fact his crimes are revolved around genocide, greed and "human" qualities rather than the magical fairy tale-esque evils of some earlier Disney villains (such as Wicked Queen etc)

STORY TYPE
Pocahontas is a fairly typical "Disney" setting, it is by no means mature or exploitative (though it does delve into some darker topics) - in general these stories, despite their place in history, are designed to have the standard happy ending and family-friendly atmosphere of most classic Disney animations.. when it does get dark it is usually due to Ratcliffe in some manner : perhaps best likened to things such as Disney's Hunchback in terms of how the story is told / presented (dark at times but mostly family-friendly).