Category:Villains by Proxy

"I do not wish to fight you Kratos but I -will- protect Olympus!"

- Athena

Villains by Proxy are villains who have absolutely no wish to be evil but are pushed into it either by circumstance or as a result of the story's unique angle.

There are a few different forms of this that can be done.
 * The Amoral: Many villains do not do what they do out of malice but are just far above or beyond conventional morals or life and as such despite being vastly destructive are forces of nature rather than  "villains". One of the better examples of this is Galactus.
 * The Pawn: Those who are tricked, blackmailed, or forced into becoming regular threats on the forces of good against their better judgment. Ivy, from Soul Calibur or Vegeta, from Dragonball Z, Murtagh from The Inheritence Cycle are note worthy examples.


 * The Antagonist Hero: Contrast to the Protagonist Villain whenever it is not a case of Evil Vs. Evil. More than a few games feature villain protagonists who fight non-evil antagonists such as the Olympians from God of War.


 * The Incidental Villain: This is for villains who are only precisely as evil as they need to be to reach their goals. These are villains who commit evil acts for purely practical means to an end. Similar to Extremists and often overlapping with Rivals except it is never personal. This can be seen with villains like Carmen Sandiego and V.


 * The Hired Hand: Mercenaries, Bounty Hunters, Assassins for hire, and other hired hands who work for or follow another villain's directive simply because they offered them reasonable money. These characters are amoral and only serve whoever pays them. To them it's just a job. See Mercy Graves or Lobo for the best examples of this.
 * The Hungry Predator: Carnivorious animals or monsters that are only hostile out of hunger or survival instinct. They often have no true hatred or dislike for the protagonists, they simply want to eat them, like any real life wild animal views it's prey. See The Wolves (Beauty & the Beast) or Alpha (Jurassic Park III).

Whether blackmailed, tricked, a hired hand, amoral, enslaved, or a villain simply by merit of being in the protagonist's way, just about all Villains by Proxy are only antagonists because they need to be and not by their own design.