User blog:Joecoolio/What Makes A Villain?

Since this is by far one of the largest wikis around and has so many varied subject matters I think we could benefit from a more solid rule on exactly what makes a character a "villain" by the community's standards to end the never-ending dispute people have over what qualifies as a "jerk" versus what qualifies as an antagonist.

Many protagonists have dark sides, however this doesn't always make them "evil" - yet as can be seen by most media very few villains see themselves as "evil" and not all antagonists are active criminals.. some are bullies and thugs and malicious people who like making people feel bad.. some "heroes" do similar actions and thus the line between "good" and "bad" guy gets very blurred.

Donald Duck for example is considered a hero but he was originally an antagonist and thus belongs on this wiki, as does Garfield and Mr. Bean - however these three characters show that not all antagonists are what we expect them to be and some take it WAY too far (for example someone added Gizmo from Gremlins (I hope, as a joke) ).

Simply being grouchy or rude isn't sufficient to be a "bad guy" - I think a lot of people think if a character does one bad thing they can be on this wiki but the examples I've listed are what I like to refer to as "repeat offenders".

In other words I think the rule should be that if a protagonist commits numerous UNPROVOKED acts of WILFUL WRONG-DOING then they can be added to this wiki - however all information MUST be on their negative side and categories should reflect only media in which they are antagonists (for example Cyclops from Marvel is ONLY antagonistic in the comic books, his cartoon and video-game appearances should not count..).

For extremely controversial cases we should instal a community vote system where people get the chance to debate both sides and then either get rid of the article or keep it - this would be much more fair than just putting it for deletion under the premise of "they aren't a villain".

Everyone has different views on right and wrong, we should aim to showcase as many different viewpoints as possible and should be mature enough to accept some of our "heroes" will be seen as "villains" to others.