Thread:LostGod2000/@comment-27818776-20140901142846/@comment-25030828-20140904100151

Ok, my bad. I should have worded it better: The criteria for the CM category is (with the obvious exception of the Heinous critereon) based on mass opinion. The thing is, besides heinous actions, the rest of the criteria are based on character intepretation. Film is a subjective medium and hence cannot be objectively judged (at least not fully) like in Mathematics or Science – there is no proven mathematical formula or scientific theory that can be applied to the intepretation of villains.

Of course, that means that the villain's actions are the only objective aspect of the intepretation, but that's exactly it. Frollo's actions does nothing to show that he feels remorse. Fear of punishment from an omnipotent entity is just a fear of punishment. There must be an aspect of regret and concern for the people that you have wronged for it to count as remorse.

All these seem subjective, right? So let's look at his actions:

1. When asked by the Archdeacon to care for Quasimodo as a means of repentance, Frollo is obviously disgusted and annoyed. If he were remorseful, he would not have displayed the aforementioned feelings.

2. Frollo emotionally abuses Quasimodo from the very start, even blaming him for the death of his mother. That's no remorse. Even if I go by your definition of "remorse", Frollo still willingly abuses Quasimodo in spite of the fact that there is an all-knowing God watching over his actions.

In conclusion? Frollo's delusionally paranoid. Not remorseful.

Exactly. CMs can still be three-dimensional. Them not changing simply means that they are static characters and not dynamic characters – it has got nothing to do with being three-dimensional. And yes, while a psychopathic villain is predisposed to be a CM, it does not mean that (s)he is automatically a CM. That's where the Heinous standard comes in. Most psychopaths are just manipulative jerkasses, few become mass murdering maniacs.

Having history and the utter heniousness of those aforementioned villains backing you up does not mean anything when considering Frollo. The CM criteria never mentioned anything about having a universal baseline for a CM, just that the villain in question must be utterly and remorselessly heinous in the context of the story.