The imagination of strangers went wild when Redditor AgreeableSolid7034 asked:
"Which Disney princess would win the Hunger games and why?"
Some people thought Elsa would be the best candidate, hands down, due to her supernatural powers.
Hard To Choose
"I have 3 potential winners:"
"Elsa on account of having super powers that can be used offensively."
"Mulan on having actual combat training."
"Nala (if you count her) for being a literal lion."
– Theher0not
Icy Powers
"Elsa can literally create sentient life and freeze everyone on their starting pedestals aoe style....there's no contest here twentieth level elemental wizard wins."
– Unnecessaryloongname
Fearless
"Ohhh I hadn’t thought of Nala. Technically not in the Disney Princess lineup, and also she’s not a princess. But yes, Nala would be a good contender."
– Pyrocephalus-rubinus
Disqualification
"Not one of the early ones, I’ll tell you that right now."
– ShinyRedBalloon
"Ah, but what if the sounds of the battlefield awaken sleeping Aurora to her true love, the love of Blood drawn in war. She wakes, shatters her glass coffin, and uses the shards of glass as a pair of swords. She hasn't eaten in years, so she doesn't need a lot of food. She jumps full into the fray, slashing and jabbing with her glass swords. Tributes fall to the left and right, as Aurora, goddess of the dawn, destroys them unto their very bloodline. Exterminated."
– jewel-frog-fur
Some thought unique skills and credentials were more effective than witchcraft.
Take A Bow
"Merida is excellent with a bow. I think she’d have a fighting chance."
– UnStoppableWho_
Thematically And Practically
"Thematically? Meridia."
"Practically? Elsa. She's literally a magical ice goddess that can flash freeze an entire lake. The only other princess with anything approaching supernatural power is Moana, and her power is over water ."
– Allfunandgaymes
The Forest Expert
"Thematically, consider Pochahantas and Mulan too! If Elsa didn’t immediately freeze everything in the arena, Pochahantas might survive just from knowing what’s edible and what’s not and being able to track people and avoid being seen!"
– ruiqi22
So which is it?
Woman Warrior
"Mulan - trained warrior with excellent survival skills."
– TitleProfessional760
Weapon Of Choice
"She defeated the boss Hun with a paper fan. I think she's a safe bet."
– inadequatepockets
Hitting The Bullseye
"Don't discount Merida. The Hunger Games were won by an archer, after all."
"Mulan definitely wound up being the skilled soldier of the bunch and probably best survival skills, but Merida was no stranger to the outdoors herself."
– 1CEninja
It's A Toss-Up
"I’m also between Merida and Mulan. I think they both have the skill set to win, but when it comes to killing the other princesses, I think Mulan’s death count will give her an edge. Merida hasn’t killed a human before, while Mulan is a war tested soldier with a 10,000 kill count."
– Pyrocephalus-rubinus
I'd put my pound sterling on Merida to epically conquer all.
Our red-headed heroine is skilled with a bow and arrow and she would fiercely take down leaders of the wealthy Capitol city of Panem to end the annual carnage once and for all.
The villain is always just misunderstood. My ultimate has always been Dracula. Love you...
Good Tom
Hungry Tom And Jerry GIF by HBO MaxGiphy"Tom from Tom and Jerry. I’ve always rooted for him."
deaf_phrog
It's the Chemistry
"Yzma. For one, she’s just so crazy that it’s hard to be afraid of her and you end up just liking her. She and Kronk have such great chemistry too."
everythinglatte
"I love Eartha Kitt and she absolutely killed it in this role. Hard to see a villain as a villain when I'm grinning ear to ear every time she's on screen!"
CheriesGhost
"I read this thread last night and forgot how much I loved this movie when it first came out. Today was a shi**y day and I get to watch it with my kid. Thanks for the reminder."
rhondaanaconda
LOLOL
"GLaDOS. She is just so crazy and hilarious you forget she enjoys gassing innocents."
HenryFrenchFries
“I have another surprise for you, and not a fake surprise like before. A real surprise, with tragic consequences. And REAL confetti this time! The good stuff! Our last bag!”
monkey_scandal
LEGO FOREVER
"Lego Joker."
irobot_67
"Bruh lego Joker is in the top two best portrayals of the joker imo. I'm a sucker for the goofier silver age villains (why be edgy when you're up against what is often the biggest edgelord in the city?) and he portrays those campy origins of the dc characters so well. I'm obsessed with the dynamic he has with the lego version of Batman."
animaginaryraven
So Cold
sad adventure time GIFGiphy"The Ice King. It's just a tragic backstory. He's just lonely and desperate for friends."
evil_wazard
I'm getting old. I have to look up a few of these. What I see I like though.
J & J
PokémonGiphy"Jessie and James. Pokemon would not be the same without them."
MyAccounts0
Villain/Hero
"Magneto. Was he wrong, in knowing that humans hate and would inevitably attack mutants? According to Days of Future Past, no. Humans have proven that you don't have to be non-human for people to turn on you and kill you."
shygirl1995_
"A great villain has a realistic motivation to believe they are morally justified, and that's why I love like magneto. His actions are out of revenge and self preservation. He's not evil for the sake of profit or power, he could be portrayed as a hero in the right story."
drsideburns
The best...
"Wiley Coyote. I'm rooting for him to blow the Road Runner up."
ItsMyView
"But you know what? He never stays down. He always gets back up and tries something new. Granted, it’s almost always something sold by Acme, but he’s a coyote - it’s a miracle he can even read the catalogue. That’s why if I ever get a tat it’ll be of Wile E Coyote."
iamsoupcansam
Don't choose hate!
"Who can hate Tai Lung? He's such a well developed character and I feel like he's more of a tragic character than a villain. There's so many questions left unanswered. What if Oogway gave him the scroll? Would he still lay waste to the valley? Because he didn't understand the scroll's lesson when he got it from Po?
"What if Shifu did defend Tai Lung? Would Tai Lung feel ashamed that he wasn't good enough for his master? Would it cause him to give up Kung Fu? What if Shifu did teach him Humilty and not fill his head with the idea he was MET to be the dragon warrior?"
"Like UGH, He needs to come back and be redeemed if there's ever a fourth KFP movie. He had his opportunity when he fought against Shifu. But he knew it was too late for an apology."
ShadowJDarkus
You're a mean one...
The Grinch Smiling GIF by The Good FilmsGiphy"The Grinch."
6bfmv2
"He wouldn't be so grumpy if there wasn't a dude singing songs, every 5 minutes, about what a piece of sh*t he is."
steakandcheese1
Whoa!!
"The Monarch from Venture Bros (cartoon network). Dude is hilarious."
tossaway69420lol
"'What kind of moron doesn't even lock the doors to his private compound? I'm not even going to flush! LET THEM SEE THE WRATH OF THE MONARCH!!!'"
Mace_Thunderspear
"Whoa, whoa! He's not a villain! He's an antagonist!"
Stevenger
“Do you fear death?”
"Davy Jones."
GeTRecKeD303
"Captain Barbosa in the first too! Great villains all around in the PotC series."
ilkmanami
"He’s so extra too. His first scene has him emerging from the water, walking along a line of terrified sailors while smoking from a pipe, stopping in front of one of them and saying 'Do you fear death?' It’s an absolutely amazing way to introduce a character."
ShinyNinja25
such a nice boy'
"James from Team Rocket."
MegaMinerd
"The only words I can think of to describe him are 'such a nice boy'. All of his Pokémon love him too much and keep trying to hug him."
Redqueenhypo
"I watched one of the older Pokemon movies last night (Lucario and the Mystery of Mew), and the humans are all supposedly about to be killed. As he’s supposedly dying, James lets his Pokemon out of their Pokeballs so they can get away."
StreetReporter
Evil
disney quote GIFGiphy"Hades in the animated Hercules movie. Huge POS, but f**k if he wasn’t entertaining."
yungjaquellus
"Today, we associate Hades with a somewhat demonic or devilish look, but the Greeks depicted him as a suave and blinged out mofo. Picture Mr. T. Precious metals and gems were his domain, so he was highly adorned."
Emperor_Neuro
"He was actually imitating the Hollywood agents he had encountered."
lifeofideas
HELLSTORM
"Les Grossman."
avidguy84
"I will rain down an un-Godly freaking firestorm upon you! You're gonna have to call the freaking United Nations and get a freaking binding resolution to keep me from totally destroying you. I'm talking scorched earth, morons! I will massacre you! I WILL DESTROY YOU UP!"
joestrutz
My Man
"You can’t hate my man bowser. Dude has 8 kids, legit go karts and plays sports with Mario and his kids. He’s looking out for his kids by kidnapping Peach so they can have a mom, lol."
AbstractElite
"Miyamoto has stated in the past that the main line Mario games is just a work of fiction in the Mario universe, they're basically plays/movies. All the actors, Bowzer, Mario, Peach, etc are all friends outside of the games. Hence why Bowzer and other enemies get invited to hang out and party."
Endulos
Humanity sucks...
"Vlad Dracula Tepes in the 2017 Castlevania series. Humanity sucks."
fufufufufufufufuf15
"I love that depiction of Dracula: the scientist; the philosopher; the reluctantly get understandably vengeful. He was more human than the bishops and priests in that series, for sure. This series was fantastic at making the viewer sympathetic with almost everyone's story arc."
dzumdang
The Favorite!
Angry He Man GIFGiphy"Skeletor."
So3Dimensional
"He has always been my favorite and always will be. But he was an a**hole to the fullest. All he ever did was talk crap to his minions and bring them down. I used to joke that the reason why he never succeeded was because none of his support team had any self confidence left."
VeterinarianThese951
I love them all. Long live the bad guy.
#GrinchForever #SkeletorForever
And while the outcome is what a good majority of causal readers expect and enjoy, a story in which the antagonist comes out as the ultimate conqueror can be a refreshing take on a plot twist.
In real life, however, a scenario in which evil trumps good is not a favored narrative.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor ActualWater1994 asked:
"When was there a time where the villain defeated the hero in real life?"
There are villains among us.
Stealing Credit
"Anytime someone stole someone else’s work/invention and the original creator never received fame or recognition for it. It unfortunately happens all the time."
– audreymarilynvivien
Arrogant Prodigy
"That one youtube comment for that piano tutorial video that said his piano playing sucks and he could play better. Tons of people tried to call him out of just being an a** in YouTube comments but he finally made a video of him playing the same song on piano and it was a masterpiece."
"I think Charlie did a video on it."
– ammonite89
Crafty Boss
"Me in my early career. Boss took credit for a bug that I found in IBM software that was derping our system. Lost that job shortly thereafter."
– siliconsmiley
History is rife with real-life villains.
Offing The Presidents
"When JFK and Abraham Lincoln got assassinated."
– FreneticAtol778
A Contradicting Historic Portrayal
"Thomas Edison basically man stole a lot."
– D-C-A
"Seriously, what was his deal? Like was it common practice in the past for people to steal patents like that? I can comprehend corporate espionage or sabotage, but the dude straight up sent goon squads to hurt people."
– DaemonDrayke
Consequences For Exposing Shady Business Dealings
"Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia. The journalist who broke the Panama Papers and got carbombed for it."
"Edit: As u/newbootgoofin99 pointed out, I misremembered the details here. The reporter who broke the Papers was actually named Bastian Obermayer; Galizia was killed instead for drawing connections between local corrupt government and the papers."
"The message is still clear, of course: speaking out against the rich and corrupt rarely leads to the justice you see in comic books. Far more often, those who seek justice get silenced."
– PsychicSPider95
"In a nutshell, they're a collection of documents--about 2 terabytes worth, iirc--that contain financial information regarding the world's richest people. They're proof that the elite of the world are hoarding their wealth in offshore accounts and being shady about their business dealings."
"The only thing that happened as a result of their publishing was that the journalist who did it was killed."
– PsychicSPider95
Resistance Leader
"Jean Moulin is a French man who was one of the head of the 'resistance' during WWII. He and his couterparts were denouced by a friend and caught by the Nazis. He was questioned and tortured daily by head of Gestapo Klaus Barbie. He tried to commit suicide multiple times until he died while being deported to Berlin. He never gave them a single information. He is our hero."
– Calodyn
Gruesome Discovery
"In the somewhat early 1800s a wealthy woman named Delphine LaLaurie (a slave owner) had her mansion burnt down. When firefighters arrived to the scene, they made a disturbing discovery. In her house where dozens of slaves who had undergone various grueling surgeries and mutilations. Some had their mouths sewn shut, others had undergone partially complete gender changes. All of them had suffered some form of abuse. When the public found out, many were outraged. However, Delphine fled to France and was never brought to justice."
– Hitman_2025
The Absolute Ruler Of The Congo Free State
"King Leopold getting away with brutalizing Congo."
– DubiousPeoplePleaser
"Yes its awful. I live in Belgium, and I disgust Leopold the second. Right now, statues of him are getting taken down/broken or vandalized by fellow Belgians. Im proud that some people have the balls to stand up against the royal family from back in the day."
– AdFront1172
The Movie Director
"When back in 2007 many celebrities signed to free Roman Polanski, who is proven to drug and rape a 13 yo girl."
"Polanski is still free and no one does nothing."
"You can wtach the list of evrryone who signed. You won't want to watch movies again. Most of the greatest actors, actresses, film makers, etc. are in the list, even those that we all thought where the less evil."
"People like Natlie Portman is there."
– STJ41
British Intervention
"The English burnt Joan of Arc at the stake, who was fighting for French Independence."
"The English also killed and mutilated William Wallace, who was fighting for Scottish Independence."
"The English basically were the villians in many countries' fight for independence and often times the English won."
– WorkLemming
Conceptually, Redditors talked about what makes a villain.
Observing Perspective
"Perspective is the key, we don’t often have black and white hero vs villain situations, typically you only get one side where the people controlling the message create the hero side."
"Not to mention that your idea of a villain might be someone else’s hero and vice versa."
– Destron5683
Ambiguity In Classification
"In real life, it's relatively rare that heroes are unambiguously heroes and villains are unambiguously villains: the heroes are the ones that you happen to be rooting for."
– wwplkyih
The Reputation Of A Corporation
"Nestle sent thousands of shipments of formula to Africa that had to be mixed with milk when they could have sent one that used water and were responsible for the deaths of approximately 66,000 infants. I have seen basically 0 major news outlets actually cover this because they know nestle will royally f**k them over and they’ll never be heard from again if they do, or nestle has them in their back pocket. No matter what restrictions or regulations we have in place, major corporations will always find a way to exploit citizens and violate human rights illegally and get away with it Scott free every time."
"If you’d like to read more about the atrocities nestle has committed against countless people head on over to r/f'cknestle, they have a lot more information on why you should stop supporting nestle if you want their human rights violations to finally end."
– Necessary_Rich_1477
Turning A Blind Eye On Indiscretions
"Winston Churchill was a noted racist, misogynist, and imperialist. He was also an alcoholic and an a-hole. He made some fairly unconscionable choices (such as Coventry) in the pursuit of defeating the Nazis. But because he did defeat the Nazis, a lot of his less laudable traits get conveniently ignored."
– IrascibleOcelot
Propogandistic
"History is written by the winners..."
"Edit:all these people using the confederacy as proof I'm wrong may need to rethink what the real reason is..."
– DickieGreenleaf84
As a few Redditors pointed out in the thread, the distinction of who is the villain is not exactly black and white.
This is why it's such a fascinating conflict in literature.
Everyone is flawed. But it's a fine line as to whether or not the choices a character makes–as a result of being wronged by society–determine if they are worthy of praise or condemnation.
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Redditor rendice_1011 wanted to have a deep chat and discuss fiction's most heartbreaking endings by asking:
"Who is that one character whose death you just can't get over?"
This goes all the way back to Bambi's mom.
Way to screw us for life Disney.
They're gifted at that.
On the Water
"Wilson from Cast Away. I know it's not really a death but Chuck having to choose between his raft (and his own safety) and saving Wilson traumatized me as a kid." ~ GirlWhoReads90
Giphy"Ben"
"Ben from Scrubs holds the world record for the quickest-set sympathy for any character ever." ~ NerdismOfficial
"It’s because Brandon Fraser is quite possibly the most lovable person on earth and an incredible actor." ~ brandee95
"This is an episode I wish I could go back and see for the first time again. Everything up to that moment… the same picture at each of his tourist spots… the wanting a posed picture when he was so against them… everything about that episode was perfect." ~ brain89
Made of Steel
"Shelby in Steel Magnolias. I will forever be a mess no matter how many times I watch. Sally Fields did such an amazing job in that scene, it gets me every time." ~ Sylverpsyche
"This was my favorite need a good cry movie (the funeral scene kills me) and I haven't watched it since my baby sister was diagnosed with Type 1 at age 9. I just can't do it." ~ szg5057
Can't Watch
"Piggy from Lord of the Flies. He didn’t deserve that." ~ RehabValedictorian
"When I read that in HS, we watched the movie after. My teacher replayed the scene like 10 times because he thought the effects made it hilarious." ~ Much_Improvement_987
Baby Tears
"The Iron Giant, no matter how many times I watch it even though I know he actually survived I bawl like a baby at Superman..." ~ Singewulf
GiphyCast Away and Steel Magnolias?
Don't get me started.
Not without vodka.
Down
"The wife from UP." ~ smorgasfjord
"I sobbed through the first fifteen minutes of that movie, wept quietly through the next 80, and then sobbed again at the end. Pixar will f**k you up." ~ billionairespicerice
disney love GIFGiphyPoor Mouse
"The freaking mouse from Flowers For Algernon." ~ Aware_Style_7445
"What got me was the ending. The guy slowly losing cognitive functions, yet not regaining his previous naiveness."
"He knows now that everyone uses him and laughs at him. I'm never reading that book again." ~ lumiere02
Brutal
"Old Dan and Little Ann. I was a sick, snot covered mess of a sixth grader on my first read through of Where the Red Fern Grows." ~ fadedblossom
"I recently picked up a copy of Where the Red Fern Grows from a little free library and reread it. I remembered the broad strokes of the story and that the dogs die, but not all the details."
"I am in my forties. I was a sick, snot covered mess of a human when I finished it. The end of that book is brutal." ~ Glaggies
Bye Mom
"Littlefoot's mom. 5 year old me was all choked up at the theater." ~ Taladrac
"Wanna know something even more f**ked up? She didn't need to die to continue the plot."
"She could have just been separated like Littlefoot's grandparents and everything in the film could have happened the exact same. They killed Littlefoot's mom to traumatize an entire generation." ~ ubertraquer
The Original
"Charlotte, in the original version of Charlotte's Web." ~ MasakoChance
"Damn you, I buried that memory long ago." ~ Cosmic_Prisoner
Spider Web Halloween GIFGiphyCharlotte... another OG death.
This list makes me sad.
But what great writing and storytelling.
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