Harley Quinn's Misunderstood Villains

Improved Essays
Villains are the antagonists to every story. They are known to be evil, and are hated or feared by everyone in the storyline. Characters in stories never try to understand the villain. They never want to know what is troubling them, or leading them to act the way they do. For instance the Evil Queen, Harley Quinn, and Sheldon J. Plankton. Perhaps instead of fighting off and killing of these villains, the hero should try to get them the help that they need.
One example of a villain who is misunderstood and hated in a story is the Evil Queen from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. She is made the villain of the story, after she attempts to kill Snow White to be named “the fairest in the land”. The Evil Queen becomes evil when she sends a huntsman
…show more content…
Harley Quinn is not the main antagonist of the batman franchise, but she is still a villain since she steals, kills, and terrorizes cities. Harley Quinn was not a villain in the beginning of the story, instead she was a psychiatrist at the Arkham Asylum. Harley is made into a villain after she falls in love with a maniac, the hero’s enemy, the Joker. “Harleen fell in love with the villain, broke him out of Arkham and devoted her life to making him happy and spreading his bloody brand of mayhem.”(“Harley Quinn” 2017) In the story, Harley’s goal is not to torment Batman or his city, instead she just wants to make the Joker happy and would stop at nothing to do so. Harley is misunderstood as a psychotic sidekick, but she is actually just a young woman who is madly in love with an insane …show more content…
Plankton is also a misunderstood villain from the Spongebob Squarepants t.v. show on Nickelodeon. Plankton is a struggling restaurant owner, who is desperate to beat his competing restaurant The Krusty Krab. Plankton becomes the villain when he turns crude and jealous after seeing his arch-nemesis Krabs succeed in his business. He is the antagonist because in nearly every episode of the series, he makes crazy plans and gadgets to help him steal the Krabby Patty secret formula. Although Plankton has many plans, his main one is to obtain the secret formula and surpass the Krusty Krab with a more successful restaurant. “‘If only I could have managed to steal the secret to Krab’s success. The formula for the Krabby Patty. Then people would line up to eat at my restaurant!’,said Plankton” (“The Spongebob Squarepants Movie” 2004). Plankton is taken as a jealous varmint who wants to destroy Krab’s business, when he actually just wants to be a part of a successful restaurant, The Krusty Krab, that he one day he helped

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The villain is thought to be the exact opposite of a hero. Characteristics of the ideal villain often include darkness, being filled with evil, and using their muscles and…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plankton: A Short Story

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Now everyone knows who Plankton is, he has tried to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula countless times and failed every time, at least that’s what Spongebob Squarepants thinks. Plankton just believes in sharing and he wants the Krusty Krab to share with him, but the Krusty Krab doesn’t seem to want to share with hime. He is considered evil for his actions, but Plankton isn’t evil, just misunderstood. So Planktons day started off waking up from his cold bed in his deserted Chum Bucket restaurant. Plankton was feeling famished and quite parched, but he didn’t have anything to eat in his abandoned restaurant.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We often focus more on the protagonist of stories, but what about the antagonist? Reading all three of the short stories Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, they all expand the idea of the “bad guy.” The antagonists are the ones that truly develop the situation of stories, because without them there wouldn't be a conflict, or a story in general... At least not an interesting one to say the most.…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When there is protagonist in a story, there exist antagonists. They are used as either an obstacle to the main character’s journey, or as another form of motivation to get through. Posidon, without a doubt, is the antagonist in The Odyssey. There may be many insignificant characters that are obstacles to Odysseus’s episodes of adventure; however, Poseidon’s existence becomes the main objection to Odysseus returning to Ithaca.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A villain, according to Webster's Dictionary, is a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot. While there are several people that could be considered villains in the Scarlet Letter, including the townspeople, Mistress Hibbons,and Dimmesdale the ultimate villain is Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is the biggest antagonist in Scarlett Letter because he was truly full of hatred and out for revenge; cold hearted schemer and evil, he exhibited all the characteristics of a villain. First Chillingworth, Hester's husband, was never a nice man.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth Villain Quotes

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Villains are known for turmoil and ending with a bad tale. In the Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, multiple deaths occur and true faces are shown. Many characters change and the will for killing people is easy for them. Macbeth is a true villain because of his actions, ambition, and lack of loyalty that impacts the play.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The True Villain: Lady Macbeth “I like villains because there is something so attractive about a committed person. They have a plan, an ideology, no matter how twisted. They are motivated." (Russell Crowe). From the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the character Lady Macbeth can be directly related to the quote.…

    • 1605 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A villain is a person who has done many awful things. Alexander the Great was a bad person because he was not able to lead the people in the right way. Putting your culture into life threatening positions at all time would not want people to live in that area. Alexander the Great was a villain because he was really selfish and greedy and destroyed many cultures. Alexander the Great was a villain because he was really selfish and greedy.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Who Is Harley Quinn

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Original Orgin Story In Batman: The Animated Series (est; 1992), Paul Dini, the creator of the now lovable Harley Quinn, decided Joker needed a more prominent henchman, or maybe even a henchwoman. The inspiration of the character came from one of Paul Dini's dear friend, Arleen Sorkin, in 'Days of Our Lives' where she dressed up in a jester costume and had the voice and look inspiration he needed to make Harley Quinn. When Harley's design was complete and ready to be put into Bruce Timm's cartoon, Arleen Sorkin voiced the character, as she was the inspiration, and Harley's first appearance was in the epsiode 'Joker's Favor'. Viewers of the cartoon immediately adored Joker's new henchwoman, and she became more prominent within the show, leading to a orgin story called Batman…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Villains are an interesting bunch in that the same person can be seen as both minor/major, or helpful/dangerous. I guess the same could be said about heroes though. Chuck Klosterman, a best selling author, wrote an essay titled “Electric Funeral,” a chapter of I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined), which details villains of today-different types of technocrats. The three “villains” he mainly focuses on are Perez Hilton, Kim Dotcom, and Julian Assange, who each vary greatly on the spectrum of their acts. Hilton is a blogger who likes to post photoshopped pictures and articles, Dotcom created Megaupload, a website to post copyrighted material illegally, and Assange is the head creator of WikiLeaks.…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It’s a vicious cycle. A villain is found or created and he or she creates havoc amongst the locals, terrorizing them until they can take no more. Then, the hero is called to come and save the day.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Batman’s biggest nemesis is the Joker, and the two could never be anymore different, but one without the other could not exist. In one movie, the Joker even comes out and says “he’s just too fun” and Batman cannot…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    What are heroes? What are villains? Heroes and villains aren’t super humans who have godlike powers. Heroes don’t wear masks, capes, or any of those cool, fancy clothing. Heroes are something else, they are a lot different than the heroes you see on television.…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” A Shakespearian enthusiast might recognize this paradoxical quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but for many its meaning remains puzzling. How can any sane person claim good is bad, and bad is good? But before writing Shakespeare off as a lunatic, one must take this quote in the context of the story. In Macbeth this quote gives a foreshadowing of the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Antagonists are shown to be self-centered and egotistical. On the other hand, protagonists are usually portrayed as protective,heroic, and strong. In addition, protagonists are assumed to be doing the “right thing”, but antagonists are thought to be morally ‘bad’ and villainous. Although they are mainly thought to be complete opposites, antagonists and protagonists can have many similarities. For example, they both almost always believe that they’re doing what's right.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays