Dr. Jackson Han (The Good Doctor): Framed as a cold, prejudiced bureaucratic villain for demoting Shaun to pathology. But in reality? Shaun had severe public meltdowns, screamed "I AM A SURGEON" in his boss's face, and struggled with basic communication during life-or-death situations. Dr. Han was just prioritizing patient safety and hospital liability over emotional leniency.

Ken (The Bee Movie): The movie treats him like a psychotic, toxic boyfriend. But his girlfriend literally ghosted him to have a bizarre romantic relationship with a talking insect and helping it sue humanity. On top of that, Ken is severely allergic to bees! He is the only sane human being reacting normally to a completely unhinged situation.

Rodrick Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid): Greg constantly frames Rodrick as this abusive, evil antagonist. In reality, Rodrick is just a slightly mean but completely normal teenage older brother who likes to tease his sibling. Compared to Greg (who is a textbook narcissist/mild sociopath) and Manny (who is an actual spoiled brat), Rodrick is arguably the sanest and most genuine person in the Heffley household.

Sid Phillips (Toy Story): Framed as a literal sadistic, Frankenstein-esque psychopath who tortures living things. But if you look at it from his perspective, he has absolutely no idea that toys are sentient. To him, they are just plastic, metal, and fabric. He isn't inflicting pain on living animals; he’s just a creative, edgy 90s kid practicing kitbashing and custom toy making.

When it comes to Bear from Obsession, a lot of people seem to agree that he is the true villain of the story! But it also got me thinking about other movies that follow a similar formula where the protagonist is the real villain, and they aren’t the victim that they insist they are. Especially when their selfish (even evil) actions are resulting in them dealing with the consequences after wronging the “monster” who’s actually the true victim of the story.

An example that I’ve placed in front of Bear, is Blaire from Unfriended. Her along with her group of friends played a role in cyber bullying and shaming a girl named Laura who committed suicide, and throughout the narrative Laura’s ghost comes back to haunt them and calls them out for all the shitty things they’ve done to people (even to the people within their own friend group). In regards to Blaire, Laura is able to push these people hard enough and break them to the point, where Blaire is caught red handed for being unfaithful to her boyfriend by having sex with his best friend. But to top it off, she makes stupid decisions that result in someone being killed, and when Laura demands to know who posted the video of her being drunk and soiled herself after passing out. Blaire was willing to throw her boyfriend under the bus, if it meant she wouldn’t be viewed as a bad person!

Now of course with Bear, he has the nerve to view himself as a victim whose space is being violated because Nikki “won’t leave him alone”. When he is the one who wished for her to “love him more than anyone in the fucking world”, and refuses to take accountability that he’s taking advantage of her while she’s lost her autonomy. He simply doesn’t care about how the real Nikki is actually suffering, as long as she’s satisfying his needs and doesn’t do “weird stuff”

The redesigned Dragons (Spyro Reignited Trilogy)

The Serpentines (Ninjago)

By “no-nonsense” I mean a torturer that isn’t interested or motivated by any sadistic enjoyment of the torture process. They are after information as quickly and efficiently as possible.

(Unthinkable)

Samuel Jackson’s character is interrogating/torturing a man that’s hidden multiple nuclear bombs across the US. At one point he brings in the man’s innocent wife and young children, FULLY willing to torture them in front of him until he talks.

(Casino royale)

Le Chiffre has James Bond stripped naked and tied to a chair. Instead of “all those fancy tortures” he begins to do “the one thing a man can’t possibly bear” and begins to torture his testicles by striking him with a knotted rope.

(The boondocks)

A funny example. Agent flowers just kicks a terrorist in the nuts u til he tells him the information he wants.

EDIT:
“well bond did hold out against Le Chiffres torture…” yeah, all 2 minutes of it. Then Le Chiffre gets shot in the head seconds before he’s about to kick the torture into the next gear using the sounds of bonds girl getting tortured in the next room and straight up cutting bonds balls off

Of course bond is going to hold out in the first five minutes of torture. He’s a highly trained secret agent. The point was that le Chiffre chose an avenue of torture that he knew someone like bond would break under eventually.

Kazuya Mishima (Tekken) While he is a supernatural terrorist, he has a hobby of collecting sneakers

Lord Dominator (Wander of Yonder) Evil tyrant who destroys planets, but she also likes watching cartoons in her free time. She can be seen watching a Scooby-doo, Gravity Falls hybrid knockoff cartoon

Akuma (Street Fighter) He’s really only a villain to super strong people like Ryu, he doesn’t fight anyone he considers weak. But he runs a fruit stand in his free time and he even made friends with Elena

Dr who - The Master- On a ship, on the horizon of a black hole, where 30 minutes on one side of the ship could equal YEARS on the other side. The Master and hospital crew subject the Doctors companion Bill to Cyber-conversion against her will, turning her into a Mondasian Cyberman over a prolonged 10-year period while the Twelfth Doctor tries to reach her.

Spiderman Brand New Day - Jean Grey - SPOILERS Jean Grey posses Peters former Girlfriend MJ knowing that Peter can no longer sense her possessing other people. She uses this knowledge to act as if a kiss from MJ has broken a spell cast by Dr Strange which caused everyone to forget him. Peter breaks down crying his eyes out having gone through a traumatic series of events and finally thinking that one of the very few people that he thinks the world of finally remembers who he is. Only for Jean Grey to taunt him and reveal it was her inside all along.

Oldboy - Woo-jin - Dae-su was kidnapped and locked in a small hotel room for 15 years without knowing why. Instead of just killing Dae-su, Woo-jin orchestrates an elaborate, decade-long psychological trap. He releases Dae-su and manipulates circumstances so that Dae-su falls deeply in love with a young woman called Mi-do. At the climax, Woo-jin reveals the devastating truth: Mi-do is actually Dae-su's long-lost daughter

• Lev from The Last of Us Part II: Lev is a trans boy who cannot medically transition due to being in a zombie apocalypse with a fascist government, yet the main cast in the story supports and affirms him as male.
• Denise Bryson from Twin Peaks: A trans woman DEA and FBI agent. She does not pass in the series, which is an integral part of her character; her boss simply tells people who don't like it to "fix their hearts or die."
• Cordelia from Vinland Saga: As a trans woman living in Northern Europe during the Viking age, it is impossible for Cordelia, who has a hulking, muscular figure, to transition to female. But despite not looking the part physically, everyone is cool with it and refers to her as female.
• Ladiva from Granblue Fantasy: A pro wrestler who makes no attempts to pass (save for hair) and is still beloved by the cast as a maternal figure, serving as a stark contrast to her species' women who are petite.

Edit: typos and incorrect lore fixes

Leo Bonhart, Witcher season 4. The show tried to get us to fall in love with the scampy Rats, only for Leo Bonhart, grandiosely played by Sharlto Copley, to slaughter them to the joy and revel of the crowd. The only good part of the wretched 4th season.

EDIT: I don't know who wrote the screenplay for season 4, but by god i hated every second that Leo wasn't on screen, and how do you mess up so epically that the character that you set up to hate is loved by everyone?

Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF. Introduced as a heel, he really took off on his own in 1996 taking the Stone Cold persona, a beer chugging rebel that regularly insulted the audience and focussed his hatred on Vince McMahon, he was absolutely loved by the crowds.

A character meant to be very popular with audiences but never caught on even if the rest of the project did

Tori Vega-Victorious

Victorious was created to make Victoria Justice a real pop star the way through the character of Tori Vega the same way Disney did with Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana but while the show was popular Tori ended up being the least popular of the main cast and the plan failed. Ironically the show featured Ariana Grande who did become a real pop star.

Klaus Heisler-American Dad

Early in American Dad Klaus was meant to be one of the mascots for the show along with Roger a la Brian and Stewie from Family Guy but while Roger worked Klaus didn't and by the end of the first FOX run he was the least prominent of the main characters. In the TBS era however he was retooled into more of a pathetic dudebro character and became much more popular.

Silver the Hedgehog-Sonic the Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog was meant to be the breakout star of Sonic 06, completing the hedgehog trio with Sonic and Shadow but Sonic 06 was a complete mess and Silver has been a side character ever since.

Shrimp eating scene(Substance) - The director deliberately zoomed in on the actor's mouth and made the chewing sound loud to create an uncomfortable effect.

Odin kills Thor(God of War: Ragnarök) - Odin used his son, Thor, just as a tool. When Thor first rebelled against his father, Odin immediately killed him. It is right after the scene where he gaslights his son. That's why it feels even more uncomfortable.

Sung Ki-Hun meet his daughter's stepfather(Squidgame) - When Ki-Hun's mom got diabetes, Ki-Hun had no money to take care of her. So he went to his ex-wife and begged for money. The ex-wife's husband watched this situation, and he gave money to Ki-Hun. Ki-Hun was grateful for the money. However, this was actually a warning and a demand that he stop approaching his daughter, and upon hearing this, Ki-Hun got angry and hit him. And his daughter watched the whole situation.

Character is pushed so far, they become the worst versions of themselves, usually leaving a trail of destruction and death in their wake

Dune series: Paul Atreides after what the Emperor and Harkonnens did and seeing what paths to take that will ensure his family's survival, Paul embraces his Harkonnen side and launches his Holy War

Attack on Titan: Eren Yeager after years of struggle and learning the truth of the Titan origins and what his people have gone through, embraces his fate and starts the Rumbling

X-Men (First Class): Magneto was already on the edge but Charles working on him to be more sympathetic towards humans, but after killing Shaw and the start of WW3, both the Russians and Americans decided to try to end the mutants, pushing Magneto to decide, finally, that humans are the true enemy.

EDIT: For Paul, I'm specifically referring to the movies and what's been shown so far. I understand that Paul's motivations are entirely different in the book series, at least right now. Denis has changed a lot from the books, especially with Chani so we'll see what he lands on with Part 3

For Eren, admittedly a bit of a stretch, but if you compare how he was in the beginning (an angry kid who wanted to kill all titans) to the end (wanting to use the Titans to kill everyone), he's definitely been radicalized

For Magneto, I'm also referring to the movies for him, X-Men First Class specifically, where he starts out as just wanting revenge against Shaw, to declaring war on the humans.

1. Game of Thrones: Jeoffrey Baratheon, that little sadistic shit, gets poisoned and dies a horrible death in his mother's arms
2. Final Destination Bloodlines: The penny kid causes the entire movie's events, and selfishly almost survives the prologue before being crushed by a falling piano
3. (Meta example) Sonic 3: Maria gets killed accidentally during a raid by GUN. While people didn't cheer for her death per se, they were hyped to see Shadow's tragic backstory accurately portrayed in the movie.

Heated Rivalry Episode 3 "Hunter": The show stops following Hollander and Rozanov's love story to follow another hockey player, Scott Hunter, and his romance with a smoothie store employee.

The Last of Us S1E3 "Long Long Time": Joel and Ellie need a car. So to explain why there's a car waiting around for them to use, they show us an incredibly heartbreaking love story lasting 20 years between two men Joel knows. They have a car.

Doctor Who S3E10 "Blink": With no explanation given, this episode begins with a character we've never met, one Sally Sparrow, poking around an abandoned building. Our lead character, The Doctor, is glimpsed seemingly randomly on TVs. What is going on? Did that statue just move!?

MythicQuest S1E5 "A Dark Quiet Death": Rather than continuing to follow our lead characters as they develop an MMORPG, we flash back many years to witness the history of a couple who start a videogame company, and how over the years the pressure to drive sales causes them to give up on their artistic integrity.

Steven Steel (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run)

A 51-year-old man who married a 14-year-old girl named Lucy.
Turns out it was purely a protective marriage in name only. Lucy’s father owed a massive debt to the mafia, and Steven married her solely to give her legal protection. He treated her entirely as a guardian figure and never made a single romantic or physical advance on her.

Mohg, Lord of Blood (Elden Ring)
Kidnapped his half-brother Miquella (who is cursed with eternal youth) to force him into godhood and a creepy marital dynasty. The entire fanbase dubbed him a pedo for two years.
Then the DLC Shadow of the Erdtree revealed that Miquella actually used his divine charm powers to brainwash Mohg into kidnapping him. Mohg wasn't the predator. He was an unwittingly manipulated puppet used as a stepping stool for Miquella's divine ascension plans.

Nanahoshi in Mushoku Tensei when it seems like she might never get back home

Ned in The Simpsons episode Hurricane Neddy

Spongebob against Squidward when he refuses to get a job, take care of himself and abuses Spongebobs hospitality.

Hard to explain in a title, but when someone gives a character an ultimatum to choose between them, or someone else. And without hesitation, the character chooses the "other person" instead of the person who gave the ultimatum.

Nick Parker (The Parent Trap): His fiancee Meredith is a gold digger who had been combative with his daughters, and after they perform pranks on her, she tells Nick their relationship is over unless he ships them off to a boarding school. To Meredith's surprise, Nick chooses his daughters over her and breaks up with Meredith.

Dennis Reynolds (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia): Dennis and Frank are impersonating police in an attempt to clean up the neighborhood. Dennis is also carrying around a junkyard cat he found, who he's named "Agent Jack Bauer". Frank gets tired of the cat and thinks it smells and that it's making their job more difficult, and tells Dennis to stop taking the cat with them or he's quitting. Dennis immediately chooses Jack Bauer over Frank.

Doctor Strange discovers Wanda.

• Po from Kung Fu Panda - Although many characters comment on his weight throughout the movies, Po is actually considered skinny and/or in better shape for panda standards
• Midoriya Izuku from My Hero Academia - While many viewers find Deku "cute", the reality is that for his world he's actually considered "simple looking" and at the very worst "ugly"
• Spider-Man from Marvel Comics - Many people love Spider-Man, but the truth is that for common civilians, Spidey's pretty unsettling and scary to be around with

1. In Bruges the big bad Harry (Ralph Fiennes) says earlier in the film "if I had killed a little kid...I wouldn't have thought twice. I'd have killed myself on the fucking spot". At the end, he does shoot a kid (or so he thinks) and says "You've got to stick to your principles" and kills himself on the fucking spot.

2. The recruiter in Squid Game plays games with his victims, but always follows the rules. He plays Russian Roulette with the protagonist, and 5 out of 6 empty shots have been taken, so the last shot definitely has the bullet. Since he always follows the rules, he shoots himself in the head.

3. Paladin Danse fights for the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 4. The Brotherhood is adamantly against synths (synthetic humans), they are their sworn enemy. Later on in the game, the Sole Survivor (player character) finds out that Paladin Danse himself IS a synth, but is unaware. The Soul Survivor can choose what to do, but if he/she chooses to kill him, Danse says "I am a synth. I need to be destroyed." And praises you for deciding to kill him.

1. Amon Goeth (Schindler's List) Would you believe that an SS Commadant's Crimes can be downplayed? Well thats what happened to Amon Goeth in the film. Even though he is shown to be a waste of humanity, he is actually downplayed on how vile he is.

How bad is he? He was fired from his Job for Mistreatment of Prisoners among other reasons. Yes thats right. The Nazis were disgusted by how cruelly he ran a Concetration Camp meant to exterminate undesirables.

1. Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (Death of Stalin) Head of the NKVD, Stalin's Himmler, and a massove Pedophile and Rapist. You think this Monster is already vile enough. Well, you would be wrong. The Director actually downplayed how much of a serial rapist and pedophile Beria is by hinting at it and onky revealing how many he molested and raped.

Wanna know how bad Beria is? The Tunisian Embassy in Russia was bulit on the grounds of his former Dacha. When the Soviets were excavating it to begin renovations, they found several remains of women and children he murdered and raped. Yes, he buried them in his own gardens.

1. Giotto of Florence from real life. The pope wanted to commission a painter and sent a messenger to collect works from a bunch of artists so that he may examine their skill. When the messenger got to Giotto, Giotto simply freehand drew a perfect circle on a sheet of paper in front of the messenger. The messenger was confused, but Giotto told him that it'll make sense once he tells the pope how he drew the circle. Sure enough, the pope recognised the skill it takes to draw a perfect circle freehand without a compass and gave Giotto the commission.
2. Johnny from The Devil Came Down to Georgia. While the Devil's solo sounds cooler on the surface, Johnny's solo is actually more difficult to play and showcases more advanced technical skill.

Walter White poisoning Andrea Cantillo's 6-year-old son for the sole purpose of manipulating Jesse Pinkman, while knowing that this could have potentially killed him - Breaking Bad

Bojack trying to have sex with his friend's 17-year-old daughter when he was at least 51, then continuously trying to find a way to justify this act throughout the series - Bojack Horseman

Dexter Morgan going outside of his moral code and murdering a completely innocent police officer who was just trying to do his job - Dexter: New Blood

Obsession: Wish Niki herself isn’t actually evil but because Bear’s wish is so messed up it makes her act out and become more unhinged. This is also combined with the fact that she was basically given the impossible task of keeping a guy with no real personality or love for her interested, so it’s no wonder she acts so drastically.

Leviticus: Although the entity is trying to kill Ryan and Naim, the entity itself isn’t evil. It isn’t a demon with its own desires but instead something that’s representative their internalized homophobia or just the homophobia of the religious cult in general. Being afraid of it is basically being afraid of yourself which is what’s gets you killed. That’s why when Naim embraces entity Ryan instead of fearing it when it’s about to kill him, entity Ryan hesitates. It doesn’t know how to handle love.

Ramon from Scary stories to tell in the Dark: Ramon’s a draft dodger of the Vietnam war trying to avoid the same fate as his brother but after he goes through his character arc of becoming a braver person he decides to finally go to Vietnam at the end of the film. The problem is the movies set in 1968 which means they’re still 7 years out from Saigon. While it’s possible he’ll be fine, there is the likelihood he either gets seriously injured or straight up dies.

Agent Mansley from the Iron Giant: Mansley acts as the main antagonist of the film with it coming to head when he steals a five star general’s walkie talkie and orders a nuke to be sent directly to the town to kill the iron giant. We see him getting arrested after this and then he disappears for the remainder of the film. With that being said the movie takes place in the 50s in the peak of McCarthyism/Cold War and he did just commit high treason against the US by launching a literal nuke on American soil. Best case scenario is he gets executed by firing squad outside of city limits and buried in a shallow grave never to be talked about again. Most likely scenario is he gets disappeared by the government and taken to some unknown black site to be tortured by CIA to figure out when he was compromised by the Soviets.

Edit: since so many people have pointed out (some more rudely than others.) that only about 2% of American soldiers died in Vietnam, I decided to add to the original post as to be more accurate. Hopefully this will be enough for my transgressions to be forgiven.

Malcolm in the Middle, Season 1, Episode 13

Just always thought this scene was made so much funnier by all the cuts and rollerblading that very obviously not done by Bryan Cranston