Why Nimona's Villain is a disappointment...

Disney villains are dead I know right just call me Captain Obvious man in the RMS no [ __ ] Sherlock heading for you don't say Island you don't need me to say it at this point Disney has been failing us so hard on the villain front the last couple of years hell the last great villain we got from them was King Candy and that was all the way back in 2012 man I was still in high school when that movie came out and now I'm turning 30 this year can I come out and still be 29 so villains have always been a prominent part of our childhoods it was always so satisfying watching our favorite Heroes Vanquish a foe be Spider-Man with the Green Goblin Superman with Lex Luthor Batman with the joker it's a taale As Old As Time and Disney knows that better than anyone or at least they did Once Upon a Time but I think everyone already knows that by now there's plenty of videos already talking about how Disney just sucks at making villains nowadays well with their twist villains their generational trauma and whatever the hell magnifico was supposed to be instead I'd rather use this time to focus on an older video that I made not that long ago in fact it's not even a year old yet so just in time for pride month we're returning back to namona one of my most passionate positive and weirdly controversial videos and not for the reasons you might think now you think a video like that talking about lgbtq representation would get the usual comments of people going ew stop the gay woke agenda from brainwashing your kids and yeah those comments do show up every once in a while but about 90% of those comments from that video were actually pretty positive sa for one thing how dare I not like the director well in my defense I thought I made my point pretty clear about the director in that video how you can have a villain who fully represents the themes of the film while at the same time still being a character in their own right but apparently I didn't now before we begin this entire video isn't going to be me going why y'all boo me for I'm right well okay maybe it is a little bit like that I still stand by my thoughts on the director but the comments I got from that video did offer some perspective that I both acknowledge and even agree with to an extent this isn't going to be a comment reaction video I've mostly learned to avoid the comment section nowadays if anything this is me just trying to make my point more clear on why I still don't like the director in the end but it's perfectly fine if you do I don't think the director is a bad antagonist honestly I just think she's serviceable at best she works fine for what the movie requires and that's it and I frankly find that to be boring now I understand why they did that I do understand that was intentional she's supposed to be a reflection of modern day conservatives and that's it and there's my problem right there and that's it she can't be anything else she's not allowed to be anything else she's not allowed to have any personality she's not allowed to have any character of any kind and given some of the villains that I've seen in the past I say that's what she was supposed to be is a pretty flimsy defense like I said in the main video you can have your villain be both a representation of the overall theme of the film and a character at the end of the day it's entirely possible you can make that villain either insanely complex and interesting or just plain fun either one would have worked whether you want to go down the frolo route or the gastan route well hell there's two great examples right there so let's start with the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize our boy and savior Gaston Gaston is the greatest creation Disney has ever created I mean how do you not love Gaston he's just so sexy and cool and sexy and strong and sexy and did I mention sexy apparently lefu thought so he was just so [ __ ] gay for geston and honestly I can't blame him it should have been me not him it's not fair honestly what was Belle even thinking she really is some wacky girl what with her modern day of thinking her desire to read books go see the world and make washing machines oh wait that last one's actually bad back to the good one sorry how can anyone not love gastan I mean even his song is named after him because how can you do better than Gaston the man who's hunted practically every animal known to mankind the man who wins every fight he's in who can carry 10 times his own weight who can eat five dozen eggs in a single sitting which by the way is actually really bad for you Gaston you might want to cut back on the eggs it uh it could actually kill you when I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large like at this point I'm surprised that he hasn't cured cancer yet seriously how can you not love geston in fact he's so damn cool I feel like I could do literally whatever he tells me to do he wants me to jump off a bridge absolutely he wants me to go to bed on time you bet your ass I'm going to sleep he wants me to grab my torches and pitchforks and join an angry mob and go kill some random guy in the woods all because the girl that he likes has fallen for him instead [ __ ] yeah I listen to knock loose this is a casual Thursday for me as funny and wholesome as the memes are about Gaston we forget how truly terrifying of a villain that he really is in most stories back then Gaston would have been the hero and in some sense he is at least to the villagers everyone admires him for a man like him with the massive ego of Ronnie raki that he has to have all of that support and admiration despite those people not really knowing who he is as a person is actually terrifying this man can quite literally get away with anything and as the movie progresses you can clearly see that he's not above bribing public officials to do his bidding he can incite a mob almost instantly this is perhaps the single most timeless aspect of this movie how many times have we seen this sort of behavior both before or since this movie came out it's a tale as old as time and it sadly never gets old I mean just look at the Mob song which if you ask me is the real villain song of the movie Gaston is fun and Lively sure but it's more about hyping up the exaggeration of his character while the Mob song is an actual establishment of a motivation in Gaston's nefarious evil he wants to kill the Beast because Belle cares about him purely out of spite and using words that have also aged like a fine wine the Beast will make off with your children he'll come after them in the night he manages to get every single villager on his side it makes for a tense tragic and Sinister song that easily shows us why Gaston is such a terrible yet fantastic villain because along with just being Timeless it's just a perfect representation of what fear and Prejudice can do Gaston's Not Afraid mind you he's clearly just spiteful and Petty it's the villagers however who are the victims of real fear and what makes the song even darker is the fact that Howard Ashman the writer of the song wrote it as an allegory for homophobia Howard Ashman was a gay man who was sadly dying of AE during the production of this movie this was at a time where homophobia was already pretty rampant but the a epidemic of the 8S just made the whole thing even worse because people who were uninformed about the disease thinking you could just get it by being around someone who has it now had an excuse to be homophobic and the Reagan Administration probably made it worse on purpose because of Reagan's blatant homophobia it got to a point where Captain Planet had to step in and say hey y'all are tripping knock it off but by then the damage was done and the stma continued well after Howard's death in March of 1991 so yeah all that talk about Disney going woke nowadays and stuff and yet one of their darkest and most Sinister songs is an allegory for homophobia and it's not like it went over the producers heads or anything they recognized it too and were cool with it since it felt more personal and fit both the story and the villain perfectly I bring this all up because since neona is one big allegory for the lgbtq and since apparently me wanting the director to be a better villain makes me bad According to some people I just thought you guys should know geston beat the director to the punch over 30 years ago which is ironic given Disney's treatment of gay people in the last couple of years if you were going to go down the more fun route with this character which given how other characters like neona herself is then so long as you can balance the tone the same way Gaston does I'd say you'd have a very fun Sinister and possibly new memeable villain or at least that's one way to go about it wait a minute I like geston huh I guess since I love watching him that must mean that I love harassing women and inciting violent mobs whenever I get rejected right no I do not that's how that [ __ ] went down last time you also could have gone down the frer route and make for this cruel nuanced and captivatingly evil figure so let's talk about the horny man now you don't need me to introduce you to this man everybody knows how awesome frolo is he's often considered Disney's most evil and complex villain that they've ever written and yeah as Disney villains go he's pretty damn good he's sort of the polar opposite to Gaston when you really think about it sure they're both influential figures in their respective worlds but while Gaston is egotistical and bombastic frolo on the other hand is fearful and devout while geston is pretty Loosey Goosey and just does whatever he wants frolo has a code and tries to follow it to the letter emphasis on tries but like all humans he's not perfect the movie starts off with him killing an innocent woman and then trying to drown a baby that's very Christian of you frolo that's very Kirk Cameron of you frolo it isn't until the arch Deacon appears that frolo finally realized the totality of his actions and what that'll mean for his Eternal Soul so he adopts Quasimoto and raises him as his own but throughout the whole film he clearly sees Quasimoto as more of a burden if anything the way I see it he didn't learn his lesson that day he still believes deep down that he was justified in killing Quasimodo's mother and still actively tries to purge Paris of the gypsies now like I said frolo isn't perfect he's still human at the end of the day so when he meets Esmeralda for the first time he becomes lustful for her and dreams of making her his this however conflicts with his mission to wipe out the gypsies so he settles that if he can't have her no one can it's very rare for a Disney villain to have this kind of complexity especially from a movie that's G-rated mind you we're definitely never going to see this kind of thing from Disney ever again and don't bring up the live action remake you know it's going to be worse for a character like frolo to have such layers to him to see him battle between his Lust For Esmeralda and his commitment to his mission is so damn intriguing and I think that's why a lot of people just adore frolo as a villain so with that being said I guess me liking frolo having de must mean I somehow enjoy lusting over women and wanting to wipe out an entire race of people people right no way well how about we talk about another villain that represents the themes of their story well and that is Bod from yaju and if you've never heard of aaju before then blame Disney because they didn't mark it as for freaking usual I've already made a video on aaju so if you want my full thoughts on that you can go watch that video now but to some of my feelings for it here it's fine with bod easily being the best part of it it really goes to show Disney does still know how to write an interesting villain if they want to and yes despite this being a TV show it is in fact from Walt Disney Animation Studios so it counts which means that bod is now part of the lineup of legendary villains and while I'm not saying he's as good as any of the Legends he's still easily the best villain we've gotten from Disney since King Candy way back in 2012 in aaju there's this prominent theme of class Division and capitalism that shows just how disconnected the two are from each other how the rich Elite rarely have to struggle while the poor are left to rot in the streets in this show it's revealed that bod and his mother used to work for a rich family but were fired because bod stole some money from them to buy a gold chain now yeah when you're poorest [ __ ] you know just go buying jewelry but with that being said you still kind of understand why he did it throughout his childhood he was clearly treated like garbage because he was part of the lower class so now he makes a living by kidnapping rich people's kids and making the parents pay insane ransoms for them but it doesn't stop there he actively plants the seeds of resentment into these children as well as stating to them that to their parents your parents you're just another problem to thr money [Laughter] at which is real which is really interesting to me it's almost like this is his way of trying to fix the system by having the kids grow to hate their Rich parents but it could also just be pettiness he's probably just doing it out of hate for the rich Elite that ruined his life either way I find that really fascinating as I said in my full video on the show it really should have been a movie at the end of the day or at the very least use it's extra time diving more into that mindset and flushing it out because as it is it's interesting but the show doesn't really do much with it there's also this blade and hypocrisy where the show shifts the blame entirely onto bod in the end oh class Division and capitalism aren't the problem the problem is just this one [ __ ] who alongside Millions suffer from said system H but why would modern Disney call out capitalism and class division H why on Earth would they ever say that's a bad thing H okay moving on past that bod was still the best part of the show and even though he could have been better he still serves as a great example of how a villain can still have layers and be a villain that represents the broader lesson of the story at the same time huh now since I said I like bod I guess this means I want to [ __ ] over the rich Elite and multi-billion dollar companies right yes absolutely what's that you saw a young single mother with a newborn infant stealing baby formula from Walmart no you didn't just remember kids snitches get stitches [ __ ] is so here we have three prime examples of villains that are both fun Sinister and actually represent the broader themes while having Nuance at the same time but what did these three have that the director lacks well names for starters again I get it I know why she doesn't have a name of her own it's supposed to be like the Polar Express I still hate it though give her a name secondly she has no personal connection with anyone in the story not a single person not ballister not ambrosious nobody compare this to the previous three who have pre-established relationships with at least one of the main characters in their respective stories fro has Quasimoto bod has Kay and even Gaston has at least a connection to Belle he feels like she wronged him so he wants payback for that the villains having a personal connection to one of the main characters makes for far greater Stakes as now we have to worry about how that character will react to seeing that person be revealed to be a villain all along even Disney's twist villain phase understood this to a degree Hans fooled Anna into thinking he loved her Callahan was tadashi's teacher/ murderer even bellweather as awful as she was had a friendship with Judy I know that one's kind of flimsy that's more of a testament to how awful of a Twist villain she is but my point still stands that the twist still makes an impact on the character that we the audience grew attached to Sure these particular examples being twist villains came with the price of their own villainy but there have been twist villains that managed to find a balance in the past stinky P Water noose Etc but back to the director obviously she wouldn't know who pneumonia even is and considering what the movie is doing that's actually a good thing and the same could be said for ballister but ambrosious is a different story see unlike ballister ambrosus was deemed worthy from the start and thus the director would accept him with no question how about you give these two sort of a mentor-like relationship something kind of similar to frolo and Quasimoto only in this case she would genuinely care about him and see him as a good friend remember that scene in the car where she asked him if he's okay and we get that funny bit of him losing his [ __ ] only to have that hard cut back to silence it's a good scene already but imagine if they did have a talk imagine if instead of a joke he actually opens up to her about his mixed feelings about ballister and it's in this moment that we would get a surprisingly human moment from the director keep in mind at this point it's been revealed to both the audience and Balan namona that the director is responsible for the Queen's death so when this moment comes in she would explain how she met the queen in the first place how she actually respected the queen and cared for her greatly in fact she cared for her quite a lot actually they had a lot in common they spent a lot of time together you see where I'm going with this right it almost seemed like they were a match made in heaven until suddenly ballister showed up and everything was all downhill from there and before yall start commenting saying she can't be gay herself because she's supposed to represent homophobic conservatives let me stop you right there with [Music] this thank you thank you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that was a deleted scene from back when this movie was being made by blue sky you know before Disney took over it's a pretty dark scene that honestly I'm not sure would have made the Final Cut anyway even if Disney didn't buy blue sky but with that being said it shows that even the writers were at least experimenting with the idea and frankly they were cooking because when it came to the director w that is delicious finally some good [ __ ] food imagine the director being in love with the queen and everything seems perfect until suddenly ballister shows up and the queen starts spouting some woke nonsense like how anyone can be a knight ooh it doesn't matter where you come from or who you are anyone can be a knight why not you this would devastate the director who after all this time thought she knew the Queen by heart now at first maybe she plays along like maybe this is just a phase May maybe she'll realize her mistake and move on from it eventually but she doesn't move on from it and it's not a mistake the queen is absolutely in the right to do this and the director can't see that because of her own prejudices in the deleted scene you see the director crying on a staircase and in that moment I'm thinking to myself is she crying over the Queen's death the death that she orchestrated is there actual regret for what she did maybe just a smidge but it had to be done correct after all the people didn't feel safe it's not what GL wanted despite her giving the queen chance after chance to make things right she never did so the director did what she thought was necessary cutting back to the car she would tell ambrosus that for there to be peace one must choose between heart and Duty and she will then ask him what will you choose to which in a few minutes when Ambrosia sees ballister again he makes his choice only this time there's no regret at all having this one moment that humanized the director would have been a GameChanger she would have gone from this boring generic villain into someone that you kind of feel for but you mostly pity because of just how wrong she is remember everybody understanding a character and how they work is not the same thing as justification I'm not saying I want there to be justification for homophobia like some of you thought but now there would be this unique contrast with her and ambrosious she raised him up and believed in him while the queen stuck with ballister and while ambrosus would later realize his mistake and choose ballister over her the director would just go full guest on and try to kill the Beast because now the one person left that she fully trusted has left her too and now it seems she's the only one left to fight the monsters uncomfortable complex and interesting that's all I [ __ ] wanted oh but no apparently to some people that's too [ __ ] much to ask for I just think it's a little weird that nobody complains about the humanity and complexity that fro shows but for some reason when I asked for the director to be given the same treatment people outright accuse me of homophobia in one case despite everything that was in that video yeah I wasted a whole month of my life and left a link to the Trevor Project which is a charity that gives counseling the suicidal lgbtq kids because I hate gay people so much remind me to do that for this video too since it is prime month and I hate you all apparently outside of that one whack job the comments disagreeing with me about the director were pretty respectful actually like I said in the beginning it's okay if you like the director and how she was betrayed I've just seen better and for a movie that's pretty damn good in virtually every other category to see a villain that's just so serviceable is disappointing to me if the director had that death and Humanity then this might have been a 10 out of 10 movie for me but as it is it's like a high eight maybe a low nine at best but that's just me and clearly not everyone feels that way which again is fine so long as we can agree that this guy is a serious nutcase who needs therapy and while you're at it throw in this guy too you can tell they just did not watch the movie at all and also maybe this guy who got all butur over me blocking him on Twitter so he followed me on YouTube to [ __ ] some more about it where was I going with this I had a point I will say this however before I end the video one thing I have been convinced of being wrong about was the ending in my defense to me this was just a nitpick I honestly didn't think that hard about it but hearing some of y'all's thoughts about it you guys all made a good point for a movie about lgbtq for to have a happy ending where so many stories don't that's genuinely a good thing in the end and now I do believe it is an improvement over the book which was more ambiguous but yeah that's all I got to say the director is still a mid villain in an otherwise fantastic movie that I still really really like despite this one hiccup that brings it down a whole point for me and I felt the need to make another video about it because it was considered one of my hottest takes for the longest time could have reviewed Brother Bear finally but [ __ ] that so I'll end this video with one last statement Todd still [ __ ] sucks he's still the worst character in the movie by far and I will never apologize for that and if you feel like I should go [ __ ] [Music] [Applause] yourself and then still at the night gazing up at the sky when the Stars began to fade l in our eyes thought there was nothing to find I stopped searching for a reason just like the world Embrace Us in the silence We Are One can't escape from this feet

Channel: RaisorBlade

Views: 10,783

Keywords: RaisorBlade, RaisorBlade Reviews, RaisorBlade (A)live, Nimona, Blue Sky Studios

Id: b27KW3zivJs

Length: 22min 54sec (1374 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024