Memes

That's the point. You have a Villain who wants something good (stop the destruction of nature) and then pair it with something very evil (genocide). It's a very common trope in media. It leads to the "Hero" of the story being able to defend the status quo again and again without ever challenging it.

I may have used the wrong wording. I think some villains have good motives but bad execution. I also used this post as a jumping off point of the whole trope rather than commentary on Poison Ivy specifically.

I know next to nothing about this version of Batman, Ivy and Freeze so I can’t speak to them, hell I can’t speak about a lot of Batman villains, this post just reminded me of this weird trend.

The villain that came to mind for me was the air bender guy from Legend of Korra, from what little I can recall from that show. Something about anarchy, I think. The antagonists from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have been said to fit this trope as well but I can’t say for sure as I’ve never watched that show.

Yeah, Poison Ivy is a misanthrope.

I don't disagree with the sentiment. The problem is that it gives the impression that people irl are willing to go to these extreme and illogical means to achieve their otherwise good ends. That's not the case. Indeed it's often the opposite. The people trying to do good things are almost always unwilling to do anything 'bad' to achieve their aims. They usually refuse even to defend themselves against reaction.

This kind of writing is poor because it's easy and removes any subtlety from the equation. No reasonable person on earth is going to think a villain is right to commit genocide to fix the world's major problems. Nevermind lesser problems. Irl it's the billionaires who are willing to cause untold suffering in the search for profit. There are ways to make that dramatic and exciting but Hollywood is not set to to write it.

This kind of writing is propaganda. It wraps human action in individualism and builds a model of 'villain' that can be invoked every time imperialists want to start another war. Later, the subjects of this propaganda rarely if ever seriously question the motives of the people destroyed by imperialist war in part because they've been conditioned to think in a certain way about the 'enemy'.

I absolutely agree that putting that dilemma into a story can be great for drama. I just reject the Hollywood rendition of it because it's always the same. When I watch most action movies, I time how long it takes to reveal that the volunteer at the soup kitchen suddenly tells the audience that the best way to feed the homeless is to the lions.

I'm not talking about Poison Ivy and Batman, yet. I can't talk to Poison Ivy or to Batman in the specific. In the abstract, philanthropy and an individual approach to solving crime can never be successful. These are palatable methods because the writers want people to limit what they think is possible. If they were serious about creating a model for helping people they'd show someone organising the workers e.g. in Gotham or elsewhere rather than thinking anyone can solve everything alone. (That said, I'm not against Batman in the way that I'm against Marvel.)

Show me the dilemma faced by all the people who, to pay their bills, are sat in an office in New York committing slow violence against child labourers being poisoned by chemicals in a garment factory in India. Then show me the workers organising themselves to improve working conditions.

In the sequel, they can overthrow the directors of the company. In the third movie, they can start a revolution. If this were written by Hollywood, those workers would be the villains, pointlessly terrorising random targets. But irl the only violence they'd be involved in is as victim of the state and the employer.

That's MCU for ya

It's a trend I'm noticing, people are unhappy with the status quo, but the higher ups love it.

The compromise? Villains used as a mouthpiece for the audience and then given a moment in the third act where they sit down to eat a basket of puppies and some "We need a solution but men like you will never give it!" for our hero to support the status quo but have a false pretense of a copout.. it made me really appreciate Jack Horner for being an actual goddamn villain in a sea of "The Bad Guy is right, but...."

Now I'm randonly remembering Disney trying to actually sell Cruella DeVille of all people as a feminist girlboss antihero...

As if anyone could root for a woman who wants to skin literal puppies alive in order to make a dress...

Also I think T’Challa (the protaganist) was a fed or had a deal with the US

He was literally the diamond warlord living in glass tower full of hi tech while his subjects waded around mud streets, he also supported tribalism and superstition which divided his people so he could rule them, and let's not forget the endangered species animal abuse and weaponisation. Somehow exactly like some of the US comics villains from 60's, but spinned at sympthetic.