Know what I want more of in my fiction? “Nice Guy” villains. “Incel” villains. Villains who exhibit the most toxic aspects of current masculinity and culture and are shamed for it.
Like Tighten from Megamind.
I know it’s years old but this movie is still the best, especially because of the characterization of their villain. He receives a dozen soft no’s from Roxanne (the Lois Lane archetype), it’s suggested he’s been getting them for years, and he still pursues her even to the point of endangering her life. When he finally understands that her “no” is final, he throws a superpowered shit fit and tries to kill her and her actual love interest (Megamind) and televises it in a ploy to get sympathy (”a reminder of the night she ferociously ripped out my heart”). He has no concept of boundaries or consent, and it is shown for the vile behavior that it is.
And the thing is? I can’t remember another villain like him? Not anywhere. You could make an argument that Snape is a Nice Guy, but the narrative doesn’t criticize the behavior. To the contrary, his eternal love obsession with Lily is praised. Every character who comes even close to Tighten, ends up praised by the end. And I’m sick of it.
From the animation studio behind The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender, meet KOJI: Studio Mir’s first original series
Up until now, Studio Mir’s stunning, legendary animation has been reserved for work contracted out by other companies– Nickelodeon for Korra, DreamWorks for Voltron, Lego for Secrets of Elvendale, etc.
But now, very excitingly, they’ve announced their first original series: Koji.
Koji comes from the mind of Alexander Snow, an animator who has a prolific resume including Disney, Blue Sky Studios, and the production company he co-founded in 2016: Wolfbat Studios. (Not sure if the name being the same as Tahno’s pro-bending team is a coincidence…)
It’s unclear how much Wolfbat Studios as a whole is involved, but their website does feature an old concept demo reel for Koji, which looks really cool:
It also gives us a look at who may be the second main character:
Studio Mir really loves their elves! 😂
In all seriousness, this looks really cool, and we’ve been told to keep an eye out for “for more updates coming fast”, so it seems like this could be coming sooner rather than later!
This announcement coincides with Studio Mir launching their official instagram: @studiomir_official. It looks like the bulk of the content coming our way will be posted there, so be sure to follow them, as well as our #koji tag on here for the big updates coming soon!
Update: Just found a bunch more information from the original 2016 press release, including a synopsis, backstory, inspirations (including ATLA!), themes/issues covered, and more! It’s a lot so it’s going under a readmore:
Oh btw Yzma is a golden example of a likeable non sympathetic villain. The audience knows she is totally evil and pretty much un redeemable but the writers and character designers did such an excellent job of making her so likeable and visually appealing A fucking plus
Kronks redemption arc has yet to be rivaled nothing can ever fucking compare.
OP did u just fucking call Yzma “visually appealing”?????
In terms of character design Yzma is visually appealing, the artists did a great job picking out colours and perfecting her silhouette. Using those design principles, they created an expressive villain that is fun to watch on screen.
op is absolutely right in that observation, good character design is about good use of shapes, curves and angles. Yzma is a fantastic example of that.
A d we can’t sideline Eartha Kitt for literally breathing life into her character to the point of perfection. Yzma was really was an exemplary villain.
You know, ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.’
So yes, he was terrified practically all the time, but man did he go into danger for Muriel’s sake all the time. Because she was more important to him, than his fears. Which leads to his famous quote, ‘the things I do for love’.
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 