Losing a loved one is never easy, even if that someone is a fictional character. Their deaths will haunt us and we’ll have some trouble dealing with their passing. However, what do we do when our favorite characters are usually the villains? They have to die, don’t they? How can we convince others to see them just like we do? It’s really hard for people to see the good in some villains, but this list will feature those bad guys (and girls), who broke our hearts in more than one way. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!
- Erik Killmonger from Black Panther
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Did he really have to die, though? Erik was one of those villains that was likeable from the very beginning. As if Michael B. Jordan stealing our hearts wasn’t enough, his character in Black Panther was one of those villains that we just cannot bring ourselves to hate. He had a just cause for what he did; he saw his father get killed by his uncle, and as a consequence, he was left all alone in the world. It’s no wonder he would hate everyone in Wakanda so much, especially T’challa.
At the end of the movie, we could all see how T’challa got through to him and admitting his mistakes, apologized for Wakanda’s role in the death of his father. Erik could’ve had a family again, but he got a moving, poetic death instead. It was so unfair.
- Berlin from Money Heist
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Money Heist, better known in Spanish as La Casa de Papel, became one of the most famous tv series on Netflix. In fact, it’s the most watched Spanish language series on the platform. The plot, the acting, everything is so good, but what makes it even better are the fierce and passionate characters. The Professor, Denver, Mónica, Tokyo…and then there’s Berlin. Berlin might have come across as an unpleasant, annoying sexist man the first time we saw him, but as the show went on, he grew on us. He had many bad qualities, but he also had a good heart.
Even when he made stone-cold decisions, even when his own partners stared at him in horror by his actions and words, Berlin cared about all of them, and he really loved his brother, Sergio. Berlin wanted to survive the heist and enjoy the few months he had left in life by drinking cocktails as he sat comfortably in front of the ocean, and that’s how we pictured him, until he made the mistake of falling in love with Ariadna.
Berlin was one of those people who get into a new relationship, convinced that they have finally found the love of their life. Sadly, he was mistaken, and the woman he thought loved him, was actually using him for his money. When he found out, he was so heartbroken that he made the reckless decision of facing the entire S.W.A.T team by himself while the others escaped, and that led to his downfall. We knew he was bound to die due to his illness, but did he really have to go out that way? He didn’t deserve to die because of a broken heart. In case you were wondering, Nairobi isn’t here because I’m still hopeful she will survive after what happened in season 3, so, fingers crossed!
- Marie Laveau from American Horror Story: Coven
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We all know that Coven was one of the best seasons of American Horror Story. It had witches, human voodoo dolls, zombies, witch hunters, and mystical trials. Not to mention, Jessica Lange was more badass than ever as Fionna Goode, Evan Peters looked like bad boy Tate again, and the iconic Angela Bassett played Marie Laveau. Marie Laveau a.k.a The Voodoo Queen, is not technically dead, but she’s severely indisposed after Madame Lalaurie won their centuries long feud.
Marie Laveau was a queen in every aspect; she had beauty, style, and power. We first saw her when Fionna upset her by asking her for a favor, and the war between the Voodoo Queen and the witches began. However, she later became an ally of the witches against the witch hunters, and we realized that she was just a good person with loose morals. She made us laugh when she made jokes with Fiona, she awed us when she showed us how powerful she was, and she made us root for her whenever she had a confrontation with the annoying and racist Madame Lalaurie.
Sadly, Lalaurie knew that Marie was immortal and could not die, so she drugged her with Benadryl, cut her up into very tiny pieces and scattered her body all around the city. Since it was impossible for Marie to come back from that, Papa Legba (the most powerful Voodoo entity) took her soul. We were more than happy and surprised when she made her appearance in Apocalypse and fought the devil’s spawn.
- Mileena from Mortal Kombat
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This one is so debatable. Was Mileena a good person, or was she a villain? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. In Mortal Kombat X, Mileena was portrayed as a powerful but unstable young empress who succeeded her father, the emperor Shao Khan, after he died. However, in a flashback scene in chapter six of the game’s cinematic story mode, we can see Mileena struggling to keep her throne because her advisors don’t trust her due to her being unstable and her refusal to form an alliance with Earthrealm and the people responsible for Shao Khan’s death. According to her advisors, she was stubborn, and she endangered Outworld; as a result, her closest advisor, Kotal, betrayed her and took the throne for himself.
Kotal then became Khan, or Emperor of Outworld, and imprisoned Mileena for five years. Luckily for all us Mileena fans, Tanya broke her out of prison, and together with the Edenian prince, Rain, the three of them became known as The Rebels. Those five years in prison gave Mileena a much needed character development, and she became even stronger and more powerful. She commanded an army of Tarkatans by herself, and relied on the help of her two new advisors Tanya and Rain, who were also her lovers (as hinted in game dialogues).
However, every great ruler has a downfall, and Mileena was gruesomely killed by the humanoid bug D’vorah at Kotal Khan’s orders. That being said, the game’s creator, Ed Boon, has a deep dislike for the character, and in MK 11 he made Mileena seem like an unstable tyrant, just like her father had been. Mileena was mostly disliked because of her physical appearance; her pupils were slit like a cat’s, her voice was low and raspy, she didn’t have the soft delicate features of most girls in the game, and most importantly, she had big sharp teeth where her cheeks are supposed to be. These qualities made Mileena be disliked by her fellow characters and by the fans as well.
Mileena was a strong, powerful empress who was betrayed by everyone she trusted, and who was never taken seriously because she wasn’t the conventional poster girl of an attractive woman.She didn’t deserve to die alone and unloved; she deserved to keep building up her character development and develop a good relationship with her sister Kitana while learning to love and accept herself. Although she is considered Kitana’s evil twin, if you like Mileena, you know that she was just the victim of many bad circumstances and she deserves better than what she’s gotten.
- Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones
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As the saying goes, left the best for last. Why did Danny die, exactly? We spent years seeing her journey, watching her stand up to her enemies, and she had always been a powerful young queen who just so happened to be very fierce at times. Just like Mileena, Daenerys was also a ruler and a woman, not a good combination in the world of fictional royalty, or any royals for that matter. Danny was never taken seriously by anyone around her because she was a young woman struggling to survive, and she showed every single one of them just how strong and capable she was.
Regardless, as the seasons went on, Danny started showing signs of madness, until she became fully unstable and mad in the last season; but, was this really necessary? Targaryens do have a tendency to end up consumed by madness and greed, but Danny could have been the exception. Just as it happened to Mileena, Danny’s closest advisors grew afraid of her and betrayed her. As if that wasn’t enough, she had to see her only friend get beheaded by Cersei. Danny lost two dragons, she lost her only loyal advisor, Jorah, and she lost her only friend, Missandei, all while dealing with Jon Snow’s rejection and Tyrion’s betrayal at the same time. It was stupid to expect mercy from someone who had lost so much. Although most of the people she killed at King’s Landing were innocent, we can’t blame her for losing her mind. After all, she did say that she would burn cities to the ground to get what was rightfully hers.
Daenerys was also a victim of bad circumstances and terrible writing. Even if we can find ways to justify her last decisions, none of it would have happened if the show writers had not thrown her character development down the drain. Daenerys and Mileena have not been the first women in power to end up going crazy and killed just so a man could fix their mistakes; strong women have a tendency to end up with terrible fates so a man can be the savior in most shows, movies and video games, and it needs to stop. None of these women deserve what they got, and Danny certainly didn’t.
Who doesn’t love a bad boy/bad girl? Most of us have at some point, and we end up discovering that they always had a sad and devastating reason to end up just the way they had, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt to see them suffer. The first list featured dads who should’ve lived and raised their kids with all the love and dedication they wanted to give them; this list is for all of us who have ever loved a bad boy/girl with a troubled past.