As the hero you've got to have it in for the baddie. For one, they're bad, and two there wouldn't be much of a conflict if you had a deep understanding of one another. “Oh, I see you're poisoning the city's drinking water because your father missed your softball games. Go on then, get your misguided revenge.”

But sometimes we do misjudge our enemies. Are they always so terrible, or could it be they're just as noble as ourselves? Our resident bagguyologists have spent weeks researching the subject (i.e. wearing lab coats) to bring to light four villains you've totally misjudged. You should probably get them a greeting card to make amends.

4) Bowser (Super Mario Bros.)

What he does: Outside of acts of general dickery the King of the Koopas has two passions in life: building castles and kidnapping. Ever since his first appearance he's been hell-bent on abducting Princess Toadstool. Well, that and working on his back swing.

Understandably, kidnapping a princess is looked down upon by New York-based plumbers and so Mario and Luigi give it their all to rescue the damsel and take out Bowser with sweet vigilante justice. Despite meeting a fiery end many times Bowser always bounces back and kidnaps Toadstool again, presumably because she's never heard of a lock or he has a really convincing and extensive fake mustache collection.

Why he's misunderstood: While kidnapping is a serious criminal offense he only does it because he wants to be loved. Seriously, look at the guy:

All you need is love, and possibly head reduction surgery.

What woman would love this? Answer: none. Bowser is a hideous creature, God's sick joke forever doomed to roam the earth alone. Knowing that we could probably give him a little more leeway with the whole “forced entrapment” thing.

What's odd though is that the princess is always rescued, yet Bowser is the father of at least seven kids. So where did they come from? Either he's asexual or Toadstool's done some things she isn't proud of.

3) Dr. Curien (The House of The Dead)

What he does: Given that Dr. Curien is a scientist it should be no surprise that at some point he loses his mind. Perhaps he didn't wear his safety glasses or maybe the lab coat was too tight. For whatever reason he strays of the path of science and casually creates the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse.

Thanks for nothing, science.

At the time of the zombie out-break special agents Rogan and G are sent to investigate. Despite the hordes of living dead staggering about the place, stealing cars, starting fires, eating the flesh of the living and just generally being a public nuisance G still dresses like he's on his way to a meeting with The Godfather. He's that classy.

Awesome vests aside, the dynamic duo get the job done armed only with shotguns and wit as sharp as G's fashion sense.

Why he's misunderstood: Dr. Curien didn't just wake up one morning, see the glorious day rising beyond his bedroom window, sit down to a cup of Folders and say to himself, “You know what? Today would be an excellent day to reanimate the dead. For science.” The man lost his mind while researching the cure for his son's terminal illness as revealed in The House of The Dead 3.With his son on the verge of death the then good doctor takes up the task of researching the very nature of both life and death in an effort to cure him. It seems like a very roundabout way to make a vaccine but hey, were not scientists. We're guessing at some point Dr. Curien left something on the Bunsen burner a little too long because the next thing we know is that the pleasant European villa smells a lot like a graveyard past its prime. However, it does appear that Daniel was cured before corpses started pulling themselves out of caskets, so we guess you could mark that up as a success?

2) Mavericks (Megaman X)

Qhat they do: In the year 21XX Dr. Cain finds a robot in the ruins of Dr. Light's lab. The robot was his last creation, Mega Man X, the first robot to built with the ability to make its own decisions. After awakening X Dr. Cain takes it on himself to build more robots like X, presumably because the future has a severe lack of heartless killing machines. He dubs them Reploids and builds many more of them to aid humans; some are designed for military purposes, others for construction, and others still for the purpose of building more Reploids, a decision that couldn't possibly go wrong.

Oh wait, it totally goes wrong. Reploids start going rogue in an attempt to prove they're superior to humans, a point we can't really argue as they burn our homes down with laser vision. These robo-terrorists call themselves Mavericks and get busy fucking our shit up. Dr. Cain sends out Mega Man X to cover up his horrific mistakes and save humanity from the likes of Armored Armadillo.

Engineers of the future take note: jazz hands make robots.

Why they're misunderstood: Though the major Maverick Sigma defects from a virus, many of his allies suffer from a horrific design flaw because the man that built them was a fucking botanist. No, not “robotanist.” Botanist, as in a guy that studies plants. So yeah, Dr. Cain is directly responsible for a cruel future ruled by robots. Thanks, jackass!

It's never explained what lead Dr. Cain to think that after twenty years of studying Butterwort he could successfully build and maintain a legion of sentient robots but we're pretty sure his high school guidance counselor never chatted with him about setting realistic career goals.

1) Dracula (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)

What he does: In an event that will come as a surprise to no one, Dracula has risen from the grave, once again manifesting his ancestral home of Castlevania. This is like, what, the eight or ninth time this has happened? Why would anyone still live in Transylvania in the 1700's when you could set your watch to the revival of the greatest evil the world has ever known? Between all the vampires, floating castles and giant skeletons you really think those poor folks would have packed their bags and gotten out of there a century ago.

Anyway, after feeling a great disturbance in the vampire force Dracula's son Alucard (see what they did there?) decides to see what exactly is going on. Having already killed his father once, he gives it another go, assured that this could never possibly happen again. Good times are had by all and the citizens of Transylvania share many jokes about how that blood sucking Satanist that once ruled over them through fear looks a lot like Liberachi.

Why he's misunderstood: In Symphony of the Night Dracula wasn't revived by his own will but rather the evil priest Shaft.

He's as evil as he is smooth.

Rather than lament over the fact that that he's going to have fight that guy with the whip again he decides to punish mankind for their folly in order to teach us an important life lesson: stop reviving dead vampires. This all comes to light through the greatest voice acting job ever.

Evil never sounded so ridiculous.

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