No villains in "Brave"?

[WheezysBestBud]

I don't consider either The Witch or Mordu to be villains. If The Witch was really a villain, she wouldn't have told Merida how to break the spell. Now the same could be said of Ursula from The Little Mermaid (who undoubtedly was a villain), but unlike Ursula, after Merida goes back to The Witch's cabin, The Witch is never seen in the movie again. As for Mordu, even though he was turned into a bear, I think that The Witch purposely gave him an evil personality to teach him a lesson. These are just my takes on those characters, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

[Leirin]

That is interesting.

In a way, whatever brings the conflict into the movie sort of serves as a villain, but there isn't one true villain to this film.

I kind of like that, though. It's unusual for a film based around fairy tale themes. Mor'du probably definitely will end up being recognized as the 'villain' officially, though.

[Netbug009]

Yeah, I'd say that while there is a bad guy in the movie, the real antagonist is the fight between Merida and her mom.

[lennonluvr9]

I guess you could say that in the sense that the real problem stemmed from what Merida & her mom were going through, as opposed to anything a 3rd party was doing.

[IncredigirlVirginia]

I think the struggle is the strain in the relationship.

[Nausicaa]

I found it refreshing that the witch wasn't malicious or evil. It helped to emphasise the fact that the main issue in the film was Merida and Elinor's relationship- I think that including an evil, deliberately interfering character would dilute that a little.

Mordu is kind of a villain, but he's so animalistic at this point in the story that applying that kind of label to him feels a bit silly.

[Badger]

I rather liked how there were no true villains in the movie. That little theme with 'the good in bad people, the bad in good people' is a theme I really, really love, and I wish it was more common in Western animation.

[IncredigirlVirginia]

^Legend of Korra knows all about bad traits in good characters, and vice versa.

Anyway, every film doesn't need a villain.