Villain Has A Point / Multiple Media

• MonsterVerse:
  • Psycho Supporter Riccio in the Kong: Skull Island graphic novel The Birth of Kong, who after his Sanity Slippage decides to destroy the Iwi's walls and expose them to Skull Island's predators to see whether or not Kong will come tro save them. Whilst his actions are way out of line, as observed by Aaron in the ending, Riccio did in a roundabout way complete the expedition's original objective on the island once Kong did indeed come to the rescue: to determine whether or not Kong was a reliable line of defence to prevent the creatures on Skull Island threatening the rest of the world.
• Star Trek:
  • In the TOS episode "Arena", Kirk eventually becomes able to communicate with the Gorn captain, who promises that if Kirk gives himself up he will be "merciful and quick". Kirk likens this to the massacre of an outlying Federation base that the Enterprise discovered at the beginning of the episode; the Gorn responds that the Federation had established an outpost in Gorn space and "naturally, we destroyed it."
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The titular Big Bad accuses Kirk of simply leaving him and his crew a planet which turned inhospitable. Khan is of course ignoring that he tried to take Kirk's ship, but he is right. Kirk would always solve some problem of the week, move on and forget about it without considering the consequences.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • In "Q Who", disappointed that Picard won't accept his services, Q sends the Enterprise into the Delta Quadrant, where they encounter the Borg, ending in the deaths of 18 crewmembers before Q returns them to Federation space. Although Picard is angered at the loss of life, he privately remarks that "Q did the right thing for the wrong reason", showing them that they aren't prepared to handle threats like the Borg. Later episodes would reveal that Q actually did this in part to provide the Alpha Quadrant with a disguised warning about the existence of the Borg so that Starfleet could start mobilizing and be ready before they arrived.
    • In the same episode, Picard rhetorically asks if Q could have taught his lesson without killing some of his crew. Q points out that the galaxy isn't a safe place and if Picard isn't prepared for people to die, then he should stay home. Q is proven right time and time again as crewmembers on the Enterprise do often die, and even more lives are lost exploring the Gamma Quadrant... His intervention also provides the federation with an opportunity to actually prepare for the Borg invasion, so Q ended up helping, in his own way.
    • In "Birthright", Worf learns about a Romulan prison camp where Klingons POWs have been held for decades. When he arrives, he's shocked to see the Romulans and Klingons living amicably. He is especially outraged that the young Klingons born there know nothing about their heritage. But Tokath, the Romulan commandant, points out he had still done something no diplomats from the Klingon or Romulan empires, or even the Federation has done: forge a manageable peace between Klingons and Romulans. Particularly since he had the choice of killing them or sending them back to the Klingon homeworld, where they'd have been dishonored and shunned.
    • "The Drumhead"'s villain is an out and out racist Villain with Good Publicity, but when Picard critiques her use of a part-Betazoid to find out that a crewman (who is innocent of the crime, but hiding the fact he is part Romulan to avoid potential racism) is lying to them, she counters that he does the exact same thing in far more diplomatically unstable situations, using Ship Counselor Deanna Troi's intuition and Betazoid senses to identify lies and half truths from aliens they encounter. While this has been useful and she's been proven correct in the past, Picard does concede that this is an action he should perhaps not take as much in the future: after all it seems the same intuition is being used to attack a man who has arguably good reasons for hiding the truth and is clearly no threat. After that episode Troi is far less regularly used as the ship's living lie detector.
    • In "Rascals", the Ferengi leading the takeover of the Enterprise says that having the crews' families, and specifically their children, onboard is a negligent risk to take. Yes, he's threatening to kill the children at the time, but that only helps illustrate the point.
  • The Monster of the Week in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Hope and Fear" is an alien who devises an elaborate trap for Voyager on the grounds that Janeway's alliance with the Borg against Species 8472 in "Scorpion" enabled the Borg to assimilate his entire species, whereas if Janeway had stayed out of it the Borg would've been extinct by now. Janeway points out that her only alternative would have been to let Species 8472 exterminate everything in their path, so while she didn't like either option, she chose the lesser evil.
  • Arik Soong in Star Trek: Enterprise states that humanity’s Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke attitude is a rejection of using technology to relieve suffering. He’s not wrong, honestly. Archer in particular seems to sympathize, as his father died from an illness that genetic engineering could have prevented. Phlox also admires Soong's work, noting that his own people have practiced similar techniques.
  • In J.J. Abramas' Star Trek movies' Alternate Timeline:
    • Star Trek (2009): Nero retroactively falls into this trope thanks to Star Trek: Picard. He aggressively confronts the Federation of the new timeline he was partially responsible for creating, bent on destroying it because he claims the Federation of his timeline abandoned the Romulans. Picard revealed he was right, as the Federation, after initially devoting their efforts to evacuating Romulus upon learning of its impending demise, decided to abandoned the evacuation when their shipyards on Mars were destroyed by an army of synthetic androids that had malfunctioned. Such an drastic reversal caused Picard to resign in disgust, leading many of the Romulans to view him and the Federation with disdain for having allowed their homeworld to die (though in Picard's case, it was more of him just giving up when he let "perfect be the enemy of good" and didn't continue his efforts). Thus, Nero had plenty of reason to be upset with the people who supposedly promised to help the Romulans, but it's downplayed in a sense that he wasn't aware that it was his own people, as part of a mysterious cult called the "Zhat Vash," that caused the synthetics to malfunction, believing them to be part of a prophecy where such lifeforms would end all organic life. Even Spock Prime believes Nero has every right to be angry, as he blames himself for not saving Romulus in time.
  • Krall, the main villain of Star Trek Beyond, was right about one thing, though wrong about why: the Federation is arrogant to assume it doesn't need conflict to survive. That said, the "wrong reason" part is that he think Violence Really Is the Answer, whereas the truth is the Federation should always be prepared to defend itself from outside threats.
  • Star Trek: Picard gives us two retroactive ones:
    • The start of the series revealed that Nero wasn't just misplacing his grief by blaming the Federation for what happened to the Romulans; Picard's Cynicism Catalyst was because the Federation did indeed decide to leave the Romulans to die, meaning while it's aimed at the wrong universe's Federation, and the Romulans themsleves (specifically the Zhat Vash) are mostly to blame, and it still doesn't justify his actions, Nero is perfectly in the right to be angry with the Federation.
    • Additionally, while Admiral Satie was still out of line, she wasn't quite so crazy to fear the idea of the Romulans infiltrating the Federation, given that's exactly happened in Picard with Commadore Oh hiding in plain sight.
• Star Wars:
  • In the Joint Chiefs meeting on the Death Star in A New Hope, General Cassio Tagge is the only officer who acknowledges that the rebels pose a threat since they possess a technical readout of the Death Star, and that the Empire shouldn't rely on the Death Star as its sole deterrent to dissent. Turns out, he was right, as the rebels manage to use the information found in the Death Star plans to launch a successful assault that destroys the station. Also in that meeting, Darth Vader warns the prideful Admiral Motti that there are things more powerful than the Death Star, including the Force; he's then proven right, as it's a Force-sensitive pilot who fires the shot that destroys the Death Star.
  • In Attack of the Clones Count Dooku tries to get Obi-Wan to join him by claiming the Republic is beyond saving and needs to be replaced, that it's so corrupt a Sith Lord has been able to seize control of it entirely. While him being said Sith Lord's apprentice ruins his argument somewhat (Republic's corruption mostly comes from said Sith Lord and the Trade Federation might not have went through their war without his back up), he does have a point; the Republic by this time is incapable of preserving law and order even on the more civilized planets, Mega Corps have legal private armies, and most Senators are more interested in preserving their wealth and power than in actually helping their constituents. In the old EU he's ultimately proven right, as the New Republic established after the fall of Palpatine's Empire focuses more on restoring the spirit of the Old Republic instead of just its bureaucracy; in the new Disney universe the restored Republic is just as bad as its predecessor. In the span of just a few decades, the New Republic falls to the First Order, although it isn't clear to what extent this can be blamed on the leaders of the Republic.
  • While Lando Calrissian isn't really a villain in The Empire Strikes Back, the heroes certainly treat him like one for selling out his friend Han to the Empire. But, as Lando himself says, he had no choice but to cooperate. Vader explicitly threatens the people of Cloud City, which he administrates. From a deontological perspective, his responsibility is to protect them over the long-estranged friend who he hasn't seen for years and who showed up at his doorstep without warning. Since Vader only needs the Falcon crew to set a trap for Luke, Lando bargains with Vader for the freedom of Leia and Chewie, at significant risk to his own life and people, and is rejected. Then he pulls out all the stops to help rescue Leia, Chewie, and eventually Luke, and they almost manage to save Han, but what does he get in return? A choke from Chewie and a verbal beatdown from Leia before he can explain the situation. He even takes the time to visit Han and Leia in their cell after they were tortured to make sure they're as comfortable as possible, and gets punched in the face for his troubles. It all turns out okay for him in the end though. Solo reveals that Lando and Han weren't even that close; over the course of the film, his association with Han leads to his copilot dying, him nearly getting killed thirty times, and his beloved ship nearly getting blown up with him on it. After all that, he deserts Han in his hour of need, and Han pays him back by winning his ship in a game of cards. After all that, it's no wonder Lando puts Cloud City before Han.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • In "The Hidden Enemy", one of the clones is revealed to be a traitor spying for the Separatists. After being caught and asked how he could do this, he retorts that the Republic and the Jedi are enslaving him and his brothers and forcing them to fight and die in a war they have no stake in without anything in return, that the other clones are too indoctrinated to realize how badly they're being treated, and that he only started working for the Separatists because they promised him freedom. And the thing is, everything he says is absolutely true. While his actions solved nothing and ultimately only resulted in the deaths of more clones, his motives are hard to find any fault in.
    • Captain (later Moff) Tarkin argued that the Jedi's role as peacekeepers made them unsuited for combat and Anakin agrees, stating that the Jedi Code often prevents them from doing whatever it takes to secure victory.
    • In "The Phantom Apprentice", Maul tells Ahsoka that We Can Rule Together and that he needs to kill Anakin before Palpatine sinks his hooks into him. Ahsoka doesn't know it yet, but he's completely right — the Republic and the Jedi are about to crash and burn, and Anakin is about to become the monstrous Darth Vader.
  • In The Last Jedi: As screwed up as Kylo Ren is, he's got several good points. One, his uncle did, albeit briefly, consider killing him before he actually did anything wrong. Second, Leia's Resistance is a ragtag bunch with very little chance of surviving at this point. Thirdly, the Jedi and the Sith did a lot of epic screwing up the galaxy and if he could get Rey on board, they'd have a chance to rule the First Order together, and Take a Third Option aside from the galaxy-ruining dogma of Jedi and Sith. Kreia would approve.
  • In Solo, Enfys Nest and Beckett are both right in their own ways. Enfys Nest is a Hero Antagonist, trying to prevent extremely valuable resources from falling into the hand of an evil syndicate, who the "heroes" are willingly working for. While Beckett betrays Han, his assertions that Qi'ra is just using him turn out to be true.
  • In Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Kar Vastor and the ULF in general are portrayed as brutal murderers seeped in The Dark Side who mercilessly slaughter any off-worlders, set up as one half of the Grey-and-Gray Morality of the Summertime War, but what were they supposed to do otherwise? For thirty years off-worlders have been shooting Korunnai on sight, prospectors kidnap, torture and murder their children, they're forced to shelter in caves in deplorable conditions because any exposed settlement is bombed from orbit, and they can't even take their herds out to graze because gunship patrols fire on them and their animals, while the Republic did nothing to help. All so off-worlders can sell the rare spices and barks that grow on Haruun Kal. While Vastor firmly crosses the Moral Event Horizon in the finale, it's perfectly understandable for them to use extreme tactics to defend themselves from the genocidal actions of a colonial power exploiting their lands.