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YMMV / Reynard the Fox

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  • Designated Hero: Reynard is an adulterer, rapist, child abuser, mass murderer, and even lies about his family. Yet he is intended as the hero! He even ends up being made the King's bailiff.
  • Designated Villain: Ysegrim. He is opposed to Reynard because... Reynard raped his wife and pissed in his children's faces, blinding them. Why is he the bad guy again? In an earlier story Ysegrim was a corrupt priest who tricks Reynard at the start. Here it is less justified. Likewise to the animals who try to bring Reynard to court, and who are tricked and hurt by him.
  • Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Given that this is a satire of medieval society, virtually every character is either corrupt or buffoonish, not that Reynard is any more sympathetic than the rest of them.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Well, perhaps not unintentionally, but Reynard is such an asshole that, in the late 60s, Disney tried to do a Reynard animated film, then gave up in disgust after realizing that even they couldn't render him into a palatable protagonist. So, they scrapped the idea of a Reynard film and reworked it into their 1973 "Robin Hood with Funny Animals" film instead.
  • Values Dissonance: It's admittedly debated to this day if Reynard was actually considered a heroic protagonist even in his original time, but he was some kind of Escapist Character regardless. By modern standards, Reynard's a straight-up Villain Protagonist.

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