Evil Uncles

    It seems that in movies, the things that most people look for is some sort of love interest between the star characters. And while that relationship always adds to the story and plot of the movie, the relationship between the family members are important too. It seems that in some movies, there is a son whose father is dead, or dies in the movie. And where there is this son, there is an uncle that is acting as a mentor. However, this uncle always has a different idea of how things should go. These uncles are always upset because their brother was the one that was rich, popular, king, or a leader of an international country. It never fails that while this uncle is mentoring to his nephews, he is also undercutting them at the same time and planning their eminent demise of the nephew. Thus, I have the theory that the uncle is always an evil character.
    One example of this would be the beloved childhood movie The Lion King.  Mufasa is the lion king of the pridelands. His only son, Simba is born and is worshiped by all. The birth of this prince, Scar, the brother of Mufasa is put only farther from his place as the king of the pridelands. He tries everything to kill both Mufasa and Simba, however he only achieves in one instance. While SImba looks up to Scar and tries to follow his lead, he is only put into danger of being eaten by the hyena’s that are under Scar’s control. In the end, The hyenas join forces with Simba and help him to bring down and kill Scar. This is really the first instance of the evil uncle that we see in out movie-watching lives, yet it is not the only instance.
    In the recent movie Iron Man, Tony Stark is the pretty boy of Stark Industries,  a company that was created by his father, Howard Anthony Stark, and uncle, Obadiah Stark. Howard dies before we join the storyline and plot of the movie.  This death puts Obadiah is charge of 51 percent of the shares of the company, which is to go to Tony when he is ready. With this control of the company, he uses it to sell the missiles and weapons produced by Stark Industries to the terrorists that are fighting against America.  Tony only realizes this when he is attacked and brought to the terrorist camp, only to learn in the breech of his company in sending the terrorists these weapons, and then finally escape in the Iron Man suit. All throughout the movie, Obadiah tries to keep Tony from the spotlight, from making any changes to the company, and creates a suit in which to fight Iron Man. In the end he dies, as do all the bad uncles in these movies.
    A more recent example is the uncle in The Prince of Persia. Nizam is this evil uncle’s name. He actually gives the adopted prince, Dastan, a cloak the give to the king, which only burns him to death. This is all in a plot to get the dagger that will turn back time, so he can go back and undo a decision that would make it where the king had died much younger, and therefore, the princes would have never been born, making Nizam King of Persia. This all frames Dastan for the king’s murder, making him run for his life from his other brothers. In a dramatic fight for who gets the dagger and who gets to go back in time, Dastan wins and turns back time to save his father and brothers. He also kills Nizam, who he confronts and kills in an act of defense.
    These three are just some examples of uncles who want the power that their brother and nephews have. They then try to kill the father, if the father did not die previously, and then tries to take out the nephews using any means necessary to gain the control. However in the end, he is always defeated by the good heroic nephew. It is easy to say that the next time I see a movie like this, I will not be fooled into thinking that the uncle will end up a good character.