Sybok was a jerk, but he did nothing that would warrant the punishment of actually having to be in Star Trek 5.
I'm reminded of Dickless (aka Walter Peck) from Ghostbusters. He's the undisputed king of smarmy movie assholes. He actually ended up getting off fairly easy, only getting seriously gooped up with marshmallow. It's one of the more egregious cases of a movie asshole getting off with a slap on the wrist.
The 90s MTV cartoon Daria had a take on this in its first season. The school was celebrating a homecoming football hero who won the state championship a few years previous. When he arrived, he acted like an absolute jerk to everybody - he insulted people who idolised him, called girls who rejected his advances bimbos, and basically walked around like he owned the place. It was clear he acted like an egotistical jerk 24/7. At one point, he insulted Daria and her friend, who joked that he would probably worshipped like a hero for the rest of his life, but "look on the bright side, maybe he won't live that long". And, literally seconds later, the guy was killed in a freak accident. And the rest of the episode was pretty damn awkward - people mourning a "hero" in public, but not really knowing how to feel because the guy was such a colossal jerk.
but was he just doing his job? He was definately less willing to give the Ghostbusters some slack, but maybe he was just passionate about saving the environment? I'm sure, technically, the Ghostbusters were in violation of several safety regulations voted in by the NY lawmakers. He didn't show up at the Ghostbusters just to give them a problem, it was his job to investigate this new business in his area. Yes, he had no dick, but was one, and he got off lightly. Here's another, what about Principal Rooney from Ferris Bueler's Day Off? He was definately overzealous in trying to catch Ferris, but in his mind he was trying to make an example of Ferris (who I can't say really didn't deserve some consiquences for his actions). Earlier, someone mentioned The Breakfast Club, there too, Principal Vernon was trying to get the upper hand over some of those kids in detention whose choices were going to maybe lead them down the wrong path. Judd Nelson was clearly warned not to push it, and ended up with detention for the rest of the year, Don't mess with the Bull, you'll get the horns indeed. Yes, these kids all ultimately had issues they were dealing with, but Vernon's job was to get them educated and he didn't know about their issues. Poor guy had a job to do. Even Vernon learned something that day from the janitor. Somehow, the older I get, the more sympathy I have for the adults in some of these young adults movies. Even though the young adults are doing questionable things, it seems like the adults get the most hate.
Hmmm. Not sure that Navin Johnson deserved the fate of being sued over his glasses nose holder invention and losing all his wealth.
I seem to recall reading that he had been face-hugged, and was begging Ripley for help. She then handed him a grenade.
I remember Zerbe's death in License to Kill... Now his character in that film kinda got what was coming to him because he was dealing with an evil guy...(Franz Sanchez)....
^ True, but he was killed for something he never actually did (Bond faked the whole thing). Sanchez, OTOH, got a far more humane death, relatively speaking. I'd much rather be stuck in an exploding truck than blown up in a decompression chamber.
Um....Bond lit Sanchez on fire, and let him burn to death. That doesn't seem any less painful that the decompression chamber.