Top five reasons Good Cop Bad Cop are the best characters?
Oh man! You knew what would happen when you asked that. Here goes!
GCBCโs concept has always stood out to me. Even before I was obsessed, I looked at his design, and I thought it was cool! The combination of the Good Cop Bad Cop trope and a dual-sided minifig head is really smart! Those ideas combine so well, and without that idea as a basis, GCBC wouldnโt be GCBC.
Thereโs also subversion of how split-personality characters tend to act! Obviously, Good Cop is the good one and Bad Cop is the bad one, but its more complicated than that. Good Cop is still willing to melt Emmet, and he still works for Business and participates in the policework, he is still a villain despite being nice! And Bad Cop, while it isnโt quite as noticeable earlier in the movie, 100% redeems himself in the end! (And I think he still has moments where he isnโt just full-on evil earlier on, Iโll get back to that later.)
A peculiar fact I know is that they started GCBCโs design with the Good Cop Bad Cop trope, NOT the dual-sided minifig head. I donโt know if itโs just me, but I feel like the natural progression would be starting with the LEGO feature and turning that into a character. But they didnโt do that. Originally, he was just going to flip glasses up and down from his hat.
The highlight of GCBCโs design is obviously their head. I love their outfit (maybe not so much when Iโm rendering something), but thereโs not that much to do about a police outfit. I only wish it was actually purple. BUT Iโm getting distracted. I was trying to mention how GCBCโs faces contrast so much! Good Copโs large glasses highlight his eyes, and his eyes show how nice he is, theyโre round and soft and cute! To contrast Bad Copโs sunglasses block out his eyes, and all you get to see is his big olโ mouth. He usually has his teeth shown, with each tooth lined out. You donโt see outlined teeth on Good Cop. Outlined teeth are something I always got told not to do in art, because it makes characters scary. But of course, Bad Cop is supposed to be scary! So he has that trait! And I love to see it!
Iโve always been interested in character design. Itโs not something I myself can do very well, but I love to see interesting characters. And GCBCโs design and concept are exactly that! Interesting! (And this whole thing is about GCBC, but I think a lot of the other characters also have really good designs.) What I especially love is how all TLM designs are interesting despite the limitations of being a LEGO. In fact, I think theyโd be worse if they werenโt LEGO! The artists had to put a lot of effort into making these designs look good, even as minifigs. I think thatโs awesome.
Ough! It already hurts and I havenโt even typed yet! But of course, GCBCโs story is important. GCBC is given the most tragic story in TLM. They are forced to keep working for a corrupt boss, and they are the only ones (outside of robots) who are aware of the corruptness. But that is exactly why they have to just go with it, they know Business has the power to kill them and everyone they care about if they went against him.
And even then, even when theyโre working for him the best they can, knowing far more than anyone else and having to act normal about it, well you know what happens. GCBC loses everyone. They obviously do not have many people that support them to begin with, but Bad Cop loses his parents and Good Cop! And that leaves him with one person, Business.
Itโs implied Business has been so terrible to GCBC for a while. Good Cop is so scared of Business that he avoids the guy as much as possible, to the point Business needed to specifically ask for Good Cop, and even then he would keep switching out. And GCBCโs helmet is mostly for protection from Lord Business, not master builders. But what can GCBC do about their situation? Nothing! Business is the damn president, they canโt do anything about it. And they canโt join the master builders, theyโre murderers, they canโt just join the good guys! GCBC is a victim of such unfortunate circumstance.
Isnโt that crazy!? They just add the most horrific abuse on GCBC to this movie!? Itโs a movie about LEGO! And you can even see how this affected Bad Cop, if you look closely, and have worms eating your brain! But again, I want to get to that later!
ITโS LATER! Obviously GCBC is two guys in one. I love that. I love it so much that it feels wrong when people seperate them! Iโm getting more and more into my own interpretation and outside of what is actually shown/implied in the movie, but I think GCBC just wouldnโt work seperated. I feel like Good Cop and Bad Cop exaggerate each otherโs personalities. Good Cop is really nice, which leaves Bad Cop to have to be the mean one. No matter how nice Bad Cop might try to be, he isnโt going to be able to match Good Cop. And their names are no help anyhow.
If they were to be seperate people, Bad Cop wouldnโt be as aggressive. He wouldnโt HAVE to be! And if he was, then he would just be a complete jerk. But when theyโre connected, they both balance eachother out and contrast more. Good Cop allows Bad Cop to be mean and Bad Cop allows Good Cop to be nice.
Good Cop is the nice one. But he isnโt THAT nice. I think I said this earlier, Good Cop was totally okay with killing Emmet and he still works for Business. But he is less violent. He is the Good Cop, so he must be the sympathetic one, or else he wouldnโt BE that! He certainly is evil, but he also certainly is kind.
Bad Cop is the antithesis. He is the bad one, duh. But he also is not entirely terrible. He can be a little nice, as a treat. Especially after the loss of Good Cop. Now that there isnโt a Good Cop to be the good one, that leaves Bad Cop. And if youโll notice, he does start acting a little nicer. He offers an easy way to Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius in that Old West scene, he says thank you to what he THINKS is a robot, and obviously he brings back Good Cop at the end, heโs not entirely evil. But he definitely is a little bit.
During the movie, Bad Cop has a running gag where he beats up chairs. Aha, Iโm really going into headcanon territory right now, but I see that as him taking his anger out on chairs instead of PEOPLE! Wouldnโt that be sweet? He tries not to hurt people! Amazing! He also melts people but I forgive him for that!
I love GCBCโs personalities. I love them on their own, but especially how they work together, as โoneโ character. I love how despite being a Good Cop and a Bad Cop, theyโre both more complicated than that. Man these guys are great!
GCBC is the one LEGO character given a family. Obviously the story is about the Man and Boy upstairs, and theyโre family, but no other LEGO gets that. Emmet and Business arenโt exactly related, even if theyโre the LEGOsonas of Will and Finn. In a draft of TLM, Emmet did have a mom, Doris, but she was removed. GCBC gets parents though. And also, eachother, as brothers!
GCBC is a villain. But they have a family that they really do care for. Good Cop canโt bring himself to kill his family, when heโs entirely willing to kill Emmet. And Bad Cop is โwillingโ. But itโs more like he knows that if he doesnโt do it, Business is going to do it instead, and heโll be punished. And heโs clearly apprehensive anyhow!
I already mentioned how Bad Cop reacts to losing his family, the only people who care for him, but thereโs more! Bad Cop sings the song โDanny Boyโ after losing Good Cop. An old irish song about losing someone (usually by death) and wishing to be reunited someday. Cool man! Iโm not crying! My eyes are sweating!
The fact that GCBC is given a family is very special! And the family really helps with their character. And everyone comes back in the end, but does that change how terrifying it would be to lose all your family, family who Bad Cop was especially close to?
And now I talk about what might be the best part of GCBC. The love! Theres so much to GCBC, clearly the creators loved him. I love being able to see that. Despite being the villain, and not even the main villain at that, GCBC is included on lots of merch. GCBC is also included in lots of extras. And heโs included a LOT. GCBC is given so much by the creators!
Liam Neeson didnโt have to voice GCBC in single takes, but he did. Because he thought it fit the character. Because he cared about the character! He improvised that darndarndarnydarn thing because he cared about the character! He added all sorts of weird noises because he thought it fit GCBC! He didnโt HAVE to do that! He wasnโt getting anything from doing that! But he did it because he felt like it made the character better.
Isnโt that just darling? GCBC is not just a fan-favorite, I think he was a favorite of the people who worked on the movie as well! And I think those guys know a lot about TLM, ha ha! So, thatโs 5 reasons why GCBC is the best character, in my opinion.
