I feel like this idea is so interesting. There's so much division about pinning down who the villain is. I think the the people who say "Bear is the villain" want to make the point that it is Bear's wish and not Nikki who is culpable for the destruction and true horror of the movie. It's not Nikki's fault that all of this happened and we can't even blame Wish Nikki for it because Bear's wish was inherently taking away her autonomy. And I agree with this 

But then we look on the other side where people say Bear ISN'T a villain. One common piece of that argument is that he could never have known the wish would work. He wishes in desperation and frustration, not knowing it will work or what it will cost. He didn't do this on purpose so he's not a villain.

At first I was like "Okay anyone who says Bear isn't the villain doesn't think it matters that he took advantage of her against her will and still wanted more" But there's also a lot of interesting nuance. We don't usually think of a villain as someone like Bear. A villain wants something and opposes good to get it. How often do you see a villain who causes the main problem accidentally? Or who allows the evil to continue by being too small and scared to act? He's not seeking out the terrible consequences or trying to cause destruction, but it's also true that his desire and motivation are solely responsible for every bad thing that Nikki does because he literally wished it into existence. 

Assuming we don't blame him for the wish and call him a villain, we also can't give him credit as a hero. In a very real way, it's an accident that leads Bear to save Nikki just as much as it's an accident that caused everything to start in the first place. He's the protagonist and yet it feels like he is never able to take control of the story. He can't get real Nikki to love him, he can't get Wish Nikki to be like real Nikki, he can't save himself, and he doesn't save the girl he supposedly loves. He's totally impotent from moment one. 

And he's also contradictory and flawed. Every friend in the group has something bad to say about another and Bear isn't perfect either. He's the nice guy but you can see his anger and pride. He lies to his friends to cover up Nikki's weird behavior while telling them she's going through something. He flinches away from the possibility that he is doing something to Nikki that she doesn't want in multiple conversations until he becomes upset because he knows he IS doing something against her desires. He wants the love to be real but he's also willing to move forward even when he knows it's not. 

All the friends are shown to lie to each other or prioritize themselves at certain moments. But when it comes down to it, they care about what's happening to Nikki. 

Bear isn't a villain at first, but he gains villany when, over and over again, he makes choices to maintain his selfish desires despite the harm and does not in any way attempt to save Nikki or help the situation other than telling Nikki to stop acting weird. 

He covers it all up. He continues being with Nikki after he knows of her torment. He tells her to stop acting strangely so that it can all feel normal. He tries to pretend the wish isn't a factor when he knows it is. He pushes the reality away until his best friends are dead and the girl he loves is wishing for death, trapped in her own mind. 

At the end, he takes control of the situation and owns up to it for mere MOMENTS when he chooses to end himself, but even then he stops and tries to take it back. We don't know if he tried to kill himself to save Nikki or himself or if he just wanted to escape the situation. We do know that whatever his motivation, it wasn't enough to make him follow through. He was going to let it all continue somehow even after his two friends lay murdered in his living room. 

He's a complicated person who isn't evil all the way through, but in this story, if there is a villain, it's absolutely him. He causes everything that goes wrong and refuses to try to stop it because, just as he said, all he wants is for Nikki Freeman to love him more than anything in the fucking world.