Villains.
Writers love writing them. Actors love playing them. Readers love reading about them. Viewers love watching and listening to them… fantasizing about them. (Ooh, how deliciously naughty.) In fact, they often usurp heroes as peoples’ favourite characters. To which thoughtful creatives must, once in a while, scratch their collective heads and ponder: why the hell should this be so? Is my hero not attractive enough? Daring enough? Plucky enough? What? (Of course, we creatives are generally bubbling-hot neurotic messes anyway, so this kind of moody introspection is pretty much par for the course… though readers’ fickleness tends to exacerbate the situation.)
Well, fret not, faithful reader, because I have given this matter some thought, and generated, for your edification and entertainment today, several possible/plausible reasons why this state of affairs should be so. I should add that it’s not a Compleat Lyste by any stretch of the imagination, just several possibilities that came to mind quite quickly, once I put my mind to it. So without further ado, Reasons (in no particular order) Why We Love Villains:
They Revel in Their Egocentrism
This is the big one. Never mind the Catholic Church’s Seven Deadly Sins. For my money, Egocentrism is the Supreme Sin, the one from which everything else bad flows from. Kinda like the One Ring. Simply put, egocentrism is characterized as I. Want. And my wants are more important than yours. Now, everyone’s born egocentric. It’s all babies know, it’s how they survive, even and especially when they’re non-verbal, to wit: I’m hungry and I want to be fed! NOW! My diaper is poopy and I want it changed! NOW! I’m gassy and I want something done about it! NOW! Yep, the operative word is NOW. Babies don’t care it’s 3 AM and they just had you up a couple of hours or so ago. That was then, this is now, so move it, bub. And they don’t actually articulate these things in so many words… they just howl and leave that up to their perplexed parents to figure out. So… that’s fine. Well, not really; it’s often exhausting and frustrating to have a wee tyrant dictating your every move. But… what’s supposed to happen is parents gradually educate their children out of egocentrism. As the kids become self-aware and realize there’s a world out there beyond themselves. To paraphrase Robert Fulghum, kids are supposed to learn things like… playing fair; waiting your turn; sharing; and other things suppressing that powerful egocentrism. Some parents are more successful than others --- or more diligent --- teaching their kids these things. And villains… well, either their parents were complete failures at teaching their kids, or the villains-in-training resolutely resisted their parents’ efforts. Either way, villains are generally supreme egoists/narcissists. Many are self-aware enough to realize this. And they don’t care. They get to flout the rules. See, a long time ago a fellow by the name of Rousseau spelled it out: as humans, we surrender some of our freedoms so that… well, so that we can all live together without killing each other. Villains refuse to surrender those freedoms or accept the norms of society. They play by their own rules --- which would lead to anarchy if everyone did it, but the idea has a certain appeal to many people. At the least, many of us get a vicarious thrill watching villains do the awful things we don’t do. Though many of us are tempted.
They Can Be Such Tortured Souls
I love Lady Macbeth; she’s one of Will’s --- literature’s --- great villains. She starts off the play as a grade-A evil bitch, far more daring than her spineless hubby, whom she goads by calling a coward. He returns the favour by telling her she should never have daughters. She goes on to say she’d be willing to throw her baby to the ground and bash its brains out if it furthered her aims. Yada, yada, yada. You get the picture. But then, later on in the play, she’s racked with guilt over what she’s done. Well, well, well, she’s not quite the hardass we were led to believe she was. In fact, she’s so remorseful over her deeds, she winds up killing herself. It’s a fascinating progression to watch.
Their Implacable Evil is Often Chilling
One of the superlative villains in the Star Trek canon are the Borg, a cybernetic race with a shared consciousness --- the hive mind concept --- and they are utterly relentless and emotionless. I used to use a story in my high school English classes, A Matter of Balance by W.D. Valgardson, which contained a beautiful phrase supporting the implacability of so many villains: “their anger was not personal, and so could not be reasoned with.” Oh, yeah. That’s chilling. But fascinating to watch --- from a comfortable distance.
Their Backstories are Frequently a Source of Fascination
How does a Sauron become a Dark Lord? What makes a Lucifer declare it’s better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven? Why does a Tom Riddle become a Voldemort (anagrams aside)? Were their mommies mean to them as children? Did the other reindeer laugh and call them names? Or did they have perfectly normal, happy upbringings? That scenario can make for a more thoughtful analysis which often leads us back to the old nurture vs. nature argument. Just how, exactly, does a villain become a villain? Is it something they deliberately choose? Or do they just make some really, really poor choices? It’s not always knowable, but the thing is, we want to know.
They get to do everything we would like to do, but know we can’t, or shouldn’t. Note I’m not saying ‘the things we wouldn’t do” because, given sufficient motivation or provocation, pretty much all of us are, unfortunately capable of just about anything. But villains don’t have to suppress powerful urges to tell the rest of the world to get stuffed and just do whatever the hell they want. And that, ultimately, makes them so delicious to read about and watch.
Bwahahaha!
Writers love writing them. Actors love playing them. Readers love reading about them. Viewers love watching and listening to them… fantasizing about them. (Ooh, how deliciously naughty.) In fact, they often usurp heroes as peoples’ favourite characters. To which thoughtful creatives must, once in a while, scratch their collective heads and ponder: why the hell should this be so? Is my hero not attractive enough? Daring enough? Plucky enough? What? (Of course, we creatives are generally bubbling-hot neurotic messes anyway, so this kind of moody introspection is pretty much par for the course… though readers’ fickleness tends to exacerbate the situation.)
Well, fret not, faithful reader, because I have given this matter some thought, and generated, for your edification and entertainment today, several possible/plausible reasons why this state of affairs should be so. I should add that it’s not a Compleat Lyste by any stretch of the imagination, just several possibilities that came to mind quite quickly, once I put my mind to it. So without further ado, Reasons (in no particular order) Why We Love Villains:
They Revel in Their Egocentrism
This is the big one. Never mind the Catholic Church’s Seven Deadly Sins. For my money, Egocentrism is the Supreme Sin, the one from which everything else bad flows from. Kinda like the One Ring. Simply put, egocentrism is characterized as I. Want. And my wants are more important than yours. Now, everyone’s born egocentric. It’s all babies know, it’s how they survive, even and especially when they’re non-verbal, to wit: I’m hungry and I want to be fed! NOW! My diaper is poopy and I want it changed! NOW! I’m gassy and I want something done about it! NOW! Yep, the operative word is NOW. Babies don’t care it’s 3 AM and they just had you up a couple of hours or so ago. That was then, this is now, so move it, bub. And they don’t actually articulate these things in so many words… they just howl and leave that up to their perplexed parents to figure out. So… that’s fine. Well, not really; it’s often exhausting and frustrating to have a wee tyrant dictating your every move. But… what’s supposed to happen is parents gradually educate their children out of egocentrism. As the kids become self-aware and realize there’s a world out there beyond themselves. To paraphrase Robert Fulghum, kids are supposed to learn things like… playing fair; waiting your turn; sharing; and other things suppressing that powerful egocentrism. Some parents are more successful than others --- or more diligent --- teaching their kids these things. And villains… well, either their parents were complete failures at teaching their kids, or the villains-in-training resolutely resisted their parents’ efforts. Either way, villains are generally supreme egoists/narcissists. Many are self-aware enough to realize this. And they don’t care. They get to flout the rules. See, a long time ago a fellow by the name of Rousseau spelled it out: as humans, we surrender some of our freedoms so that… well, so that we can all live together without killing each other. Villains refuse to surrender those freedoms or accept the norms of society. They play by their own rules --- which would lead to anarchy if everyone did it, but the idea has a certain appeal to many people. At the least, many of us get a vicarious thrill watching villains do the awful things we don’t do. Though many of us are tempted.
They Can Be Such Tortured Souls
I love Lady Macbeth; she’s one of Will’s --- literature’s --- great villains. She starts off the play as a grade-A evil bitch, far more daring than her spineless hubby, whom she goads by calling a coward. He returns the favour by telling her she should never have daughters. She goes on to say she’d be willing to throw her baby to the ground and bash its brains out if it furthered her aims. Yada, yada, yada. You get the picture. But then, later on in the play, she’s racked with guilt over what she’s done. Well, well, well, she’s not quite the hardass we were led to believe she was. In fact, she’s so remorseful over her deeds, she winds up killing herself. It’s a fascinating progression to watch.
Their Implacable Evil is Often Chilling
One of the superlative villains in the Star Trek canon are the Borg, a cybernetic race with a shared consciousness --- the hive mind concept --- and they are utterly relentless and emotionless. I used to use a story in my high school English classes, A Matter of Balance by W.D. Valgardson, which contained a beautiful phrase supporting the implacability of so many villains: “their anger was not personal, and so could not be reasoned with.” Oh, yeah. That’s chilling. But fascinating to watch --- from a comfortable distance.
Their Backstories are Frequently a Source of Fascination
How does a Sauron become a Dark Lord? What makes a Lucifer declare it’s better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven? Why does a Tom Riddle become a Voldemort (anagrams aside)? Were their mommies mean to them as children? Did the other reindeer laugh and call them names? Or did they have perfectly normal, happy upbringings? That scenario can make for a more thoughtful analysis which often leads us back to the old nurture vs. nature argument. Just how, exactly, does a villain become a villain? Is it something they deliberately choose? Or do they just make some really, really poor choices? It’s not always knowable, but the thing is, we want to know.
They get to do everything we would like to do, but know we can’t, or shouldn’t. Note I’m not saying ‘the things we wouldn’t do” because, given sufficient motivation or provocation, pretty much all of us are, unfortunately capable of just about anything. But villains don’t have to suppress powerful urges to tell the rest of the world to get stuffed and just do whatever the hell they want. And that, ultimately, makes them so delicious to read about and watch.
Bwahahaha!
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