Why Villains are the GREATEST!

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about one of my favourite subjects: VILLAINS. Too often, I find myself drawn to the darker side of the story. Sure, it’s great to be noble and I love a great hero I can get invested in… yet sometimes I think the villains are a tad more fun. Sometimes I find the “Darklings” more interesting than the light bringers. Sometimes I find myself distracted by all their evilly-goodness. And I know I’m not the only one to think so, cos Trang @Bookidote wrote an awesome post a while back (which I really recommend) about why roguish characters rock! Which makes me wonder… why do we all find villains so intriguing? Let’s discuss!

They provide a thrill– their terrifying ways and insane antics have a way of getting my pulse up. The more a villain gives me chills, the more likely I am to get heated over a book. Nothing makes a book more exciting than a properly scary villain. And nothing does that better than Lord of the Rings- a stroll through middle earth could involving crossing anything from wraiths, to Shelob, to hoards of orcs, to Gollum… to Sauron *shudders*.

They are alluring– they have to be in order to tempt the protagonist. Satan from Paradise Lost is the quintessential example of such a compelling evil character and it is Milton’s genius that he drew him thus. After all, if he were not seductive, how else are we to believe that mankind could be taken in by the literal devil? Rather than looking at Milton and screaming *SATAN WORSHIPPER* (as some are wont to do) maybe we ought to look to ourselves and wonder why it’s possible to see Satan as the hero of the story. So yeah, villains oddly attractive to the reader too.

They can be sympathetic and that can make the story a beautiful, painful journey. I always think of Magneto as one of my favourite villains, because I feel so sorry for him, but at the same time I know he’s a complete shit- and yet I kinda want the writers to stop putting him through hell and just leave him be arghhh… So yeah, it’s another way a story can get under my skin and make me so invested in it.

They push the plot on with their antics. Because let’s face it, without something to fight against, there wouldn’t be any plot. I could literally talk about any villain here, because no story would exist without an evil force, but right now the Humdrum from Carry On has popped into my mind, because he’s certainly there to be a foil to the Chosen One (no spoilers 😉 ). Which leads us onto…

 

They force the hero to be heroic. Usually for some personal reason like, “you killed my parents!” aka Harry Potter vs Voldemort. In turn, a personal connection can make us feel sorry for the lead. Speaking of Voldy and Harry…

 

They provide insight into the hero– because so often “neither can live while the other survives”. More than that, however, the best villains illuminate the flaws of the protagonist, such as how Othello mirrors Iago’s weaknesses. And thus…

 

They can project a possible future for what the hero might become– this is never more true than in Peter Pan, where Captain Hook represents a tyrannical patriarchal figure… the very future Pan fears becoming. All of this shows how…

 

They have to speak dark truths about the human soul. Indeed, sometimes it’s easier to identify with a villain, fallen into depravity and chaos, than the perfect hero. There is something *more* insightful about a baddie somehow. On one level we identify with their flaws; on a darker more primordial level, perhaps they show us what we fear we could become. Incidentally this is probably why I like anti-heroes most of all and why I fell for the Six of Crows duology.

They create the moral questions. And really, that’s one of the ways we learn from a book. We can get lost in the psychology of a well written villain and have to find our own humanity to get back to ourselves. Shakespearean anti-heroes, like Macbeth, teach us our fallibility and our limits. It’s about knowing ourselves and identifying that little villainous voice egging us on. Learning about ourselves doesn’t stop at knowing our strengths and nothing tells us more about our weaknesses than a baddie. What they do, the lines they cross, can make us question everything- and that’s a good thing.

They have the chance at redemption– yes I’m one of those people whose favourite Star Wars character is Darth Vader, because he redeems himself- well, sort of… it doesn’t make up for the genocide of an entire planet… (and no, Anakin Skywalker from the prequels is not really Vader in my mind- those stupid movies don’t deserve a look in to the Star Wars universe) *Ahem* got a bit carried away there… ANYWAY redemption stories happen to be one of my absolute favourite story arcs- partly because they teach us they’re not all bad news!

So after all that, I guess it’s no wonder that a lot of us want to be “chillin’ like a villain” 😉

But am I alone in this fascination with the “dark side”? What do you think of villains? Love ’em or loathe ’em? Let me know in the comments!