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| image via dragonball.wikia.com |
The yin to the hero’s yang, without these malevolent mooks the story would be boring. A good villain strikes fear in the hearts of readers and is made to be loathed. They are the worst of us, cautionary tales on what befalls those who don’t follow the rules.
While often taking on demonic appearances, there is something appealing about these bad-nicks. They represent our unbridled id, the hedonistic pleasure seeking core of us. All of us have experienced situations where we wanted to give in to our baser instincts but couldn’t or wouldn’t. Our hatred of villains stems from projection. Deep down we wish we were them, free to do and say whatever we please.
Yes being good is its own reward but heroes live boring lives. Sure adventuring is fun but once the quest is over what’s left but settling down and starting a family? Villains on the other hand are intriguing, live unusual lives and are sexy.
Buffy Summers: Chosen One, Slayer, etc but because she was a goody two shoes was out shone when Faith was introduced. From the beginning there were stark contrasts between the slayers: blonde vs. brunette, middle class vs poor, etc but the main difference was Buffy had a softness to her whereas Faith was a jagged powder keg waiting to explode.
Even before her full ascent to the dark side there was always a darkness to her borne of someone who’s lived a hard life. Her road to redemption only deepened Faith character, and once good again Faith retained her edge.
Willow’s descent into the big bad of season six was not only believable but sympathetic. She took up magic to be useful to the Scoobies but then became addicted to magic which caused a rift with her girlfriend. Who wouldn’t be tempted to go over the edge after reuniting with your, your loved one only to have murdered and your best friend hanging by a thread?
Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z was infinitely more interesting than the protagonist Goku. Prince and last of his kind, enslaved to the tyrant who destroyed his people, and trained from birth to be the strongest in the universe, yet he is beaten by a low level peasant. Who wouldn’t be pissed? Aside from being all kinds of bad ass, Vegeta is a text book example of a villain turned antihero done right. Yes being bad doesn’t pay in the end, but what a wild ride in the meantime.
So what are some of your favorite villains and what makes them so?