Let Villains be Villains
i completely understand where the trope of a sympathetic villein with a tragic back story comes from. i love a complex character! but a lot of ‘sympathetic villeins’ just seem . . . blah.
They just fall into the following categories:
The ‘from a ninty-degree angle this thing their doing isn’t 100% Disney Princess bubble gum good and people are looking at them funny’ type of villain.
or ‘I don’t like the main character. Guess I’m the bad guy now’ types.
or ‘heartbreak = emotions and being angry is villainy so I’m gonna be a butt until someone loves me.’ type of villain.
or even the ‘I’m selfish and extra, this makes me a villain.’ type.
Now I’m not saying these aren’t villains. and if their done well they can be really fun villains. but in modern media these are so common it rare to actually find one that doesn’t just scream “Villain Trope!”
Except for the variation of number 3: The “They hurt me but being justifiably outraged is wrong so I’m the bad guy until i absolve them of this thing that understandably hurt me. Because their bad actions weren’t their fault since they said sorry and i need to just move on. YAY, FORGIVENESS!’ Trope.
That’s some underhanded passive aggressive victim blaming right there.
Stop it.
But then at the other end of the spectrum you have the ‘Realistic Every Man Monster.’
Which i get, don’t get me wrong. Real people are seriously sick, twisted and depraved. But I’ve lived through knowing someone like that and if you or someone you know has lived though something dark, it’s cringy and in poor taste and just makes you want to bleach your mind out with a Disney marathon.
i miss the “I’m Bad, deal with it.” villains. the sassy, love being evil, theatrical villains who couldn’t care less about explaining their motivations. The “your suffering and cries for mercy are the perfect chorus for my bombastic theme song.’ villains. the dramatic black cape, MUH HA HA! type of villains. the dressed to the nines, unashamed and uninhibited, cursing babies,casting spells and murdering just for the heck of it, evil cause its fun type of villains. the dropping one-liners, i am so much smarter then you smirking, looking fabulous villains.
Let’s go back to the villains we loved to watch being evil.
