#hero coding

[lucianalight]

If Loki did what Wanda did, they would have locked him up again for life. And Wanda? She lives comfortably in a cabin and studies the darkest book in the MCU. And Loki will be in the TVA prison. I bet the first scene in the show will be the one in the elevator. Loki will not commit any crimes.

If Loki did what Wanda did, you would have seen all the fandom screaming he is an irredeemable evil villain who need to be punished forever.

[musclesandhammering]

I think my dislike for Wanda Maximoff can be boiled down to the consistent theme of “heroes” doing things equally as terrible as the villains and facing little to no consequences for their actions- they’re just written off as “tragic mistakes”- while “villains” receive the least amount of sympathy and the harshest condemnation possible.

[lucianalight]

How many agents did Loki control in total? Because some of Loki's people joined voluntarily, because they were enemies of the Shield. Certainly, the number of people controlled by Loki is smaller than the number of people controlled by Wanda. Marvel, think about who is the hero and who is the villain.

Loki only mind controlled Clint, Slevig and another Shield agent. All of other people where Shield’s enemies who were gathered by Clint and joined them voluntarily.

The number of people Loki mind controlled while he was under the influence of mind stone: 

3

Population of Westview that Wanda mind controlled and refused to let them go even when she realizeed what she had done:

3892

[lucianalight]

And once a again Wande leaves scot free...

Working for Hydra, Working with Ultron, Unleashing Hulk on Johannesburg, fire in Lagos and now the Hex without facing justice. And everyone is OK with that because she is a “hero”!

[lucianalight]

I'm writing a book. How to avoid villain and hero coding? The villains are the demons of hell. Hero is human.

I don’t think I’m the right person to answer this anon because I’m not a writer. I can only share my experience as a reader/viewer. I’m tagging some mutuals to see if they want to chime in: @iamanartichoke @geehollow @juliabohemian @nikkoliferous @mastreworld @worstloki @philosopherking1887

The first thing to consider is what type of villain you’re writing. Are they beasts, pure evil, sympathetic, redeemable? Because the main issue of hero/villain coding is double standards and it only applies to situations where your villain has a human like psyche and characteristics. For example are the demons beast like, who can’t be reasoned with? Are they just pure evil who only want to do evil stuff for the sake of it? Or do they have different personalities and motivations? In this case, it’s important to know what makes them a villain? What are their motivations and actions? Maybe they have a good reason for what they’re doing, or their motivation is understandable, but they chose the wrong way to reach their goal.

When portraying characters it’s important to assign the roles to them based on their actions. Your hero has to earn the title by doing heroic stuff. When your hero is flawed and if they make mistakes it’s important not to gloss over those mistakes. If they do the same action as the villain, don’t treat the situation with double standards based on their assigned roles. If your hero is redeemed for a wrong action by doing sth heroic, the same rule should apply to the villain too. You can read my “Spot the Hypocrisy” series for examples in MCU.

Don’t define the villainy based on whether your villain dislikes or disagrees with your hero. The most recent example of this is Hayward. Hayward was a villain because he lied about what Wanda did and tried to kill her and her children and frame her for the things she hadn’t done. He wasn’t a villain for listing and pointing out everything Wanda actually had done. But the show framed his villainy around that. When he was talking about Wanda’ past, that’s where the hero-coded characters got uncomfortable and tried to gloss over Wanda’s actions. Another example is TR. The morality and the actions of characters are judged by whether they agree with the hero or want to help him, while they have good reasons for their choices and the fact that they don’t owe the hero their help. 

Don’t treat the hero’s point of view and actions as the right side just because they are the hero. Their point of view must have acceptable reasoning. Their actions must be the right and correct ones objectively. Same goes for villains. Their point of view and actions must actually be wrong and not be deemed wrong because they’re in opposition to the hero.

All in all, try to treat the situations fairly and objectively.

[lucianalight]

I may not like Ross and the Accords, but after the finale WandaVision, I think he was right to put Wanda in jail and put on her collar. Poor Agatha,she suffers!

Again same wavelength here! :D I want to show all of this to Marvel to make them realize what their stupid hero vs villain coding can cause.

A hero must do heroic actions. They aren’t automatically good and right because they are labeled a hero.

All the hero coding has accomplished in Wandaviaion is proving that villain coded characters were right.

[lucianalight]

I think the thing that bothers me so much about hero coding vs villain coding is that the morality becomes about who a character is rather than about what they do. "hero" characters can do whatever they want and be good. "villain" characters are bad no matter what. and that has very uncomfortable resonances with real life bigotry/oppression. bc the irl equivalent is saying a group with certain attributes is inherently good and a different group with other attributes is inherently bad...

Exactly! First of all hero/villain coding results in prejudice and black and white thinking. Actions are not judged objectively. They’re judged based on which group has done it.

Moreover, hero/villain coding by characteristics results in bigotry/oppression/marginalization of people. You usually see in movies/books that villain aren’t conform to the society’s idea of beauty or socializing. Even sometimes neutral personality traits are considered villainous. Villains can be coded queer or hyper sexual. Whole cultures and languages can be used for villain coding. All of this is harmful.

What should indicates who is a hero or a villain is only their actions, not their characteristics and not because the narrative tells us. Only their actions.

[lucianalight]

After what Wanda has done, I'm waiting for Strange to start destroying the Multiverse. Marvel now writes heroes like this, it will turn out that Wanda and Stephen will be heroes (but really villains, and Loki will be a villain, but in fact a hero).

Same energy again! :D Yeah, unfortunately it’s not at all impossible when it comes to MCU and their stupid hero vs villain coding. I just hope it’s not like that or if it is they find another character as their scapegoat and keep Loki out of the movie.