It has recently come to my attention through the Phil Vischer Podcast (ding!) that a number of movies and books recently have been devoted to explaining the motivations of villains. Any good storyteller must look at the motivations of their characters, it’s part of creativity, but let me get to the point; why are we making whole movies (i.e. Maleficent, Star Wars episode III, etc.) dedicated to explaining why villains are evil? To me, there doesn’t need to be much explanation.
This is nothing new; several stories in multiple media forms in the last couple of decades have attempted this before. They say that the villain does what he does because he suffered some personal tragedy as a youth. Since I haven’t actually seen the Maleficent movie yet, nor do I plan to, I’ll use a character we’re all familiar with: Magneto.
The first X-Men movie begins at a Nazi concentration camp in the midst of World War II. Young Magneto is separated from his parents, and then, as a response to his personal grief, becomes increasingly hostile toward non-mutants. This is in contrast to Doctor Doom, who was always an egomaniac, and just used his scarring as an excuse to take over the world.
Magneto, Darth Vader, Syndrome, and now Maleficent. All have became villains because of some past personal tragedy. This pattern is so pervasive in our culture lately that even some of my own villains at one time fit this mold, but what I’ve found out is that this treatment diminishes the villain in the eyes of the audience. The audience feels a sort of sympathy toward the villain. In effect, it makes it appear that evil does not exist; it is a construct of society. That, as I think we all can agree, is wrong. Due to our rebellion against God, all humanity is cursed, which means that we are all inherently evil, and I believe our stories should reflect that.
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I'm not saying that villains don't need an explanation as to why they do what they do; I'm just saying that the explanation should not involve personal tragedy, because, to me anyway, it makes the villain less, well, villainous. You can read my take on that in my replies to Se G.
My take as a writer is that you need more than "I'm going to plant a nuclear bomb under the city because I'M A SUPERVILLAIN!!!!!!!!"
No one is a villain in their own mind. They make the choices they make because they feel like that's the best course of action to achieve their ends. And if you can help the audience see that the villain is just like they are, only making bad choices rationalized as good, it actually drives home the point that evil is inside all of us. We ALL have the capacity to do that. It makes the villain scarier because he could be YOU.
Personally, my favorite villains are the ones who are solely motivated by ambition and/or greed. They want nothing more than to accomplish their goals and they don't care who they hurt in the process. They know that what they are doing is wrong and they don't care.
Doctor Doom, Darkseid, Lex Luthor, Maximus the Mad, I could go on. These are villains who do wrong out of ambition. They have no moral code. These are the kind of villains I like to use.
The only reason we know we are sinners, is GOD. The bible has plenty of examples that shows, We don't get it. How long did it take the Jews to turn on Moses and asked for Gods of Gold??
Look at the movie of Noah...the Bible clear states why God chose to wipe the human race.(You should read exodus folks)but the truth won't be in it....saying they chose to use the version found in Kabbalah ...and are doing an artistic take on it.....He should go do an artistic version of the Korran...see how pans out for him.
So, even after We have seen the hand of God...we still go and sin. David n Saul/Judah.
In the case of Paul..in his eyes he was acting under the Law. He was doing right according to his perception. Just like all villains..a villain doesn't see that what he is doing as wrong. He/She only think of how to justify what they done, only after they get caught not before.
Even when your not a Christian....you know you're doing wrong...that's why it's done in the cover of darkness. Just in case someone might see you.
At least you're fighting against. I struggle w/how to present villains that don't have any redeeming qualities. If they have fallen, they're staying fallen.
Should I look for a reason to justify their villainy???
OK, poor choice of words. I should have spoken from the perspective of a comic reader and a movie-goer; as a member of the audience. Thank you for pointing out that glaring error on my part.
You have a good point. As am someone who does not forgive as quickly as probably I should, were I living at the time, I probably wouldn't have believed that such a change was possible.
But did Paul suffer some tragedy as a youth that caused him to hate Christians? No. He hunted down and killed Christians because he believed they were a threat to Judaism. It took the loss of his sight to open his eyes to the truth.
Many of these tragic villains were created from the standpoint that humans are inherently good, and that's what I'm trying to fight against.
what I’ve found out is that this treatment diminishes the villain in the eyes of the audience.- How did you find this out?? Did you get direct feed back from your audience??
Look I'm not trying to punch holes in what your trying to present. But the Apostle Paul was a murderer of Christians....(before his encounter w/Christ)by any account present/past and future. I think when writers or directors want to present the perspective of the villain. I think it really shows us exactly that. Any justification of evil is evil, in whatever form it's presented.
Evil hasn't change, we have. The reality is that we do not accept we have stray away from God. Our society has step away from Him, so it reflects back where we are.
Isaiah 5:20(KJV)20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!___This is the mantra of our society and culture today.
How many times, have we heard " I can't believe this happen in our community!" While some us have retreated into our conclaves and the safety of our immediate communities. Only doing outreach to other Christians and not the Lost. Sympathy should not be an issue when we are call to be loving to our fallen brothers, it does not mean we should not have empathy but be careful in being involve as to not stumble ourselves into falling back into our sinful ways.
The Villain and the Anti-Hero(justification to do wrong for the sake of good) is the new standard. We have allow this by being passive.
But If you think about it as far as story and as a film. The story of Paul is the ultimate story of redemption. From Killer to saint. That's true transformation. The question should be, HOW can we as creators engage others with our stories, when there are some many options the take our focus away from God ???
OK, I see your point. But still, it's kind of ridiculous to have an entire film dedicated to explaining why a villain does the things they do. To me, when it comes to explaining the villain's motives, least is best. What I'm trying to say is that one should never give the audience the opportunity to feel sympathy toward the villain.
I don't think the backgrounds of villains makes it appear that evil does not exist. In fact, I think it does the opposite. It shines the light on the dark side of humanity and what we are capable of whenever we act out of selfishness. Plenty of heroes have a past personal tragedy, but made the choice to stop evil rather than become it (ie Spiderman, Batman). These stories reflect us in the real world. Comic stories are there to show the best (heroes) and the worst (villains) that we are capable of as humans. Do we act upon our sin nature or do we conquer it with the help of God? That isn't to say that there isn't downright evil out there, but I believe the stories are a reflection of that inner battle that humans face everyday. Some give in, and some continue to fight.