Villains

I can't speak for everyone, especially after that court hearing, but it is widely accepted that villains make the story what they are. In a literal sense, they provide the antagonist of the story, driving through the conflict and actually making a story exist. In a figurative sense, they're the most profound and watchable characters with the best lines, songs and overall impact.

My favourite character in Snow White was the Queen. She was just so vile when she walked past a skeleton in her dungeon reaching for a jug that's just too far, then kicked the jug onto his dry remains with a cruel taunt and laugh. The most interesting, or at least popular, character in Batman is the Joker. Heck, my personal favourite portrayal in Wicked, a story about the wicked witch, was the Wizard, who filled the role of antagonist.

And this leads on to my main discussion point. Ever since wicked, people have been trying to humanize the villains into sympathetic characters by showing things from their point of view. People leap at the chance to show why the queen, a woman so vain and petty she lead many murder attempts towards a twelve year old, is secretly tragic.

In their defence, some villains benefit greatly from the portrayal. Wicked, for one, shows it can be done, and done spectacularly. Most villains need some form of drive to make them characters at all.

But there is a film coming next year called Maleficent. I am not looking forward to it.

Maleficent is a wondrously evil character, deciding at a baby's christening when and how she will die and using the full forces of hell to ensure it will happen. When things are gently nudged astray, she turns this chain of events into a similarly sinister life for the child AND her loved one. Her motive? No invitation.

Let's face it, that's not her motive. Until that christening, she was in a state of cold war, waiting for a reason to attack. The invitation was her "we have found nuclear weapons in Afghanistan".

The movie is going to make her, according to wikipedia, "desperately seeking for acceptance".

Another think I'm not looking forward to is Starkid's upcoming musical Twisted, a Wicked meets Aladdin story. Since Aladdin's sort of arrogant and while the city's full of cut-throats and thieves, the sultan is morbidly obese.

Except the guards follow Jafar's orders. If the city is a violent place where thieves run amok, that is purely because he was too busy manipulating the sultan. The only time the guards actually make any progress in tracking a notorious thief, it's because Jafar is planning on using him to conquer the world.

We like villains for being villains. We may like the villains, but we like them as an opponent more than an ally. The more we support the villains, the more we don't want the heroes to win. They're the conflict of the story and if they're in a good mood, we're not and vice versa. It just sucks to be watching a film and the moment where you once went "F*CK YEAH!", you now go "No, Jonathan!".