Heroes and Villains

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I explore the line between protagonist and antigonist in my fic Obsession. The story centers around Jirarudan, the collector from the second Pokémon movie (see sig). The world will think of him as a villian, but seen from his point of view, his motives are understandable. At least that's what I try to convey. That's part of the point of the fic--he wants to tell why he did it, and what lead to that point. (of course, I'm stuck in the "leading to that point" part right now, but hey.)

Other characters have their own motives for things. Like when I write for Domino, she knows that what she does is considered evil, but she does it for what she considers the greater good. Someone like the Iron Mask Marauder, though, relishes being thought of as a villian, and does what he can to focus people's attentions on him (remember JJ&M's reaction to him).

Villians are people too, with their own motives and reactions. Even someone like the Joker has motives, as random as his actions may seem.

 

[SBaby]

We all know the respective roles which heroes and villains play in stories. The question is whether the hero or villain is more important to the story? How many times have we seen the protaganists of a certain story carry the rest of the cast through the whole title? Yes, how many times do we root for a villain's diabolical schemes, even though we already know that said villain will inevitably be thwarted? Or is there a line drawn somewhere, where there is a concerted effort to play hero off villain and vice versa, but often at the expense of other character development?

I ask this because I personally feel that heroes are given too much credit in stories. Yes, we often see from the hero's point of view, especially if the story is in first person. Yes, the hero's actions are often excused because we know HIS validation of those actions, while the villain gets no such luxury. However, how many times do we see heroes and protaganists simply dwindling to nothing more than carbon copies of each other, often being able to be used interchangably?

On to villains. For everything that the hero is, surely behind every hero there is some bad-assed, kill-em-all-and-show-no-mercy villain? For every Beowulf there is a Grendel? For every F4 there is a Dr Doom? Villains often offer the most in terms of character building, and are pretty damn fun to write as well, especially when their darker psyches are explored, as in their motivations, their twisted views of the world, and the sympathy they can invoke when readers realise that villains are, in a nutshell, sometimes simply shortchanged by life itself. We often talk about how heroes are often ordinary people doing extraordinary acts, yet how often is a maligned villain often simply a victim of circumstance, someone at the wrong place at the wrong time?

Saying that, I want to open this debate to everyone. Do we go for the "Superman-esque", boyscout hero to save the day, do we delve into and attempt to understand the minds of Hannibal and his kin, do we play them off like Infernal Affairs (HK original of The Departed), do we root for the anti-heroes (come on, we all know that Snape DIDN'T turn bad ) or do we root for the villains that are blessed with a shade of grey morality?

Discuss

I'll answer the first question.

I believe that villains are the most important aspect of a story. Here's why.

Antagonist - Protagonist

This is a continuum as old as time itself. There can't be a God without a Devil, there can't be Good without Evil, there can't be a Yin without a Yang, and therefore, there can't be a Hero without a Villain. And there can't be a Protagonist without an Antagonist.

Villains not only make life interesting, but they also provide the basis for much of the character development that happens in a story. Without them, there's no source of conflict in a story. Ash had Team Rocket, Othello had Iago, Optimus Prime had Megatron, and Ralph had Jack.

Without the Villain or Antagonist, the story simply goes nowhere.

However, the opposite can also be said, so they're both equally important.