Villains

Not every story has one; at least not embodied in a single entity.
Yet every Villain has many stories.

Recall, if you would, the immortal Wolf who terrorised both farm animals, especially pigs small in stature, and children, especially those who insisted on scarlet cloaks, for hundreds of years.

And just how many wunderkinds, meant to save their peoples, have fallen instead to corruption and the dark side?

Can there ever be enough over-privileged, arrogant, lords and princelings in desperate need of comeuppance?

Does the office of 'Vizier' automatically breed Rasputins?

Villains.

We seem to need them.
We need them to suffer our frustrations and temper, and all the fruits of our impotence.

Yet how could we not find them fascinating?
The richness of character required to underpin a mindset capable of disregarding morality to satisfy itself; a personality that necessitates some psychopathy.

That character has layers.
There is acknowledged depth.

Rooting for the Bad Guy surely birthed the anti-hero; a villain we were finally allowed to love.

Heroes on the other hand…
The most iconic are the everymen.
The simple farmboy.
The special one, who was in no way special till Fate chanced its arm.
“The diamond in the rough.”

Unfortunately they have usually required a degree of blandness that allows the reader or audience to easily slip into their shoes.

A thing I’ve never understood much I confess.
Whose self esteem is so weak as to require such fantasy?
Much as I might wish to insert myself into a tale, I wanted to be me in it, and no-one else.
Things would have been done differently, probably catastrophically, but the mistakes would be all mine.

Note how we forgive them far more too. They are ‘us’ after all.
Acts that would see their nemeses pilloried are brushed away under the concrete cover of ‘righteousness’.
But this is necessary.
For the journey to be worthwhile, ‘we’ must be outmatched…such that any eventual victory is a triumph not just for us, but for justice and the order of the universe.

So…
Give me a Good Hero...
And a Great Villain!

To exacerbate,
Make the former a youngster,
And the latter...
A monster in the guise of a man.

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