I am talking about the villains who are created to fully and wholly despise. For clarification, I am not referring to the "bad" characters or even the horrible ones, those who perform the most heinous of deeds. I am talking about the villains who are completely devoid of anything other than evil - they are created to hate. At every bend in the road, they choose to proceed in ways that infuriate the reader/viewer. There is no reasoning behind their negative choices, no past events leading to their decisions or actions, and absolutely nothing that gives viewers/readers any reason to empathize with them. At. All. Perhaps a character isn't redeemable in the story, but all I am asking is to give us something to unveil their humanity, making them difficult to completely hate!
The flip side of this pet peeve is something that I truly admire in a writer - the ability to take a villain and humanize them to the point that I am conflicted about who I want to "win" in the story's scenario. When the hero prevails and I sympathize with the villain's loss, I know the author has created a very three dimensional character!
I have to admit - I don't create many "villains" in my stories. Most of this has to do with the protagonist being their own antagonist (character against self, for all of you who may not have had these terms reviewed via their middle schoolers in the recent years!). All the same, when I do write them, I try my best to sketch humanity behind their darkened eyes.
 |
| "Mr. Blue" - one of our mischievous Christmas nutcrackers - is considered to be the "villain" of the bunch, but with antics like getting stuck in the same tape he was using to secure his buddies to the wall…we can't help but feel a bit sorry for him when… |
 |
| He ends up in Christmas jail! |
No comments:
Post a Comment