Introduction
In this post, I will be discussing something that is
different from what I usually crap on about. This is something that has nothing
to do with politics. Something to do with super heroes and most importantly,
the villains. Villains are usually frowned upon. They are the evil that should
be expunged from the earth and be put away somewhere far away where they cannot
harm any innocence. But have you ever thought from the side of the villain? Usually
we want and thrive when villains in movies and books are destroyed and killed but
in comics, this is usually not the case.
Super heroes never want to take the lives of villains. There
are a number of factored in my opinion that explain this phenomenon. For one,
heroes need villains and villains need heroes. It is basically ying and yang,
opposites of the same coin. Another reason is that, heroes understand villains,
they sympathise with the villains on a level that we the innocent, would never
understand. They know where the villains have been and they are willing to save
them or try to save them. In this post, I will discuss both of these points of
the hero vs villain.
Like Campbell’s hero journey, the hero goes through a number
of transitions himself before he is who he is at the end of the journey. These
stages are: “Departure”, “Initiation” and “Return”. These stages are for heroes
and could equally be applied to the villain. The same stages that a hero goes
through, a villain goes through but in the case of the villain, the opposite
effect happens.
Campbell’s Hero Journey?
The hero journey has a total of 7 stages. These are categorised
by the abovementioned stages. In the Departure stage, we have: The call to
adventure, refusal of the call, supernatural aid, crossing the threshold and
belly of the whale.
The Initiation stage include: The road of trials, the
meeting with the Goddess, Women as Temptress, atonement with the father,
Apotheosis and the ultimate Boon. The Last category, Return, include: Refusal
of the return, the magic flight, rescue from without, the crossing of the return
threshold, master of two worlds and freedom to live.
For the above, the original Star Wars trilogy is a good
example as well as the first Matrix movie.
A whole essay could be written, and I have, on Campbell’s
hero journey and it is important to read up on it if some of the things I cover
do not make much sense. I briefly touched on it because it is important for
analysis.
Who needs who?
So in this world of good versus evil. Who exactly needs whom?
In my opinion, they need each other. Without villains, there can be no heroes.
Without heroes, there can be no villains. And in fact, the more powerful the
hero, the more powerful villain is needed. Think of it this way, if Spiderman
only had petty thieves and care robbers to stop, he would never grow his
powers. He could never grow in imagination and thinking. He would eventually
get bored and be the villain himself. Without a challenge, one’s life becomes
boring, uneventful and meaningless. We can all use this in our lives.
Challenges and hardships are important in order for a person to grow.
The villain as well, needs the challenge of beating the
hero. After every defeat, the villain learns from his mistakes and uses this to
better himself. Albeit, an evil road, the villain does not see what he does as evil,
instead, he sees this growth. As contributing to the very nature of life. Contributing
to the balance that is the life. In conclusion, the hero needs the villain and
vice versa. You cannot have one without the other.
Understanding the Villain
In most comics, the villain never truly dies. They always
come back. It is only recently in comic book movies that the villain dies. This
for all intents and purposes is a mistake by the movie makers. Heroes should
never and don’t kill villains because truly, the heroes see themselves.
Let me explain what I mean with an example. Spiderman was
born of his parents. His parents died and he was raised by his aunt and uncle. His
uncle and aunt then became his moral centres where he could learn wrong from
right. Imagine if instead of his aunt and uncle, Peter Parker was raised in an
orphanage or by an uncle who abuses him all the time. Would he still be the
same Peter we know who knows right from wrong?
In all the hero origins, the villains come from some place
that is broken and eventually get to where they are. There is a deep seeded
need for acceptance and belonging. The super hero understands this need and
tries to show the villain the error of his ways. A good example of this is in
Dragon Ball Z whereby Goku, no matter how evil his opponent, always tries to
appeal to their good side. This is because he knows that the villain was not
born that way, it is but circumstances that have led to this.
So next time you see a villain, remember that there could be
a deeply soul crushing story that has led to that. Nobody is born evil, it the
events in our lives that shape who we turn into. The same can be said about
life. One’s life is shaped by their environment, if you were born with a silver
spoon in your mouth, chances are, and you will go through life without so much
challenges. But if you were born in a shack, life becomes harder and changing your
circumstances, especially if you have no talent and are academically weak,
becomes that much harder.
Conclusion
Villains are not born, they are made. From the moment we are
born as humans, we face challenges that are contributed to by the environments
that we are in. An environment can mould you into greatness, heroism or into a
villainous life filled with pain and anguish.
Villains can teach us many things about life. They are the model that shows us everything that is wrong with the world. Heroes come in and try to make the struggle of the villain more visible. Without heroes, villains would be somewhat unpresentable to the world. Villains and heroes indeed need each other, worthy villains bring out the best in heroes and vice versa.
