Heroes and villains – Different but the same

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.