A villain is not someone to look up to,
They should not be.
A villain chooses evil over good,
They choose a damnable fate for their soul.
Faces for the reader to remember,
Visions for them to interpret.
A villain is the worst among humanity,
Yet we see them extolled by viewers and readers.
A story needs to communicate to the reader,
It needs to reinforce the proper values.
The villain should remain the villain,
Unless a different path they choose.
Redemption is the answer,
The only answer.
Repentance is the only gate,
And it is a difficult one to open.
Consider well the path of a villain,
Do not glory in his destruction.
The toll his acts take on those around him,
Most importantly the consequences.
Know your soul,
Understand what you aspire to be.
Know your enemy,
Do not look to glory in the villain.
Refuse the villain and learn from his errors,
Rising in honor and glory.
Where he fell in pride,
Look to rise in humility.
Villains are to be condemned,
Their story a blight on the journey.
Villains will never rise again,
Ultimately their path leads to death.
Q: Do you see villains despised or glorified in contemporary fiction and films?
Hello Scott,
just so you know: This is one of the very few opinions a blog post interests me enough to actually respond to it. Okay, on to your question: “Do you see villains despised or glorified in contemporary fiction and films?”
Frankly, nowadays, villains ARE glorified. “Glorified” might be too weak a word for it, in fact. Talking about a “villain fetich” in the current crop of fantasy writers may be more acurate.
And I’m disgusted by it. Villains are there for one reason: To serve your story needs.
Villains should never be put into a story as an excuse for some writer to “explore” his own, degenerate urgings, usually rationalized with that writer having an “open mind”, whatever that means.
That said, I believe the current mayority of writers glorify villains only becuse GAME OF THRONES was so successful. They want the money. The more of it, the better. In other words, they pamper their villains, attempt to make them as “cool” and “interesting” (strangely enough, I always found the good guys much more interesting than the vermin) as possible, because they’re just greedy.
As I said, I believe they want the money, and that’s why they do it. And Greed is, in itself, a very evil motive. No matter *how* many time it is rationalized as a “purely humanly trait”. By glorifying their villains, they glorify Evil.
And that, of course, is one of the most evil things one can do.
Yep, I agree. I think this is being fully evidenced now, not hidden as it used to be, with the advent of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and the upcoming Suicide Squad. Those stories will misguide young people (and sadly older as well) to follow the feats of villains with rave interest. They will root for the villains to succeed in the name of doing something “good” and the blurring of moral lines grows ever thicker. It is further evidence of the departure from the Biblical basis for western morality and ethics.
I agree a villains only purpose in a book is to show you the goodness and purity of the hero so you can see the evil in the villain and turn from it .
P.S though I do enjoy a good villain turned good character such as Encentra in Sword of the Dragon
???? Don’t be too sure that Escentra is redeemed… I sense something coming round the bend.
Well bad turned goods are still some of my fav and I had a bad feeling about her for a while since phantoms blade
What happened to caritha and the other sisters??
Do you mean after The Phantom’s Blade? 🙂
Yes I was wondering the same thing, what happened to the to the sisters?
In “The Phantom’s Blade” we discovered that the Warrioresses were finally confronted by the water skeel, Cromlin, in fulfilment of the vision/dream they suffered in “Offspring.” There is more to their story (I actually wrote it about ten years ago) but you’ll have to keep reading to find out. 🙂
I used to be a big fan of villains in movies and shows (Sauron from LOTR for example)as a little kid. But I changed my view when I read The Sword of the Dragon and was introduced to Letrias. Letrias is just a cruel jerk with no sense of humanity. Great job on that villain! I can’t wait to see future villains in your books! The cockatrice especially interests me.
Thanks! Every villain is heartless at some level. They’ve made their choices and the story should always demonstrate it.