Bring back the Baddies

Where have all the villains gone? And why have they been replaced with people who aren’t really bad, they’re just misunderstood.

Who’s your favorite villain? Villains can be just as memorable as heroes. Sometimes they are even more interesting because we want to know what’s driving their actions. Good guy can be pretty straight forward. Take Captain America. We know what’s driving him. The right thing. He’s the guy that’s going to do the right thing, because it’s the right thing to do. Bad guys on the other hand, have more layers to them.

I’m a big Batman fan. In fact my nickname growing up was Batman… not sure why. I don’t stop crime in a cape, and I’ve never been in a fight, and I’m not a billionaire or an orphan, but I liked the nickname and it stuck. My favorite villain is Bane. Not the Bane from the 1997 Batman and Robin movie where he just shouts and punches things. The Bane from the Nightfall graphic novel. The Bane that is highly intelligent as well as physically terrifying. The Bane that puts Batman in a wheelchair.

Christopher Nolan did a decent representation of Bane in the movie The Dark Knight Rises. The best scene is when a tiny man in a suit is shouting about how he’s supposed to be in control. Bane calmly lays his massive arm across the man’s shoulders and asks him:
“Do you feel in control?”

Such a good villain moment.

Which brings me back to my initial question! Where have all the baddies gone? Nothing sucks the life out of a plotline like trying to make excuses for the villain in the final fight scene. Trying to force the audience to feel sympathy for them and water down their evil actions. The result is, disappointment. If the bad guy/girl isn’t really bad, then you’re left wondering: “What are we doing here? Why did I just watch this movie in the first place? There’s no longer a point.

For example: Damsel. Thor; Love and Thunder. Black Panther. Sherlock; The Final Problem.

I’m sure I could think of many more, but you get the idea. I’m not talking about a bad guy having a change of heart and righting his wrongs (like Darth Vader, or a plot twist where the good guy ends up being the bad guy all along, like Momento). Those are epic moments if done well.

I’m talking about you getting to the end of a book or a story and the villain’s long list of crimes suddenly trying to be erased under some excuse such as: Their kid died.

Oh, that’s why they killed all those other people’s children! That’s okay then. We will just let the bad guy go.

Take Black Panther for example. Erik Killmonger, the big bad in that movie, has marked himself for every person he’s killed. Try and count those scars in the movie. That would put him at how many murders? 50? 100? It’s a lot. He kills his own girlfriend for no other reason than, she’s in the way. But then we get to the final scene and T’Challa feels sorry for him because he grew up outside Wakanda? And takes him to see the sunset like they’re best friends and Erik is just this poor kid who had a rough life. Who cares he murdered 50 people! He had a hard childhood.

Sherlock is another example. His sister plays mind games with them, involving puzzles they have to solve or an innocent person dies. If you count up the bodies by the end she probably killed at least 10 people (That makes her a serial killer for the record). But that’s ok! Let’s gather the family outside her prison cell to listen to her play violin. It’s not her fault she’s a serial killer, its her parents because they didn’t let her have Birthday cake for breakfast. It’s Sherlock’s fault because he didn’t play with her enough when they were little.

Right.

When you spend 2 hours being told to hate the baddie, and watching them kill people needlessly, only to get to the end and jokes on you. They’re actually not that bad.

The result is a very disappointing finish.

When the villain is not a villain, when their actions and choices are excused away as “not that bad.” You’re left feeling totally bleh by the end. It’s mediocre! It’s disappointing. It takes all the punch out of the dramatic finish. The climax falls flat.

We’re left with no one to root for and no one to root against.

Think about it. Think about your favorite villain. What made them a great villain? Was it that their parents never let them play X box so you felt bad for them? Or was it that the deep darkness in their souls was intriguing… Was it that you were creeped out or scared of them?

One of the best villains of all time (sorry for the excessive Batman analogies)

the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Who didn’t love that villain? To quote the movie:
“Some people just want to watch the world burn.”
Think how tragic that film would have been, if we got to the finish and Batman and Joker had a nice long chat. The Joker tells Batman about all the sad things that have happened to him. So Batman tells Jim Gordon: “You know, the Joker’s been through so much. I think we should let him go.”

A true hero, needs a true villain. They need a worthy adversary. Sure, we can understand the way their minds work and their motivations. Sure, they can have depth. But we don’t want to be told, they’re not really bad.

They’re just misunderstood.

So bring back the baddies. Bring back the villains and let them cause mayhem and destruction and terror, because that’s their job in a story. A story without a good villain is like a knife without a blade.

Pointless!

Got a favorite baddie? Leave a comment below.