When you think evil, villain, you might think Lex Luther, Ursula, or Voldemort. But are they really villains?
Voldemort has been striving his entire life to be some Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz. Maybe even since he was a little kid? Some villains are like that and most often because they didn’t feel loved by their parents.
Anyway, why does he go to such evil lengths? Why is he evil? Well, he wants power, right? He wants to kill Harry Potter (while having a strange attachment to him) and satisfy his ego.
Yes, I know, not an understandable reason to kill people but a reason nonetheless.
So what’s a villain without a reason? Not a single character is a real villain unless they have absolutely no reason for what they are doing.
True villains say, “I’m going to kill you. Why? Because I can.”
Like…wHAT? That’s not even an understandable bad reason to kill people! That’s evil. That’s a real villain there.
The only reason we say Lex Luther, Ursula, and Voldemort are villains is because we are seeing them from the eyes of the main character (the good guy or gal or whatever gender or non-gender). But in reality, they do have their reasons for acting in the way they are.
Just, some of them are understandable bad reasons. But they are still reasons.
If Voldemort was just killing people and he said it was because he can (in the sense that he has the power to), that would be a true villain which other villains with understandable reasons might even be afraid of.
I’ve begun to realize
(epiphany)
that one of my characters from looks like a villain from the main character’s point of view. But he has his reasons and they are understandable reasons.
It got me thinkin’, you see, that a lot of characters in film or books that we think are villains might not always be true villains.
Their reasons might be quite understandable if we took a step back and took a good look at them.
But because we are stuck in the head of the protagonist, we will only see the antagonist as just that – an evil antagonist.
Interesting, isn’t it? Voldemort might not be a true villain. You might feel a little sorry for him now? Maybe?
FOXWOOD FOREST 