Monday 8 August 2011

Villain or Enemy?

As a continuation of yesterday's post on motivations, it occurred to me that many motivations are not in their most fundamental state evil. A character's motivations and drives are what set them apart from all others; they are also what decides on their 'side' in the film, book or game. In the current line of thinking, once it is established that a character has motivations or objectives that clash with those of the protagonist, they are immediately put into the box of 'villains'. Admittedly, some characters within this category could be categorised as 'reluctant allies', 'anti-heroes' or 'freedom fighters'- in most instances, these are better terms for these characters than 'villain'.
A character that an audience would rightly name as a villain has an objective within their narrative that is acknowledged by that character to be 'evil', or any other wording that acknowledges their motivations as the wrong thing. An example one may see of this would be the aptly named Dr. Evil from 'Austin Powers' (though a comedic example, he is a perfect one in this context). Even from his name, the audience knows that he does things because he knows it is the wrong thing to do, and for the express purpose of showing himself as evil, or for the personal pride of doing so. I would name this as a 'Villain by Nature'.
Of course, there is a another side to any coin, I would steer readers towards the villains of films who I would arguably not name as a 'true villain'. The opposite of this 'Villain by Nature' would be a type of character I would name as a 'Villain by Objection'. I would point out as a perfect example the primary antagonist of the video game 'Bioshock'- Andrew Ryan (It is no secret to those who know me that I could speak for hours on this character!). His objectives and ideologies go against those of the player, and the mentor watching over them- from this, it is clear the game has named and labelled him as the antagonist. However, the ideologies he announces and openly shows to the player are not evil- different, without a doubt, but in no way can the ideology be described as an evil act. The game pits the player against Andrew Ryan, and so the player immediately sees him as a villain. This is the reasoning behind a Villain of Objection- a character who has little to no evil acts associated with them, but is put against the protagonist, and so is immediately perceived as their opposite and inverse.
Think of 3 examples of villains from any media- are the a Villain by Nature, or a Villain of Objection?

19 comments:

  1. Is there also, perhaps, a third villain type, the Villain by Method? This villain does not have an objectively evil motivation, but the methods he uses to pursue that motive are evil, and it is that which makes him the villain. I seem to be failing to think up any good examples however. Blame it on lack of sleep.

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  2. Wait, I found one. Or, well, stole it from your previous post. Your M1, material gain, isn't necessarily evil. I got a job because I want money to buy stuff, and no-one hates me for it. But Goldfinger has the same motivation as me, so why is he evil? Because the methods he uses to pursue his motive (murder, robbery etc) are evil.

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  3. for instance the brother king character from Fable 3? the one who behaves as a tyrant to defend his realm from a danger you are not aware of until the games final act.

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  4. Very good call to you both!! :-) If you have ever seen the film 'Passport Swordfish', John Travolta's character is a perfect example of Chris' point!

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  5. (jake's comment deleted due to edit) =D

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  6. Well I haven't played fable 3 or watched that film, but Jake's example sounds like what I meant. Although, expanding it further, perhaps whether or not a "Villain by Method" is an actual villain depends upon how justified the evil act is? So without having played the game, perhaps the brother king's actions in fable don't make him a villain, because it was better than the alternative? You also get some examples where it's almost impossible to decide which side of the boundary between villain and anti-hero-type-doing-what-must-be-done they fall, such as Ozymandias?

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  7. cheers jack always ready to point out your little mistakes :P, also would you feel as though i copied you if i created a "heroic nature" spin-off blog? even though i actually did take your idea?

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  8. That's fine jake, but only on the condition we link to each other's blogs, agreed? I'm going to go on to do close analysis of characters when they occur to me, maybe you can do that also? Maybe do one of the same person from different points of view i.e JFK? =)

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  9. Chris: The third option you give the example of would fall into the category of Villain by Objection- he is doing what he does for a noble cause, but his methods are against those of the main character's, so are automatically viewed as evil :-)

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  10. ok agreed, yeah ok ill accept the terms you have given there :P

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  11. It's not stealing if the hero does it, it's a quest reward.

    Incidentally, this whole motivations for villains thing has reminded me of a monologue I wrote a while ago by a villain with a relatively unusual one. I'll have to post it on facebook sometime.

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  12. Well, those comments happened fast.
    On Ozymandias, I could argue that the methods he used are evil to most people, not just the main characters, making him a Villain by Method. But it's certainly arguable both ways and there's probably a fair bit of overlap between all three categories. It wouldn't be a proper literary discussion if things were completely clear-cut.

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  13. Actually, forget facebook, I have an idea. I think I might less directly steal your idea Jack, and make a blog to post things I've written. Might give me the motivation to actually write regularly again.

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  14. lol Shall we al link to each other's blogs? Can collaborate at some point I'm sure :-)

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  15. Well obviously I'll link to your blogs, thought that was a given. Though I'm sure our audiences will overlap quite a bit:) And I'm sure collaboration will happen at some point, we seem to have a tendency to do that... Speaking of which, any plans yet for recording Radio z?

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  16. Shelbourne sound in Radcliffe has agreed to do it- will wait till college starts, and we'll do it one weekend so I know people won't be away on holiday :-) very close to fruition now!! :-)

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  17. We're using an actual recoding studio? Awesome :) I'd assumed we'd just use Tom M's mic in the theatre or something. How much is that gonna cost?

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  18. Well it depends on how long we take! ;-) discussion for another time methinks lol

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  19. Fair point, we have gone quite a way off-topic :)

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