Gender: Unspecified Location: In a galaxy far far away!
Why do Villain origin stories so often revolve around a girl?
If you watch many films & TV shows, you'll notice that there are many, many times when see a man becoming evil (I am talking about male Villains specifically here). However, how the man becomes the Villain almost always seems to revolve around a girl who he loved. Maybe it's through his true love being murdered, maybe it's a fear of his true love dying or maybe his true love betraying him. Whatever the case is, A heroes turn to evil often seems to be through a girl.
Below is a list of men who turned evil as a result of girl.
Anakin Skywalker - Star Wars
Slade Wilson - Arrow
Harvey Dent - The Dark Knight
Adam Monroe - Heroes
Cyrus (the Joker Rising)
Davis Bloom - Smallville (though technically it wasn't entirely to do with a girl, but in a way it was still centered around a girl that helped him to be evil)
So yeah... You get the picture! There are a lot of Villains who became evil through a girl in one way or another. Has anyone else noticed this?
Does anyone else thing it gets overused? And is starting to get a bit cliche?
Why do Villain origin stories so often revolve around a girl?
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Plus, people know that one way to make a great villain is to make him sympathetic, and an easy way to do this is to add a motivation that others can relate to or get behind like dead girlfriends or family.
I've always preferred "genius/the ends justify the means" or "insane/did it for the lols" type villains myself, like Ozymandias, Green Goblin, Ras' Al Ghul, Alex DeLarge (Clockwork Orange), the Joker, Moriarty, Khan, Tywin Lannister, The Boltons, (etc...).
Never much cared for redeemable villains. I like my bad guys bad and bigger than life.
Gender: Unspecified Location: In a galaxy far far away!
Personally, I prefer other types of Sympathetic Villains. I think they can be more interesting. For example - TwoFace's backstory in the comics is far more interesting than it is in the Dark Knight in y opinion. Also, Sylar from Heroes is a much more sympathetic Villain, because his power is a curse that consumed him. I find him really interesting. I guess I prefer that kind of Villain.
Well (going by Batman Begins) I'm not sure Ras al Ghul quite fits in the 'doing it for lols' bracket, because he did seem to genuinly believe that what he was doing was the right thing/. From his point of view Gotham was a wicked city that deserved to be punished, so while he is a bad guy, he's not quite like the Joker.
Also, (going by Spider-man 1) It appears Norman Osborn developed a bit a split personality/Schizophrenia. I think left to himself, he wasn't particularly evil, but this other being basically took control over him, & made him into the monster we all know. He was basically driven insane.
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Feb 8th, 2015 09:52 PM
