You Do You, Villains

I believe Tom Hiddleston, who portrays the villain Loki, in Thor, said it best when he described the nature of villains, “If you look at all of the villains in the course of human history, they’ve all believed, delusionally, in their virtue of their actions – every villain is a hero in his own mind.” (Tom Hiddleston). Villains are notorious for their garb, sidekicks, and evil lair, but they are infamous for their rotten plans. Drawn from their “enduring evil character”, villains come up with the most outrageous of ideas, from trying to turn their king into a llama just so they can rule the kingdom (Yzma from Emperor’s New Groove), to kidnapping a child so that they may live a youthful life forever (Mother Gothel in Tangled). Whatever the motive may be, villains are always portrayed as instinctively or inherently evil. But what if one of these villains aren’t actually evil to the core, and are instead driven by something that happened to them in the past, and the only response they see fit is in violence? Priscilla Kiehnle Warner tackles this proposal in her essay Fantastic Outsiders: Villains and Deviants in Animated Cartoons, where she also addresses how and why villains are portrayed the way they are in cartoon films. 

“Creators do not show villains becoming involved in deviant behavior through social processes or the influence of structural factors. The deviance “theories” implicit in cartoons are, at heart, biological or psychological rather than sociological.” Warner claims that, in cartoon films, villains are not given the proper backstory like the heroes are receiving because they want all their villains to “derive everything from their enduring evil character”. In some ways, I can see why they portray them in this light because they are only children’s cartoons, and there might not be enough time to give a detailed description of the villain, or even if there was, kids wouldn’t appreciate it as much as, say, an adult hero movie. But, I do think having background helps the viewer understand the villains better, understanding the “why” behind their actions. For instance, Syndrome, from The Incredibles, would have been a hard villain to understand if he were not given a backstory. Every action and evil crime he commits is in rebellion against Mr. Incredible, who refused to make Buddy, Syndrome’s original name, his sidekick when he was younger. Since then, he vowed to destroy all the heroes of Metroville, targeting Mr. Incredible and his family, so that he may become the greatest hero there. 

Of course, there may be some villains who have deviant characteristics ingrained in them and may not have a coherent reason behind why they what they do. For example, Gaston, from Beauty and the Beast, tries desperately to swoon and win over Belle, the most beautiful girl in town, because he thinks that it is only fitting that the most dashing and handsome man be with the prettiest girl. Through his vanity and misguided reason, he creates a mob and tries killing the heinous beast that has somehow succeeded in winning over Belle’s heart, and in the end (**notice: spoiler alert**) dies in vain of a broken cause. Oh villains: we can’t live with them, but we can’t live without them.