my weakness

Okay, blogger friends. I have a confession. Come here, I'll tell you what it is. *waves hand over* I have a weakness. It's...it's....... *takes deep breath* .....it's.......

Sympathetic villains.

Oh gosh, I said it.

Yup, that's my weakness. Sympathetic villains. Bad guys you can feel sorry for. Characters in books/movies with more than one dimension, people that can be evil, but good at the same time.

Your probably either thinking about how much you agree with me, or what a freak I am. I agree with both.

But let me give you some examples.


(*WARNING!! The following post contains spoilers for Harry Potter, Once Upon a Time, Phantom of the Opera, Thor, and Megamind. Yes, Megamind. READ ON AT OWN RISK.*)


You sure you want to keep reading? Okay, be prepared...I feel a rant coming on....

[Note, it's been a couple months since I first posted this, and I've made a couple edits to it since.]

Here are some examples:


SEVERUS SNAPE, The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Let me start off by saying that Snape is my favorite character in the whole HP deal. (That's saying a lot, by the way, folks.)

First we think he's a really mean double agent working for Voldemort for half the series, and then we start to see a little of his past. He was poor, lonely little wizard bullied by none other than Harry's daddy. Wait, though. There's more. Later, we realize he was only mean and bitter to everyone because his best friend (his only friend, Harry's mommy) who was also the love of his life ran off with the guy he hated, and then got killed.

I felt so, well, sad for him.

His motives are so unique. He was mean to Harry because he was so bitterly reminded of James who he hated, and Lily, who he loved.

In the end, he was a Slytherin who died like a Gryffindor.

Plus, he doesn't always cry. But when he does, they're magical memory tears.


RUMPELSTILTSKIN / MR. GOLD, Once Upon a Time

I love Rumpelstiltskin. His accent is cool. But besides that, he is just such a deep, complicated character. He's bad, then he's good. Then he's in love. Then he's bad again. In the end, he's only working for himself, his son, and his true love.

It also helps that he is also the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, which is my favorite Disney princess story.

I don't really like to think of Rumpelstiltskin as evil though. At least as far as characters go, I think being truly evil, is being incapable of feeling regret and remorse for bad things you've done. But Rumpelstiltskin has done nothing but feel regret for everything he did. He's ashamed of being a coward, he's ashamed of letting his son and Belle slip away from him.

Can't wait for Season 2 of OUaT.

No, like I seriously can't wait.


THE PHANTOM, The Phantom of the Opera

Oh, Phantom. Ohhhhh, Phantom, Phantom, Phantom. You have a great voice, but those wax statues were taking it a bit too far, buddy.

The thing is, I think that both Raoul and Phantom truly cared for Christine. It's just that Phantom, the poor guy, just showed it in a weird creepy way.

Every time I hear the song "Learn to Be Lonely" I just want to cry, because after you learn the Phantom's cruel and tragic past, and figure out that he DOESN'T ACTUALLY GET THE GIRL, you realize the song's about him.


MEGAMIND, Megamind

Go ahead and laugh if you want, but I think the reason why I liked this movie so much is because I like bad guys.

 The fact that this movie was told from the point of view of the villain made it unique. Megamind was the bad guy at first, but then he came to realize he was actually supposed to be the GOOD GUY, and became the hero! I love it! Way to go, DreamWorks, you figured out how to make a great character!


LOKI, Thor, The Avengers

I'm a sucker for this guy. And I'd like to say that it was just because he was a good bad guy and not because Tom Hiddleston has the most adorable blue eyes I've ever seen, but that would be a lie.

In Thor, he's really got a reason I think to be bad. He just learned that he's adopted. Worse, that he's a monster whose race is the enemy of his home planet. He's been lied to his whole life, he's jealous of his brother, and he doesn't really know where he fits in. I wanted to cry, I felt so bad.

In Avengers, he turns into a maniac. He knows who he is, he knows he's the bad guy, he knows his motives. His motives are really crazy and diluded, but he doesn't think so. From his point of view, he's right.

Overall, he's a pretty good villain.

I like his Asgardian Prince hair better than his Earth-Conquering Pirate hair, though.


*AHEM* Okay, my rant is done. Sorry, just needed to get that out. Now I just need to figure out how to create characters in my own writing as deep as these ones. If you made it through all that without falling asleep, gold star for your forehead.