MEMORABLE VILLAINS
Protagonists are characters you mostly like or you wouldn’t keep reading (or watching.) What about antagonists? A killer who tortures their victim, cuts them up into little pieces while they’re still alive and buries them in their family’s backyard, is pretty rotten. But for those of us who read crime fiction and watch “Criminal Minds,” it seems these killers’ MO’s are becoming predictable and rather ho hum. They’re almost “too” bad.
So what constitutes a memorable bad guy? Stephen King might say he (or she) is one who plays on your fears, particularly your childhood fears. The dark. The bogeyman. Someone hiding under your bed. Ratchet that up a notch. Your peers bullying you. Your mother abandoning you. Your father abusing you.
“Memorable” bad guys, however, are not all one hundred percent evil. They often and should have, a few redeeming, even seductive, qualities, or a sympathetic side that readers can identify with. If they were simply hateful, ugly, sinful, vicious, you would tire of them quickly. Look at a few villains that are a syncopation of vile and virtuous. One that immediately comes to mind is Hannibal Lecter. In both books and movies, Lecter is a blend of savagery and sophistication. He’s charming, brilliant, and has a certain panache that draws you to him. Yet, he is clearly despicable. And, although he scares the Bejeezus out of Starling, he never hurts her.
Dexter, the Showtime series about a serial killer, has given villains a bad name. We all like Dexter and root for him to get the “other” bad guy. Dexter gives voice . . . and action . . . to our own feelings of impotence, of wanting revenge. How does he compare, however, with John Lithgow as Arthur Mitchell, “The Trinity Killer” in a past season? Mitchell, too, was likeable, personable, sociable. And mean with a capital M. Vile and virtuous. Well, vile and less vile.
If you’ve been hooked on Downton Abbey as I have, two characters stand out as villains. Thomas, the footman/valet, and Mrs. O’Brian, the ladies’ maid. I despised Thomas through the first two seasons, despite his good looks and service as a nurse for the wounded returned from The Great War. Yet, for a brief moment, I felt sympathy for him when he burst into tears after learning one of the ladies of the house, Sybil, died. I actually liked him. Now, Mrs. O’Brian, on the other hand, is going to have to work harder for me to like her. She, so far, is rather one-dimensional and has few or no redeeming qualities. If you detect any, please let me know.
A perfect example of a pleasant, good-natured scoundrel is Tom Ripley in the Patricia Highsmith mystery series. Tom’s a handsome, affable, yet frosty killer with zero conscience. He disarms the protagonists with his charm until. . . bam. . . it’s too late. I still kind of like him. Similarly, the character, Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey’s role) in The Usual Suspects. Kint is a man physically disabled and emotionally fragile . . . or so we think. The author has created a fabulous artifice.
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow gives us a stereotypical bad guy, Disney-style (aren’t all pirates bad?) How can you help but love the guy? Then again, he’s Johnny Depp. Need I say more?
Think about the antagonists in the next book you read or movie you watch. Do you love them? So you hate them? Or do you love to hate them?