I've decided to do something of a series here on my blog. Well, a couple of different series that will run simultaneously in the coming months, one of them being a brief analysis on different archetypes you can find in books, movies - any good story at all, really. I've had several very sweet people suggest that I start a writing workshop, and while I am deeply flattered by the suggestions, I'm really not that qualified. I'm just a writer who soaks up what I can, when I can, and I try to let it come out in whatever it is that I create. I am more than happy, however, to pass on what I think I know and my own personal views on certain aspects of writing.
Everyone is familiar with the villain of the story. He or she is the one who ruins the day for the heroes, throwing everything possible in the way to prevent that final goal from being reached. They are loathsome, deceitful, crooked, and downright irredeemable. But what about the sympathetic villain? Is it possible to even feel sympathy for a villain? Should we feel anything but hatred for the one standing against the very characters we've been cheering for all along? It all depends on the type of layers you're going for as an author and what you want your readers to walk away feeling at the end of your book.
In the past few months I have been going back through the first book in my own Age of Valor series, not only seeing the difference in my writing style from then to now, but coming into a more acute awareness of the difference between Laidley and Merrik, my two antagonists in Heritage. You know right from the beginning that Merrik is evil by the way he carries himself, the things he says, and the subtle actions he takes that appear to go unnoticed by anyone but the reader. He is out for blood and war, and nothing will stop him. Laidley wants blood and war, too, and he's right there beside Merrik in planning the deaths of hundreds of people. Nations will fall because he so desires it. The difference between them is motivation. Merrik wants death for death's sake. Laidley wants death because he somehow believes it will make the pain of losing his father less and the betrayal of his sister make more sense. Somehow it will make his people love him, when love is all he has desperately wanted since he was a child. Those are things we can understand as human beings. We know what it is like to live with hurt and loss and to act in our rage because of it. Are we not the villain as well in those moments?
A sympathetic villain is motivated, at her very core, by something pure. Usually it is love, or lack there of, and loss. He doesn't start out wanting to be the “bad guy,” but evolves into what he becomes out of perceived necessity. She has this idea that once she reaches her end, when she has her hilltop moment, everything will go back to the way it was and everything will be magically right with the world again. There is a certain level of innocent disillusionment in him, one that could never be present in a true villain.
For example: Hela and Loki. Yes, Hela gave us this sad story about Odin sending her to Hell and all this blabbity blah that was like, “Okay lady, whatever, you're still a wack job who just wants everyone to bend to her will and death to those who do not take a knee before her.” Loki, on the other hand, always felt like he was second best to his brother, found out he was adopted, and always felt like he had something to prove and so he set out to make sure everyone understood he was second best to no one. He, like Laidley, just wanted to be loved. He wanted to prove he had worth. And then in the end...well...love. And loss.
Magneto (Erik Lensherr) is another great example. Here is a man who feels like he is doing right by all mutant-kind, fighting for them, protecting them, and by doing so he is only making mutants more of a target in the eyes of humanity. Long before his story ends, he even ends up making enemies of those he is trying to protect, yet he still clings to his belief that what he is doing is the right thing. In X-Men: Apocalypse we get to see Erik living a normal life with a wife and young daughter, holding down a job. Then, when it's discovered he's a mutant and his daughter is captured in the woods in an effort to get him to surrender because he used his powers to save a co-worker, things go horribly wrong. We see this man who has built this life, content in leaving his mutant life behind, tormented over having to use his powers again and using them to kill, doing it all, once again, for people he loves and ultimately losing them.
The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera is perhaps one of the most recognizable examples of a sympathetic villain. Driven by loneliness and infatuation, he stops at nothing to lure Christine to his lair where he plans to keep her, only to let her go when she removes his mask and sees his face. He's mortified by his own ugliness, but it's only a momentary stun. He still so longs to be loved that he again pursues her and captures her, only to realize in the end that she could never truly be his, and so, with his heart breaking, he lets her go.
Love and loss. Doing the wrong things for the right reasons, at least in the eyes on those doing them. That is the difference between a real villain and a sympathetic one. There's no, “Screw you, I get what I want!” mentality in an SV. It's more of a silent, “Can't you see my anguish?” scream from deep within that stays behind a facade of ambivalence and devilry.
Not every story has a sympathetic villain, neither does every story have a straight up villain. It is rare – at least as far as I have found – for a story to have both. There's something to be said for the former, in my opinion. It adds a certain amount of humanity to a story. Instead of the hero claiming victory at the end and everyone walking away happy, the SV stays with you, making you wonder if things could have turned out any differently for them. Those are the ones that stick in your thoughts long after the last page has been turned.
What is your take on the villain versus the sympathetic villain? Do you prefer one over the other? Know of any good female SVs? I had a super hard time thinking of any, and I'd love to read up on some or even watch a good movie featuring a few. Share your thoughts!