Villains: The True Winners

 Villains

The

True

Winners

A villain in my opinion always wins in the end. No matter the circumstances or the motivations, their objective, in the end, is to push the hero to take everything one step further. To drive the hero to a point all heroes in someway fear to find themselves at.

One example of the villain winning is when they are slain. Often times it is a must to save the world or even a small village but when the hero kills, it proves they are no better than the one causing everyone trouble. Batman is a great example of a hero rising above killing. He has a moral code that even when the Joker pushes him to new limits he won't kill. To some degree, the Joker does win because he eventually pushes Batman to many places the Dark Knight never would go. 

Imagine if you are your towns' only hope against a gang of bikers. You possess the skills to fight them and they have pushed you to your limits. Is killing them on your mind? If so, the bikers have won because they would do the same in return. A hero has to be the better person to win. This is why I often root for the villain because despite losing henchmen, and being slain themselves, they've won the high ground.

At a smaller and less bloody level of victory a villain wins when they are allowed to manifest. Many are born out of bullying or being denied something. Its not the person who is winning but their inner demons and that is the villains villain. Its an antagonist for the antagonist because the person is giving into greed and pressures set by themselves. I'll use another Batman villain because I love his rogues gallery. Harvey Dent aka Two-Face struggled with two halves of himself before suffering acid to the face by a mobster. The acid gave Harvey's personal demons new life, and eventually Two-Face won out. On the happy side of this former district attorney's struggle his good half sometimes dominates the other.

A final way villains are the true winners is their lack of limitations. I speaking more again on a personal level for the villain but it needs to be said. Many of them have a lot of goals needing met, people they covet, but there are those who don't. There are villains with no true goal in mind, caring not if their secrets are revealed or even if they're captured. These twisted individuals always win because of the sheer thrill of being bad. When you can find a way to stab at someone with more than just a knife you've won.