OFF, by Mortis Ghost

How can you tell if a “bad guy”--the villain, the monster, the thief--is necessarily a bad guy? Is it by the images they choose to ink on their skin? Their crooked smile, or maybe perhaps the way they like to crack their knuckles? Maybe it’s just their attire: it’s too dark, too scary. And what of their eyes? There’s something there...something about the way they’re placed, something about how they flicker and gleam with every mention of what they desire. But what of their feelings? The ever-circling wheels of emotions from deep inside that manage to control the raging tides of life? Do they not care like we do?

Most stories, movies, and myths have the simple archetype of Good vs. Evil. This particular archetype can often be confusing, because in stories the reader is often lead to believe that something or someone represents good or evil, but it does not. More often than not the evil character is either crazy or was raised wrongly. Evil characters in Good vs. Evil stories are often not truly evil but either mental unstable or not taught right from wrong.

A villain is someone who performs evil actions that negatively affect another person. Carl Harmon in the novel Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark is indeed a villain. Carl Harmon is portrayed at first as an innocent but mysterious husband to his wife Nancy Harmon. As the book continues it is revealed that he is a manipulative and dangerous man. Carl Harmon is a villain and he has the greatest impact on the story because he creates conflict through his actions, and he provides suspense.

The antagonists of a story are usually not the ones critically acclaimed. Due to our human inclination it’s fairly relevant that, as readers, more of an emotional attachment is built with the protagonists. However, in spite of that, villains still deserve our attention. From taking a close look at a few villains and the methods in which they manipulate, parallels in strategy are prevalent. A few examples of antagonists that particularly stand out are: Iago from the tragedy Othello written by William Shakespeare, Roger Chillingworth from the novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller’s novel The Crucible, these characters all use isolation to manipulate others throughout the stories.

is deformed, he cannot be loved, so he must be a villain because he must be a villain,

Villains seem to be the most intriguing characters of fairy tales, whether it’s their scary charm or their suspenseful motives. Villains inject many memorable events in tales and they have an interesting way of doing it. “Villains also have more fun than their angsty, conflict-ridden counterpart” Aja Romano writes in an article for The Daily Dot. It surely seems that way, doesn’t it? Villains are usually having fun in their evil ploys all the way until their evil plans are foiled and they get their consequences. Villains have admirable qualities; they awaken the inner wild child in the readers or viewers. They evoke a sense of almost rooting for them at times. Villains always have power as opposed to their counterpart’s kindness and lack of assertiveness and sense of power. Especially in princess fairy tales, the villain usually is the more powerful and assertive character while the heroine is a more sweet and nurturing character and usually lacks the power characteristic. Some may argue against this, what about

The scariest about this kind of evil is that it is not seen on the outside of characters. To

Villains do not become malicious from thin air, there is always a reason behind their actions. In the book Day 21 by Kass Morgan, the reader is given more detail on the character Murphy. This character follows no rules and at first has his followers but that quickly changes. Murphy hunts down and in a way forces a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide, and is then banished from the camp. He eventually comes back and tries to kill several people.

His evil is manifested physically as well as spiritually. As his vengeance progresses, he grows uglier and more twisted as his outside starts to match his inside: “Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face” (87). His defining facial expression becomes a smile so malicious that “it seemed still to remain painted on the darkness” (107) and “conveyed secret and fearful meaning” (161). In addition, living with the object of his revenge allows him to exert his malignant influence constantly, to the point where other people can feel it.

Defining evil is something we all want to do. We search for the answers to why people do sinister things. As young kids, we grow up watching horror films and wondering what motivates the killer. As young adults, we watch documentaries on serial killers and shows on Investigation Discovery that give us glimpses into the minds of killers. Where are their morals? Why is vengeance wrong? We ask ourselves. In Stephen De Wijze text, “Defining Evil” Wijze core thought is the moral effect evil acts have upon us.

Media, regardless of its outlet, will always exploit the primal fears of its audience. As such, the villain can always be boiled down to motives and what makes it an effective use of fear. The villains remembered by audiences, such as the classic archetype Grendel in Beowulf and the enigmatic Anton Chigurh in the Coen brother’s No Country for Old Men, remain timeless reminders of evil. Despite the differences in Grendel’s and Chigurh’s era and outcome, they continue to personify the fears audiences will never outgrow.

The Introduction will define evil and villainy as well as the purpose of both villains

Masked within every story, we uncover two components that together reveal all emotion, uncertainty, and themes that are bound together by words. This is the constant pull and fight for balance between good and evil. All stories contain a highly praised, moral being at the focal point, followed by a severely loathed enemy who desires destruction. In our minds we perform this storyline according to our lives, usually placing ourselves as the mighty hero, and all things unjust to us, placed as the enemy. These two simple characteristics combined, create a complex illustration of what is formed together within each person. What is it that brings the good to a hero and the evil to a villain?

It seems that in recent years movie villains have been reduced to bland, superficial scare-machines. The golden age of dynamic villains has come and gone, and action movies everywhere are all hype and no substance. In contrast to modern horror films, the 1990s brought us some of the greatest movie villains of all time. Villains who were uncomfortably relatable, undeniably cunning, and extremely frightening all at the same time dominated the box office. Dr. Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins) in the 1991 film directed by Jonathan Demme and adopted from a novel by Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs, is a perfect example of a sinister villain who is both compelling and complex, and his performance set the standard for villains to

What makes a villain a villain? Is it the senseless violence inflicted upon the innocent? Or is it the oh so tragic backstory that is dramatically revealed just when the audience was really starting to hate them? Or is it when they...you know...eat people? When is it too much? When does a villain become a villain? Is it not all just based on our society’s views on what is right and what is wrong? After binging Hannibal, this is pretty much all I could think for several days. One moment you’re hoping that whoever this cannibalistic serial killer is, gets caught and put away for a long, long time and then the next moment, you’ve fallen in love with him. It’s really quite a rollercoaster. This show raises a lot of questions about morality, it