They cringe. They stare. They judge. “Are you sure?” they ask. Yes, I’m sure. I love that character the best. I am a villain-lover. And because I am sure I’m not the only one who has been called to the defense of these fantastic (if not exactly ‘good’) characters, here are a few reasons villains are the best
1. It’s about the POV
Often, the villain is the hero of the story in his or her own point of view. We only see them in an antagonistic light because we are viewing the story from the hero’s point of view. Take Erik Lehnsherr (AKA: Magneto) for example; he is motivated by his desire to protect mutant kind from the horrors non-mutant humans have unleashed on them. In his point of view, he is the hero.
Erik sees himself as a hero
2. Relatability is key
It’s more interesting to watch a character struggle with right and wrong rather than to watch a character who easily chooses right. We want to see characters that we – flawed, mixed-moraled human beings – can relate to. For example, watching Regina (AKA: the Evil Queen) struggle with her desires for vengeance and power on Once Upon a Time is far more entertaining than watching Charming save the day.
Regina is relatable
3. They have vision
(..and
ambition and brains)
Villains are often working to bring about change, whether on a global or a local scale. They have a vision. Whereas the hero (generally speaking) is only working to prevent this vision from becoming reality. The hero is against change and has no vision of his or her own. For example, in the Avengers film, Loki envisioned a better world for the mortals of Earth under his rule, while Thor was only concerned with making sure that world never existed.
Loki has a vision
4. They are having fun
The villain revels in being who they are. They are free from the restraints of the law and social acceptability. They are enjoying life. And dang it, that is fun to watch. Look at the Joker, for example – he seems to enjoy life more than the perpetually scowling Batman does.
The Joker is having fun
All that being said, loving the villains does not mean we necessarily condone their actions. We simply love their relatable, ambitious, fun selves. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Are you a fellow villain-lover? Who is your favorite villain?
The political statements made by Marvel’s X-Men have been longstanding. In fact, one of the comic’s greatest characters was a man whose whole life was directed by the path and hatred of bigotry set by political leaders.
As a victim of the Holocaust, Magneto knew firsthand what hate and power could do. His own hate often pushed him to become the very thing he loathed; the rage against those who misunderstood what he was drove him to seek their destruction and elimination.
Over the years, some have believed the original idea of the mutants was to act as a parallel to the world’s view of all the disenfranchised—the Jews, the LGBT, the blacks—any minority which has faced political and societal persecution, bigotry, and isolation. It has been seen as a way to address the issues through the provision of something people would be willing to consume.
In an interview with BuzzFeed Brews in 2014, Ian McKellen admitted it was this concept that sold him on joining the franchise as Magneto.
"I was sold it by Bryan [Singer], who said, 'Mutants are like gays. They’re cast out by society for no good reason,'" McKellen said. "As in all civil rights movements, they have to decide: are they going to take the Xavier line—which is somehow to assimilate and stand up for yourself and be proud of what you are, but get on with everybody—or are you going to take the alternative view—which is, if necessary, use violence to stand up for your own rights?"
Whether the original writer of X-Men had intended for this specific parallel or not may remain a mystery, but it has most definitely been a sort of "open secret" behind director Bryan Singer’s plans for the franchise.
"I helped write the movie," said Zach Stenz, one of the screenwriters from First Class, in a Facebook comment, "and can tell you the gay rights/post-Holocaust Jewish identity/Civil Rights allegory stuff was put there on purpose."
Stenz added Joss Whedon purposely meant the "cure" storyline in the comics as a gay allegory. Singer adopted that goal into the movies. The line in X2, "Have you ever tried NOT being a mutant?" was a way to weave his own feelings of outsiderdom as a gay man into his work.
With all of this in mind, it should come as no surprise Singer’s latest X-Men project, a TV series called The Gifted, will take a hard stance on bigotry and dissecting our real, current political state one episode at a time.
On July 21 at the San Diego Comic Con, a new trailer was released, introducing us to the main cast. At least one character will be a familiar face for avid fans of the film franchise: Blink will set the stage as one of the main mutants in the show.
Unfortunately, Bingbing Fan will not be reprising her role, though I imagine it has more to do with her age than anything.
The trailer opens up with a teenager being dragged by his classmates into the showers, screaming for help. A female voiceover says, "You never know you're a mutant, until it happens the first time." As the teen screams with rage, the metal showers bend and break, and the high school dance is interrupted by flickering lights and the roof crashing down. Another mutant with blonde hair puts up a force field to save herself.
"On this day, everything changes—forever." The blonde screams for her brother, and the trailer moves forward.
Meet Andy and Lauren Strucker, two young mutants coming into their own as their powers finally reveal themselves. Their father? One of the feds tasked with hunting mutants down. Now, everything changes as the hunter fights to save his family. The only people who can help them are the same ones he was hunting.
What we know so far:
No-one knows whether the X-Men or the Brotherhood still exist. Which means, as far as any mutants who have managed to evade capture know, they are on their own. They flee for their lives and use their powers to try and survive.
The feds are after the main group of mutants who have been hiding out together. They know who some of them are, like Blink, whose face is on a wanted poster.
They're in a world that is fully aware of mutants and, it appears, is creating a greater divide between humans and their evolved counterparts.
The Strucker kids know who their dad is, what he does, and all about mutants.
Despite her husband’s job, Kate Strucker, Andy and Lauren's mother, doesn’t hate or fear mutants.
Eclipse (one of the mutants) is kinky?
Actress Emma Dumont, who portrays the mutant Polaris, told Den of Geek in an interview at the SDCC that the cast is proud of the challenge the show presents when it comes to the political discourse of today.
"Yeah, I’m going to say straight-up, you guys, our show's about bigotry," she said. "I'm sorry, but we see it in the first scene when Blink's running for her life and a cop could easily kill her dead with zero consequences, because of prejudice...."
In tackling bigotry and the political climate, the goal of the show isn't to cause division, but rather, to create empathy by helping us get to know the actual people on all sides of the issue.
Everyone from the mutants to the family on the run, as well as the government officials hunting them down, will have their perspectives portrayed throughout the story. According to Amy Acker, who plays Kate Strucker, the show was not designed to attack anyone's beliefs, but rather, to provide insight.
The aim is simply to open up empathetic conversation in order to close the gaps caused by our current divisive politics.
"I think it would be incredibly difficult to watch our show and not think about that in some respect," Stephen Moyer, a.k.a. Reed Strucker, told Polygon. "I bloody hope that people do watch our show and think about it."
Will you be watching when The Giftedlaunches in October?
April is the time of year when rain and thunder mount attacks on all your planned outdoor expeditions. Though at first it can be kind of annoying, I've come to appreciate April's bright white lightning and listening to the accompanying boom of thunder. Lately, I've seen quite a few impressive rainstorms, so it would be most appropriate to speak about my favorite fictional characters who control the weather. Whether these fictional characters control the might of worldwide super-storms or simply the power of floods, each one should be acknowledged. Thus, I present to you the best weather wielders:
Divine Beast Vah Ruta The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Throughout Breath of the Wild, Link must travel the world and free all the divine beasts from Calamity Ganon’s clutches by solving insanely fun puzzles and fighting angry, chaotic spirits. When Link enters the land of the Zora (a race of fish people), he is told that Vah Ruta (one of the divine beasts) is spouting an endless supply of water that could potentially flood all of Hyrule if it isn't stopped.
Of course, Link saves the day by going inside Vah Ruta (he's mechanical, don't worry) and stopping the beast's magical flow of water. Once saved, Vah Ruta and the other legendary warrior beasts are tasked with the mission to help Champion Link defeat Calamity Ganon once and for all. Since Vah Ruta is one of the few who can truly make a dent in Ganon's might, weakening him just enough so Link has a fighting chance, I had to add him.
X-Men are mutants with amazing abilities, which include the powers to phase through walls and move objects with their minds. Professor Xavier gathers these mutants and trains them to one day become superheroes tasked with making the world a better place. Most of the X-Men, when pushed to their limits, can do insanely powerful things, and with enough control, their powers make it possible for the mutants to save the world.
Having harnessed her power, Storm can let loose flashes of lighting, unleash a torrent of rain, and bring forth loud claps of thunder. If she wanted to, she could even hinder the weather from storming at all, giving her the power to not only control thunder and lightning, but also sunny skies. It's probably the reason why she’s worshiped as a rain god in Africa (so of course she makes this list)!
Marvel has a whole slew of people with unbelievable abilities, including a billionaire genius and a used-to-be cryogenically frozen war hero. But Thor isn't exactly a human being... he's a god! One of the first Avengers, Thor hails from another world known as Asgard, and after stumbling onto the planet Earth, he agrees to help the Avengers save the planet (all while wielding his mighty hammer).
Only worthy heroes are able to wield the Hammer of Odin, a weapon with the ability to summon extraordinary blasts of electric energy, so it comes as no surprise that Thor is included on my weather wielder list. He's able to summon the power of a mighty storm and can even produce anti-force energy blasts that can annihilate an entire world. Besides, in the Avenger movies, he's pretty nice to look at and has some amazing one-liners (YAY Chris Hemsworth).
Anyone remember Danny Phantom? If not, it's a Nickelodeon show about a boy who accidentally is transformed into a human-ghost hybrid and uses his powers to save the world from spirits escaping from the Ghost Zone. This show was a good part of my childhood, and there were many amazing villains throughout the series.
One such villain was a ghost named Vortex, who not only has normal ghost powers but also has the ability to control the weather, including droughts, hurricanes, whirlpools, etc. He sees his control of weather as a form of art, and is very much full of himself. Because of this, he is completely offended when Vlad and Danny try to stop him from creating "beautiful" rainstorms. Beyond this, he has the ability to control storms on an earth-wide scale, like creating blizzards in the dessert or a mass lightning storm that results in the Eiffel Tower collapsing.
Ever wondered what happened to Snow White after she received her happy ending? That question is answered in the movie Happily Ever After. Snow White's ending starts off happy enough, that is until the Evil Queen’s brother, Lord Maliss, finds out what Snow White has done to his sister. He hatches a plan for revenge and captures Snow White's prince, so she must flee in order to survive. She eventually finds the Dwarves' cousins, the Dwarfelles, who are appointed to protect her.
Each Dwarfelle has a power that was given to them by Mother Nature. One Dwarfelle named Thunderella has the ability to (you guessed it) control storms. At first, she has a problem with using her ability, but when she’s needed most, she doesn't let Snow White down and creates a mighty thundercloud that rivals Lord Maliss's magic, ultimately saving Snow White from Maliss's evil intentions. Thunderella's courage and stormy abilities make her a perfect addiction to this list.
If you have to be cooped up inside, make sure to check out these fandoms. They may help cure some of your rainy day blues as you await those promised May flowers.
Do you have a favorite weather wielder I didn't mention?
I can't help but dread the temperature drop every single winter. I'd much prefer 70s all year round, but we can't always get what we want, can we?
However, cold weather isn't all bad. In fact, some of the best fictional characters possess the power to wield ice. I hereby present to you a few of my favorite ice wielders. Though, I've limited the characters to those whose powers mainly focus on ice and/or water manipulation.
From an early age, Elsa has had power over snow and ice. But as she grows older, it becomes much more difficult to control. In fact, she ends up mistakenly freezing her entire kingdom!
Throughout the Final Fantasy series, Shiva has filled the role of summon and goddess. In all games of the series, she’s used her tremendous powers (ahem, diamond dust) to help our heroes out of countless messes.
Sailor Mercury isn’t just the brains of the sailor scouts. Rather, she also packs a punch in the powers department, especially with her Shine Aqua Illusion (and Shine Snow Illusion), which sends forth a wall of water that miraculously turns to ice or snow.
Waterbenders like Aang, Katara, and Korra are able to control water in various forms. They also have one of the most graceful and fluid fighting styles, which reflects their control of water in all its stages: liquid, solid, and even gas.
Though the Ice King has a rather sad story, he still finds time to enjoy himself (maybe sometimes in the wrong ways). Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, the Ice King received the power of the crown, which gave him control over ice and snow.
Jack has domain over winter, including the ability to fly, speak to the wind, and create ice and snow. As a guardian, his true power is something much deeper and much more important.
The last few (okay…all) X-Men
movies have as many anti-fans as they have fans. As a result, they’ve been both
popular and ridiculed (and let’s face it, they ruined Deadpool – although thankfully
we’ll be seeing more of him in his upcoming movie! Squeee!). I’m one of those
people who can poke fun at the X-Men movies but still enjoy them (although I’ll
admit, Days of Future Past really let me down – come on, Apocalypse! I have
high hopes!). My favorite in the franchise is 'The Wolverine' - and not just because it’s
set in Japan. (Although that may be a big reason why I like it more than the
rest.)
One of my favorite things about
the movie (besides Japan and all that) is Yukio. She’s an underrated, underappreciated
female character who kicks serious gluteus maximus, all with awesome hair and
fashion sense.
• She’s got serious skills. She
is Wolverine’s self-proclaimed bodyguard, and she lives up to the title. With
lightning-fast, sword-flipping martial arts and quick thinking, her fight
scenes are enormously fun to watch.
• She’s both sassy and
respectful. Female characters who can fight and have awesome skills tend
tobe abrasive and annoying (in my
humble opinion); very in-your-face about ‘yeah, this is me and I’m spectacular
and everyone else is a peasant.’ Yukio is polite, respectful, and sassy – a great combination, if you
ask me.
look at that face. that is the face of barely-restrained sass.
• She sticks with Mariko even
though she constantly being told that Mariko has ‘outgrown her.’ She sticks
with Wolverine even when things get life-threateningly dangerous. She’s loyal,
and I place a high price on loyalty.
• Did I mention the awesome
fashion sense? Because she has awesome fashion sense. I would kill (a mouse)
for this girl’s style. (No, I wouldn’t. I’d catch the mouse and release it into
the wild because they’re too adorable to kill. I’m sorry.) She wears striped socks! And killer boots! And graphic tees!
• She is, in fact, a ninja. While they excluded her from the Black Clan in the movie, if you go by her comic book origins she's a bona fide ninja. Stormshadow and Snake Eyes would be proud.
What about you? Do you have a
favorite under-appreciated Marvel female? (Darcy from the Thor movies is probably my second favorite. She takes the
proverbial cake and I love her to pieces.) Did you like Yukio, or did you
dislike the way they deviated from the comics?
