skjamin

Graduate Student in Literary Studies Focuses in Medieval Lit, Epic Lit, Lit Crit, and Spec Fiction

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The Hero vs The Villain

When consuming television media, do you find yourself gravitating more towards the hero or the villain? To whom do you more relate and why? What are your criteria for determining who you’re rooting for? This is an extremely subjective question, but often stories are not presented in nuanced ways that fully do justice to all the sides.

A good example is the "Karate Kid" franchise. The first three movies are set up to tell a one sided story following Danny, and until recently, that story has gone unquestioned. With the inception of Cobra Kai" lends more dimensionality to the narrative; it shows how the rivalry between Danny and Johnny still exists, but has changed, and allows for a more nuanced understanding of the story as a whole.

I suppose what I’m asking is how do you determine whether the hero is actually "good" and the villain actually "bad"? Do you hold heroes and villains to the same standards? How, and why?

this topic may benefit from being opened up to matters of broader philosophical stances. like who are the bad guys in Star Wars, the Light side or Dark side wielders? Jedi or Sith? Can Dark siders be good guys? Jedi can certainly be bad guys (dark Jedi), as has been seen in legends. Another potential would be analysis from the intuitive background info, and putting one's self in the "villains" shoes. For example, was Sharpei a true villain in High School Musical? her attitude was bad and mean spirited, objectively, but she had the right to be angry, self-conscious and confused that her adeptness she trained her whole life for (theater performance) was suddenly under harsh question. A true "hero" would step up to the challenge graciously, but would a true human? probably not. – adhyuki 4 months ago
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I think this is a really good topic and one that I've been thinking a lot about myself. I think it's really important to look at the character's past as well as their environment, as that would help us understand what makes one a hero and the other a villain. I think it would be useful to look at this topic through a more psychological perspective in order to put yourself in a character's shoes and analyze their past. – dashatsymbalyuk 3 months ago
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Latest Comments

Jan 31 skjamin Exactly. Watering down these stories for mass media distribution and consumption is frankly misleading.	From Mythology to the MCU: Egyptian and Norse
Jan 30 skjamin That’s partially the fault of adaptation; we all know Moriarty from the original ACD stories, the various movies, radio adaptations, and television adaptations. Is SH culturally significant? Yes. Is SH predictable at this point?	Preservation, Insight and Growth Through Literary Modernizations
Jan 30 skjamin The implication that Egyptian mythology/stories are not as widely accepted and must be reinterpreted/simplified is silly. MCU’s changes clearly do not understand the necessity for those complex political stories…	From Mythology to the MCU: Egyptian and Norse
Jan 29, 2021 skjamin I appreciate the information regarding Gladstone’s works. I’m adding them to my list, and am very excited to check them out. One thing I would have liked to see clarity of is the difference between Medieval style fantasy that is derivative of the Medieval times (like lotr) which for all of its ‘darkness’ still contained a remarkable amount of cultural exchange and academia, and fantasy that is merely derivative of lotr itself, and therefore revile tech etc. because they think that’s what fantasy should be.	Medieval Fantasy: A Success and an Impasse