Sometimes, I really do feel like a monster
“I love monsters, I identify with monsters.” - Guillermo del Toro
I have become rather fond of this quote of lately. As a fan of horror this really speaks to me. I think there is something monstrous in most people. Something dark that they hide from, run from. At least I know there is a lot in me and judging by the prevalence of villain patterns and the sheer frenzy over common monsters I must assume there is something like that in other people as well. Take for example the vampires. They are often a symbol for that which is suppressed within society. And people run towards them because yes they are scary, but they are also
very much like them. There is something both seductive and scary, familiar and not in these monsters.
There is a kind of glory in confronting that monster and seeing it played out in all the visual horror that they appear to be in your mind. Whether it be Van Helsing staking and chopping off Dracula's head or somebody just running from Pyramid Head after seeing all those before them ripped to bits. It is Odysseus coming back home to Ithaca, having faced all the monsters and having him alone survive them all. It is the confrontation of their inner darkness, often embodied by the very monsters that they are fighting. They have to fight themselves before they can fight the monsters, but once they become stronger in themselves they can actually take out their demons. Then the demons get weaker, up until they inevitably rise up again to threaten the hero. Only a lucky few ever kill them permanently.
But not everyone can fight against those monsters and that perhaps leads to my fascinations with the monsters and villains themselves. Sometimes at the end of the day the only thing that stands between you and your goals is your own self. There are some flaws that you can never fully over come, sometimes you lose the battles. Then become the monster no matter how good your intentions were to start with. It may be a slow process, built over so many losses and set-backs, but it happens. I'm sure Iago wasn't born trying to backstab people, he was born a child just like anybody else. Loki was born to a blood he never had any control over and had to suffer for that anyway, never quite getting the equality and love that his prettier/more normal brethren did. Lucy tries to struggles against her own lustful desires for people who were not her husband, but instead gets consumed by them in the end. After all what harm could a handsome stranger do?
And it is in these fallen ones that I can relate and have sympathy for. You do not need too much sympathy for the hero often times, simply because the hero does not need your sympathy. The hero has solved their own problems. The villains on the other hand are crippled by them, plagued by their own problems until they day they die or are permanently detained. They have gotten so deep into their own flaws that they cannot see a way out. Even if they could their own pride may not allow them to take it, either because that would be accepting help or because the truth of their own mind is just too painful to deal with. Sometimes it is even for something that they have no say in but that the world has forced upon them.
So I think there is something of a monster in all of us. Some merely embrace it. And is in coming to terms with it that a villain becomes likeable or even attractive. Because they know the shadows of their heart better than anyone else and no longer live in denial that it exists.
I have become rather fond of this quote of lately. As a fan of horror this really speaks to me. I think there is something monstrous in most people. Something dark that they hide from, run from. At least I know there is a lot in me and judging by the prevalence of villain patterns and the sheer frenzy over common monsters I must assume there is something like that in other people as well. Take for example the vampires. They are often a symbol for that which is suppressed within society. And people run towards them because yes they are scary, but they are also
very much like them. There is something both seductive and scary, familiar and not in these monsters.
There is a kind of glory in confronting that monster and seeing it played out in all the visual horror that they appear to be in your mind. Whether it be Van Helsing staking and chopping off Dracula's head or somebody just running from Pyramid Head after seeing all those before them ripped to bits. It is Odysseus coming back home to Ithaca, having faced all the monsters and having him alone survive them all. It is the confrontation of their inner darkness, often embodied by the very monsters that they are fighting. They have to fight themselves before they can fight the monsters, but once they become stronger in themselves they can actually take out their demons. Then the demons get weaker, up until they inevitably rise up again to threaten the hero. Only a lucky few ever kill them permanently.
But not everyone can fight against those monsters and that perhaps leads to my fascinations with the monsters and villains themselves. Sometimes at the end of the day the only thing that stands between you and your goals is your own self. There are some flaws that you can never fully over come, sometimes you lose the battles. Then become the monster no matter how good your intentions were to start with. It may be a slow process, built over so many losses and set-backs, but it happens. I'm sure Iago wasn't born trying to backstab people, he was born a child just like anybody else. Loki was born to a blood he never had any control over and had to suffer for that anyway, never quite getting the equality and love that his prettier/more normal brethren did. Lucy tries to struggles against her own lustful desires for people who were not her husband, but instead gets consumed by them in the end. After all what harm could a handsome stranger do?
And it is in these fallen ones that I can relate and have sympathy for. You do not need too much sympathy for the hero often times, simply because the hero does not need your sympathy. The hero has solved their own problems. The villains on the other hand are crippled by them, plagued by their own problems until they day they die or are permanently detained. They have gotten so deep into their own flaws that they cannot see a way out. Even if they could their own pride may not allow them to take it, either because that would be accepting help or because the truth of their own mind is just too painful to deal with. Sometimes it is even for something that they have no say in but that the world has forced upon them.
So I think there is something of a monster in all of us. Some merely embrace it. And is in coming to terms with it that a villain becomes likeable or even attractive. Because they know the shadows of their heart better than anyone else and no longer live in denial that it exists.