I find villains with backstory and a real reason for doing what they are doing to be very interesting. Uther was a perfect example of a villain but someone who loved their son and thought they were doing the right thing.
A villain with nothing but evil is boring to watch.
However, I'm not sure redemption makes them more interesting. I didn't care if Uther would be redeemed because he was already a great character. Darth Vader in Star Wars was 'redeemed' and he wasn't nearly as interesting to me as Luke or even Palpatine/Darth Sidious. I think, too, the redemption if used has to be believable. Vader shows up in the Force later for saving his son but he'd killed billions so it didn't work for me.
Oh, that is an excellent point. Backstories are very good.
Uther was one of the people I had in mind for an interesting villain, actually.
Hm, very good point. I didn't care if Uther was redeemed in the end either. Plus, it doesn't erase the evil things he did. Maybe redemption isn't the right idea because now that I think about it, I'm not sure I care if a character is redeemed if they've lived an evil life (not wanting to get into religion here, but I don't believe it religiously either).
Was Luke evil? I think I saw the first prequel and then gave up after that and I was never hugely into Star Wars.
Yes, it seems like the redemption has to be done right. Oooh, this is a very interesting idea.
Vader killed the Emperor in order to save his son but at the cost of his own life. However, before that, he'd helped destroy the Jedi, blew up the planet Alderaan, tortured prisoners (including his own daughter but he didn't know she was his at the time), hunted down the rebels and in general was a very, very bad person. That he was redeemed by one action to save his son - is ludicrous.
A villain with nothing but evil is boring to watch.
However, I'm not sure redemption makes them more interesting. I didn't care if Uther would be redeemed because he was already a great character. Darth Vader in Star Wars was 'redeemed' and he wasn't nearly as interesting to me as Luke or even Palpatine/Darth Sidious. I think, too, the redemption if used has to be believable. Vader shows up in the Force later for saving his son but he'd killed billions so it didn't work for me.
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Uther was one of the people I had in mind for an interesting villain, actually.
Hm, very good point. I didn't care if Uther was redeemed in the end either. Plus, it doesn't erase the evil things he did. Maybe redemption isn't the right idea because now that I think about it, I'm not sure I care if a character is redeemed if they've lived an evil life (not wanting to get into religion here, but I don't believe it religiously either).
Was Luke evil? I think I saw the first prequel and then gave up after that and I was never hugely into Star Wars.
Yes, it seems like the redemption has to be done right. Oooh, this is a very interesting idea.
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Also, Vader wasn't redeemed by his own actions, right?
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