Prompt 195: Heros and Villains
Before last year, it would have been a lot easier to answer this question. I’d have said just…that villains are the guys (or girls, whichever) who go out and do bad stuff to hurt other people because they’re…well bad. I’d probably even have gone so far as to say that they’re ugly and that’s how you could tell a villain from a hero. It’s just sort of the things you’re always taught.
I mean as little kids we all probably played ogre-slayer, been forced to be the monster when we were asked to play with the others at recess and just gotten the idea that you know, things are really that simple and always have been that way for a good reason.
Well things have always been that way, but the reason for it usually sucks. It seems to me that most villains, at least where I’m from and the ones I know, were born into the role, but not because they were bad people at all. It’s just that we, that regular people always thought they were, because people taught us to think that way. We made them into villains by ourselves, by thinking that they were and treating them that way. It isn’t like they had a real chance to fight back.
I mean, okay, if someone screamed and ran away, or threw rocks at you, the minute you walked by them in the hall or on the street, you’d start to hate that person too, especially when it came to something that you hadn’t even done. You’d maybe start to do bad things because you wanted to get back at them, because you wanted to see them have hurt feelings too.
Now I’m not saying that it’s anyone’s fault in particular but all of us, we share a blame for the villains anyway. Sure, we haven’t made them go out and snatch babies, or terrorize villages or hurt anybody directly but…the way I see it, it’s the way we treat them that’s made them start thinking of us in that way. People don’t do bad things just because they want to, they do it from a sense of being hurt, of wanting revenge from everyone who’s bothered them for the things that they maybe can’t help at all.
I mean, look at me even. It’s sort of a struggle every day, not to let myself become a villain too. Those guys from school who picked on me, Captain Hook and the pirates who tried to kill me and to kidnap Shrek for Charming’s plans…there’s so many times I’ve woken up and wanted to have them arrested, maybe kicked around a little for it. I might have done it too, if I didn’t realize what it was I was doing.
But I’ve learned a lot from those people we think of as villains too. I’ve talked to them, I’ve talked to people who everyone just assumes are a villain from the way they look and have spent their lives treated like they’re going to do horrible things. Mostly what I’ve learned is that they aren’t villains by any real choice they’ve made, any real things they’ve said or tried to say or anything like that. The thing that defines a villain is maybe, the fact that they have done bad things, but it’s not the thing that makes a villain really, just like there’s nothing that makes us the good guys other than we aren’t like them.
I guess when it comes down to it, the thing that really makes a villain, the thing that really starts him off in that direction and keeps him there, even when he’d rather be someone like us out in the world, someone that we can treat with respect, someone we can care about and treat like he’s a person….Well, that thing, the only thing keeping him there…
It’s us.
-Arthur Pendragon (“Artie”)
-Shrek
-Word Count: 648
I mean as little kids we all probably played ogre-slayer, been forced to be the monster when we were asked to play with the others at recess and just gotten the idea that you know, things are really that simple and always have been that way for a good reason.
Well things have always been that way, but the reason for it usually sucks. It seems to me that most villains, at least where I’m from and the ones I know, were born into the role, but not because they were bad people at all. It’s just that we, that regular people always thought they were, because people taught us to think that way. We made them into villains by ourselves, by thinking that they were and treating them that way. It isn’t like they had a real chance to fight back.
I mean, okay, if someone screamed and ran away, or threw rocks at you, the minute you walked by them in the hall or on the street, you’d start to hate that person too, especially when it came to something that you hadn’t even done. You’d maybe start to do bad things because you wanted to get back at them, because you wanted to see them have hurt feelings too.
Now I’m not saying that it’s anyone’s fault in particular but all of us, we share a blame for the villains anyway. Sure, we haven’t made them go out and snatch babies, or terrorize villages or hurt anybody directly but…the way I see it, it’s the way we treat them that’s made them start thinking of us in that way. People don’t do bad things just because they want to, they do it from a sense of being hurt, of wanting revenge from everyone who’s bothered them for the things that they maybe can’t help at all.
I mean, look at me even. It’s sort of a struggle every day, not to let myself become a villain too. Those guys from school who picked on me, Captain Hook and the pirates who tried to kill me and to kidnap Shrek for Charming’s plans…there’s so many times I’ve woken up and wanted to have them arrested, maybe kicked around a little for it. I might have done it too, if I didn’t realize what it was I was doing.
But I’ve learned a lot from those people we think of as villains too. I’ve talked to them, I’ve talked to people who everyone just assumes are a villain from the way they look and have spent their lives treated like they’re going to do horrible things. Mostly what I’ve learned is that they aren’t villains by any real choice they’ve made, any real things they’ve said or tried to say or anything like that. The thing that defines a villain is maybe, the fact that they have done bad things, but it’s not the thing that makes a villain really, just like there’s nothing that makes us the good guys other than we aren’t like them.
I guess when it comes down to it, the thing that really makes a villain, the thing that really starts him off in that direction and keeps him there, even when he’d rather be someone like us out in the world, someone that we can treat with respect, someone we can care about and treat like he’s a person….Well, that thing, the only thing keeping him there…
It’s us.
-Arthur Pendragon (“Artie”)
-Shrek
-Word Count: 648