Why Movie Villains Are The Best
Robbing banks to get rich, instead of working to earn it, isn’t exactly a great thing. However, there’s something beautifully charming about move villains in that they have some of the best qualities we yearn. Movie villains aren’t just makor plot devices to get things going, they are pseudo-super-humans with qualities most of us don’t possess. In no particular order, here they are.
They plan things. Down to the minute details. They plan everything before they go around executing it. Unlike the protagonists, who slack off most of the time and improvise whenever there’s danger, movie villains prepare for what they do. Most of them spend years and possibly millions of dollars for their plan. They make checklists (mostly offscreen), they plan their attacks and make sure every possible contingency is taken care of. Why they still get defeated is beyond me.
They are focussed. They are laser-focussed on the task at hand. When they’re doing something, nothing else bothers them. They concentrate on that singular task, moving on to the next task only after it’s completed. Today’s world, with smartphones and wearables, gives us ample opportunities to multitask and most of us do. This deludes us into thinking that we are being productive and efficient. But it’s just an illusion. Our best work comes out when we’re completely involved on the task at hand, when our mind is devoid of any thoughts or distractions, like blinking notification LEDs. I’ve actually had better experiences when writing if I focus only on my writing and cut the whole world off, for just a few minutes. This is one of the central tenets of the Pomodoro technique, which increased productivity and helps you work better.
Villains and their plans are in it for the long run. For movie villains, shortcuts are never the way. Sure, stealing money rather than working to earn it counts as a shortcut. But the plans they execute often require time to come to fruition. They plan years in advance and they keep working on those plans for months and years on end. Think of Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises", working for months in the city sewers. Or Emperor Palpatine, who employed social engineering and diplomatic manipulation to rule over the galaxy. His plan took a whole (terrible) trilogy to be completed.
They persevere. No comic book villain has ever given up after one failed attempt. They always come back, with a new plan, with a new motive. They may be defeated in battles, theire plans foiled and all that planning laid to waste, but you can bet your ass they will be back with a new wicked scheme. Most of us, we try something once, realise we suck at it and just hang up our coats. As professional athletes will tell you, it’s not about how you perform on Day One, it’s about how much you keep practising from then that matters. Perseverance in doing what you’re passionate about, or maybe, just things that you’re supposed to do, is a sexy quality. Comic book villains have tons of it.
They think outside the box. Most villains think in ways that would leave us thinking, "Why didn’t I think of that?" They are able to think in ways that confuse the protagonists and leave them baffled. Case in point, Episode 3 of Season 2 of the BBC series, Sherlock. [SPOILERS!] Moriarty has Sherlock running in circles trying to figure out how he looted 3 places at once, with the smartphone app. The truth, he didn’t. He just paid off the guards. Sherlock would never have imagined the solution to be this simple. Villains know their enemy well and can think and outfox them. They are sharp and keep their senses that way for that edge they so rightly need.
They know their enemy well. They can get inside their enemy’s head and defeat them from inside. Now that’s not a quality you’d want to have in normal daily life, but the fact is, villains are incredibly perceptive. They observe and understand people very well. They can understand what others are, deep inside and exploit it. If you’re looking for mind games, look no further than the Joker in "The Dark Knight", brought spectacularly to life by Heath Ledger. That guy just really got into Batman’s head and outfoxed him in every way. He understood Harvey Dent completely and used that to manipulate him and turn him over to the dark side. Wait, is that phrase even correct? In normal humans, that would mean knowing your challenges well. In daily life, we plow through a lot of things without calculating what we’re up against. Knowing your enemy/challenge is half the battle, in my opinion.
So, movie villains are efficient, calculating and hard-working. All qualities you’d love in a human who isn’t a sociopath. Inculcating these qualities in yourself won’t make you a villain, but it’s a road to a life well lived, with qualities that will leave you better off in the long run.
What are the qualities you’ve found common in all villains? Share your thoughts with me! And if you liked this article, please hit the Recommend button. It won’t get me a cup of coffee, but it will surely bring a smile to my face. :)
