Heroes and Villains

What is Good vs Evil?

When it comes to a “good” story, most people think of a good hero, or a fantastic villain. It’s engaging. It’s dramatic. You want the good guy to win, sometimes. You root for a villain who has his agenda in order and you catch yourself relating to a relative monster. That’s great storytelling. That is a universal feature. Since the beginning of storytelling itself, that trope has existed. Take the Bible, for example. Not the oldest story ever told, but the most read of all time. Think about that for a moment. Five billion copies sold worldwide. Five billion. There are slightly over seven and a half billion people on the planet now. Almost everyone has a copy. There can be serious debates as to the themes and meanings and I promise I’m not going into that at all, but, face value, the Bible is about the constant struggle of good and evil. There is a good guy and there is a bad guy. Clear and concise. The audience is hooked.

Speaking of the audience, I feel as if you guys don’t get as much credit as you deserve in some cases. Watching villains form in stories and blockbuster now, they are infinitely more complex than “hey, that’s the bad guy”. This is a good thing. It gives creators a chance to test those boundaries, to push the audience to choose a side. It can be tough nowadays. You see a character designated as the villain but something inside you cheers for them, cares about their motives, maybe even loves them a little bit. Same for a hero. They may make the wrong decisions. They may be heavily influenced by outside entities but they are the ones who are able to get the job done. Whether it be by skill, determination or pure grit, they get it done. It can move you to tears. Even if they are a bit of a cocky jerk. You are to blame and to thank for the shift in narrative lately. I’m proud of you.

So, what is a villain? What makes a character decidedly “not good”? Motive? Maybe actions, past or present? Yeah, a little bit. But as we watch the evolution of the villain over the years, it is so much more than that. There is reasoning behind it. Sure, they may be insane or psychotic or sociopathic, but they have their reasons. And they may even try to share them with others. They may try to save others with their views and actions. Ok, yeah, they killed innocent bystanders or took lives to further their agenda, but they believed they meant well. Bad things happened but you cannot unilaterally say that character is the epitome of evil. That is unfair to the art and the character. But, for the sake of the story, that is your villain. The complex emotions are yours to deal with.

Inversely, what makes a hero? What makes a character or actions heroic? Motive and actions again, yes. What about inaction? Could that make you heroic? Not doing something? Again, with the evolution of storytelling, we can see heroes form from a character that should have died really early on in the first act. Yet, they persist. Their indecisiveness is their lifeline. It keeps them safe and allows the narrative to continue since they didn’t run into the fire head first with no training and die instantly. Heroic, absolutely, but are they a hero? No, they did nothing. My favorite example of doing nothing and being the hero is Hamlet. You know the line “to be or not to be”. That’s what he is literally doing. Whining and deciding, well, is this really worth the trouble of being a hero? Is it worth what could happen to me? He does this for three of the five acts of that play. He decides not to act, sending his closest friends to their deaths instead. Still, he dies a hero’s death himself and is herald as a champion of good to the new king. Why? Because the audience, in the story, decided it was so. He fought and had his moments, but he is not the most heroic character by any means. Still, it was decided and he is the good guy. This is storytelling at its finest, obviously. Thank you, Shakespeare. The audience decides. You decide. You make the final call as to whether or not they were good or bad. So, again, you don’t get enough credit. Sometimes.

This brings us to our characters in the Planet Eaters saga and how they were formed. We knew that we had a bad entity and a good entity. There is the Corporation and there is 13. Giant evil empire and singular hopeful individual. It seems obvious, up front, who is the heavy and who is the hero. The face and the heel. And this is fun, for us. We get to live in those tropes and lean on the audience’s understanding of these tropes, whether they are aware or not. And, since we appreciate you and don’t underestimate you, we stir shit up a little bit, too. It’s not a simple black hat, white hat story. Again, what are the motives behind these characters? What makes them do what they do? What makes them pause? This, as a creator, is the fun part for me. And I feel like I get to show off a little.

Let’s start with the Corporation. The Big Bad. Lead by a monster who literally eats planets and enslaves whoever he comes across. Swell. Easy to get behind booing them. But are you right? Are they “evil”, with a full stop? My friend, have you been paying attention? There is a motive behind their invasiveness. There is theory and practice behind their tactics. You may be saying, “Christopher, you’re describing a serial killer. Those are bad guys, right?”. Well, yeah. But, taken out of real world context and placed into a literal corporation that runs off these tactics, I would have to believe there is a reason as to why. Why are they doing this? To save themselves, their people and the universe they inhabit. There is urgency to their action. There is decisiveness, which is fair when you think the salvation of the universe rest solely on your shoulders. Decisiveness. Pulling the trigger and believing the outcome with have the impact the universe needs or deserves. See how it can get a little gray and murky? You can fault a person for their actions, but until you look in their hearts and try to look at the logic, you may see they are not the ultimate evil. They are wrong, that’s plain to see, but they are working towards advancement, be it societally or spiritually. Those are noble objectives. You just lose points when you have slaves. That’s just not a good look.

“How about 13? What makes him so special?”

Well, he’s not as indecisive as Hamlet, but he has all the reason in the world to pause and think about whether or not this is for him. That doesn’t sound so heroic. Neither does wishing things would stay the same for the simple fact that it is familiar and safe and you know how to operate in those parameters. Even if you are one of the enslaved. What makes 13 a bonafide hero is bravery in the face of adversity. Bland? Ok, how about this? Imagine never having had a single thought before. Got it? Now imagine your brain and access to information is suddenly on par with Google. Do you find a way to remove your brain because you are overstimulated to the point that your body vibrates? I would, probably. You’d find me in the woods somewhere with a zipper over the top of my skull and drool coming out of my mouth while the Backstreet Boys plays on my old iPod shuffle on repeat. 13 rolls with it. 13 continues on and even attempts to further his new knowledge in order to save whoever he can. He uses it to save himself. He uses it to make a friend and think about humor and the appearance of the planets he is suddenly able to visit. He uses it to face an ancient god-beast. That, my friends, is heroism. Not bravery, heroism. Bravery is a tool he utilizes even though he was unaware it existed at the start of that day. 13 is the man. 13 is a figurative beast in the face of a literal beast. I’d say that’s pretty damn cool.

So, there you have it. Heroes and villains. The most fun part of most stories. Ok, of every story. And you, the audience, gets the chance to witness these stories now and decide for yourself what is and isn’t. You have the power. Yeah, some of it comes from us and the routes we decide to send our beloved characters down, but you are the appreciator. These and every story that exists is for you. How cool is that?