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unspeakablehorrorIf someone simply doesn't like unsympathetic characters who do unsympathetic things and mess up and make huge mistakes or are intentionally cruel I'll not tell them they need to, but I'm also not very sympathetic to implications that people should only like characters who make all the 'right' decisions, or characters who, if they do commit harm, do so for an 'acceptable' reason.
All the interpretations of all the characters that I like are willing to do certain things I do not approve of in real life. The type and magnitude of those things may vary between different characters, and even different interpretations of the same character, but the fact of the matter is, I find characters who don't ruffle any feathers to be deeply dull. And this is...not even a hero vs villain thing? Villains may be my favorite but I can enjoy heroes if they are allowed to be messy! Also, I sometimes deeply dislike attempts to make a villain seem sympathetic, not because I dislike sympathetic villains, but because sometimes it feels like more of this same sentiment just being forced on the villains as well as the heroes. I just hate the idea that the villain needs to be always and only a victim to be likeable because the idea of them having any responsibility or agency would imply that we condone someone being willfully cruel in real life. It's just not true!
Every type of villain should be allowed! Villains who are victims of their own circumstances but regardless whose actions also harm others, villains who know exactly what they are about and are having the time of their lives, villains who are getting a redemption arc, villains who very definately are *not* getting a redemption arc, and villains who lie anywhere in-between. I do not accept the flattening of this spectrum into 'only villains who are always victims and do not bear any responsibility or agency for their actions, ever'. That's not a villain. That's not even a hero. That's a puppet.
All the interpretations of all the characters that I like are willing to do certain things I do not approve of in real life. The type and magnitude of those things may vary between different characters, and even different interpretations of the same character, but the fact of the matter is, I find characters who don't ruffle any feathers to be deeply dull. And this is...not even a hero vs villain thing? Villains may be my favorite but I can enjoy heroes if they are allowed to be messy! Also, I sometimes deeply dislike attempts to make a villain seem sympathetic, not because I dislike sympathetic villains, but because sometimes it feels like more of this same sentiment just being forced on the villains as well as the heroes. I just hate the idea that the villain needs to be always and only a victim to be likeable because the idea of them having any responsibility or agency would imply that we condone someone being willfully cruel in real life. It's just not true!
Every type of villain should be allowed! Villains who are victims of their own circumstances but regardless whose actions also harm others, villains who know exactly what they are about and are having the time of their lives, villains who are getting a redemption arc, villains who very definately are *not* getting a redemption arc, and villains who lie anywhere in-between. I do not accept the flattening of this spectrum into 'only villains who are always victims and do not bear any responsibility or agency for their actions, ever'. That's not a villain. That's not even a hero. That's a puppet.