Myth-ful Monday: Do Villains have ‘Rules’ on who they Kill, Capture or Fight?
There have been several myths and tales that spread across social media when it comes to certain topics. Whether it be about Superheroes, Food, or whether or not your neighbors down the street are secretly vampires (or maybe that’s just a me thing), everyone has some sort of theory or myth that they believe in. A lot of my theories or rather, ‘mythful’ thinking comes from watching TV Shows or Movies.
Whenever I watch a movie that has either a super villain, horror villain or just your stereotypical generic ‘bad guy’ I find myself wondering three questions. The first question is When do these guys have time to do ‘ordinary’ people things? Like, have you ever seen them either sleep, eat or just go to the bathroom? Seriously, if they can harvest all this energy for world domination without missing a beat, can they teach me their ways?
The second question I have is What exactly is the breaking point that makes the character decide they want to become a ‘bad guy’? Sure, some villains have faced traumatizing events that have sent them on a hell-bent path of revenge but then again, some of our heroes have suffered through the fires of hell yet they still find themselves being one of the ‘good guys’. So how much does it exactly take for someone to wake up and say ‘Hey, I’m gonna be a bad guy today?’.
The third question I present is, Do these guys (or gals) have ‘rules’ in regards to who they kill, fight or capture? Or are they just limited in what they can do so that they are unable to complete certain fight, kills and captures despite how much they would like to?
Some fans would argue that writers have to give these villains some limitations, because then that would make them unrealistic and it would completely take away from the story. For example in Friday the 13th: A New Blood, Jason Voorhees found himself facing off with a girl who had telekinetic powers. It was clearly obvious that he wanted to kill her, but it wasn’t like he could turn invisible or create a cloud of smoke to distract her. He clearly was limited in what he could do.
Then again, look at Damien Darhk on Season 4 of Arrow. He confronted Anarchy stating that H.I.V.E had ‘rules’ and that he respected ‘order’. So, clearly Damien Darhk had rules.
So ultimately, I would have to say that about 95% of villains have some sort of a ‘rule’. It could be a major rule like ‘I don’t kill kids’ (Jason Voorhees, Children of the Corn, Damien Darhk) or a rule that is so different and random that it is almost unnoticeable like in the case of Micahel Myers, who doesn’t kill cats… but he will kill almost anything else. Then again, I worked as a Vet Tech for awhile… cats are adorable and cute, but they certainly find ways of getting their revenge. (Good idea, Michael).
However in cases like The Joker, well he’s an offbeat oddity all on his own so he’s a pretty complicated case to begin with. He’s never really followed a rule in his life so I doubt he respects any sort of rules when it comes to boundaries.
What do you think? Do you think that all villains (regardless of their genre) have some sort of rule when it comes to these things? or are they just simply limited?
Julia recently published her first novel, titled; Anomic. She is currently co-authoring a novel called ‘Snow Falls’. She has a B.A in Communications with concentrations in Professional Writing and Public Relations. She is also in the United States Army Reserves as a Military Police Officer, and is currently in the process of going back to school for her Masters Degree in Business. When she isn’t writing, she is co-owner of a film production studio called ‘Valentine Productions LLC’ and she frequently spends her weekends acting in films, or being a stuntwoman.
