Villains Who Have a Point

So, I've been watching and reading things lately that have me thinking about villains.

(Yes, I'm doing a Marvel marathon in preparation for Endgame. Yes, I just rewatched Black Panther and yes, Infinity War Part I is up next. Shut up.)

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about villains who make a good point or truly believe that they're the hero of their story. Because these are the compelling villains, aren't they? They're the ones readers can't fully dismiss as crazy or evil because they, well, have a point.

The villain who goes on a killing spree because the corrupt government destroyed his people and he wants revenge or at least to get rid of corruption. The one who has the cure for cancer and it would save so many people if only he had the money and influence to get it where it needs to go. The one who loves his family and would do anything, and I mean anything, for them.

We get it. We have loved ones too, and we also see corruption. We want to save and help people, and what's more, we're trained to sympathize with characters who think like this. Because that's what the heroes do.

Heroes are selfless. They want to make the world a better place and to protect their loved ones, and all those innocents. They take action and do good. So what makes them heroes and these ones I mentioned villains?

Um...methods?

Well, yeah, but that doesn't feel like a good answer, does it? "We agree with the villain's philosophy but we can't get behind him killing so many people" makes sense, up until the hero kills a bunch of people. But they were bad guys, so it's okay?

No. I think we base the difference on something else: motivations.

And I don't mean "wants to protect family" or "wants to rid the government of corruption." I mean the deeper, simpler emotional motivations tied to these more practical ones.

Heroes are motivated by hope and love.

Villains are motivated by fear and anger.

This is an idea I've been thinking about a lot. So you get a little of my armchair philosophy today, in which I consider how in our world, acting out of fear and anger leads to negative outcomes, while acting out of hope and love leads to positive ones.

Anger and fear are powerful motivators. You can get a lot done when you're angry, or when you're scared. An angry person can be a powerful force for change, for good or bad. She can fight tirelessly against injustice, raging against systems that harm innocent people.

Same with fear. Someone afraid will do anything necessary to protect against that thing. Likewise, this can be for good or bad.

But sooner or later, anger and fear consume. They can become selfish, or they can grow and overtake the nobler intentions. I see this in protestors who, though their intentions are very noble, allow the cause to become more important than the people they have to hurt along the way. Who allow the fight to turn them into victims who just want what belongs to them instead of heroes who are healing and restoring good to others. I may be wrong (I'm no genius), but when this happens, it seems like they hurt their cause more than help it.

I also see it, all over the place, in people who are so desperate to maintain the safety and peace of their lives, their jobs, etc. that they will fear and blame other groups of people for taking it away.

A villain may blend hope and anger, fear and love. But what makes them a villain is when the anger becomes the driving factor, the fear all that really matters. A parent, loving their child, afraid for the child's safety, traps and smothers the child, manipulating them to the point that the child can't function normally. But at least they're safe. A leader, fighting corruption in hopes of a brighter tomorrow, but mostly because how dare they hurt others, how dare they hurt me, and I'm going to make them hurt so they understand how it feels.

In both cases, anger and fear can turn to hate. Hatred of an idea can easily become hatred of a person, or group of people, unless checked.

This is the villain. We understand. We see the villain's point. But the anger and fear allow the motivations to shift. Bringing in Black Panther, we see this in action. Eric Killmonger has a point: Wakanda could do a lot more to help people in pain. But he's so eaten up with anger that he'll kill anyone in the way just to get what he wants. He'll kill most of the world, if that's what it takes, and then he'll make any survivors know what it feels like to hurt like he did. So, he's the villain.

King T'Chaka is passive, letting Wakanda stay a secret, out of fear. He wanted to protect his people, and as a result, did not reach out to help others. He killed, too, to keep the secret. He's not really a villain, not in narrative terms, but his acting out of fear led to suffering.

(I've been into a lot of Star Wars lately too. Shut up.)

But T'Challa acts out of hope and love. He's a very compassionate Marvel hero, even to the point of wanting to help and heal the guy who tried to kill him and take over the world. T'Challa sees a brighter future, and has hope that Wakanda can help those who need it. He's not trying to take revenge or strike a blow. He's not afraid of the alternative. He cares about others and envisions a better tomorrow.

Which is why he's the hero. We can trust that his actions, his methods, will be above-ground and heroic because we know that, at the end of the day, he only want to help people. He doesn't want to see anyone hurt, and he's not afraid. He's hopeful and compassionate.

It's not easy to explain why I think hope and love return better results, other than to say they don't lead to hatred. I think while it's good to act, and anger/fear are powerful motivators, hope and love can do the same work while ensuring that the people involved (or perhaps just standing nearby) are cared for, too. It's very much a "we can all succeed together" mentality instead of "I need to have what I want, and I don't care who I have to hurt to get it."

So, long post short, villains give in to fear and anger, letting it control their actions, even when they are fighting for something objectively heroic. Heroes, while pursuing the same thing, choose to have hope and act out of love, perhaps even for the villain they fight. It can't be easy to do, but I suppose that's what makes them heroes.

Black Panther, Rage, and "Clapback Culture"

I saw Black Panther, and I have some thoughts about it.

But before we get into that, I have some news. First, my book launch for Arts and Thefts is this Friday! The King's English Bookstore in Salt Lake City, 7 pm, March 2. I'm nervous, but I'm excited too!

Also, I just got the news that I'm a finalist for an Association of Mormon Letters Award!

This is such an honor, and honestly, a surprise. I know the other names on this list, and they're phenomenal writers with wonderful, poetic books and writing. The fact that my fun little mystery is a finalist along with their books is beyond anything I expected.

Okay, so now, time to talk about Black Panther.

I really liked this movie. It didn't replace my favorite Marvel movie, but I do think it's up there on the list and that it's very well made. Marvel is really learning their trade in writing movies that are packed full of action, star superheroes, and also deal with real-world conflict and issues. Black Panther was a strong, mature film that had well-developed characters who were supremely likeable (when they were supposed to be) and dealt with confusing issues without jeopardizing the morality of the heroes.

Also...Shuri. She's awesome, and there'd better be a scene where she and Peter Parker team up to annoy the adults. I thought the movie did an excellent job at showing a realistic, loving family dynamic, as well.

Now that I've given my overall review, get ready for spoilers as I talk about what I think made Black Panther particularly timely in ways that might not be as obvious as how it addresses race struggles. If you don't want spoilers, time to check out now until you've seen the movie. I'll see you later. This is also going to be rather long, so again, if you check out now, fine. See you next week.

In Black Panther, there is an interesting discussion around the oppression of people of African descent. Wakandans have been sheltered from the slave trade and widespread racism because they keep themselves and their vibranium hidden and secret from the rest of the world.

This policy of isolation is upheld by T'Challa's father, King T'Chaka.

He keeps his kingdom hidden, and he has good reasons for doing so. He wants to protect his people, a noble mission for a king. He also wants to prevent evil men from taking the vibranium and using it to make weapons that could hurt many, many people. This is not an evil policy; it's born of love of home and a desire to protect. But it's a flawed solution, as seen when N'Jadaka arrives.

N'Jadaka, also known as Killmonger, is T'Challa's cousin. His father, T'Chaka's brother, was sent out into the world as a spy and during that time saw the struggles other black people were going through. He wanted to use Wakanda's tools and technology to fight back against oppression. T'Chaka did not agree with this, and a fight started, resulting in T'Chaka's brother's death. N'Jadaka grew up knowing who was responsible for his father's death, as well as dealing with racism and poverty.

Personally hurt, he grew into Killmonger, who learned to fight and kill so that he could return to Wakanda, take over as king (thereby getting revenge on the family responsible for his father's death) and use Wakanda's technology to arm the oppressed so they could fight back and turn the tables on their oppressors.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Killmonger has legitimate points about justice and oppression. He's not wrong, and in fact, some people see him as a tragic hero of this movie (I disagree, but we'll get there). There is racism and poverty and oppression. There is a need to do something about it. Wakanda's policy of isolating itself was in fact allowing people to continue to be hurt, and N'Jadaka was one of the people who was hurt.

But Killmonger is consumed with rage. His points are valid, and the reasons for his pain are as well. But he has allowed that anger to fester until he believes justice is served by lashing out and attacking those who wronged him. He is hurting, and for good reasons, but he takes out that pain on people who have done nothing to him, who knew nothing of what happened to him until long after it was too late to stop. There is no attempt made by him to connect, to persuade. It's all about hurting others like he has been hurting, so he becomes exactly what he thinks he fights against. This approach to the problem is so flawed that the movie is all about stopping it from happening.

Which brings me to T'Challa and why he's the hero. T'Challa sees Killmonger as a result of T'Chaka's isolation policy: because a boy was hurt, he grew to be a monster who dealt in pain. He sees that violence and pain begets violence and pain, and lashing out only leads to more fighting. T'Challa is a good man, a point made clear in the movie.

[I really liked seeing how T'Challa's understanding of revenge has grown since Civil War, where he seeks revenge on Bucky (for, again, understandable reasons) but comes to realize revenge cannot give him what he wants. Great job, Marvel!]

T'Challa is the hero because he sees injustice but seeks to connect and share information instead of using Wakanda's resources to attack or oppress. He uses the power that he has as king to lift and reach out and teach, not arm and attack. He does not lash out at those who have done wrong but offers understanding and aid. Which is such a wise, peaceful message from this movie.

Yes, I thought the comments on race in this movie were important and timely. But I also thought its comments on anger and lashing out timely, too. I could talk about current events and the dialogue of politicians, but I also see it on a more personal scale. I have recently started to be careful of the sites I frequent online because of all the anger I've seen online. And yes, there's a lot to be angry about. Our world is not perfect, and there's much work to do to make it better.

However, when I go online, I see angry posts and snarky attacks on people who have opposing views. I see people cursing out others (which makes me remember that the word "curse" means to wish harm to someone).

I see a culture of "clapbacks," which are sassy comebacks that are used to shut someone who has insulted you down. I don't see a lot of calm communication seeking to build empathy between people.

This seems to be common. Clapbacks and curses, burns and insults, seem to be okay as long as you're getting back at someone who insulted you first. Only, do it better, so they can't retaliate.

As someone who has been reliably informed for years that I have a temper I need to control, I have gained an interesting relationship with anger. Anger has spurred me to action: I have run faster and farther, submitting manuscripts, and improved myself in many ways because I motivated with some anger. (How DARE my body give out on a race? I'm going to push myself harder so I finish with my goal!)

Anger is a spark of energy, and yes, I've used that energy. It can be good energy, useful in pushing us to action. When we see a problem, a little anger can make us stop being complacent and do something about it. But when that anger grows from spark to flame, it can consume us, like it does Killmonger. It can make us no longer see others as people, with their own views and values that seem, to them, perfectly reasonable, but as problems that need to be removed or shut down. It can make us cruel and angry, lashing out instead of reaching out.

And that's a problem.

Black Panther was a wise movie in so many ways, but I think mostly in giving a model of how to deal with things that make us angry. Lashing out, insulting, treating others like enemies or means to an end instead of as people is not the answer. Hiding away and looking after our own is not the answer, either. Success comes by reaching out and helping, seeing others as worth caring about, even the ones who disagree with us. We can't grow together if we're constantly trying to tear others down.

At the end of Black Panther, T'Challa has mortally wounded Killmonger. He then takes Killmonger to see a Wakandan sunset, like he's wanted to all his life, and offers to save the life of the man who tried to kill him and everyone he cared about. Killmonger refuses (in a fascinating, compelling way that I'm not going to talk about in case you read this far without seeing the movie).

But, even after everything Killmonger did, T'Challa still gave him what help he could, instead of taking vengeance. And that, I think, is the kind of hero we need more of.