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I like movies... I like television... I like books... I like heroes... I sorta like villains
I really like the BEST Villains - why? they BELIEVE in their cause! They are usually the worst of the worst.. the most insane of them all. and we all LOVE to HATE them!
Here are some examples of those that I am meaning :
Lex Luthor : He believes that a man like Superman needs to be held in check.. and that he (Lex) is the man to do this (this info is taken more from Smallville then anything else, but I would not be surprised if this was a common thread through other mediums)
The Joker : He actually is of the belief that HE is the good guy.. and that Batman is the one with the problem.
The Operative : what? .. you don't know who this is? ... Here .. look at the image above.. did that help?
If not.. He is the bad guy in Serenity. He believes that the Alliance that he works for is inherently good, but it takes bad people like him to get rid of those that do not hold those beliefs so that the Alliance can do its peaceful thing and make all things shiny (although he would never use the word 'shiny').
Galbatorix : He believes that there must be a control on the magical abilities of the few that have them. He sees that the power is too strong to be left unchecked.. that someone needs to be in charge of it.. that someone.. Himself (taken mostly from the last book in the Inheritance Series ... aptly named .. Inheritance)
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We look at these villains and immediately spot their misguidedness, but they are lost in what they believe. Their 'world' or 'universe' almost demands it of them. They are the most irritating to watch as they destroy and kill for 'peace' or what they believe as 'good'. I know anytime the bad guy is in this kind of religious fevor with his 'quest' I am cringing anytime they are on screen.. or forming in the images of my mind's eye.
I touched a tiny bit on what I want to hit on today when I wrote THIS : http://derkopenedeyes.blogspot.com/2012/01/sitting-too-close-to-alarm-no-not-that.html post about temptation. That post is what gave me the idea for this one. Having the discernment of Christ within us keeps us from falling into temptation, but when we fail to listen properly to that discernment and begin to accept the thing that was tempting to us.. we let the rules change within us. We decide that THIS THING is ok.. because of this, and this, and this... We can be very convincing to ourselves!
I am not trying to call anyone a villain, but what I am doing is attributing our natural ability to justify our actions with that of a villain. A common Cliche is "Its a slippery slope" and that is totally true. I have been there before, when you get to the point that you actually BELIEVE the wrong things you are doing are actually for good. This is the 'world' our villains live in... yet when we are there.. we are still 'The Good Guys". Even in the movies we have our antiheroes... that really are doing good things, but .. in a bad way.
The question I leave you with is this.. Is everything in your life justified by YOU or by God's word?
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This post really makes me see life in a different way. I've heard you speak about villains before but never really given them much thought until today.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we are all to often caught up in this line of thinking that we tend to share these villainous qualities although 'anti-hero' may more aptly describe what I'm thinking of.
Sometimes we get so caught up in what we think God wants that we end up doing the wrong things for the right reasons. One example of this would be the stories I've heard of 'new' Christians wanting to share Christ so fervently that they end up pushing people away from God instead of drawing them closer.
If we loose sight of what's truly important it's easy to start doing the right thing for the wrong reason.