Riddle me this: Let's say it's early in 1945 before Hitler kills himself and Germany surrenders. The war is still going but then all the sudden Earth is invaded by flying saucers! And to stop this new menace the Allies and Axis join forces. So, afterwards do we just forget about the millions of people Hitler killed before he helped defeat the aliens?
In popular entertainment this scenario is something that happens all the time. Think the original Star Wars trilogy. As part of the Empire Darth Vader killed and/or enslaved millions of beings. Yet because he saves his son and turns on the Emperor, all the sudden he gets to retire as a Force ghost with Yoda and Obi-Wan. And everything is copacetic, right?
In the X-Men movies and comics Magneto has killed probably millions of people by now. Yet everything is OK because sometimes he joins the X-Men to defeat Apocalypse or whatever. Mystique is pretty much the same, though to a lesser extent.
In Thor movies and comics it's pretty much the same thing with Loki. Sure he's betrayed Thor/Odin/etc hundreds of times and killed millions of people, but so long as he helps them stop Hela or the dark elves or whatever, it's all fine!
Even recently in the Transformers comics Megatron turned over a new leaf. But it's OK he killed millions of beings on Cybertron, Earth, and other places because he's apologized and promised to be good!
When you think about it, this scenario defies logic and belief. I mean maybe if you kill one person one time you can get a second chance. That's what a second chance is. But except Vader these other characters have had dozens of chances! Dozens, if not hundreds!
I guess because they're likable or have a tragic backstory or whatever viewers/readers are supposed to keep forgiving them again and again. It's like they're trapped in an abusive relationship where this bad guy betrays them and goes on a killing spree and then says, I'm sorry, I won't do it again! And they believe him just like an abused woman will believe her abusing husband/boyfriend. It seems pretty ridiculous after a while.
So what do you think?
2 comments:
Yeah, there are some bad guys I can't help liking. Anti-heroes can be interesting. I tend to want them to stay on the good side.
I guess in comic books, depending on the writer, some villains just cause trouble and very rarely actually. It's like in every decade, the Joker was a harmless foe, then a murderer, then harmless again, then a murderer again and so on.
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