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Villains made for older audiences are more often meant to be mirrors, characters in which you can see yourself at your lowest point, be it through shared grief, a shared background, a glimpse of what might have been if you hadn't left a situation. They not only move a story...
...they are vectors for lessons in empathy and self care that let you see the "dark" inside yourself. It sounds edgy, but take Emet for instance--robbed of his magical trappings, he is a man mired in suffocating grief. You can understand the point he got to without getting there.
There's so much media, especially heavy media meant for adults, that have complex casts FULL of what one would call villains who are what they are because of problems. They're movies people relate to because the characters are in situations that mirror their own.
It's a way to look at a hypothetical future where you're pushed to an extreme an examine the consequences without having experienced them yourself. Some get the wrong idea and glamourize what they see, but this is often than not absolutely not the intent or case.
I've always loved villains for what they are. They're interesting because even in something as flat as children's movies, they're often allowed a shred of imperfect humanity that serves as a lesson that can be learned without experiencing it yourself. They are. Good.
