u know, in the same vein of that villain post i reblogged, i also feel like it's important to 'humanize' villains so that we can recognize real life villains. so many people do awful, disgusting things but it feels like sometimes people expect this obvious, storybook <c>

persona to exist in evil people and so you'll see a propoganda like "oh this nazi pets dogs in his spare time just like you' or whatever in an attempt to get people to be more accepting of facism and sometimes it works. like, yeah, nazi's pet dogs too. <c>

evil people are still human beings. human beings are capable of evil. they'll volunteer at an animal shelter to help sick kittens and then go to a klan rally on their way home. it's important for people to realize this.

i find a character that is a villain that is complex rather than 1 dimensional to be much more realistic and a much more compelling character than "i'm a bad person through and through and you'll never agree with anything i say or do and i know i'm evil and announce it"

that's not to say i don't appreciate the occasional character of the latter from time to time. done well, they can also be compelling.

of course, then again, there's something else to be said that we shouldn't be relying on fictional stories to teach us morals or lessons unless it's for children. but sometimes, fictional stories CAN bring realizations to us that we wouldn't have had otherwise.

and if that realization happens to be "evil and humanity can co-exist and I need to not excuse evil when i see it just because the person also volunteers at children's hospitals or something" then i think that's a good thing

i wonder if any of this thread made sense at all.