Why are There no Villains Anymore?
With three young kids, I end up watching a fair bit of kids TV. I have my favourite shows and they have theirs. I like something with a bit of an educational slant as well as being fun and high energy. Progammes I really like are:
- Blaze and the Monster Machines
- Go Jetters
- Thomas and friends
But a while back I noticed something was ‘off’ about those shows. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. They felt contrived, incomplete. What was it?
Then finally, I got it – no villains.
Villains and Why They Matter
Ok, so before I get any of the pedants leaving me comments – yes these shows do have a glimmer of an antagonist. Blaze has Crusher – the incompetent rival who tries to cheat but never wins. The Go Jetters crew have Grandmaster Glitch and the grimbots and Thomas has the crafty diesel engines.
But none of these are true villains.
- Crusher is a benign and flaccid idiot that couldn’t ruin a kids birthday party, let alone Blaze’s day.
- Grandmaster Glitch is more likely to need rescuing himself than threaten the main characters.
- The diesels might play a trick or too but rarely do the put the steam engines in any real danger.
They don’t have any really power or abilities to threaten the protagonists and so their appeal is limited. They certainly don’t have any desire to harm or kill the heros of the show.
And maybe you think that is a good thing? After all, perhaps we should be protecting young kids from all the evil, death and destruction that the world offers. Network kids TV offers that to them.
Or does it.
When I look back to the shows and movies I watched as a kid, there were real ‘baddies’ who were out to destroy the protagonists. There were monsters, mutants and fallen ones ready to take what didn’t belong to them:
- Skeletor in He-Man
- The Shredder in Teenage Mutant Teenage Turtles
- Evil Robot/Mutant of the Week in Power Rangers
Even Dastardly and Mutley were sociopathic anarchists, ready to strike at any opportunity.
Kids TV was better back then. And not just for nostalgic reasons.
Take Away the Bad Guy – What are You Left With
If you take away the bad guy, what do you get? A bunch of boring people not doing anything very interesting. Look at the classics – Who is Darcy without Wickham, Pierre without Anatole Kuragin.
Imagine if the hobbits didn’t have to face Sauron and the Ringwraiths? They’d just be a bunch of mop haired no-bodies on a long hike.
Stories need villains. Because without villains, there can be no heroes. For a hero to emerge ‘out of the woods’ on his hero’s journey, he must face the horrors of the forest.
Sheltering your kids from all that is evil in the world might seem kind. But it’s not. It gives a false sense of reality – that people are essentially good with only the odd bad apple. And even the bad apples really just want to be friends. Or weren’t shown love.
I’ve never sheltered my kids from death or the suffering that goes on around them. Why would I when they will face it eventually?
Their own story needs a hero – them. Otherwise, they’ll just another character that needs rescuing.
P.S.
I was inspired to write this after reading ‘Into the Woods’ by John Yorke. I really recommend it if you’re interested in the craft and origin of storytelling. Get it here.
Great post Neil, always a pleasure to hear you talk on the subject of fatherhood. Its a really good point, where are the real baddies?
I have not forgotten having Oliver Twist read read to me by my Dad when I was little. Bill Sykes was a genuinely evil and brutal man, seemingly without any kind of moral code. He had a violent temper, made worse by drink and he beat his kind and caring girlfriend, Nancy, to death. He might have been a storybook character but he was an entirely plausible villain.
I read it to my boys when they were little and they loved it!
Hi Tom, thanks for reading and commenting. Sykes is truly an evil creature and the contrast with him and the innocent, pure spirit of Oliver is very striking. Good for you reading it to your boys – it’s a classic!