Feeling Sorry For Villains

[Red Ranger]

People,

One of the hallmarks of ST is its villains often have motivations we can empathize with, and at times, we can even feel sorrow for the better-developed antagonists. I'd like you all to think of your favorite moments when you felt sorrow and pity for the villain of the piece.

For me, it's hard to top Dukat's pitiful breakdown at the end of the DSN ep Sacrifice of Angels. After Ziyal is killed, and after his grand victory over the Federation is thwarted, he has a complete breakdown, to the point of even forgiving Sisko. I recently rewatched the ep and was just as moved to feel bad for Dukat despite his despicable actions as I was when I first viewed it. In many ways, I wish that was Dukat's swan song.

What say you?

Red Ranger

 

[EVL_Ripper]

Always liked Dukat, he often got treated like shit even when making small talk.

 

[sbk1234]

Dukat is definately one of the best. I think it has a lot to do with Marc Alaimo's philosophy of playing the character as a protagonist. At least in his own mind.
How can anyone not feel pity for Khan, when so much of his motivation is based on the grief he feels for losing his wife.
Another example like that would be Soran.

 

[Karnbeln]

Annorax, the captain of the Krenim timeship on a never-ending quest to change the timeline in such a way so as to bring his wife back after accidentally erasing her from history. As he meets his demise, he watches as the time-shielded pyramid containing a strand of his wife's hair breaks, causing the last bits of her he had left to vanish before his eyes.

Of course, thanks to the ever-present Voyager Reset Button, everything was cool in the end.

 

[WendellM]

Good subject, Red Ranger, that aspect indeed shows up a lot.

Neither Gary Mitchell nor Fleet Captain/"Lord" Garth asked for what happened to them, and the same sort of drive that makes for a good Star Fleet officer can understandably be channeled into megalomania when things go wrong like that.

TOS's Vians in "The Empath" were put in a tough spot since they could only save one planet's people, so they felt compelled to use severe measures to find the one most worth saving. While I find their methods unforgivable, I can empathize with their motivation.

TOS's Gorn were finally understood to be defending themselves against the inadvertantly invading Federation, and Kirk's mercy toward the Gorn captain was not only justified and understandable, but rewarded.

However, I have to go with the Horta from "The Devil in the Dark." That even after seeing her children killed by the hundreds, wracked with anguish and physical pain, she was able to change her thinking and accept the humans' blundering as the carelessness it was rather than as malice... I actually found that moving, and since it was such an alien being, I consider that one of Trek's greatest achievements as true science fiction.

 

[Anwar]

Should the Gorn and the Horta really be considered villains to begin with?

 

[WendellM]

Should the Gorn and the Horta really be considered villains to begin with?

Good point. During the first parts of their episodes, they were portrayed as pretty much "evil," at least from the point of view of Kirk and most others, so that's how I accepted them for purposes here. However, I'd say that Spock didn't really consider them villains, because he took their possible points of view into account (though he more-or-less also kept his guard up).

So, who is a villain? Is it someone viewed as bad by the "hero"? By most people? By the most-intelligent guy around? How much weight does "the villain's" own, dissenting viewpoint carry? That's an interesting set of layers to consider - thanks, Anwar.

 

[JiNX-01]

Degra. He honestly believed he was protecting his family and his people.

And when he learned the truth, he acknowledged it and paid with his life for helping Archer and Co.

 

[Praetor]

Degra was a pretty good one. Gary Mitchell is another.

(I do hate when it seems like writers feel that the viewer needs to empathize with the villain, though. It's become something of a cliche.)

 

[Myasishchev]

Khan is sympathetic in the extreme.

Imagine you're born differently than most people, but in many ways quite superior, so that you are the object of fear and envy from those who do not have your talents.

Imagine that there are some like you. They become your family. In time, your family grows into the thousands or tens of thousands, and they become your people. They look to you to guide them through a dangerous world.

Imagine that you extend your gifts to not only those like you, but those who are not, whom you might consider lesser, but worthy of your wisdom and strength. You raise them up, perhaps to feed your own growing ego, but still their lives are better, because of your existence, and your people's existence.

Imagine that they turn against you, that the fear and envy was never extinguished, that they hid their hatred in their hearts until the time was right to strike.

Imagine that they hunted your people to extinction, and all you have left are seventy, seventy out of thousands.

Imagine you are chased from your home, from your very world, into the cold and uncaring sky, to sleep until you can find a new home, a new world.

Imagine the successors to your enemies, who killed everyone you knew and destroyed everything you believed in, caught up with you.

Imagine if they didn't even say they were sorry.

Screw this Kirk guy, you'd take his ship too.

 

[Anwar]

I thought Khan was a guy who was a normal human until he augmented himself and his followers, not a born superman. Plus there was the whole "bombed entire populations out of existence" thing, I'd say Khan was more a dude driven away by the PO'ed people he was in the middle of killing rather than some benevolent dictator.

Sometimes people let good acting get in the way of common sense, like how they claim the TOS Klingons were all so "deep" just because of Ansara and Colico's acting, ignoring that they were pretty stock villains.

 

[EJA]

I can't believe no one here's yet mentioned poor Charlie Evans from Charlie X. Deprived of proper company and friends for so long, he just wanted to be accepted. He never really wanted to harm anybody, he just didn't understand a lot of things about people. And then at the end he gets snatched away by the Thasians, most likely to be locked away for all time . How can you not feel sympathy for him?! Anyone?

 

[Thor Damar]

I can't believe no one here's yet mentioned poor Charlie Evans from Charlie X. Deprived of proper company and friends for so long, he just wanted to be accepted. He never really wanted to harm anybody, he just didn't understand a lot of things about people. And then at the end he gets snatched away by the Thasians, most likely to be locked away for all time . How can you not feel sympathy for him?! Anyone?

He wasn't a villain, just a very naughty boy!

 

[Myasishchev]

I thought Khan was a guy who was a normal human until he augmented himself and his followers, not a born superman. Plus there was the whole "bombed entire populations out of existence" thing, I'd say Khan was more a dude driven away by the PO'ed people he was in the middle of killing rather than some benevolent dictator.

Sometimes people let good acting get in the way of common sense, like how they claim the TOS Klingons were all so "deep" just because of Ansara and Colico's acting, ignoring that they were pretty stock villains.

I assumed it was germ-line genetic engineering. Somatic engineering is far more difficult and unlikely (I don't think the people of the 1990s were capable of it). And Kirk referred to him as the "best of tyrants." Perhaps he oversaw the "bomb[ing] of entire populations out of existence," but even if this is the case there's little way of determining whether it was justifiable or not--the United States has bombed entire populations out of existence before, if not justifiably then understandably, and defended itself by holding three hundred million people hostage for fifty years...

It's mentioned at MA Khan didn't start the war. It's possible that nuclear weapons or conventional carpet bombing were employed in a retaliatory manner. Other than the necessarily biased statements of humans naturally-born hundreds of years after the fact, there is little evidence to suggest that the Augments were particularly brutal, genocidally or otherwise. There is copious evidence that suggests that they were subjected to genocide, and on their bones was a Federation built.

 

[kythe]

I can't believe no one here's yet mentioned poor Charlie Evans from Charlie X. Deprived of proper company and friends for so long, he just wanted to be accepted. He never really wanted to harm anybody, he just didn't understand a lot of things about people. And then at the end he gets snatched away by the Thasians, most likely to be locked away for all time . How can you not feel sympathy for him?! Anyone?

He wasn't a villain, just a very naughty boy!

I don't see him as a "naughty boy", I see him as a pretty ordinary teen. How many teens haven't thought the types of things he did, or pushed boundaries with authority?

The difference with him is that he had special powers that allowed him to act on his impulses. He was given powers most mature people would not be able to reasonably manage, and he was asked to integrate into society at a time in his life when he is predisposed to poor decision making (adolescence), and he was not given adequate guidance as to how to use these powers.

Charlie was set up for failure. No one could succeed in life under these circumstances. And to think that because he flubbed this initial attempt to become fully human, he will never again be given another chance? That is pretty harsh. All of these are circumstances beyond his control. It does make him a sympathetic character.