I Am The Villain Of The Story...

[Jetfire]

Shows...movies...everything is about the hero...what about the villain? Would you watch a show called "LexCorp"? Or a movie called "Joker"...all about the villain???

The hero would come in but it would show how the villains get to where they are and focus on them...does this interest you???

 

[T'Baio]

There was some focus on Mr. Glass in Unbreakable. Not quite as much focus as on Willis' character, but more focus on his origins and motivations that most villains get.

 

[iguana_tonante]

It would be awesome. I love good villains. They are much more interesting than heroes.

However, the protagonist will be called Doctor Iguana and he will be a charming, refined, evil astrophysicist.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Kirk Douglas is THE VILLAIN...okay, that was comedy.

 

[scnj]

You mean like the Star Wars prequels?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wasn't Tony Soprano a criminal?

 

[od0_ital]

^

Vic Mackey was the bad guy in The Shield, just not the worst guy.

 

[Kelthaz]

It may not be common, but there are stories about the villain out there.

Invader Zim
Pinky & The Brain
Dr. Horrible
Code Geass
Dexter
Hellsing

 

[sojourner]

Don't forget the show "Profit" with Adrian Pasdar. Another great show canceled before it's time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_(TV_series)

 

[od0_ital]

Chicago only has two "good" characters in it, and they both got hosed in the end. That musical is all about the villians.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I think I read somewhere once that Shakespeare originally wanted to title "Othello" as "Iago" as the character of Iago is the catalyst for the events, and really the true main character.

 

[Gaith]

You mean like the Star Wars prequels?

We're still rooting for Anakin until halfway through ROTS.

Carnivale is a great example of heavily featuring the villain. Generally speaking, to make a villain interesting, you've got to square him off against someone even worse. Lex was so good in the early Smallville seasons in large part because Lionel was such a scumbag. In Carnivale, Brother Justin also faces a bigger evil than himself... his own evil birthright.

Thing is, if the villain isn't fighting a worse villain, he becomes an anti-hero a la Macbeth, who is certainly villainous but not the villain. Take Downfall: for the half of the movie he's still alive, Hitler is the protagonist, holding on to hope as long as he can - a very sympathetic position. Like Lear, his madness is pitiable (I'm talking about the character in the movie here, not necessarily the historical man). He's not the Villain of the Story. It takes a hero, a la Stauffenberg in Valkyrie, to make him a narrative villain, in the sense that he becomes the antagonist.

 

[drychlick]

nope i like the hero

 

[Snaploud]

Don't forget the show "Profit" with Adrian Pasdar. Another great show canceled before it's time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_%28TV_series%29

That's the show I thought about first when I saw this thread. Pasdar did great in that role.

 

[Hermiod]

Depends on what sort of villain we're talking about here and how far they're willing to go.

A real villain, one who is truly evil, would be mostly like The Purple Man as depicted in Alias - he used his mind control powers to make college girls f*** him, steal money and utterly humiliate his enemies - like making Jessica Jones beg to have sex with him while making her watch him with those other girls.

He was shown to be a truly evil and a complete and utter scumbag, but that's what someone that evil would do with their powers. They wouldn't go off on grand schemes to rule the world.

 

[Kegg]

Thing is, if the villain isn't fighting a worse villain, he becomes an anti-hero a la Macbeth, who is certainly villainous but not the villain. Take Downfall: for the half of the movie he's still alive, Hitler is the protagonist,

Well, Tradl Junge is the protagonist in a sense, or at any rate our entry point and perspective for the film.

As far as villains fighting villains, the villain could always be fighting a hero rather than a worse villain - we need not have Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer, we could have Dexter and the police, as it were.

Incidentally I love Dexter. And I'd love a Scorpius TV series.

 

[Christopher]

We're still rooting for Anakin until halfway through ROTS.

Speak for yourself. I don't think "being annoyed by" constitutes "rooting for." Unless you mean "rooting for Anakin to be run over by a landspeeder as soon as possible." (Although the animated version is much more palatable.)

 

[Gaith]

Well, we're meant to be rooting for him. He gets happy, heroic music (in battle, anyways) until halfway through the movie, which is the easiest cinematic shorthand for the director's intentions.

 

[T'Baio]

That new animated movie Despicable Me focuses on the villain.

 

[iguana_tonante]

You mean like the Star Wars prequels?

Anakin was not the villain in any sense of the word: he was the whiny kid that throw a tantrum when he can't have it his way.

Or did you mean Palpatine?