We love a sexy villain, don’t we?

But when you think about it, isn’t that type of person just an oversized child who has yet to grow out of their particular issues? The final showdown between a superhero and villain is like a tantrum blown to impossible proportions. Not sexy at all.

In last week’s post, we explored how someone drawn to witchcraft and consumed with a lust for power might have understandable motivations arising out of a human experience not too unlike yours or mine. Everyone looks for power to control their lives to some extent, and some people go further into darkness seeking it than others. But true power belongs to God alone.

A majority of the “villains” you will find in literature and films are the foppish, theatrical babies I referenced above. The threat they pose to a protagonist is pointless and derived. I’m disgusted by their existence. It betrays the extent to which our society fails to recognize true evil. We think a villain is someone who is a tad more selfish than is socially acceptable. Villainy can include bloodshed, but the heroes do that too, so no big deal. We suppose the real crimes of the villain are the ones they commit against ideas—the ideas of fairness, of coexistence, of dignity.

Do we even know what a real villain is like anymore? Sure, we can spout names like Hitler, Stalin, etc. They were evil, but… But we were never neighbors with Hitler. We never shook his hand and attended his dinner parties and thought him a decent fellow.

What I’m getting at is this—A true villain is one of us. Evil is intelligent, calculated, and misleading. Our infatuation with phony villainy makes it difficult for us to recognize a truly evil person, system, agenda, etc. In a very real sense, each one of us holds the capacity for evil. Our entire world is bent on its own destruction and we are the micro-organisms which constitute Mankind. We swim in these waters and they’re muddy.

I’ve always treasured the words in John 3, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light (19-21).”

This is a verse full of hope for me, because it describes the power of God’s pure goodness displayed in Christ. He is the one who brings clarity to the muddy waters, who shows us what false piety is by the purity of His holiness. While the greater part of mankind chooses to shrink back from the light, there are still those who come to it and are brought to life. We behold Him and it doesn’t matter what wretched sinners we are, the light of Christ transforms us.

The opposite is true of Satan. He is evil. Those who inwardly desire to increase in wickedness are drawn further into his darkness. Those who are close to losing their humanity are the bone-chilling, horrifying villains our stories ought to contain. Does a psyche seeped in evil make us uncomfortable? I think it should. After all, a villain was once like you and I, someone capable of good. True villainy will make us take a cold, hard look at our own hearts. Acts of true evil should cause us to avert our eyes. A villain worth his salt in literature won’t dance around in a black cloak threatening and whining and sulking until he gets his way. Defeating a modernized, weak villain doesn’t make a hero worth lauding, but opposing evil wherever it arises, especially in the heart of the hero themself, will both inspire and reflect greatness.