Let’s face it. Sometimes the good guys just suck.
More than once in fiction, we’ve been asked by a novel, television show, comic book or movie to get behind a hero who is insufferable, obnoxious, morally repugnant or just plain awful.
And sometimes, we’re given a villain who isn’t. Sometimes we get antagonists who are more interesting, nuanced, or….actually morally justifed in their actions. Bad guys that we want to see win in the end.
This month, listeners, we have a doozy of a question for you:
“Have you ever found yourself cheering for villain to win (and the hero to lose) in a work of fiction?”
This is a question comes with an important qualifier.
We are not asking for you to name your favorite villain. Fiction has plenty of excellent, compelling, or hilarious villains who outshine their respective heroes. And we’re not talking about stories like Breaking Bad or the Sopranos where the main character is a “bad guy.”
We’re specifically asking about villains who you wanted to see defeat the main characters and win at the end of the story.
Our hosts had this to say: