Villains
- Matt Ebisch
- Aug 24
- 1 min read
I love heroes. I'm indifferent to villains. To me, a villain exists solely for a hero to vanquish. Evil, at its very heart, is just unfettered selfishness. “I want what I want, and I don’t care what I have to do to get what I want.” I can’t relate to that. I don’t want to relate to that. So how could I ever love a villain?
But stories need villains. True, black-hearted, evil villains. Not the interchangeable “morally gray” characters who are “evil, but not that evil” that now permeate modern pop culture. They’re all just dull, gray mud to me.
I was lucky to grow up with the black-and-white morality of 80s cartoons. Optimus Prime, He-Man, Lion-O, and Duke were always noble and good, while Megatron, Skeletor, Mumm-Ra, and Cobra Commander were always selfish and evil.
Is that simple? Is it childish? I don’t think so. Who the hell wants the “oh-so-adult” moral quagmire of the real world in their fantasy anyway?
True heroes need the contrast of actual villains. Not morally gray blob versus slightly darker morally gray blob.
I want good versus evil.
And yet, while I’ve created plenty of heroes for Carbunkle!, I’m seriously lacking in bad guys.
So, even though I personally don’t care for them, I’ve started creating villains…
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