Bad Guys

Recently someone came across my Facebook page and posted this: Do you think villains are cooler than superheroes? Read our 5.2 Reason why we think they are.

It's a fun post, but it lacks a sense of... BOON.

So, for your rip-off pleasure, I bring you...

BOON'S REASONS WHY VILLAINS ARE BETTER, MORE INTERESTING, AND "COOLER" THAN HEROES.

That's right. I'm not going to stop at super villains, AKA "Bad Guys," and super heroes. I'm not even going to stop at FICTIONAL characters! **GASP!** "Can she do that?!" I can, silly citizen. Sit back, and watch.

Let's start with who everyone should always start with when discussing fictional characters: Shakespeare. What absolutely amazes me about Shakespeare is that each and every single one of this characters is FASCINATING, and fun to play, watch, or read. This RARELY ever happens in any other play, story, what have you.

For example, let's look at Twilight. You know I'm a Twilight fan, but it's not because of Meyer's amazing turn-of-phrase, or her strong secondary character development. Her character Emmett, for example, has NO depth, NO character, and brings nothing to the story except to add numbers to the Cullen Clan and be there for Rosalie, whose character is a tad more crucial.

But if Shakespeare had written Twilight, (I'll wait for those who have just fainted to regain consciousness,) Emmett would be a fascinating, hilarious, character, who was witty, driven, AND charming.

Oh wow, excuse me. I seem to have just gone off on a crazy Twilight/Shakespeare tangent. Let's get back to the point, shall we?

Shakespeare plays have some of the GREATEST acting roles EVER. And if anyone ever, EVER offers you the chance t
o play a Shakespeare villain, you take it. My favorite is Iago from Othello. In fact, the reason I love that play so much is BECAUSE of Iago. While, sure, who wouldn't kill to play Hamlet? But playing Hamlet is WORK DARNIT! Playing his uncle the King... **shudder** that's just fun. Playing Iago? FUN! Playing Ty

balt? FUN! FUN! FUN! FUN! Why is playing a villain so fun? Because we're nice little people, living in a polite little effing society. We dot our i's to make them easier for other people to read, and tie our shoes so we don't trip on peoples' dogs. Playing villains allows us to escape from being nice. We get to explore revenge, vengeance, gluttony!

Coincidentally, this is also what makes watching villains more fun. We love to watch actors have fun. Above EVERYTHING, we love to watch people have fun.

We love to watch people do things we can't do, but more so, we like to watch people have fun.

I discovered this when I went to see a church production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamc
oat." If you know me, you know I'm a bit of a play snob, music snob, snob-snob, so you'll know that I look on the play as pop-corn theater. It's cheesy, and there's nothing "impressive" about it. (You want impressive, you go see a Mozart opera.) However, if you read my blog you know that I'm a fan of fun. This musical is fun, and nobody showcased that fun more than this church's production. The actors were mostly of the teen-aged variety, (Now, I've worked with teen-aged actors; it's not easy, but it is fun.) I'd bet that over half the cast had never been in a play before. But it was one of the best times I have ever had in an audience, because the cast was having SO MUCH FUN!

So, in a nutshell, we love villains because they're fun, and the people portraying them are having fun. Do you think Heath Ledger was having fun while he was playing The Joker? You can TELL he was having a blast! You could tell by his ingenuity, by the way he said, "Yeah," after he was asked, "You think you can steal half our money and get away with it?" You could tell by the way he clapped for the newly appointed Commissioner. We didn't like the performance because it was gritty; we liked it because Ledger was having a time.

But that's not the only reason we love villains! We also love them because they just don't care. And the number one rule to coolness is to not care. If you care, you're not cool. And villains don't care; their sidekicks care. Lefou, Gaston's little buddy from Beauty and the Beast, he cared. (Although, Iago, from Aladdin, I'd say didn't care, and was a lot cooler than Lefou. Although, albeit, obnoxious.)

There are more reasons, but I'm not going to tell you everything. Sometimes you do have to think for yourselves. Geez, people.