Philosophical musings on evil characters in film, TV and books

[dweomeroflight]

I've always had this obsession with working out evil characters motivations for doing things, which is why even though I disagree with people who claim that Wicked is the greatest musical ever (that would be those written by the musical genius Stephan Sondheim) I do have to admit that the opening and closing songs of No one mourns the Wicked really have hold of something that not many people like to admit... which is basically that the world isn't black and white... but rather shades of grey.

the respective lyrics are here:

Let us be glad
Let us be grateful
Let us rejoicify that goodness could subdue
The wicked workings of you-know-who
Isn't it nice to know
That good will conquer evil?
The truth we all believe'll by and by
Outlive a lie
For you and -

SOMEONE IN THE CROWD:
No one mourns the Wicked

ANOTHER PERSON:
No one cries "They won't return!"

ALL:
No one lays a lily on their grave

MAN:
The good man scorns the Wicked!

WOMEN:
Through their lives, our children learn

ALL:
What we miss, when we misbehave:

GLINDA:
And Goodness knows
The Wicked's lives are lonely
Goodness knows
The Wicked die alone
It just shows when you're Wicked
You're left only
On your own

ALL:
Yes, Goodness knows
The Wicked's lives are lonely
Goodness knows
The Wicked cry alone
Nothing grows for the Wicked
They reap only
What they sow

and later on:

No one mourns the Wicked!
Now at last, she's dead and gone!
Now at last, there's joy throughout the land
And Goodness knows
We know what Goodness is
Goodness knows
The Wicked die alone

GLINDA:
She died alone

ALL:
Woe to those (Woe to those)
Who spurn what Goodnesses
They are shown
No one mourns the Wicked

now having taken out all the superfluous stuff that relates to the Wicked Witch and other characters in the actual musical, this song could pretty much apply to every well written evil character under the sun. I love this song so much, I love the irony involved and how in the finale there's one choir who is overjoyed that the witch is dead, and how the second choir is quietly mournful, seeming to say, "No one mourns the wicked" even as they know that in real life, there is always someone left to mourn.

Now when I say well written evil characters I'm not talking Sauron from LOTR say who is just evil for the sake of it, but rather evil characters that are given some sort of reason for their evilness.

and some examples of evil characters who are loved despite their evilness...

evil people can be loved... (this is the guy who destroyed one tenth of the world's population, imprisoned The Doctor and abused his wife) and yet the Doctor is ABSOLUTELY shattered that he is dying!!!



and mourned for... (I still get a bit emotional remembering this scene) You know its serious when a male is crying...



and from Sweeney Todd...



Toby loves Mrs Lovett and even kills Sweeney in revenge for his murder of her (this is despite knowing she is an evil bitch who willingly took part in murder to cook bodies in pies, and who would have killed Toby himself) again proving... people mourn the Wicked.

Other examples...

Mab and Merlin in Hallmark's Merlin (Mab pretty much destroys everything Merlin loves and he still is sad when she dies)

Various characters in KK's Deverry saga

Darth Vadar in the Star Wars prequels

and others that I will add when I think of them...

Comments

[cianthecat.livejournal.com]

Very true. I like an "evil" character that you are never quite sure of...maybe they will turn? Do that good deed that will tip the balance...but then maybe they won't. Life is never black and white. People (in life) don't tend to be evil, but make bad choices and do bad things. (Footnote: Some people are evil and do purely nasty things but the general population wouldn't fall under this catergory. I hope.)

Have you seen Wicked? Was it good?

[dweomeroflight.livejournal.com]

Yes I have seen Wicked- it was O.K but not the best musical I have seen. My Fair Lady and Sweeney Todd in my opinion were better stage productions.

I like evil characters who have a reason to be evil rather than just to serve a theme eg the Devil vs God found in C S Lewis and Tokien.

rxamples of evil characters that I think are depicted well:

eg The Master (the guy dying in the pics above) is crazy but he didn't ask to be crazy and he was subjected to being crazy because of the rites his culture put him through as a child.
eg 2: Mary Von Tassal in Sleepy Hollow was just trying to get revenge on the people who had killed her mother and thrown her out of her childhood home
eg 3: Sweeney Todd wouldn't have gotten into murder if it wasn't for the fact that this judge had sent him to jail on trumped up charges and stolen his wife and daughter, raping said wife and discarding her to Bedlam afterwards.
eg 4: Mab in Merlin wouldn't have done crazy shit if it wasn't for the fact that she was desperately trying to survive and save her people (also some argue that she cannot be judged on human terms because she is one of the fearie folk).

[travertineskies.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is related, but you know my Maryn obsession, right?
He's such an idiot, yet I really... Really like him.
Heh~
Also, I'm thinking about Ariel and the guy in Alyzon Whitestarr.
I quite like those baddies, but you never really know why they're bad, do you?
Ah...

[dweomeroflight.livejournal.com]

you know why in Alyzon Whitestarr... its really sad. Basically Harlen's parent's were rich but never really cared about him and he resented that so he did cruel things thus it was easier for him to get infected