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The Terrifying Optimism of Villains

Surprising life lessons from fiction's worst scum bags!

By Matt CatesPublished 7 years ago 15 min read
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Joker from The Dark Knight/Warner Bros
The article originally appeared on Scum Hive.

It began with Vader, 1977.

I am there gawking, slack-jawed, at his shiny 6’8” robot/spaceman suit stretched over a 50’ drive-in theater screen. Little me and massive whatever-the-hell-he-is are bonding, alone on a multi-acre plot under the Oklahoma stars. The rest of the audience has vanished. My older brother Darrell and that Ford Ranchero of his, gone.

When Lord Vader breathes, I stop. When he speaks, I listen.

He wants something…

An Unhappy Lord?

Star Wars: A New Hope/Lucasfilms

Whoa! Are you seeing this? He’s lifting a guy in a weiner-shaped helmet by the neck, he’s…hol-ey Sith! He just crushed Pee-Pee Man’s windpipe!

I correct my posture. This monster’s on a mission, but what is it? How can I help him out? The spell is interrupted by crunching and a rude giggle… Put that popcorn down and everybody shut up! I’m trying to pay attention.

Darth Vader and I spent the next couple hours trying to track down those damned dirty Death Starplans. We failed. Years later we were chasing after his errant blue-eyed brat Luke…that flip-flopping punk! One day it was all talk of joining the Imperial Academy, next it was linking up with some guerilla rebellion or off to join some extinct mystical order of hermits.

Such is the capriciousness of youth, but Big Daddy Vader was past that life stage. The Dark Lord knew in no uncertain terms what he wanted out of life.

Galactic dictatorship. Such lofty goals…

Thing is, Vader had no question about pulling it off his stunt. Rule the galaxy? In his mind it was a fait accompli. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?Screw you! Vader only needed one thing.

FAITH.

A Stark Comparison

Darth Vader/Lucasfilms

Contrast his daily life to ours. Wemope around whining about (Pick at least ONE):

  • The pay hike that never came
  • The spousal quibble over them costly new tires we put on the credit card
  • The fact our political party can’t pull their head out
  • Netflix, which just pulled our favorite show

Vader doesn’t give a Goddamn! Sith don’t bitch about insignificant matters. One must clear their own path in life, in his view, but one must become a Master of themselves first. His faith in himself, his abilities, and his destiny were unshakable (and frankly he found your own pitiful lack of faith disturbing).

Isn’t that an optimistic outlook? Search your feelings; you know it to be true!

A New Hope? Goodie gumdrops, but as Vince Lombardi put it, “Hope is not a strategy.” Faith, however, is another story. Faith is optimism in daily action, or as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints defines the word:

“Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith.”

I may go to Hell for using LDS’s definition in this context, I believe it fits well. Apologies, Mr. Smith!

Shared Traits of Scum

Star Wars Bounty Hunters/Disney

Line up every legendary villain and you’ll see Vader isn’t alone.

They all exhibit a metric ton of faith-based optimism. They are utilitarian in nature, their eye on the future, on the horizon, forgetting the means so long as the end is obtained. Jedi Master Yoda considered that a bad thing. But say what you will—villains get things done!

Villains don’t wear horse blinders.

They don’t sweat the small stuff and they aren’t necessarily OCD perfectionists. Failure’s viewed as a natural part of the process of goal attainment, and they move on—quickly and with resolve, murdering associates or goons only when it is necessary to make an example.

The path gets bumpy? They keep smiling like maniacs (which they are). Their hands get dirty (or bloody, more like), but they keep busting skulls because it’s part of the grind.

Don’t you see these “villainous scum” are positive people?!

Villains know they’ll “get there,” and so the ends—be it a dystopian government, personal wealth, the destruction of a system of planets—however horrific or sloppy or downright nuts those ends, they are automatically justified.

If you can’t grasp that, you’ll never make a successful villain.

Why Bad Guys Are Magnetic

Be they confined to the cinematic screen, the comic panel, or the typed page, successful villains all apply their time achieving their (twisted) dreams—because they have faith they’ll succeed.

So they never lose laser focus. They don’t banter with their lessers (unless it’s to fuck with them). They devote their soul to the mission, and their mission is to stuff their black hole egos like a Butterball turkey. Villains stay in the zone, and that zone extends beyond the cliff of insanity. Maybe that’s what gives them that winner edge…

It’s worth your time to analyze the raison d’être of scumbags, and I’m not alone in thinking this. Even on a subconscious level, this code is etched onto our brains, this fascination with villainy.

Toy makers realize Darth Vader toys far outsell Luke Skywalker ones. Cereal markets based boxes on classic monsters like Frankenstein (Franken Berry) and Count Dracula (Count Chocula). Ever seen a box of Van Helsing Berry? No.

General Mills Monster Cereal

The heroes may be more loved—Batman is more cherished than Joker, and Sherlock Holmes far more revered than Professor Moriarty—but there is no denying that once we hear those vile villainous names we catch a bit more chemical buzz.

Why?

There’s more than one answer to that question. We’re not “supposed” to like the bad guys, and yet the best ones are written to be sympathetic and cool. So really, we are “supposed” to like them.

Right?

Remember, a villain doesn’t care what they are “supposed” to do.

They do whatever pushes them nearly to their goal. But the dark secret we hate to face is that villains share an underlying optimism, and that is their most attractive attribute. They’re wild, incongruent optimists.

Forget how nonsensical their schemes may come across, for to them, they’ll work! And there’s never any doubt. No hesitation, no trepidation.

Want to rule the entire galaxy? It’s within the realm of the possible for a Sith Lord.

Want a cut of every criminal deed performed in London’s underground? All you need is a well-laid plan.

Want to build an enormous bottle rocket and tie your caped nemesis to it, then launch him into space? There’s nothing stopping you. Not when you’re a villain.

Why can’t we all be so confident?

Evidence Exhibition

As a kid I was, despite his not being a complete villain, a Garfield fan. And tacked on my wall was a poster of Jim Davis’ Garfield on a tree branch with Odie the dog inexplicably beside him. Garfield’s cottony thought-bubble read:

“It’s amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn’t know what one can’t do.”

Isn’t that the essence of the evil megalomaniac?

So here are a few examples from the world of the fictitiously deranged, the downright scum of the galaxy. Each draws from a different well of strength—faith, methodical planning, ruthlessness, grandiose dreams, fearlessness, egotism, aggressiveness…but they are all linked to optimism. Always with the optimism.

Exhibit A: Moriarty

Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes

Facing Sherlock Holmes, the world’s greatest private dick (prior to Batman, one might argue), Professor Moriarty, the “Napoleon of Crime,” displays not a pentaquark of concern. Any lesser scum would fear they were done for. But Moriarty knows he isn’t outmatched, after all. Because he knows how well-constructed his cobwebs of treachery are…

Here’s a brief exchange of megaminds:

“Tut, tut,” said he [Moriarty]. “I am quite sure that a man of your intelligence will see that there can be but one outcome to this affair. It is necessary that you should withdraw. You have worked things in such a fashion that we have only one resource left. It has been an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which you have grappled with this affair, and I say, unaffectedly, that it would be a grief to me to be forced to take any extreme measure. You smile, sir, but I assure you that it really would.”“Danger is part of my trade,” I [Holmes] remarked.“That is not danger,” said he. “It is inevitable destruction…”

That’s some hard Victorian smack talk for ya!

And that’s Moriarty, the master plotter. He’s optimistic because he takes time to plan ahead, to prep for any and all eventualities. Having that sense of security, knowing you did a thorough and comprehensive job, gives one that certain smugness which a genuine villain requires.

Exhibit B: O’Brien

O'Brien from 1984

George Orwell’s 1984 featured a villain unlike any we’d run into before. O’Brien’s cold heart made Moriarty look like a volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. In dystopic Oceania, no deviation from the INGSOC Party line’s allowed, and any hint of dissent leads to erasure from existence. So when miserable little Winston over at the Ministry of Truth decides to start up a forbidden diary, a figurative rope is lain out for him to hang himself with it.

INGSOC Inner Party man and world class sadist O’Brien relishes in the slow indoctrination of Winston into a wholly fabricated resistance movement. Once the game’s revealed and Winston learns he’s been duped, O’Brien takes his sweet-ass time torturing, tormenting, and utterly eroding the will of his captive, for no good reason but to do it.

“Always, Winston, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”

If you had to define “ruthless bastard” with one literary character, you’d been pressed to do better than O’Brien. His is the faith of the nihilist; the optimism of the damned. But he’s very good at his job. He’s optimistic, at least, because throughout his decades of service he’s never failed to get ‘er done.

Further reading on OMNI.media - Greatest Sci-Fi One-on-One Battles Ever...and Their Spoofs!

Exhibit C: Ozymandias

Ozymandias from Watchmen/DC Comics

Lest we give short thrift to our illustrated Übermensch, gaze upon the deeds of Watchmen’sOzymandias, Alan Moore’s ultimate contribution to the field of antagonists. The “World’s Smartest Man” is also one of its fittest and fastest, able to accurately predict the move of any opponent and simultaneously counter it.

Unfortunately the real superpowers of Earth—America and Russia—have become deadlocked in a high-stakes game of nuclear wipeout, their opposing ICBM’s primed to launch en masse, ensuring Mutual Assured Destruction. Ozy can’t abide. But the best scheme he can cook up leads to the purposeful obliteration of New York City.

Killing millions to save billions. It is the ultimate ethical dilemma, the “trolley problem” thought experiment taken past the extreme. If he does nothing, the world will perish. If he does the one thing able to stop it, New York will die. So he does the one thing, murdering his fellow superheroes along the way in order to keep them from stopping him. Ozy did what had to be done, and his predicted outcome came true. The world bonded. Enemy nations came together.

But how did he have the fortitude to carry out the act? Pure stoicism, spawned from alienation. Alienation led Adrian Veidt to become Ozymandias. In his own words:

“I burned with the paradoxical urge to do everything. Do you understand? My intellect set me apart. Faced with difficult choices, I knew nobody whose advice might prove useful. Nobody living. The only human being with whom I felt any kinship died three hundred years before the birth of Christ. Alexander of Macedonia.”

Ozymandias is optimistic that his cold logic is infallible, and that he is the only man who can save the world.

Further reading on Geeks.media - Which Watchman Was Worst?

Exhibit D: Gustav Graves

Gustav Graves from Die Another Day/United Artists

Don’t we often gauge the success of a James Bond film by its antagonist? I know I do. One neglected 007 megalomaniac is Gustav Graves, the North Korean-turned-billionaire industrialist who never ever sleeps. My favorite quote from the franchise comes from Graves:

“One of the virtues of never sleeping, Mr. Bond. I have to live my dreams.”

Graves is a villain to be reckoned with because he dreams big. He’s demonstrably optimistic in his larger-than-life schemes…as well as in his ability to end the great James Bond when nobody else could:

“Ya see Mr. Bond, you can’t kill my dreams. But my dreams can kill you!”

Exhibit E: Joker

Joker from The Dark Knight/DC

“Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just…do things.”

That’s a sentiment from the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” Joker’s lying, manipulating Harvey Dent to ally with him. Because Clown Prince of Crime certainly does make plans…he planned to rip off the mob bank, planned to pit the passengers of two vessels against each other in a sick twist of the old Prisoner’s Dilemma gambit. Still there’s truth in his words.

He does “just do things,” without dwelling much on the outcome. If an evil idea comes into his head, he implements it without fear or hesitation. And that’s his greatest strength. He’s fearless.

Yet his optimism pushes through to the surface, not just in his clownish demeanor but his unflappable sense of humor.

Further reading on Geeks.media - Top Ten Classic Comic Batman Trivia Tidbits!

Exhibit F: Anton Chigurh

Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men

Speaking of madmen, the thick-necked Anton Chigurh from Cormac McCarthy’sNo Country for Old Menuses a captive bolt pistol and pressurized air tank to get results. It’s crude, demented, and surprisingly effective. Chigurh, like the Joker, appears to operate in a personal state of chaos, leaving little things like the Life and Death of strangers up to a coin toss.

Chigurh: You need to call it. I can’t call it for you. It wouldn’t be fair.Gas Station Proprietor: I didn’t put nothin’ up.Chigurh: Yes, you did. You’ve been putting it up your whole life you just didn’t know it. You know what date is on this coin?Gas Station Proprietor: No.Chigurh: 1958. It’s been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it’s here. And it’s either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it.

Sporting a birth-control haircut and monotone vocal timbre, the assassin’s will is a palpable as a fist shoved in your mouth. But he loves to fuck with his prey, which is nearly everybody. He’ll stand there and banter with the local yokels until whatever mental stopwatch he’s running alerts him that their time’s expired.

An equal opportunity killer, Chigurh is compared by his competition to the bubonic plague in terms of his effectiveness. When your rivals respect your abilities so much, you must be onto something.

Chigurh may be off his meds but he’s not only confident but cocky. A little egotism can go a long way, but in Chigurh’s case a lot can go lot further. His lack of outward emotionalism belies his internal optimism, though. He’s a shark swimming in a world of living chum, always calm, never hungry…and always up for a fun yet fateful coin toss!

Further reading on Filthy.media - Michael Myers Syndrome!

Exhibit G: HAL 9000

HAL 900 from 2001/MGM

Sentient ship-controller HAL from2001: A Space Odysseydoesn’t take no for an answer. When the crew believes HAL has made a diagnostic error, they believe it is too significant to ignore…so they conspire to take the A.I. system offline, a fact HAL learns and doesn’t think too highly off. So…he murders them all. All but one—Dave.

HAL may be hard to categorize as an evil villain, but really it is no different from the others on this list. It is operating in perfect accordance to its own logic, as do the others. Judging solely by its deeds—killing innocent people (some in their cryo-sleep, no less!), HAL is a villain. But it is programmed to ensure mission completion, and the crew are jeopardizing that mission.

What choice does they leave HAL? It cannot abide by failure; yet it certainly takes no pleasure in the termination of the crew’s life functions. These acts are merely a means to an end… HAL is logical (naturally) but also quite persistent, because it is optimistic that it can achieve the end goal by itself, without those pesky meatbags!

Further reading on OMNI.media - More Terrifying Sci-Fi Books

Exhibit H: Satan

The Temptation of Christ Ary Scheffer, 1854

Eternal shame on me if I neglect to mention the vilest villain ever to meddle in human affairs. The original go getter, Lucifer’s been a’wheelin’ and a’dealin’ with the Creator of the Universe itself since the days of Job. Takes a pair of steel huevos to cut deals with the Lord Almighty, but that’s who Satan is. It’s who he was made to be.

Mark Twain said, “We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.”

Søren Kierkegaard put forth the notion that:

“Christianity is the invention of Satan, calculated to make human beings unhappy with the assistance of the imagination.”

Sufi Islamic tradition contends that Satan’s refusal to bow before Adam was a test—which he passed through his insistence, even in the face of damnation, that none shall be worshipped by God alone. Perhaps there is something to that concept.

It’s of note that the wily dark angel got Jesus to proclaim the same sentiment:

Satan to Jesus, in Matthew 4:9 – 10:

“All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”Then saith Jesus unto him, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

So to be clear, Jesus refuses to worship anyone but God, which is seen as a good thing, but when Satan refuses to worship anyone but God, he’s cast into a pit of fire and becomes history’s greatest villain? Such is the fate of independent thinkers.

Despite the variety of religious/historical opinions on Satan, it’s agreed that he is hubris incarnate. And he’s aggressive, never altering his stance, always leaning forward to trick mankind into folly and despair.

In the end, Satan hopes for a reinstatement of his former glory, an end to the banishment from his Maker’s Kingdom. After all these years, he’s still truckin’.

Surely that’s proof of the optimism of villains?

Further reading on Longevity.media - Will You Make It to Immortality?

Dishonorable Mention - Alex (A Clockwork Orange)

Alex from A Clockwork Orange

I was really very torn about whether to include Alex or not. He's certainly optimistic; perhaps more than all the others on this list, in part due to his youth.

And I do not excuse Alex for his villainous behavior because of that youth...but I do, in some regards, see him as something other than a villain. I cannot see him in the same light as the rest of these rogues.

Maybe I should and maybe you do. If you do, head on over to my site, Scum Hive, and read a bit of trivia I dug up about our old droogie...

13 ‘A Clockwork Orange’ Behind-the-Scenes Trivia Facts You Won’t Believe!

Further Reading - Greatest Sci-Fi Antagonists!

Cthulhu

Some of the greatest sci-fi antagonists are born from the readers' obsession with villains.

Why are nice readers attracted to evil literary characters? Yes, I’m talking to you!

But I’m also guilty, and I have finally reached a point where I can speak about this openly. There’s no denying it—we all crave villains. A good author better know about this phenomenon, for the merits of their protagonists are measured against the strengths of their opponents. It’s no fun reading about a hero fighting a 90-pound pushover! So have no fear, faithful reader, for we’ve assembled a list of sci-fi’s most fiendish fiends. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villa—oh, okay, sorry! I don’t want to get busted for plagiarizing Obi-Wan Kenobi. These guys are the worst of the worst.

But hold up! Before we proceed, let me tack a SPOILER ALERT onto this list. A few of these antagonists wait until late in their respective novels to reveal their slimy true natures, and we don’t want to ruin a classic for you! That’s one evil deed no one should condone… (continue reading on OMNI.media)

If you love epic villains as much as I do, give my Amazon Kindle novel a try! Need a scintillating blurb to entice you? Oh, okay...

The Government lied to you. The Military controls you.

An Artificially Intelligent virus is stalking you... Your stepfather keeps trying (sometimes successfully) to kill you!

Your DNA is being rewritten by nanobots!! And your grandfather Paris? Yeah. He's probably the spy behind it all.

WELCOME TO THE CONSPIRATORIAL WORLD OF HECTOR HAVECK.

Like most young heroes he was born from catastrophe...

All California teen Hector Haveck wanted for the summer was to get closer to his attractive Robotics classmate, Yésica Brick. Instead he's forced to figure out his seven new lame superpowers. Each one only works for one day a week...

·Sundays: Glowing in the dark (Wow).·Mondays: Bending spoons with his mind (Big deal).·Tuesdays: Growing eyes anywhere on his body (Gross!).·Wednesdays: Cooking objects with the heat of his mouth (Pointless...).·Thursdays: Seeing the family tree and history of any person he meets (Kinda cool?).·Fridays: Instant healing after two minutes (Now we're talkin'!).·Saturdays: Manipulation of dreams and reality(Uh, that's weird. And spooky...).

...and these 'useless' abilities quickly become dangerous and out of Heck's control. He soon learns that a side effect of his last two abilities is the power to cross dimensions...which is exactly what he was built to do by 'The Fin,' a secret society obsessed with locating Oannes ReHav-Marre, the immortal king of ancient Atlantis. The problem is Oannes and his mermen legions will do anything to return home, even if it means erasing 10,000 years of human history!

With an intertwining story arc of Nikola Tesla, Godfather of the Electrical Age, and extended cameos by Rasputin the Mad Monk (personal healer to the last Tsar of Russia), Napoleon of France, Jack the Ripper, Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, and many others, this original, genre-bending tale tackles every global conspiracy conceivable--from Men in Black, the JFK assassination, the lost city of Atlantis, CIA and KGB mind control programs,trans-dimensional 'aliens,' and secret elitist cabals plotting world domination from Bohemian Grove, 'Haveck' finally sheds light on the puppeteers behind it ALL!

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About the Creator

Matt Cates

Freelance writer and owner of Cates Content and Copywriting; retired Air Force Veteran; former administrative assistant at Oregon State University; author of Haveck: The First Transhuman, the greatest sci-fi novel in the multiverse.

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