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Every so often I come across a villain who is so sympathetic, personable, or just plain interesting that I can’t help but to hope they’ll win whatever conflict they’re having with the main character or characters.
1. Dracula from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Vampires are supposed to be alluring creatures who don’t show you their terrifyingly dark side until it’s too late to escape their clutches. In my opinion, this monster work best when both of these parts of their personalties are played up as much as possible for the audience. The beautiful thing about this book is just how well it did exactly that. I simultaneously wanted to run screaming from Dracula while at the same time feeling irresistibly drawn to him.
2. Carrie from Steven King’s Carrie.
Carrie’s backstory was so detailed and heartbreaking that I understood why she became so dangerous later on in the plot. Growing up in an abusive home and being relentlessly bullied at school made her feel completely out of control, and that can lead someone to do pretty extreme things to change that.
Honestly, I kept hoping that a friendly adult who had similar powers would notice how badly she was struggling and offer some kind of help for her.
3. Johnny from S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.
I never would have thought I’d have so much empathy for a gang member who killed someone, but this story changed my mind about that. There are reasons why some people make the decisions they do. Johnny’s childhood had made it very difficult for him to handle conflict or strong emotions in a healthy way.
No, I obviously didn’t want him to kill anyone, but I did keep hoping that he’d find a way to escape his rival gang long enough to get some help and make better choices in the future. Given the way the plot was written, the only way for this to happen would be if he got away with murder.
4. Kingpin (aka Wilson Fisk) from the Daredevil graphic novels (various authors).
If you haven’t already noticed a certain pattern in today’s post, you will now.
Just like with Carrie and Johnny, Kingpin’s childhood was anything but a happy one. He grew up watching his father physically and emotionally abuse his mother. It only grew more severe over time since this character was raised in a community that looked the other way when it came to these sorts of things.
Kingpin grew up to be a powerful crime boss who regularly had run-ins with Daredevil and the law in general. His personality was so friendly, at least to those who didn’t cross him, that it was easy to forget how many laws he’d broken. He also used his ill-gotten wealth and power to take care of people in his community who had no one else to turn to.
Despite all of my misgivings, I can’t help but to keep rooting for Kingpin.
5. The monster from Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls.
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The first time I read this story, I was quite annoyed with the monster for refusing to help Conor the first time he asked. Conor’s mom was severely ill, and all the boy wanted was for her to be well again. He had completely unselfish, pure motives for wanting a magical fix to her health problems.
It took me some time to see the world from the monster’s point of view. Without giving away spoilers, I couldn’t help but to change my mind about him once I figured out why he was acting like an antagonist.
6. Dexter from Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter.
A small percentage of people are born with the desire to harm and even kill others. What I liked the most about Dexter was how he harnessed his uncontrollable urge to be a serial killer to oddly do a lot of good in the world. (Now that is a sentence I never thought I’d write!)
7. Elphaba from Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
This retelling of The Wizard of Oz explained why Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, did all of the things she did to Dorothy and other characters. I loved this universe even more after getting to know its biggest villain so well.
8. Lucifer from Glen Duncan’s I, Lucifer.
After stealing a human body and living among us, the devil learned a few things about humanity that truly surprised him. This was such an unusual premise that I really didn’t know what to think of it at first, but I did love seeing ordinary human customs through the eyes of someone who was bewildered by some of them. There were so many funny moments that I couldn’t help but to hope this character would have a happy ending.
9. V from Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta.
I struggled a little bit with whether or not to include V today because of the truly terrible things he did. In no way am I trying to excuse him or anyone else in this list, but I did love the way he reframed what the relationship between an individual and their government should be like and how people should respond when their rights begin to be stripped away.
10. Guy Montag from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
Imagine being paid to hunt down books and burn them! I wanted to hate Guy for all of the knowledge and stories he’d purposefully destroyed, but I only grew to like him the more I got to know him.
Based on his limited and twisted knowledge of how books were used, it made perfect sense for him to want to destroy all of them. If the only thing I ever heard about this topic was all of the destructive things that have happened as a result of people being exposed to knowledge, I’d feel the same way.
The plot made it seem as though the only way for this character to survive in such an oppressive society was for him to keep destroying books. Therefore, I had to root for him. There was really no other option that I could see.
Which villains have you rooted for in the past?
