Donquixote Doflamingo from ‘One Piece’
Above is a fairly epic speech from the manga/anime ‘One Piece’. I say fairly because you wouldn’t know it unless you watched or read the series. It is said by one of the more popular villains, Donquixote Doflamingo, during a story arch that involved a big war between the pirates and the marines. He is a pirate, but fights for the marines as one of their Seven Warlords. This gives him an interesting perspective . . . Also, can you say he’s really wrong?
To touch on what Doflamingo is saying, he makes a lot of sense. History shows us that the victors tell the story. They decide on what was right and wrong as well as what people will learn about. Saying that justice will prevail is ridiculous because whoever wins will say that their said was justified. Personally, the part about how a child growing up in peace will have different values and perspectives than one growing up in war hits home. I see so many people talk about what life should be like for those who have lived in different conditions. Empathy and change of perspective aren’t easy to find or come by, which makes Doflamingo’s speech hit a little harder.
All of this brings up the question of having a villain who makes sense. I know people enjoy villains when they are doing evil, but for good reasons. That can be understood since they mean well. Doflamingo doesn’t fall into this category though. Been a while, but I believe he wanted to destroy the world or at least bring down society to prove that he’s right or get revenge. Either way, he works for selfish reasons, but his perspective on how history and justice are decided on by victors garners a lot of agreement. This kind of makes him a ‘beloved’ character regardless of his evil intentions. Makes one wonder if it’s okay to agree with an evil person in some fashion.
I’ve met a few authors who get disturbed by readers relating to or cheering for their villains. Their attempts at making the villains relatable or understandable succeed to the point where a reader might side with them. It makes things difficult when pushing the hero who is supposed to be the favored character. Instead, you have a contingent of fans that are against the good guys and want them to fail. An author might be tempted to give in to this group and switch the story to the bad guys winning, especially if you get a ‘vocal minority’ situation. It’s might easier to handle people liking the villains, but not agreeing with them. You become less likely to redirect your story in their favor or try to hard to ‘evil-ize’ the villain.
With all of that confusion and unexpected cheer, I can see a big reason to have villains who make sense. This would be them talking about society and civilization. A villain who talks about a social injustice that we normally ignore can bring about a conversation among the fans. It can open up minds to what is going on in reality and get one thinking about how we can prevent such a bad guy from appearing. Doflamingo makes sense with his opinion on how justice is determined by the winners and those in power. This means it can be skewed and biased. We see examples of this in our own world, which means we could feasibly have a Doflamingo type show up. For all we know, one already has. Anyway, his speech and opinion gets the conversation going, which is a bonus for many authors.
So, what do you think about villains with understandable messages and worldviews?
Legends of Windemere 