Villain’s Backstory

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie with a “bad guy” that maybe wasn’t so bad? This doesn’t happen as often as you’d think, but every time I see something of this sort, it makes me wonder, are bad guys really bad after all?

Some movies and stories that portray the backstory of the villain making them less villainous include Wicked, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Maleficent, Meet the Robinsons, Moana, and Big Hero 6. 

Some villains are more justified than others. I’m not saying that what the characters in these movies did was right, but simply by knowing more of their backstory, we have more empathy for them.

In The Lion King, Scar is the bad guy because he kills his brother Mufasa and takes over as king. What you don’t see in the movie is that Scar had a pretty rough backstory himself. At one point in his life, Scar was a part of the noble pride lands team, the Lion Guard. One day, he came across a stranger who was offering him more power, but really, it was a trap. Scar was attacked by a cobra and the stranger offered to heal the damage from the cobra in exchange for servitude. Servitude is the state of being a slave or completely subject to someone more powerful. 

Scar declined the strange lion’s offer and instead, took down the lion and cobra. When he returned and told Mufasa, he received the cruel nickname of Scar instead of any praise. Before this incident, his name was Taka, which in Swahili means waste, dirt, garbage, or want. 

To make matters worse, Mufasa means king, so their parents literally named the two brothers “King” and “Trash.” Additionally, cobra venom can make a lion turn evil in Scar’s world, which explains a lot of Scar’s actions in the movie. Just because he was turned evil though, doesn’t mean he was justified in killing his brother, but it does make us feel for him and maybe understand a little bit better why he would make those choices.

Another example is Te Fiti from Moana. If you haven’t seen the movie, the plot does include Te Fiti’s story. Basically, she was the first to appear in the world inhabited by only the ocean. She uses her life-giving heart to create islands all across the sea. After all of her creations are complete, she “goes to sleep” and turns into an island. 

Later on, Maui, a demigod, steals the heart of Te Fiti. At the end of the movie, you find out that Teka, the fire and lava beast, is actually what Te Fiti became when the heart was stolen. Although Teka tries to keep Moana and Maui from reaching the island and even destroys Maui’s hook, this could be because she didn’t want them to see what she had become. When Moana reminds Teka who she really is — Te Fiti — and that it’s okay to make mistakes, Teka goes back to her original Te Fiti form, makes Moana a boat, and fixes Maui’s hook. Once again, seeing what Te Fiti/Teka has been through does make it easier to understand why she did what she did.

I’m not saying that being a villain is right or wrong, but I’m just saying whether we like it or not, we may be the bad guy in somebody else’s story. And we will always have people in our lives that we will see as a villain. 

I think reading through the so-called “bad guy” backgrounds has helped me gain a sense of empathy toward them, and helped me understand that just because you don’t know a person’s whole story, doesn’t make it fair for you to judge them. It’s important to remember that nobody is perfect. And when others mess up, it’s important to remember that everyone deserves a second chance.

– by Madi White (15) Escalante

Feature image caption: Cruella DeVille, another example of a villain that wasn’t all that bad. Maybe. You could date her but don’t let her alone with your pets. Courtesy of Raidesart, DeviantArt.

Read more by Madi in Kazan Memorial Clinic.