on why villains monalogue
Mar. 23rd, 2006 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bonny_kateI have often wondered in the middle of a not so great movie, why the villain just stands there, talking, instead of just killing the hero. I thought about it some more tonight while watching one of the older Batman movies. Really, it's all in Dante. At this point I should like to point you to my professor, who wrote a great entry on this topic, but it has disappeared, so I'm afraid that you are stuck with my ramblings.
I should like to try a thought experiment, and I will write it out in the form of a dialog (I will be playing both parts).
Me: Let us try an experiment. You are a villain. You want to cause the maximum amount of pain to the hero. Do you kill him?
Student: No. If I kill him, it's over. He's dead.
Me: Right. So what do you do instead?
Student: I torture him until I kill him.
Me: But he's still dead. What would cause him even greater pain? Maybe even turn him over to the evil side?
Student: Torture his friend, or girlfriend, and make him watch.
Me: Why does that work?
Student: This way, he experiences the maximum amount of pain. He sees his girlfriend hurting, he realizes that it is his mistake that put her there. If he doesn't, then I tell him. Oh. That explains why I would monologue. It isn't any fun if he doesn't understand what is going on. To cause him the maximum amount of pain, he would have to understand exactly what put him there, what his mistake was, how it could have been different. That would really be revenge.
Me: What other reasons might you, as an author, want the villain to monologue?
Student: It gives the hero a chance to escape. It kind of makes it worse, though. If you give the hero a chance to escape, and he doesn't, it just makes his death that much worse. I mean, if you kill him, he's dead, he doesn't feel anything anymore. But if you kill him and he realizes what is happening, it's so much worse to watch. But it does give him that chance to escape. It's sort of a last ditch effort to save the hero.
Me: I think really good authors might sometimes not save the hero. Last ditch efforts don't always work. Dante is a perfect example of this, though. He is in the dark wood, and he wakes up. Now, there could be two reasons for him to wake up. If you wanted to torture Dante, it wouldn't be enough for him to just slide into hell. He has to know exactly where he is, and where he is headed. But, on the other hand, if you want to save Dante, you have to wake him up in the dark wood. But that's a risky business. If you don't wake him up, he goes to hell not really knowing what happened. But if you wake Dante up, and it fails, then he goes to hell knowing exactly what happened, making his torment that much worse.
Student: So, monologues are really bad. If they have to happen, it means that the hero, or in this case Dante, is just a thread away from being lost. If a monologue is the only thing that can save you, you're in pretty bad shape.
Villains want to cause pain to the hero. It is not enough to kill him, it is better that he suffer. Even The Incredibles realizes this, and manages to have the villain monologue, and catch himself doing it. From the other point of view, it is one last chance for the hero to save himself. And that, dear reader, is one of the purposes of the villain's monologue.
I should like to try a thought experiment, and I will write it out in the form of a dialog (I will be playing both parts).
Me: Let us try an experiment. You are a villain. You want to cause the maximum amount of pain to the hero. Do you kill him?
Student: No. If I kill him, it's over. He's dead.
Me: Right. So what do you do instead?
Student: I torture him until I kill him.
Me: But he's still dead. What would cause him even greater pain? Maybe even turn him over to the evil side?
Student: Torture his friend, or girlfriend, and make him watch.
Me: Why does that work?
Student: This way, he experiences the maximum amount of pain. He sees his girlfriend hurting, he realizes that it is his mistake that put her there. If he doesn't, then I tell him. Oh. That explains why I would monologue. It isn't any fun if he doesn't understand what is going on. To cause him the maximum amount of pain, he would have to understand exactly what put him there, what his mistake was, how it could have been different. That would really be revenge.
Me: What other reasons might you, as an author, want the villain to monologue?
Student: It gives the hero a chance to escape. It kind of makes it worse, though. If you give the hero a chance to escape, and he doesn't, it just makes his death that much worse. I mean, if you kill him, he's dead, he doesn't feel anything anymore. But if you kill him and he realizes what is happening, it's so much worse to watch. But it does give him that chance to escape. It's sort of a last ditch effort to save the hero.
Me: I think really good authors might sometimes not save the hero. Last ditch efforts don't always work. Dante is a perfect example of this, though. He is in the dark wood, and he wakes up. Now, there could be two reasons for him to wake up. If you wanted to torture Dante, it wouldn't be enough for him to just slide into hell. He has to know exactly where he is, and where he is headed. But, on the other hand, if you want to save Dante, you have to wake him up in the dark wood. But that's a risky business. If you don't wake him up, he goes to hell not really knowing what happened. But if you wake Dante up, and it fails, then he goes to hell knowing exactly what happened, making his torment that much worse.
Student: So, monologues are really bad. If they have to happen, it means that the hero, or in this case Dante, is just a thread away from being lost. If a monologue is the only thing that can save you, you're in pretty bad shape.
Villains want to cause pain to the hero. It is not enough to kill him, it is better that he suffer. Even The Incredibles realizes this, and manages to have the villain monologue, and catch himself doing it. From the other point of view, it is one last chance for the hero to save himself. And that, dear reader, is one of the purposes of the villain's monologue.
