Rooting for the villain

Have you ever liked a villain more than the hero? Who and why?

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching The Traitors of late, particularly the UK Celebrity edition. What I found interesting is how often we can find ourselves rooting for the Traitor rather than the Faithful (or is this just me).

Alan Carr immediately comes to mind. If you haven’t heard of him before, he is an extremely funny English comedian. Despite knowing that he was playing the role of the villain, there was something compelling about watching him try to deceive everyone and stay in the game, not forgetting to mention that he was also absolutely hilarious in playing his role.

Perhaps it is because being a Traitor is exceptionally hard work. They have to lie convincingly, remember their stories, read the room and constantly avoid being exposed. There is a certain skill involved in keeping everyone guessing, not something I could do!

Or perhaps it also says something about how we view heroes and villains. It isn’t always black and white.

Elphaba from the musical Wicked is another interesting example. In The Wizard of Oz, she is known as the Wicked Witch of the West, the villain of the story. Wicked retells the story from Elphaba’s perspective, showing us the events and circumstances that led to her being labelled “wicked”. As a result, our perception of the character changes.

It is a reminder that sometimes the difference between a hero and a villain comes down to whose story we are hearing.

Maybe we don’t always root for the villain because we agree with what they do. Sometimes we understand their motivations, appreciate their skill, or simply find them more interesting than the hero.

Perhaps the line between hero and villain isn’t always as clear as we think 🤔