Recently we’ve made the change from being a blog just about video games to opening up the floor to other discussions. Our first attempt at this will be asking the question of Hero or Villain?

Throughout history and the world of Fiction, morality and ethics have always been hotly debated. Since the Greeks, and before, we’ve come up with different definitions of Good and Evil, we’ve argued about whether Goodness is inherent and absolute or is it something we can bend to suit our needs. In this post we’re going to be looking at a few characters that are labelled as either Hero or Villain, and we’re going to be asking is that a fair evaluation.

First up – Beast, from the classic Beauty and the Beast.

Now, I will preface this by saying I’m not talking about the Original French novel, by Villeneuve. That comes with it’s own host of problems that we frankly don’t have the time for, not the degree. I mean…Beauty is Beasts cousin/nephew, daughter of a fairy and god knows what else. No, We’re going to be focusing on the Disney retelling, from 1991. For those unfamiliar (how?!) the story goes that A prince in a castle in roughly late 1700s France was approached by a mystical old lady looking for shelter, which he refused. She then curses him, turning him into a beast whilst his servants are turned into furniture. Forget the rest of the story; I’ve heard enough. Beast is in no way a villain.

Lets first go with the common sense approach; the Caste our dear Beast lived in is situated in the middle of a dark creepy woods filled with wolves and bandits – an old lady shows up in the middle of the night, having arrived unscathed through all that?! Nah. She’s obviously not just some old lady, Beast would have been wuite dumb, frankly, to invite her in. Then look at the time period – everything from the mirrors to the chairs that aren’t sentient are gilded to the teeth with shells and gold. This gives us the time being roughly 1770 onwards, as this style was known as the Rococo Period. Can anyone think of any reason why nobles in France shouldn’t be letting in strangers, sometime after 1770? For those not familiar with famous revolutions, France in the late 1700s was making quite a habit of lopping off the heads of nobles and rich folk. If she wasn’t a witch, she was at the very least suspicious, and looking to slaughter Casa De Beast. So for me, another point for Beast turning her away.

Also, her curse was so disproportionate; She curses Beast, formerly Prince Adam, with the Beast form. He gains super strength, super speed, and apparently the begrudging respect of the village because he spends the next decade or two just making the village safer by way of scaring off bandits and wolves. Yet his servants, who did nothing but live in his castle are transformed into furniture. Fragile, short lived furniture; easy to break under the weight of the Beast if you become, say, a spindly legged chair. Also, is that not punishment for the servants, having to live as his chairs and furniture and for Beast to just…sit on them? I’m not kink shaming any of you degenerates out there who want nothing more to be used as a chaise longue by a walking talking man beast, but for the residents of Castle Adam, it seems a little unfair to me. Oh, and of course, because they just lived in his house and served him (that might not even be willing, they could be super poor peasants just desperate to make a buck! or…franc.) she ties their lives to Beasts. So if he doesn’t break the curse, he remains a werewolf under an eternal full moon, and his servants stay vulnerable, defenceless useless furniture, doomed to stay trapped in the castle forever; because let’s be honest, they might defend the castle later from the townsfolk, but they had the element of surprise and the home ground advantage – Lumierre decides to pack his bags and make for the big wide world? Best case he gets broken and destroyed by some terrified but justified villager. Worst case the god damn Vatican gets involved and the pope is trying to reform the Histories most musical exorcism.

My verdict? Beast, specifically in the beginning of Beauty and the Beast is Not a Villain.

You want to talk about someone who IS a villain though?

Peter fucking Pan.

Yeah. I said it. The Boy who would never grow up. He isn’t just a bad guy, he’s a sadistic little shit. Wonderous boy my arse, he belongs in a juvenile detention centre for troubled young minds. Maybe it’s because I’m no longer 10, and realise how tragic never growing up would be (disposable income is the shit ya’ll!) but good god do I get Captain Hooks obsession with ridding neverland of this evil spirit. Lets backtrack and start laying the foundations of why this post is going to get me out on a watchlist of “People who aren’t allowed in Disneyland.”

Any of the many iterations of J.M.Barrie’s classic tells the tale of a rivalry between Pan, the boy who never grew up, and Captain James Hook, the man who…well, aged. He was an ordinary man, from Earth as well, specifically Eton. He somehow found his way into Neverland at an unknown time, in an unknown way. He isn’t even called Hook, originally; his true name is never revealed, but supposedly he was the only man Long John Silver would fear, and would rival Blackbeard. However after Pan causes him to lose his hand, and he replaces it with a hook, Pan starts referring to him as Captain Hook. Pretty ableist there, Peter. Dick.

Now I’m not saying Hook is innocent; you don’t get to be known as the guy Long John is scared of without doing some shit. “In that case, Fox, how is Peter a bad guy if it’s just their rivalry playing out?” Well first off, He kidnaps kids. Yeah. Lost boys? Not the great Vampire movie, I mean Peters posse from Neverland? Want to know how they came to be? “Babies that fell out of prams that the nurses then forgot, unclaimed for 7 days.” That’s where they came from. Now, to me, that is a pretty thin excuse for kidnapping someone. “Oh the nurse just FORGOT THEM FOR A WEEK?!” Bollocks. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty good at remembering my child exists, let alone where I last saw them. Not only that, but these poor nurses have to go home to their employers and say “Oh sorry…I misplaced your child.” In a time when women were barely respected? I bet many a nurse was beaten following a Peter Pan recruitment drive.

Did I mention he outright abuses Captain Hook? It wasn’t enough that he maimed him and then convinced the entirety of Neverland that Hooks accident defines him, no, Peter had to go one step further. When Peter cut off the Captains hand, he fed it to a crocodile that, admittedly, already had a bit of a beef with Hook. However, this particular crocodile had once eaten a clock, and so would tick loudly when approaching. Following the Hand-in-Croc incident, Hook is tormented to the point of nervous breakdown whenever he hears any ticking. You can all see what’s coming right? In every fight or interaction Pan has with Hook following this, he carries a clock, or advises the lost boys of Wendy and the Darling children to whip out a timepiece and shoo him away with it. So Hook has very understandable PTSD that Peter just like to mess with every so often. Honestly, if Pan was around during the VE celebrations He’d be dressed as the SS and goosestepping to shouts of “Seig Heil!”

To prove though that I’m not just hating on Disney, let’s jump to another misunderstood supposedly good character, this one with a little more substance than “He kidnaps kids.”

That’s right, our next character to asses is none other than Severus Snape.

Snape himself is meant to be a misunderstood and polarising character; he has done some bad things but supposedly, when all is said and done he redeems himself. So much so, that when we time skip to the future, Harry has even honoured him by giving his youngest son the middle name Severus. Problematic AF for me; why not name him Hagrid or Rubeus, after the best father figure you’ve ever had who only ever tried to look out for you since day 1? The very definition of Ride or Die was our boy Hagrid.

No, for me, there is only one way to describe Snape, and that’s as an utter cock-womble. Everyone always thinks he has brought honour back to his name, that he was secretly a good guy all along, because he was “Dumbledore’s man” but that is such a load of crap. Throughout the books and the films, Snape is shown to be a bully and an abuser. The argument for Snape being this awful and yet somehow still being loved is that we learn he is and will always be in love with Harrys mother, whilst Harrys father used to bully him in school. This would make sense (still not be okay) if he just picked on Harry – but he doesn’t. Not only does he torture the boy he is supposedly help to protect, but he berates and abuses the rest of the students incessantly. He has such an awful presence that when Neville is confronted by a shape shifting entity that mirrors your worst fears, it turns into Snape, rather than one of the High Profile wanted criminals who tortured his parents to Literal Insanity. I mean, they are actually medical insane, bless Frank and Alice, currently residing in the Mental health ward of a wizarding hospital, where they will be for life. “But Snape hates Neville because if HE was the chosen one, Lilly would be alive!” Yeah well that’s on Snape; He was the one who ran to Voldemort and told him about the prophecy, he doomed Lilly and James to their fates.

“Being mean was an act he had to keep up so Voldemort would never suspect him” Bollocks. For the first 3 books no one was 100% sure he was fully back. Voldemort waited till the end of every school year before attacking, he didn’t know and he definitely did not care that Snape was abusing school children. Snape is, regardless of his later life actions, a Villain.

That ends Part one of Hero or Villain?
Please do comment, whether you agree, disagree, or have a whole new way of looking at it. If you have other characters you want for the next segment, let me know!

BrightstarFOX
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