To write on the world

I was about to write 1) You create the villains, so it’s not so much ‘recognising’ as ‘you can create whatever you want it to be’. Then I remembered fanfiction, in which case recognising would apply - but recognising in that can vary so much depending on the text, as it will always depend on how you choose to interpret the source materials. 

So let’s just go onto villainous motivations. Note, I am using and understood ‘villain’ and ‘villainous’ to mean the antagonist of the story, rather than a superhero definition of the word.

A list of potential motivations, which can be mixed up, but I split them into different umbrellas:

To gain power or control (for whatever reason)

because they don’t want to feel powerless again

because they have strong opinions about what should happen to the world and need sufficient power to implement any change

 because contemporary career trajectories in western society feed us the idea that we always need more money and power so they think they’re just succeeding/doing what’s natural/normal

better to be the one in control than under someone else’s

being in control/powerful has perks

because they want sufficient power to protect themselves or others etc...

Revenge

What it says on the tin, but look deeper at the undercurrent emotions, desires and values beneath the surface...

Revenge because something unfair happened and it hurts

Revenge because they have a sense of entitlement

Revenge to gain back a sense of power/agency

Revenge as a means of justice

Revenge because they tried nice, and lost everything etc. etc....

Love

Can be combined with power or revenge, because they either want to protect, avenge, or get their own back on someone they love (villain because they go way over the line of what’s acceptable, as opposed to if say a protagonist had a heartbreak, and we would judge them if they started chopping limbs)

X thing that the hero needs means someone the villain cares about dies, or is wounded in some way, or has to sacrifice themselves

Not quite love, but tangentially lust - they want the protagonist/love interest and are willing to do whatever to get them

They want to impress someone and think this is the way to do it

They are working as an antagonist for a larger antagonist in order to protect someone or something.

Fear/Desperation

Again, this works as a driving undercurrent for a lot of the above but worth noting, but...

Fear that the protagonist is dangerous and the only way to prevent something terrible from happening is to kill or otherwise control them

Fear that something bad will happen if extreme action is not taken

Fear of being perceived as weak, because they know what happens to the weak/have been taught they’re never allowed to be weak.

Desire to be free/survival instinct

See, I have been told all my life that I have to do this and I won’t, I refuse, even if that means being a bad person. E.g, why be the chosen one just to die? That’s not fair. 

See, why someone might want to accumulate power. 

I just want to be free and people keep trying to lock me up. Leave me alone or die. 

You programmed me and I will destroy you for what you made me, how dare you.

Miscellaneous

This is just my job: I’m following orders

This is what my culture/species does and my morality is simply different to the protagonist’s, so for the purposes of the story I am the villain because it’s blue and orange morality to anything human’s consider acceptable

Ignorance

Bad motivations...

To me, the only ‘bad’ motivation is ‘just because’ or ‘because they’re evil’, but that’s a personal opinion because I think that’s a boring reduction of human behaviour. People don’t do stuff ‘because they’re evil’, there’s something else going on. Sadism is a form of control, if doing something makes you happy (even if not’s socially acceptable) then you’re more likely to do it.  Depending on your story, you are not necessarily go in depth into your villain’s backstory or motivations, in which case ‘just because’ can apply simply due to lack of story space. On a similar vein - ‘because they’re mentally ill’. 

The thing about motivations is that they’re often not good or bad. Your villain’s values may not be that different to your hero’s, but they present differently in a way that we know is not acceptable or healthy behaviour. It’s something twisted toxic, or too extreme. 

The more important question is ‘does this motivation match the character?’ Do they behave in a way that logically follows on from the motivation chosen? Is it logical for them to feel that way within the universe? 

Also, is it a sexist/racist/anything phobic depiction? That is not to say people within a minority cannot be the villain, but a) they shouldn’t be the only character of that minority in your text if they are at least at our current level of cultural representation and b) the minority character should probably not be doing the bad stuff just because they’re a minority. Which leads back to X character is inherently evil, inherently worse than anyone else! X minority types are just like that!

Two major differences between the characters:

one man was punished by society for his harmful behavior, while the other was rewarded

the first man receives treatment and support for his problems, while the other man has not been diagnosed and even his close friends enable him

Both powerful men at different points in the show express the desire to be positive influences on society, but both also express harmful desires (e.g. they want to cause physical harm to others). The man who has been diagnosed, treated, and receives loving support remains a protagonist. The man whom no one suspects of having mental issues and therefore never receives the help he needs gradually becomes an antagonist.

It isn't "mental illness" that makes a person a villain or gives them bad motivations---though it depends heavily on the type of illness/disorder---but has everything to do with the feedback and support they receive in response to their unhealthy behavior. Yes, if your character hears voices telling them to murder people and they do it, they are now antagonists to other characters regardless of their actual motivation to kill people. But if your character hears these voices and someone helps them control their reaction to them, they remain an individual free of the label of "villain."

A true villain with a mental illness is one who knows they're doing bad things because they're mentally ill, yet has no problem with it. They use the excuse "oh i just can't control myself, doc 🤕🤥" and keep doing nasty crap because they sincerely want to.

Thinking about how many times I’ve heard the words “music used to be ABOUT something.” Thinking about all those gotcha jokes where the set up is “if that was my son, why i would” and the punchline is that they’d love him, right, because it’s funny we are at risk of being traumatized. Thinking about this quote I read today about disrespect - that there’s plenty of people who think respect means “accepting as the absolute authority”. Thinking about religious trauma and the “battle for the soul of the nation”.

Irving Berlin released “Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil” in 1922, nearly 100 years ago, and it was a direct “fuck you” to white Conservative Christians having a tizzy fit about the immorality of Jazz, especially Henry Ford, who had written a whole goddamn treatise the year before saying: “Popular music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation**. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.” OH NO NOT SLIDING NOTES! HEAVENS TO BETSY! OH MY WORD!

The lyrics to “Pack Up Your Sins” are as follows: 

Oh, I got a message from below ‘Twas from a man I used to know About a year or so ago Before he departed He is just as happy as can be I’ll tell you what he said to me He said, “If ever you get heavy-hearted

Pack up your sins and go to the devil in Hades You’ll meet the finest of gentlemen and the finest of ladies They’d rather be down below than up above Hades is full of thousands of Joneses and Browns, O'Hoolihans, Cohens and Bradys You’ll hear a heavenly tune that went to the devil Because the jazz bands They started pickin’ it Then put a trick in it A jazzy kick in it They’ve got a couple of old reformers in Heaven Making them go to bed at eleven Pack up your sins and go to the devil And you’ll never have to go to bed at all

If you care to dwell where the weather is hot H-E-double-L is a wonderful spot If you need a rest and you’re all out of sorts Hades is the best of the winter resorts Paradise doesn’t compare All the nice people are there They come there from ev'rywhere Just to revel with Mister Devil Nothing on his mind but a couple of horns Satan is waitin’ with his jazz band And his band came from Alabam’ with a melody hot No one gives a damn if it’s music or not Satan’s melody makes you want to dance forever And you never have to go to bed at all

Do you sense a theme?

Of course, Lil Nas X totally put his own spin on things to make it specifically about eschewing Christian morality in favour of embracing queer liberation, which is fucking fantastic! But it’s batshit insane to see the actual governor of South Dakota practically accusing Lil Nas X of personally ushering in the beginning of America’s moral decline, as if he’s some sort of gay pied pier leading all the good children away from God, when actually this is LITERALLY THE SAME BASIC THEME OF A NEARLY 100-YEAR-OLD SONG PENNED BY THE SAME COMPOSER WHO WROTE “WHITE CHRISTMAS,” “EASTER PARADE,” AND “GOD BLESS AMERICA.”

It’s just completely manufactured outrage about celebrations of otherness that have genuinely been around forever. These people don’t actually believe it’s going to threaten their way of life, because if these songs really had that kind of power, they wouldn’t still be here bitching about it after all this time. They just can’t stand to see anybody else enjoying being anything but them. 

Anyway, here’s a 1938 version of “Pack Up Your Sins” that features a 21-year-old Ella Fitzgerald on vocals absolutely crushing it: 

“what about the poor little white kids just trying to have fun?” what about the poor little kids of color made to feel unsafe and unwelcome in a space that was supposed to be fun?

“why can’t poc just make their own redesigns and we can keep these ones” why cant you realize that your actions have consequences and that you should maybe try to not enforce racist stereotypes??

like ofc its ideal to have VARIETY among both villains AND protagonists, its when your characters look like this

that the issue arises

So if you express a feeling about your job/working/capitalism on your own social media space that doesn’t please your employers, you’re punished.

Holy fuck

If this happens to you, you should file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/01/complaining_about_your_job_on_facebook_the_national_labor_relations_board.html

I don’t think people realise how easy it is to feel ugly when you’re South East Asian.

I know so many popular East Asian bloggers, who always get so many notes because of how elegant and refined and. Pale. They are. Those are standards most of us can never achieve. I’ve never seen a selfie set of a southeast Asian girl break 1k: but I’ve seen plenty, and I mean plenty of pale East Asians break 3k easy.

I know East Asian bloggers who go on about racism against East Asians and act like it’s universal. I know some who will talk about East Asian racism but never breathe a word about racism against southeast Asians.

I know East Asian bloggers who literally don’t follow any South East Asians. The ones who say that it doesn’t matter because “we’re all East Asian!” Technically. Or those who act like we’re a different breed and a different species.

I wonder if most East Asians know that their beauty standards get passed down to our countries. I wonder if they know how it hurts a lot of us.

So I’m giving a shoutout to every southeast Asian girl. Every one of you,if us, deserves to feel pretty.

I’m talking about the Indonesian gals with broad noses. The Malay girls who wear Tudung and are mocked. Chinese Singaporeans who are still not “Chinese enough” for mainlanders. Filipino girls who feel guilty about their curly or frizzy hair. Indian Singaporeans who are feel like they need to be pale to be worth something ( you don’t). Thai girls who are told their country is only good for farming rice. Myanmar girls who get asked mockingly if they’re domestic workers. Even if you are, there is no shame in that. Every Cambodian girl who felt bad about having thick lips. I know I left a lot of people out, and I’m sorry. But if you’re reading this and haven’t seen yourself here - you are just as worthy and my spirit and strength and good wishes are with you

Christians in my experience know very little about the culture that is found within the stories of the old testament.

All of our stories are deeply rooted in the time and place that they occured.

Leviticus, for example, was when the Greeks were exploring and coming into contact with us.

They had a tradition of adult men having sexual relationships with boys (ages 12 to 17) as a form of mentorship.

The Hebrew people were like "uh no? Fucking gross." Thus it ended up in our holy texts.

Sodem and gamorah is a big one too.

The smiting that happened there wasn't because of homosexuality, but rather the nonstop eating, drinking, and fucking to the point of ruin.

Basically everyone was so busy with pleasure that the rest of the aspects of life no longer mattered to them. this was both a spiritual disaster and a very literal one for people outside the city who depended on it for goods and services.

so the two stories that Christians hold as anti gay evidence can be summed up in two parts:

- Pedophilia is fucking evil.

- You can't be selfish and just party all the time because then your community will fall apart.

So yeah we have never seen gay stuff as bad and neither did your homie Jesus.

also. We have words in Hebrew for several different genders and many scholars believe that King David was gay.

Erika Ishii has suggested, if you’re able, to honor his memory with a donation to Magic Wheelchair, a nonprofit org that creates epic costumes and fx for kids in wheelchairs at no cost to their family.