#from ouat

Heroes and Villains have differing definitions depending on the culture, time period and the author's personal views. Oftenest, the hero has all the "right" qualities- nobility, courage, selflessness, honor, etc. The villain has all the "wrong" qualities- selfishness, greed, ambition, depession.

Yet values dissonance and changing thoughts about humanity make some old "heroes" seem monsterous in modern views, and old villains much more sympathetic. People like to complain about loss of morality, etc, which isn't exactly true IMO. I think it has to do with what a hero and villain truly are, what makes them that way.

Villains often have a "fatal flaw" but so do the classic antiheroes. Villains don't always fight for themselves- remember, Utopia Justifies the Means exists- and heroes aren't paragons of virtue- see all modern antiheroes. So what makes a hero, and a villain, them?

In my opinio, it comes down to one simple question:

When forced into a situation where they have to save that which they care most about, or themselves, what will they choose?

Will they die protecting something besides themselves, or

Will they they to save their own skin?

It doesn't have to be life-and-death. One example I think of comes from the book A Little Princess. Near the end of it, the main heroine, Sara, is starving nearly to death, and by luck finds money to buy food. Bt outside the bakery she sees a little homeless girl who hadn't eaten in days. Sara buys six buns, but gives five of them to the beggar girl.

That, to me, is heroism. It's giving to others, even if (or especially if) it costs you a great deal. It's thinking of, and putting others, before yourself. An antihero may be a jerk and be selfish most of the time, but at the end of the day, he will choose to help another over himself.

Villains will always, in the end, choose themselves over others. But not always literally. Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds is a villain trope for a reason- a villain put through so much pain and misery he tries to destroy the world. While we can sympathize with him, in the end, he is simply choosing to care more about his pain than the countless lives lost. You can have idealistic villains, but ultimately, they fight for what they want.

You may say, "But heroes do that too, don't they?" Yes, and that's where values dissonance starts to hit hard. A hero who only fights for himself and his desires isn't very heroic, is he? To a degree the line gets hard, especially the greyer a work gets and the more anti____ you through in.