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Sometimes antagonists are more interesting than protagonists. I suspect it’s because, at least for some writers, villains have more freedom to say and do whatever they wish than characters who are supposed to set a good example for everyone.
Here are some villains that I liked better than the protagonists I was supposed to be rooting for in these stories and why I enjoyed them so much.
Spike from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
He was a creative, emotionally intelligent, and hilarious bad guy. I also enjoyed seeing his character development over the seasons as he slowly learned how to be a slightly better vampire than he’d been before thanks to the time he spent with humans he liked among other reasons.
Gollum/Smeagol from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings novels
As critical as it was for his gold ring to eventually end up in other hands for plot reasons, I felt terrible for Gollum when he was separated from his Precious. He’d lost everything else important to him in life, and the magical effects of the ring had warped his mind and body beyond repair over the many years he spent with it. The poor guy.
Wile E. Coyote from the 1950s children’s cartoon Looney Tunes
I never wanted the roadrunner to be eaten, but I did wish that Wile E. could catch him just once!
The Blair Witch from the film The Blair Witch Project
Think about it. The Blair Witch went off deep into the woods to live alone and would have been perfectly content to not have any contact with the outside world at all until the protagonists of this film decided to invade her territory and steal her possessions. This happened after the main characters had been warned by local townspeople to stay out of the woods, so it’s not like they were unaware they were wandering into danger.
While I certainly didn’t want anyone to get hurt, everyone would have been better off if this camping trip never happened. There was never any need for the Blair Witch’s privacy to be invaded, and I would have been annoyed, too, if I were in her shoes!
If you can’t see the image attached to this post, I’m talking about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.