How 'GoT' And 'Harry Potter' Taught Us About Real Villains
As children, the very first villains we learned about were monsters.
COMMENT and tell us which pop culture villain you think is the most sinister!
As children, the very first villains we learned about were monsters.
They hid beneath our beds, inside our closets, and below our basement steps. They were easy to recognize because they were hideous and non-human.
They weren't complicated. They wanted to hurt us, and that's what made them so terrifying.
Then came Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger.
Once we were old enough to watch horror movies, on-screen characters like Jason and Freddy personified our monster fears.
What's worse, you couldn't kill these movie villains. There was no escaping them, either.
And similar to the monsters under our bed, they had a clear motive.
Only this time, they wanted to kill us.
However, we soon learned about a different kind of villain.
As we matured, we started to realize that pain is not only physical but also emotional.
Characters like Ramsay Bolton on Game of Thrones exemplified that.
He broke Theon's spirit through torture and mind games. He baited Jon Snow by letting Rickon run free — only to kill him moments later. And he held Sansa captive, abusing her all the while.
Villains like Ramsay proved that monsters come in human form, too.
We also learned that monsters can be complicated.
If Jason Voorhees wanted to kill us, then Cersei Lannister wanted to make us and our entire family suffer.
Just ask Margaery Tyrell — oh right, you can't. Cersei murdered her and her entire family.
She came after the Tyrells with the kind of long-term, calculated vengeance that someone like Jason could never carry out. If Cersei wanted you dead, she was likely brewing a complex plot.
And that's much, much scarier.
We began to understand that bureaucracy is scary, too.
Even prim and proper Dolores Umbridge is more terrifying than some guy with a knife-glove.
Because, while Freddy may kill you in your dreams, Dolores Umbridge will make your life a living hell.
Powerful organizations such as the Ministry of Magic can turn into authoritarian regimes when put in the wrong hands. And going up against someone with unlimited resources is a difficult battle to win.
Worst of all, it's all done "by the book" (which they wrote), making it even harder to challenge.
Finally, we realized that villains can be everyday people.
The Dursleys proved that villains can even be found in our own homes.
Except rather than trying to kill us, they slowly break our spirit, day by day.
And that's more evil and cunning than anything else.
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