Media Essays: The Sympathetic Villain

Written by The Wandering Fox

(The Wandering Fox is looking outside his window with a bag full of sweets.)

Wandering Fox: (whispering) Hello there, just give me a moment, I have to give these sweets to some trick or treaters.

(Then came a knock at the door and he opened it top, finding a few of the costumes greatly resembled Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and various other horror villains.)

Wandering Fox: Huh, how odd, I was just getting to you.

(The Wandering Fox gave them the sweets and closed the door. He then dusted his hands and sighed as he took a seat on his soft fabric chair.)

I have a few things for Halloween for the blog already and I thought that’d be that, but recently a certain terrible tv show came back with a special episode which only made its recent finale even worse. Yes, I’m talking of Miraculous Ladybug, the show in which its morality messaging and characters are either flip flopping or just dead unlikeable that you if the movie gets a sequel, they don’t bung it up. You all know well by now the series creator, Thomas Astruc, has this daft belief that teenagers like Chloe and Lila are pure evil and digs enough plot holes to try and justify this while he feels Gabriel Agreste, the grown man and main villain of the series, did nothing wrong, despite the fact he’s a terrorist, an abusive father, tried killing multiple people either by himself or brainwashed Akumatised disciples of his.

I’m not saying Chloe is 100% innocent. She’s done a lot of bad things that she seriously has to make up for, but when you introduce a plot thread of maybe redeeming her, as well as introducing the fact her mother was abusive and still is to this day, you look and see a seriously damaged child who, yes should be held accountable for her own choices, but needs help in improving. The girl is only a teenager, who’s father not only enabled her bad behaviour, but sends her off with her abusive mum so he can have a “better daughter” then her and committing child abduction in the process. And this is meant to be seen as a good thing.

Thomas keeps trying to say there was no redemption plan or he was teasing us and telling us not everybody can be redeemed, but when you have the majority of your cast be complete numbskulls who can’t take a hint or think their eyes are at risk of a screwed up ball of paper despite wearing glasses, and you let the main bad guy die happily and his son is gaslit in thinking he was a hero, I don’t think Thomas is the brightest bulb in the room to guide you in a darkened corridor.

However, while I think there’s still a thread of a chance of Chloe redeeming herself, I thought of how there’s sympathetic villains out there who may not ever have a chance of redemption, hence it has come to quite the strange comparison of having Chloe and Gabriel compared to Jason and Freddy, or at least draw the differences and similarities between them both. Hence for starters, its ladies first as we compare.

Chloe Bourgeois and Jason Voorhees

Lets start with Chloe: a rich schoolgirl bully in Paris, daughter of the mayor, Chloe has two primary things which stands out in her role in the show: the bully of Marinette and the friend of Adrien. Chloe gradually does what most school bullies do, try copying the protagonist at competitions, read their diaries, plant gum on their seats, and being a hindrance to the other students. However, like other school bullies in fiction there is a softer side to Chloe introduced, such as her friendship with Adrien, her admiration of Ladybug, and finally there’s those who do care for Chloe like her butler Jean and her teacher Miss Bustier. Then there’s the dark side like her mother walking out on her as a kid, only to keep coming back and smudging it in her face she’s worthless.

This sets Chloe up as a complex character and in season 1 you can argue there’s groundwork laid for her to start overcoming her nasty attitude. Season 2 further makes her complex enough in which we meet her mother and we have Chloe making a jumbling start as a hero with her exposing herself and sabotaging a train to save it, which is not normal. Like I said, Chloe isn’t an angel. But upon seeing her mother and father you realise the girl didn’t grow up with the right mindset or anybody healthy enough to look up to. This is where the more smarter adults in the room, like Jean and Miss Bustier step in and help Chloe understand this is wrong. But of course with this being Miraculous Ladybug, and Thomas Astruc’s insane thoughts, they think Marinette having Chloe act more like her mum will make her better. Yeah, nice job Thomas. This all sees Chloe’s more sympathetic moments squashed down by the narrative of retconning her past with Marinette which dragged Kim into it and further complicated Marinette’s anxieties and not in a good way, then finally is sent away with her mum, who need I remind you constantly tells Chloe she’s not good enough. Great job, as in most cases the child growing up with such an abuser could develop serious mental health problems. And this is meant to be a villain with a sympathetic backstory but to be unlikable.

Lets look at a villain who truly embodies this: Jason Voorhees.

Jason is the whole reason why the killings at Crystal Lake happened. Born with his face disfigured, Jason only had his mother to love him and tried her hardest in looking after him. With Pamela getting a job at Crystal Lake she saw it as her chance to try and help Jason socialise. However, Jason was bullied by the other children and the camp counsellors were more interested in having sex than trying to help him. Jason was chased into the lake and couldn’t swim, presumably drowning. Pamela went insane with her grief and began to kill the counsellors and wreck Crystal Lake out of revenge and hatred. However, its hinted Jason survived his drowning and lived in the wild. Coming back years later, he saw his mum being decapitated by Alice at the end of the first film. With his mum dead, Jason had nothing left but to continue her work. Tracking down Alice, Jason made sure she suffered before killing her. Jason then continued to kill any campers, only stopped by Tommy Jarvis in Part 4 until he was resurrected in Part 6.

We do have a sense of Jason’s mental health in the series. In Part 2, after Ginny realises its Jason who’s the murderer, she dons his mother’s sweater and hides her decapitated head, trying to trick him in stopping. From Jason’s point, he thinks it's his mum who’s talking to him, with her talking kindly to him, he’s a good boy and wants to “award” him. Jason dearly misses his mum and with his fragile upbringing, it only had him fall for the trick even more. Obviously, he learnt it was a trick, and he gets ANGRY. Then you come to Freddy vs Jason, in which Freddy disguises himself as his mother to trick Jason in going to Elm Street to murder the teens. Jason learns the truth upon being knocked unconscious and is now hell bent on killing Freddy for using his mother. These instances do show though Jason is a man who didn’t grow up properly and has only his mother as a guidance, as his mental guide. Jason though has killed so many people there’s no chance of saving him. Each time he’s been tricked, he only gets angry and is more determined to kill than ever. He hates Tommy enough for tricking him and killing him that he’s willing to spare Megan just to go and get him. He was angry Tina was beating his ass in Part 7 that he was clearly going to make her suffer before killing her. Each time Jason has been approached with “compassion” he’s been tricked and is left to think it's his way of living, doing his mummy proud. Jason could’ve stopped ages ago but he won’t. While he has his limits, I.e. he won’t kill children and in some cases animals, he will go beyond those limits to get what he wants. In Jason Goes to Hell, he tries to be reborn through his baby niece, and he’s clever enough to play mind games on his older niece to get what he wants. Heck, even in the remake, in a deleted scene, Jason is evil enough to just watch a woman drown. In Freddy vs Jason he will kill anybody who gets in his way of Freddy, as he proven by killing Keya who was in between him and Freddy, and she was helping him while dissing Freddy.

The difference between Chloe and Jason is that, aside from horrible writing on Chloe’s part, is that Chloe still has a chance to make things right and those around her can help her. She’s not perfect, but the girl is a teen, she needs a good enough writer and a backbone to right her wrongs and stand up to those who only warped her in being this. Jason on the other hand, despite some flaws in his series, is consistent enough to tell you he’s beyond help and will not accept any compassion from others, he only wants to kill and if he HAS to kill a kid, he will kill the kid, and he doesn’t give a toss if somebody is helping him, he will kill them.

However, if we want to look at characters who are PURE evil, then let's look to:

Freddy Krueger and Gabriel Agreste

In a way, Freddy and Gabriel are almost alike. They’re both fathers, they haunt people inside their heads, have a somewhat comical gimmick, they’re both willing to kill their kids to get what they want, they enjoy hurting others, and even Freddy wanted to take over the planet like Gabriel did, and they trick others in doing their work, its Gabriel’s whole schtick and Freddy tricked Jason. Difference was Gabriel was originally intended to be a sympathetic villain who almost loses his way but comes back, which the movie achieved, though in the series Gabriel wants to take over the world, forgoes the chance to change the past to capture Ladybug, emotionally abuses his son and literally controls him into obedience, then in Chat Blanc he’s more than happy to beat the stuffing out of him. And this guy gets a happy ending because Thomas thinks he didn’t do anything wrong? Uh, no. Gabriel deserves what Freddy got.

Freddy killed a school pet as a kid, then killed his stepfather, he tried killing his daughter Maggie after she found out he was a murderer, he killed more kids, he was found not guilty in court hence the families of Springwood took revenge by burning him alive in his boiler room. Freddy kept a scrapbook of his victims and laughed about it. Its why upon seeing Freddy being defeated you feel happy. In The Final Nightmare, his daughter kills him, only right as he killed her mum. Freddy obviously wasn’t going to stop, hence he brought Jason back, though let's just say the absolute battering Freddy takes in the fight is just right to watch. Keep in mind, in Freddy vs Jason, in the opening, Freddy is quite proud of the horrible things he’s done. If only in Miraculous Ladybug we got an ending in which Adrien gets revenge on Gabriel for his sickening treatment of him similar to how Maggie got hers on Freddy. Seriously, can you imagine if Freddy got a happy ending at the end of The Final Nightmare? It’d be unbearable. His current state of being trapped in Jason’s wooden house as a trophy is a more fitting end for him.

This Halloween has indeed brought out interesting topics to go over, and I hope those of you who read this come away thinking of not only how things could’ve worked, but how you yourself can write a sympathetic baddie who has no desire of giving up and finally stopping. I am the Wandering Fox and I bid you good tidings on this Halloween.