What do you all make of the relatable bad guy thing?

We've had relatable bad guys now.

It's been pretty commonplace in mainstream storytelling for 15 or 20 years.

When I was little, though, it seems like the bad guys were just bad.

Their motives were, I want power, pure power, raw power. And they go on these rants about

whatever evil thing they wanted to do. I think syndrome in the Incredibles was meant to sort of make

fun of this with his monologuing bit about how ridiculous bad guys are to admit that they're bad.

Or it could just be that in this age of more moral relative, about how ridiculous bad guys are to admit that they're bad.

Or it could just be that in this age of more moral relativism,

that the idea of a relatable bad guy whose motives make more sense is just, you know, it's more appealing, it's what people expect.

I mean, Thanos is kind of a big example of that.

A lot of people are sympathetic to Thanos

and think he kind of had a point in the Marvel shows.

You know, on the one hand, I think that relatable bad guys is great.

I think the scariest kind of bad guy is the bad guy who thinks they're right

and actually has a point.

I think a boring bad guy is just, you know,

it's old Snidly Whiplash who we've talked about here before, who I guess is just the epitome of the character with the evil black mustache who's just bad because they're bad.

When I first started reading the Bible, I guess if you would have asked me,

who's the big bad of the Bible? It would have said, Satan, because Satan just wants whatever's

opposed to what God wants. He's just pure evil. But if you'd ask me to explain why, I think it's what

I said, well, you know, he's, he's proud, and he's bad. And that's it. He's the big bad. Okay, if you would have said, well, who's the other big bad of the Bible? I would have said, well, it's the Pharisees. It's a group of people. They wanted Jesus dead because, well, they're just bad inside. They just don't love what is good.

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