VILLAINS - PROLOGUE

Well, Well, The ones who are not dead always come back...

I’m back, after... uhm... It’s been a so long time since I last posted that I don’t know when it was (And I’m to tired and lazy to see the date in my last post).

Well, the fact is that I’ve been gone for a while because I’m having so much work to do, and I can’t even stop to write a few lines (Oh, yeah, I know, it sucks!).

When you really want to do something, but you realize you just can’t, it feels like you are impotent.

Well, let’s get to work!

When I was forced to make my short stop (well, not so short) I was in the last post about Villains. Now, I will finish the series. The following text is prologue.

First of all, I wanna thank you all for reading my texts, and I wanna say that what really makes difference is not to have many readers, but have “good” readers.

Villains are evil, wicked, and have no sense of right and wrong. When I started writing about villains I said that I liked them because they are almost always much more interesting than heroes. And I keep my word: they are much more complex. Even the ones who look simple at the first sight have much more behind the appearances.

Think of Joker. He is so pathetic and irrational, but is exactly for being stupid and having no deep intentions that he is able to be so genius. When you don’t really have a plan, you are able to do anything you want! Hannibal, on the other side, is a classy villain who proves that intelligence makes all the difference sometimes: he is able to fool people like children. Magneto, by his time, is an almost “good” villain, once he is a victim from the circumstances, but he doesn’t measure his efforts to get what he wants.

Well, in short, I think everything starts by the concept of power. Almost all villains (the good ones) are always looking for power and domination. You can be strong, but that’s not enough, you have to be the strongest. Maybe you already have more than you need, but what if you still could have much more? Maybe everything... That’s the path that leads people to become villains.

If they are cruel and sadistic, or quiet and calm, it’s just a question of style. In the end, all they want is to be more than anyone. Overcome this small and fragile human shell.

Who is the best villain in my opinion? It’s a very difficult question... Even now, I can think of some more villains which I could have chosen and written before, but there’s no more time for them.

I admire all the ones I wrote about because of their specific characteristics, so I can say it’s not a question to choose the best one, but to tell you what the best one should be.

A great villain? Well, he (or she) needs to mix intelligence (Hannibal), style (Sylar), power and wickedness (Voldemort), madness (Joker) and an ideal (Magneto).

Who is this perfect villain? I guess he (or she) has not been created yet, and that’s why I’m going to write my own story and try to bring the best villain ever to life.

The ones who survive will see it.

Well my friends, this is it for now. This series ends here. I hope you enjoyed it. Leave your comments and let me know if you agree or not with me. And if you have any idea or suggestion of themes for the blog, feel free to tell me.

Hugs for you all!

MAGNETISM

I’m back and ready to talk about the first character who comes from the cartoons.

He is powerful, intelligent and has a great hunger for power.

Erik Magnus Lehnsherr has a sad life history. He started suffering very early in his life, once he was a Jew. He was hunted by the Nazis, and taken to the famous concentration camp named Auschwitz. There, while he was just a teenager, he met the woman who became the love of his life.

After a risky escape, they start a normal life together and have a baby. However, things go wrong when Erik’s powers start coming up. In the beginning everything is fine, but then, after some time, his powers evolve and he can’t contain them anymore, what makes people scared and mad about him.

All this culminates with his child, a little girl, dying on a fire at their house caused by the villagers who wanted to kill him. After that, Erik gets so angry that he can’t hold his powers and, in a big explosion, he incinerates all the people around the house. His wife, scared by this big demonstration of destruction, runs away from him.

Erik tries to find her, but he can’t because he is, at the same time, trying to escape from the special forces sent by the government to capture him.

All this, plus the fact that he has no life anymore, makes him change everything in his existence, even his name. He is now Magneto, and his main ideal is to make the world accept the ones who are, for some reason, different.

Magneto meets, at a certain time, Xavier, a young and powerful mutant, just as he is. They have dreams of changing the world together, but they disagree in how to do this. Magneto believes that human race has no cure, and that mutants must govern people and punish the ones who don’t accept it. Nevertheless, Xavier can’t go on this plan, because he wants peace and communion between humans and mutants.

So, They split up and the friendship is not the same anymore.

What happens is that Magneto finds many followers for his cause and so does Xavier. Magneto runs a group named Brotherhood, and Xavier opens the Institute for all the mutants who want to join him.

They both keep fighting, but, in the end, they are just bothers trying to reach the same place, just by walking through different paths.

I decided to put Magneto here, because I think he isn’t a really villain. He is the first one I think is not really evil. He has grown among so many problems, so who can jugde him? I’m not saying that the environment determinates the final product, because I don’t really think like this, but he isn’t bad. He just wants a better place to live.

I don’t know, but I think he can be forgiven from all his sins, once he has done them for a greater good. Perhaps, “The end justify the means” (Maquiavel). (Such a complicated concept!)

Is it true?

Well, It’s a philosophical question that can’t be answered here, but we can at least let a piece of light in the subject:

People see the world by their personal point of view. What if they could feel beyond their strict senses and see the reality exactly how it is? What is really right or wrong? Men have created laws, so, the question is: are men well equipped for this responsibility?

Let’s reflect on this.

Keep going Magnus! I’m just right behind you!

PLAYING OF KILLING

Heath Ledger was a fascinating actor. He started his artistic career in Australia, where he was born, and then, in 1998, he went to USA, where, movie by movie, he climbed the fame ladder. He became an icon, a star. However, being only 28 years old, he died when he was about to reach the top of the top: win the Oscar for his performance as Joker in Batman’s last adventure. In fact, the recognition came in a posthumous award, but it was too late for him.

Nowadays, when I see him as Joker, I believe that all the great people in this world has some kind of misfit, it can be something like a psychological problem, a social difficulty in finding friends, a tendency to evolves depression, and maybe even a suicidal conduct.

All artists, the ones who are really brilliant (a few ones, in fact), always live in the extreme poles: they are never medium or average, they are always in supreme happiness or in the deepest sadness. They all are big, in the good or in the bad side, always big. What happens is that they are not done for this small and finite world. All great souls need more, and they can’t find it here…

Ledger was dragged by the character.

Joker is a villain that I respect a lot because of some things. First, he represents a crazy villain. He shows another face of evil (a new, haven’t seen in this blog yet) because he doesn’t have desires about nothing. He isn’t worried about dominating the world, getting power, scaring people, oh no, he is almost beyond evil and good, he is insane.

Joker is a villain that doesn’t harm people, he just plays with them, after all, he is just a joker. However, inside all his simplicity, he carries a very complex and original system of feelings. He has nothing to loose, using his own words from the movie: “I represent the chaos!”

We see an immoral, inconsequent, incoherent, and very, very violent person. Joker shows all his potential for destruction when he simply plays to kill people.

Once more, a villain steals the scene: Batman can’t be noticed when we have someone so interesting as Joker close to him. I think there’s nothing more I can say about him. He shows himself by his acts. He’s brilliant and just because of it he’s also terrible. To understand what I mean, just keep reading.

I found many difficulties in choosing Joker’s best quotes for this post, so, I’ve selected four extraordinary ones.

Joker to Batman: “Oh, you. You just couldn’t let me go, could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You are truly incorruptible, aren’t you? Huh? You won’t kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won’t kill you because you’re just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”

Joker: Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can’t savor all the… little emotions. In… you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?

Batman: Let her go! Joker: [holding Rachel out of a window] Very poor choice of words…

Joker [holding a knife inside Gambol's mouth] Wanna know how I got these scars? My father was… a drinker. And a fiend. And one night he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn’t like that. Not-one-bit. So – me watching – he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it! Turns to me, and he says, “why so serious, son?” Comes at me with the knife… “Why so serious?” He sticks the blade in my mouth… “Let’s put a smile on that face!” And…Why so serious?

Do I have anything else to say?

Hugs, friends!

“DON’T TOUCH THE GLASS!”

Hello everybody! Now, I’m here to write about the third villain in my list. Just to remind you, the fact of being the third in the list has nothing to do with the final classification. Just when I finish the list I’m going to classify them. For now, it’s just a question of an arbitrary choice.

Until now, I wrote about two villains I really admire and think that are very interesting. In fact, as I have already written, I can say that I like them. But this next one is different. He is part of the five not because he is very powerful like Voldermort or full of style like Sylar, he’s here because he is sinister.

The movie where this character appears is really scaring. It was originally recorded in 1989, but even today, with all the technology available, it can still send shivers down in your spine.

He is a serial killer. In the movie, “Silence of the lambs”, a FBI agent named Clarice Starling is designated to interview the famous psychopath Hannibal Lecter, known for his cannibal acts.

At this moment, the disturbing scenes begin: Hannibal in inside a glass cell, in a top security prison, where people can just see him, but not touch or be touched. In their first meeting, Clarice realizes why he is so dangerous: he is polite, calm, intelligent, and there is one more strange fact that impress her a lot: he almost doesn’t wink. His look is fixed and cold. No doubt he is a serial killer.

Although he is so scaring, he is also the only one who can help FBI to stop a crazy guy who is killing people in memory of Hannibal: one of his followers.

To help the agent to do this job, Hannibal asks for some favors: he wants a new cell with windows and, to talk to the agent and help her to find the killer, he requires the right of asking her personal questions about her life.

This could be just an ordinary session of interviews, but with Hannibal, nothing is so simple. He is a master in psychologist torture and, step by step, he destroys Clarice’s sanity with his words. He makes her extremely scared using her memories.

The big problem with this villain is his unbelievable capacity of being cruel. Differently of the others, he isn’t a supernatural force, he is human. However, he is also the most distant thing from human we can find in the world.

A villain who is in prison, closed behind ten centimeters of unbreakable glass, but who is still the most threatening creature that can be imagined. His principal power? If he finds you, there are just two options: he is going to smash your mind with your own fears or he will literally eat your brain, another of his specialitties.

Hannibal’s best quotations:

“Now you're being rude, and I hate rude people.” (Hannibal, before killing a man)

“You see, the brain itself feels no pain if that concerns you, Clarice.”

HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURNS

Hagrid to Harry "Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die."

Well, well, well, is there someone in the world who doesn’t know him? “The one who must not be named”, or “you know who”, like wizards and witches would say.

In fact, I think this is one of the greatest book series ever written. It’s true it doesn’t have many deep content, and that J.K. Rowling isn’t a Saramago or a Dostoyevsky, but, anyway, she was able to create something that captivated millions of people around the world. So, tell me: how can thousands of millions be totally wrong? Oh, I think they can’t…

I’ll tell you how my first contact with the series was: I was about 14 or 15, (don’t say it was many years ago, please!), and I was at school. On that day, there was a missing teacher, so someone (a blessed person) had the extraordinary idea of playing us a movie, and, guess what… The movie was Harry Potter and the sorcerer stone.

At that time, I didn’t know it yet and I wasn’t really interested in it. I already was a lover of reading, but Harry Potter wasn’t one of my preferences. So, I started to watch the movie with no expectations, and I was one of the only ones who had not watched it yet. In the beginning I didn’t care, but then, when Harry finally arrived at Diagonal Alley, I could feel the magic of the story…

Well, but this text isn’t about it, but about the villain of the story.

Lord Voldemort, “the one who must not be named”, is a spectacular character. One of the most interesting things about him, in my opinion, is that we can see his development through the seven books. We see how he gets stronger and stronger and has no mercy on the ones who stands against him. We can understand how he became what he is.

I think he has one very important ingredient to be a good villain: he has no fear of nothing. Let’s compare: the most powerful and great characters of the book are Professor Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort, but this last one gets to a higher level.

Dumbledore is very intelligent and an exceptional wizard, but he has limits from where he can’t go on. Voldemort, however, doesn’t. Our villain here becomes successful where Dumbledore fails: he doesn’t stops until beating the last enemy: death.

Lord Voldemort is so terrifying that his name has enough power to scare people. When he arrives, there’s no need for a word, just a freezing look is able to transmit his wills.

Besides all of this, there is still another characteristic that makes him a classic villain: he wants to dominate the world. He wants to be the real lord of everybody.

If we analyze him, we can see that Voldermort is a traditional villain. He is evil in all his existence, and behind all this wickedness there is a story of a disturbing life. Since he was a child he was already cruel. When he grows up, he doesn’t stop for nothing, he wants power.

“There is no good and evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it”

(Lord Voldemort).

"You know who" deserves to be feared by people. He is not just scaring; he is a monster, a real one.

The Dark Lord’s Best Quotation:

“Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies. You must know this, Dumbledore”.

Oh, and what about HP? In my opinion, this last line is enough for him. He has what he deserves.

Leave your comments please, and if you want some fun, see a hilarious page by clicking in the following link:

http://www.uhull.com.br/11/16/as-melhores-frases-se-o-harry-potter-fosse-brasileiro-seharrypotterfossebrasileiro/

SYLAR

Let’s follow a short story: you were just a normal person, an ordinary guy who was used to do ordinary things. You were a watchmaker, and just like the biggest part of humanity: you weren’t more than a little part of nothing in the huge universe, invisible and predictable.

Think a little: how long could you stand an empty life without a trace of hope or faith? Could you live with yourself while you know you are fated to be nothing?

Sometimes you know you must, should and need to do something else, but you don’t do because you can’t. You are the right one, but something is wrong. You have to find what it is. Fast.

Then, one day, when you have almost lost all your hope, someone (a Scientist) comes to your door and says that you are special. You are someone who is supposed to change everything in the world, because you have powers. You have extraordinary powers.

Of course you feel the flame inside you again. You were not wrong. There is something for you, and now, you have found it.

However, after a first happy moment and many scientific tests, your savior says he was wrong. It wasn’t you. You don’t have powers, you don’t have anything special, and you are just someone else in the crowd, and now, after living the dream, you can just go back to normal life.

Oh, no, but you can’t stand your life anymore. In a second you believe, then, you realize it was just an illusion.

So, when everything seems to be lost, you find the one who has special powers. He is the right guy, but when you see this person you notice he is a strange, ugly, normal, common and ordinary man, although he has special powers. He has your special powers, the ones you were supposed to carry. He is in your place.

You can’t believe in it, because this guy doesn’t want powers, he wants his horrible and simple life back and says his powers are a curse. That’s when you realize you should be there. That’s your place. That divine gift belongs to you. You have to take it back.

Then, after a second of clarity, you understand that the real problem isn’t in you, but in them. You finally understand: people in the world are the true problem. They are broken. You are supposed to become big, but the sickness of the world doesn’t let you to.

So, you have to take back what belongs to you: your powers. And you know the only way is killing these unworthy people because they don’t deserve the honor of being special.

You kill the guy and accidentally (using a Christmas souvenir) you open his head, and see that you can understand it all. Not just the way people act, but the way everything works, including people’s minds and powers. You are even able to learn how to use these special abilities, but for this, you have to open people’s head and take a look at their brain, because, as a machine, there is a logical reason for everything.

From this moment on, your mission in the world is to fix what is wrong and take the powers from these lost citizens. That’s you: you could be a hero, but you aren’t, because you don’t believe in heroes.

The whole world is mistaken: you are not just one more, you are the one.

That’s Gabriel Gray’s story, known as SYLAR.

In the TV series HEROES, the main and most interesting character is SYLAR, a villain that is more than just bad. He really believes what he does is right, because he needs to “save” humanity from the great evil: themselves.

The TV series is about some people who find out they have special powers and start to develop them. This happens because evolution, it’s a story about natural selection and how the species change to adapt in world conditions.

The series is good because it has a very interesting philosophical background about finding a way to save the world (that’s the biggest concern), and it has a convincing and rational explanation for everything. When you watch it, you always get surprised with things that happen.

Sylar is the main villain (yeah, there are more than just one) and he is spectacular one because he starts from zero, when he understands that his special power is being able to understand everything.

In a first and negligent look, this power seems unimportant, but stop and think for a while: If you were able to understand everything, if you could know how everything works, you could change anything. You would even be able to save the world by correcting what is wrong. So, imagine the dimension of his power.

However, Sylar doesn’t use it to save nothing, but to take what he wants. The first special powers he steals is the mind power: telekinesis. Then, we see a particular show every time he uses people’s powers and get new ones. Instead of the original owners, he always knows how to use all the powers and he is never afraid of doing this.

It’s a horror show watch him hunting other people and doing extraordinary things with many different powers. He is, certainly, one of the most powerful villains it exists, but he isn’t invincible.

HEROES is a very good program, but just in its first season, from the second on, there are many mistakes and problems in the plot.

Sylar’s best quotation: “You are broken. I’ll fix you”. (he says

it before opening people’s heads).

There are more secrets about him I won’t tell; maybe if you watch it you will see.

Be careful, he makes no noise and you can’t see him, but don’t worry, he’ll help you taking this trivial thing you call life.

Give him your grade and let your comments please.

HEY, I'M BACK!

For one week, I couldn’t find time to write, and it got me very upset, because I really want to do it. Now, it’s late, I’m tired, I couldn’t have a bath yet, but I’m here, and I’ll write. I need to. (This text was written at about one o’clock, November, 23^rd, 2010)

Well, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could classify my favorite villains. Some of them are easier, but others aren’t. So, I decided to do it different: I’m going to write about my five favorite ones, and while I do this, I’ll think about the classification and then, at the end of the process, I’ll make my list. (Here, I wanna ask for your help. Write your comments and help me find my best villain, because I’m really in doubt).

Remember: it’s not just a question of being bad, but of being the best inside the wickedness.

My first character comes now. Enjoy it.

VILLAINS

I have just finished writing about heroes, and now, I decided to write about the extreme opposite: villains.

Why start writing about villains? Oh, just because in most of cases they are much more fascinating than the good guys.

Think a little: when you watch a movie, do you sometimes catch yourself cheering for the evil side?

When you see the bad guy hitting the good ones and doing great things, using his amazing powers while the ‘nice guys’ are there, worrying about cats, dogs and flowers, don’t you fell a supreme happiness?

When the villains are women, have you ever stopped to notice that almost in all the cases they are gorgeous - much more than the princess and good girls.

More than anything, the bad size of the power is always beautiful, powerful, and it has personality. The bad guys don’t fear and aren’t afraid of desiring what they really want. They go there and do it.

Yeah. I admire some of them, and as everyone can see, most of people do too. That’s why even in those horrible demonstrations of bad taste called soap operas, people always want to dress like the villains, who are more succeed than heroes, at least in terms of audience.

Oh yeah, they have style.

Starting here, I’ll choose 5 villains I really admire and think that are the best ones.

Remember: Good villains are always interesting people. That’s the first signal for you to recognize a super villain.

Read my texts and comment them, please.