Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.
After listening to every song for the 100th time, I realized something: my favorite character is Aaron Burr. For those of you who don’t know, Aaron Burr is more or less the villain of Hamilton. He is constantly depicted as a somewhat slimy politician, and he kills Hamilton in the end of the play during a duel. My love for Burr perplexed me. Hamilton is the hero, not Burr, so why wasn’t I rooting for Hamilton? How could I identify with, much less root for the villain?
In sports, we root for villains all the time. Thousands of people root for the New England Patriots, The New York Yankees, The Chicago Blackhawks, or LeBron James. It’s considered totally normal. While Tom Brady may be my favorite player, I realize that most NFL fans despise him, but rooting for him doesn’t have the same stigma as rooting for villains in books or movies does.
If you tell someone you root for the Empire in Star Wars, they look at you differently. It’s like telling them you hate puppies and happiness. But after some serious self-evaluation and reflection I came to a pleasant conclusion on my moral question: It’s totally fine to root for the villain in some cases. An interesting villain isn’t all-evil, they have legitimate justifications for their actions and are somewhat relatable. They’re people too. Now I am in no way advocating for you to root for every villain. In fact you shouldn’t root for most villains. I’m not telling you to root for the USSR in Miracle or Claudius in Hamlet. Don’t do that, their bad guys.
Now I realize a lot of you reading this disagree with me, so I’d thought I’d give you some examples. Some villains who when you break it down, were understandable if not justified, in their actions.
As I’ve already stated, Aaron Burr, to me, is what is the most positive set of arguments that can be employed to defend Hardt and Negri against potential criticisms. That is, I would encourage you to engage in a thought exercise in which you attempt to adopt the position of Hardt and Negri and articulate the most forceful argument on their behalf. Villain.
Burr just wants to be involved in the political process. He repeatedly says he wants to be “in the room where it happens." He’s spent his whole life trying to be more and more involved in American politics, but no matter what he does there are always two common factors: Alexander Hamilton is more successful than him, and Hamilton prevents him for succeeding. Hamilton gets to marry a Schuyler sister and he doesn’t. Hamilton gets to work for Washington and Burr doesn’t. Hamilton, his so-called friend, even chooses to endorse Jefferson (Hamilton’s sworn rival) over him, giving Jefferson the presidency, instead of Burr. Sure challenging Hamilton to a duel is a little extreme, and Burr even regrets it after he kills him, but I think we can all agree that Burr has a right to be both jealous and angry with Hamilton given the circumstance.
Our next example is Silva, the villain of the James Bond film Skyfall. If you haven’t seen Skyfall, Silva spends the whole movie trying to dismantle MI6/ kill M (the leader of MI6). Does he do this just because he is evil? No, of course not. He does it because when he was an MI6 agent he was tortured and left to die as a prisoner of war. M/ MI6 turned their back on him when he needed them most, and he suffered, even sustaining physical deformities because of it. Most normal people in Silva’s place would be angry with the British government and would want revenge if they could get it. I’m not saying what Silva did is right, but it is understandable.
Keeping with the theme of villains who were scorned in their past, I present to you Loki, the re-occurring villain of the Marvel universe. Loki has appeared in 3 movies so far, but I want to call attention to his first appearance, in the movie Thor. In Thor Loki gets his brother, Thor, cast out of Asgard and then tries to seize the throne from their father Odin. Only here’s the twist, Odin isn’t Loki’s father. Loki is actually the son of King Laufey, King of the Frost Giants. After defeating Loki’s birth father in battle, Odin chose to steal an infant Loki from his home and then raises him as his adopted son, along with Thor, Odin’s actual son. Now one would assume that Odin is a great and loving father to both of his children, but he really isn’t. Odin pits Thor and Loki against each other throughout their whole childhood, constantly reminding them that only one of them can be Odin’s heir to the throne of Asgard. Predictably, Odin chooses Thor, his actual son, as the heir. Additionally he never chooses to share with Loki the fact that he is actually a Frost Giant. It is almost certain Loki would’ve had a better life with his birth father. Additionally Loki would clearly be a better king than Thor, being more levelheaded and thoughtful than Thor. It is understandable after suffering a horrible childhood, t being passed up for the role he has prepped his entire lifetime for and is more qualified for, Loki is angry and chooses to use the only method he knows to seize the throne and provide what he genuinely believes to be a better future for the people of Asgard.
The final example I want to call attention to is the villain of one of my favorite films: Apollo Creed in Rocky. In case you haven’t seen Rocky, it’s about Rocky Balboa, an amateur boxer in Philadelphia who gets a shot to fight world champion boxer Apollo Creed. It’s easy to like Apollo, he’s entertaining, talented in the ring, and his only real faults are that he’s a little cocky and that he’s fighting the main character. But the most obvious reason to like Apollo is that he’s a real life sport hero. Well sort of. He’s based off real life boxing legend Muhammad Ali, one of the most beloved athletes in the history of sport. If Apollo wasn’t fighting Rocky he could easily be the hero in a boxing movie. This is so evident that he actually becomes a hero and Rocky’s best friend in later Rocky films.
So there you have it, not all villains are evil. Some of them are just like us. They have hopes, dreams, and drive. So next time you’re reading your favorite book or watching your favorite movie, pay attention to the villain. You might be surprised by how much you like them.
