Have you ever noticed that not a lot of writers, mostly screenwriters, don't let the antagonist be in love? Sure, he has some main squeeze that he "loves", but he's ready to abandon her in a heartbeat. When she dies in the crossfire, he doesn't even stop to say goodbye.
Is that because it would make him human? Are people that afraid of liking a villain? Is there a law somewhere that says evil can't love?
Not that all antagonists should be head-over-heels in love. Some really are cold bastards. They really would use their girlfriend as a human shield.
But every now and then, it might be nice to sigh wistfully at the villains romance.
Especially on screen, there's a limited amount of time. Villain-time tends to get spent on convincing us these people are jerks, so something generally opposite to jerkdom, like being in love, seldom makes it into characterization. The times when I've noticed an antagonist's motivations stemming from love, though, like in the Zatoichi remake and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, I thought it was a heck of a feet.
ReplyDelete