Okay, so, let’s talk about the humanized/empathized but still horribly monstrous villain in popular media and how that shit so often goes wrong in the hands of fans.

We’ll be touching on: Killmonger in Black Panther, MCU Loki, FFXIV Shadowbringers, & maybe more.

Pray for me.

We’ll also be diving into some fandom tendencies and bad habits and the socially ingrained bullshit that perpetuates it. This could go for a while is what I’m saying.

First things first, I’m going to go make breakfast and put on a happy place movie so y’all have time to mute.

We're going to do this one in chunks so as not to overload Twitter (I hope). Before diving into the specific examples, let's set up the ecosystem of fandom for the uninitiated.

The subsection of fandom I'll be talking about is largely femme, afab, or otherwise socializing femme.

With that comes a heck of a lot of social baggage. Most notably for this conversation is the tendency to view those socialized femme as nurturing redeemers. Some people reject that; some embrace it either knowingly or unknowingly.

Just look at toys designed for femme children.

That doesn't matter. What matters is that it's A Thing That's Socialized due to preconceived notions of roles within a family based on binary gender roles. Which is its own whole OTHER thing that... I don't think I'm entirely qualified to speak on. But moving right on along...

You've got a group of people who, globally, are largely told they must take care of that which they care about and must fix any perceived problems with those things. Sometimes, that's great! Others, less so. You see, the things they care about vary wildly from person to person.

Next, let's look at a pretty consistent trend in villains in popular media recently: the complicated villain with complete conviction in their actions. Villains who believe themselves the heroes in their stories, the only ones willing to Do What Must Be Done.

As storytelling devices, these kinds of villains are fuck GREAT. Like, they're my absolute favorite kinds to consume. They provide mirrors to the heroes, asking how far that hero is truly willing to go in order to achieve their goals and how many of their rules they'll break.

In the end, these villains often left broken: after all the lengths they've gone to and all the things they've done (and maybe, in some way, regret), it wasn't enough. Their solution is often shown to perpetuate the very thing they struggled against so vehemently.

These villains, at their very best, force the heroes to take a step back and consider their own actions in the face-off with their nemesis. Was all of this worth it? Was winning? Is anything?

There's one other thing about a good chunk of these latest villains: they're fucking hot.

So you've got a bunch of (fictional) broken hot people who believe wholeheartedly they're doing the right thing, presented as Not Entirely Wrong But Taking A Not So Great Approach, and you just put them in front of a group of people who have been told "you could totes fix that".

It's a whole ass recipe for disaster that no one is really willing to change the ingredients for to make it, like, a little bit less terrible.

This recipe has a name (sort of) that I heard long ago on tumblr in reference to MCU Loki: woobification.

More academica-ly (and less tumblr-y), you'd probs call it infantilization but that implies treating the subject as a child. That isn't the case here. The villain is treated as a project that can be fixed or corrected. Once they're "fixed" and forced good, everything's perfect.

This... probably sounds a lot like reasoning from other real life situations like domestic abuse; they come from the same socialization sources.

I'll not be diving into that any further, however. Plenty of people more informed than me already have.

This need to "fix" a villain, the belief that they are simply misunderstood (and, at least in the past, I've seen justifications that stem from MH which... phew, the implications)... This all has real-world impact as well. Remember when tumblr did this to actual serial killers?

So that's our proverbial petri dish. After a bit of a break to cuddle Bailey, I'm going to dive into some specific examples. Those will definitely involve spoilers. List to follow.

-Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnorak
-Black Panther
-The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
-Final Fantasy XIV, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers (up to 5.0's conclusion)

Okay, be back again soon. Mute if you need to!

SHADOWBRINGERS SPOILERS

First, I want to look at a villain (and it kinda feels incorrect to even call him that after finishing the launch MSQ) who technically ticks all the boxes but elicits less wooby-ing: Vauthry, mayor/dictator of Eulmore.

Meet Lord Vauthry (and evil grandpa buddy Ran’jit, but we’re talking about Vauthry right now). This man and his weird head-boob are an interesting villain, later revealed to be a simple catspaw.

In a world where Renaissance statues eagerly fuck up your shit, he can control them.

The how and why is mostly irrelevant to the conversation at hand (and makes for some good storytelling at what I genuinely thought was the end-patch content). What matters is he does terrible things in the name of saving this mostly destroyed world.

He creates a perceived utopia of plenty in the middle of the post-apocalypse with a very Snowpiercer-sequel situation. He is the only one who can control the Sin Eaters, Renaissance-esque angel-statue-monsters that are picking off the survivors of a global catastrophe.

Vauthry 100% sees himself as salvation for the peoples of this world, so long as they are willing to toe the line as he so dictates. It’s fine though, they’ll see he’s right in the end.

This ends up mirroring the predetermined path (by the devs and arguably by Fate/Hydaelyn) of the Warrior of Light turned Warrior of Darkness, your player character in the game.

(The stand-in is a basic white boy and I apologize but mine is a cute and very tall Viera so...)

In essence, are you as the hero not doing the same thing as the expansion’s most obvious villain: telling the world “merely follow me and I will lead you to salvation”. Have you not done this for literal YEARS in the game?

“But Allie,” you say, glancing back a few tweets, “that mans is not hot.”

You’re absolutely right. He’s not conventionally attractive and is, in fact, designed to be visually repulsive. His arms are too long, his legs far too short, he’s got a face boob just hanging out...

...but then halfway through his boss fight, this motherfucker glows up like this:

Like I said, Vauthry only technically checks all the boxes. And he so cleanly breaks the convention is that we, as players and the WoL/WoD have already made up our minds about his character by the time his transformation happens. He’s a despot and we’ve made up our minds.

Vauthry’s backstory reveal (and the revelation that I had A WHOLE OTHER GODDAMNED ZONE TO GO) after his fight ends up completing his framing as pathetic catspaw; pitiable and humanized but no longer powerful.

All this said, I did a search and people are absolutely out on this here internet writing fix-it redemption arcs for the man-angel-monster who was totally willing to help destroy what was left of a planet because “I was told by management it was gonna be better after”...

I could deal with Thanos next but it would be a lot of the same things repeated. Compared to the Avengers (who had a decade of “they’re good AND hot” behind them), he’s just “that Grimace looking wrinkly chin”. If the whole franchise started with Infinity War though...

Thanos & Vauthry both represent similar approaches to making a villain feel more villainous: making them visually unappealing with something that distinctly others them from the heroes.

Which in turn is its own whole other set of problems, as this can pull from irl stereotypes.

Sometimes, this technique also shows up in the other direction: taking an ostensibly hot villain and making them visually monstrous, in case it didn’t come through before. Serious drama adaptations of Dracula and other vampires will do this on the regular.

Alright, another chunk down, another small break incoming before we dive into Killmonger, Loki, Emet-Selch, and Zenos. Arguably, I could throw in Lahabrea too but I hate Thancred and would fist fight given .01% of a chance.