I gotta tweet this so I can go back to work without it bouncing around in my head.

The take going around that "The rise of the sympathetic villain has altered our ability to perceive evil"

Is dumb and also bad. Something has changed, but that isn't it.

All villains are sympathetic villains otherwise they are just calamity, disasters, unfeeling forces of destruction
The Villain is the mirror of the hero. The hero does what the villain cannot, its not just the villain the hero defeats but the ideology that turns them to do evil

Thats.. thats the base fucking story my dudes, that is fucking narrative number one as old as language

You are supposed to identify with both to a degree and in seeing the two contrasted gain an understanding for base morality

The same is true of anti-heroes

What has changed is twists in story (primarily just actual fucking history lol) that suggests the ends maybe justify the means, and then maybe even the ends don't matter as long as the intent was good, and then maybe even the intent doesn't have to be good if it grew from pain

We started missing the point. The hero is the hero because they do not succumb to pain, their intentions are good, their means are just, and the ends set right a wrong.

This is also why historically heroes die. They pay the price, they accept reality and the consequences.

If we tweak our stories it should enforce that redemption doesn't come easily if at all. There is no nobility in making decisions that cause pain or suffering to others, and every king is a tyrant (fuck off with your heavy is the head that wears the crown shit)

We should be critical of our history b/c fuck me if that isn't where we reinforce ends justifying the means bullshit. Stop adding "but" at the end of lists of atrocities you turds and maybe it won't take collegiate humanities courses to teach basic morality.

You lazy fucks.