Can villains be heroes?

It’s a tale as old as time. More cliche than cliche itself. Good versus evil. Right versus wrong. Devil and angel. I can go on and on. But a question I’ve been asking myself as I continue to work on ‘The Night Howler’ is: can a villain be a hero? Is being a villain simply based on a point of view? Is it so black and white as it may appear?

I think it’s safe to say we all believe that we are the hero of our own personal story. We live our lives, hopefully in humble pursuit of something good, and take on the challenges that come our way. Except, life doesn’t exist in a bubble and more often than not, our choices can affect the lives of others. Sometimes, we make decisions to get ahead or get an edge. We’re not perfect, nobody is. Despite this fact, we remain the hero of our story. After all, the hero’s journey is hardly ever a straight line.

But what does that mean for the people around us? If everyone is the hero, who gets to decide who is the villain? Is it just a matter of perspective?

One of my favorite movies of the last couple years is ‘Joker’, the 2019 film starring Joaquin Phoenix. This was one of the first stories in a long time where I found myself rooting for “the bad guy”. In that story, a man stands up to the bad people in his life by becoming a stronger, more capable version of himself. He becomes popular and takes control over his own life - something we all strive for. However, the things he does to get to that point - gunning down three men, killing his supposed mother, shooting a celebrity - are all pretty heinous. But to him, it’s justifiable. These were the obstacles standing in his way. He is the hero. They were the villains.

It’s a fascinating concept and one that can be debated for a long time. Of course, there are things we can all agree on that are horrible, and “I’m the hero of my story”, isn’t an excuse for any of that. But there’s something to be said about the nature of ‘hero vs villain’ that we’ve always known.

Perhaps it’s the times we live in and things aren’t as black and white as they used to be. It’s all kind of become a morally ambiguous gray. Maybe there aren’t any more purely good people out there.

The point I’m trying to make is that we can all do a better job of giving people the benefit of the doubt. We don’t have to be so quick to label people as a villain. Most of them are just going through the same things we are. They’re trying to overcome obstacles. They’re trying to become a more capable version of themselves.

So, can a villain be a hero? The answer is, most people are a bit of both. And that’s okay. What matters is that you keep trying to do good. It’s not always going to be pretty, but you still have to try. That’s what being a hero is all about.