on villains and Death Note

[edenfalling]

My friend Cat once remarked that almost without fail, her favorite character in any story will either die, turn out to be secretly evil, or both. Occasionally she's very lucky and they turn out to be secretly reformed villains instead, but that's about the only break in the pattern.

I can't pick 'em like she can (we don't share precognition over our telepathic link) but I do have a worrying tendency to cheer for the villains and sociopathic types, so long as they're well written. It's like watching fire -- hypnotizing. There's just something about an itelligent, semi-rational person setting out to achieve terrible goals, and making it work, at least up to a point. You ride along with them and release all the impulses you'd never act on in real life.

I also love reading stories in which people have battles of wits, or carry out complicated plans. I'm no good at writing that sort of thing, but I love to read it. (This is not to be confused with mysteries. I like to know what's going on and to watch it unfold. I like watching the clockwork move.)

I think one of the main things I don't like about Harry Potter is that Voldemort is, bluntly, batshit insane and kind of stupid because of it. Oh, it works within JKR's world, but that's not how I like my villains. In Naruto, I find Akatsuki and Kabuto much more interesting than Orochimaru, because Orochimaru is a monomaniac without much subtlety, whereas Kabuto has something ticking away behind his eyes, and Akatsuki is clearly working on a plan at least a decade in preparation. Granted, individually they may be a disappointment, but as a group they have something going for them.

I'm not at all surprised that I am in love with Death Note. Yagami Raito is everything I like reading about -- rational, intelligent, persuasive, gifted at reading and manipulating people, willing to risk it all on slim chances when he has to, composed in a crisis -- and for all that he's a serial killer with a god complex and sociopathic tendencies, he does have reasons for what he does, and on a certain level, it's hard to argue with his logic.

(The fact that Takeshi Obata draws him fairly hot doesn't hurt, either.)

And in L, he has such a wonderful opponent! Those two were made for each other. (Well, of course they were -- they're fictional, and Tsugami Ohba wrote them that way. But still.) As for the new arc, well, while Mello and Near are pressing hard, they just aren't as personally involved with Raito -- their issues are more with each other. So while Raito is still my woobie, he's not being shown at his best. *sigh* I am hoping that this will change.

I am totally not surprised that most fanfic for this series seems to be Raito/L slash. I don't think I could write that -- their minds are too much part of it, and I'm not a schemer on that level -- but oh, when you do it right...!

Actually, I have a sudden urge to write a character study piece for Misa, mostly because I really itch to get my fingers into her mind and explain her the way she isn't really explained in canon. The information is there, but the writer isn't doing anything with it. I want to pull pieces together and try to figure out how she ended up the way she did, and why she's as obsessive as Raito and L. (Actually, all the main characters in this series, with the exception of Yagami Souichiro, are obsessive. I wonder what that says about Tsugami Ohba?)

Hmm. *wanders off, contemplating*

Comments

[purple-alicorn.livejournal.com]

Ah yes - the fun-to-cheer for villains, On that note I personally like Muraki from Decendents of Darkness/Yami no Matsuri for the reasons above, and Fuuma/Kamui from X/1999 is not too bad either...

[edenfalling]

Aside from the fact that he's a child-molester, yeah, Muraki is cool. He also has great character design.

A villain I like.

[(Anonymous)]

Shishio Makoto, from 'Rurouni Kenshin'. Have you ever read that series?

It's FANTASTIC.

Re: A villain I like.

[edenfalling]

Um. I have read the first volume, and seen (well, kind of seen -- Cat and I spent half the time mocking some character designs that were blatantly cribbed from the old X-Men cartoon) one episode of the anime.

I do more or less know what happens in other arcs, but have not yet felt impelled to go read them myself. Someday I shall get around to that. :-)

Re: A villain I like.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, Shishio isn't even mentioned until volume 7, if that helps.

Never seen the anime so I don't know when he shows up in that. I usually prefer manga anyway -- typically they're less padded, which is nice.

Re: A villain I like.

[edenfalling]

Yeah. There's always the problem, with anime that are based on manga, of knowing exactly how much of the new material actually works with the original writer/artist/whatever's intentions, and of knowing where the filler is and how it's messed with the pacing. *sigh* I don't really watch anime -- I am much more inclined to read things -- but it does make for some interesting possibilities in fanfiction, where some people are working off of a rather different canon from others.

[deralte.livejournal.com]

I think it's because villians are often allowed to be more human and have some character development, especially hidden villians. Same thing with side characters. They do all the character development because the heros can't. They have that annoying reset button that means they can't deviate too far from the path of righteousness etc.

This certainly explains why Blackadder is my favourite anti-hero ever. Not to mention why I almost always want to smack around heros like Buffy or Duncan Macleod.

I find reading Death Note a bit like watching a train wreck. It's very compelling and fascinating, even if the latest arc has been sort of dragging. I guess I'm not really convinced that Mello and Near are going to cause that much trouble for Light (Raito) in the end. And this is reminding me to actually go read the latest chapters...

[edenfalling]

Well, if you define a hero by a certain set of morally approved actions, then yeah, there are only so many places you can go with them. However, there are such things as heroes who fail, fall, or dive right off the cliff into questionable territory.

I think the problem with the current arc is that Raito (I started reading a translation done before Ohba apparently decreed that the proper English transliteration was "Light," and I also like the sound similarity to "right" as well as "light," since it serves double duty that way) is not personally involved with Mello or Near -- he hasn't met them the way he met L. I'm hoping that his father's involvement, as of chapter 72, may change that.

Villians. w00t.

[valles-uf.livejournal.com]

You should go see Serenity, if you haven't already. Besides being just a generally supremely cool and well-executed film, it has the best villian I can remember seeing. Ever.

*plug mode disengaged*

Ja, -n

Re: Villians. w00t.

[edenfalling]

The trouble is that going to the movies is just no fun if you're not seeing them with somebody, and at the moment, I have a dearth of handy friends. Also, I find that I get along quite well without tv, and getting along without movies is kind of an extension of that. I like 'em when I see 'em, but to be perfectly honest, I could live happily without ever seeing another movie in my life.

I am really not a visually-oriented person.

*sekritly makes note of movie for her long list of "things I should rent sometime, when I get around to it"*

[arkeus.livejournal.com]

i typicaly do *not* like villains, even well plotted ones...in fact, stories where we see such doing their schemes and plotting away, especially when they are "well done", freaks me out. i much prefer "simpleton" good guys, they can be so satisfying...of course, there is the odd exeptions, where i do not like the character per se, but love the way they are done ( for those fanttasy fan out there, kenneth in the liveship trader series is quite good...). There is also the occasional manga, like hunterxhunter (go read it eden!) where the villains are quite entertaining. I haven't read deatrh notes as of yet, so i couldn't tell you what i think of its villain, but i believe he will freak me out... oh well, we'll see :-)

[edenfalling]

I am a fan of moral ambiguity, so I'm more inclined to like villains with reasons for their actions than I am to like heroes who are good because they're heroes because they're good because... you get the idea.

HunterXHunter? What's that about?

[arkeus.livejournal.com]

HunterxHunter? ... Hum... Complicated, if i give hte easy answer it won't portray at all the atmosphere, but...
Let's say it's a bit like naruto, as it is the apprenticeship of the hero. Exept that instead of having ninja who do not kill (i mean, how many times they just did *not* kill their enemies the first chance they got), we get deadly hunters, with a less deadly hero-he doesn't like killing, though he does enjoy being in life and death situation. it's... very well done.But the villains aren't doing their usual plotting against the heroes, as the heroes are beneath them- it's more like the hero plotting against the villains.
hum, you should read it to really know what it is about.
http://www.stoptazmo.com/hunter_x_hunter/
please do, and it's slow to pick up-you'll understand.

[acechan.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, you're not the only one who tends to like villains and/or psychos in series. And yeah, the recent focus on the damn kids really takes away from the intensity of the series in Death Note. It was so fascinating to watch Raito plotting when he was always on the verge of being discovered by L (hell, I think Raito might have enjoyed it more, too). Though I'm also a little peeved that Raito's plan apparently works withoout a hitch without anyone to oppose him (I believe that human beings are far to perverse and complex to be that easily threatened out of their actions). I really have to wonder if the writer actually planned out the plot at all....

[edenfalling]

Considering that Raito's big problem at the beginning of the series was being bored, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he missed the excitement of matching wits with L!

I was kind of hoping, in the first arc, that Rem clueing Misa in again would screw up whatever plan Rem thought Raito had, but apparently not. *sigh* It's a pity what happened to L, though sooner or later one of them had to win, or things would have gotten seriously repetetive.