Can’t resist a bad guy (or girl) Bec Marshallsay I had a conversation with a friend the other day about the pirate show, Black Sails (a fictional prequel to Treasure Island that merges real life pirates with characters from Stevenson’s novel). He was doing the ‘which episode are you up to?’ check-in, to which I offhandedly mentioned that it was the episode where ‘such and such a pirate goes over to the good side’ (the good side being the British navy). ‘What are you talking about? The pirates are the good side. The British are the baddies’ he joked. And he was right (and I was absolutely on board – pun 100% intended – the pirates were awesome, law-abiding society was lame). In the context of Black Sails, the pirates are the good guys, and the British or the Spanish are the bad guys. Whereas the ‘official’ socio-normative narrative tells us that – in reductive black and white terms – wider society is good and
pirates, criminals and doers of violent deeds are bad. And this is not without good reason. These are people who, in real life, were extremely violent. Much like Vikings they are associated with the modus operandi of rape, murder and pillage. But so that we can enjoy their exploits discomfort free we
get the more palatable Pirates of the Caribbean version of ‘raid, pillage and plunder’. And if Disney doesn’t step in to sanitise things for us we do it ourselves. Villains and bad guys hold a specific appeal, particularly in cinema. So why is it that we just can’t resist a bad guy or girl?
The rebel with (or without) a cause Characters like your pirates and Vikings fall into this category. As protagonists, these are people whose actions (on paper or by societal norms), clearly delineate them as ‘baddies’ but despite this, we are firmly in their corner and rooting for them. They are rebelling and we love it. The rebels are the characters who appeal precisely because they appear to go against the grain – they embody a sense of adventure and freedom that we wish we could tap into. In juxtaposition to the rebel bad guys is the homogeneity of the organised antithesis to the rebel group. This contrast is essential to make the transition possible. The audience cannot get behind the rebels (and put their ‘badness’ aside) unless
their opposition are made to seem inferior in skill, bravery and personal appeal. Writing for The Independent Terry Eagleton reflects. ‘Virtue may be admirable, but it is vice we find sexy’. Vice becomes so appealing because goodness is made to seem ‘negative and restrictive’. If the audience mirrors this narrative onto their own lives, the so-called bad guys represent freedom, abundance and an exciting exhilarating life but the counterpoint is homogeneity and the mundane; it is a 9 to 5 job and a lack of individual expression. In particular, it is the lack of individuality that allows us as an audience to accept the violence and damage that is usually
Can’t resist a bad guy (or girl)
perpetrated by our anti-heroes. They are often fighting almost characterless foes. Your Vikings, pirates and other rebels are fighting enemies so featureless they might as well be Stormtroopers, their individuality is so blurred. You are not for a moment meant to think that these are real people (think Austin Power’s subplot about the tough lives of henchmen). If they are not ridiculous, uniformly bad, or the evils of mainstream society in one homogenous mass then you might have to stop and think about the nuanced desires, motivations and backstories of the people on the receiving end of the cannon ball, sword or raid.