My father was cast in the role of ‘The Villain’ by my mother. My spiritual work with my father, was, and is, extensive. At the end of his life he began to repent, admit his wrongs – confess. He had quit drinking to save his life. Then I discovered his greatest real estate swindle of all time regarding his mother’s home in Roseville, and it was over between us. I did not find out he was dead till three years after the fact.

Fouty years ago, I bought Victor ‘The Sea Symphony’ by Von Williams. I got Victor to put down his long loan pole and hook, kick back – and relax. I then turned the volume way up because I wanted my father to feel the bow of his vessel shake, again, as it was hit with a massive wave up in the Alutians. I wanted him to feel the cold spray on his cheeks in hope it would wake him from his drunken stupor, stop him from feeling sorry for himself, and behold God, who had handed him a better dream then one that went awry. I wanted to take this Merchant Marine back to what he loved, unconditionally, because, he claimed I was not his son, and I doubted he loved me. Did I love my father?

Above is a photo of Vic and his mother walking in downtown Oakland. Note the young girl stopping and turning to to take my father in. Even when a grey haired fox, when Victor walked into a room, he got the attention of everyone. As a Leo, my father was convinced he would rule the world. His only wish was, that he was born a Roman General in the good ol days when the Empire was making real estate deals left and right. Victor named his first born son after an Emperor.

Vic is at the core of my novel ‘Capturing Beauty’. If Clint Eastwood did not luck out and make it big in Hollywood, I have no doubt his and my father’s paths would have crossed, in Oakland, they ending up drinking in Oscar’s Bar and Grill on Lakeshore, they two good buddies sketching out another scheme that would seperate some sucker from his money. Actors used to be seen in this light by good Americans with real means. Consider W.C. Fields. Now behold – the sea!

Jon Presco

Copyright 2012

Ben Bova recommends to authors that their works not contain villains. He states, in his Tips for writers:

“In the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil. Fiction mirrors life. Or, more accurately, fiction serves as a lens to focus what we know of life and bring its realities into sharper, clearer understanding for us. There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them.”[16]

David Lubar adds:

“This is a brilliant observation that has served me well in all my writing. (The bad guy isn’t doing bad stuff so he can rub his hands together and snarl.) He may be driven by greed, neuroses, or the conviction that his cause is just, but he’s driven by something not unlike the things that drive a hero.”[17]

“Bad guy” redirects here. For the 2002 South Korean film, see Bad Guy (film).
For other uses, see Villain (disambiguation).

Snidely Whiplash, a rendering of an archetype of a villain as a late 19th century businessman.A villain (also known in film and literature as the “antagonist,” “bad guy”, “black hat”, or “heavy”) is an “evil” character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A female villain is sometimes called a villainess (often to differentiate her from a male villain). Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as “a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot”.[1]

[edit] Etymology
French villains in the 15th century before going to work, receiving their Lord’s Orders.Villain comes from the Anglo-French and Old French vilein, which itself descends from the Late Latin word villanus, meaning “farmhand”,[2] in the sense of someone who is bound to the soil of a villa, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in Late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul.[3] It referred to a person of less than knightly status and so came to mean a person who was not chivalrous. As a result of many unchivalrous acts, such as treachery or rape, being considered villainous in the modern sense of the word, it became used as a term of abuse and eventually took on its modern meaning.[4]

[edit] Folk and fairy tales
Baba Yaga often acts as a villain in Polish and Russian fairy talesVladimir Propp, in his analysis of the Russian fairy tales, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personae, of which one was the villain,[5] and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian tales. The actions that fell into a villain’s sphere were:

a story-initiating villainy, where the villain caused harm to the hero or his family
a conflict between the hero and the villain, either a fight or other competition
pursuing the hero after he has succeeded in winning the fight or obtaining something from the villain
None of these acts necessarily occurs in a fairy tale, but when any of them do, the character that performs the act is the villain. The villain therefore could appear twice: once in the opening of the story, and a second time as the person sought out by the hero.[6]

When a character performed only these acts, the character was a pure villain. Various villains also perform other functions in a fairy tale; a witch who fought the hero and ran away, and who lets the hero follow her, is also performing the task of “guidance” and thus acting as a helper.[7]

The functions could also be spread out among several characters. If a dragon acted as the villain, but was killed by the hero, another character (such as the dragon’s sisters) might take on the role of the villain and pursue the hero.[7]

Two other characters could appear in roles that are villainous in the more general sense. One is the false hero: this character is always villainous, presenting a false claim to be the hero that must be rebutted for the happy ending.[8] Among these characters are Cinderella’s stepsisters, chopping off parts of their feet to fit on the shoe.[9] Another character, the dispatcher, sends a hero on his quest. This might be an innocent request, to fulfil a legitimate need, but the dispatcher might also, villainously, lie to send a character on a quest in hopes of being rid of him.[10]

[edit] Villainous foil
The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an example of a literary villain.In fiction, villains commonly function in the dual role of adversary and foil to the story’s heroes. In their role as adversary, the villain serves as an obstacle the hero must struggle to overcome. In their role as foil, the villain exemplifies characteristics that are diametrically opposed to those of the hero, creating a contrast distinguishing heroic traits from villainous ones.[citation needed] Others[who?] point out that many acts of villains have a hint of wish-fulfillment,[11] which makes some people identify with them as characters more strongly than with the heroes. Because of this, a convincing villain must be given a characterization that makes his or her or its (see HAL 9000) motive for doing wrong convincing, as well as being a worthy adversary to the hero. As put by film critic Roger Ebert:

“Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph.”[12]

[edit] Portraying and employing villains in fictionTod Slaughter always portrayed villainous characters on both stage and screen in a melodramatic manner, with mustache-twirling, eye-rolling, leering, cackling, and hand-rubbing (however, this often failed to translate well from stage to screen).[13][14] Brad Warner states that “only cartoon villains cackle with glee while rubbing their hands together and dream of ruling the world in the name of all that is wicked and bad”.[15] k