Creating a character that convinces the audience he/she emits evil, is a challenging thing to do.
It isn’t as simple as making them a mass murderer or sadistic anarchist. There’s craftsmanship and wisdom needed to nurture the character’s birth and existence, compelling an audience’s hatred.
Until very recently, my original top three villains were The Joker from Batman,
Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello,
and Alonzo from Training Day.
All exhibit an irredeemable form of chaotic or organised evil and exhibit no sign of remorse, provoking my absolute disgust – the sign of excellent writing/scripting. On the contrary, these characters take pride in making certain their victims suffer and enjoy their psychopath power over the rest of humanity.
But now, a new contender has entered the mix.
In the TV series, he wasn’t even seen until the end of season six, but sufficient dread was fabricated to make this villain dark.
Who am I kidding? ‘Dark’ doesn’t even do this character description justice…
I never read the comic books, but Negan of The Walking Dead is simply a new evil. The only question that keeps emerging in my mind is WHAT MADE HIM LIKE THIS?
I’ve read the comic book synopsis, but the background doesn’t appear sufficient motivation to conceive the evil we all saw on the Season Seven premiere. I look forward to witnessing the revelations behind his transition in the TV series…
There are other questions like: how can people follow such an evil man knowingly and willingly?
However, there’s actually a very subtle message about our world there that could easily be elaborated on…a subject for another day.
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