#InkRipples: Heroes and Villains!

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on this page, and link back to their three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

I am actually posting on the first Monday of the month for my InkRipples post! Woot! That almost never happens :) Anyhow, this month's topic is a good one, though I'm not totally sure where to start. Heroes. Villains. The two main components to a good story. Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind is the Netflix show, and Marvel comic, Daredevil. I've been watching this lately while at the gym and rather enjoy it. Why? Because the villains are nicely nuanced, and the heroes aren't very clean cut. It makes for a great, layered, story that drags my mind away from the sweating I'm doing.

Anyhow, Wilson Fisk, the main antagonist from season one and two (sorry, that is a *bit* of a spoiler), thinks that he's out to be the hero. Daredevil sees his methods for what they are: perverse and harmful, and has to stop him. But that doesn't mean that Fisk doesn't see what he's doing as the right thing, the only thing, that has to be done to "save his city." There's a lot more that goes into it, but I do enjoy watching the interplay of two men, ostensibly doing the same thing, but being diametrically opposed to one another.

Okay, so if we're going to go this comic book route, the other end of the spectrum is Superman (well, most of the time). I've often heard the refrain that the Man of Steel is too goody-two-shoes about how he thinks about things. It's very black and white when it comes to who's the good guy and who is not. And at times that can be a little dull. The same goes for Supergirl, and sometimes the Flash--other shows that I find myself sweating to on the treadmill :) (Hmm, might be a trend there in my watching habits, huh?) The "bad guy" is almost always obviously a criminal, and almost always admits to being out to do something nefarious, whether that be rob someone/something or just create mayhem. It can kind of get a little old...

So, what's all this to say? That if I'm working on creating a villain, an antagonist worthy of going up against my hero, I want them to also have their world fleshed out just as much. Their goals and motives should be sound, and not just to create panic/terrorism/some other mayhem that's more a plot device than a story.

What about you--what's you're favorite villain/hero pair?