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Ever watched a film where the villain has the hero at their mercy, but instead of finishing them off they have to stop and gloat for a few precious seconds? During which something inevitably happens to turn the tables, at best leading to the hero’s escape and at worst causing the villain’s demise and the undoing of their entire plot?
I always scoffed at such scenarios, and yet several years back I was part of an RPG session where the Gamemaster had me representing the antagonist character in opposition to the other players, and it happened. I got so into it and was so convinced of my own motives for doing all the terrible things I was doing and somehow at the climactic moment I had to pause and try to explain. It wasn’t gloating! But somehow I genuinely just felt this irrational conviction that if I could just persuade them to see things my way, they’d join me, or at least cease trying to stop me. So what if it all hinged on the murder of an innocent woman who was the betrothed of their leader? If they would just listen for a minute, I could…
Oh, and now I’m dead and my plans are ruined. Oops.
It’s a reminder that even the most cartoonish supervillains can still think of themselves as the heroes. Come on, Luke, join me and we can rule the galaxy together. Don’t make me destroy you.
Maybe it’s a holdover of tribal days, but there just seems to be something in human character where we want to be understood. Hell, we’ll even spend days arguing with ourselves that such-and-such was necessary, or so-and-so was clearly in the wrong in that confrontation, even though we have no audience. And if we’re fortunate enough to have friends to vent to, we’re not really interested in hearing the wrong answer to a posed question of “am I the asshole?” We want to feel justified. Ideally we’d want everyone to admit we were right, especially our antagonists. Defeating them is good, of course, but if they would also see that your way is correct that would be all the better.
So nasty people write memoirs, and shadowy executives record audio logs, and villains explain their evil plans as the laser slowly makes its way towards James Bond’s crotch… and sometimes that leaves the audience scratching their heads and wondering why they even bothered.
Well, turns out we might just be funny little creatures that like to talk. And to be understood. Even if it kills us.