Why Evil MC's?

[aj.canaan]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's? What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Everyone who like evil MCs are chuuni.

 

[Nolff]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's? What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

Dude, which ones are better to relate to when you watch a movie/show? The protagonist or the villain? In most cases, people relate to the villain because well... Realism. Sometimes, people are realists, and the villain has some common sense to part ways with the protagonist that if it happens in the real world (which is likely to happen) it makes sense.

Come to think of it.

Most popular villains around the internet were the kind of characters that people could correlate to. I lack some examples for this, but you got the point. Oh, they also tend to be either the funny ones in their respective shows or the ones that are the joke of the show every single time, or maybe they're the most respected fellow in the show. Sometimes they're loved because of how good their motives are and other times they're loved because dialogues that they have. Like this:

MC after destroying Villain's belongings(Protagonist): Why are you attacking us?

Villain:

Another reason why people love villains is because of the theories these people made. How many videos have you watched that convinced you that a villain from a series was actually doing god's work? How many theories change the perspective on how you perceive the villain as just a clumsy fellow and the real villain was the society (Ehem... Lorax... Ehem...)? And how many Matpat have you watched about the villains being the good guys while the protagonist are not?

Everyone who like evil MCs are chuuni.

Ah shet.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Villains can be quite entertaining to read or write about - though it is often more satisfying when the villain winds up being a good guy in the end (c.f. the movie MegaMind for one example), or winds up stopping someone worse, or just being a total cad who winds up usually doing kind of the right thing, despite him or herself (c.f. the Flashman novels of George MacDonald Frasier).

Heroes have more broad appeal, but villains can be much more entertaining short term.

 

[ChronicSleeper]

Readers wanting to read something new... probably.

 

[BearlyAlive]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's?

There's the kind of people that just want to see some physical or emotional violence, the "I can fix them!!!" delusionals, the chuuni edgelords, and the character studies people.

What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

Most of the time a hero's path is filled with trials and tribulations, and while heroes have to climb their way up, villains are free to plan, plot, and play.

 

[Plantorsomething]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's? What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

One aspect of it is queer coding making villains gay icons. Another is Disney’s villain songs. Another is that evil is basically taking the easy instant gratification route, so it’s freeing to give up morals. Another is that plenty of minorities are demonized and scapegoated so it’s easy to say “actually they’re the evil ones,” although this gets complicated because abusers often make themselves out to be the scapegoat too irl. There’s also the fact that evil people are seen as more confident (facade), charismatic (manipulative), dominant, powerful, and controlling, positive traits that are attractive. People who are abused are also often attracted to these people because trauma bonding, long story short, so they romanticize these people. This is often seen in bad romance novels. I’m sure I missed some here, but it’s what I can think of in the moment

 

[Bartun]

I don't know, I prefer a good hero.

https://www.ign.com/articles/man-stops-knife-attack-because-his-anime-hero-wouldve-done-the-same-thing

 

[DanielPotter]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's? What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

Villain: *kills innocent people
Readers: "Omg, how could he do such a despicable act?! What a terrible person!"
Villain: (monologuing) "Life is not fair."
Readers: "Omg, so relatable! I like him now! You're forgiven!"

 

[melchi]

Everyone who like evil MCs are chuuni.

Death and darkness

 

[Deleted member 148356]

One thing I understood is people are tired of hero tropes.

Readers wanting to read something new... probably.

So ye..

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Note also that an "evil MC" may not always be a villain, per se. Several popular comic book characters are sociopaths who just happen to do evil crap but for "the right reasons" - John Constantine, The Punisher, Lobo, early Wolverine (he really mellowed with age), Deadpool. Sometimes it is cathartic to root for the "Evil Hero."

And then there are heroes who become corrupt - the protagonist of the Gor novels by John Norman starts out as a good guy who wants to end slavery on the world he wound up transported to, but who ends up a slaver himself.

 

[2wordsperminute]

The same reason a person would watch a train crash. It's horrifying, but you just can't look away.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

Everything and anything that allows you to be edgy/edgelord, chuunibyou, and cringe without experiencing the backlash of being labeled by society as an immature man-child/woman-child/it-child comes from the emotional and irrational part of you: the id. Everything that you repress to fit into the social mores of society, the urge to lash out and transgress said mores and let off steam, needs an outlet, and reading about evil MCs doing evil things for the sake of being an edgy and cringy mo-fo allows you to do that without social reprisal. Thus, after reading said story with said evil MC, the only twinge of consequence you feel is guilt and self loathing for reading that kind of tripe, which carries no real consequence in the end, b/c it's just you experiencing it, yet such an experience can be cathartic.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I say it's because we have a shitty society, and those who have had the worst experiences with it would like to see it crumble.

 

[Sola-sama]

Everyone who like evil MCs are chuuni.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's? What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

The villains of stories are most of the time just far more interesting to me, it doesn't even matter why the person is evil, the heroes are boring.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

To an extent, I'd just like to see them get taken down a peg.

If I wanted to watch evil people continue to win, I'd start watching politics

 

[cabbag3]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's? What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

I think most Evil MC are just unrestrained (?). Like they'll do anything to achieve their goals whether it's through arson, murder, and jaywalking. And readers enjoy it since there's no burden on the MC, no romantic drama, just pure skill, wit, and rage.

I guess for stories where MC is "evil just for the lolz" or "evil because the narrative says so (e.gg arrogant genius son of a Sect Elder)", the writer always try to be philosophical or show a deconstruction of common writing tropes.
And honestly, for me, Trope Deconstruction stories is usually fun because these stories are usually parodies, and people who write "great parodies" are also the same people who like the same cliché tropes like the hero defeats the demon lord.
(I bet the creators of the Cornetto Trilogy also love the common tropes seen in those movies.)

 

[SuperMushroom]

What makes people attracted to evil mc's? What is it about stories centred around villains people enjoy?

I feel like in many cases it's about the different types of conflict they face and their manner of dealing with them.

Speaking very generally, the conventional heroic protagonist endures oodles of abuse only to eventually come out on top against all odds. A lot of importance is placed on being justified every step of the way. "Will he/won't he give in to the temptation of acting immorally?" is often what makes up the crux of the conflict, and the thing is that if the hero isn't secretly a budding villain MC, it can only really be definitively answered just once, at the end of the story, and you already know what the answer is going to be.

Meanwhile the villainous protagonist lashes out immediately against all opposition, regardless of how justified they are. "But just how low will he stoop?" is going to be the pressing question here, and will get answered numerous times in a variety of different ways by the protagonist's actions.

The slow and strenuous struggle of the hero's journey and the rollercoaster of frustrations that it forces the reader to sit through is exchanged for a series of instant catharses, which can be a very welcome change of pace for people who are mostly used to tales of heroic uphill battles.