With the debut of the new Hunger Games movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, teenagers have once again proven they only care about a pretty face rather than the story. Antagonist’s in media are constantly romanticized and in turn, the meaning of the story is ignored in favor of those who prefer the villain, for all the wrong reasons.
There is nothing wrong with preferring the antagonist over the protagonist, but aspects of their personality or their actions should not be forgotten. Once their true colors are brought to light, most realize the fantasy they created about them did not actually exist. It is shown that our previous vision of the character is not what is canon, and not what appears on screen or in the book, something most teens are unable to understand today.
Additionally, this appears online, particularly with TikTok users. Comment sections of an edit of a character are often flooded with fans defending a villain for their actions. These actions usually range from theft to killing innocents. An example of this are characters such as Norman Bates or Wanda Maximoff, played by actors that many have considered good looking, so their actions are often defended and excused, and their popularity grows with each edit that is made.
This may be because teens are taught by media that the ‘bad guy’ is usually a misunderstood love interest who gets the girl at the end. Films such as the Kissing Booth or After have only encouraged this behavior among teens. Romanticizing the brooding character even if they are in retrospect, not a good person.
It is important to remember that these are fictional characters, and enjoying a villain’s arc does not mean one supports these actions in real life, but that is not the problem at hand here. The real issue is when fans disregard what characters do, like many did with Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games.
Snow was, in my opinion, one of the best written characters in the Hunger Games series, villian or not. He is a compelling character whose actions horrified me as much as they intrigued me. He can be simply described as a man who forced control and hurt many people.
Fans desperate to defend the antagonist often argue that the character is misunderstood, which sometimes is true. However, those characters also choose to do the wrong thing time and time again, with their final goal is to destroy, not to save.
Antagonists are the most interesting of all; they are the darkest sides of humans brought to life, the polar opposite of a hero. But this fact has been repeatedly ignored, which leads to fans misunderstanding these characters.
That said, I can only hope that teenagers will learn to embrace the character for who they actually are rather than changing them to fit their own fantasies. Not only will fans have a better understanding of the stories, but a better grasp on the characters themselves.
