Wicked and Beloved: A Guest Post by Sarah Rees Brennan
From movies to television and books, we love a great villain — the kinds that make your toes curl and have the most memorable one-liners. Our Monthly Pick author Sarah Rees Brennan has written a new villain for us to love in Long Live Evil, and she has penned an exclusive essay sharing a few of her own favorite villains, down below.
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Long Live Evil
Long Live Evil
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Be careful what you wish for — on the verge of death, this romantasy lover gets a second chance at life in between the pages of her favorite books. Loving this villain is a not-so-guilty pleasure you’ll want to tell all your friends about.
Be careful what you wish for — on the verge of death, this romantasy lover gets a second chance at life in between the pages of her favorite books. Loving this villain is a not-so-guilty pleasure you’ll want to tell all your friends about.
‘Finding a favourite character was discovering a soul made of words that spoke to your own.’ – Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan
The protagonist of my novel Long Live Evil has a favourite character in her favourite book series because I love picking favourite characters myself. When I’m reading a book or watching a TV show and one character jumps out at me, I will choose their side. From then on I will defend their wrongdoings to the end, or find their wrongdoings funny. I know others take issue with the idea of a favourite character, whether because it’s mean to choose or they can’t pick just one. So there’s another phrase I like: the idea of a ‘comfort character.’
I think there are times in all our lives when we feel misunderstood and alone. For those of us who love stories, characters keep us company when we’re lonely. We can understand their actions when the other characters don’t. They may have much in common with us—or we might simply find them fascinating. They distract us, they entertain us, we feel for their pain, and they comfort our own suffering.
But why are these characters so often villainous, or at least extremely morally grey? I can think of three much-beloved characters who can be thus described off the top of my head, and that’s just from Star Wars. Maybe because wickedness can be thrilling and freeing. Maybe because sometimes, we suspect we ourselves aren’t very nice. I think we’ve all had that moment when we realise we’re the villain in someone else’s story. I think we’ve all woken up in the middle of the night thinking ‘Was I terrible?’ When I got seriously ill, many people treated me as if I’d turned evil, because I had less patience or less time—because when things go wrong for us, we’re seldom our best selves. We’ve all thought something which was funny, but maybe too mean to say. When I talk about loving evil, I’m not talking about real-life evil—which is often boring and has terrible dialogue–I’m talking about loving our own dark hearts.
Long Live Evil asks what you would do, if you walked into your favourite story and got to meet your favourite character, the one who meant that much to you? Well… it would be really different, if they were real. It might be really dangerous.
In Wuthering Heights, Cathy said of her extremely problematic favourite Heathcliff, ‘whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same.’ Cathy also said, ‘He’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man.’ Cathy must have felt fairly wolfish herself, but perhaps it was a comfort, not to be alone in wolfishness. Anne Rice said of her own character Lestat in The Vampire Chronicles ‘He does the things I wish I could do, but can’t.’
So my protagonist walks into her favourite novel, meets her favourite character the ruthless, furious Emperor—an anti-hero, but what’s an anti-hero if not a villain with good PR—and discovers she’s the villain in his story. Thus, she gathers together all the villains in the novel to escape doom.
So many villains! Why? Because they’re fun. Because I wanted anyone who’s ever had a beloved morally grey character to find something they recognised in Long Live Evil, whether it was an echo of love or a glimpse of themselves. Because there are many answers for why people love villains, and it might simply be because the villain song is the best song in every Disney musical. I’ve been asked what my idea of a perfect villain is, and truthfully I don’t think I can pick a single perfect villain, because I like so many different types. The ones who reform, the ones who get amazing new outfits and get corrupted, the ones whose deaths get cheered, the ones who we wish didn’t die at all.
I heard someone say that a favourite villainous trope of theirs was when a villain didn’t get reformed, but had to team up with the heroes for some reason, and from then on was a more a shady friend who kept suggesting murder. I thought, oh yes I like that too! But rather than teaming up with the heroes, it made me want to see different kinds of villains teaming up with each other. Say you have the spymaster who knows all the secrets and tricks, meet the blunt instrument whose solution for every problem is murder. ‘It can’t be murder every time!’ ‘Then… I no longer have a solution for this problem.’ There are so many shades of grey, and so much fun to be had.
On the edge of an abyss, in her favourite story, a wicked plotter gathers together a rogue’s gallery of villains, including an axe wielding maid, an assassin from the gutters, a cursed knight and a playboy playwright spymaster with a golden heart and a scandalous reputation. And then of course, there’s the Emperor to consider…
I hope you find comfort in Long Live Evil if you need it. I hope you find your reflection if you’re looking for it. I hope you have a wicked good time. I hope one of my villains or heroes becomes your favourite.