Revisions

The other day I started reading a book.  This is kind of a big deal.  I'm an avid reader, but during the school semester I don't read for fun because it takes too much time away from what I need to read for classes.  Once school is out, the books I've accumulated all semester on my Kindle (thanks, Bookbub!) get my full attention.

So I started reading this book, and it's called Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes.  Sounds like a chick fic, right?  I suppose in some ways it is since the lead character is a female, but it's a version of a fairy tale.  It's the Queen of Hearts' story, from Wonderland, and how she became that way.  It's the making of a villain.

Villains are hard to create sometimes in fiction. A lot of people view villains and heroes as just that..black and white, opposite poles.  But nothing is further from the truth.  Every villain has a story.  Every villain starts out somewhere, opening bright eyes to a new dawn, gurgling with delight and flailing their fat fists in the air.  Every villain starts with innocence and hope and need. 

It's what happens on the journey that makes them what they are.

Sometimes it's that very naivete that leaves the villain (or at this point, potential villain) vulnerable to darker forces.  Perhaps the character has an overwhelming need for adoration or love...but goes about trying to get it the wrong way.  Perhaps they crave appreciation, only to never be taken seriously.  Perhaps the people they love most disappoint them, time and again until eventually, they take in so much pain that something in them becomes a little broken.

In any case, somewhere along the line they wander off the path.  They make choices that aren't so great. Once they succumb to one mistake, it's easy for them to succumb to another, and then another...and soon they have swallowed so much darkness that they become it.  You are what you eat, after all.

Is there any hope for such a person?  In fiction, perhaps not.  That is entirely up to author.  A villain serves a purpose in a story.  You cannot have light without darkness...and the villain makes the hero what he is, too.  What is a hero, without a foe to vanquish?  What is summer, without the dead of winter to make us dream of it?  

Thankfully, life is not a fairy tale.  Villains don't have to stay that way...and if, up until this point, your mistakes have defined you, then perhaps it's time to rewrite yourself.