Villains: the real hero-makers

MANILA, Philippines – What would the world be like without heroes?

Heroes are there to save the day every time villains come out to play. But what happens when the villains disappear? What need would we have of heroes then? Our once-upon-a-time white knights would just become pompous show-offs with nothing better to do than run around in their capes.

The reality is, the world wouldn’t need heroes if there were no villains to fight. It’s the heroes who need the villains to exist. So before you launch a hate-campaign against these guys, think about how much we need them to get to the happy ending.

Let’s take a look at a few of our favorite stories and see how they would have played out minus their respective villains.

First up, that handsome little street rat from Agrabah: Aladdin. 

We all know about how Aladdin is a poor little orphan boy with no home, rank, or sense of fashion. He goes around every day stealing the food he needs and then giving them up to younger, poorer children—because he’s a good guy.

One day, he sees her royal highness, Princess Jasmine, clumsily steal an apple at the marketplace, and he helps her run away through the streets. They get caught, of course, because they are two teenagers running from ten giant men with swords.

In the movie, this is where Jafar comes in, leading Aladdin to find the Genie’s lamp and gain ultimate happiness and a hero status by the end of the film. But we’re operating with an understanding that Jafar has taken a leave of absence, so none of this actually happens. 

So Aladdin stays in jail for a couple of years. He gets out and goes back to stealing and giving his food away. He’s careful not to help out strangers who might get him into more trouble. He grows up, gets a low-paying job, starts a family, and grows old. The End.

Next, we take a look at a hero close to our hearts, or at least our country’s geographical location: Mulan.

Let us work under the assumption that Shan-yu never scaled the Great Wall and never tried to invade China. Basically, take out the first 3.05 minutes of the film.

Enter Mulan: a spirited young girl who desperately wants to make her parents proud. She goes to the match-maker to get fitted with a husband but she does everything wrong because of a very unlucky lucky cricket. She goes home, sings that Christina Aguilera song, and cries because of the failure that she is.

In the movie, this is where the emperor’s messengers come to deliver the news of war to their town and require one male from each family to march into combat. This would lead to Mulan secretly taking her father’s place and eventually saving all of China. But, again, for the purposes of this article, these are China’s golden years of peace and prosperity instead, so there is no war to be fought.

Mulan eventually gets over her match-making mishap. She gets stricter training from her mother on how to be a decent wife in order for her to pass the next year’s match-making. She grows up a lot in one year and her clumsiness goes away. She greatly impresses her match-maker and gets fitted with a decent husband. They start a family, she raises her children well, she prays to her ancestors, and she grows old in a sleepy little China town. The End.

Lastly, here is everybody’s favorite little mermaid.

Ariel is just like any other teenager—minus the pair of legs. She goes off on her own little adventures in her own little underwater world. She disobeys her father’s orders not to go up to the dreaded surface of the ocean. She has a best friend who happens to be a fish. Normal as normal can be.

Things start to get exciting when she witnesses a ship sinking and rescues the prince, sings him a little song instead of performing CPR to wake him up, and falls head over fins in love with this dashing young man. She knows her father would never approve of this little crush so she keeps it to herself. Of course, her father finds out about everything so he scolds her and grounds her for eternity.

This is the part in the movie where Ariel swims away to find Ursula, gets changed into a human, finds and falls in love with her prince and, in the end, lives happily ever after. But Ursula is out of town so none of this happens.

Ariel’s father eventually forgives her and lifts her grounding. She secretly harbors her crush on the human prince for maybe a couple more months and then eventually moves on. She meets a nice young merman whom her father approves of, they start a mer-family, have mer-babies, and she grows old in her little castle under the sea. The End.

These stories aren’t as exciting without their villains, are they? All our heroes become plain old good guys who live their lives doing good, ordinary, boring, things. Not worth a film at all.

It’s because of our favorite baddies that these heroes get called into action. Aladdin finds his inner courage and wit and defeats Jafar. Mulan realizes that her worth is in how she fights to protect her loved ones, so she saves all of China using a fan. Ariel learns that love is greater than any spell and triumphs over Ursula.

Now these make great movie material. These are the stories that make us look up to these characters and strive to be heroic in our own little ways. These are the stories that inspire a thirst for change in all of us.

Sadly, the real victims in this lesson are the villains: the necessary obstacles that needed to be hated for our heroes to rise up. In their own right, they are the unsung heroes. To quote a line about a famous Dark Knight: They are the heroes we deserve, but not the ones we need right now.

So here’s to the villains – the real reason we have our heroes. – Rappler.com

Graphics by: Raffy De Guzman & Mara Mercado/Rappler