Do you prefer the villains to win

[Parsimony]

Sometimes I do quite like certain villain characters, but at the end of the day I always want to see good triumph over evil.

 

[Katzpur]

I am perhaps one of the few people who likes it when the villain wins. One of my favorite films of all time is No Country for Old Men and I like it for this very reason. The villain does atrocious things and gets away and even kills the main hero of the film.
For some reason I cannot appreciate characters unless they are depraved and this especially goes for fantasy works where characters are given super human powers yet retain their moral behavior which I find to be utterly ludicrous.

Am I alone on this?

I generally prefer that the good guys win. Sometimes, though, one of the bad guys can be made to be really likeable, in which case it makes me want things to turn out for them.

 

[Katzpur]

I prefer the good guys to win. I also am in favor of the bad guys becoming good guys (which hardly ever happens). But then, there are likable bad guys.

Funny you should post this. Before I read it, I made a similar comment about likeable bad guys. When the bad guys become good guys -- yeah, those kind of shows are the best. A lot of the time, even some growth or personal improvement in the bad guy is enough for me. I love to see people change for the better, and when that happens, I feel like I've seen a good movie.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Really depends on the villain. I like villains winning in moderation with heroes winning, but I prefer the villain to be winning for most of the way through and putting the hero in situations where it's just like "I'm screwed" and then the hero pushes back up.

 

[Riverwolf]

My Nerd Senses are tingling!

I should hope so. I rolled a 4 on Strength, but a 14 on Intelligence. The nerdy thing about that is the fact that I know how to determine exactly which scores I get: an intelligence score * 10 (140 in this case) roughly corresponds to one's IQ, and on an official evaluation that also got me an Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis, I was scored with an IQ of 137. Back in High School, when I was at the peak of health, I could only bench-press the bar, which to my memory is about 40 pounds.

 

[Riverwolf]

I will say that there's a difference between a general preference for the villains to actually win, and rooting for the bad guys.

I may want the heroes to win, but my favorite villains are the ones I root for, as well. Sailor Moon comes to mind, where I do want the good guys to win, but I generally find the villains far more interesting characters than the heroes, and still root for them to a degree.

 

[Sha'irullah]

I will say that there's a difference between a general preference for the villains to actually win, and rooting for the bad guys.

I may want the heroes to win, but my favorite villains are the ones I root for, as well. Sailor Moon comes to mind, where I do want the good guys to win, but I generally find the villains far more interesting characters than the heroes, and still root for them to a degree.

I outright root for the villains. Why on earth would I want to entertain myself with something where the hero always wins? In real life we as humans are natural good people so it is natural for the good to outweigh evil.
But in films and especially in fantasy I do not want this at all. I want the unlikely outcome. This is why post-apocalyptic films are so nice because it portrays a moment where the good of society has come to an end.
I thrive off this because true colors are shown when all hope is lost.

 

[Riverwolf]

I outright root for the villains. Why on earth would I want to entertain myself with something where the hero always wins? In real life we as humans are natural good people so it is natural for the good to outweigh evil.
But in films and especially in fantasy I do not want this at all. I want the unlikely outcome. This is why post-apocalyptic films are so nice because it portrays a moment where the good of society has come to an end.
I thrive off this because true colors are shown when all hope is lost.

To each their own. I, personally, find that too depressing, which makes me unable to work. I thrive off of happiness and hope.

Then again, if the hero always wins, then I start to get tired. It's why I started tiring of Yugioh; Yugi never loses. That was fine in Season 0, but after that it just became dull. There was no tension.

I like the hero to win in the end, but I also like to see the hero defeated, first.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I wonder, how would the brothers from the Boondock Saints be classified? Legally they are both "bad guys," but morally it is a subjective area. Or in Death Note, the struggle between L and Light. Who is the bad guy and who is the good guy? Or Magneto? Is he really a bad guy or victim of circumstance? Not too mention he also teams up with the "good guys" on numerous occasions.
At least there are things like the Devil's Rejects to take the question away and give you a group of wicked super psychos that would do horrible things to "bad guys" to root for!

 

[Estro Felino]

As for Disney movies, my favorite Villain was Iago.
[youtube]eQqDi6hozWY[/youtube]

2:45 I will have the power to get rid of you...

 

[Smart_Guy]

Basically I want the good guys to win but only in the end and barely occasionally through out of it. I want the bad guys to be the superiors through most of it, kick the good guys' rears most of the time, give them hard time and misery, but ultimately lose to the good guys and just barely.

I hate fan servicing in showing the good guys always winning and getting whatever they want easily. I JUST HATE IT. Oh, sorry.

But I do sometime want the bad guys to destroy the good guys for good. Some good guys just suck.

Hey, we're not talking about real people here, right?

 

[Viker]

I mostly enjoy the villains over the heroes. It depends on the story. I'm more into anti-heroes and stories where there's no clear villains or heroes, everyone's sort of both like Unforgiven or the main characters in SOA.

 

[Sha'irullah]

To each their own. I, personally, find that too depressing, which makes me unable to work. I thrive off of happiness and hope.

Then again, if the hero always wins, then I start to get tired. It's why I started tiring of Yugioh; Yugi never loses. That was fine in Season 0, but after that it just became dull. There was no tension.

I like the hero to win in the end, but I also like to see the hero defeated, first.

Well, if an alien race came to earth in hopes to conqueror us I would most likely be the first to betray mankind. Don't count on me when it comes to dire situations .

I was born to be a villain I guess.

...Mew

 

[Riverwolf]

Well, if an alien race came to earth in hopes to conqueror us I would most likely be the first to betray mankind. Don't count on me when it comes to dire situations .

I was born to be a villain I guess.

...Mew

'Sall good. Any alien force that is capable of interstellar travel that wants to take over the world is pretty much just going to tear through whatever defenses we set up, even if we had some kind of initiative. I'd be fine with fighting on the losing side of humanity. VALHALLA!!! ...why isn't there a viking smiley?

 

[Awkward Fingers]

Dexter comes to mind.
Also, bad guys turned good, if you've ever watched the show "Leverage"

 

[Awkward Fingers]

I hate fan servicing in showing the good guys always winning and getting whatever they want easily. I JUST HATE IT. Oh, sorry.

Have you tried George R. R. Martin?

 

[Viker]

Have you tried George R. R. Martin?

Yep. The last "good guy" was Ned Stark, maybe.

 

[Father Heathen]

I am perhaps one of the few people who likes it when the villain wins. One of my favorite films of all time is No Country for Old Men and I like it for this very reason. The villain does atrocious things and gets away and even kills the main hero of the film.
For some reason I cannot appreciate characters unless they are depraved and this especially goes for fantasy works where characters are given super human powers yet retain their moral behavior which I find to be utterly ludicrous.

Am I alone on this?

As a kid, I always waited with bated breath for Tom of "Tom and Jerry" and Wile E. Coyote to finally catch their quarry and administer just deserts.

 

[Smart_Guy]

Have you tried George R. R. Martin?

The author of Games of Thrones?

He's completely the other way around, good guys always lose

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Have you tried George R. R. Martin?

Joe Abercrombie? Some of his books it's very hard to tell who is the hero and villain.
Even when there appears to be a clear hero it can throw some interesting challenges to that notion up through the course of the book.