Introduction

The concept of a villain is defined as a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime. Villains should have 5 characteristics connecting themselves with the hero’s. Villains should have a connection with the hero, know what they want, a worthy opponent, a backstory on why they are a villain, and they should have some humor. Villains should have a connection with the hero because they are a guide for the hero’s uprising and overall makes the hero’s story more compelling and heroic. For example, we see this in Hercules (1997) with Hades, and how Hades morally helped Hercules become a hero by stealing him away and trying to take his super strength away and trying to make him mortal but it didn't ultimately work and Hades loses. Every villain in every movie knows what they want, because if the villain didn't know what they wanted then why are they a villain in the first place. For example, in Quo Vadis (1951), Nero wants more power than he already has by killing his mother along with multiple family members to get to the top of the food chain, but then he burns down Rome to try and rebuild it his way. Another key thing to have with villains is they need a worthy opponent, because if the villain didn't have a worthy opponent they would have what they wanted. For example, we see this in Ben-Hur (1959), with Messala and Ben-Hur. Messala banished Ben-Hur to become a slave, but when Ben-Hur does heroic acts he starts to rise to the occasion and challenges Messala to a chariot race, which makes Ben-Hur a worthy opponent for Messala. During the movie or before the movie we will be introduced to the villain with something they did in the past that wasn't morally right, or something they did during the movie that wasn't morally right. For example, in Hercules, Hades is shown stealing Hercules away from Zeus to make sure he becomes mortal so Hades can win. But in Ben-Hur, Messala is shown to be a good figure until he pins an accident on Ben-Hur to make him a slave so he kills people that hate the Roman religion. Finally, villains should have some sort of humor, whether it is comedy or something the villain does that is something out of the ordinary. For example, in Hercules Hades likes to tell slight jokes to the other characters and he does some things that are funny, but in Quo Vadis, Nero has a different type of comedy. Nero has the dumb comedy where he does things and the people watching are shocked, which all the audience can do is stop and laugh. These are all ways that villains are needed in a hero’s story and how most villains in Toga movies are connected with each other.