The Existence of a Villain Does Not Make One a Hero.

Daily writing prompt

Have you ever liked a villain more than the hero? Who and why?

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I have liked a villain more than the presumed ‘heros’ of his franchise.

I think I have to preface this opinion with two important disclaimers: First, Of course I’m not condoning or celebrating the actions of the villain. Second, I’m talking about a film franchise that had spun wildly out of control, even in its own era.

There is a morality trope that manifests itself in stories about teens making out in a car, oblivious to a news report broadcast on the radio about an escaped killer in the area. Of course the killer happens across the unsuspecting couple and kills one or both of them. Lesson Learned: Teens, don’t get frisky in the car.

Jason Vorhees is an extreme extension of this trope. As a child, he was allowed to drown because of negligence at Camp Crystal Lake. The camp counselors Barry and Claudette were making out in the loft of the barn while Jason drowned. Everything that followed — the machete, the mask — grew from that neglect. The killer of the first Friday the Thirteenth film was revealed to be Jason’s mother Pamela Vorhees, but in subsequent films, Jason Vorhees himself, in the form of a hulking, silent, unstoppable killing machine; becomes the avenger of the abused and the neglected.

Yes, the Friday the 13th films got silly and lost the context of Jason’s “righteous anger” and turned him into a mindless slasher. He went to New York City. He went to Hell. He fought Freddy Krueger. He even went to outer Space.