Loy Young

The second starring role of players in the Soul Game is the Villain

Game: A competitive activity in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules providing entertainment or amusement.

Indeed, the villain is the most active contender in the game and frequently has the most fun of all, or so it seems.

Since the days of Greek tragedies, the early Hollywood movies and modern thrillers, the bad guys were moving in the half shadows, scheming, cunning, cleverly plotting, and doing whatever they pleased, undeterred by public opinion. Such power, determination, independence, mystery, and danger are endowed with an undeniable sex appeal, the promise of excitement and adventure while exploring out-of-bounds terrain. The seductive enemy often charms his or her victim into submission.

Goethe’s Mephistopheles is a rather more sparkling character than his comparatively pedestrian Faust. The devil has the expensive champagne-appeal, the ‘je ne sais quoi’. The role of the villain is therefore by no means despised in the good old Goodness Triumphs Over Evil game. His or her part demands rather more skill and depth in character than the staid good guys and girls playing the victims. Without the personification of evil, someone who consciously and intentionally harms the innocent and helpless, the show can’t go on.

The villain’s torture chamber

Evil was earlier defined as the abuse of power and love and the villain embodies this concept. Villains love to torture their victims using three different methods to bully, intimidate and bulldoze over people:

Manipulation

Control

Abuse

Good People

Even good people are not always in balance, and misuse their power and control, abuse or manipulate other people, albeit with ‘good’ intentions. They do not actually set out to hurt those weaker than themselves, but may do so nonetheless through a mistaken sense of responsibility for innocent and defenseless victims, disenfranchising them of their own learning experiences and growth. The good people feel awful about themselves when they realize what they have done.

The rule says good people can only triumph over evil. So good people must come up with justifications as to why the other person is evil before they can attack them. Blame is the emotional fuel in the triumph.

The rule is relentless: if good people hurt the weak, they must hurt themselves as punishment. Otherwise, they must give up, concede, and become losers in the Soul Game.

Villain On the Side of Evil

Villains, however, do not need to justify their actions. In fact, villains see good people mainly as easy victims who are too gullible to see through them and too incompetent to stop them.

Villains long ago think they figured out that life is unfair in the Soul Game. The battle cry of the Villain is: the game is rigged!

In an unfair world, villains take what they want. Little do they know that the idea of life as unfair is just one of the many red herrings to throw the players in the Soul Game off the ultimate victory. The villain took the bait, and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, which makes the villain a loser.

Of course, the villains beg to differ: they think they are the winners and enjoy the emotional thrill of power. In their delusion villains often love to show their hand, just to dazzle people with their brilliant minds.

If you believe true villains do not enjoy tormenting, robbing and deceiving others, think again. Do not fall into the trap of pitying them as poor, misunderstood persons. Remember, villains mistake goodness for stupidity. Do not be a naïve victim.