Two words: villain sympathizers.
Allow me to list four of the most well known ones:
Snape
Draco Malfoy
Loki
Kylo Ren
Sometimes villain sympathizers have a point, but sometimes they take it a bit too far. Personally, I think that sometimes a person is more likely to sympathize with a villain if the said villain is attractive.
(Excluding: Snape lololol)
Would you still pity Draco if he was an overweight, hairy slob instead of a beautiful blond? Probably not.
Would Loki still tug at your heartstrings if he was played by Ron Perlman? I doubt it.
So let's take a look at who may/may not deserve our pity, all looks aside.
Please note that these are simply MY opinions, and you may not agree. That's okay, everyone has differing opinions. If there's something you don't agree with, let me know bc I'm curious lol.
1. Severus Snape (Harry Potter series)
I'm sorry but wanting to screw a kid's deceased mom and being upset that she is dead is no reason to constantly harass and bully classroom after classroom of children.
No, he doesn't "have a point". He's a grown adult man who should be able to get over things like death. And no, the "trauma he experienced" isn't a valid excuse either. James and Lily had other friends and family who experienced the exact same trauma and none of them resorted to bullying kids to "cope". Severus Snape should not have been allowed around children, period.
Pity points: 0/10
2. Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter series)
"He's just a kid," is the excuse most often heard for dis boi. Yes, he is - a kid raised in unfortunate circumstances.
Was he forced into making some terrible choices? Yes, and I'm not counting any of those. I'm only counting the ones he could have chosen to do.
He could have chosen to be nice.
He could have chosen to be honest.
But he didn't. Yes, perhaps that was influenced by his parents and how he was raised. But surely spending over half the year at school he could have learned to be nice.
The truth is, Draco Malfoy was a bully. A misunderstood bully, though.
He needed help, but he didn't want it. And the few times he wanted it, he couldn't get it. If people had helped him, I think he could have turned out to be a nice kid.
And I mean, we all felt bad for him when he and Dumbledore were having that chat. Or when Harry sectum-sempra(d) him. And pretty much the entirety of The Deathly Hallows he was just miserable and we all probably felt a little bad.
Butttt that doesn't excuse his bad behavior in previous books.
So in conclusion: Draco chose to be a bit of a bully, but not all of his bad choices were his.
Pity points: 5/10
3. Kylo Ren (Star Wars)
Kylo Ren. Ben Solo. Whatever you want to call him.
His origin story hasn't been super specifically laid out yet, but we at least know a little bit.
We know that he was trained by Luke, and in TLJ we realize that he thought Luke was going to kill him.
We also know that he killed all of the other students after Snoke started seducing him to the dark side.
But we don't really know why or how.
It's hard to judge whether someone deserves pity when you don't know their whole backstory. But in my opinion, he deserves at least a little.
He is just a young man. He was a kid when Snoke first reached out to him. Kids are easily convinced, and I do pity that that had happened to him.
Pity points: 4/10
4. Loki Laufeyson/Odinson (Marvel)
Loki is perhaps the trickiest one (makes sense tho. T r i c k y.)
Loki is that one character where no matter the terrible things he did, you couldn't help but feel bad for him.
And hate him for it at the same time.
You hated him when he was killing people in New York. When he stabbed Thor. All those times he refused to use his power for good. When he gave Thanos the Tesseract.
But you almost cried for him when he learned his true heritage. All those times he "died". When he cried before fighting his brother. And, of course, when he finally called himself "Odinson".
And no doubt you were conflicted on how to feel about Loki by the end of Ragnarok. Yes, it seemed like he had redeemed himself - but that still can't excuse all of his past wrongdoing.
But yet, with the way Marvel portrayed the character, you were probably able to understand why he did what he did. Even if it still made you a bit mad, you still may have understood where he was coming from.
I mean, he was constantly one-upped by his brother. Anyone with siblings knows that that's probably one of the most annoying things ever.
So, in my opinion, some of Loki's actions are forgiveable. Some.
And is he worthy of a little pity? Yes, I think he is.
Pity points: 8/10
***
So overall, most of these characters are worthy of at least a little pity.
(Not Snape tho)
Notice I said a little. Anyone who says, "But he's genuinely a good person who just made bad choices!!!1!1!!!11!!!" is taking it too far. That is what I call "Attractive Pity." Because let's face it, no one would ever say that about Thanos in a million years. Unless he was portrayed by like Zac Efron or something.
No, none of them are genuinely good people. They all purposely made bad choices; choices far worse than any genuinely good person would even think of making.
But are they misunderstood? Yes, somewhat.
You can't hate the character just because you choose to disregard all of the pain they went through to make them the way they are.
You can hate their choices, but you may not be able to hate them as a person.
And yet, some people still do.
(But you can hate Snape bc he doesn't count lolol)
Let me ask you this, if you're a person who dislikes all of the people listed above:
Did you feel even remotely bad for Draco when he was lying on the bathroom floor in blood?
Did you feel any remorse for Kylo Ren throughout The Last Jedi?
Did you feel an ounce of sympathy for Loki when he found out his true heritage?
Hate the choices, not the whole character.
Pity the character, not all of their poor choices.
Let's stop pitying people just because they're attractive, and let's stop hating people without knowing their whole story.
And yes, they may deserve some sympathy, but not all of it in the world.
×× Isaac
