Villains. A good villain doesn't leave you indifferent. You may hate them, love them, or have very ambiguous feelings about them. A good villain walks the line between good and bad, and shows their human side once in a while, displaying their vulnerability and their heart.
Here are my picks for six movie and TV villains with a heart. I'm excluding all comic book movie villains and all Disney villains. It would be way too easy.
Be warned: there are spoilers
Be warned: there are spoilers
Movies
Christof
The eccentric mastermind behind The Truman Show. A man who's idea of entertainment is to film a man twenty four hours a day for thirty years, without the star's knowledge or consent. He's everything that's wrong with our media and our show business. But does he believe that he's doing right by Truman? Maybe. Besides, the real villains in this movie are the audience.
Darth Vader
No villain list is complete without this Sith lord. He's Darth Vader, the man who literally inhabits that grey zone between good and evil. Vader's battle with himself is what makes the Star Wars franchise more than just your usual space fantasy.
Roy Batty
He's the villain of Blade Runner. A renegade replicant and a murderer. Or is he just a man who wants to live? He didn't ask to be created. And he didn't ask for a lifespan that of a fruit fly. And in the end, doesn't he prove to be more human than human with that one act of mercy?
TV
Spike
How can I describe my feelings for this punk rocker vamp? He's William the bloody, who used to torture his victims with railroad spikes (hence the nickname). He killed two vampire slayers. He almost killed our beloved heroes so many times, and who can forget that terrible bathroom scene? (I wish I could) But before he was a vampire, William was a poet who loved his mother. He mourned Buffy's death. And most importantly, he fought to get his soul back so that he could be the kind of man Buffy would want, And he gave his life to stop the Apocalypse.
I can talk about Spike all day. Whether you love him or hate him, you've got admit that Spike may just be the most complex character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Alex Krycek
Sexy, charismatic and extremely intelligent, Krycek becomes even more dangerous after losing his arm. Was Krycek a real FBI-agent before he was seduced by the Dark Side? Is Krycek even his real name? One thing is sure, though - he is always looking out for number one, playing the good and the bad against each other for his own gain.
Or does he? Isn't there a small part of him that actually cares about the world and wants to stop the alien invasion? I don't know. But I do want to believe there is.
Dr. Robert Kelso
Kelso just may be my favourite TV bad guy of all time. He doesn't seem to give two cents about the patients, and is more concerned with the money they bring in. He enjoys torturing the interns (especially Elliot). Plus, he treats his wife like a stray dog, and spends a lot of quality time with his hookers.
In the rare moments of enlightenment, though, we do get to see the softer side of Kelso. He obsesses over money because as chief of medicine he has to ensure the hospital's financial security. He wrote a bunch of songs in his youth dedicated to his wife. And he sometimes does care for the little guy, even if he doesn't show it.
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