A Villain’s Journey
Whether one is a hero or a villain depends on the society they live in. Normally, for one to be considered a hero, they must me someone the society looks up to. They fight for what the society justifies as right. Similarly, villains are viewed as evil and corrupted people, their beliefs are rejected by a majority of the society and are branded as evil. In many cases, villains seek to achieve their goals by using unorthodox means. To them, the end justifies the means. Where a hero is recognized, a villain is held in contempt.
There are some cases where villains were once heroes but due to circumstances, they are forced to become villains. In the book “The Iliad of Homer”, we see the mighty battle worrier Achilles who refuses to take part in the battle because of many disagreements with Agamemnon who is the army chief. His withdrawal from the battle unfolds many unfortunate events even among his friends and fellow warriors. During his time out in the battle, his best friend is killed by the commander of the rival army. This killing ignites a spirit of vengeance in him. Achilles only comes back when his best friend Patroclus is killed by the leader of the enemy. Achilles joins the battle not because of the rewards offered to him by Agamemnon, but to seek vengeance for his slain friend. He achieves this when he slaughters Hector who is the leader of the enemy army.
Also, there are villains who carry out evil acts because they are powerful and they can get whatever they want. They simply do not care about the consequences of their actions; Agamemnon is such a villain. He is indeed a powerful man as the army chief and powerful men get what they want. In this instance, Agamemnon is presented with a war prize who is the daughter of priest Chyres. When Chyres arrives with an an assortment of gifts in exchange for his captured daughter, Agamemnon is defiant and refuses to release the captured daughter. Achilles did the hounarable thing of presenting his amry chief with a war prize but Agamemnon repays this with misery. When Agamemnon refuses to give him his daughter, the priest Chyres prays to his god Apollo and he answers by coming down and killing many Greeks including the soldiers. Seeing this, Agamemnon gives the priest his daughter and in turn takes Achilles’ war prize and mistress.
In addition, there are people whose acts earn them the title villain. For instance, the case of Ares. Ares’ father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him. This is because he was a dangerous force, violent and insatiable in terms of war. Ares has no fixed allegiances and is therefore considered a traitor. He had earlier promised to fight on the side of Achaeans but later fought alongside Trojans. Ares is driven by his need for revenge and when Zeus permits immortal to fight in the war again, he is the first to attack Athena to avenge himself. He is however overpowered when Athena strikes him with a boulder.
In conclusion, heroes and villains are driven by their beliefs. They fight for what they believe is right and put in a lot of efforts to ensure they achieve their goals. The only difference between the two is that what heroes believe in is accepted by the society as morally correct while the beliefs of villains are unacceptable to the society and are therefore rejected.