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| This is my own picture. Yay! (Although I obviously didn't make the photos themselves, I just put them together.) |
Heroes
According to the dictionary, a hero is "a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities", "the principal male character in a story, film, etc.", or (in Classical Mythology) "a being of extraordinary strength and courage, often the offspring of a mortal and a god, who is celebrated for his exploits". That's a pretty great standard to live up to, but many characters do it admirably. Note that I said "characters", not "men" or "guys". By no means do I intend to discredit women. There are lots of awesome female protagonists (see my blog post about it here), and they are called heroines. So, heroes and heroines are amazing characters who are important to the story.
According to the dictionary, a hero is "a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities", "the principal male character in a story, film, etc.", or (in Classical Mythology) "a being of extraordinary strength and courage, often the offspring of a mortal and a god, who is celebrated for his exploits". That's a pretty great standard to live up to, but many characters do it admirably. Note that I said "characters", not "men" or "guys". By no means do I intend to discredit women. There are lots of awesome female protagonists (see my blog post about it here), and they are called heroines. So, heroes and heroines are amazing characters who are important to the story.
Villains
To get the full story on what a villain is (and why we love them), check out my blog post here. The short of it is this: a villain is "a wicked or malevolent person" or "(in a novel, play, film, etc.) the main evil character and antagonist to the hero". These guys (or girls, if you're talking about a villainess) are pure evil, and they don't care. A villain is basically the opposite of a hero: a hero is the important good character (i.e., the protagonist), and a villain is the important bad character (i.e., the antagonist).
So what's the difference?
Honestly, they're eerily similar. Yeah, that's pretty scary, especially for those of us who want to be just like the heroes. So then what is the difference? We want the hero to do well, and we want the villain to lose. We get angry when Sherlock is thwarted by one of Moriarty's schemes, and we laugh in delight when Wile E. Coyote gets blown up and the roadrunner gets away again. Also, the hero is usually more trustworthy. This isn't a rule, though. Sometimes you see a daring plot twist where the hero is revealed to be the villain. Or, in the case of Jekyll and Hyde, we knew all along that the hero and the villain were one and the same.
The biggest difference
We've all heard that with great power comes great responsibility. This is true in the real world and the fictional world. Typically, both the hero and the villain have a lot of power. The real test of who's who is what they do with this power. Do they play with it, hurting innocent people, or do they use it to save others, often endangering themselves in the process? In the words of a great song from Chameleon Circuit (Exterminate, Regenerate),
To get the full story on what a villain is (and why we love them), check out my blog post here. The short of it is this: a villain is "a wicked or malevolent person" or "(in a novel, play, film, etc.) the main evil character and antagonist to the hero". These guys (or girls, if you're talking about a villainess) are pure evil, and they don't care. A villain is basically the opposite of a hero: a hero is the important good character (i.e., the protagonist), and a villain is the important bad character (i.e., the antagonist).
So what's the difference?
Honestly, they're eerily similar. Yeah, that's pretty scary, especially for those of us who want to be just like the heroes. So then what is the difference? We want the hero to do well, and we want the villain to lose. We get angry when Sherlock is thwarted by one of Moriarty's schemes, and we laugh in delight when Wile E. Coyote gets blown up and the roadrunner gets away again. Also, the hero is usually more trustworthy. This isn't a rule, though. Sometimes you see a daring plot twist where the hero is revealed to be the villain. Or, in the case of Jekyll and Hyde, we knew all along that the hero and the villain were one and the same.
The biggest difference
We've all heard that with great power comes great responsibility. This is true in the real world and the fictional world. Typically, both the hero and the villain have a lot of power. The real test of who's who is what they do with this power. Do they play with it, hurting innocent people, or do they use it to save others, often endangering themselves in the process? In the words of a great song from Chameleon Circuit (Exterminate, Regenerate),
"We both carry the fire that has the power to end life
But what I do with that flame is what separates our types"
So, heroes and villains really aren't that different after all. But the difference is an important one, as it saves or ends lives. "Is that character a hero or a villain?" That answer changes the whole course of the story, and affects the character's entire life and portrayal, and changes what the reader/audience thinks of him/her.
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