Playing the Bad Guy

Look at the published stats for any “moral choice” game, and you’ll see that most everyone picks the “good-guy” path, rather than villain. We don’t want to be cruel and evil people, we don’t want to cause pain or suffering, we want to be the hero.

So here’s my question: why would anyone want to be the bad-guy?

Because people do want to be the bad-guy. Look at all the people who play Warhammer 40k as chaos-marines, tyranids, orks, necrons, and dark eldar. Count all the people who love playing Evil RPG campaigns, or relish in being the anti-hero. Consider how many people reach for red lightsabers and stormtrooper outfits, or vampire capes, or purport to identify with the Joker.

I say purport, because no one really identifies with the Joker. People like the idea of dressing garishly and doing whatever you want without consequences, not killing half of New York with toxic gas. I mean, if anyone was really given the opportunity to join an oppressive dictatorial regime predicated on the suppression of the poor and downtrodden, no one would actually join up, right?

Some would. Some already have.

But let’s talk about what’s really going on here. Most people, when proudly stating ’the Emperor Protects’ or swearing allegiance to the dark side, don’t mean it. It’s a kind of play-acting; a costume or means of presenting themselves similar to how punks wore spikes and chains. They wear Joker make-up as a political statement or to shock their parents and feel powerful.

Now, this is a gray area. There are fascists in this world, and they hate you and me. They honestly think the Space Marines are the good-guys and Emperor Palpatine had the right idea. At the same time, most of the people who are drawn to posters of Darth Vader and the theocratic Empire of Man do so for one reason; they think they look cool.

Aesthetics is a big part of this. Darth Vader looks big, strong, imposing, has a brilliantly designed helmet, and is voiced by James Earl Jones. This is someone who is constantly in control and displays lethal effectiveness. There is an appeal to that.

The problem with Darth Vader and the Empire is we never actually see their villainy. Sure, we see soldiers killing other soldiers and we are told the Empire is oppressive and evil…but we don’t feel the oppression beyond their generic narrative antagonism towards the heroes.¹ It’s a subject discussed here, among other places…what exactly is the ideology of the Empire? We can see what Darth Vader and the Emperor are doing, but why?

I think that’s why people get so confused about anti-heroes, space marines, and the Joker. It’s not that they agree with their ideologies, it’s that they don’t realize they have ideologies. The ideology isn’t the important part.

So why play bad-guys? Just to look cool? Cool-looking good-guys aren’t exactly dominating the market, so what is the actual draw of play-villainy?

Let’s talk about Batman. Something that has semi-regularly been part of the batman cannon is the idea that Batman himself is frightened of bats. He puts on his costume to terrify criminals the same way that he is terrified, making Batman an extension of the Halloween spirit; of Carnival.

If you want a far more amusing explanation than what I’m going to give, you can take a look at this video here, but in short: Carnival is a religious holiday (originally) that was full of excess and revelry before Lent, similar to the practice of large feasts before holy fasting. There are connections between this festival and the ancient Greek Dionysian festivals, where chaos replaced order and social expectation was subverted.

A Reversal Ritual is a process where the “natural order” of things is reversed. Used often in purification rites, roles and societal obligations are relaxed, flipped, or even suspended. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples instead of having them serve him. The bishop is parodied by a young boy while the clergy swaps positions for a day. The Feast of Fools, Mardi Gras, and Halloween all follow this simple mindset: For this day, the powerful is made weak and the low are risen high.

On Halloween, the macabre and horrific is made fun. Batman took his fear and made it a weapon. For Carnival, you no longer need concern yourself with acting “properly” or dressing “appropriately.”

The bad-guys can become good-guys.

Now, this can be a dangerous idea. One of the greatest moral and professional failings of the modern era² is the print-media’s white-washing of fascist and racist ideology through “the man down the street” stories. No matter their intent, newspapers normalized and de-fanged the threat by turning tiki-torch wielding violent people into “just your neighbor,” or “another reasonable worldview.” As I’ve said elsewhere when talking about the problem with satire and The Immortal Lich Henry Kissinger, there is a real danger in humanizing villainy; it suggests that there are some situations where abhorrent behavior is acceptable.

It’s the same thing people have said about the Warhammer 40k Imperium. “Sure, it’s bad; but the alternative is even worse.”

It’s important to remember, even if “the alternative is worse,” that doesn’t make the oppressive theocratic dictatorship of the Emperor good. Part of the absurdity of 40k is that the Imperium is so bad, that millions of people look at the twisted hells of the four chaos gods or the promise of being devoured by alien monsters and say “man is that grass green!”

I should stop beating around the bush; Fascism scares me.

Not just the idea of soldiers knocking on my door and dragging me away because of what pills I take on a daily basis — though that is becoming more a worry these days — but the concept of what Fascism does to people. That someone could engage in such a horribly unjust and cruel system and still think themselves heroes. That someone could be so alone and anxious that they need someone to rule them, someone to obey without question. To be manipulated into hating some other so easily. To surrender yourself entirely to another person’s will so completely that you can’t even question your own actions. To live in constant fear of failure, of imperfection, of not ‘fitting in;’ and all to protect yourself from living and loving freely…

It scares me enough that I’m a bit sensitive to authority. Firm hierarchies make me uncomfortable and I find myself quite skeptical of any bureaucratic organization. Of course, organized bureaucracy is a necessity for large-scale operations, so I find my ideals in constant conflict; after all, if someone wanted to organize a massive food-drive for the hungry, isn’t that a little dictatorial?

But if I dress up as a zombie for Halloween, for one day I can turn my fear of death into a game. If I laugh at the current regime, maybe I won’t be paralyzed with fear anymore. Maybe putting a flower on a skeleton is healthy. If I play the Fascist army, I can control them — something I cannot do in real life. I can let go of the social expectation to “be kind, honorable, and forgiving;” and instead crush the good-guys with as much cruelty as I can manage. Indeed, I have to; if I don’t, I’m not playing the game right.

But is this part of the problem?

Like I said, reversals like these are common in purification rites and cleansing rituals. The idea of catharsis — purging unpleasant emotions or thoughts through expression — suggests that the Carnival concept is one of maintaining the status quo rather than challenging or questioning it. If you can laugh at the boy pretending to be the Bishop, then perhaps you won’t feel as oppressed by the church’s tithes. If you can thumb your nose at the King once in a while, then maybe you’ll go home and get to work on providing him his taxes instead of plotting his downfall. If suffering is the catalyst for change, if fear can be turned a weapon, than relaxing, joy, and understanding may weaken you.

Is self-care important? The fascists, patriarchates, and white supremacists³ don’t think so…and it does sometimes seem like they’re winning…

I’ve often wondered if George W. Bush would have ever been re-elected if we couldn’t have laughed at him during The Daily Show, or if Fox News would be subject to more scrutiny and standards if we’d never had the Colbert Report. In our internet-connected world, these comedic truth-tellers are disconnected from clear local actionable issues…are they the voice of resistance or just more circuses to spread on our bread?

Does this mean it’s “bad” to play the bad-guys? No, certainly not — well, unless you’re using play as practice. Much like BDSM, things that are “bad” can actually be “good” if entered into with the right mindset. I suppose there isn’t really a “moral” to my thinking; I just find it interesting that something as simple as playing the antagonist can have such deep and resounding influences.

If there is a moral, I suppose it’s, to quote Kurt Vonnegut again: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” To be a Better Socrates, I should offer my own adjustment: “…we must be mindful of why we pretend to be.”