All stories revolve around a hero and villain with the two of them representing the binary of good and bad. However, recent films and works of fiction have blurred the line between the two. Consider President Snow from the Hunger Games series or Joker from Dark Knight trilogy. Both of them are different types of villains in terms of their backstories and their fates but they share a crucial similarity- their popularity soared with the telling of their backstories, surpassing that of the heroes even. To understand this phenomenon, we need to delve into the origins of these complex characters.
Coriolanus Snow: Behind the Ruthless Tyrant of Panem
In the novel, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Snow starts out as young capitol boy whose family lost all their wealth in a war with the rebels in the districts. His only ambition is to continue maintaining the pretense of being rich among his peers while he strives to complete his education and with that, hopefully regain some of his wealth. He finds an opportunity when he is made a mentor in the tenth annual Hunger Games. The mentor whose tribute wins the games will be awarded the prize which would enable them to afford university. His entire future is at stake. As the story unfolds, Snow tries following the path of righteousness but soon realizes that the path means that he would have to give up everything- flee north and leave Panem behind. His despair grows as he asks himself, “What was there to aspire to once wealth, fame and power had been eliminated?” Thus, begins his moral degeneration which finally culminates in him becoming the tyrannical president of Panem for nearly twenty-five years. He leaves behind a trail of dead bodies as he moves up through the ranks.
However, if one was to try and understand what caused this degeneration, one would likely be able to trace it back to his troubled childhood. Having lost both his parents during the war, Snow was left to fend for himself in a Capitol ravaged by food shortages and disease. Once, while searching for food during the war, Snow came across one of his neighbors sawing off the leg of a maid for food on the street. All of this gave birth to his twisted belief where the world was nothing but an arena in which you were either the predator or the prey. The moment this realization hit him, there was no looking back. Even his own family could be done away with if they became an obstacle.
Snow embodies ruthless pragmatism. In a society with intense competition and having known what it felt like to be deprived, Snow believed that security came with power and having control. He bends all rules as well as his own moral beliefs during the course of the Hunger Games as long as he is the victor. His pragmatism is a response to the social conditions wherein he needs to be ruthless to stay at the top.
Snow’s story focuses on how individuals can be pushed towards the darker side by the larger workings of the system. On the other hand, Katniss’ story, who is the heroine of the Hunger Games, is more about how a single individual can be responsible for major societal changes. Katniss is often pushed into the role of the savior with the attention being on one individual’s actions. She is reluctant about being the hero and at times disillusioned. After a powerful people’s movement and revolution, the narrative abruptly shifts back to Katniss wherein the onus of saving everyone from Coin’s authoritarianism falls on her shoulders. In a story where the emphasis had been on the power of a united front against tyranny, this shift comes across as a step backward to a more traditional hero-centric narrative and an oversimplification of the revolution wherein the very symbol of the revolution is forced to be completely apolitical. The ending itself emphasizes only an individual’s journey far removed from collective action or solidarity.
Joker and the Descent into Chaos
Joker, on the other hand, has a different story. He is not born in an aristocratic family which is losing its wealth. He has no wealth. He starts out as a clown desperately trying to make a living. On his way home after a bad day at work, Arthur Fleck (later Joker) gets harassed by three Wayne enterprise businessmen. When he is cornered, Arhtur fights back and kills them all. One can say that this is the point where Arthur begins his descent into becoming Joker- the criminal mastermind. He is seemingly undisturbed after killing and continues living his normal life. Later, he confesses to the murders on a TV show and then shoots the host who was making fun of him. The city is wracked by chaos as riots break out in several places. The murders of the three businessmen start a movement in Gotham against the rich. Meanwhile, Joker is taken to Arkham where he kills the social worker who is responsible for him, having already killed his own mother and two former co-workers.
Arthur is attacked before also but he chooses to fight back only when it is three wealthy people who are the perpetrators. This implies that he can clearly identify his oppressors at least in the beginning. Even though he later adopts a more nihilistic view wherein he sees society as inherently cruel and corrupt and enjoys breaking moral codes as well as pushing heroes like Batman to do so. His way of fighting the system is to ensure its complete breakdown, to make sure that everything descends into chaos once the cloak of civilization is ripped off. He embraces chaos and call his life a “comedy”.
This is in stark contrast to Batman who is depicted as the savior of the city and embodies the idea that an individual alone can work towards bringing about changes in society. Batman, in fact, does not seek to change the system and is more focused on policing. He beats up criminals and his closest aide is police commissioner Gordon. In a city wracked by corruption, Batman aka Bruce Wayne, who is a billionaire, starts to fight crime and ensure stability. The poor of the city are saved by the wealthy and self-sacrificing businessman which again stresses on the importance of how society is dependent on an individual’s sense of right and wrong.
As Indrajit Samarajiva has said,
“Bruce Wayne’s net worth has been estimated at $11.6 billion dollars. As Batman, he uses that money to dress up and get in fist-fights with individual criminals. This does not, however, address the social and infrastructure problems of Gotham City. Gotham does not need Batman. It needs to tax Bruce Wayne.”
Villains as Mirrors of Societal Despair
Audiences are attracted to both Snow’s pragmatism and Joker’s nihilism because they strongly resonate with underlying frustrations by being responses to an authoritarian or capitalist system. People root for these characters because there is a sense of empowerment in identifying with them as they triumph by bending or rejecting the moral codes of a society that has rejected them. These characters represent extreme outcomes of individuals pushed to the margins, allowing us to vicariously experience their defiance while also motivating us in our own struggles.
It is true that they are not blameless. Both Joker and Snow have the blood of poor, innocent citizens on their hands. In an article on Medium, the author expresses the following about Joker,
“He’s not at all a man to root for — there are valid readings of this movie as being sexist and racist, in fact. Part of me is worried that, by admitting that I liked the movie, I will acquire the protagonist’s low-status taint. But that’s the point, isn’t it? The protagonist of Joker is low-status: authentically, organically, and honestly.”
Both Snow and Joker are representative what humans are pushed into doing by a system which alienates them and renders them powerless. They strike a chord with us with their flawed personalities and the mistakes they make when they are cornered. Their stories often feel closer to us than those of heroes because we perceive that mistakes can be made especially when the system forces a victim into becoming the villain.
Maliha Iqbal is a student and writer from Aligarh, India. Many of her short stories, write-ups, letters and poems have been published on platforms Live Wire (The Wire), Cerebration, Kitaab, Countercurrents, Freedom Review, ArmChair Journal, Counterview, Writers’ Cafeteria, Café Dissensus, Borderless Journal and Indian Periodical. She can be reached at [email protected].
