The Hero and the Villian

Quick Facts

-The hero and the villain cannot exist without each other, and the show they put on is absolutely incredible!

-There are states of being that are beyond hero and villain, good and evil, and these states are very meaningful and worth living in!

Intro

Talking about the hero and villain archetypes is something so many people have done for such a long time! It can be said it's the ultimate show, the ultimate moral question, the ultimate adventure, and one of the most meaningful dualities to watch and live out in everyday life.

Many of us wish to be the hero and many of us secretly wish to be the villain. Many of us want the battle to go on, the struggle to continue, and we see these archetypes play out in real life and, very often, in movies and cinematic films.

So what is the hero, and what is the villain? Why are these archetypes so meaningful to watch and play out? And, of course, what's beyond the archetype duality when it's transcended. Let's have a wee chat :).

What Is The Hero and What Is The Villain?

Many of us consider the hero to be the protagonist, the one who saves the village from the dragon and uses the gold to repair the damages. The hero is the alpha, the leader, the one who strikes to protect and not to lash out in anger. The hero is the one most of us subconsciously identify with, which means we subconsciously disidentify from the villain.

The villain, of course, is the one who attacks to destroy. The villain almost always has a story, a terrible series of unfortunate events that inspired fear, hatred, and rage to form inside of him and control his actions. He exists to be defeated, to lead his army against the hero, and ultimately fall, and this is the story we love to watch and live out!

The hero and the villain can sometimes be swapped, or they can develop opposite traits as the story progresses - Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment started out as something of a hero until his decisions slowly made him into something of a villain. It was highly considered that Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War was a strong villain until he gave his case and made us wonder if he was the hero. This happens in real life as well, someone may think they're a hero and wish they're a villain or vice versa since one archetype tries their best to suppress the other!

In a sense, who the hero is and who the villain is determined by which side of the moral scale they're on. Who has the passion, the will to protect, the regenerative warrior outlook on life? And who has the negativity, the spite, and desire for revenge? Whoever makes the first attack (usually the villain unless you're watching/reading a sequel) is less morally developed than the one who defends the attack, and this is the biggest clue!

And of course, it's the most meaningful story in the history of mankind. Good vs. Evil! Many people wish to identify with some kind of hero, and these archetypes are so old and so buried deep within our psyche that even just mentioning them conjures feelings and images the likes of which are extremely powerful!

Why Is "The Story" So Meaningful?

The stories are emotionally gripping! We want to see the good guy win and as soon as the bad guy gets the upper hand we feel down because we want to see regenerative power take the day!

That's partly why they're meaningful but another reason is that these stories are the playing out of old, archetypal patterns that we can see and observe in our mind. Did we create them long ago, or do they exist within our collective consciousness as an objective fact? Either way, we attach so much emotional meaning to the playing out of these stories that if the entire planet were to turn into a hero vs. villain dynamic we would live very meaningful lives.

But the strongest reason why "the story" is so meaningful is that we attach our own emotion to it, consciously or subconsciously. Even though it provides archetypal meaning there is a higher sense of meaning to be found beyond the story of the hero and the villain, and you deserve to know this since it's been so overplayed and so overused by our lovely modern-day corporations.

What's Beyond It?

First I'd like to address the question, "how to go beyond it?". I personally enjoyed watching heroic movies and reading heroic novels for a long time, and that was part of what led me past it - immersing myself in it and paying attention to my thoughts and feelings at the same time. I'd come across all kinds of desires and insecurities, and once I sorted out my psyche I stopped feeling the need to watch The Avengers for the 9th time in a row! I simply grabbed ahold of my personal power and ran with it instead of receiving it from outside sources!

And then of course, what's beyond "the story?" I feel like it will be different for everyone but for me, it was straight emotional and psychological fulfillment, a series of meaningful spiritual happenings that didn't occur while I was watching these kinds of movies, a kind of lifestyle that's very introspective yet very extroverted at the same time, states of meditation that completely dwarfed any meaning I found from "the story…" and more, of course!

I guarantee that if you're captured by the stories of the past that there's more waiting for you if you choose to receive it ;)

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my article! I apologize for the short post on such a popular topic, but I want to help you transcend it (or even transcend into it) as much as I possibly can!

Thank you for reading my article! I'd greatly appreciate it if you meditate before reading the next post :)