Do villains have to be sympathetic? Well, that's what I'll be talking about in today's blog post! Recently it's been common to see villains that are evil or just downright awful, but then later they're given a sad or relatable backstory. This makes you feel bad for them, which kind of makes it feel like the creators want you to excuse the villain for being a villain. Although this works with some characters, I really don't agree with it for all of them. Sometimes villains should just be villains. Not everyone has to have a tragic motivation. For some antagonists, it's better if they just wake up one day and decide to be a jerk. This also works for characters who are doing bad things out of curiosity, or in the name of science. They don't think they're doing anything bad as long as they get a result, so these types of characters don't need to have a tragic backstory. Sometimes there are exceptions. Like people who don't understand others, people who are just doing their jobs, and people who are just being bad for the fun of it. Not every villain should have an excuse for being a villain, and I think having a variety of motivations makes things more interesting. But, those are mostly just my thoughts on this topic. Nonetheless, I hope you all still enjoyed this blog post!