March 16th, 2022
I’ve been trying to talk this idea out for a while now, but I should just try to write it down. Because I am an absolute idiot when I talk, and I am slightly less an idiot when I do not. So very slightly.
There’s this oft-repeated warning about good people; it’s the reminder that it can’t last, that nothing gold can stay. A great example is this memorable quote from The Dark Knight:
“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
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I think about it a lot, but not as it is.
No, I often think about its inverse.
If being good forever is seemingly impossible, then being bad must have similar limitations.
For some people, they must be scraping the bottom so hard that the only opportunities that present themselves are ways up.
And with that in mind, I believe that some villains just last long enough to become the hero.
Not a hero in the heroic sense. A hero in a more tangible way, in how they see the world, and treat people, and enact sincere and permanent change.
Sure, you see this in pop culture all the time: the anti-hero, the bad guy you love to hate who eventually does the right thing. The cliché could spring from either a strong sense or severe lack of self-awareness.
But people aren’t characters. A character is written to change and a person has to write their own. And then be it and do it.
I felt like a villain for so long that I had to hope and believe the opposite of the popular sentiment was true.
That good things can come out of bad; that black can be gold under the right light.
The Den 