But … why? I just love him. And yes, I know this is the most problematic of tropes. SO fun, usually that they never stay villains and become either tragic or reluctant heroes. For one, yes, aesthetics. Tom Hiddleston is a cutie. Loki is above all things, a trickster. Tricksters are fundamental. They represent fun and chaos and magic, but they also represent change, subversion, and progress. Antiheroes like Clyde Barrow, brought to life by Hollywood playboy of the century Warren Beatty, taught audiences that egotism, violence, and self-hatred come in every type of package.
And audiences love watching their protagonists suffer. Characters enduring torture or other physical pain has always been a litmus test of masculinity in narratives, from noir movies to action blockbusters. In the last two decades or so, villains have been subjected to all sorts of personal pain as well. Crime movies in the s featured the rise and downfall of imagined or real-life gangsters who the audience could vicariously live through, with performances that exemplified how tough and remorseless the main characters are.
The hurt that villains experience are frequently sources of fodder for fanfiction, and the depths their emotions display are designed to appeal specifically to female and queer audiences. One of the biggest arguments against being thirsty for villains is the fear that the media is grooming and influencing young women to seek out abusive, harmful relationships in their real lives. But fandom — the place where these kinds of relationships are nurtured and elaborated on in art, fiction, and online collectives — is primarily a place to share enthusiasm and to be comfortably hyperbolic about wants and desires.
For many women, fandom functions as a safe space to discuss topics that are taboo or impermissible in other contexts. Villains, especially, have a long history of appealing specifically to women and other underrepresented groups because of the ways they unrepentantly navigate tricky, loaded social and moral boundaries.
But villains like Kirigan or Kylo Ren are headstrong, determined, and believe they have a great purpose to fulfill. As adversaries of Chosen One characters, they have the same fortitude and resourcefulness that makes them an even match for the heroes, and sometimes their only possible companion in loneliness and struggle.
While turning over to the Dark Side might not be a great idea as a real life plan, it can be an irresistible avenue to explore in fiction.
The popularity of vampires in genre fiction feels like the ultimate expression of this fantasy: While folk tales about vampires run the gamut between human and beast, modern literature has latched on tightly to the concept of the seductive monster.
But beginning with Bela Lugosi taking over the role of Dracula in , a more suave, debonair, and less dehumanized predator emphasized the idea of seduction as a form of violence, and violence as a form of seduction. The true height of the villainous vampire as a sex object, though, came in the s and s. Spike in particular had a devoted legion of fans who were invested in his development as an antihero and eventually a full-on tragic hero, but they loved him even at the beginning, when he was breaking necks and terrorizing high-schoolers.
Creators at the time responded by suggesting that female fans were hormone-addled, delusional and gullible for thinking the character could be redeemed, going so far as suggesting their hopes for Spike was similar to sending love notes to serial killers in prison.
It would be bad to date a guy like this. The next generation of vampire fiction, like the Twilight series and its many followers, argued that vampires could potentially be good boyfriends and partners.
He has a tragic backstory of never living up to his brother's potential, never getting the love he thought he deserved, finding out in his adult years that he was adopted, and, particularly in The Avengers , just having things constantly go wrong for him.
In many ways, Loki is only as powerful as he is pathetic. I mean, this guy is always getting his ass handed to him, usually in the middle of what's supposed to be an intimidating speech. Loki: I don't think I— his shield explodes, knocking him backwards; cut to another scene And I will not be bullied by— the Hulk grabs him and slams him against the ground repeatedly. In another scene, Loki grabs an arrow that was fired at him and looks it rather smugly, only for it suddenly explode, knocking him off his jet board.
NC vo : Yeah, this ultimate ruler of power is usually a punching bag, so why would someone who constantly gets the shit beat out of him constantly be considered sexy? Well, my guess is, so that certain loved one can be there to nurture and love him back to proper strength.
And we all know he does have proper strength, again kinda working back to the bad boy element in that the loved one can be the only unique person who can give the emotional support he needs to pull himself out of his evil slum and back into power again, obviously resulting in thanking her for saving him from the terrors of his own dark depression, and being even more thankful that she's the only one who could do it. NC: And my guess is, in the end, this'll be the lucky lady to do it.
NC vo : But again, there doesn't seem to be one particular element that everyone can agree on is the one element that makes him attractive. NC: And that's when it hit me: maybe it isn't all of the four reasons of attraction are displayed in front of him one of these elements, maybe it's the four reasons of attraction all come together into one all of these elements. NC vo : Loki seems to be that perfect combination of dominant and submissive, weak and strong, intimidating and pathetic.
And because they picked an actor who can balance all those elements so well while also maintaining a good dose of humor, I guess there is something that can probably be considered attractive about him. It's strange, even downright bizarre, but I guess it's better they have a character that can be appreciated for his many complexities as opposed to just one simple attribute.
And the fact that he's not a hero makes his failings all the more relatable because, well, we know he supposed to fail; he's the villain. But it's in what way he fails and how much control, or lack of control, he has when it happens. I don't know, he still looks like Marvin the Martian's reindeer to me, but if that's what floats the boat for so many ladies, at least some of us can understand a little bit more why. NC: girlish sigh, pretends to faint on the table, then gets back up looking confused Seriously, that was a dude?
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