Name Names? Hmm.

By Jody Feldman

I’m a softie. In my perfect world, everyone would live allergy-free, amid blue skies and meadows, near mountains and oceans, with all the modern conveniences. We'd smile and scamper and frolic like the happy, little creatures and---
Okay, that makes for boring stories (and lives). Enter the villains.

My perfect villain doesn’t have a particular name. Take your pick: Cruella, Scar, Urusula, Maleficent, Gaston ... I could go on and on with Disney characters alone (most of which, of course, were borrowed from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, and more). What makes these villains extra dastardly is the way they make us sprout an entire field of empathy for the main characters.

What good are Cruella without the Dalmations, Scar without Simba, Urusula without Arielle, Maleficent without Snow White, Gaston without Belle?

Unless the author/creator makes us feel, first, for the victim, then the villain is just an ugly being we malign on Twitter. The hunter, without the hunted, cannot exist.

Which is all a lot of musing to come to my point. I do not have a favorite villain. Then again, there was this guy from the old Batman series. I think I just liked his riddles.