Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Villains Are Lazy And Self-Deluding

I had never pictured the Purple Man as someone who desired a family prior to this Daredevil arc, but it's an interesting idea, especially how he goes about it. Because he recognizes that all these women he's controlled didn't really care about him, he was merely forcing that response from them. A good person (or at least a not terrible one) might recognize the fault in themselves and work to improve as a person. Killgrave decides the best strategy is to still control women, and simply take their children away in a few years.

I don't know if Killgrave was always like this, even before his powers, but by this stage, he's too accustomed to having everything he wants, when he wants it, with no real effort. That has become normal for him, and regardless of what he tells the kids, it's what he expects. Like how Doom fools himself into believing he's trying to act in the world's best interests, when it's really an ego trip. Killgrave tells himself he wants people to choose to love him. His recognition that any pronouncement of love from people he controlled being meaningless is probably the closest he gets to acknowledging how wrong his actions are. But at the end of the day, he's too selfish to do the things that wold actually allow an emotional bond to form. He expects these kids - who don't know him at all - to love him, just because. He hasn't done anything to earn that love, but he expects it, demands it, nonetheless. He wanted children with powers like his so they'd be able to resist his control, so he couldn't make them love him, even by accident.

He ignored the likely outcome that given the choice, the kids would not love him, because they have no reason to. He hasn't been there for them, has never bothered to put any effort into being a dad. We don't know what kind of lives these kids had prior to Killgrave abducting them, other than Connor's mother was dead, and Shallah's was in jail, but even if their lives were terrible, the kids would probably blame Killgrave. He wasn't there, he didn't do anything to prevent it or improve things until it was convenient to him. For Jamie, who seems like he had a decent life with his mom, Killgrave ruined all that, killed Jamie's mother, for his own selfish desires. Killgrave was so used to dealing with people compelled to love and obey, he forgot how people will normally react towards someone who is an unabashed shitheel. You'd think all those times Daredevil punched him in the face would have taught him something, but evil is dumb, in addition to being lazy.

2 comments:

SallyP said...

Killgrave is a rather interesting villain, he's nasty just because he can be, I think. He's able to indulge every whim, every bad thought, every malicious notion he can come up with...and get away with it, more often than not.

Which is why to me, it is so satisfying when he gets his comeuppance.

CalvinPitt said...

That's a good point, he's definitely the sort of baddie I like seeing catch it in the neck. I like how Waid and Samnee played with us, since I was basically cheering his kids on when they walked him in front of the train. Then we find out, oh yeah, a bunch of kids with these powers could be really horrible.