We Crave Empathy Entertainment

We crave empathy. That's why the most satisfying superhero movies have great villains, and the best villains drop knowledge that we know is true about how messed up the world is for the disenfranchised. They're not only speaking our thoughts but they're getting us to sympathize with someone that society (aka the storyteller) has labeled as 'the bad guy.' But deep down inside we know that every bad guy -fictional or reality- has a story. And deep down inside we want to hear it, understand it, relate to it, b/c we know that beneath all the horror is humanity. 

Our emotional need for empathy entertainment is why one-dimensional villains are such a letdown. We feel like the storyteller didn't do their part in telling the whole story. And we want the WHOLE story.*

*THE HITLER EXCEPTION: there are exceptions. If someone is based off a true person who cause unfathomable destruction, then we don't necessarily want the storyteller to delve into some flashback Freudian BS about how 'they just needed a hug.' Before anyone says 'so are you saying we should have a biopic focusing on Hitler's troubled childhood? No! But even in the iconic "Hitler in the Bunker" movie DOWNFALL we see a screaming maniac at the end of his sanity who has caused so much harm, and the storytellers add in these touches of humanity without excusing his crimes. When the actor is screaming in the bunker you feel his impotence, how ridiculous, cruel, and monstrous he is...and then his hands start shaking. The actor, of course, made that choice. It was a moment. The director cuts to outside the office in the middle of Hitler's screaming and you see the faces in the bunker...and they're trapped. Bombs are falling outside and their leader is losing their minds. They know they're going to die and die a miserable death in which they will be hated for all of time. And in the faces of the women...it suddenly hits them: the terror of a nation's complete downfall into madness and genocide. 

I don't want to see a movie about these alt-right coup leaders and their alcoholic dads, how they were picked on in school, and never kissed a girl. But I do want to see that moment when the full horror of their error becomes clear to them. When they understand how far they have carried this lie and how their names will go down in history. It's a human moment that doesn't excuse their crimes, but shows a character realizing 'oh my god, what have I done?'  

I have had those terrifying moments when I discovered a lie within my own life, trusted the wrong person, or bought into a belief system that was complete bullshit and thought 'oh my god...oh my god!! I fucked up.'  Showing these moments are necessary so that future generations can know the road to perdition. When the epiphany of fatal sin hits you and realize that one decisive action has destroyed your name, your family's name, any good you have done in the world, the nation you claimed to love, and the family you were trying to save. Audience will nod and see themselves in that moment...and maybe they'll remember that when someone tries to warp their mind with lies and hatred.