Has the role of the villain changed over the years?

Has the role of the villian changed over the years?
For example. do villians now require justification or a back story as to why they do the things they do?
Do they still represent various real world hostile forces (like the Nazis)
Are they purely to give the hero a rival?

What are your thoughts?

Yes and it's crap. I prefer the old ones who were nasty foreigners and/or twisted by pure greed with only the very rare "deep" ones to keep things interesting. When they are all "deep" it's just boring.

Agreed - you can't beat a little "I want to rule the world because...I WANT TO, so there!!!!"

Probably why PJ Maybe is so great... he's a non-deep villain disguised as a deep one, his only real aim is to be the best serial killer ever.

felneymike wrote:Probably why PJ Maybe is so great... he's a non-deep villain disguised as a deep one, his only real aim is to be the best serial killer ever.

I've never been sure about PJ's motivations. If that's all there is too it, why does he always end up in positions of power?

Hourglass wrote:Has the role of the villian changed over the years?
For example. do villians now require justification or a back story as to why they do the things they do?
Do they still represent various real world hostile forces (like the Nazis)
Are they purely to give the hero a rival?

What are your thoughts?

I wonder if the motives and methods of the "heroes" may have undergone a bigger change, which may have than caused changes in the role of the villains.

Heroes often aren't very heroic anymore. And the notion of the concerned private citizen fighting for justice appears to have been supplanted by costumed soldiers fighting a war or pursuing private vendettas. That's how it seems to me, anyway.

tony ingram wrote:I've never been sure about PJ's motivations. If that's all there is too it, why does he always end up in positions of power?

Good point. For him, serial killing is a means as well as an end.