I once read that “the most depraved lunatic in creation has some lucid moments.” Can there be a story, as from TV, movies, or whatever, in which a hated villain does something that makes very good sense and even shows understanding and wisdom?
I have seen, for example:
The Simpsons: Mr. Burns, apparently defeated, tells Homer he’ll relent and arrange for an employees’ dental plan. As long as Homer withdraws as shop steward.
Happy Days: Two marauding brothers, who menace Fonzie and the others, have caused Pinky Tuscardero physical injury–but they pay her hospital bill.
Leave It to Beaver: Various episodes, in which Eddie Haskell confesses how his cocky attitude has tripped him up, or he helps Wally or Beaver with something, as an act of contrition.
Star Trek: The episode in which Kirk and Kang, both aware that an energy force is thriving on their mutual hostility, bury the hatchet and repel the force by silly jeering.
One of the things that I really liked, because it showed a real complexity to the character, was the way in the 1960s Superman comics villain Lex Luthor used his scientific and technical abilities to pull the people of the planet that became known as Lexor from their technological doldrums. They were a formerly high-tech world that had suffered some sort of catastrophic setback, and the people were dying. Luthor and Superman had ended up on their world, fighting it out, and Luthor stumbled over the Lexorians in their dire straits and decided to set things right. There doesn’t seem to have been any ulterior motive at all - he was genuinely moved by their plight. He became the hero of their world, and he went back on retreat there more than once.
Round about issue 85 of the original run of Fantastic Four, supervillain Doctor Doom killed his own henchman (who was about to attacjk the FF with a flame thrower) because the room was filled with classic object of art, and he’d rather let the FF go than ruin the art.
From the Thor comic book, in the war against Surtur. When Odin and Thor and the other defenders of Asgard are down, it’s Loki who steps in to help save the day. Because, in his own words, “What’s the use of ruling all I survey if all I survey is a burnt out cinder ?”. He held Surtur off long enough for Odin and Thor to revive; I loved their respective battlecries :
Odin : “FOR ASGARD !”
Thor : “FOR MIDGARD !”
Loki : “FOR MYSELF !”
From Servant of the Shard, the amoral assassin Artemis Entreri is instrumental in destroying the evil artifact Crenshinibon. He simply despised the existence of such a manipulative artifact, enough so ( and strong willed enough ) that he could serve as sort of an evil version of Frodo, and carry the thing to it’s destruction without being enslaved by it.
In the film The Color Purple, Albert helps Celie’s family come home to the USA after doing everything in his power to hurt Celie for years.
Another Lex-Luthor-has-hidden-dimensions event occurred in a story where Lex is exploiting a little boy’s psychokinetic powers for one of his robbery sprees. The twist is that the boy (about seven years old, possibly younger) is Lex’s nephew the son of his sister. After Supes neutralizes the threats from (and to) the child, he grabs Luthor and begins to fly him away to face the music. The little boy, back with his mother, starts crying and telling Superman not to take away his uncle.
Luthor, to save the boy from the stigma of having a super-criminal for an uncle, tells him, “I ain’t your uncle, kid. I just made that up, so I could use you.”
One of the best: in the original short story “It,” by Theodore Sturgeon (highly influential horror story, BTW), the monster grabs the little girl . . . and lets her go. No reason, just simply because the monster is neither good nor evil.
I really wish there were more monsters like that.
Definitely one of the great moments in comics! Also in the same story, when Odin suddenly falls in battle, Thor and Loki scream “FATHER!” simultaneously. Soon Loki is back to his old wily self, but for a brief moment there, a tiny slice of compassion came through.
Yep, Walt Simonson’s run will always be the definitive Thor for me.
It’s been a long time, but as I recall, Londo Molari sacrificed himself to save his planet toward the end of the series. He accepted a “Keeper”–some sort of parasitic alien that bonded with him, and would control his mind except when he was drunk. Had he refused, Centauri Prime would have been destroyed or something.
He also told Viir to kill him, when the Vorlon planet killer was going to destroy the planet just to kill him ( the Vorlons sure don’t care much about collateral damage ).