Ancient Hero Essay

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Ancient Hero Essay
A villain entails a person or character with evil motives or actions. In most cases, villains are against heroes, and they do everything to undermine them. These characters do not accept defeat and can engage in evil activities to satisfy their selfish desires. They can kill, torture, and humiliate others to get what they want. The primary characteristics that define villains include cruelty, immoral behavior, stupidity, craziness, selfishness, and cunningness. In reality, individuals can turn to be villains due to life situations. For example, during a competition, there is always a winner and a loser. However, since no one wants to be a loser, a person can engage in evil actions to win. In the case of a marathon, an athlete who wants to win can obstruct his or her opponent from touching the finish line first. Villains stop at nothing to get what they want. Maleficent in Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Antinous from the Kingdom of Ithaca are the two villains that will be compared and contrasted throughout this paper.
Maleficent is a role played by Angelina Jolie in the movie Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. She is an evil character in the film and is considered to be the villain. Maleficent is represented as a slim, tall, and slender sorceress who has green skin. She resembles a vampire bat that has a long and narrow chin with arching eyebrows. Furthermore, her yellow eyes and horned headdress indicate her dark magic powers. Initially, Maleficent was not a villain, but she was turned by life circumstances to be evil. Manohla Dargis says that “In its revisionist take, the titular dark, dangerous fairy played by Angelina Jolie isn’t naturally evil or merely spiteful in bestowing a curse, but exerting her power with a vengeance” (Dargis 1). At that point, it is clear that Maleficent’s motive for revenge was what contributed to her villain character. Good people can turn bad if life situations are not favorable to them. One of Maleficent’s suitors, King Stefan, was the reason why she became evil. King Stefan used Maleficent to get to the throne. He pretended to love her to get what he wanted. After Stefan became the king, he cut Maleficent’s wings, leaving her to suffer. The love that held Stefan and Maleficent together turned to hatred. Maleficent turns to dark magic to revenge Stefan. 
Maleficent is perceived as the evil witch in Disney’s film. Even without being invited to Princess Aurora’s christening, she appears there and tries to revenge King Stefan, his former lover. She even tries to curse Queen Leah so that people would perish. Maleficent does not care about who gets hurt in her quest to avenge King Stefan. That is the primary thing that makes her be considered a villain. Unless she gets what she wants or achieves her evil mission, Maleficent is stopping at nothing. Specifically, Maleficent is called the dark fairy. She is responsible for numerous misfortunes that King Stefan encounters in his kingdom. The good fairies, Merryweather, Fauna, and Flora, cannot stop Maleficent from her evil motives. Maleficent possesses overwhelming dark magic that she uses to neutralize all efforts made by the good fairies. Even King Stefan knows that she is powerful and capable of hurting him. M. G. Lord depicts that “the villains were drawn to be hated: squinting, misshapen, with savage, menacing grins” (Lord 1). This description is seen on Maleficent. She is manipulative, sardonic, and skeptical. Maleficent enjoys seeing others suffer from her evil actions. For instance, at some point, Merryweather tells her that she was never wanted by King Stefan from the beginning. As a response, Maleficent casts a spell on Aurora during her birthday and watches her suffering without remorse.
Antinous was the son of Eupeithes from the Kingdom of Ithaca. He was one of Penelope’s suitors when Odysseus was away. Odysseus was the hero of Ithaca, and many people loved him. His wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, loved him. Odysseus was the favorite goddess Athena, and he was a strong warrior who was known to have fought and won many battles. Even though many resid...