Villain Spotlight- Rumpelstiltskin and Petyr Baelish

Forgot to post this last Friday so we're skipping the book review this week and instead doing this late villain spotlight!

Today I get to spotlight two of my favorite villains. Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time and Peytr Baelish from Game of Thrones. These are two highly intelligent villains with intricate plots that spread over several years. And they both have such fun with what they do, its hard not to enjoy it with them.

First there’s Rumpelstiltskin, also known as the Dark One, also known as the Beast and the Crocodile (Once Upon a Time is complicated). He has a long time plot spanning multiple seasons of show. He has no qualms with manipulating anyone to get what he wants. But what is it he wants? Not more power or anything evil like that. He wants to find his son, who he lost a long time ago, and reconcile with him. The one deal he ever broke resulted in him losing the thing he cared most about and that has driven him since then. He’s lost himself along the way and succumbed to the darkness, but his end goal never changes.

Until season 4, but that season doesn’t exist as far as I’m concern.

Most of the series, Rumpelstiltskin functions as a troll. He trolls all the characters and has them all dangling on strings. He’s clearly the smartest one in the room and everyone else is playing catch up. And he’s just so… delightful. Props to Robert Carlisle for such an amazing performance.

Next is Petyr Baelish.

He’s an interesting character who, far from being the main villain at any point, is always in the shadows behind all the real players, pulling strings and slowly making his way to the top. His goals are not particularly honorable. He wants to end up on the iron throne as much as anyone else. But unlike most of his adversaries, he’s patient and extremely smart. Parts of his plan are still unfolding even five seasons in. Also he has this monologue.

He’s surprisingly honest about his devious intentions and that honesty somehow tricks some people into thinking they can trust him. When they shouldn’t. Like, it’s the worst decision you could make.

I’m really interested to see where he goes in future seasons. He’s a terrible person, but he’s so good at it, and works very hard at his plotting. Hard work and genius are hard not to respect… even when coming from someone like Baelish.

Those are my spotlights for this week. What are some of your favorite mastermind villains? Let me know in the comments.

Why TV Shows Should Quit While They're Ahead

I do a lot of Lessons from Anime on this blog, because I watch a lot of anime. However, funny enough, I don’t watch a ton of American TV. I never watched much TV growing up and I never got into the habit. I certainly have my few shows, Game of Thrones, Avatar the Last Airbender and So You Think You Can Dance included. But they are few and far between.

And then there’s Once Upon a Time.

Once Upon a Time is, I think, a great example of why I don’t watch a lot of American television. Because this show has been going on for so long with so many plot threads and characters that the writers don’t know what to do anymore. They just don’t. Writing gets lazy, character arcs get screwed and the show just gets old as viewers start to realize that the creators have no more tricks in the bag.

Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t animes that go on for an eternity. See Naruto, Bleach and Once Piece for that. But many animes do not. Most of my favorite animes are 13 or 26 episodes and many of them have a satisfying ending.

And that’s the key word: Endings. The shows that I like have an end goal when they begin. When they have an end goal, it’s much easier to establish characters and bring their arcs to a satisfying conclusion. It’s easier to write a tight plot that keeps the viewer’s interest. It’s easier to end the show without jumping the shark.

The reason I can watch Game of Thrones is that there has always been an end goal, and books to follow, so that the characters keep to their arcs and don’t fall flat. Of course, depending on your opinion, some characters may be better than others, but at least they all have an arc.

Once Upon a Time just… feels like it’s never going to end. But it could have. The end of season 3 could have wrapped things up if you just cut a few plot twists at the very end. It brought most of the arcs to a satisfying conclusion and it hadn’t overloaded itself with so many characters that half of them were left waiting in the wings with nothing to do.

Like, what were Henry and the Charmings even doing in the Frozen extravaganza of the first half of Season 4? Assumidly sitting off to the side somwhere like:

But what happened? The studio probably said “audiences love the show! So keep airing it! Air it until it dies”. Sometimes I’m almost glad for shows that get canceled because at least they were good until the end!

What resulted was the absolute destruction of Rumpelstiltskin’s arc, Henry’s ultimate uselessness and most of the characters falling off the face of the map in favor of Frozen characters and other newbies that the show didn’t need.

Unless the show can pull something out of its hat, I’m going to pretend that only the first three seasons exist. But I think Once Upon a Time’s hat is just about empty.

I don’t understand fans who want a show they like to go on forever. Wouldn’t you rather look back on an amazing whole show than a show that got terrible somewhere in the fourth season? Wouldn’t you rather the story reach a satisfying conclusion? I love endings. I love how bitter sweet they are. But most of all, I love how poignant they can be.

A good ending can make me love a show. No ending? And I’m just left unsatisfied.