Because it is day six on villain week, I thought I would do something different. This is my first time actually taking research on a theory, other then using what I know. This theory is really two theories in one. The reason for that, in order to answer one theory, the other has to be answered as well. What are these theories you ask? One theory is, are villains automatically evil? The second is the one on the title “Most Naruto villains are not evil”.
With the title alone, anyone can guess what my answer for the first theory. I will just say it; no, being a villain does not make you evil. But, I like to explain to how I came to that conclusion. I actually had to do research for the first time. This was not something I knew so sure. I did not get everything I wanted, but I got enough to come up with an answer. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it says that villains are evil. I tired to look it up on Google and all I found of lists of evil villains.
Then, I went to FaceBook and asked people what they thought. I only got a few answers, but they were some good ones. My sister brought up the fact that Dr. Horrible, from “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”, was not evil. I can agree with that. If anything, Captain Hammer was more of a “bad-guy” when Dr. Horrible was. If you have not seen that short, then try it out. Either way, Dr. Horrible was not evil, heck; he was not even that bad. He was offered to kill a child and he couldn’t.
He only worked on doing something bad near the end of the short. My friend brought up a good point on a few characters. But, there was only one I recognized. That would be the Joker. I agree, the Joker is one insane son of a bitch who is a villain. But, if being insane takes away the fact that you could also be evil, most Batman villains would also not be evil. Honestly, I can not say yes or no to that. I only know the Batman villains from the movies.
So far, we can say that villains do not have to be evil. But, using a quote from Bryan Tremblay; “I think we can agree that to be ‘evil’ you have to have bad intent, that the things you do are driven to cause pain or damage. I assume (correct me if I’m wrong) that to be evil you must have mean intent. If this isn’t the case then the rest of my argument breaks down. Now the hard part, the definition of villain. Webster’s dictionary defines villain as someone who does bad stuff and is blamed as doing evil deeds. So does Google and so doe’s dictionary.com. All those dictionaries require that a villain is someone who purposely does evil things. So yes, to answer your question I think to be a villain you HAVE to be evil. However you DON’T have to be evil to be the bad guy.”
Does this mean that both the Joker and Dr. Horrible are not really villains? I do not know much about the Joker. But, for Dr. Horrible, you can say he is a villain, just a bad one. I say this because, Joe and my sister agree with what I believe. I do believe you can be a villain and not be evil. You can also be evil and not be a villain. If you think about it, at the end of the day, it is based on your own point of view. If that is the case, why did I ask my friends? I wanted to see if they could come up with a good argument. Both sides have a decent argument. I do not have a good argument to offer, so I use others and say how I feel. Depending on how you look at it, you could go either way.
I know I did say that I think a villain does not have to be evil. But, I can change my mind at any time. For now, I lean towards the side that a villain does not have to be evil and that is what I am going with. With that being sad, we go on to my main theory. This theory only really works if the first one works. After all, if villains HAVE to be evil, then the Naruto villains are evil and we end it there.
I am going to be honest here. I do not remember how the entire story of the Akatsuki went. I only vaguely remember. So, if I get some of their stories wrong, tell me in a polite way. Anyway, most of the villains, bad guys, bad girls, Anti-heroes and Antagonists in Naruto Shippuden are not truly evil. They might have done evil deeds and done some bad things, but they are not evil. Anyone who watched Naruto all the way through, they know that Gaara was never to begin with. He was just hated by his people because had a monster inside of him.
I am pretty sure it was mentioned several times that Naruto could have gone the same way as him. We all know that he was just using his anger. But, this started a trend in the show. You could go even earlier and say that Sasuke started it. He wanted to kill his brother and was not really a villain. If anything, he was another Anti-hero. By saying this, you could argue that most of the villains in Naruto were evil.
At first, I look at most of these bad guys and girls as evil. But, after watching Shippuden and reading the manga, I have came to a conclusion. The sound five might be the only “evil” ones in the show, other then Kisamea. You could say that Zabuza and Haku were evil, but, they were doing they did for money. If I remember correctly, Zabuza was not happy with being revived during the Great War in Shippuden and he wanted to be killed. I believe, that to truly be evil, you have no compassion and do what you do even though you know that it is bad.
I feel like he did what he did just for money and for a sense of accomplishment. If Kakashi was apart of the Demon mist village, he might have done the same thing. It really is just two different sides of the same coin. Next we have Kabuto and Orochimaru. It is clear that both of them switch sides at will and do things however they feel. They are similar in some ways and that is why they are good partners. I know that Orochimaru is a villain and tried to take over the hidden leaf village. But, does doing evil deeds make you evil?
Does saying something-mean make you mean? I would say no to that. On top of that, taking over the village could have just been a distraction so he could get Sasuke. Considering how he recently changed in Shippuden, I think he might be less evil and more of an insane man who can not decide which path he wishes to take. Kabuto is pretty much the same. But, just because they are not evil, does not mean that they are not villains. Most of the characters I mentioned are either villains or henchmen of a villain.
Now we move onto Shippuden. I am not going lie and say that the Akatsuki are not evil. There are members that are not only evil, but are psychopaths. The only ones I can say are truly evil are: Hidan, Deidara, Kisamea and Kakuzu. I might have to add Sasori to that list. But, he did feel bad for his parents dying and everything and you can almost feel bad for him. But, when he is reanimated, he likes being what he is. I am not even sure if Zetsu counts either. I think Zetsu is a henchman and a creation and not a villain.
What does that leave us with? Well, we have Nagato, Yahiko/Pain, Konan, Madara, Itachi, and Obito. Itachi was never evil or a villain, he was an anti-hero. He did what he did to save the village. Konan was a follower of Yahiko/Pain and so was Nagato. All three of them, as well as Obito were essentially Darth Vader villains. All of them wanted to do good, but they were lead by someone who was evil. Madara was the one who led them astray. But, I could say that Madara had no choice.
He was a reincarnation of some evil God. This makes him evil by default. Does all this mean that these people are not evil? If you become evil through revenge, does that make you not evil? I would like to believe that if you take a certain path based on hate and revenge, it does not make you truly evil. You make that choice and you can change at any moment. I suppose you can say that these characters were evil, they just changed. That would also be a valid point.
In conclusion, most of the villains of the Naruto series are not evil. At the same time, they are very evil. But, these are just ideas I come up with. I want to know what others think? If you got something against what I say, please tell me in a polite manner.
I hope this was fun.