Like many who have grown up over the last few decades, I watched a lot of movies as a child. Being born in the 90’s, I think we lived in a golden era for kids movies especially. Think to the likes of Toy Story, Cars, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles, just to name a few. They have already become classics of some kind; movies that I’ve no doubt we’ll be proud to show our kids and grand kids.
As a child, you don’t typically delve into the complexities of each story; they’re simply fun. It’s only as you get older do you start to appreciate the stories a little more. We were actively encouraged to do this at School. I didn’t take much notice at the time, but looking back, I suppose those lessons were rather useful. Some of our English classes were dedicated to understanding the meaning behind a film, and the genres varied. The idea was to look into why the director/writer composed and filmed the story in the way it was portrayed; looking at the motives and intentions between each character, and how this leads to various outcomes.
At the time, I didn’t understand the depth of what I ought to be observing from these films, and I particularly remember one occasion where we were given a worksheet and tasked to provide reasons as to why characters acted a certain way, or why the writer may have pointed the camera to focus on a particular object or location. I struggled with this, and when the teacher leaned over, pointed to a question and asked what I thought, I replied with something along the lines of “They thought it would be entertaining…”
I think I was right to an extent; a lot of movies are designed to be entertaining. If they weren’t, people wouldn’t watch them, and the writer wouldn’t be funded by the film company to make another.
However, I failed to understand the complexity behind them, they seemed simple to me. Most of the films I watched usually followed a “Good guy” and a “Bad guy”, or a protagonist and an antagonist. The extent to how evil the antagonist comes across varies from film to film, but to take a more clear-cut example, let’s consider the character “Syndrome” from “The Incredibles”.
I thought the Fandom page offered a good summary of his character:
“As a child, he was eager and cheerful, if naïve, having great respect and admiration for superheroes, particularly Mr. Incredible, who he claimed was his number one fan. However, after Mr. Incredible rejected his offer to be his sidekick, he quit idolizing Mr. Incredible and became embittered, eventually descending into megalomania. He developed a personality into adulthood that was sociopathic, sadistic, cruel, vengeful, arrogant, ruthless, power-hungry, short-tempered, hateful, and cowardly. Nevertheless, he retained some positive traits such as charisma and resourcefulness and appeared to still enjoy supers performing impressive feats.”
Syndrome | The Incredibles Wiki | Fandom
In some ways, you could feel bad for Syndrome. He admired Mr Incredible a great deal; he was his hero. The only thing Syndrome made clear that he wanted in his life was to become Mr Incredibles side kick. Yet despite these dreams, Syndrome was rejected. That rejection festered in his mind, and led him to becoming the evil character portrayed in the film.
It’s an example that demonstrates how someone can begin as a good person, and end up being someone who isn’t so good… I, like I’m sure many people, don’t believe any person is born evil. However, perhaps time and circumstance can make it easier for someone to slip into that path.
I would say I’ve been mostly fortunate in my circumstances, so I wouldn’t want to undermine those who have had it worse. Despite this, if we’re fortunate enough to have the opportunity to think about what’s good, surely it’s within our own power to foster something positive, no matter what has us beaten or knocked down along the way.
The definition of a medical syndrome is as follows:
“a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition”
Syndrome Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there’s always more to a story than what initially meets the eye, a complexity or depth that we haven’t yet discovered; which in this case could include “Syndromes” character name. A syndrome is a negative medical issue which consists of a number of symptoms to define a particular condition, and just like our character “Syndrome”, he followed a path allowing himself to develop numerous negative traits, which ultimately lead to his evil outcome (or condition).
Perhaps being mindful of how those we perceive as bitter have approached their varying circumstances in life, could help us to understand where it may have gone wrong. Perhaps they were simply unfortunate, or maybe they put too much blame on others for when it didn’t turn out their way. Could it be that they selfishly expected others to make adjustments in their lives simply to satisfy their wants, without considering what the other person needed? Looking at where you might be the problem could prove that it’s within your power to change a flawed outcome. It’s certainly something I try to be mindful towards, and I think most would agree that we wouldn’t want to take a path that steers towards the making of a villain…
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