On Heroes and Villains

We’ve been watching Once Upon a Time recently, and it has had me thinking about Heroes and Villains quite a bit.

In stories, typically the heroes and villains are quite well defined, it is the way the story is constructed typically. In real life, it is not quite as simple. And with the way words can be twisted and opinion manipulated with media, it is easy to lose sight of the heroes and villains in real life.

I saw someone share this on social media recently, and it made a bit of a dent in my head:

It is easy to forget that everyone is the hero of their own story. It is even easier to forget that we may be the villains in someone else’s story.

Everyone deserves a happy ending, even villains, but no-one’s happy ending should come at the expense of another’s.

I think that is where the clearest distinction between heroes and villains is seen. If you are willing to knowingly sacrifice someone else’s happiness for your own, you may not be the hero of the story.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this: