The Making of a Villain

Fire
via Pinterest

     My villain starts out as a shy little boy.  His natural personality is to be cautious, and, as a child, he tends to dream about things more than actually do them.  At this age, he has the potential to become something great, something that HE was meant to do.
     He is born to the second wife of a king.  The king truly loved his first wife, marrying again only because he was pressured to provide a queen for the kingdom.  From his first wife, he had a son named Alton.
     Alton took very naturally to kingly things.  He was a leader of men, strong and capable.  He won the people's hearts by his actions as much as by his bloodline.  And his father was very proud of him.  Alton was the sort of son he could take with him everywhere.
      My villain, as a little boy, was usually left at home with his mother and his nursemaids.  In truth, the little boy was so shy and awkward that the king assumed he was happier at home.  However, the little boy perceived it as a lack of love.
     The king's second wife (my villain's mother) was a bitter woman of a calculating nature.  In her proud and jealous mind, it was her own son who should be king, and she resented everything about his older brother.  With poisonous words, she urged her little boy to pursue the crown himself.
     A few things happened in the little boy.  He came to view kingship as the only position worth having.  And he came to view his older brother's demeanor as the way a man should behave -- everything else was wimpy and stupid.
      There are a few problems with this view: neither his brother's position nor his brother's personality-and-talents were what the little boy was supposed to be or have.  And, as hard as he tried, he could never make himself be his brother.  He hated himself for his own "failings," but soon that hatred shifted and he hated everyone else.  It was their fault!  They were always scheming against him, trying to ruin him.
     With this overwhelming self-hatred and hatred of others, the little boy began to grow into a twisted young man.  Believing he must be a "conqueror" but not having the courage to face a foe, he learned to strike behind the back, using treachery to fell his opponents.  This gave him a thrill as though he were the conqueror, although in truth his so-called victory was nothing but cowardice and cruelty.
     By the time my story has started, my villain is a surly, scheming, unsocial, suspicious, and resentful man.  The sad truth is that there were a million crossroads between his childhood and the end of my story where he could have made a decision to change.  He didn't have to be a villain.
     God created each person unique and gave them a unique way to serve Him.  But the devil likes to whisper lies, trying to entrap us with his twisted messages.  For my villain, his thoughts of his own despicable "failings," his disgust with himself, his blaming of the rest of the world, his belief that everyone was out to get him -- these were all lies from the devil.  My little villain just accepted these thoughts instead of seeking God to find the truth.  But if, at any point, he had simply turned to God and waited on Him, my story would have been vastly different.
     This applies to us, too.  The devil likes to tell us lies, as well.  We can brew thoughts of dissatisfaction with the way we were made, and we can believe lies about what other people think of us.  But we have to recognize those lies for the falsehoods they are.  And how do we know what is truth and what is a lie?  Find out what God says about you and who you were meant to be.  Read His Word -- there is truth.
     There is another character in my story.  Although he is very different from the villain, he also dreamed of being something he was not.  It also led him to do unkind things.  It is not until he is a young man that he realizes where his path has led him.  And he (like you and I) has the opportunity to make the change.