Once Upon a Time: The Modern Destruction of Visual Representations

Since time began, people have created stories. We all remember hearing the generic tale of the evil villains, courageous heroes, and the fair maidens who win their hearts. These cookie-cutter characters have been used, in some variation, over and over throughout time in stories, most recently in video media. In fact, if put on the spot, most of us would tell a story using the same generic characters. Why is that, you may ask? Why does a culture so focused on originality fall back to Dark-Ages stereotypes? It is because we have been taught since birth to use them, that each mean, respectively, Good, Evil, and Love. These character stereotypes were, and still are, used to give a physical, visual representation of abstract concepts. Without these models from which to draw, most wouldn't know where to begin to explain good, evil, or love.

We begin with the Hero, the stalwart champion, the physical embodiment of all that is good and right in the world. If one asked a few hundred years ago what a hero looked like, most would answer that he would be tall, covered in scars, and be clothed in armor and chain-mail, perhaps sitting atop his valiant steed. The hero is handsome, kind, noble. He is the epitome of Good. The visual representation, at that time, described a knight, the protector of the small. Nowadays, in our modern world of comic books and movies, a hero would be clad in less rather than more, choosing to sport spandex unitards, masks, and capes instead of metal armor, and, more often than not, choose keen intellect over brute force. Quite the change in just a few hundred years, more obtainable in some ways, less in others. Spandex may be easier to find, but, unfortunately, super strength is not.

The second character introduced is the Villain, the vile heathen, the epitome of evil. There is a more balanced ratio of men-to-women cast as villains as opposed to heroic females or men in distress. The men are usually visualized as wearing a lot of black, having an evil cackle, perhaps stroking a cat. The women are generally witches of some sort, whether it be the Wicked Witch of the West or Maleficent, and are forever casting horrible, evil spells of one sort or another. The villain spends all of his time plotting, scheming, trying to find ways to thwart the hero, take over the world, or create a doomsday machine. The villain does evil deeds just for fun, out of boredom, or, more often than not, simply because he is evil. End of story. In fairytales, that is as deep as the villain representation goes. The villain is evil, and evil is wrong, and that's the way it is.

Finally we come to the Damsel in Distress the helpless princess. This is the frail woman who is captured by the evil Villain and needs the Hero to rescue her. The damsel is beautiful, with long, flowing hair, radiant skin, and eyes like diamonds. She is the purest, most perfect, most helpless thing femininity has to offer. Unlike the Hero or Villain personae, the Damsel is always female, no matter the story. Men are simply not helpless, and do not need rescuing. The damsel also inevitably rewards her rescuer with her undying love. She is love, in those stories. It doesn't matter how little the Hero knows about her, the Damsel is Love, pure and simple, happily ever after. Their love is the thing all strive to obtain. It is the representation, as close to visual as such a thing can be.

Hollywood, however, seems to be changing these cookie-cutter representations of Good, Evil, and Love. The Hero, for example could be any number of people. More often than not, the modern hero is just a regular person, man or woman, who is thrown into the fray and given the responsibility of the safety of the world, and grudgingly does as he or she needs to do. The Hero is no longer the gung-ho beacon of chivalry and righteousness that he used to be. Though we still regard him as a hero, he is now just another man. Someone we can strive to be, of course, but more like us. More real, and less abstract.

The character of Evil is becoming more complex; Hollywood has given reason behind the cruelty of the Villain. He is not simply all things that are wrong with the world. He has a story all his own, logic. He has more reason to be evil than simply because he's evil. In short, the Villain, too, has become more human, more reachable. He is no longer a visual representation, but a facet of a character.
Finally, Hollywood has robbed us of the Damsel, in all of her helpless glory, and in robbing us of her have robbed us of the pure, fairytale love. The damsel has been replaced by the strong, confident, self-assured woman whom the leading male needs to win over. There is no undying, boundless, instant love any more. Everything has restrictions, endings.

In the end, for adults, there are no more fairytales. The real world is fast encroaching, and we learn, earlier and earlier in life, that there are no happy endings, that the Hero doesn't always win, the Villain doesn't always lose, and the Damsel doesn't always fall for the Hero. In fact, sometimes she falls for the Villain. Sometimes the one we think is the Hero is the Villain in disguise. Sometimes the two are the same. In short, we have no more true visual representations of Good, Evil, and Love any more, at least not in Media, and what Media thinks will eventually become what mankind thinks. The absolutes we were taught and believed in as children are no longer absolutes. Instead, our Heroes, Villains, Damsels, have been humanized, and are no longer the abstract concepts they used to embody so simply. In short, our fairytales have grown up.