If the topic is nature versus nurture then I 100% agree. I do believe a person’s environment shapes their morals and values. I feel that whatever decisions A person makes in life is largely influenced by what decisions are permitted by society. Having to cope with extreme desires, being denied can lead individuals to make poor decisions that they may otherwise have never made.
We can argue about whether someone has the innate negative qualities where they have the potential to make poor decisions. However, if a person could live their entire life as a good person, helping others, and being decent overall-, I feel this is the most important thing. The goal is for people to live decently, while respecting each other. So if the goal can be achieved, why point fingers and say, “oh, but they have a sleeping demon inside, that could awaken under specific circumstances.” It’s more important that they have a way to NOT wake that demon. Society’s desire to blame them for simply possessing it doesn’t make much sense to me.
Since homosexuality was both criminal and immoral in the kingdom where Varibus lived, that was the primary cause of everything he did that was negative. Had he lived in a kingdom where homosexuality was embraced, he might have never become the type of person he turned out as. He also may never have become that type of person if he hadn’t been a disgraced member of royalty. (At one point the king mentions to Varibus, that the water-potion was necessary for Varibus to regain his status as a royal. I can’t recall why Varibus didn’t have a royal status. Was he illegitimate? The king was his brother, right?)
Well, all of these are what ifs. We can never know what could’ve been. All we can know is what came to be. Still, the idea of nature versus nurture is something that deserves thought from everyone- if only to add us, and how we decide to live our own futures.
Well said. I think when people hear nature vs nurture they think you're excusing the wrongdoings of bad people but understanding why things might happen isn't the same as excusing it. As you say the goal is more to prevent similar situations that might influence people to be this way. Varabus grew up in a homophobic society and his family and others around him treating commoners like a lesser species. He was influenced to take credit for others' work as a child and then told the person he stole from (and unknowningly liked) would be murdered like a bug under their feet.
In his ramblings he literally thought he was doing Ennid a favour "saving" him from being killed. That doesn't sound like coherent thinking even as an "evil" guy. So yes I think he deserves punishment and he should not be forgiven by the people he hurt but it would be interesting if he could achieve redemption outside of this or see how messed up he is in this situation.
I’ve always enjoyed stories where we get to explore the villains psyche, and what makes them a villain. I have a personal distain for Disney movies where the villain is a villain simply because we needed someone to be evil. I despise that kind of circular logic.
Why are you evil?
Because I’m the villain.
No but, why are you a villain?
Because I’m evil.
Seriously, no one is evil “just because”. There’s always a reason why someone chooses to be evil, or becomes evil without meaning to. Maybe they have mental illness, or things in their surroundings led them to the conclusion that their decision was the right decision to make. even if they knew that their act of evil would only benefit themselves, something in their life led them to that conclusion that that’s an OK decision to make.
This is why I really like to explore evil, and how it came to be. What brought about the evil? What was it source? What gave it life? The villain’s story is sometimes more fascinating than the hero’s.
Yeah, one of my favourite stories (which has 2 of my favourite "villains") is a game called Final Fantasy XIV. One is a tragic character who is a villain from the player's perspective but he truly believes he's doing the right thing to save the people he cares about all the way till the end when he recognizes that we want the same thing but it's too late.
The other character is pretty controversial on who likes him or not as he's basically a sociopath who's obsessed with fighting. His family (and somewhat his people as he's the prince basically) are a bunch of racists who want to wipe out everyone else or at least assimilate everyone into their thinking. In extra stories about him we learn he never got to be a kid he just trained to the bone all day fighting or learning. The only measure of positive relationships was him doing well in his training and getting praised for that and it was never his parents.
He literally tells us that he doesn't understand why people judge him for his vices (which is killing people essentially) and that he considers us (the player) as his one and only friend (And that's just because we're the only one strong enough contend with him). He shows up at a critical point in the story and basically helps us save the universe (lol) because he figured out that the only way to get us on board with him was to play nice rather than trying to kill our friends. I just find him really interesting because he's not malicious but he would if given the chance just murder anyone if he thought the fight would be interesting. Honestly if you've ever watched or read AOT, he reminds me of Kenny who basically has a speech of everyone has to get drunk on something in order to continue living. It might be being a nice person, it might be being rich, for him he just enjoys the thrill of combat.
Anyway a bit off topic but I rarely get to talk about him in particular and I think he's a super interesting character. I myself am drawn to that type of personality in media and tend to pity sociopaths because they really just don't understand. It's also a trait that often comes from lack of socialization and care during childhood so personally I think it deserves some level of empathy.
Also the last time we see him he straight up asks us what's the point in living and how do people find happiness because he can't think of any reasons of if he's ever been happy... So like
or* if he's ever been happy
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Okay but I actually pity varabus. I feel like this is a perfect example of someone having a terrible life and how they ruin someone else's life based on their tainted personality. Don't get me wrong I 100% don't think he deserves forgiveness but I think it would be nice if he experienced his downfall and then like fucked off and had the chance to become a good person away from his family.
How it's written though I'm not totally sure that's possible (considering there was a scenario where he was planning on raping Ennid). Just under slightly different circumstances I think Varabus is a good example of someone being unforgivable to one person while also understanding why he's so awful and could have turned out differently had he been raised in a healthy environment.