Join The Dark Side: 6 Reasons We Love To Hate Star Wars Villains

4) The Baddies Are Simply Way More Interesting Than The Goodies

One of the main reasons we love to hate the villains in Star Wars is the simple fact that they’re way more interesting than the goody two shoe rebels.

Our day-to-day life is often laser-focused on trying to be the best person we can be, but it’s fascinating to switch off for a couple of hours and witness the psychological developments of an “evil” character who’s unconstrained by society’s typical rules and regulations. Their motivations are different and alien to us, which makes for far more captivating viewing. Further still, it’s very liberating watching a character enjoying freedoms that the rest of us never get to experience.

The archetypal story thread of “Prince Charming and the Beautiful Princess” can get pretty stale after a while, so when narratives re-focus on the villain — like we’ve been getting more of recently — it enables storytellers to give the antagonists a more nuanced, multi-layered, 3-dimensional character that is both believable and incredibly alluring on a base human level. Count Dracula was the most memorable character in Bram Stoker’s famous 1897 novel, not the “hero” solicitor Jonathan Harker; this is because, baddies are simply way more compelling than the heroes. Fact.