Can villains be heroes as well?

[Chazmatazz269]

In “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (don’t worry, no spoilers ahead), Gru refers to interviewing to join the “Vicious 6” as “meeting my heroes”. Vicious 6 is a league of super villains. Can villains be simultaneously heroes?

Updates

+1 y

This was less a question of philosophy and more a question of semantics. The Vicious 6 are definitely full-on villains, not antiheroes. When Gru refers to them as his “heroes”, he could have alternatively said “idols”. So in this context, villains can definitely be heroes!
Apparently i’m the only word nerd here? So lonely. Ell oh ell!

[qwert1234]

Some villains are heroes to the eyes of some people.

[Chazmatazz269]

Mostly other villains and villain wannabes, i suspect.

[qwert1234]

It depends on what those people believe.
A dictator can be a villain to the world but if he uplifts his people, he could be a hero for them.

Robin Hood is a villain in the eyes of the rich, but a hero in the eyes of the people he helped.

[Chazmatazz269]

Nah. Robin Hood is definitely an antihero. Labels like “villain” and “hero” are born of an omniscient perspective. That’s because we can only imagine people who are all bad or all good. To your point, nobody really is in real life. In the movie, The Vicious 6 is definitely all bad. Gru idolizes them because he wants very much to be bad.

[NamerOfStars]

Of course- what else would you call Cao Cao?

[Chazmatazz269]

I don’t know what that is.

[NamerOfStars]

Ah. In Chinese history, when the Han dynasty was teetering on the edge of the collapse that would consume it, Cao Cao was the grand chancellor of the eastern part, and when the dynasty finally fell, he was one of the three warlords who tried to seize control, ruling the state of Cao Wei, one of the Three Kingdoms of the titular era. The book, being written unabashedly in support of Liu Bei (ruler of one of the other three) depicts Cao Cao as a ruthless tyrant, even by ancient Chinese standards. In reality, he wasn't THAT bad, but he still wasn't a nice guy; much of the nastier military stuff can be dismissed as doing what was necessary to stabilize the country, but the civics are a different matter.

He was also a brilliant leader, in both military and administration, and makes an excellent, threatening villain.

[Chazmatazz269]

That’s interesting. Before this, i never would have applied this thought to real life. It’s actually kind of creepy imagining that someone might actually want to be like a tyrant warlord though.

[NamerOfStars]

Real life villainy and heroism are much more matters of perspective, natch.

[BCRanger10]

They can be conflicted or they can be anti-heroes. But I don't think they can be both at the same time.

[jshm2]

No. Which is why they are villians.

You're confused with "anti-hero's" which is a different class.

[Chazmatazz269]

I’m not confused about anything. That’s simply not what the question is about. Did you even read the entire post?

[Pinay_ako]

Yes! Venom saved the world

[Chazmatazz269]

Venom definitely saved the world! But he was portrayed as an antihero, not a villain.

[Blueeyes81]

Good people are capable of evil so it stands to reason the reverse is possible.

[MrsTurkleton]

Yes. They are called an antihero

[Chazmatazz269]

They’re definitely not antiheroes.