~~ bad to the -bone-, baby.

Women are supposed to like "Bad Boys", right? And, just so you know, I'm saying this after hearing "Bad to the Bone" on the radio, which is a Spike vid waiting to happen if I ever heard one. Of course, there are already Spike vids to that song, but if there weren't, I'd learn to vid right now just to do it myself, eheheh. Oh well. Anyway.

Yeah. So I'm living proof of that maxim, myself, if anyone is. Gimme a `bad boy' in almost any story, and I'm there. It's one of my all-time favorite archetypes, and if forced, I would probably choose some aspect of it over any other. I generally like a bit of "bad" in any archetype, but... pure Bad is also good. It's very rare that I don't like one... only happens if they're inconvenient somehow.... Like, I really really didn't like Krycek when he came on X-Files (it really didn't help that he was a spy), but then, I don't think he's a Bad Boy, really. Sometimes I think the appeal of Lucius (or even more remotely, Snape) is somewhat related to the Bad Boy appeal, but this doesn't really make sense. Well, in Snape's case especially, since Snape is your perfect Brooding Angry Anti-Hero type (well, especially fanon!Snape). The Bad Boy (or Girl! they exist too... mmmm, Faith) -can- be the Anti-Hero, but in a way, that's just muddling the issue of basic appeal.

Come to think of it, the closest parallel to a "Big Bad" in HP is Sirius. Heh. He doesn't really do it for me, though, 'cause he was never really bad. I mean... the hair... the attitude... that's not enough. They actually have to -be- "bad" in -some- way.

Which leads me to (naturally) a list of What Makes A Bad Boy Bad.

( What is it with me and my thing about lists, man... )

So yeah, I guess this explains why I have this niggling discomfort with some characters who seem to fill the role of "bad boy" in relation to the protagonist in some fandom, but they're missing some crucial -something- that makes them appealing to me. I was a bit confused by my own dislike of Lucius, for instance. He's "bad", isn't he? Well?

But see, no. He's... a two-bit glammed up evil minion, as far as his function in the main story. "Bad" isn't about evil, though it can include evil behavior as easily as good-- as long as it's unpredictable. Lucius doesn't have that ambiguity that makes a character something -more-. And being "bad" really does seem to include that -twist-. That... potential for change or redemption by the love of a good woman or -something-. I can see how Lucius' relationship to his wife, Narcissa, is parallel to Spike's relationship to Drusilla, and this probably explains why I have a distaste for both couples. Both women are mere reflections of their partner's affiliation. There's no drama there, no interest, no conflict. So it puzzles me why people would like it-- though I forget not everyone is as obsessed with dramatic conflict in relationships as I am, but drama's necessary for a good story, isn't it? Though I know that interpersonal clashes don't have to be the element that's providing that.

Plus, now I realize the source of my instinctive dislike and disinterest in certain pairings-- in almost every case, it's because their main archetypes don't go together, don't complement each other. Certain archetypes... like, to be simplistic, the Princess and the Hero-- or the Woman Warrior and the Magician (okay, this prolly only makes sense in my head, but go with me here)-- they just -fit- together. Like... they make some sort of cosmic sense. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with things making cosmic sense, but there you go.

( So off I go on a tangent about archetypal pairings and my thing for co-dependent needy couples. Which is rather embarrassing, now that I think about it. )