Daisy Edgar-Jones is having a moment. The English actress is fetedCelebrated; honoured. for her role in the TV drama Normal People. She shone in the mystery film Where the Crawdads Sing. The next step could be to star in a Hollywood blockbuster.

But Edgar-Jones wants something else. Her dream part, she said in a recent interview, is "a really iconic villain with an amazing costume".

Once, it would have been a surprising admission. The hero is the lead role. Many films are even named after them. The audience is supposed to identify with them and hope they succeed. The villain is secondary to the hero, an obstacle to overcome.

Yet things have become muddled. Villains are now celebrated. Joaquin Phoenix won the 2020 Best Actor Oscar for playing Batman's nemesisThe inescapable agent of one's downfall. Its origins are located in the themes of ancient Greek tragedy. It comes from the Greek word "nemein", meaning "to give what is due". Joker. And they have also become popular. A 2022 online poll ranked Darth Vader as the most popular character in the Star Wars universe. Disney villains Maleficent and Cruella de Vil have even been given their own film series. All of them have committed horrible crimes in their fictional worlds. 

In literature, villains often take centre stage. Few pick up Bram Stoker's Dracula because they are interested in its hero Jonathan Harker. Readers of John Milton's 1667 epic Paradise LostAn epic poem that retells the Biblical story of the Fall of Man. often find the villain Satan their favourite character. Poet and mystic William Blake later noted that Milton was "of the Devil's partyA supporter of the Devil, as one might be a supporter of a political party. without knowing it".

Evil characters can be compelling because they take figures we recognise to extremes. Film critic Peter Bradshaw calls Harry Potter villain Dolores Umbridge "the sort of teacher you can imagine in real life", only a teacher that punishes her students by making them write with their own blood.

They can vividly reflect the fears of their times. Take James Bond's cinematic foes. In the 1960s, Rosa Klebb and Auric Goldfinger represented the Cold War and threat of nuclear apocalypse. The 1990s villain Elliot Carver was a Rupert MurdochAn Australian businessman who has amassed a vast media empire since the 1970s. He has been accused of using the media outlets he controls to further his own business interests.-esque media mogulAn important or powerful person, especially in the film or media industry.. And Raoul Silva, from 2012's Skyfall, was a cyber-hacker who leaked private details onto YouTube.

A recent research project found that we are attracted to fictional villains as darker versions of ourselves. People do not want to compare themselves to bad people in the real world. But, says researcher Rebecca Krause-Galoni: "When people feel protected by the veil of fiction, they may show greater interest in learning about dark and sinister characters who resemble them."

Yet others question why the same can not apply to heroes too. Just as a villain can help us explore our worst traits, a hero can let us reflect on our best, or what we can do better.

The best heroes are rarely dull, perfect characters. It is at least as interesting to watch supposedly good characters make mistakes. AristotleA student of Plato, tutor to Alexander the Great and the father of political philosophy. wrote that heroes in drama should have a fatal flaw. Shakespeare's heroes often demonstrate a complex mixture of traits, which sometimes lead them to commit terrible acts: Othello murders his wife Desdemona out of jealousy, but he remains the play's tragic hero.

Yes: Villains can be unpredictable. They are creative, producing evil plans that heroes merely have to react against. And while heroes often protect the status quoA Latin phrase referring to the current or present situation., villains represent change.

No: Fiction is full of bland heroes who face intriguing villains. But that is just the result of bad writing. Many literature and film's most fascinating characters are heroes, from Hamlet to Sherlock Holmes.

Or... Most people contain a mixture of good and bad. The best stories reflect this, with characters too complex to neatly fit as hero or villain alone. The most interesting characters defy categories.