I wish more movies & shows steelmanned their villains. i.e made them heroes in every way on the other side of the fence, rather than the same old boring “the world is grey and complex” or “humanize/intellectualize the bad guy” or childhood trauma stuff.

For example:

All these shows can seriously strengthen their case by creating antagonists/protagonists that genuinely don’t go after innocents and who don’t accept collateral damage, just like the “heroes”. That would be way more interesting to watch.

Because only then can your work of fiction examine certain systemic failures and conflicts in real life. Which is what you *want* to show, right? Every other setup is one where either the hero and villain is designed to lose, or you have to set up stereotypical flaws in each.

Take Zemo from Civil War and F&TWS. If he hadn’t killed delegates at the UN: he’s not even a villain. He’s a brutal competing hero; force the audience to create a case to hurt the Avengers/super soldiers. That’s a real moral conundrum, because Zemo is *also* fighting for you.

They really had that chance with Karli in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Zemo again to an extent, but as expectd they didn’t take it. Batman vs Superman *could* have gotten there but they got too involved in “epic” spectacle.

There are tales where the villains should not be steelmanned, because the tale is thematic. For example, something as simple as Star Wars. But if you’re going for realism or political commentary, I wish the next set of them has the guts to make their “villains” proper heroes!