Feature: WHAT MAKES A HERO? What Makes A Villain?

This past fall, I read THE MIDNIGHT STAR by Marie Lu, the conclusion to her powerful trilogy The Young Elites. What impressed me the most and hooked me on the entire series is the fact that the main character is antihero Adelina Amouteru, and it's unclear if she'll be a villain or a hero by the end of the series.

Then again....

"You are the hero of your own story."
~Joseph Campbell, famous mythologist

right!?

Villain or hero, you're always the victor when it comes to seeing things through your own eyes.

That's why so many villains have depth. That's why so many people want to read about villains these days. They don't want to watch the movies and TV shows of old where villains are static characters.

They want that meat, that depth. They want something like WICKED by Gregory Maguire, which makes the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz seem more heroic. They want the uncertainty of VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab, where nobody is heroic, but some are moreso than others. They want to root for the bad guy in Joss Whedon's cult classic Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, even though Dr. Horrible is planning to destroy his nemesis Captain Hammer and get accepted into The Evil League of Evil, and feel deeply for him.

YOU GUYS. I was watching Shrek the Musical on Netflix recently, which is a live recording of a Broadway musical that I saw in NYC a few years ago, and there is this ONE SCENE. IDK how it impacted me the first time I saw it--or even when I previously watched it on DVD, but watching it now, it struck me really hard. When Fiona and Shrek have a misunderstanding and Fiona goes off to marry Lord Farquaad, Shrek sings this song called "Build a Wall," and Shrek just...snaps. He's done. This world is over. He's not going to be good anymore. This moment is so strong with angst and strife that in this moment, he could have become evil forever if things had gone one way instead of the other.

And in the end, isn't that how it is for every villain, for every hero? One defining moment. We all have the potential to be good, just as we do to be evil. One small thing can tip us in either direction. We all know that Shrek is a hero and not a villain, but if you watch the musical, check out "Build a Wall." You can see Shrek leaning toward evil for that one moment because of where life has taken him, and the moment is breathtaking.

At the end of THE YOUNG ELITES in the Acknowledgments, Marie Lu writes,

"THE YOUNG ELITES began as a hero's journey--a boy takes on the task of mastering his powers and vanquishing the villain. The story didn't work, though, and I was left struggling in the middle of nowhere, trying to figure out why. One day, as I mulled this over with my agent, Kristin Nelson, she said, 'Hey, what about this Adelina girl? She's an interesting side character.'
'Oh, yeah,' I replied, distracted. She's a fun bad girl to write. I hope I can keep her around if I redo this.'

Kristin said, 'Maybe she should be the star.'
Sometimes, all it takes to see the right path is a flash of brilliant insight from someone else. I realized the problem was that I didn't want to tell a hero's journey; I wanted to tell a villain's."

~Marie Lu, THE YOUNG ELITES Acknowledgments

When I read that passage, I thought it was both great knowledge for aspiring writers, as well as fantastic insight into the birth of THE YOUNG ELITES. Plus, Marie Lu says she wants to tell a villain's story and Adelina is certainly no hero.

So does this mean she'll become the ultimate villain, or will she change her ways by series end and be on the side for good?

It's hard to say!!!

For now, that Will She or Won't She is part of what makes The Young Elites so great. You never know quite where you stand with Adelina, especially when she embraces her darkness and says things like this:

"I am Adelina Amouteru... I belong to no one. On this night, I swear to you that I will rise above everything you've ever taught me. I will become a force that this world has never known. I will come into such power that none will dare hurt me again."
~Adelina Amouteru, THE YOUNG ELITES

Adelina tries SO HARD to be good, but nothing works. She starts to think it may not be worth it.

She's on that verge.

There's a snapping point coming.

The question becomes...

Is The Young Elites Trilogy ultimately centered around a villain or a hero?

Which road is Adelina going to take?

It is, of course, a huge spoiler. What I can tell you is that when I finished reading THE MIDNIGHT STAR and the series was finished, I was highly satisfied in ways I didn't think possible. I was happy, I was sad, I was so many tangled emotions. I love the way everything came together and I love the results of the final outcomes of everyone's choices in this series. It made The Young Elites trilogy absolutely memorable to me, and I will read it again, and recommend it to teens and adults alike because it has such a great depth to it. Nothing is black and white. It's all gray, but gray is so beautiful here.

To find out, readers will have to continue Adelina's journey in THE ROSE SOCIETY, and then come to terms with her final reckoning in THE MIDNIGHT STAR.

The Young Elites Trilogy consists of three books:

THE YOUNG ELITES was published in 2014 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, followed by THE ROSE SOCIETY in 2015, and concluding with THE MIDNIGHT STAR in 2016.