Physical & Emotional Abuse Support Group
Abuse is a general term for the treatment of someone that causes some kind of harm (to the abused person, to the abusers themselves, or to someone else) that is unlawful or wrongful. No one deserves abuse, period. Abuse can be emotional, physical, or sexual.
My Disney Villain page posted a picture of Ratigan from the Great Mouse Detective, and it got me thinking.
Ratigan always bothered me - he was one of the more terrifying villains to me. He was cheerful and happy, brilliant and clever, polite and cheerful. The pained, sorrowful, hurt look on his face as he declares 'What did you call me?' when a drunken henchman mentions that he's a rat. And then the scene where he drops all pretense of civility once he's cornered in the clocktower, and, with a bolt of lightning, reveals that as charming as he can be, he is a rat. With fangs, claws, and massive muscles. His fur bristles, he drops to all fours, and he reveals himself to be a creature from nightmare.
As I thought about it, others came to my mind:
Cruella laughing and smoking her cigarette/the madness in her eyes as she tries to drive the truck off the road.
Frollo (Argh! Master of Spiritual and Verbal abuse!) Sitting to eat breakfast and teach Quasimodo/Eyes wide and face lit by the fires of below as he raises the sword over his head.
Hook, charming to Tinker Bell, polite and generous in defeat/Mustache frayed, clawing out with his hook.
Ursula, with a lawyer's detatchment/raising the seas in a tempest to crush all before her
Jafar complimenting the Sultan and Jasmine/reveling in humiliation and dispair of his enemies before becoming a literal snake.
Scar. Just... Scar.
What do they have in common? A capability to be charming, to weild deception and doubt and confusion like scalpels. And the willingness to do anything/destroy anything/use EVERY MEANS AT THIER DISPOSAL in order to get what they want. Power, and Control. And what terrible things happen when they get it. And even worse things when they are denied it.
If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember. Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies.
Ratigan always bothered me - he was one of the more terrifying villains to me. He was cheerful and happy, brilliant and clever, polite and cheerful. The pained, sorrowful, hurt look on his face as he declares 'What did you call me?' when a drunken henchman mentions that he's a rat. And then the scene where he drops all pretense of civility once he's cornered in the clocktower, and, with a bolt of lightning, reveals that as charming as he can be, he is a rat. With fangs, claws, and massive muscles. His fur bristles, he drops to all fours, and he reveals himself to be a creature from nightmare.
As I thought about it, others came to my mind:
Cruella laughing and smoking her cigarette/the madness in her eyes as she tries to drive the truck off the road.
Frollo (Argh! Master of Spiritual and Verbal abuse!) Sitting to eat breakfast and teach Quasimodo/Eyes wide and face lit by the fires of below as he raises the sword over his head.
Hook, charming to Tinker Bell, polite and generous in defeat/Mustache frayed, clawing out with his hook.
Ursula, with a lawyer's detatchment/raising the seas in a tempest to crush all before her
Jafar complimenting the Sultan and Jasmine/reveling in humiliation and dispair of his enemies before becoming a literal snake.
Scar. Just... Scar.
What do they have in common? A capability to be charming, to weild deception and doubt and confusion like scalpels. And the willingness to do anything/destroy anything/use EVERY MEANS AT THIER DISPOSAL in order to get what they want. Power, and Control. And what terrible things happen when they get it. And even worse things when they are denied it.
If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember. Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies.
I was thinking about posting something myself today from a movie, but it would fit just as well here.
It's the bit in one of the films of Lord of the Rings when Aragorn (if memory serves me correctly) is prepring the men of Rohan for battle with the orcs at Helm's Deep. He says, "Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none."
Thinking about it, that seems to me to be good advice for dealing with a particularly nasty psychopath or narcissist, and is in line with much of the psychologically-based advice I have read on the subject of getting rid of them from your life. Apparently, if you mirror their behaviour back to them enough, they disappear. Their self loathing is such that they recoil when confronted with repetitions of their own words and behaviour.
That doesn't mean we should try to behave like them! But getting down to their level just a few times if they are being particularly troublesome apparently makes them run from you in terror and not want to return.
While we are on the subject of films and LOTR, Gollum freaks me out like no character I have ever seen!! Anyone fancy putting him in therapy and see what happens, LOL?
Yes, I must admit to having a sneaky thought or two comparing my husband to him, although at times with his alternating sickly niceness and rages he seemed a lot more like Gollum. Talked to himself in that same way too, sometimes, the whole 'us' thing *shiver*