They're the bad guys... right?

Everybody knows what it takes to make a hero: valour, honour, courage, a desire for justice, but the most important thing to make a hero is a villain.

I mean, where would Batman be without the Joker, or Sherlock Homes without Professor Moriarty,or the Doctor without the Master? Of course the only one suited to stop the ultimate bad guy is the ultimate good guy. The thing is... what makes a character good or bad?

We as an audience are expected to make a clear distinction between the righteous and the evil, and which characters in the story act for each. But when I really looked at what makes good and evil I found myself questioning the moral choices and motivations which suddenly meant that they weren't so bad.

In short, I'm wondering just how bad the bad guys really are.

The Doctor and The Master are opposing equals - binary opposites

Let's look at a TV villain that we've all come to recognise over their decades on our screens... The Cybermen.

The Cybermen, for those who don't know, are enemies of the Doctor in Doctor Who who, as regular humans, kept adding and modifying their bodies with cybernetics until they just became like robots. The reason that they're the bad guys is because they want to do the same to the rest of humanity, and we don't really approve of that. But in their eyes (or whatever they have), converting humans to Cybermen is improving them, it's a favour, they're effectively trying to help humanity... and isn't that one of those traits that make them good guys?

The great thing about considering this 'grey area' when viewing characters is that it extends to people in real life, and the horrific lens through which we view these people is reduced a little bit.

Now, I'm not going to start saying stuff like "Hitler was really a nice guy", but did he not bring his country out of economic depression and make it strong enough to take on the world?

Also why must we, the audience, automatically have to believe the supposed hero's testimony and judgement? Of course they're going to point to their opponents and say "I don't like them", but isn't that exactly what they're going to say about our supposed hero?

When Lost finally settled it's story theme down to an ultimate conflict between a man in white and a man in black, I naturally assumed that the Man In Black (whose name was never given) was the villain. But as the series developed and we got to explore that character and find out just why he wants to defeat the man in white, Jacob, I found myself questioning just who was in the right.The Man In Black was lied to as a child about the world outside of the Island and so he wanted to see it, whilst Jacob was set on keeping him trapped there. But in Jacob's quest to find a successor (and to prove the goodness in people) he brought people against their knowledge and will to the Island where nearly all of them suffered and died. And the one lucky person to survive this gauntlet would have to stay until they themselves were killed. This doesn't seem very noble or heroic, and it actually was a point raised in the show - whether or not the good guy was really the good guy.

This is the challenge I submit to you, oh-humble-reader, have a look at the different heroes and villains and wonder just who is who.