Good, bad and ugly

Normally, villains and criminals are portrayed in negative light - they are shown to be ugly, with a mean disposition, and their very appearance can make you dislike them. But, taking a cue from Shakespeare who said you can smile and smile and still be a villain, today's villains - at least in movies and serials - are quite dapper, smartly turned out and good-looking too. Sometimes, the villain looks far more attractive than the hero, as evidenced in some popular K-dramas. Could it be that the realisation is dawning on us that 'some people with great virtues are disagreeable, while others with great vices are delightful' - as Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld put it?

Do nice people have to be boring? Not necessarily. So what if they don't swear, yell and scream; so what if they don't fight, lie or cheat; a pleasant deportment is to be much appreciated, any which way one looks at it. Their stories might not be as spicy, interesting, nail-biting or hair-raising as those of a villain's, but still, they do have an exalted place in the universe. A bad person is inclined to cause hurt to others; that in itself makes him difficult to like, howsoever handsome he may be. And a shabbily dressed, below-average looking good person who would not hurt any being, could turn out to be far more attractive. We are prone to get carried away by exterior attributes, but it is the light or darkness that resides within that really calls the shots.