They say when you’re held at gunpoint

Start talking about your life.

It’s funny, though.

’Cause we were always taught not to talk to strangers.

Yet the best way to survive the worst stranger of all

Is to tell them everything about yourself.

Your full name

How old you are

Where you grew up.

. . .

I suppose this is because it humanizes you.

It gives the person holding the gun something to empathize with.

Because just a few seconds before,

You were just prey.

Just a target on the wall ready to hit.

But now, you’re a whole human being.

A sister

A son

A teacher

A parent

A whole history that would make it much harder to erase from the world.

That’s why it’s so much more easier for an audience to

Connect to the hero in every movie.

Because their story always starts from the beginning.

We need them as a young child

We learn about their interests,

What music they listen to,

There go-to snacks.

They probably go through a lot too.

Maybe they’re abandoned.

No family

No home.

Then they rise from the ashes and use their trauma for good.

Of course we’d root for them.

Whereas for the villain

We only meet them once they’ve already become the villain.

There is no backstory.

No reason why they are the way they are.

Bitter, vile, always plotting an evil plan…

But no one ever stops and thinks that maybe these villains have a story too.

Maybe they have a favorite color,

A favorite food,

Maybe they too were once a child with wants and needs that were never quite met.

Maybe there’s a reason why they turned out to be the villain.

You are the villain in my life, you know?

You never cared about anything-

You were always angry.

You always found a way to dampen every happy occasion just by being there.

And I hated you for it.

It makes me think

…

Maybe like all the heroes me know and love…

If I’d met you from the beginning…

If I’d known what kind of music moved you…

What food excited your taste buds,

Or if you’d just told me your favorite color

…

I would have empathized more.

Maybe it would’ve made me realize . . .

That I was the one

Holding the gun.