Just Because He's the Villain Doesn't Mean he has to be a Jerk!

Ok, so I just got home from spending a great evening with my boyfriend. We went hiking and then watched Avatar, which he turned me on to and I am starting in love.  However, during one of the episodes, I came to a realization about myself.  It was all because of this guy: 

http://img.poptower.com/pic-14407/zuko-avatar-last-airbender.jpg?d=600

So, for those of you who are like me, and are not all that familiar with the show, this is Zuko.  He is pretty much a jerk, most of the time and is generally trying to kidnap the protagonist and otherwise be a jerk.  Although, I think it is pretty debatable that he has his reasons.  

So, anyway, we're watching this show and Zuko does yet another cruel thing.  So, I do the only rational thing and start yelling at the screen, telling him how he really needs to be a good person.   Ok, it was rational in my mind.  Because the thing is, I just feel like he could be a really good guy if he put the effort in.   I just don't see him as a totally evil guy and I really want him to turn out to be secretly good, and get rid of that awful ponytail, but that's beside the point.  

The real point is that he's the bad guy.  I should probably be hating him, not lecturing the screen about how he needs to fulfill his potential as a good person.  But that's what I do, because I want him to be a good guy. This is much to the amusement of my boyfriend, who just laughs and reminds me that he is the villain so I shouldn't be that surprised if he does something "mean".  

But, that's kind of just who I am.  I am a super-idealistic person.  As long as you don't come at me with a chainsaw, I'll probably believe that you are a good person.  And yeah, I know that that's naive.  I have had multiple people tell me that I shouldn't trust or forgive certain people-even at times the people that I am "mistakenly" trusting have told me that I'm being naive.  But, honestly, I just prefer idealism over cynicism.  I'm not saying that I don't think that people will hurt me or other people.  I just think that most people have at least one side of them that is downright decent.  I just trust that when it's really necessary these people will choose to show this good side.  I think that we all have this good side.  And yeah, we probably all have a downright terrible side to.  We all have the capacity to hurt each other, but we also all have the capacity to choose not to.  And a lot of the times, that's what people will choose.  Maybe even Zuko.  

Anyway, that's all for now.  Just some idealistic ramblings to connect some of my thoughts.  

Bye guys, 

Chris