Villain or Scoundrel?

So what makes a character a villain or a scoundrel? Let’s examine.

First some background. I fully admit I love what most would consider low-brow reading, including tie-in novels based on games and such, like Warhammer 40K. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to reading the latest or greatest literary gem in the SF&F field, but I’ll always have soft spot in my heart for trashy tie-in books.

The quality of these books can be dubious at best, but I have found some gems over the years, books that punch well above their perceived quality, and a clear gem is the Ciaphas Cain series by Sandy Mitchell. They’re 40K tie-in novels featuring an Imperial Commissar, think political commissars of the Soviet era but dialed up to 11, who by his own words is an avowed coward who somehow ended up a hero.

In the first trade paperback, Sandy Mitchell mentions the two main influences on Cain being Flashman and Blackadder. Now, I’ve been a fan of Blackadder for years before picking up the Cain books, and I can see a lot of the fourth series, set in WW1, in Cain but I wondered about the influence of Flashman.

As fate would have it, awhile back I found the first Flashman book and bought it, ending up reading it a little over week ago. I’ve been pondering the question of villains and scoundrels ever since.

The imprint of the Flashman books is clear in the structure and basic premise of the Cain novels, however that’s where it ends. Cain’s characterization owes a greater debt to Blackadder in the end because Cain is a scoundrel while Henry Flashman, main character of the Flashman series, is a villain.

The difference between the two can be razor thin, and scoundrels are perfectly capable of terrible things, but in the end they perform a redemptive act, some bit of heroism even if they deny it, that at least in some way tips the balance of karma in their favour while villains never do. Cain, for all his faults, does act heroically when the need arises, even if he denies his heroism and admits how pants-wettingly terrified he was at the time. Flashman never does this. He remains a reprehensible human-being from start to finish.

Context does play a role in whether a character is a villain or a scoundrel. The Flashman books were written in the late sixties and that would have an effect on Flashman’s characterization. If they’d been written today I’m sure they would be much different, possibly even unpublishable considering some of the content. (Seriously, don’t read them unless you’re prepared for horrible colonialism and worse sexual politics including sexual assault.)

Additionally, Cain exists in the Warhammer 40K universe which has it’s own problematic elements and a fanbase that can be just as problematic, in large part due to it starting as satire that started getting taken seriously instead of tounge-in-cheek as originally intended. One of the strengths of the Cain novels is they do deflate the 40K universe to a certain degree, but they still need to exist in that world so there’s going to be questionable bits remaining.

So in summation, look at the heart of the character, their actions in addition to their beliefs, to determine of they’re a villain or scoundrel. Always remember though, even villains think they’re the hero of their own stories.