Saving the Paragon Villain

Chapter 11: Unravel

Erin

What made Magnus Baudin Veritas Courtenay a Paragon Villain in my book? My parameters are simple. Here's my personal list:

1. He's logical and calculating - His plans are not made with emotional bias. He sees things clearly and knows exactly how his opponents will react, using it to his advantage. Unlike those villains who lets their hatred for the heroes get best of them, making their attempts futile.. Sometimes I even suspect that they're somehow made for comic relief. Magnus on the other hand, is a stellar example of when you're up against an intellectual puppet-master. Creepy yet also somewhat lovable.. If I do say so myself. (Yo I read the novel and he's really winning my heart over how attractive and dangerously intelligent he is. Omg, yes! Come at me daddy~)

2. He's decisive - You know those villains who take someone as hostage and wait around like idiots to give them allegedly "a life worst than death" but actually just giving that particular hostage enough time to conjure a viable escape plan? Those nincompoops are the exact opposite of who Magnus is. What hostage situation? If you're a caught spy and you somehow got captured, you're dead on the spot no questions asked. Oh, even if you're a woman or a child.. He often said the iconic line "The sword does not have eyes".

3. He's a respected leader within his camp - When he orders his men to do drills, he's the first one to do them. When there's a war against his kin, he puts himself in the frontlines of danger. His camp does not recognize aristocracy but meritocracy.. If you do well, you get promoted and your family's social standing has no bearing in it at all. Seriously I haven't seen an army as dedicated as his that when worst come to worst they were willing to make a human shield to protect Magnus although he refused to and used his dark magic to send them all off. Not even the royal family had received this much dedication and loyalty. I've never seen such thing before since Genghis Khan. (in my past life reference.)

4. He's great with pleasing women physically - ehem, uh.. Yeah. Remember when he got raped by a maid in his teens inside that dungeon? Victims of abuse can only go two ways after that. Either they never do it or they get inclined to it. As you may already have guessed, Magnus became the latter. It was the first time in his life he felt warmth.. When that maid made him.. Er, you know... He felt warm and accepted in his own broken, twisted way. Ever since then he slept with women whom he took as his concubines.. But he never forced them (since he knows how terrible it is to be forced.. Although he enjoyed the feeling he felt dirty after their intercourse. He didn't want them to feel like that).. Since he's really handsome and sexy most of them approached him first. I heard (through the novel) he was quite the man in the sheets making the women addicted and always looking forward to his visits. An attractive villain who knows his way with women.. Uh yes please! Although I know that's kind of problematic of me to be happy about this outcome but come on.. He's a breath of fresh air from those villains who force themselves unto princesses (his only bane is Ava tbh)... Despite being abused, he values an activity that is consentual. I mean that's respectable. Good job. (In the novel he had at the very least fifteen concubines in his lair.. All willing and dedicated to be bed... Now that makes you wonder just how good this guy is.. Reminds me of Harly Quin)

5. Tragic backstory - okay, this one is my biased masochist preference and not everyone will understand, I get that.. But hell I'm still including it in my list nonetheless (because it's my list which makes my choices gospel in that aspect. Not satisfied, then sue me.) I don't like that he went through hell of course but.. The bittersweet feeling you get when you gaze upon him trying to live on despite that makes you admire and pity him at the same time.. I love the complexity of that feeling... It's so rich and profound that it makes you think that maybe this is what it takes to create a new word. A bittersweet feeling. Oh it hurts sooo goooooodddd! (I'm betting that's the first time you've heard someone say that line in a serious tone.. Sorry not sorry though)