One of the only antagonists I will defend with my life is Shen Jiu from the Scum Villains Self-Saving System. It is not an extremely popular work, but I just had to write about him. Shen Jiu was portrayed as a one-dimensional heartless villain in the novel, but he was so much more. He was human, made mistakes like all of us do, and paid for them. One of his main villainous deeds was beating up his students. One of them killed him in the end, and people were happy – he was “scum” after all and “deserved” what he got. I beg to differ.

Now I’m not saying his actions weren’t wrong; I’m saying that cycles of abuse are hard to break – especially when you have no one on your side willing to help you. He lived a lonesome existence, where he was taught that getting beat up made you stronger – better even. He was a former slave, was tortured by his masters, and his only “friend” abandoned him to that fate. He lost all hope in the world and believed there was no place for kindness. He learned that people aren’t kind and will hurt someone for no reason other than to enjoy their suffering.  I don’t believe he hurt his students out of malice but out of a misguided attempt to help them survive in the cold, twisted world he knows is out there. He wanted to prepare them for the future, help them to live, even if it meant getting their hands dirty. In the end, he succeeded, and he died for it. If anyone had been willing to look past his cold exterior, they would have seen a broken boy who just needed someone willing to reach out a hand.