User blog:Xbsv/PE Proposal: Satan (Passion of the Christ)



Time to propose a new villain, with Satan from The Passion of the Christ.

What's the work?
The work is the controversial 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which recounts the final days of Jesus Christ prior to His crucifixion as recorded in the Bible.

Who is the candidate/What has he done?
Satan is the main villain of Passion of the Christ, appearing at various points throughout the film. His first villainous act was when he first appeared, attempting to tempt Jesus away from His path as saviour and then just creating a snake to have Him murdered (though Jesus was able to crush the snake at the last second). Satan later had one of his demons possess Jesus' disciple Judas and force him to sell Jesus to the authorities and this is where Satan's evil actions really start coming in, so pay attention:

After Judas realises the error of his ways (presumably having been unpossessed) he tries to return the thirty silver pieces he was given for betraying Jesus. Failing this, Judas takes to the streets, where Satan and his demons appear in the form of a group of children and torment Judas, chasing him and psychologically torturing him until Satan shows Judas a rope from a dead donkey and Judas hangs himself.

After this, Satan appears when Jesus is being escorted to the crucifixion. He then uses his influence to force the centurions into starving, mutilating and generally torturing Him before personally mocking Him by holding a demonic baby in front of Him (see above). He also prevents a little girl from giving Jesus water and encourages the soldiers to force Him into carrying the cross to the site of the execution, beating him whenever he collapses from thirst or exhaustion. Despite his success in getting Jesus killed, this was ultimately Satan's undoing as Jesus's death completed God's will in atoning for the sins of humanity.

Heinous standard
He's the main villain, so he sets it.

Mitigating factors
I know what you all want to know: What about his moral agency? I think he does have agency as he showed clear pleasure in driving Judas to suicide and went so far as to mock Jesus while he was being tortured, clear examples of Satan taking pleasure in causing suffering and therefore having agency.

Final conclusion
I'd say yes. What do you think?