My "Bad Boy" Theory

What do Severus Snape, Gollum, Sloan (from ABC's Alias) and Wes (from the Bachelorette) all have in common???

They REEK mixed intentions.
And that is what I love! (In fiction, anyway.)

I've been reading about melodramas and how the villian is usually evil, ugly, and has nothing appealing about him. But in a more complex story, we often do not know who the bad guy is (he's sometimes sweet and sometimes wicked). OR we think someone's bad all along, only to learn he's doing the very best he can in the end (i.e. Severus Snape in Harry Potter).

I'm currently reading a series called The Last Apprentice. I was talking to my friend about a certain character and said how I LOVE how her intentions are so ambiguous--I find her all the more interesting.

And THAT'S when I realized the truth of so many girls--why they always fall for the "Bad Boy." 'He's mysterious, he keeps me guessing, when he does something sweet it means all that much more." (aka Wes. I think I just threw up in my mouth...) But I can't help but smiling and thinking so many women are like Catherine Morland in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey--they're blurring fiction and the real world, obsessing over the complex character who keeps you guessing. Makes you worry for them since they're not the writer and don't know how he'll turn out in the end!