the show hasn't really committed to John being the villain of their story
That's a great way to put it! I mean, historically, there's been a way of approaching that indirectly. For example, I understand that traditionally the actor who plays the father in Peter Pan also plays Captain Hook in stage productions. We also see it in Guardians of the Galaxy where the actor who plays Peter's grandfather also plays his father figure, Yondu. This takes on particular resonance in Guardians 2 where the adoptive father ends up being set against the biological one who is revealed as the villain of the film.
However I do think that actor bleed and resistance can account for a good deal of how things play out. If one reads a script vs sees it performed, for example, there can be considerable differences in how it's interpreted. (I know that HP fandom discussed this a good bit in relation to the Cursed Child production). I talk about that some with Sam and Dean here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6720337
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That's a great way to put it! I mean, historically, there's been a way of approaching that indirectly. For example, I understand that traditionally the actor who plays the father in Peter Pan also plays Captain Hook in stage productions. We also see it in Guardians of the Galaxy where the actor who plays Peter's grandfather also plays his father figure, Yondu. This takes on particular resonance in Guardians 2 where the adoptive father ends up being set against the biological one who is revealed as the villain of the film.
However I do think that actor bleed and resistance can account for a good deal of how things play out. If one reads a script vs sees it performed, for example, there can be considerable differences in how it's interpreted. (I know that HP fandom discussed this a good bit in relation to the Cursed Child production). I talk about that some with Sam and Dean here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6720337