This is a really good point. Alan's "villainy." from the moment he was introduced was not solely about getting back at people. Definitely that was part of it--he wanted to get back at his father because of unnamed things his father did to him growing up. He wanted to get back at Elizabeth and Mike because he didn't want to lose control of Phillip and even though he didn't love Elizabeth, he was offended that SHE left HIM.
But what really drove Alan most of the time was having to cover up something he did that was underhanded, or not exactly legal, although he would tell himself he did it for good reasons, (i.e. doing the baby switch when Elizabeth's baby was born dead). He was usually busy hiding something he did in the past, and that would force him to do more bad things, that he would also have to hide.
For instance, he ordered his lawyer to pay someone to say he had an affair with Elizabeth so he would have a better chance to gain custody of Phillip. The witness swore on two affadavits--one claiming he had the affair with Elizabeth, one where he admits he was paid to lie about it. His lawyer, behaving kind of like the knights who murdered Thomas Becket because the king made an off-handed comment that he wanted to get rid of him, kills the guy they hired to lie. Alan didn't ASK him to do it, but he would have been implicated.
Then the lawyer is killed, and Alan's like, PHEW, got out of THAT one!
Only ROGER found the affadavits. So he he starts blackmailing Alan. And Alan has to do a bunch of things at Roger's command, like promoting him, letting him keep his job when he's accused of rape, etc. He keeps trying to convince Roger to take a job in Hong Kong so he can sweep him under the rug, but Roger won't do it.
Then Holly shoots Roger. Roger, certain he's going to be convicted of rape, orders Alan to help him fake his death. Which he does. And he thinks, hey, I'm in the clear again! Unfortunately, this makes him partically responsible for Holly going to jail for "killing" Roger. Too bad, he's about protecting himself.
Only Mike is suspiscous and also upset because Hope is involved with Alan. So he has the "Roger's" body exhumed and everyone is shocked that it's not Roger.
MEANWHILE, Roger is in France and calls Alan and tells him he's coming back because he wants his daughter Christina. While Roger doesn't get his hands on her, a pregnant Rita sees him, and Roger kidnaps HER. Now Alan is partially resonsible for Rita's kidnapping and for the fact that she almost burns to death in the cabin Roger left her in, eventually losing her baby.
(This is the kind of thing that irks me about Marland. We NEVER got reveals where people gave Alan sh!t for the terrible things that happened to them because he was looking out for himself. Rita, Holly, and Hope should have torn him a new one multiple times. I don't think even Elizabeth told him off when she found out the truth about Phillip. That said, Marland did do a good job of keeping Alan consistent, until he had him punished and "redeemed").
Anyway, see what I'm saying? His villainy was his impulse ALWAYS for self-preservation, EVEN if he felt kind of bad about it. He tried to stop Roger from taking Christina, but only in ways that wouldn't have exposed his complicity.
He wasn't a good guy (though he had some good impulses) but he was a way more interesting and complex guy than the Alan RR played. (Not blaming RR for that; he didn't write the scripts).
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DeeVee ·
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