Where Have All The Irredeemable Bad Guys Gone?

The truly irredeemable bad guy might be dying in storytelling. Recent animated stories like Frozen II and Encanto tell stories where the "enemy" is a character's inner conflict. Pixar's mostly disappointing new film Elemental also chose to edit out the film's originally planned villain character. Meanwhile you have plenty of streaming hit shows where the bad guy hero is a serial killer (for example) and also deeply human and relatable.

It's enough to make anyone wonder ... why are there so many stories these days where the bad guys are so sympathetic? There are lots of theories to answer this question online. Some believe good characters seem too perfect, while bad ones are more relatable. Others suggest the complexity of bad guys makes them more interesting. The theory I like best is that a great bad character makes us face our own dark side.