Any tips on how to write an good villain?

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GreenTechnoFox
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15 Mar 2013, 5:31 am

Ganondox wrote:

It depends on what you are going for. Do you want the villain to be an evil character or a tragic character, do you want him to be repulsive or attractive, ect. The important thing is that it's the personality of the character in the context of the story which determines whether it's good or not, not the external details.

I want my anti-villains to be attractive and sympathetic, but I want my lesser known villains to not necessarily be repulsive, yet they are more evil in the sense of the traditional meaning of evil. My main villains are more radical and more complex, yet they are the most feared.

Fnord
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15 Mar 2013, 12:46 pm

If you don't want advice, then just say so.

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GreenTechnoFox
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16 Mar 2013, 1:24 pm

Fnord wrote:

If you don't want advice, then just say so.

Who said I was not wanting advice. I am an person who feels the need to explain my every action so I often come off as ranting, but I am just merely giving information explaining why I do things. It is a habit of mine.

jagatai
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17 Mar 2013, 7:07 am

fueledbycoffee wrote:

If you ask me, the easiest thing in the world is to write a super-evil villain. That's why there's so many of them.

If you ask me, if you want your story to be more than popcorn... have a villain that if the tables were turned could be perceived as the hero. Say...

Mankind's getting overpopulated. The villain is the secretary general of the UN, who seizes control as a "one-world government", and institutes all sorts of draconian measures such as forced sterilizations after the first child, forced relocation to city-enclaves for the purpose of rewilding, etc. He's forced to massively revoke human rights in order to do this. Martial law is instituted. Our hero finds himself fighting for freedom against this oppressive regime and for the right to some unregulated babymaking.

So who's the hero? The man who instituted necessary measures to save our species and planet, or the terrorist who feels like his right to make lots of babies is more important than forcing the population down to a reasonable level?

I dunno, that's the best thing I could come up with off the top of my head. I like that kind of gray zone, like in Deadwood where Seth's lawful goodness often times endangered the town and Al's moral adaptability often saved it.

This is very good advice on writing villains.

All villains are the protagonists of their own stories. Their actions are driven by what they feel is right. They may be clearly awful people, but nevertheless, they are doing things with a specific goal that THEY see as positive to their world view. It might be to obtain more money or power, but more interestingly, it may be to achieve one kind of "good" that ends up being another person's "bad"

I generally dislike super hero movies because the villains usually have absurd motivations. Liam Neeson's villain in "Batman Begins" was satisfying because he had believable reasons for what he was doing.

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Dragoness
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17 Mar 2013, 11:52 am

Fnord wrote:

Too bad most villains I see in modern literature (especially in comic books, manga, and fanfic) are stereotypical bad guys with infinite resources, infinite power, and intimidating qualities.

Rarely do I see a villain who is just an ordinary, average person who is determined to get what he or she wants with little concern for those who get in the way - someone who is just as likely to manipulate actions from behind the scenes as he or she is to shoot someone in the face. Don Vito Corleone ("The Godfather") was an excellent example of this type of villain - he was the anti-hero of the series, and real people loved him.

Villains should have equal influence on the plot of the story as any other main character; and as such, villains should be at least as well-developed as the main characters.

If your villains are one-trick cliches, then your main characters are going to be just as bad, if not worse.

BrandonSP wrote:

If you really want to motivate a character to do something totally despicable to others, I suggest you give them an inflated sense of personal superiority over their victims...

Just give them Religion, instead.

Bad people do bad things, and good people do good things; but for good people to do bad things ... that takes Religion!

I'm sorry for flaming, but WHAT. DOES. RELIGION. HAVE. TO. DO. WITH. VILLAINS. IN. A. FICTIONAL. STORY. ESPECIALLY. WHEN THE. WRITER. SAYS. THAT. THERE. IS. NO. RELIGION. IN. THE. STORY.

I mean really, good people do bad things for all kinds of reasons other than religion. They are greedy and want more power (you mentioned this yourself), they want more money, they want to stay alive, they want to protect their loved ones (remember Darth Vader? Of course he wasn't real, and the prequel movies sucked, but it was the fact that he was willing to do anything for his family led him to the Dark Side in the first place.)

I could go on. And on. And on.

Dragoness
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17 Mar 2013, 11:59 am

Here's my advice, GreenTechnoFox. I know a lot of other people have said this, but give them a complicated personality. Give them a backstory - even if it is a really short backstory - you can expand upon it as you write the story and come up with more ideas. Give the villain a reason for what he/she/etc. is doing.

And what is your audience? Are you aiming for little kids, adolescents, teenagers, adults? Depending on which age group your targeting, you'll want to modify the villain's evilness. For example, you don't want a psychopathic baby-killer in a story meant for little kids.

GreenTechnoFox
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17 Mar 2013, 12:05 pm

Dragoness wrote:

Ok. I do that actually. I have villains that are messed up in the head, have had their entire village slaughtered before their very eyes, had their wife killed and want revenge, are created in a lab to be used as a weapon, and for my youngest villain, he is just bored and wants something to do.

That is sort of a problem for me. See my stories is based of a kid friendly comic and series, yet I made it dark and filled with death and loss. In fact I took a comic about a well known video game character, and exploded it into basically and inter-dimensional WW3.

Dragoness
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18 Mar 2013, 10:20 am

GreenTechnoFox wrote:

Dragoness wrote:

Then I would say that the appropriate audience to read your stuff is the teenager, young adult, or adult categories. I personally have pretty dark and violent writing myself - but then again, I didn't base my stories off of any kid-friendly comics - I created them, and I knew what audience I was targeting.

Adventus
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18 Mar 2013, 10:32 am

"Villians" are the "Hero" in their own story.

The main difference between a hero and villain is: "How far are you willing to go to succeed?"

A Villain is willing to go farther and do more ...questionable... things to succeed.

Fnord
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18 Mar 2013, 10:33 am

Adventus wrote:

"Villians" are the "Hero" in their own story. The main difference between a hero and villain is: "How far are you willing to go to succeed?" A Villain is willing to go farther and do more ...questionable... things to succeed.

Heroes have morals; villains have ethics.

Giftorcurse
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18 Mar 2013, 1:04 pm

What about villains like Clarence Boddicker or Johan Liebert? Surely, they have ethics... :roll:

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Robdemanc
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18 Mar 2013, 1:14 pm

A good villain is not simply bad for the sake of it. The villain must have justification for being bad and the audience must be able to see that.

A good example is Magneto in X-Men films. He is driven by fear of the holocaust and has learned through experience that humanity are the enemy. It is difficult for him to see it any other way.

Ganondox
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18 Mar 2013, 9:04 pm

Robdemanc wrote:

Of course, a villain can simply be a selfish bastard. However, they still need some sort of motivation. The fact is a "destroyer of worlds" type of villain would actually be less "evil" in personality than one who simply wants to be as powerful as possible. Anyway, a good villain should have an engaging personality unless you are trying to go for special effect.

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25 Mar 2013, 7:45 am

Not purely evil.
For example, I've got a villain in one of my stories. He's not purely evil.
He just thinks big families are terrible because he wasn't given any attention.

He'll do whatever he can to shrink families into 2 children or less.
Villains are just as important as a heroes.
Treat them with some respect.

graywyvern
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25 Mar 2013, 9:50 am

i'm sorry stories with villains are still being written (since that encourages people to not see the greater picture which is that institutions & social practices rather than individuals are the cause of oppression) but in my opinion, the best villain is almost a hero. there must be admirable traits, spoiled by one flaw. see what Shakespeare did with Richard III.

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xenon13
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25 Mar 2013, 5:40 pm

A good villain must frequently say the following: "Hahahahahahahaha! Wohahahahahahaha!" He must frequently consult Satan to plan his next move. He must have lots of wealth and power. He must always be loaded with self-serving arguments for why it is he is doing it for everyone's good. He has to accuse everyone in his way of being Evil. He must frequently say that he is indispensible for the progress of everyone and those who oppose his plans are Evil.

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