What do you like in a Villain?

[jayorten]

I like villains who have a certain air of mystery about them. It really keeps the audience guessing about the true nature of their identity and motives, which makes them the more interesting characters. I also like a villain who just loves to mess around with his enemies and is somewhat unpredictable. unlike the villains who come up with a terribly cliched plan thinking that it will actually work against the hero.

I like a villain that enjoys their evilness. They know they're no going back, might as well dance whilst the slaughter.

I also like this in a villain. This is partly why I am a big fan of The Joker from the Batman franchise; he just does it cuz he loves to do it, and from my experience, those who love what they do are ussually the most successful.

[justjezz]

I like stories where you can't even tell who's the villain in the first place. Like you can't blame a single person when something bad happens, because all the characters contributed to that bad thing. Everyone has a reason for doing what they're doing, and they truly believe that it's for the better. This kind of thing forces me to think complexly about the characters, and it kinda makes me empathetic towards the "villain" because he could be seen as the bad guy, when in fact, he's just trying to do what he thinks is best.

Same thing could be said about heroes. Like, they keep trying to do something good, but in the end, it hurts something/someone else.

[TAMAnnoying]

I feel like you have to be carful with this one. Theres plenty of times I read a villain who's got everything every other villain has, a curl person who would kick a three legged puppy, but sometimes I hate them, but don't ENJOY hating them. I just don't like them on screen or enjoy listening to them rant. To me you have to make the villain someone who's enjoyable to hate. Someone you can say "They are horribly awful people but gosh I love watching do whatever it is they're doing." But if you sit there just saying "Man I hate them." Then I feel like your not ENJOYING the villain as a villain. They're just annoying people at that point. :/

[crabman21]

One thing only comes to mind.....MOJO JOJO!!! I luuuuv that guy. Best villain EVER!!

[sarahrebecca58]

I'm a big believer in instead of villains, two protagonists with conflicting goals. Thus I find a complex personality extremely important, as well as changing over the course of the story--personality wise, I don't give a crap about power level.:P

The old example I used to use, is siblings racing to a tree to grab the apple. The two might race to the tree, but the brother/sister will still catch them if they fall. But they'll just as easily eat the apple that falls from the tree that slipped from their siblings hands.

In other words I think some work suffers from the bad guy being to evil.

[minzinger]

I like stories where you can't even tell who's the villain in the first place.

Oooo...I like this! Yes! I wanted to say something similar. I like villains that is on the border of good and evil, so it makes them "likable."

Examples:
- Kira from Death Note (is he a villain?)
- Kinda random but Ed Harris character in the movie The Rock. He a bad guy with good intentions but bluffed)

I also like villains who are just pure evil but ridiculously "smart" at the same time AND has no physical strength advantage. I hate when villains are just strong physically. So stupid.

Examples:
- Joker!!!
- Johan Liebert if you read/watched Monster Manga (so good)
- In real life - Hilter. We all love to hate Hilter.

[goenn]

oh my god, Monster is such a good manga and naoki urasawa is such a good writer AND artist.

[kazukitakamura126]

I like a villain do what they want or need to do no matter what the cost. I like them to have some substance where they behave because of what happened to them or someone they cared about. I know alto of people are going to disagree but, I think Sasuke from Naruto was a good villain. He didn't care what stood in his way he would do anything to get what he needed to get done. He wasn't extremely powerful so it was what he did that truly made him a villain.