Why Did You Make Your Villain The Way They Are?

powerplantanimations 2023-06-12 18:02:41 UTC #1

Watched Dr. No yesterday and thought this would be a fun question. What do you like in your villains? Are you into the whole cold, calculated-type who has everything under control... or rats who got power because they're slightly more competent... but could easily be toppled over because there's a huge power imbalance.... and the hero is just ONE of the obstacles who ends up beating everyone else because "good prevails in the end".

What about power scaling? Do you believe the main villain should be the most powerful one there? Or do you believe it's more fun when things are more loosey-goosey? Do you like it when the villains are no different from the good guys?

What's your villain and why did you choose them to be that way?

For me, I think I'm noticing a pattern in my writing where I'm obsessed with rat races? Like different factions struggling for power. They all got their strengths and weaknesses, but at the end of the day, they're all equally vulnerable. My messages in my story is always "good will always prevail!"... except the heroes sometimes do horrid stuff to get what they want for the greater good. Not necessarily a "the world is grey" situation, more of a "the good guys grow up in a world that the villains built... OF COURSE that influence is going to rub off on them in some sort of horrible fashion".

I do LOVE villains that're openly scared and vulnerable. Like yeah, they're intimidating and you wouldn't want to cross them. They're feared by many people... but it's funny when they hear about another organization leader and go "HA HA! NOPE. SEE-YAH". Or better yet, a second antagonist that the main antagonist sees as a threat on equal level of the main protagonist. Like sure, not only did the villain wrong a hero, but it's FUNNY when you find out that the antagonist wronged a sicko in the process. Adds to the whole idea that "EVERYONE wants him dead".

The type of villain (Nikado) in That Stick Figure Isekai is TOTALLY this where he's big, bad, and almost unstoppable.... but he's wronged so many people that he's openly scared of dying. He has intel on every organization in the world and he only preys on the ones that he KNOWS FOR A FACT he can get away with. The best part is that the heroes CAN'T kill him. At all. Not because he'll just... reincarnate into another journal... but If they do then they'll lose the ONLY OPPURTUNITY of changing him. So he's like this huge pest who helps the heroes out, but at the same time, openly does horrid stuff on the side. The only to stop him is by... SOMEHOW... changing his mind. Even then, it's almost too easy for someone like him, but back in his universe he owns one of the biggest companies in the world. Should he return, he could donate to the sick and all that. It's also cool that the heroes come from equally bad/nasty backgrounds, changing for the better. So there's like this "Will he? Won't he?" element regarding Nikado.

I also wrote him this way because it's fun seeing the smartest person of HIS universe constantly lose to people from different backgrounds.

nathanKmcwilliams 2023-06-12 18:20:46 UTC #2

I like a lot of different kinds of villains.
My favorites are the kind that are simply vile because they can be.
But the current villain in Dragon Sparking is just a wild animal that attacked a camper. Less of a villain and more of an environmental threat.

I have other villains in mind later. But for this one, I settled for a wild creature/monster to showcase the main character's powers and how strong they make him.

BoomerZ 2023-06-12 18:23:26 UTC #3

I'm not a fan of villains really. I am more of the antagonist myself. The "badguys" in my story aren't bad, they just have different goals than the main characters. And my main characters aren't "goodguys" as they do horrible stuff. But to either of them, it's understandable to what they are trying to achieve. I firmly am in the camp of the evil people of the world don't think they are evil. Hitler didn't think of himself as the badguy. Neither did Stalin, Mao, or others. In their mind it was completely reasonable what they were doing.

BARDICFURY 2023-06-12 18:56:38 UTC #4

My villains are inspired by people today. The main badguy Rory Seacrow is inspired by an evil version of Ryan Seacrest. Rory is a druid who shapes culture behind the scenes with his shadowy influence. Ryan Seacrest too, has a massive influence on US culture. He was the first host of American Idol, he is the manager and executive producer of the Kardashians so he helped promote their cultural influence to society, he hosts the New Years Eve balldrop in NYC on TV and he somehow manages to do a morning radioshow every single day. This guy has so much cultural power that few give him credit for.

Rory Seacrow, is evil and part of a cult called the Coil that uses blood sacrifice magic to summon evil demons and gain favor from gods who will help them influence society. The cult was inspired by Plato and uses his idea of chosen Philosopher Kings and his idea on how to build the ideal society. The Coil's interpretation of Plato's teaching has become very dark and corrupted over time.

Seacrow is an ass, so I hope readers want to see him get beat up

TheLemmaLlama 2023-06-13 07:36:24 UTC #5

I used to think if you want to write a villain people hate, you make them unapologetically evil. But the more I think about it, there's a certain charm to that self-awareness which oddly enough makes them hard to hate; like so what if you defeat them and give them a righteous lecture on the harms they've caused? They already know.

There isn't that satisfaction of getting someone to realize, or having someone scramble ineffectually to defend themself when it's plain as day to everyone around that they did something terrible and seeing them completely and thoroughly exposed. There's no 'fun' in exposing someone who doesn't care; no poetic justice, no satisfaction of 'coming around full circle'.

Conversely, bad guys I find the most hateable tend to always feel justified in their actions^. Like they're not only doing terrible things, but they also want the moral high ground while they're at it. Like I'm not even mad about what they're actually doing, but how they're gaslighting people into thinking they deserve it, or it's necessary - that's what gets me. And that's why it's so cathartic to see them exposed, and defeated - especially in a poetic way that proves how wrong they are about their own principles.

For me, it's not about revenge or seeing people 'get what they deserve'; it's about setting the record straight. (If this were accomplished in a way not harmful to the villain, I would still feel the same amount of satisfaction XD)

^ the converse isn't true; there are bad guys who feel justified in their actions who I nevertheless find sympathetic (while still thinking their actions are wrong). Probably when they're mostly gaslighting themselves, while not blaming others for thinking they're evil?

LostKelp 2023-06-13 10:45:27 UTC #6

I personally don't think that villains need to be all that complicated. Leopold just likes murdering people and living in luxury, so he uses people to maintain his opulence until they stop being functional, or to his tastes or if they're within his eyeline. Why? Well because that's what a real fuckin evil person would do, and you need to be really evil if you have something like the Tazdahir, he didnt make it and in some ways he isn't the worst person ever to run it but he's still evil and powerful and that's all he needs to be for the story to happen.

I'm sure there's an interesting story about the many forms evil can take and how in stripping people down to their function Leopold allows for a certain amount of personal expression and interconnection to exist that more ideology-focused villains wouldn't. Leopold will give mobility aid to the disabled and empower POC, women and LGBT people if it means he can harvest more money out of them. To him they're all cogs. Is that less evil than someone who would just kill them all? Well, he does kill them all, he just forces them to work first. So is it more evil?

There is an interesting story there. But my story is about traumatized people finding the power to heal themselves and kill Leopold and free everyone. It's about Najm experiences as a clone soldier feeds into their identity. It's about Qamars loss of ideals in the face of mounting horrors. It's about Rahat finding beauty in the midst of great evil and how that alienates them from other people. It's about the thousand things Alya will do before they admit something is wrong.

Idk I don't think the villain needs to be that deep with all of that in mind.

DasIstWunderblyat 2023-06-13 11:22:32 UTC #7

I don't think I have any villains in my series, it's just an opposing force or people with different views and goals. That being said, some have more vile sides to them than the other; although it is the same with the protagonist's side.

Oh, I also like "menacing" villains that have cute or sweet side, also maybe some mundane weakness. Bring me the gap moe.

AmazementComics 2023-06-13 14:36:19 UTC #8

I made my villian, Destructo the way he is due to bitterness and jealousy. This is a man who grew up with a foster family and for a long time resented his foster brother for being the parents’ biological child. Not only that, but he constantly felt like he had to prove himself to others by being smarter to him. The result: his inflated ego always landed him and troubled and he never really filled the void of feeling helpless. Instead, he escaped that void by becoming a powerful criminal and establishing his dominance in New York (and soon to be Nevada).