Your thoughts on villains. Tell me about yours!

[Stronas]

Thats's happening in pokemon? Can't tell if that's dumb... OR AWESOME?! I always thought it needed more tension! And yes, the classic "Ive suffered greatly so everyone else should aswell" Villain Abit like Pain from naruto i suppose I'm struggling with creating a villain, but I think that's the type of villain i'll end up with <3 Thanks for the reply!

[shazzbaa]

I'm struggling with creating a villain [...]

Another possible way to come at creating a villain, if you're NOT doing villain-as-protagonist, is... how does the villain relate to the heroes? What scares your heroes? What's hard for them? I first thought about this when someone pointed out that in Legend of Korra, Korra leans on her powers and her identity as the avatar.... so a villain who can remove people's powers is actually perfect for her; it plays right into her worst fear, and should've forced her to face that fear directly.

If you have a hero who thinks everyone is either good or evil with no in-between, then a sympathetic, grey-morality villain would challenge the hero's worldview -- your hero would learn a lot about himself and his own assumptions through trying to make sense of that villain. But if you have a hero who believes everyone is more complicated than simple good & evil, then a villain who is truly despicable and unredeemable is going to be far more challenging to that hero, because the hero will have to question -- maybe there are truly evil people?

[altimys]

One of my favorite villains is Makishima from Psycho-Pass. He's unapologetically murderous, and his actions seem to be based more off a philosophy than personal reasons. His character is a bit vague because they never really give him a backstory, but I kind of like that, because there are hints to why he acts the way he does, but we're never given a very clear answer.

As to writing villains, I do like it when there are reasons given for their actions, but I don't like it when the author has written the story in a way as for us to hate the villain, and right at the climax reveals some backstory that makes us sympathize with them. In my opinion, it would be much better to have that backstory more or less exposed (or at least hinted) .

[BraveHeartTatsumaki]

"Ive suffered greatly so everyone else should aswell" Inmediately came to my mind Sephiroth from FFVII, don't get me wrong, I love him and the game, but that phrase fits SO much to him xD
and yep, it's been happening, in the anime XY Lyssandre is fooling to the co-protagonist of the series and it's obvious he'll make him fight against Ash Ketchum, our hopes are very high in this season.
You're welcome xD

[jacintawibowo]

I'm glad I could help. I had a writing class with a very thorough professor, so I like to share what I can!
What a compliment! Thank you :> I love Adventure Time.

[Stronas]

I'm actually gong to checking that out. Been playing pokemon since forever, time to watch aswell! o.o
And how did FF7 not cross my min as i said that o.o (One of my favourite games ever, cant wait for the remake and the New zelda!)

[BraveHeartTatsumaki]

You should! though I'd recommend you to watch only the important episodes.
When I first wrote my comment I didn't even remember that either xD it's one of my favorites, though, I also like the witch Artemisa from FF8, she was crazy xD (I'm also waiting for it, and suffering cause... no money HHHNNN)
You would check to the evil in JoJo's bizarre adventures, Dio, he's crazy but you see clearly why he became evil since the beginning, it might help you a lot because you'd see his development alongside with the protagonist

[Cielle]

I think "how evil" a villain is/should be really depends on the story and the intended audience. Not that you can't have complex villains in "kids" media. Just look at Avatar: Fire Lord Ozai is really super bad, and the moral questions that show gets at certainly aren't typical of those seen in a lot of "kids" shows. But that complexity is part of what makes it so successful.

In that vein, to me, the best kind of villain is complex. They aren't bad just to be bad; they have a reason for their actions. My favorite kind of villain is one whose reasons are powerful enough that you almost support them--a well-intentioned extremist, if you will. If they truly believe their goals are noble--even if their actions aren't--it makes it all the more tragic.

Sometimes you want bad guys just to be bad, though. I really love it when a villain is portrayed at first as being actually an okay person (just heartbroken or driven to some kind of extreme), but then the plot twist reveals that they're actually just a psychopath. I LOVE THAT SH*T. To be honest, I think villains are often more interesting than heroes.

As for the villain of my comic, she hasn't been introduced yet so I don't want to say too much about her. The main antagonist for the first part of the story, on the other hand, has been introduced. But 'antagonist' and 'villain' aren't necessarily synonymous. I can't say more because spoilers, but I will say that Reus deals with areas of grey morality and questions what justice truly is. How do you do the right thing if you don't know what is right? Anywho. The villain is definitely a villain, but a complicated one.

[Stronas]

Thanks for the reply, and YES, those villains are the best! I've found myself cheering for Madara from Naruto for example, though trough an illusion, he has the Powers to create a PERFECT world. That, and he is freaking AWESOME, hehe. And for the looks like a decent person at first but turns out to be s a insane psycopath villains... The Governor from The Walking Dead?! And your villain sounds interesting!

[harrodeleted]

I've always liked villains that have a clear motivation, and if you were in your shoes, maybe you'd do the same thing.

The villains in my story will all (with maybe one exception) feel that they are doing the right thing, not just for them, but for everyone.

And I think that's kind of how it works in the real world too! Rationalizing actions are always possible, and the greater the damage you can do, the greater the need to rationalize it!

[Wolferbow]

I always thought of a villain as being a good opposite to the good guy. Maybe they could be someone the hero Could have become if they weren't careful. I think if there are multiple villains in something they should be characters of their own and vary in badness which ads more diversity to the rouges gallery. Like how you can have a bad guy who wants to take over the world and is strong enough to do it, then you have a bad guy who's just kind of comic relief. He's still bad but in a different kind of way.
Just look at the Batman comics. He's got all these villains but on different levels of evil. The Mad Hatter isn't as difficult to deal with as Bane or Joker.

[chiharu_j]

I feel like villains are always given such a bad rep but sometimes you can actually end up finding them more exciting than the main characters of the story and sometimes it's hard to seperate the villain from a good guy I mean someone like Ciel in Black Butler, he's not exactly a good guy but he's not a villain either. Well anywho, I can't really talk about a specific villain in Kami Element mainly because they haven't shown up yet but besides that some of my characters might have properties of what is considered a villain but they won't necessarily be one, the types of people that could chop you up with a cheerful smile. I just like people with interesting personalities usually warped in some way or the other

[Pandastrophic]

I kinda agree with most of the comments here about a villian with depth and motivation etc but what good is a villain with a deep backstory and motivation who has the personality of a potato? you'll end up bored of him.

I sometimes love my villians ridiculously insane but charismatic or atleast have a personality of some sort
like Dio Brando from Jojo's bizarre adventure, I love him, he's the best vampire ever.

[VermillionWorks]

I'm probably one of the few who can be entertained by a ridiculously evil complete monster if it's approached with some care....and putting a decent backstory behind their actions and mixing a bit of grey in there just sweetens the deal. Though I admit, it is getting harder to make people 'buy' this sort of villain anymore. If they're too typical, they fall flat easily.

I'm going to use Diablo and it's demons as an example for a moment...okay, granted it's a game series with next to NO character development for the villains, but in Diablo 1 & 2, the boss demons were plenty intimidating because they were just this sort of silent, ominous presence inside of this dark and foreboding world that was thick with unpleasant atmosphere, so when you finally fought them, it was a satisfying rush........until Diablo 3. In Diablo 3, none of the baddies ever shut up or said anything aside from your typical villain speeches...so they came off as silly, corny, boring cardboard cutout villains.

Another example is Shere Khan from the Jungle Book. Perhaps not the greatest example either since it's an old Disney cartoon (the version I'm referring to) and they're known for ridiculously over the top villains with little motivation, but there was so much build up to this guy that when he finally appeared, and proved to be plenty threatening, he didn't disappoint. XP Maybe you could argue that he's a tiger and is just kind of doing what tigers do, but he enjoyed killing for entertainment, he enjoyed tormenting and horrifying his victims, so it kind of pushes him into complete monster territory in my opinion. Yet, he was still a cool character.

The more complex villains are still the most interesting type of villain, they're the type we're drawn to the most, but I think the 'big bad monsters' can still be at the very at least an intimidating obstacle if there is a bit of subtlety put into it.

.....plus, I just grew up with a lot of insane big bads, so I can't help but have a soft spot for them. XD

[HitoriEdo]

My straight-to-the-point thoughts would be to make the Hero just as interesting as the Villain. That can be a mistake a lot of authors make. All a part of character and story growth!

[Stronas]

I agree! Doflamingo from One Piece is just flat-out evil, BUT he has a background story to go along with it!! I too enjoy madmen and straight-forward "evil" villains, but I was unsure if others did too, so thanks for the reply! And those are not bad examples, that's two AMAZING examples. Disney villains in general are pretty cool actually!! Even a person with a screw loose and nearly no (if not any) background story can make for a hell of a villain! (Slightly off topic, I couldn't quite put my finger on why I disliked Diablo 3. This here, DEFINITELY played a huge part, seriously, so well-put of you!)

[WednesdayAsh]

One principle to making a good villain. only one and it applies to every villain ever, be it human, monster or enviromental.

"A good villain is always trying and invested in achieving something directly detrimental to the hero's goals for realistic reasons."

Now, how realistic doesn't mean realistic in a sense compared to your daily lives, but in relation to the world you have built around them.

[kazukitakamura126]

I believe villains are great for stories where more than one type of morality is being questioned by the characters. To make a villain even more evil they must be able to sacrifice what they hold dear or eventually lose sight of what they are fighting for. As long as they have a motive no matter what it is they have the potential to be great villain it all lies in the hands of the creator to write an engaging character. Just try not to make a villain act evil just for the sake of being evil, this makes them come off as very flat characters.

[YamamotoRyuunosuke]

I don't like to classify my characters as heroes and villains. Why? What is a hero and what is a villain sometimes depends on personal point of view of the reader and the reasons behind the character's actions.

So I have my protagonist and his companions(other characters that share the protagonist point of view and methods) and my antagonist(s) who doesn't think like the other characters.

In my comic Nana-Hon no Ken(still not very developed), there will be several antagonists along the story, some of them will be evil and others will not. They all have different motives to act the way they do, may be fear, greed, carnal desire, love, hate or even plain curiosity.

The protagonist's companions and the protagonist himself doesn't have to be always in the right either, after all I'm trying to portrait a realistic personality, I don't want my him to be a saint. So of course, he also commits apparently evil acts, but everything is on the reason. Some antagonist may end up in the protagonist side or a "good" guy might go the dark side and defy his old friend.

In conclusion, a character's personality should be more complex than just villain and hero, or evil and good.

[KSlinger]

A villain is what you make of them, as simple as that sounds. Is there a limit to evil? I don't know, but I suppose that depends on the context of the story. Would Sauron be too evil for Harry Potter? Yeah, probably. Would Voldemort be evil enough for LOTR? Probably not. A character has a greater capacity for evil when in an already 'evil' environment, but what qualifies as 'evil' is vastly different between stories.

Could the villains of my story pass as main characters? Hell yeah. I can't explain much without going into details, but Serge is one villain who-- if we knew him from the beginning-- could easily pass for a hero. The same goes for Morris, and even for the primary evil we have yet to meet. It's all about the angle.