Here's What Makes a Good Villain (In My Opinion) · 11:05pm Nov 16th, 2021
I just love writing characters a lot. From heroes, to anti-heroes, to supporting characters, etc. But if there's one thing I'd love to write more, it's the villains and anti-villains. Whether big or small, serious or goofy, sympathetic or monstrous, villains are one of my breads and butters in terms of character writing. I'm not saying that I don't like writing hero characters or any other characters. I just think that villains are the most interesting types of characters from my point of view.
Anyway, villains, like characters in general, aren't always easy to write well, but when they are, they can be just as complex as the heroes, if not more so. Which is one of the reasons why I've decided to make this blog: to help others write great villains. Here are five things to consider when writing spectacular villains.
Motivation
This is perhaps the single most important thing to think about when creating your own villain: why are they doing the things that they do? They don't have to be some noble or misunderstood reasons, but being evil "just because they're bad" is rarely the reason people commit crimes in real life. While it can be done well, it's usually important to dig a little deeper.
You need to find the right motive for your villain that matches their character as a whole. For example, a villain who steals money might be doing it to feed his family. Or a villain who wants revenge on someone who's wronged them in the past. Or someone who wants to be the most powerful being in existence and will stop at nothing to quench their lust for power. Or someone who wants to do something good, but goes about things the wrong way. Or even someone who just does bad things for fun or amusement.
But it doesn't have to be anything big like that. The trick is to simply ask the question: why? And how that fits into their character in some way.
Backstory
While backstory is related to motivation, they aren't the same thing. Backstory is basically what made the villain the way they are in the past, their history, their inner world. This is one of the hardest things to write well, if not the hardest, in my opinion. But it's not impossible and can be make your villain very three-dimensional and realistic. We are all the protagonists of our own stories. Your villain doesn't have to believe themselves as the antagonist (though, this doesn't mean they have to see themselves as good, either). Everyone has their own past. Their own history. And their own inner world.
It can be simple or complex, happy or tragic, comedic or serious, as long as it fits the character you're trying to write in some way shape or form in a well-written and interesting way. There are tons of ways to figure out how to write your villains' backstory. For example, you can use character quizzes, Wikipedia, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, etc. Both backstory and motives are good at making us understand their personalities and the way they make them behave in various situations.
Personality
Every character needs to have a great personality, and that includes villains. What are their strengths/virtues and weaknesses/flaws? What are their likes and dislikes? Fears? Values? Again, this all depends on what character you're writing. Are they intelligent, cynical, incompetent, affable, stubborn, etc.?
Relationship with the protagonist
This is rarely as simple as good vs. evil or right vs. wrong, and often the most interesting characters have shades of both. You need to figure out what the relationship of the two characters are. It doesn't necessarily have to be an actual relationship. Just something that compares and contrast them. What makes them different and what makes them similar? What quality do they bring out in each other?
Relationship with the reader
How do you want your audience to feel about and relate to your villain? Do you want them to fear your villain in some fashion like in their personality, actions, appearance, etc.? Do you want them to love to hate them and want to see their downfall? Or do you want them to at least understand them and even sympathize with them based on their backstories and motives?
At the end of the day, your villain should be written like any other character in the medium you choose to write them in. The key words to write them in are: well-written, unique, and interesting. That applies to not just villains, but any character or medium in general.
What tips would you like to share? Did any of these tips help you figure out how to write a good villain or character of your own? And what are some of your favorite ones that use these tips and why? Let me know through either replying to this blog or via PM. Thank you and have a great day.
Yes! My villain in It’s not easy appears to check all these boxes despite not being in the story much yet.
Something else, evil is a matter of perspective as no one is the villain of their own story. All of the tyrants and despots throughout history never considered themselves evil, some viewed themselves as doing the work of God or the gods in smiting the evil ones, others believed they were carrying out retribution against a group that had harmed their country, others believed that they were chosen by divine providence to rule, there are some through a misguided drive or skewed views believe that only they can solve the problems plaguing this world, then there are those who seek power for power's sake*cough*Stalin*cough*. You don't always need a complex and tragic backstory, that's why I hate the MCU Thanos, he's not supposed to be a regretful individual trying to end suffering, he did what he did because he wanted gain the affections of Mistress Death, only for Deadpool to slide up in there and yoink her away.
It's all about perspective. The villain has to believe in their own twisted way, that they're trying to make a better world, or that they're trying to right a wrong by going about it in all the wrong ways. Sometimes it can be about power for its own sake. Under no circumstances should a villain believe that they're evil, and if they do, it should be when it's too late(the main reactor in their stronghold is about to go critical, their zeppelin is about to plummet out of the sky and all the parachutes and escape pods are gone, their massive ship with the "fuck you, imma kill everything" gun is seconds from turning into a miniature sun).
If you want to make a tragic villain, a hero either witnesses a large number of people dying or is subjected to something personal that is extremely traumatizing and they go kinda nutty, going to extreme lengths to prevent such a terrible tragedy from happening again, but they don't see that they've become the evil they're trying to fight against.
If you decide to make your villain know they're evil, then make them the scary kind of evil. The agent of chaos, or death or destruction and they just don't care who gets hurt, so long as they can revel in their desire to bathe the world in blood/flames.
You could also make the villain they type that doesn't know he's the villain. Basically they have full blown wolfman syndrome. By day they're a kind, mild-mannered individual who helps little old ladies cross the streets, volunteers at every homeless and battered women's shelter they can, never uses vulgar language or spits in public, a real goody two-shoes. But when they go to sleep, the monster takes over, maybe they transform into a literal monster, maybe they have a split personality they don't know about that is a mass murderer and takes over when the main personality is asleep, maybe the individual is possessed by a malignant spirit, host to a curse or is being mind-controlled, and when they go to sleep, the controlling force steps into metaphorical the pilot seat of their body to commit horrific atrocities.