What makes a good villain?

[xXx]

Hello,
I am a writer. I am good, but would like to get better. I would appreciate is you could give me some useful tips on villain characterization.
Thank you!

 

[TKing]

A decent motive.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Intrigue.

 

[That'ssuper!]

Very cruel and mercilessness.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Michael Rosenbaum.

 

[spidergrant]

well if you one thing i think makes a good villain is if there like green goblin and venom are to spiderman. they dont just attack him but attack his family, friends, and anything else he loves. but then theres the villains that have powers that the hero fights time to time but even though there strong the not as bad as the arch enemie.

 

[SuperMonkey]

Motive. Pure Evil. A really cool scar. Pet kitty.

 

[Shuley]

Cleverness,someone smarter than the hero with the villain always a step ahead. a Villain who only thinks of himself,shows no compassion,cannot be trusted.A villain who is always thinking/planning.Need a good motive though,the villain needs more of a reason as to why he does what he does,simply "he's crazy" doesn't cut it anymore.

 

[The Question]

Lots of things. There's no formula for making an antagonist. Really, you shouldn't focus on making them good villains, but good characters. You can make your bad guy someone the reader or veiwer can identify with, someone representing some big, real world danger or evil, someone who is a victim of their own darkness, or even someone who isn't all that bad, but just happens to be on the other side of the arguement. Doesn't matter. You just have to make your bad guy more than a two dimensional plot device. He or she has to be a fully realized, three dimensional character with thoughts and feelings and morals and beliefs and interests and flaws and strengths and weaknesses that the audience, for whatever reason, cares about.

 

[Random490]

It's all in the execution, the idea of the Joker is ridiculous but the way he is done makes it work. Everything has to make sense, why he is doing it, his methods, everything. He also has to be a challenge for the hero, not always physical but in someway he must. Take Superman Returns, Lex utterly beats Superman not through strength but strategy.

well if you one thing i think makes a good villain is if there like green goblin and venom are to spiderman. they dont just attack him but attack his family, friends, and anything else he loves. but then theres the villains that have powers that the hero fights time to time but even though there strong the not as bad as the arch enemie.

I would advise against this, going for the family of friends is done to death, and as such many people don't really care when it happens. If you want to do this make sure there is a great amount of emotional impact or else it would mean nothing but a cliche.

Lots of things. There's no formula for making an antagonist. Really, you shouldn't focus on making them good villains, but good characters. You can make your bad guy someone the reader or veiwer can identify with, someone representing some big, real world danger or evil, someone who is a victim of their own darkness, or even someone who isn't all that bad, but just happens to be on the other side of the arguement. Doesn't matter. You just have to make your bad guy more than a two dimensional plot device. He or she has to be a fully realized, three dimensional character with thoughts and feelings and morals and beliefs and interests and flaws and strengths and weaknesses that the audience, for whatever reason, cares about.

Exactly

 

[Victarion]

Tragedy and naivety. If you choose Tragedy, you must tread carefully. Lucas intended for Anakin's descent to the Dark Side to be tragic. Its the tougher of the two to play off.

Naivety is something I've not seen utilized as of late. Let me give you an example of what I feel is a great tragic literary character.

Spoiler

The villain is a man named Diogenes Pendergast. His brother Aloyius Pendergast is an FBI Special Agent who views Diogenes as being "pure evil beyond redemption". Throughout two books in an unofficial trilogy dealing with the two brothers, we are led to believe that Diogenes is indeed "pure evil". In the third book, we learn something entirely different...
Name: Diogenes Dagrepont Bernoulli Pendergast
Description: Pale with ginger hair, one eye almost nearly white, the other blue.
Age: 8 years old at the time of the "incident"
Incident: Diogenes and his older brother Aloyisus grew up in the ancestral manor located in New Orleans. One day they were exploring the family crypt beneath the mansion. They enter a locked off area and find an old funhouse that their Great-Great uncle Comstock Pengergast had constructed. It was called "The Gate to Hell". Aloysius dared Diogenes to go in first. Diogenes goes in and Aloysius follows. Suddenly the floor beneath Diogenes gives out.

He falls into a room that is one large optical illusion: spinning walls with strobes and a phantasmagoria depicting some of society's most vile criminal acts. The only other thing the room was a gun, always kept loaded. Diogenes attempted suicide to escape. Aloyisus was powerless to help his younger brother. Diogenes survived, but the gunshot caused his eye to turn a milky white.

Ever since then he has carried an extreme hatred against his older brother.

See, you feel bad for Diogenes because he didn't ask for what befell him. It just did and was beyond his power to prevent.

---Morzan

 

[Captain_BluTac]

i gotta admit i think beautiful young girlsmake godd villains cus youdont expect it and add in a bit of crazy and underlying pain but still remorseless so there scary shocking and they conflict you cus u dont no if u shuld luv or h8 them

 

[Fenwick]

If you want a good villian you need to decide what is evil. Is it that man who can go out and kill hundreds of people in the name of a cause and not bat an eye? That man who sits back for years planning the utter destruction of someone? Or is it something else?

To me a villian needs the following:

1.) He needs to be a person. He should have likes, dislikes, things he finds funny, even that one food he can never say no to.

Awhile ago I saw this documentary on Hitler, they used facial recognition technology to show what Hitler was saying in this various films. What seemed to wrong about everything was how normal he sounded, he flirted with his girlfriend, talked about dogs, commented on why prefered one style of slacks over another. If you want evil, you should not decide on making a villian, you should decide on making a person who does bad things.

2.) A motive seems important, but it just has to make sense to the character. Don't aim at the audience, cause that lowers your imput in your writing. Make the audience see what the character sees. A man decides to take over the world, why? Power is the typical choice, but it is never just that. Will taking over the world make it better to the villian? Is this all for revenge?

3.) No Baron, King, Lord, General, or wierd Eastern european names. I'd love to see a villian called David, or Robert just once.

4.) A villian should not be the fighter, nor the last resort. In a pinch the man should hold his own, but most of the time a Villian should let others die for him.

 

[spidergrant]

hitler is really almost a perfect example of a villain. mostly because it kind of shows what 1 man can accomplish and change his world to the way he wants it

 

[Bill]

I read one of the best descriptions of what constitutes a good villian from Mick Foley's autobiography. It was an excerpt on what makes a wrestling bad guy effective, and his advice was that the villian must always believe that his whatever his actions, they are justified. Whatever he does is right.

 

[Steve Rogers]

Humanize the villain. I don't know exactly what you are writing, here but this is something I hardly read in comics. Marvel went to great lengths to humanize their heroes. They gave them quirks and problems and showed them doing, not only the high flying superhero stuff, but also the mundane things that we do in everyday life. This is largely absent for villains. I want to like the villain, I want to identify with him.

Take Tony Soprano for example. He's a classic TV bad guy, and yet, he's also the hero of the story. He is the character we all tune in to see. Tarantino does this also in his films. Most of the heroes of the story are in fact villains; murderers, thieves and hitmen, and yet, they are likable characters.

 

[DesperadoX]

There are two ways, IMO, to make a good villain. One is the wild, crazy, psycho out-there cheese villain that's just fun to wacth or read about cause of how crazy and insane and over-the-top they are.

The other way is to make them sympathetic so we can actually kind of see where they're coming from despite that they're the bad guy.

And in both cases, they must be an even match, or more, for the hero.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

You need a good backstory for your villian. We need to know why he is who he is. Your villian also need motive. What's he trying to gain. Money? Power? Revenge? All of the above? The villian can't just be a threat to one person but a threat to society.

 

[HR-PUFF&STUFF]

the villain needs to tell the truth, kind of like the devil. the devil tells the truth all the time, he will give you what you want, letting you know what all the strings are. i find that a villain that can do that is better then you that lies, like the joker, if he says that he is going to kill some one he is.

 

[Bronson]

I can't add much to what has already been written except that becareful not make your villian one dimensional. On Passions, the writers made Alistair Crane a one dimensional villian whose actions made no logical sense or purpose. He did evil just for the fun of it.

 

[Acid Snowman]

Try to create parrallels between the actions of the hero and the villain. Try to have them mirror each other in certain ways. An example of this that people on this board would be familiar with is the Batman-Joker dynamic.

The villain usually has the illusion of knowing something ordinary people don't, like 'life is meaningless' (cliche by now), and refuses to change their beliefs. Even if they feel sorry for themselves, their belief that their own views are correct over anyone else's is a type of egomania in itself. The reason they have rigid beliefs is to justify their actions which they do not truly understand themselves, not because they're in on the joke of existence or something stupid. People don't know why they want to live, so why should killers know why they want to kill? That doesn't stop us from coming up with our own meanings, though.

P.S. Post was a bit incoherent, but that's my advice on understandin bad guys.

 

[TylerMat]

Ok I'm new here and I agree with pretty much everything already said here

young girlsmake godd villains cus youdont expect it

the villian must always believe that his whatever his actions, they are justified. Whatever he does is right.

the villain needs to tell the truth, kind of like the devil.

But I think that what makes a good villian (actually an amazing, and relatable villian) is respect.Understanding, being able to see his side of the story.

I think if two characters start out as friends, then become enemies, (Lex and Clark) that will make a good villian / hero story. Or if they have respect for each other (Prof and MAgneto)

Look at Professor X and Magneto. They were friends, now enemies (im going off the movies, not the comic books) They both want the same thing, peace for mutants, but Magneto thinks he needs to kill or mutate all the humans, Prof. thinks humans can live with mutants peacefully. Prof still went to visit Magneto in the jail cell (second movie) to play chess. Magneto was playing chess by himself (third movie)...that was amazing to me.

Lex Luthor and Superman (again, going off of Smallville show no the comics) they were friends, their friendship slowly detoriated over time. THrough lack of trust, lies, Lex started to change into a bad guy. Clark started thinking Lex was behind every bad thing in town.

(I have been waiting for someone to ask this type of questions since I first saw the X-men films)

 

[xXx]

Thanks guys! I appreciate all of your suggestions!

 

[Abaddon]

Most popular villains are either the kind who you can hold out hope for, or the kind who are completely irredeemable.

 

[chamber-music]

A decent motive.

i agree.