Villains pt 2: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Villains: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The villain is a very important character or force and can make or break a good story. What makes a good villain and what just doesn't work for you?

1. What makes a villain villainous?
2. As a writer, how would you show your villain is villainous? (Try to think beyond the typical and easy nutbar, rapist and or child molester).
3. What do think makes an interesting and believable villain and what are the things you like best in a villain?
4. What do you think makes a lame/crummy villain, what things drive you crazy in a villain and what are some of your most hated stereotype villain characteristics?
5. Why are so many villains surrounded by stupid henchmen/women? How can a villain operate successfully with stupid Henchmen/women?
6. Who are your favorite villains? What did you like about them?
7. Who are some of your least favorite villains? Why do they not work for you?

Comments

Villain? or Antagonist?

[duke-flieg.livejournal.com]

Interesting set of questions, and the usual answers to them are why I have written only a couple of villains and a lot of antagonists. (An antagonist is someone who opposes the desire of the hero, or protagonist

1. Most "villains" are not villainous. Very few people set out to "be evil", and nutbars (as you put it so eloquently) are not villainous. They can be antagonists, but true villainy requires much more -- it requires an entire worldview on the part of that person that goes against all the ethical and moral boundaries of the world you are writing about. (I am writing fantasy, so it is necessary to specify which World is in question.)

2. Show the affects of the actions of the villain on people other than the Hero. The easy way is the "oppressed peasantry". The better way, imho, is to draw the people who are affected by the villains actions by accident or by negligence. That the Evil Overlord killed a hundred troops who tried to take him down is not villainy -- it is self-defense. That he does not care that the wife of his chief minion is dying and tells him "get over it" is far more evil (imho). The feelings of violation of a person who was controlled but rescued by the Hero show the evil more than many things might.

3. Villain or antagonist -- They should have a childhood and youth beyond a single traumatic incident -- some sequence of events that twisted their character. There should be a feeling that if *someone* had just taken proper care, just once, the villain would be helping the Hero, not fighting him. (Does not apply to psycophathic serial killers in detective novels.) Oh, yes, and they should NOT, EVER, be named "Foul", "Dark*****", "Dread" or anything of the like unless there is a *really* good reason for it (like "Darkwood" is the family surname). (Partial answer to 4.)

4. I'm mostly going to skip 4 and go to 5. What really frosts me are *stupid* villains.

5. See above. The best villains are surrounded by competent bureaucrats who know that if a bitchen' babe in tight leather shows up at the front door she should be terminated at once, not shown to the boss's sanctum sanctorum. The basic answer is that a villain cannot operate successfully with bad help, but good help is so hard to find.

skipping 6

7. Lord Foul (from Thomas Covenant series)