Villains- how do you come up with them

[Flawed Creation]

How does everyone come up with villains?

first pof all, given that you're writing fantasy or SF, do you start with the villains magic/technology/whatever powers and plans, or start with a personality? or do you do both, as when deciding to create an alien and developing it's mental and physical nature simultaneously?

what gives you your inspiration for the Villains motivations and values? on the Novel Writing board, there's a thread about tapping into your own dark side for your villains, but i prefer to model my villains on my best qualities. why? well, a villain based on a simple character flaw like greed or jealousy can become tritre, while i find it very scary when i see positive qualities like honor, determination, intelligence, foresight, and compassion turned against the heroes.

[HollyB]

This may sound stupid, but I don't try and invent villains, they just show up in my work. In my WIP, my antagonist is a charming, manipulative sociopath - and he's practically hijacking the story.

Like any character, I think the best villains are multidimensional. No one person is all bad, so a convincing antagonist should be engaging as well. Gollum in LOTR (a deeply flawed character, perhaps not the protagonist?). Iago in Othello. Hannibal Lecter. Can anyone think of other great antagonists in SF/F? Pthom? HConn?

[KLH]

Well, there are villians, and there are bad guys. In one fantasy story I did, the bad guy was definitely a villian (villianess?). There's got to be a good dose of pure, unadulterated evil in there for villianry, I suppose, or maybe just that's my connotation for the word.

But really, an antagonist in a story is simply someone who sets up roadblocks (or is a roadblock) to the protagonist. What puts the antagonist on a range from sympathetic pseudo-co-protagonist up to truly-evil-incarnate villian is the extent of the antagonist's malice in that roadblock. The bad guy in my current story isn't malicious so much as just someone who wants his own goals, and is willing to sacrifice more than the hero to achieve those; a villian is someone who wants his own goals, will sacrifice more, and come back to pound the hero a few more times just for the bloomin' helluvit.

So a bad guys says, "I want to win." A villian says, "It's not enough to win; you have to lose, and horribly so."

In a nutshell, that tells me much of what I need to know about the antagonist in a story: the goal, and the extent of his/her willingness to do damage to achieve that goal. If the antagonist is willing to kidnap and blackmail but not murder, that kind of delineation is extremely informative when making sure s/he remains in character - and for determining his/her character, at that.

Everything else is window-dressing, I suppose. ;)

[DaveKuzminski]

I strive to create a reason for the villain to act. Unless there was socialization of some sort beforehand, revenge isn't a good reason in most instances.

Generally, villains are after something and it doesn't have to be world domination. Sometimes, it could occur as a result of another goal gone wrong or distorted by the process of seeking it. In other words, the villain might have wanted a particular woman to want him, but to impress her, he had to acquire wealth. To do that, he had to steal in all likelihood and that might be what puts him in conflict with protagonist.

For instance, consider another case where the villain does something much worse in order to cover up a different crime and thereby escape as occurs in the movie Die Hard. It's really a grand theft plan, but the thieves pretend to be terrorists with demands which are merely meant to prod the authorities into cutting the power to the building. Then they show they're willing to kill their hostages to cover their trail.

So, what I'm saying is come up with a reasonable goal that's just beyond normal means for your villain. If he's a poor man in a land where only nobles have money, you've got a start. Then put him in conflict with another poor man so that the second man can be tempted and has reasons to distrust the establishment, yet still has faith in them or some other valid reason for supporting the system. Or the villain could be a noble who's not in line for the throne, but sees a way to make it become possible.

[maestrowork]

I let them speak to me.

I must admit, however, in all my stories there are no clear villains. There are situations and conflicts and if they make the person opposing the "protagonist" a villian/antagonist, that's cool. But I don't set out to create a "villian." I want my characters to be themselves -- they all have flaws and something that drives them, and they can be at odds with each other. But no one is out to destroy another person or set someone on fire for the heck of it... they all have their reasons, and sometimes the reasons are noble, and sometimes they're selfish or immoral, but as a writer, I don't pass judgment. I try to let them do their own things.

Of course I'm no expert in this. I've only written one mainstream novel. I've written many short stories but only one or two are quasi sci-fi and I've never done a fantasy (although I have a few ideas in my head at this time). So to paraphrase CC: What the heck do I know?

[ChunkyC]

no one is out to destroy another person or set someone on fire for the heck of it... they all have their reason
I think this is the important element. That reason can be almost anything, but it has to be strong enough to cause the villain to act in a manner that impedes the protag.

[R Lee E]

Well, in the case of my most recent project, I let both my protagnonist's and antagonist's birth and childhood define thier present tense behavior. Even if I don't mention much of thier childhoods, it still helped. Let your characters live and die in your head, and more of a geniune personality will show in your writing..... IMO

[Nyki27]

I feel the same as maestrowork, I try to create characters, rather than "villains". It depends partly what sort of scale the story's on. In my current novel, the antagonist has started off very much like the protagonist (they grew up together) but has had much more negative experiences that make her cynical about valuing anything except her own ambitions. In a way, she's a victim of circumstance - but the ambitions were already there in the first place.

I have another "villain" in another novel who's a genuinely nice person, until it conflicts with his ambitions, then he's willing to sacrifice anyone. I originally wrote it with him as a typical tyrant, abusing people who served him. Then I asked myself, why would anyone serve a ***!!//* like that? (given that he starts with nothing). So I made him really thoughtful and nice to everyone, so that they'd want to follow him.

[Thekherham]

My villain became a villain because of a book. Not that he wasn't a villain before, but he wasn't as villainy (is that a word). He was maybe overly ambitious, tended to step on a few toes... but this certain book indicated that he would be killed by a member of this alien species (which feature prominently in a number of stories and novels (mostly unfinished) that I've written. In order to change his destiny he will try to destroy an entire species.

[Mukaden]

A lot of good comments.

I agree that motive defines any character - and opposed motives is what creates the protagonist/antagonist conflict. The antagonist, by definition, is someone who either wants the same thing as the protagonist, or wants to prevent the protagonist from getting what they want.

Remember, though, that real people often have conflicting passions, multiple goals and ulterior motives. A good antagonist, I think, is someone that the reader might root for one moment, and then boo the next.

What I mean is that there are times when the antagonist might display admirable qualities, and/or be fighting against someone truly despicable. At these moments, the reader might side with the antagonist. Of course, once the antagonist's path crosses that of the protagonist, the reader would (should) side with the hero. Farscape did a pretty good job of this, I think. George RR Martin's "Ice and Fire" series is another good example.

Truly evil, wretched antagonists are one-sided and lifeless. Sure, with this sort of "villain," it's easy for the reader to decide who is good and who is bad. But an antagonist that elicits the reader's sympathy (if even occasionally) is far more complex and interesting.

So, having said all that - my answer to the question "How do you come up with villains":
First I define the hero, and then I envision someone whose desires conflict with the hero's.

[Nyki27]

Villainy is a word, but it's the abstract noun - the state of being villainous. I think the word you were looking for was villainous.

[Flawed Creation]

well, i agree that villains are characters too, and real people.

nevertheless, i think htere is space between whooly evil and sympathetic. in some stories, you want the readers firmly on the side of the protagonist; you don't want them to sympathize with the antagonist. this doesn't mean that they are pure evil, or that they are unrealistic, they are just wholly unlikeable.


in my major WIP, i have no "true" villains, but several characters towhich a discussion of villains applies.

there are two characters which were conceived as villains. unfortunately, the more i wrote them the more i grew to understand and like them until they ceased to be villains, and both undergo a redemption during the book. another character is a hero who falls from grace during the story. (or does he? that is actualy the fundamental question of the plot). in developing his dark side, i decided that, rather than the conventional approach of having his weaknesses and vices consume him, i would have him destoryed and turned ot evil by his virtues: courage, a sense of justice, honesty, honor, knowledge, and charisma.

in otherwords, his worst and best features were one side of the same coin.

[Kida Adelyn]

My villains tend to emerge after I have a story. I come up with the problem that exists, then I come up with someone to represent it.

I also always make sure that my villains have a goal of their own, so that to them their actions seem justifiable.

[Flawed Creation]

well, i genereally make very sparing use of villains anyway, but i have a story i've been plotting out that has a serious problem, villain-wise.

it's a book about the fantasy cliche, the prophecied hero who will arise to defeat the evil overlord. anyway.

i spent all my time thinking about the prophecy and the hero, and how i would make them new and interesting. unfortunately, i focused entirely on the heroes and thier quest to find a book they're looking for. now, i'm trying to develop the enemy they must defeat, and i can't picture him. actually, i'm beginning to think that he's less important than he appears. he would likely has gone undefeated at the end of the book anyway, since the real climax of the story is the culmination of their quest for the magic book and realization that the prophecy is a lie.

he wouldn't be killed, therefore, until a sequel. obviously this character doesn't make sense.

so now i either need to make my villain more important to the plot and bring about his downfall at the same time as the current plkot is resolved, or find a way to do it without him. which means i need some other reason to send a "chosen one" on a quest for a magic book.

any sugestions?

[Nyki27]

If the prophecy is a lie, couldn't the evil overlord be a lie too? Either in that he doesn't exist, or that he isn't really an evil overlord. Just a thought.

[Flawed Creation]

hmm.... an interesting thought. i don't think it would work, because that changes the nature of the lie. the idea is that the prophecy is untrue, but needed to be in order for things to come out right in the end- if it told the truth, they would have given up. it's much the the oracle's prophecy from the Matrix.

however, maybe there doesn't need to be an evil overlord. they could be trying to save the world from a natural distaster, or a failing of magic or something.

[Nateskate]

It depends upon the story. Humans are humans. Generally, as far as humans, you just tap into human nature.

Often you'll have mixed qualities (Gollum) not completely evil, but perhaps having an evil bent. In some cases, they are sold out to evil, and are at the point where they act like the devil, without any redeaming qualities.

Yet, if they are like that, I like to expose the flaw in them that caused them to harden themselves.

In terms of non-humans, evil spirits...etc, I take every redeaming human character and remove it. They are purely evil, and have no good. However, they often have a pretense of goodness, being highly intelligent and highly manipulative, enough so to become what others want, but only to exploit them.

I never have used "non-intelligent" creatures, or "Pit-bull" creatures, where they are compelled by something within them, like a Shark, whose simply going about his business.

I like a deliberate being, who has an agenda. (Sauron-like)

[Nyki27]

One thing I hate is when you have a classic Good/Evil conflict and the people from the Evil side actually refer to themselves as Evil. Who actually does that? It's much more interesting if the evil characters (whether human or supernatural) consider themselves the heroes.

[Dhewco]

hello,

My main villain is someone who betrayed the main character: A Judas type.

The other villain is a man who used to be Mordred, the son of Arthur and his half-sister. I have him rescued by the source of Evil in my world.



David

[YenadilPureheart]

I know this villain question all too well, as my current WIP has had all sorts of experiments done with it to find the villain. The technique I finally settled upon was to design the villain, from the ground up, to be precisely what the story required him to be. I decided what I wanted him to do, and how I wanted him to go about his business, and set about creating a character, from birth, who would eventually wind up like what I wanted. It took several tries, and I had to scrap it a few times and start over, but I learned something new about him each time, and in the end wound up with a ruthelessly-evil-mad-cackling sort of villain, however, he does have a very complex storyline, and everything taken from his point of view, makes sense.


What I like to do mostly with my villains, is to redefine morality, and make them very moral people, but by their own standards. Some very good inspirations for this can be found in older definitions of morality, from ancient times. A good splash of social values from various points in history can be a good seasoning. A villain who believes totally in utalitarianism with a splash of family honor makes for a very complex villain. So does a dedicated follower of Rosecrucianism who has a problem tolerating those of other nations. The combinations can go on and on, ever wonder what an eqyptian pharoah that was moral and immoral? Learn about it, and then apply that attitude to a commoner and see where it gets you.

[azbikergirl]

I gave my villain and my protag a history: Villain sent Hero on a quest for a magical item. Hero found it and was about to deliver it when he overheard Villain's plans to use it against a kindly lord. Hero instead threw the item into the sea and, being an arrogant young man, he told Villain what he had done. Villain visits Hero at home, renders him "inert" with magic, and murders Hero's wife and child while Hero watches. Hero believes Villain to be too powerful for a single man to defeat, and thus does not seek vengeance.

That was five years prior to the story I'm writing. Now, Villain wants what Hero has. Although Hero doesn't want it, he has to keep Villain from getting it. Both Hero and Villain feel betrayed by the other.

[Diviner]

I have no trouble motivating my villains. One grew up in a harem where poison was a commonly use tool. She is so angry at having been used all her life that she scruples at literally nothing. Now she has risen to autocratic power and enjoys inflicting pain for its own sake. But what I have trouble with is what does she actually do?

One thing she does is train young slaves as gladiators and then she pits them against each other. But what other kinds of things might she do? I am not too in touch with evil or sadism, so I am floundering a bit for ideas.

Any suggestions?

[azbikergirl]

In my current story, I decided what my villain wants more than anything, and then found the quickest path to that goal. If that means hurting others, then oh well. Then I took it to the extreme by putting someone in his way. That gets him really ticked off because it's usually someone who has betrayed him in the past.

[Sniffleslover]

As someone else said before me, I don't create my villians. They tend to just create themselves. I suppose there is a part of me that is bad? Maybe that's why villians come so easily to me. I suppose it's notable that my favorite characters in a story/movie are always the bad guys.

I'm the weirdo in the back of the theatre with a ; Go Vadar! sign.

:rollin

[spacejock]

You need strong characters facing off with your protagonist. If he spends the whole novel arguing about a parking ticket or a bill for sword sharpening the stakes aren't all that high.

However, they don't have to be evil. They just have to believe in what they're doing, and then work to achieve it. Whatever 'it' is, it should be the opposite of what your protagonist wants.

My protagonist is a self-employed freighter pilot, and in the first two novels his enemies are big business folk trying to grind him down or take advantage of him. They're not evil, they're just determined to get their way. And if that means crushing the protagonist, so be it.

I did branch out in the third book though: my protagonist runs up against a dodgy politician who's trying to grind him down AND take advantage of him.

[mistri]

Villains have to have motivation for what they're doing. And I do think that antagonist is often a better term. My 'villain' acts because she's been hurt in the past, she's a little bit unstable, and more importantly (to this story), because the King has ordered her to do so. I suppose he's the real villain, but he won't appear until the end of the book and he has plenty of reasons for his actions too.

[fallenangelwriter]

[QUOTE=spacejock]
However, they don't have to be evil. They just have to believe in what they're doing, and then work to achieve it. Whatever 'it' is, it should be the opposite of what your protagonist wants.

QUOTE]

I understand that point. in fact, i hafve taken it so much to heart that i have yet to create an evil character (actually, one, but he's a very minor character and would probably turn out not to be if i developed him more). That's why in this case I'm asking specifically how to make an evil character.

[TheDreamer]

I don't have villains in my works. Antagonists, yes, but they're rarely what I'd call "villainous". They're not evil, they're just people with their own goals and aims, who happen to clash with the protagonist in some way. The flipside of the story, if you will. I like to think, with most writings, that I could easily write the same story from the antagonist's perspective, and make the reader identify with him in the same way as the protagonist.

One of my longheld beliefs, which inevitably worked its way into my writing, is that all things are relative; good, bad, evil - it's all subjective. I don't think any truly evil people exist - people with very outlandish ideals, or people willing to do almost anything to achieve their aims, yes. But true evil? I don't believe so.

[Dicentra P]

I start with my protagonist. She gets into a conflict situation. I look at who is causing that conflict and ask why. When I first set my MC into her conflict I expected to blow that #%*@ up in a huge explosion (which was her own fault) Then I got to know her and now shes getting to be a secondary protagonist. Not that she won't get blown up if that's where the plot leads but I'll probably grieve for her if I do. Sigh -- I get so attached.

[Smiling Ted]

I just watch Fox News.
It's terrific for villains.

[MGraybosch]

How does everyone come up with villains?

first pof all, given that you're writing fantasy or SF, do you start with the villains magic/technology/whatever powers and plans, or start with a personality? or do you do both, as when deciding to create an alien and developing it's mental and physical nature simultaneously?

To be honest, I started with a question. I asked myself: "What if the protagonist was cynical and selfish, and the antagonist was an idealist who had set out to free his own species and the human race from an ancient threat by any means necessary?" I borrowed imagery from Blue Oyster Cult's Imaginos album and Iced Earth's Something Wicked This Way Comes and came up with an antagonist who has spent over ten thousand years working to breed out humanity's tendency towards obedience by arranging for the most obedient people to kill each other over religion and politics.

[MGraybosch]

I have no trouble motivating my villains. One grew up in a harem where poison was a commonly use tool. She is so angry at having been used all her life that she scruples at literally nothing. Now she has risen to autocratic power and enjoys inflicting pain for its own sake. But what I have trouble with is what does she actually do?

If she was abused as a harem slave, why not have her use others as she herself had been used?

[MGraybosch]

I just watch Fox News.
It's terrific for villains.

If I saw the sort of scumbags you see on Faux News in fiction, I'd throw the book across the room.

[jodiodi]

My villains (as well as other characters) come to me fully formed. I only find out about them as they tell me their story. The villains do the same thing.

[C.bronco]

Some of my villians are people I don't like made into fiction, some I make up, and some are Donald Sutherland, because he is hot.

[D. Archer]

Mostly my antagonists are the ‘villains’ only by POV. They need to destroy something to survive, feed on something to survive, and if that something is the hero or what the hero cares about, then the other POV is the villain. But if the POV was turned around, then the hero wouldn’t be such a hero.

It’s like blaming the lion for killing a zebra to eat. You feel sorry for the zebra but you can’t call the lion evil…but you might if the story’s hero was the zebra.

So when I create my main character and antagonist, they are both based on survival instincts. The details come as I write.

[Liosse de Velishaf]

Since we're necroing...



I don't do villains, exactly. The antagonist is just the character whose goals differ the most (usually, sometimes they differ the least that they can and still differ) from the protagonist. Detailing my creative process is a bit complicated. I may attempt it later.

[M.Austin]

How does everyone come up with villains?

Personally, my villain was obvious. I knew what I wanted my main to do throughout the story, and I knew there had to be someone there to stop him. I wanted my villain to be the complete opposite of my character, at least in the beginning. The more my villain becomes apart of the story, the more my main seems to be just like her.

My best piece of advice is to learn your main through and through. What are his weaknesses? There's your villain's strengths.

first pof all, given that you're writing fantasy or SF, do you start with the villains magic/technology/whatever powers and plans, or start with a personality? or do you do both, as when deciding to create an alien and developing it's mental and physical nature simultaneously?

I think after you define your villain's strengths, you can start to match up the look of the character. Is it a male/female/young/old/race/charming/menacing ect. As soon as I get a picture image in my head of the character, I immediately write down a detailed description. After that you can iron out the other details such as special powers/weapons/skills. I usually do what is least expected i.e. little girl wielding a huge sword (that's just what you envision though, do what you think fits the character).

what gives you your inspiration for the Villains motivations and values?
Everyone has a past. A good villain has a -reason- why he is the way he is. There's no "HI I'M CRAZEH!!!!" characters that are fun to watch. If it's nothing in the past, does he just have a warped view on justice?

well, a villain based on a simple character flaw like greed or jealousy can become tritre, while i find it very scary when i see positive qualities like honor, determination, intelligence, foresight, and compassion turned against the heroes.

Remember the seven deadly sins:


Lust is just love turned to obsession
Gluttony is only enjoying the materialistic things in life
Greed is just a dirty word for Ambition
Sloth is an ugly word for "taking it easy"
Wrath is just getting revenge
Envy is only appreciating what others have
Pride is being proud of who you are


There's a fine line between all of them, and it's easy to take something too far. If you're not supposed to envy what others have, then you're proud of your life, but you shouldn't have pride. =P I'm sure there will be an easy way your villain can turn any action into going too far, or at least manipulate a situation to seem as if the hero went too far.

[Canotila]

Some of my villians are people I don't like made into fiction, some I make up, and some are Donald Sutherland, because he is hot.

Except when he grows a porn-stache. :tongue

My antagonist was just kind of there. At first I thought he was only a horrible murdering bigot, and he is, but now I understand why. I kind of felt like buying him some ice cream after hearing his story, but it still doesn't excuse his actions.

What I like doing for all my main characters is a free writing interview. I ask them a bunch of questions. Not inane stuff like their favorite meal. Stuff like, what is something you would die for? Why is it so important to you? etc.

Some of the answers I got really floored me, and definitely enriched the story and defined the characters roles.

A creepy side note, my handwriting changed for each character. My antagonists was very dark, jagged, and had a sharp backward slant. Not even close to what my regular handwriting looks like. It freaked me out.

[Nivarion]

this (http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html)

[Liosse de Velishaf]

this (http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html)


Cop-out! No, just kidding. The List is good, but it is not exhaustive, and not all "villains" are evil overlords. It's also a but shallow in regards to specific suggestions. Although there are many things on that list that work for a wide range of antagonist types, it's not quite authoritative enough over the broad spectrum to get a "this".

But still a good link. :)

[MattW]

My antagonist of the moment would be called a freedom fighter if his people hadn't instigated their occupation with a century of atrocities. His motivation is clear, his methods are questionable, and his opposition is weary of the bloodshed.

[Nivarion]

Cop-out! No, just kidding. The List is good, but it is not exhaustive, and not all "villains" are evil overlords. It's also a but shallow in regards to specific suggestions. Although there are many things on that list that work for a wide range of antagonist types, it's not quite authoritative enough over the broad spectrum to get a "this".

But still a good link. :)


Since I've only got like 3 villainous characters total, that list works very well for me. One of them (In the parody) is actually specifically built from that list. The other uses a lot of elements but he was custom built for the story and the third is also pretty well founded.

that last one ignores that part about "If a member of the rebel alliance is extremely attractive" part.

Still, I love that link. We read it out loud at parties. :D

[Poetoffire]

I stole my villain from the Ancient Greeks. Sisyphus. He calls himself Peter in the modern world (har har, Peter means pebble, Sisyphus's punishment was to roll a boulder up a hill, geddit?) and is out to kill all the Grim Reapers so there will be no death in the world.

He's a nice guy, actually. Ruthless, but nice. If the protagonists weren't the protagonists, and he wasn't so manipulative, he might have been a hero. But he isn't.

[Liosse de Velishaf]

I stole my villain from the Ancient Greeks. Sisyphus. He calls himself Peter in the modern world (har har, Peter means pebble, Sisyphus's punishment was to roll a boulder up a hill, geddit?) and is out to kill all the Grim Reapers so there will be no death in the world.

He's a nice guy, actually. Ruthless, but nice. If the protagonists weren't the protagonists, and he wasn't so manipulative, he might have been a hero. But he isn't.


I thought Peter meant "rock" or "stone".

[Apsu]

My villain is the character I identify with most, so it wasn't hard to come up with him. He just acts out in ways I never would.

[meeeeegin]

I think of what conflict will be in this book and the villian kind of just writes itself...spooky.

[yttar]

In my sci fi, I don't really have villains, I have principles of antagonism, or something like that. I think I had villains when I first started writing, but they always seemed cliched and two-dimensional. Then, with a lot of help from my husband, and his theory that villains never think of themselves as villains, and my theory that everyone is the protagonist in their own life story, I just figure that: 1. what my characters want and 2. who opposes what my characters want.

Anyway, the primary antagonist in my WIP pretty much just popped into existence one day. He had such an impact on my main character's life that I realized he couldn't be just a part of her backstory. So I rewrote the book to include him, and I think it's a much better story because of him.

Yttar

[Kaiser-Kun]

I wanted an antagonist that'd have just as strong a motivation as the protagonist. Thus, Dashat wants to prepare the planet for the arrival of a sentient meteor, which carries the seeds of his almost extinct race. He's the last hope for his race.

Of course, by "preparing the planet", it means weakening its inhabitants so the meteor can feed on them. Neither of the antagonists are cruel or evil, they are just doing what their nature compels them to. Dashat finds that war and illness are the easiest way to weaken the people of the planet, so he uses those.

[Subcreator]

I don't come up with villains. I create characters and one (or more) of them turns out to be the antagonist.

[Freelancer]

I tried to create non cliche evils. By my opinion the real evil is always depending from the point of view and I tried to achieve this. My villains are used to be unpredictable and following a cause and effect method. You never know where they are going to appear next, what is really motivating them, what are they doing, what are they planning. The main character is always realize everything when it's too late. In my story everything is from the main character's POV, so the reader only may suspect what the evil is doing in the background as the MC always try to figure out what they're doing. Even my evil characters are continuously adapting to the protagonist, even learning from her and plan their next move following the last move of the MC. And as my betas said, you can understand the motives of the evil completely and can raise the question... are they really evil or they're just evil only from the point of view of the MC and her own moral values.

[ruckeriii]

well, i genereally make very sparing use of villains anyway, but i have a story i've been plotting out that has a serious problem, villain-wise.

it's a book about the fantasy cliche, the prophecied hero who will arise to defeat the evil overlord. anyway.

i spent all my time thinking about the prophecy and the hero, and how i would make them new and interesting. unfortunately, i focused entirely on the heroes and thier quest to find a book they're looking for. now, i'm trying to develop the enemy they must defeat, and i can't picture him. actually, i'm beginning to think that he's less important than he appears. he would likely has gone undefeated at the end of the book anyway, since the real climax of the story is the culmination of their quest for the magic book and realization that the prophecy is a lie.

he wouldn't be killed, therefore, until a sequel. obviously this character doesn't make sense.

so now i either need to make my villain more important to the plot and bring about his downfall at the same time as the current plkot is resolved, or find a way to do it without him. which means i need some other reason to send a "chosen one" on a quest for a magic book.

any sugestions?

Let see... I would make the near death of the villain the thing that points out that the prophecy is a lie that manipulated all the players into finding the book for an even more powerful and evil villain who shows them self at the climax to take the book and kill everyone. The villain becomes a misguided hero and the two join forces to reclaim the book. but are the two put together strong enough to stop this new evil? Or maybe not.

[DeleyanLee]

I write Fantasy and enjoy the types of Fantasy where there is a Good and there is an Evil, so the hero and villain are, in some ways, the personification of however I'm defining Good and Evil in that particular world. Doesn't mean they're archtypical or stereotypes, it just means that their quirks, belief systems and morals are aligned to whichever pole they're connected to.

For instance, a reoccuring theme in my work is "Responsibility", so the hero tends to take responsibility for his actions, tries to do the responsible thing whereas the villain will always make the selfish choice, shuff off the blame anywhere but themself, etc.

I see theme as something to be explored through the characters, so every major character will have a different take on the theme elements. Hero and Villain are just the two extremes and make the broadest (and hopefully most introspective) examinations thereof.

[Gynn]

My "villains" simply have different, sometimes opposite goals than the "hero". That's all it takes to make a villain! Give them a goal that interferes with the hero's goal and let the fireworks happen.

[Rhys Cordelle]

We can all agree that approaching the characters as antagonists is almost always better than treating them as villains. But the question asked is about creating villains.

My concept of a villain would be that he/she is either insane, or so driven towards their goal that they have lost sight of everything else that is important and will stop at nothing to reach it (sometimes in this situation the villain will eventually come to realise they've gone too far, and then they slip back into the role of antagonist I suppose)

It's also important to consider your setting. In a fantasy setting where there is a god or being which is the embodiment of evil (in other words, evil is clearly stated as being a force which exists independant of human thinking) then it is perfectly within the laws of your setting to have characters which could be defined as evil. They are corrupted by a force which makes them act in ways that would be unjustifiable without that evil influence.

As has been addressed, villains are often one dimensional, uninteresting characters. But there are ways to give them some value. A few suggestions I can think of that might work are:

- make the character completely insane, to the point that they are making you laugh at one moment and completely shocking you the next. An unpredictable character can hardly be considered one dimensional, especially if their actions have some boundaries set up by personal quirks

- treat the character almost like an anti hero. The greatest example I can think of (which I'm sure has been used countless times) is Dexter. Here we have a serial killer, who kills for no other reason than that he wants to, or even needs to, to satisfy a desire within him that he can't control or explain. But this desire is channelled in such a way that he only kills criminals, or those he thinks are deserving of death. This creates a villain that can be likable.

[Samantha's_Song]

Although I've never been in trouble with the law, I spent nearly 9 years living amongst criminally-minded kinds of people. As well as knowing them, and living with an ex-criminal, I also heard plenty of stories/confessions etc about things that were done. I even know someone who was friendly with one of the notorious Kray brothers. It's said to write what you know, so writing about criminals and bent cops etc is pretty easy for me.
How does everyone come up with villains?

[IdiotsRUs]

My "villains" simply have different, sometimes opposite goals than the "hero". That's all it takes to make a villain! Give them a goal that interferes with the hero's goal and let the fireworks happen.


I think the perfect example of a 'villain' is the assassin from Serenity.

He was doing bad things, and he knew it, but he was utterly convinced he was doing them for the right reasons, for good reasons. Made him a formidable opponent.