How do YOU write VILLAIN without sounding like a piece of 💩

[K5Rakitan]

Carefully

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Evilly

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Rule number one, a hero is only as cool as his villain.

If you have a cool villain who does things people would want to do, but its wrong, then it makes the hero look all the more awesome for defeating him.

Carefully

Bruh

 

[AuthorsDread]

It depends on what kind of villain you're trying to write. A cold-hearted, cruel villain is going to sound like an asshole- if it doesn't, then you've done something wrong. Kind and caring villains can work but it depends very heavily on the story.

Yes, i will consider this.

The rule with writing villains is that nobody thinks they are the villain (unless you are writing for Saturday Morning Cartoons in a kids show.)

The villain of the story will, in some way or another, think they are in the right for everything they do. The serious ass-hole villains feel entitled to things they shouldn't have, and might be outraged and want to kill or torture the people who get in their way. They are not just going out to do villainy for the sake of doing it. (Edit: for an example, Dio from the Jojo series felt that he should have the inheritance of the Jostar estate. His early villainy was all about taking it for himself, and then afterward his villainy was a product of maintaining his ill-gotten gains, increasing his ill-gotten gains, fighting off the people from the Jojo line coming for revenge, or trying to punish the audacity of the people who get in his way or strike back at him for any of those three.)

There are also the villains who think what they are doing is genuinely for the good of the community. A good example of this type would be Gastan from Beauty and the Beast. The guy was an ass of a man, but he viewed himself as the powerful protector of the village and saw Bell as some poor innocent girl who was being held captive by the beast who needed to be rescued from her torment. Ultimately, his villainy only amounted to how quickly he jumps to conclusions and refuses to listen to the opinion of others.

The 'kind' villains are the ones who genuinely think what they're doing is good for the individual they are actually tormenting. Usually, these kinds of villains tend to actually be rather tragic, and you should lean into that if you ever write this kind of villain. Maybe the dissonance between their kind thoughts and their cruel actions is born from some tragic misunderstanding, or it could be possible they even have some kind of mental problem. (Edit: An example of this type would be Illya from the Fate series. She is a tragic little girl who grew up with unimaginable power, but all she really wanted was her daddy who she was separated from while she was young and her older brother who her daddy adopted later on since he was a form of connection to her daddy. If you've only watched the anime adaptation, trust me, you miss out on just how much of an absolute psychotic freak this girl is. 75% of all bad-endings in the game involve either being killed by Illiya or her crippling and imprisoning you magically in some way, one of which even involves her ripping out your soul and putting it into a stuffed doll which quickly becomes her favorite because it's "her onichan" who she now gets to keep with her forever. The anime avoids all those bad endings and just shows the route where you get through to her and she becomes Shiro's sweet little sister.)

EDIT: Also, there's more than one kind of conflict in a story. Man Vs. Man is only one of the five forms of conflict that can make a story interesting. There's also man Vs. nature, Man Vs. society, Man Vs. the supernatural, and Man Vs. technology.

Of the four other forms of conflict, Man Vs. society is also a really good one that merges seamlessly with Man Vs. man villainy. Maybe your villain is just trying to hold up the status-quo of society, and they are a paragon of upholding the status-quo. But, the society has some form of fundamental flaw to it which causes the villain's fight for justice to be a very bad thing for the protagonists of your story.

This is gold, so basically, i need to craft a villain that isn't a villain to himself but maybe to others. A villain that has his own noble cause, that is often misunderstood.

Oh, I do want my villain to be an utterly irredeemable piece of shet. A kind and sweet villain is not truly a villain, just an antagonist.

For example, if your protagonist is a classy thief planning a heist, your antagonist would be a police officer. A true villain would be the mafia boss you're working for that double-crosses you.

Ohh, this is quite the twist. I'm using all these ideas to envision my ideal villain.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

I've wracked my brain on this one, probably more than necessary. From a villains POV, how do I not sound like a (you know what) without coming off as weak or pathetic? Is a kind and sweet more villain appealing?

Try observing people's behaviors and know their motivations. What drives them to do things others/you hated? What is his/her background, for it will affect his/her values, which in turn, affects his/her treatment of people around him/her.

Villains mostly perceive themselves as heroes out on a crusade/mission, and their unwavering focus often causes them to ran into conflict with others, who have a different take on issues. That's where you start.

 

[MisterEnigmatic]

I've wracked my brain on this one, probably more than necessary. From a villains POV, how do I not sound like a (you know what) without coming off as weak or pathetic? Is a kind and sweet more villain appealing?

Well, it depends on what kind of villain you want. If they're supposed to be heinous and vile, you'll have to write them as such. Vice versa if you want to them to be sympathetic.

 

[Reinaislost]

I would like to offer a different perspective from Jemini’s.

A good villain doesn't need to be unaware of their own villainy. What makes a villain compelling is rooted in their motivations for doing evil deeds and the challenges they pose to the protagonist. The rest are flexible and can be explored to add complexity and depth than not seeing themselves as a villain. A good villain is a complete character, with their own backstory, motivations, conflicts, and struggles. It is imperative that they not be reduced to one-dimensional characters with evil intentions for the sake of it.

Significantly, it cannot be overstated how essential it is that the villain poses credible challenges to the protagonist, regardless of whether they are psychopaths who torment for their own amusement or individuals whose emotional or psychological state is misguided, manipulated (Illya), or misunderstood by others. A good villain is both intelligent and capable, with their own strengths and vulnerabilities that compel the audience to acknowledge their contributions to the story.

Give them a pat, will you?

 

[ElliePorter]

"You're a super villain, alright. But there's one thing that you lack."

"Oh, yeah? What is it then?!"

"Presentation!"

 

[Shard]

"You're a super villain, alright. But there's one thing that you lack."

"Oh, yeah? What is it then?!"

"Presentation!"

Almost but not quite. Oh, I missed a word on my first try too.

"Oh you're a villain alright, just not a super one."
"Oh yeah? What's the difference?"
"PRESENTATION!"

 

[AuthorsDread]

I would like to offer a different perspective from Jemini’s.

A good villain doesn't need to be unaware of their own villainy. What makes a villain compelling is rooted in their motivations for doing evil deeds and the challenges they pose to the protagonist. The rest are flexible and can be explored to add complexity and depth than not seeing themselves as a villain. A good villain is a complete character, with their own backstory, motivations, conflicts, and struggles. It is imperative that they not be reduced to one-dimensional characters with evil intentions for the sake of it.

Significantly, it cannot be overstated how essential it is that the villain poses credible challenges to the protagonist, regardless of whether they are psychopaths who torment for their own amusement or individuals whose emotional or psychological state is misguided, manipulated (Illya), or misunderstood by others. A good villain is both intelligent and capable, with their own strengths and vulnerabilities that compel the audience to acknowledge their contributions to the story.

Give them a pat, will you?

Thanks, this helps very much. I was thinking along these lines.

 

[BlackKnightX]

Just give in and sound like a piece of poo-poo.

 

[BearlyAlive]

If you break it down there's two "good" kinds of villains: The ones that the readers root for because they're sympathetic and the ones that are fun to watch. The first category is self-explanatory, they're just protagonists the readers don't follow.

The second kind can be anything from Team Rocket level of cartoonishly villainous to Dio Brando levels of puppy-kicking evil. They range from a colourful pebble on the road that leads to comedic development to downright love-to-hate-and-wanna-see-them-tortured-to-death-evil, depending on the kind of story and setting.

That's the key, tho. Setting is important. Cartoonishly evil villains won't work as well in grimdark settings as uh, well, grimdark ones.
I bet someone here could make a study out of it with diagrams about which trope of villain fits which setting better than the others, but let's just give some examples for some unfitting settings and villains: The charismatic villain or the glorious bastard wouldn't really work in harem setting (unless they're a capture target) since they'd pretty much steal the show. Same reason an evil-for-the-kick-of-it kind of villain wouldn't work in a slice-of-life unless it's the cartoonishly kind for comedy.

You can make a good total POS villain, tho. The ones that are so irredeemable that readers cheer for every wrench in their plans. It just depends on your ability to balance the line between asshole and parody.

This is gold, so basically, i need to craft a villain that isn't a villain to himself but maybe to others. A villain that has his own noble cause, that is often misunderstood.

So you want an (tragic) anti-villain. Someone that could be a protagonist but isn't. The kind of person where in a parody characters would say "Remember that guy that had a better plan than us? Too bad we had to off him for PLOT".

If you really don't intend him to be a "villain" villain, just plan a small story outline from his point of view, or even give him a POV if you really want to go all the way down Tragedy Lane.

 

[Rhaps]

How I write my villains... well, I just write them as their own character and do things that normal people would do. I don't necessary see the villain as a bad guy, just someone who clashes and disagree, going against what the MC stands for.