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?
You gotta look through the eyes of the villain and become the villain. I want my villain to be a villain! A kind and sweet villain isn't a villain. They are a marshmallow.
You gotta look through the eyes of the villain and become the villain. I want my villain to be a villain! A kind and sweet villain isn't a villain. They are a marshmallow.
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.
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. (Edit 2: Exdeath from Akame Ga Kill would probably be a good example of this type of villain. She's the ultimate enforcer of the empire, while the protagonists of the story are rebels against the cruel monarchy. Exdeath is just really good at her job, and... yeah, this next part is going to be a MASSIVE spoiler.)
Exdeath actually falls in love with the protagonist of the story, not knowing he's part of the rebels she's fighting against. When she finds out, and after she's forced to kill him at the end of the story, she actually commits suicide in order to be together with him. She upholds her final duty to the empire, but can't take what her duty forced her to do. And, that's something that comes from what is undeniably the villain of the series. Yes, Akame ga kill ends in all the good guys dying and then the major villain who's been dogging them the entire series committing suicide because she didn't like killing them, ultimately turning her into a really sympathetic villain character.
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?
Good villains one can emphasize with. Like for example there was an evil elf on a game a played who multi killed another elf. My elven toon confronted him about it. Saying that elves should not kill other elves.
His answer was that said elf was only a human with pointy ears. His reason was because he took another female elven priestess hostage in his guild.
She too was an evil elf but not really a player killer.
So this bad guy made a good argument that team good were really the blood thirsty ones and he was just finished the fight they started, protecting the woman he loved.
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?
A kind/sweet villain can work if you give them the correct amount of charisma mixed in with their hidden sinister nature. But if you overtune it it'll feel out of place esp in a more serious/darker story, and can make people go:
"Hey, if he's capable of that then why the hell can't they see eye to eye with the MC?"
Or:
"This fits in more with a slice of life/something lighter."
A villain by definition is evil, but you can mask it with a facade of kindness/sweetness.
So you want a kind and sweet villain.
Make them an extremist.
They care about people, they truly want the best for the world and they go out of their way to help those they meet. This is partly to help get their way, but also because they really like helping people.
Their image to everyone is a kindhearted, caring person, who will give a homeless person the coat off their back on a cold night, because they really will.
And because of how much they care, they'll do whatever it takes to make the world a better place.
They need to lead the country but laws and other politicians are in the way?
Well the new school that they fought so hard to open and visit regularly could always be blown up during class by evil terrorists. That will let them ram through the laws that will make the world better. The loss of life is tragic and they'll feel horrible doing it, but the greater good must be done.
A man saw something he shouldn't have. Well for the good of the plan, which will improve everyones life, the man must be silenced. Maybe money will work, or threats to their family. Actually it will be safer to have a fire start in their building from bad wiring, they live on the top floor, they won't be able to make it out in time.
what does your vilain want?
does your vilain care for their social standing?
what are they wiling to sacrifice to achieve what they want?
Instead of treating your vilain as a wall for your protagonist to overcome, give them a purpose, once they start doingconflicting actions that bring little to no benefit, they are being shyt. hell even team rocket in pokemon has the goal of stealing pokemon, but they still ocasionaly work with the protagonist if it benefits them
Oh, my field of expertise. Pretty simple. Make them arrogant and possibly classist, but have them able to back up their claims. Think of it like real human envy, we don't detest those that can't do what they claim, we detest those that do.
In terms of making him scum without being weak or pathetic, you have to ask what does he want?
If he's evil in his intentions like a racist or a war monger, try to create a logically sound philosophy that would lead someone to come to that conclusion. Senator Armstrong for example is a strong believer in Darwinism; natural selection, the world is meant for the physically strong, that kind of thing.
If he's evil through his actions, give him some good intentions so the audience can sympathize with the character, while still acknowledging his evil, sort of like "the ends don't justify the means,". Characters like this include Bondrewd from Made in Abyss, who is incredibly polite and charming, and knows he's the only one that will study the abyss that needs to be studied, but experiments on children; and Ozymandias from Watchmen who would kill millions but bring about world peace under the false notion that they were under alien attack.
There is of course you making him Lion-hearted as well. Keep him evil in both intention and action but make him courageous and fearless. Make him the type of man who would gladly die for his beliefs, and remains calm when confronted by the hero. Even when he knows defeat just allow him to take his death sentence with pride, maybe even teaching a lesson on his philosophy before he dies, like Socrates.
Quite easy for me. I make the villain/villainess be the protag of my suicidal fictions which means they have been the doormat of fate since they were born. Then I corner them in the recent arc so that they either have to fight my protag or continue their suffering. :D
You could lean into the soft and sweet angle and make it so they are misunderstood. Or rather they are trying to do good but keep fucking up and doing bad. or maybe don't realize they are doing bad. Or maybe they are sweet and don't mind what they are doing but also don't see it as bad no matter how vile it is.
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.
Get the reader to spend a lot of time with them,
get to know them,
fall in love with them,
Then have the hero mc defeat them,
get the readers to have difficulties choosing which one they like more.
Really just depends on what kind of villain you want.
You could write about the 2 year old who says no to everything as a villain if you wanted to and hardly anyone would see it that way.
