Writing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Taught Me the Value of Weak Villains

[Story_Marc]

So, got a new angle going for things this week! Instead of talking prose, I'm talking VILLAINS!

This topic is a little something I started thinking about months ago after reading a bit of Manga in Theory & Practice. Araki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) shared something in it about how mixing in weak villains helped him as a writer. This made me think about all kinds of other angles with the question of weakness and, well, resulted in this new episode.

I hope this can help you with handling your villains, whether strong or weak.

Also, just to note, if you want to influence what I make next, there's a vote I hold here.

 

[Getterkuma]

I really recommend reading Araki's "Manga in Theory and Practice"

He puts a lot of his ideas to paper (While throwing impossible amounts of shade to other mangakas XD)

 

[LordAstrea]

sounds interesting. havent seen something like that in regard to weak villains. thanks for the recommended reading above as well.

 

[Bobple]

Weak villains are a lot of fun, for many of the reason mentioned in the video. (Great video btw). Whether they can be tricky to beat cause of weird power, intelligent, or while not strong a power may have a counter the protag ability set.

Just as if the protagonist were weaker and needed a plan to beat a big bad. The exact same story can happen for a small side villain.

 

[Story_Marc]

As said for me, I'm fondest of when weakness is used to make a villain a protagonist. There's something about seeing a villain taking their own levels in badass and the idea that "oh shit, the heroes are going to have to deal with this later!" that appeals to me a great deal.

I didn't talk about it in the video, but that's one of my favorite things about Do Gun Woo in Monster. He starts off as The Apprentice to the main villain and, while he has his setbacks and defeats, he progressively claws his way up to power. Kang Ki Tan also gets stronger throughout the story, so what happens before the second-to-last arc had me pumped. In it, DGW defeats a different villain who had been a bane to him for the longest time and steps up as the undisputed remaining Big Bad while KKT's sights are set on the group DGW finally secured control over. So I know what both of these two are capable of, and how much they genuinely hate one another, so I was set to see the Battle of Wits between them.

Or in the case of the main villain of Monster, he isn't even the top threat the entire time. He's shown carving his way up in power as it goes along. The thing that made me terrified of him more than anything else wasn't just what he does when he has power, but it's the fact the guy is as perseverent as a cockroach. He got hit by genuine setbacks and defeats multiple times, but he just refused to give up and found ways to turn the tables while pulling some of the most despicable things possible. I was far more on the edge of my seat knowing that this was far more back and forth between the sides as opposed to the villains just being on top always until near the end.

 

[Le_ther]

What I love in jojo is arguably the way of fighting. Unlike common shounen the anticipation of who's gonna win is obvious but in jojo even if your the main character or especially side character is that they can die in a way even readers wouldn't expect which gives the feeling of mortality in each fight.

But since we're talking about villains, I like the way araki created his villains especially those with a broken stand yet the user isn't that capable. It adds to the narative that even the dumbest, weakest, and even the vulnerable enemies can and may pose a threat.

Although can't say the same to the main antagonist when they deal with the logic of the world itself.

 

[Story_Marc]

What I love in jojo is arguably the way of fighting. Unlike common shounen the anticipation of who's gonna win is obvious but in jojo even if your the main character or especially side character is that they can die in a way even readers wouldn't expect which gives the feeling of mortality in each fight.

But since we're talking about villains, I like the way araki created his villains especially those with a broken stand yet the user isn't that capable. It adds to the narative that even the dumbest, weakest, and even the vulnerable enemies can and may pose a threat.

Although can't say the same to the main antagonist when they deal with the logic of the world itself.

AKA "how can the final villain mess with the concept of time itself this time."

I'm mixed on JoJo fighting, in that I DO enjoy it most of the time, but Part 6 is one of the examples where I feel it pushed things too far at times into just insanely abstract concepts that became hard for me to follow.

I'd say I'm fondest of it in Part 4 and 5 with stand battles, especially with Part 5's approach to making it team battles.

Now, I am more critical of the actual plotting of JoJo, but that's a whole other matter. JoJo really helped me realize that I just enjoy tightly structured stories more than episodics. Still, I respect why he picked the episodic (he explains his logic in Manga in Theory & Practice) and I think it was the perfect decision for his conditions.

I'm pretty middle-of-the-road with JoJo itself, but Araki's thought process fascinates me and I can recognize why so many love it. And it deserves the love IMO, even if it doesn't always scratch my particular itches.