forum What Makes A Good Villain?

Started February 23, 2021 by @SingSongKV group

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To you, what makes a good villain? What traits do you think properly written villains have? What makes em' truly compelling?

(If you want, you can talk about your pet peeves with badly written villains as well!)

Ok, So,
Insane Villains - What makes a good insane villain is seeing how they broke down and became that way. Seeing all of their problems and peeves. People like Joker and Carnage or Norman Osborn

Think they are doing the right thing villains - I want to have a villain that convinces me that they are good mortally but doing it in a wrong way. Thanos is one of those expamles. In the Comics, he is different so I am talking about the MCU Thanos. He wants to save planets but doing it in the wrong way.

Smart Villains- I want a villain that is smart and can count all your moves. Like, Hugo Strange from batman. He is thinking and playing a game of chess with your mind or Chrollo from HXH, How he plays all his cards right.

Pet Peeves-
General Grievous, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I love Star Wars and General Grievous is my fav. a character from Stars Wars but In the movies, He was a big let down, He was Coward in the movies

Doctor Doom - Fantastic Four (2015)- I don't have to say anything about this

Enchantress - Suicide Squad- Same thing here

this is great thanks!

Sorry about the bad grammar and no problem

To me, the villain's who don't have a sob-story and developed there nature as they grew

In my opinion, a good villain should have depth and complexity. They should have motivations and beliefs that make sense within the context of their story, and their actions should be driven by these motivations. A well-written villain should also have layers and be multi-dimensional, rather than being a one-dimensional, stereotypical bad guy.

I also believe that a good villain should be a worthy opponent for the hero. They should present a real challenge and force the hero to grow and evolve in order to overcome them. A compelling villain should also have a presence and impact on the story, rather than just being a background character.

One of my pet peeves with badly written villains is when they are overly cartoonish or caricatured. Villains that are too over-the-top or one-dimensional often feel unbelievable and uninteresting to me. I also dislike it when villains are written purely as a means to an end, without any real depth or motivation.

Overall, I think that good villains are an essential part of any good story. They should be well-developed, complex, and challenging, and they should add depth and intrigue to the story.

I think a truly compelling villain is one who truly believes that they're the hero. If it's a villain who decides they're evil and does it just because they can, it's still good, but the villain isn't as fleshed out.

A good villain shouldnt be a card carrying villain, or mustache twirling. But a individual whose actions are towards a goal opposite the protagonist, and be believable. If they didn't go about it with harming, manipulating others and such, you could say their the protagonist/good side.

A good villain is all of these, but is also someone with the same internal flaws as the main character. They serve as this look into who the main character could become if they don't change and grow and learn.

Okay I have a Fairly Decent List of what I think makes a good villain:

• Like the Hero, has motivations that drive them to do things.
• A well rounded design, including strengths, weaknesses, flaws, and virtues. Give your villain a past (please don't make it always Trauma, Abuse, Etc. Not all villains are driven to villainy because of those factors)
• They Are Not Evil For No Reason. Usually, a villain is not a villain in their own eyes. They are doing what is right, they are doing what must be done, they are doing this for the greater good, etc., etc.
• VILLAINS ARE NOT CARICATURES OF MENTAL DISORDER/ILLNESS!!!! I am violently throwing you if you make your villains' only "personality" traits bipolar, schizophrenic, psychotic, psychopathic, and/or sociopathic, etc. Not only is that bad writing, but it is demonizing mental disorders/illnesses that are already facing so much stigma in the real world. I'm not saying your villain can't have these traits, but please, don't make it why they're evil or their only personality trait.
• Give them complex and real relationships with others!! This could be they care for their #1 henchman a little too much, they have a spouse they love, they have a weird (but not bad) relationship with their father, they got divorced from the mayor. Give your villains some relationships!!! Some positive relationships!! Not only will this make them more human, but it will also make your villain more likeable.
• On the topic of that, Not All Villains Have To Be Likable.
• Not All Villains Have To Be Redeemed.
• I love a good villain redemption arc, but it's often just done terribly. If you're going to redeem your villain, really pull on those positive traits they have and Make Them Struggle. No person goes from bad to good in an instant. Make your villain struggle to be good. Make them want to be good.
• Have fun with the villain!! Make them cooky and weird or make them uptight and totally cringe-fail.

And finally:

• Give your villain the same love as the hero.

in my story we see through the eyes of the protagonist on a quest with her two best friends and their brand new adventure crew to break a curse thats eating away at her soul. in the end the curse takes her and she becomes the villain but it is not her fault. in the end it was her male best friend who cursed her and got no consequences for his actions. the villain wins

i think a good villain is someone has had something tragic happen to them, and they just didn't get the help they needed to get through it. a good villain is basically a hero in the wrong circumstances