GojiBean
Your resident irradiated Kaiju King
Hoyo!
Let's talk about writing villains!
What's a villain?
The villain is the antagonist (latin roots meaning "the one who initiates change") of the story, and of your character. But what does this mean?
Not every villain needs to be a "bad guy." A lot of younger and inexperienced writers I've met don't seem to understand that the term "villain" and "antagonist" are actually interchangeable. They aren't necessarily different, although they can be interpreted to mean different things depending on how you've been taught (or taught yourself) about the craft of writing.
One thing to note about villains/antagonists is that the most compelling of them are those who believe they're the good guy. That what they're doing is justified. That they're doing it for the greater good and not just for themselves. Or that what they're doing is something that's retribution for a wrong done to them and that they're just seeking justice.
Now, there are some very rare exceptions to this. Frieza from DBZ, for example, knows he's evil and takes great pleasure in being so. However, a common thread you'll notice is that the majority of these characters come from one of two places: comedies where the villain is basically a parody of the antagonist role (like Doctor Evil from Austin Powers), or they're from strictly fantasy stories (like DBZ and Frieza) where the villain isn't necessarily there for the long run and who is more to facilitate a very specific moment of growth for the main character.
But the vast majority of villains/antagonists in storytelling are people who believe they're in the right with what they're doing. And this is true in real life as well.
Take Hitler, for example. We all know he was dead wrong in his beliefs, but he honestly believed he was doing God's work as a "true Christian" and removing the stain on humanity that was the Jewish people whom he believed were the root of all evil. He was wrong, and ultimately projecting his own wickedness onto them at a subconscious level that he was never able to understand or even recognize as being a projection. And nobody with a conscience would ever condone or support this insane belief. But it's the truth about Hitler whether we like it or not, or agree with him or not. He thought he was the good guy.
And this is the crux of what makes for a great villain/antagonist. They believe they're the good guy.
So, let's get into some examples!
Thanos, as any Marvel fan knows, is a comic book villain of universe-ending power. With the power of the infinity stones at his disposal he was able to wipe out half the universe before the Avengers reversed it. In the MCU films he was also designed to be an empathetic villain who loved his daughters, wished to protect and preserve life, and was willing to go to whatever lengths he had to in order to accomplish that goal.
He thought he was the good guy.
We don't agree with his method for achieving his goal of protecting life and ensuring a future for all living things by wiping out half the living population throughout the universe, but we understand that his motivation, however twisted, was pure. He wanted to ensure the stability of the universe and the preservation of universal resources by wiping out half, not all, of life throughout so as to accomplish those goals. He wanted something that we can all understand and agree with. Stability, and preservation of resources. We all appreciate those concepts on their own. But we cannot agree with Thanos' chosen method of wiping out half of life.
That method of accomplishing his goal is the source of his antagonism as it stands in direct contrast to the preservation of life that the Avengers stand for.
And thus, we have conflict.
In Spider-Man 2 from the year 2004 with Tobey Maguire, Doc Oc, played by Alfred Molina, was a genius scientist looking to end the energy crisis that humanity knew it would eventually be facing. "The power of the sun in the palm of my hand" is one of the most famous lines from that film spoken by the character, and is really a revelation about the hidden madness lurking within which helps to reinforce the influence of the arms when they eventually take over after the accident that takes his wife away.
In that rather horrific scene where he's unconscious in the hospital and the doctors get killed after trying to take the arms off him we're shown that the arms themselves, and their AI, are sympathetic and loyal to Doc Oc as well. When he wanders outside he almost gets run over by a car, but the arms protect him. He's surprised by this as he knows he didn't intentionally make them do that. But he doesn't have time to think about it right now and has to retreat to a safe place to avoid the police. But that's when it happens...
Doc Oc hears the voices of the AI in his head and realizes the inhibitor chip is damaged and the arms are speaking to him. And the arms reveal that they want what he wants. They want him to succeed in his dream of building the machine and harnessing the power of the sun in the palm of his hand. To accomplish this they convince him to break his moral code because the ends justify the means. He's not becoming a criminal. He's finishing what he started. He's not becoming a villain, he's simply doing what he must to achieve his goal and do right by his wife Rosie and the world at large.
And thus we have a conflict with Spider-Man as he's a very law-and-order abiding neighborhood arachnid who also wants/needs to protect people from dangerous circumstances such as when Doc Oc robs the bank. His actions bring innocent people into harm's way and Spider-Man can't sit by and do nothing. He has to protect them and make sure that if anyone gets hurt it's going to be him instead because he can take it. Ordinary people can't.
But again, the thread arises. Doc Oc thinks he's the good guy and continuing his life's work of solving the world's energy problem. It was his dream, and it's a dream he wants to share with the world... At any cost.
This one's interesting.
Moriarty is a Machiavellian, meaning he's incredibly clever, cunning, mischievous, and has essentially removed himself from the constraints of standard morality. But as with most major villain/antagonists, he's almost never portrayed simply as an evil man or someone looking to be destructive for destruction's sake.
Instead, Moriarty is, more often than not, portrayed as a businessman who simply wants to enjoy his business without being meddled with. He wants to be left alone to do what he does best. And what he does best just so happens to run afoul of most people's moral code and standards. But again, he's a Machiavellian and doesn't have a moral code.
But when you get right down to it, he's still someone who believes he's the good guy. He's a businessman just trying to do his own business. When people get in the way of that business, he'll go to great lengths to remove them as an obstacle to his success.
Not exactly a nice guy, but very, very compelling and we can at the very least respect his work ethic in achieving his goals.
Those are just three examples, but I could easily fill an entire forum's worth of space with further examples across various more forms of medium such as video games, books, anime, TV, films, etc.
However, it's time to talk about how to design your villain/antagonist.
Weakness
To design a great villain/antagonist, you have to ask yourself one major question: "What is your protagonist's main weakness?"
The greatest villains are those who can most easily attack, exploit, or manipulate the main protagonist's greatest weaknesses.
Take Moriarty, for example. Sherlock Holme's greatest weaknesses are his own intellect and his thirst for a good mystery to solve. And Moriarty routinely takes advantage of both to outsmart Sherlock and lead him down endless rabbit holes before Sherlock finally breaks free to catch/thwart him in the end.
So what's your main protagonist's greatest weakness?
Whatever that weakness is, create a character who is exceptionally good at attacking, exploiting, or manipulating that weakness. That's your villain/antagonist.
Asking The Right Questions
Once you've established how your villain/antagonist can take advantage of your protagonist, it's time to fill out the rest of the blanks.
So ask yourself:
* What is this character's personality, and how did it develop into what it is today?
* Where does this character come from (both in upbringing and in terms of location and time)?
* Why does this character encounter the main protagonist?
* Why would this character seek to take advantage of or kill the main protagonist?
* How can the main protagonist overcome their own weaknesses, and thus overcome the villain/antagonist?
There's more you could ask yourself to flesh things out further, but we're keeping things simple for right now. So let's stick to those five questions.
The villain/antagonist's personality is one that should be a twisted mirror of that of the protagonist. For example, if your protagonist is an upstanding young man with dreams of joining the military for the sake of fighting for peace, the villain/antagonist could be a nefarious, cunning, third world country warlord who believes that military force is the only path to peace and thus seeks to use their growing military power to subjugate the most powerful nations so the rest of the world follows suit and creates a global world order where war has no place anymore.
Both the protagonist and villain/antagonist are fighting for the same goal: world peace. But they're doing so in very different ways, and with a very different attitude/mindset.
And that's the next big point...
Mirror Images Of One Another
The best hero/villain pairs in all of storytelling are mirror images of each other, whether or not they're fighting for the same goal or opposing goals.
Sherlock and Moriarty.
Spider-Man and Venom.
Superman and Lex Luther.
Cloud and Sephiroth.
These examples are all (metaphorically, sometimes literally) mirror images of each other in some way, shape, or form.
This mirroring of existence is what helps to really cement the relationship between them in the minds and hearts of the audience to the point where they literally cannot imagine one without the other. Sherlock isn't really Sherlock without Moriarty. Spider-Man isn't really Spider-Man without Venom. Superman isn't really Superman without Lex Luther. And Cloud isn't really Cloud without Sephiroth.
These villain/antagonists play such a pivotal role in the development of their counterpart that they have, effectively speaking, become a part of them. Even if it's a part the hero wishes he could live without and tries to live without and escape, they can't. Removing the existence of these villains effectively ruins the foundation upon which the protagonist now exists and makes them a weaker, less compelling version of themselves which you will never fully invest in as much as you would if you knew these villain/antagonists are still around.
Goals: Equal, or Opposite
Lastly, the goal of the villain/antagonist should be one of two things: The same goal as the protagonist, or the exact opposite.
There is no in-between if you want a compelling relationship between them.
They're either after the same thing, or they're after the polar opposite of each other.
Period.
Why?
Because when you introduce grey area between the goals of the protagonist and the villain/antagonist, you made it so their goals aren't related and thus the conflict between them isn't necessary to the story.
Conflict between the protagonist and villain must always be necessary in order for your story, and its characters, to achieve their full potential.
No necessary conflict, no compelling story.
Period.
Let's look at an example of a truly compelling and necessary conflict: Aliens, by Ridley Scott.
In the original 1987 Alien film, the alien creature is driven by one biological need: to reproduce and spread the Hive. That's their entire purpose of existence. To that end, the host body needs to serve as food for the babies born of the Facehugger impregnation process. The host is then killed upon the baby's exit of the body.
Without the host, the Alien doesn't exist. Without the Alien creature brought on board the ship where conflict is inevitable because there's no other prey for the Alien to do what it was born to do with, there would be no reason for the story to exist.
Let's say they remained on the planet where they found the Space Jockey craft and the alien was allowed to escape their ship and hide on the planet. What's to say there was no life there for the Alien to feed on? It could have just run away and they'd never have seen it again. There would be no need for conflict other than for the sake of convenience and forced plot.
But instead, Ridley Scott wisely has the humans leave the planet and go back to the ship in space where there is no other prey in order to force a needed conflict between the humans and Alien because that conflict is now inevitable. It must happen because it's in the very nature of the Alien to create it in its quest to fulfil its purpose of spreading the Hive.
Now, let's look at an example of a not-so-compelling story that lacks any necessary conflict: Batman V Superman, 2016.
Yes, yes, I know. It's far too easy to pick on this film. But it's for that very reason that I'm picking on it and using it as an example of what not to do.
Batman and Superman literally have zero reason to fight in this story. Batman's perception that Superman is a villain and dangerous presence that must be destroyed comes out of nowhere and is entirely unjustified with or without Luther's actions and attempts to frame Superman as the bad guy. If Batman were the master detective he's supposed to be he'd have long since gathered all the information on Superman the moment he first began making his public appearances to help people in the previous film of Man of Steel, he'd know about the battle with Zod, Zod's body being stolen, he'd know about Luther and be prepared to deal with him, etc.
But no. Zack Snyder willfully left out the genius detective side of Batman's character for the sake of forcing an unnecessary conflict because that was the title of the film: Batman vs Superman.
You want another example and proof of why this conflict wasn't necessary?
"SAVE MARTHA!"
It literally took learning that Martha is the name of Superman's mother for Batman to go "Okay, we're not enemies anymore."
How. Fucking. Lazy. And. Contrived. Can. You. Get?
I don't know the answer, but this element of the film and the story are so utterly ridiculous and forced that it honestly gives me a bit of a headache knowing that a professional Hollywood studio gave it the green light to be turned into a film.
Hopefully this was able to teach you a thing or two about creating compelling villains/antagonists.
They're not that complicated in concept, but they can be incredibly tricky to navigate when actually writing the story and characters either in an RP or in a novel, film script, etc.
Because let's face it. It's always easier to talk about something than it is to do something.
Words are cheap, and they flow like a river. Actions are difficult, take effort and willpower, and a healthy dose of cautious optimism.
So have fun creating your villain/antagonists, and I'll catch you in the next one!
Cheers!
~ GojiBean
Let's talk about writing villains!
What's a villain?
The villain is the antagonist (latin roots meaning "the one who initiates change") of the story, and of your character. But what does this mean?
Not every villain needs to be a "bad guy." A lot of younger and inexperienced writers I've met don't seem to understand that the term "villain" and "antagonist" are actually interchangeable. They aren't necessarily different, although they can be interpreted to mean different things depending on how you've been taught (or taught yourself) about the craft of writing.
One thing to note about villains/antagonists is that the most compelling of them are those who believe they're the good guy. That what they're doing is justified. That they're doing it for the greater good and not just for themselves. Or that what they're doing is something that's retribution for a wrong done to them and that they're just seeking justice.
Now, there are some very rare exceptions to this. Frieza from DBZ, for example, knows he's evil and takes great pleasure in being so. However, a common thread you'll notice is that the majority of these characters come from one of two places: comedies where the villain is basically a parody of the antagonist role (like Doctor Evil from Austin Powers), or they're from strictly fantasy stories (like DBZ and Frieza) where the villain isn't necessarily there for the long run and who is more to facilitate a very specific moment of growth for the main character.
But the vast majority of villains/antagonists in storytelling are people who believe they're in the right with what they're doing. And this is true in real life as well.
Take Hitler, for example. We all know he was dead wrong in his beliefs, but he honestly believed he was doing God's work as a "true Christian" and removing the stain on humanity that was the Jewish people whom he believed were the root of all evil. He was wrong, and ultimately projecting his own wickedness onto them at a subconscious level that he was never able to understand or even recognize as being a projection. And nobody with a conscience would ever condone or support this insane belief. But it's the truth about Hitler whether we like it or not, or agree with him or not. He thought he was the good guy.
And this is the crux of what makes for a great villain/antagonist. They believe they're the good guy.
So, let's get into some examples!
Thanos: The MCU
Thanos, as any Marvel fan knows, is a comic book villain of universe-ending power. With the power of the infinity stones at his disposal he was able to wipe out half the universe before the Avengers reversed it. In the MCU films he was also designed to be an empathetic villain who loved his daughters, wished to protect and preserve life, and was willing to go to whatever lengths he had to in order to accomplish that goal.
He thought he was the good guy.
We don't agree with his method for achieving his goal of protecting life and ensuring a future for all living things by wiping out half the living population throughout the universe, but we understand that his motivation, however twisted, was pure. He wanted to ensure the stability of the universe and the preservation of universal resources by wiping out half, not all, of life throughout so as to accomplish those goals. He wanted something that we can all understand and agree with. Stability, and preservation of resources. We all appreciate those concepts on their own. But we cannot agree with Thanos' chosen method of wiping out half of life.
That method of accomplishing his goal is the source of his antagonism as it stands in direct contrast to the preservation of life that the Avengers stand for.
And thus, we have conflict.
Doctor Octopus: Spider-Man 2
In Spider-Man 2 from the year 2004 with Tobey Maguire, Doc Oc, played by Alfred Molina, was a genius scientist looking to end the energy crisis that humanity knew it would eventually be facing. "The power of the sun in the palm of my hand" is one of the most famous lines from that film spoken by the character, and is really a revelation about the hidden madness lurking within which helps to reinforce the influence of the arms when they eventually take over after the accident that takes his wife away.
In that rather horrific scene where he's unconscious in the hospital and the doctors get killed after trying to take the arms off him we're shown that the arms themselves, and their AI, are sympathetic and loyal to Doc Oc as well. When he wanders outside he almost gets run over by a car, but the arms protect him. He's surprised by this as he knows he didn't intentionally make them do that. But he doesn't have time to think about it right now and has to retreat to a safe place to avoid the police. But that's when it happens...
Doc Oc hears the voices of the AI in his head and realizes the inhibitor chip is damaged and the arms are speaking to him. And the arms reveal that they want what he wants. They want him to succeed in his dream of building the machine and harnessing the power of the sun in the palm of his hand. To accomplish this they convince him to break his moral code because the ends justify the means. He's not becoming a criminal. He's finishing what he started. He's not becoming a villain, he's simply doing what he must to achieve his goal and do right by his wife Rosie and the world at large.
And thus we have a conflict with Spider-Man as he's a very law-and-order abiding neighborhood arachnid who also wants/needs to protect people from dangerous circumstances such as when Doc Oc robs the bank. His actions bring innocent people into harm's way and Spider-Man can't sit by and do nothing. He has to protect them and make sure that if anyone gets hurt it's going to be him instead because he can take it. Ordinary people can't.
But again, the thread arises. Doc Oc thinks he's the good guy and continuing his life's work of solving the world's energy problem. It was his dream, and it's a dream he wants to share with the world... At any cost.
Moriarty: Sherlock Holmes
This one's interesting.
Moriarty is a Machiavellian, meaning he's incredibly clever, cunning, mischievous, and has essentially removed himself from the constraints of standard morality. But as with most major villain/antagonists, he's almost never portrayed simply as an evil man or someone looking to be destructive for destruction's sake.
Instead, Moriarty is, more often than not, portrayed as a businessman who simply wants to enjoy his business without being meddled with. He wants to be left alone to do what he does best. And what he does best just so happens to run afoul of most people's moral code and standards. But again, he's a Machiavellian and doesn't have a moral code.
But when you get right down to it, he's still someone who believes he's the good guy. He's a businessman just trying to do his own business. When people get in the way of that business, he'll go to great lengths to remove them as an obstacle to his success.
Not exactly a nice guy, but very, very compelling and we can at the very least respect his work ethic in achieving his goals.
Those are just three examples, but I could easily fill an entire forum's worth of space with further examples across various more forms of medium such as video games, books, anime, TV, films, etc.
However, it's time to talk about how to design your villain/antagonist.
Designing Your Villain/Antagonist(s)
Weakness
To design a great villain/antagonist, you have to ask yourself one major question: "What is your protagonist's main weakness?"
The greatest villains are those who can most easily attack, exploit, or manipulate the main protagonist's greatest weaknesses.
Take Moriarty, for example. Sherlock Holme's greatest weaknesses are his own intellect and his thirst for a good mystery to solve. And Moriarty routinely takes advantage of both to outsmart Sherlock and lead him down endless rabbit holes before Sherlock finally breaks free to catch/thwart him in the end.
So what's your main protagonist's greatest weakness?
Whatever that weakness is, create a character who is exceptionally good at attacking, exploiting, or manipulating that weakness. That's your villain/antagonist.
Asking The Right Questions
Once you've established how your villain/antagonist can take advantage of your protagonist, it's time to fill out the rest of the blanks.
So ask yourself:
* What is this character's personality, and how did it develop into what it is today?
* Where does this character come from (both in upbringing and in terms of location and time)?
* Why does this character encounter the main protagonist?
* Why would this character seek to take advantage of or kill the main protagonist?
* How can the main protagonist overcome their own weaknesses, and thus overcome the villain/antagonist?
There's more you could ask yourself to flesh things out further, but we're keeping things simple for right now. So let's stick to those five questions.
The villain/antagonist's personality is one that should be a twisted mirror of that of the protagonist. For example, if your protagonist is an upstanding young man with dreams of joining the military for the sake of fighting for peace, the villain/antagonist could be a nefarious, cunning, third world country warlord who believes that military force is the only path to peace and thus seeks to use their growing military power to subjugate the most powerful nations so the rest of the world follows suit and creates a global world order where war has no place anymore.
Both the protagonist and villain/antagonist are fighting for the same goal: world peace. But they're doing so in very different ways, and with a very different attitude/mindset.
And that's the next big point...
Mirror Images Of One Another
The best hero/villain pairs in all of storytelling are mirror images of each other, whether or not they're fighting for the same goal or opposing goals.
Sherlock and Moriarty.
Spider-Man and Venom.
Superman and Lex Luther.
Cloud and Sephiroth.
These examples are all (metaphorically, sometimes literally) mirror images of each other in some way, shape, or form.
This mirroring of existence is what helps to really cement the relationship between them in the minds and hearts of the audience to the point where they literally cannot imagine one without the other. Sherlock isn't really Sherlock without Moriarty. Spider-Man isn't really Spider-Man without Venom. Superman isn't really Superman without Lex Luther. And Cloud isn't really Cloud without Sephiroth.
These villain/antagonists play such a pivotal role in the development of their counterpart that they have, effectively speaking, become a part of them. Even if it's a part the hero wishes he could live without and tries to live without and escape, they can't. Removing the existence of these villains effectively ruins the foundation upon which the protagonist now exists and makes them a weaker, less compelling version of themselves which you will never fully invest in as much as you would if you knew these villain/antagonists are still around.
Goals: Equal, or Opposite
Lastly, the goal of the villain/antagonist should be one of two things: The same goal as the protagonist, or the exact opposite.
There is no in-between if you want a compelling relationship between them.
They're either after the same thing, or they're after the polar opposite of each other.
Period.
Why?
Because when you introduce grey area between the goals of the protagonist and the villain/antagonist, you made it so their goals aren't related and thus the conflict between them isn't necessary to the story.
Conflict between the protagonist and villain must always be necessary in order for your story, and its characters, to achieve their full potential.
No necessary conflict, no compelling story.
Period.
Let's look at an example of a truly compelling and necessary conflict: Aliens, by Ridley Scott.
In the original 1987 Alien film, the alien creature is driven by one biological need: to reproduce and spread the Hive. That's their entire purpose of existence. To that end, the host body needs to serve as food for the babies born of the Facehugger impregnation process. The host is then killed upon the baby's exit of the body.
Without the host, the Alien doesn't exist. Without the Alien creature brought on board the ship where conflict is inevitable because there's no other prey for the Alien to do what it was born to do with, there would be no reason for the story to exist.
Let's say they remained on the planet where they found the Space Jockey craft and the alien was allowed to escape their ship and hide on the planet. What's to say there was no life there for the Alien to feed on? It could have just run away and they'd never have seen it again. There would be no need for conflict other than for the sake of convenience and forced plot.
But instead, Ridley Scott wisely has the humans leave the planet and go back to the ship in space where there is no other prey in order to force a needed conflict between the humans and Alien because that conflict is now inevitable. It must happen because it's in the very nature of the Alien to create it in its quest to fulfil its purpose of spreading the Hive.
Now, let's look at an example of a not-so-compelling story that lacks any necessary conflict: Batman V Superman, 2016.
Yes, yes, I know. It's far too easy to pick on this film. But it's for that very reason that I'm picking on it and using it as an example of what not to do.
Batman and Superman literally have zero reason to fight in this story. Batman's perception that Superman is a villain and dangerous presence that must be destroyed comes out of nowhere and is entirely unjustified with or without Luther's actions and attempts to frame Superman as the bad guy. If Batman were the master detective he's supposed to be he'd have long since gathered all the information on Superman the moment he first began making his public appearances to help people in the previous film of Man of Steel, he'd know about the battle with Zod, Zod's body being stolen, he'd know about Luther and be prepared to deal with him, etc.
But no. Zack Snyder willfully left out the genius detective side of Batman's character for the sake of forcing an unnecessary conflict because that was the title of the film: Batman vs Superman.
You want another example and proof of why this conflict wasn't necessary?
"SAVE MARTHA!"
It literally took learning that Martha is the name of Superman's mother for Batman to go "Okay, we're not enemies anymore."
How. Fucking. Lazy. And. Contrived. Can. You. Get?
I don't know the answer, but this element of the film and the story are so utterly ridiculous and forced that it honestly gives me a bit of a headache knowing that a professional Hollywood studio gave it the green light to be turned into a film.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this was able to teach you a thing or two about creating compelling villains/antagonists.
They're not that complicated in concept, but they can be incredibly tricky to navigate when actually writing the story and characters either in an RP or in a novel, film script, etc.
Because let's face it. It's always easier to talk about something than it is to do something.
Words are cheap, and they flow like a river. Actions are difficult, take effort and willpower, and a healthy dose of cautious optimism.
So have fun creating your villain/antagonists, and I'll catch you in the next one!
Cheers!
~ GojiBean
