Heroes Insider Weekly

Captain America - The Character Clinic-Chronic Villainy

Captain America - The Character Clinic-Chronic Villainy

By  @Darkened_eclipse

What’s the oldest story ever told? Boy meets girl? Nope, not quite. Hero is ostracized until finally they do something which shows everyone else how amazing they were all along? Try a little harder…

Good versus evil. For as long as there have been heroes, there have been villains for them to defeat. Make no mistake; your antagonist is almost as important as your main character when it comes to creating a good story. After all, they’re the person driving the central conflict which in turn should be driving your plot. So what makes a good villain? In theory, the concept seems pretty simple but you’d be surprised how difficult it can be. There is a very thin line between a chilling monster and a moustache-twirling cartoon.

1.    Subtlety is key

If you’re anything like me then you find villains insanely fun to write. They get to be insulting and sarcastic and say all the things you could never get away with saying in real life. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to get carried away when writing your evil mastermind because of this reason. While you might enjoy giving your villain a cool scar, a constant smirk and an evil laugh to rival the Joker’s, the important thing to remember is that they don’t necessarily need all these things. Your villain needs to be balanced in order to be believable and remain threatening. Instead of cramming them full of all the evil traits, why not focus on one detail and develop it? Why is their laugh so sinister? How did they get their cool scar? I’m using clichéd traits here on purpose but you get the idea. In the case of pure evil, less is definitely more. Which reminds me…

2.    Your villain is not pure evil

Okay, I will grant you that sometimes this one can be pulled off. The Joker for example is a perfect demonstration of how creating a truly monstrous villain with no redeeming features can work. But this is very, very rare. On the whole, it is much better to create a villain who is somewhat ambiguous in their morality. A good point to keep in mind is that usually, the villain has no idea that they are the villain. They don’t see themselves that way. Usually they think what they’re doing is right and so you need to make it clear to the reader why they think that way. That isn’t to say they still can’t do horrible things, there just needs to be a good reason in their eyes for them to be doing them.

The alternative route is to have a villain who really is pure evil and just does nasty things for their own amusement. Like I said, this can work but I’d be very careful. You want to keep them believable and truly evil people are (thankfully) very rare in the real world. It is also far easier to end up with a cartoon-style villain by going this way, although if you think you can pull it off then it can certainly be worth trying. After all, who doesn’t love the Joker?

3.    Beware the backstory

This links nicely to the point above as well as demonstrating how you can go too far in the other direction. It is becoming more and more popular to have a villain with a tragic backstory. Now let me stress this, there is nothing wrong with that in itself. In fact it’s usually better to have a strong backstory for your antagonist since that will help add believability towards their actions as well as making them more complex on the whole. But please don’t give your villain a stock tragic backstory just so they have an ‘excuse’ for being evil. What I mean by this is make sure any history you give your character a) makes sense, b) is something you’ve thought about carefully and c) is handled properly. I’m not the sort of person who thinks you should shy away from covering certain things in fiction but if you’re going to write about abuse or anything in that area, it is very important you research it thoroughly and aren’t just using it as some sort of throwaway remark. And like I said, a sad past does not excuse evil behaviour. That isn’t to say they can’t be sympathetic of course but plenty of people suffer through awful things and don’t instantly decide to hate humanity. You need to work out why your villain has reacted that way and that will take you a step closer to creating a stronger character.

4.    Stop-exposition time!

The Incredibles mocks this tendency the best. Oh no, the antagonist has your beloved hero in their evil clutches! There’s absolutely no chance of escape, no backup plan, no way out left at all! What do they do?

They take their bloody time.

Okay, I understand all too well why as a writer it’s tempting to take this route. In order to create tension, you need to put your heroes in sticky situations. Situations you might not exactly know the way out of yourself just yet. The only way to save your hero is to turn your villain into a rambling moron in love with the sound of their own voice. Technically this can work since villains are usually very vain and fond of boasting but still. It is much better on the whole to avoid writing these types of situations to begin with. Instead of going for the ‘all hope is lost’ angle, write your hero into a situation they have to actively work hard to get out of.

But…that requires so much thought!

Yes, yes it does. As writing should. Trust me, the end result will be so much more satisfying, both to you and your readers. And hey, you would have accomplished something pretty difficult! You get to be proud.

5.    WORLD DOMINATION

Okay, so it’s the climax of your novel, time for the big showdown! The stakes have got to be big right?

Actually, no.

This can be a hard thing to grasp as a writer (especially considering how popular action films are nowadays) but your villain doesn’t necessarily have to be threatening the whole world for it to be a big deal. Sure, a big dramatic climax can be brilliant if that’s what you want to write and you can pull it off well but don’t feel like you have to automatically come up with some massive scheme. Threatening just one thing or one person can be just as effective if you do it right. As with my first point, sometimes less is more.

Again this boils down to the temptation that your villain has to be theatrical and showy in order for them to be a good antagonist. What you need to remember is that while most movie/TV villains are like this, you’re writing a story. You can afford to focus more on the character themselves and there’s less pressure for their evil plans to ‘look cool’.

6.    Two sides of the same coin

To me, this is one of the best ways to create an effective villain. First of all you need your hero. Now quick, write a list of all the traits which make them good. Are they smart? Brave? Maybe expand the list to include things such as backstory, relationships with other characters etc. Now, to create your antagonist you take that list and you use each of the traits but twist it a little.

It is a popular misconception that the antagonist should be the opposite of the protagonist. To be fair, this can work well as an approach and if you’re comfortable with it then I say go right ahead. But I personally find it a lot more compelling if the hero and the villain are actually remarkably similar. Examples of this can be found everywhere-Harry and Lord Voldemort, Simba and Scar, Reed Richards and Dr Doom…By having a villain who is so similar to your hero, it forces said hero to question their own actions and personality. This creates a deeper level of conflict and also enables you to bring in themes about general morality should you wish to.

Alright, so hopefully you are now all feeling suitably evil! Just don’t go out and murder any side characters yet because I’ll be dealing with them next week. If you want any more help with your evil deeds in the meantime, feel free to leave a comment and I shall do my worst to help you.

@Darkened_eclipse Current Novels:

Lycan Blood (Alex Vane: Demon Stalker #1)

Vixen (Alex Vane: Demon Stalker #2)

The Last Ones Left