Any tips on how to write an good villain?

Post Reply New Topic

Anyone can create a hero, but a villian takes other people.

The age of heros has passed, for the suit wearing G Man of years ago was found to doing more than stopping bad guys, he also sold guns to the drug cartel, supported revolution, to get a better cut, and and held fake wars where real people got killed.

Mike Hammer was not a hero, except to the people who paid him to beat up strangers, on their say so.

It is hard to define good recently. In my time Castro was a bad guy, because he was exporting literacy, free health care, and income equality.

Viet Nam was bad because they refused to obey the French. The same for Algeria.

Good countries granted all the oil to American Corporations, and got a share in guns to take care of any trouble makers.

Just the slight tendancy to not see the people as evil lead to being shot, as many in South America learned. The good guys machine gunned whole towns from the air, to protect freedom.

While the bad guys have killed thousands recently, the good guys have killed millions.

It is a gray world to have clearly drawn good and evil.

The villian is whoever opposes whoever you claim is good.

Your story seems like they got discovered, invaded, kicked the invaders out, and now they are the bad guys.

It happens, Iran had a King, who supported the absolute rule concept, and Hitler, who was deposed by the British and replaced with his son, pro British if he wanted to live, who was deposed by a Democratic Government, something we had been pushing, that was overthrown by the CIA, and a new King put in place who was overthrown, the American Embassy sacked, hostages taken, and another democratic government installed.

We keep calling the current elected President evil.

We and our Japanese friends both hit something of a record for war crimes, and are now the best of friends.

So some rich guy who dresses up like a bat, who hunts other guys who wear make up, and do strange and meaningless things.

It is a hard world in which to define good or evil.

How do we know who is good and who is evil? There's a very easy method.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjFdV75D44w[/youtube]

Just remember, a good villain is never a villain in his own eyes. He may be taking things to a logical conclusion, one the heroes are too weak to reach - but it's for the greater good, really!

Lex Luthor believes that Superman's good-guy act is just a facade, and the alien is really just trying to pacify Earth for a coming invasion. Everything "evil" he does is just trying to expose that Kryptonian fraud!

Emperor Palpatine seeks to control the Galaxy with a titanium fist because the Republic is too weak to protect the people. Only the power of the Sith can save the galaxy from war and chaos!

Heck, even in the real world, our most famous villain, Adolf Hitler, started off just trying to help bring back Germany from defeat and humiliation due to the Treaty of Versailles, and of course bring about the rule of the Master Race. He was convinced that when he succeeded, we would all thank him for his selfless efforts to save us from ourselves.

A villain who cackles over his evil plans and actually thinks of himself as villainous is simply less compelling.