What makes a good Villain?

[Whaley]

Something else that needs to be mentioned, is that a good villain needs to do villainous deeds. Now, it’s easy to think DuH oF CoURsE, they’re EviL, but I mean, when’s the last time a villain actually scared or angered you enough, that you thought, wow, I hope the hero doesn’t die? Not very often. Readers just aren’t fazed by big baddies often enough.

So, actually make your villain scary, both to the hero and to the reader, who cares for the hero.

Take for example, these two villains from a book I just finished (Lockwood and Co: The Creeping Shadow.) At the end of the book, everything’s fine and dandy. The gang is back in their messy little London townhouse, celebrating their recent kerfluffle with the authorities (including several explosions). Suddenly, the villainess and her potential henchman\fiance (?) literally come knocking at their door. They come in, threaten the gang, insult them, and go away.

It’s just a threat, right? But what makes it so scary, is that the villains are so big in society, while the gang is small, literally and financially. The villains were able to walk inside, stroll about their house, touch their stuff, and eat their food without any punishment from the authorities. They can get away with anything. They could probably seize Lockwood’s house if they wanted to. And that’s scary, because his house is the only safe place they have.

So I only enjoy villains if they actually pull the rug from under you once in a while.

KaPeefers 'til we're old and gray...

[Otherworldly Historian]

@whalekeeper

I totally agree with you on that. That is definitely one of the things I like in dark fantasy. I also remember reading an interview on one of those sites like IGN with the guy who writes Game Of Thrones about that exact topic. It was a while ago and I think it was specifically related to some thing called the Red Wedding (I only know a little about this since I haven’t watched/read GOT but from what I do know the Red Wedding has something to do with the bad guys tricking the good guys by saying they are going to have a wedding to unite their factions (you know dynastic alliance) and then it turns into a bloodbath that kills some of the narrators). I remember the G.R.R Martin guy saying something about how it is important to be realistic and let characters die.

Also on the side note of good villains I would say that one I have recently encountered was Yin Nezha from the Poppy War (which is a good but really dark series (also it has some questionable stuff and a bit of language).

*Warning Poppy War Spoilers in the rest of this post (also I have only finished book 2 so I don’t know how it ends)*

Basically Nezha starts off as the Draco Malfoy esque (snoby rich bully) character but then has a redemption later in the first book.

The you get to the second book were he becomes the main characters love interest and stuff and you really hope their relationship works out but the. at like the very end Nezha chooses to help his powerhungry dad instead of helping the MC. The really interesting thing however is that even though he betrays the MC he chooses to let her escape in the end of the second book when he could have saved them which makes you still hopeful for his redemption.

This is a semi tropish thing but what makes it so good in the poppy war (and one of the reasons the book is definitely darker) is that the MC of the story has a lot of emotional (specifically anger and attachment) problems that really foil well with Nezha and a few of the other villains who use this to manipulate her.

I think this shows how it is imporant to make your villians go well with your MCs.

Through darkness,
light shines brightest

[Author]

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