Thursday, March 15, 2012

You gotta love a good villain

Everybody loves a "good" villain. Not one who is actually good, but a well-developed and well-rounded villain that causes so many problems for the hero to overcome.

The more problems the villain causes, the more interesting the story becomes. And I don't mean those 'evil' villains that you can see coming a mile away dressed completely in black and stroking a cat while bragging about his latest scheme to take over the world, I'm talking about the subtle villains who keeps the reader guessing as to their real motivation.

These are the ones I love to read, and also writing. I have a tendency to try and hide the real villain of the story to add a twist and make the stakes at the end higher than if the villain's known.

Another villain I love is the one who believes they're doing things for the greater good, even if that includes killing many dozen innocent victims in the process.

What sort of villains do you like? Do you prefer to keep guessing or do you like the James Bond style villains?

5 comments:

Kirthi said...

I totally agree: a good villian should tug at the reader's, be slightly pitiful and human but then be evil, you know? LOVE villians ^_^ What's one of your favourite?

Brittany said...

I definitely like the not so obvious villians! It always makes the story more interesting :)

Krista McLaughlin said...

I totally agree - my current villain is definitely one of those that thinks he is doing thing for the greater good and killing innocents. A very bad guy. Gotta love a well-written villain! :)

Angela Brown said...

My preference is for that complex villian. The one that probably believes they are doing the right thing or the one that is tormented.

Jenn said...

I agree with Angela, I like those villains who think they're saving the world in their own way.

I also love those characters where you're not sure if they're the good guy or the bad guy (like Snape from Harry Potter). They really keep you on your toes. :)

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