The villain in my book, Governor Scott Leon, is obsessed with control. Very Machiavellian, and arrogant. He wants people in the dark because he doesn't trust anyone, and he wants to maintain his status quo by keeping people in fear, while remaining under the radar.
My story takes place in an incredibly flawed society and the villain and heroine simply have different ideas of how to change it. The villain is mainly the villain because she opposes my heroine, and because she starts from the position of power. I love stories fraught with grey areas and full of entirely flawed characters, so I took a shot at creating one myself! (We'll see how that ends up for me haha)
One of my Villains, Wonder Rod, has a sad story. A genius inventor who continuously tried his best to sell his complex tools and gadgets to anyone who would buy them. Too proud to take a boring day job and self assured in his talents. He tried to make a living off of it and take care of his sick mother who needed her medical bills paid. No matter how hard he tried his efforts just weren't enough. His mother passed. His dreams withered up and died. He then vowed to show how useful his tools could be as a supervillain. It's his way of showing his potential that was passed over again and again.
My villain is basically like Adolf Hitler. He wants to make a better world for his kingdom by destroying all the rival kingdoms.
The main villain in my current project, Felicity Palmer is a very intelligent, clever, beautiful, and devious heiress. Her entire character is based on a film noir style femme fatale. She uses everything in her power to get the two things she loves most in life; money and social status. It isn't enough that she was born to one of the richest families in the US, or that she married one of the richest men in the world (who is twice her age). She constantly uses her charismatic charms to climb up the social ladder. Felicity has no morals at all and will do nearly anything in her power to get what she wants. Because of this, she singe-handedly caused her own sisters' depression, which eventually lead to the sister's death. Felicity is also able to outsmart nearly anyone who questions her true intent. She sees people as her puppets and is very good at manipulating them into doing what she wants. Her true evil persona is not known until well into the novel, where she admits to destroying her sister's reputation in the cut-throat high society of the early American 1900s. Picture Ilithya from the Spartacus series meets Baroness Shraider from The Sound of Music put together. She has the brutal ruthlessness of Ilithya, but carries herself very elegantly, like the Baroness.
My villian is pedophile. I'm pretty sure Freud doesn't even have a convincing answer for why they do what they do . . .
I have three villains in my story, one of whom evolves into a hero, one stays a villain to get his just deserts, and one beats up his concubine, until he too gets his just deserts. I think for a villain to be multi-dimensional, he has to be flawed, something in his background that allows a reader to understand, if not sympathize, with how he came to be a villain. My bad villain is a shipping master, secretly in cahoots with the biggest pirate in the Roman Mediterranean. He is rich, successful, and hands off some of his clients' shipping to the pirate, himself pocketing some of the insurance (the Romans had shipping insurance of a sort). He also is brutal, and recently had some Romans kidnapped and killed, their wives sold off to slavery. He has not himself personally killed anyone - yet. His flaw is revealed with internal dialogue when he fears imminent exposure... his thudding heart reminds him of the crucifixioner's hammer. As a boy he had watched his uncle be crucified in Lebanon based on guilt by association, and he relives that experience briefly. Later, when he does kill personally, he finds it enjoyable, though the first experience is terrifying. The pirate, on the other hand, his accomplice, is simply a very successful, if illegal, businessman, running a vast enterprise with intelligence, logistics, and finance, killing only when necessary. Hasdrubal the shipping master is simply his tool, which he does not trust because of the man's brutality and needless risk-taking. He begins to emerge as a likable scoundrel after he kidnaps Hasdrubal in Alexandria to have a "counseling session"; Hasdrubal had one of their agents in the Roman army camp murdered out of fear his identity might be disclosed. The pirate eventually transitions into a hero, though not before hijacking one of the big Roman ships in the Indian Ocean enroute to China. Wang Ming is the consort to the heroine, a Latin-speaking translator Marcia Lucia/Si Hoar. She was brought to Luoyang at the age of twelve to be prepared for this task, and given to him as a concubine. He deals very well and professionally with men, gets along well with the Romans, but is crudely insensitive, verbally and physically abusive to her, partly out of jealousy, partly out of an inability to see her as a mature woman (she is now 22). Again, brutal, but also weak, jealous, lacking self-confidence around women... he beats his wife and other concubines also, though this is never "on-scene," but the source of gossip in the Chinese court
My villain is an ideologue who has taken some deeply good ideas to the point of militant extremism, adopting an ends-justify-the-means approach and streamrolling over everyone who has even minor disagreements with her. in her mind, everyone who disagrees with her agenda is hurting people, and hence all of the patently evil things she does are internally justified on the grounds that they prevent larger harm.
The main villain in my story is the King. But he's not really a villain, because the Government advising him are twisting his will and brainwashing him into hating the small folk, and my MC is part of the small folk. So you could say the Government is the villain, but for a large chunk of the story the King is seen as this Satan worshipping scum bag
This, first and foremost. But besides that; My main antagonist, who also happens to be a main character, is the lord of the largest independent kingdom in a realm, who realized that the country being divided and ruled by petty lords has led to centuries of warfare, poverty and political strife without an end. He realized that in order for the land to know a lasting peace and prosperity, he has to unify it under one banner for the eventual good of all. In the beginning of the story, he charges the priests of a new faith to go forth and spread it, as it is a faith that, contrary to the old faith, preaches peace and monotheism. Hoping that somewhat "moulding" the people before taking military action to sympathise with his cause. Little did he know that these initially peaceful new priests eventually turn into a full-blown inquisition of burning men at stakes and converting people by the sword. It turns into a machine without a stop button over which he has no control. Unable to stop this self-created monstrosity, the guy is loathed throughout the lands as the brain behind this inquisition, while he is in fact not, as he thought it would just be peaceful preaching, only seeing it as an extra layer in his scheme of unification, and is trying to stop it behind the scenes. But that doesn't matter, the priests have their own agenda and do not consider their faith as subordinate to a kings will. Slowly, the counties and kingdoms rise in rebellion against him, some of the lords of which are main characters as well, and he is thus made the primary "antagonist" of a lot of people. He is thus not evil, although many see him as being so, and with good reason. "He" is forcing them to abandon their old gods and either fight or surrender to his might. The saying; "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" is a good description of his story. I realised that in my story, what constitutes "good" and "evil" depends totally on how one views the world. For many of my characters, adhering and honoring the way of the forefathers is seen as "good", even though that the wars that often spring from the way in which the land is organised are a by-product of this political division. Their gods are not evil, but not totally good as well, but since this is the way of their people, worshipping them is seen as "good". The new faith, which essentially preaches peace and love, but is forced upon them, is seen as "evil", even though many would say that the message of this faith is "good".
I've got two main villains in my story. Father and Daughter and both with government control. Now I must say, that while a lot of the conflict is because of the father, who is the president of the country, I focus on the daughter a lot more. She's more human and I'll admit that her character even helped flesh out my MC's character a lot better. The Father is more of a force of nature, and while he still has human traits, the Daughter is the one that drives the conflict, even if she doesn't intend to. I'd say the Daughter is sort of like a second MC. They're not true villains to me. Just characters with conflicting views. And as I just finished typing that ^^ I remember, I do have a few other characters that I'd say are more villainous than the other two. But when I finished my first draft of my story, I realized the characters quite resembled the Four-Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Accidental at first, but I think I'll build on that.
I would say mines not really a villian but the/an antagonist as his goals directly effect the heros with out truly evil intentions.
Mine isn't a single "villain" per say, so much as a group of individuals. They feel that the world would be much better (for themselves, not for the general public) if they were simple in charge, and so the book is focused around one of their grasps for power. You could say they're simply "evil" and want to hold power so that life is more comfortable for them.
Well I was very hesitant to write a novel with a villain after writing so many short stories that have no villain whatsoever. But this one is a traditional pro war, fascist, misogynist man that is constantly at war with himself. He is pure evil because he just has a desire to hurt/kill as much people as possible before he eventually dies. He is a man of power and control and his name is none other than coronel Javier Guerrera.
First and foremost, while I have other villains who may turn out worse... I'll start off with the one who definitely kicked off the plot by knocking on the door of my heroine's home. Literally. It's debatable just how sympathetic he actually is, but he honestly wants to save the heroine from what he knows is a dead end future where she will end up a sacrifice, "destined" to be killed by the town's current "Savior". She wasn't aware that this was in her future, but he was privy to that town's dark secret because he himself had been a Savior of another town, and he was forced into this task as a young man. He had been close to this sacrifice growing up, and before that moment was revealed as having "been all part of the plan", he was forced to kill his best friend. Learning from the other "Elevated" Saviors that every part of his life had been predetermined by them caused him to turn his back on the town that he had grown up in. He is secretly maddened by the thought that he may not have real choice in his life, and to him, saving Sacrifices is his hopeful way that he does have control over his life after all. He uses one of the previous Sacrifices that he had nursed back to health to create a "bomb" for the heroine's town, to warp the fanatics of the Savior into what he thinks are their "real forms": mindless shadowed masses. He unleashes them on the town, to flock to the Savior, in order to force the heroine's hand. That act alone is what seals it in for me that he's a villain. Especially when this may not have been his first "bomb"... He'll even kidnap the heroine if he has to, which opposes her dream of being free from a role of being a designated "villain". Like I said, it's debatable about his level of "sympathy".
Two main baddies (well three). I have thought many times of taking over the world and when I was asked why. I'd simple say "because." So I have the guy in the shadow controlling a black ops agency that wants power--all of it! A former ship captain that lost his daughter and snapped against society in general (Why couldn't she be an artist? Why did her shuttle pod have to expolode? She never should have been selected into....) And the alien bad guy surprise...typical, playing on our own fear of insects and such. So, hopefully this helped you adding to this. Actually my MC who is a good guy goes through a phase and goes bad a bit...I should shut up now. A moment ago I was feeling awesome about my novel and characters, now I feel like I have to delete and start the whole thing over. AB
My villian is simply an asshole, let's put it like that. Sure he had a difficult childhood that made it impossible for him to trust anyone, but that is no excuse and he admits it. He doesn't take pleasure in being the bad guy, he simply doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself
My villians do what they do 1. to make money 2. force off habit 3. for power and control 4. because that's all they know
Mine is spiteful and misguided. He thinks he's working toward the greater good, but he's really just making it worse.
I'm in about the same place with my "villain," though sometimes I see this as a flaw (in my own writing, not making a criticism of yours). I like to think of him as the antagonist rather than the villain, and love to play with ambiguity/unreliable narration... but then I worry that the line is too blurry and the lack of a more cut-and-dried bad guy is lowering the stakes too much. I wander through my character sketches into "everyone is sort of evil" territory and then back out again, (over)correcting until everyone is on the spectrum between sympathetic villain and troubled hero. I guess I'm trying to find the right amount of humanity to write into him.
To give examples with variety here are some from different ideas: Metzger- In the Nazis for his own gains. Has high intellectual and pragmatic standards. Sees people distantly, like toys or specimens. Resolute in his goals sees everyone as following their own path, so why bother with morality? Retains control and information whenever possible. Jim- Lower class values and sense of community among the downtrodden.Replaced by higher-class people at his job enhancing his anger at classism. He cared deeply for his family welfare, and so he leads them into organised crime. Struggle between his humanity and his profession. Sophie- Very well-meaning and even quite intelligent and sophisticated but ends up with an awful relationship with her son due to her refusal to accept his transgenderism, even after surgery. Quite preachy and stubborn. Has an unintentionally condescending "I know better" attitude to "sinners." Does not want to admit that her husband beats/did beat their son(shown in two time settings). Apharael- Deeply ambitous, believes in making a mark as the highest goal. Very pragmatic and reasonable, but ruthless and oppressive rule. Insecure about telling his son he's adopted. Believes in his rule as a greater good. Knows he is aging towards death so almost obsessed with his son as his legacy.
One way or another, villainy in my stories always involves harming people who don't present a threat. Motivations include greed, power-lust, xenophobia, a desire to prove oneself, a desire to make the world a better place, a desperate wish to find someone with the courage to stand up and fight against them, and Lovecraftian levels of nihilism.
I like classic villains, a lot. No complex motivations, no conflicting emotions or hint of good. Just evil wizards who are evil because they can be evil and get away with it. Seriously though, I enjoy complex villains, but I really appreciate the purity of a villain who is evil out of pure self-interest and sadism. I tend to end up with villains who fit into a Hobbesian philosophical explanation. My villains are often evil because they appeal to no higher authority, or do not believe their actions will ever have any negative repercussions on them. To put it bluntly, they are evil because no one can punish them for being evil. I guess I would say that I make a distinction between "antagonists" and "villains." My stories often have antagonists, and they often have complex motivations and simply differing opinions from the heroes. My villains are usually completely evil, as explained above.
The first paragraph is some background into one of my villains. My story is basically a book series about the life of one man, and how he deals with the bad things that happen to him. In my high fantasy story, the MC and king of a kingdom is married to another king's sister in law to create an alliance with that kingdom. Sometime (approx. 1 year) after their wedding, the king (not the MC) and his wife the queen are murdered. My MC's wife and his queen returns to the kingdom to find out what happened to her sister. After another year or so, the wife of my MC returns with an army and declares war on her separated husband (the MC). Through some time of war, the queen is killed, and the war ends. While not the only villain in the story, the wife/queen is responsible for many people's deaths, and it is not known why exactly she went to war with my MC. In some way or another, towards the end of the book/book series it is revealed why exactly she went to war, and it shows that the MC is really a terrible person. (He was not the best guy before, but when the reader learns he is essentially responsible for much of the book's death and destruction, he almost becomes the villain.) I also want to say that the events i described only encompass the second and third books, of a planned eight. Throughout the rest of the novels, the queen's actions severely impact the lives of many major characters. Sorry if it's confusing The MC: a king of one kingdom His wife/the villain: the sister of another king The other king and his wife: the ones who are murdered
