“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side.” — Darth Vader
I have a lot of thoughts on villains. I’ve been contemplating villains and villainy for as long as I’ve been writing. Some villains leap off the page or screen, and some fall flat.
People have different preferences when it comes to villains. Bear in mind that as I lay out my thoughts, I’m going to be talking about my preferences. This may be one of those subjects where there is no single answer to getting villainy correct.
Villains and monsters aren’t necessarily the same thing
It’s possible for a villain to be a monster. I’m thinking of Hannibal Lecter. When he’s committing horrible acts of cruelty or barbarism, he is clearly a monster. When he’s seducing Clarice into his confidences, he’s a villain. In my opinion, it’s when he’s speaking smoothly and intelligently that he seems the most sinister.
The difference between a monster and a villain is the level of their humanity. Dracula illustrates this, by the different ways that his story is told. Sometimes Dracula is painted as a sympathetic, lonely soul. And then there’s Bram Stoker, who wrote him as a soulless creature, a true terror of the night. The shapshifting, shameless bloodsucker is a monster.
Other monsters: Spider-man’s foe, Venom. Godzilla. And Emperor Palpatine. The Joker.
A good villain is motivated
One of the ways you can tell the difference between a villain and a monster is to simply look at their motivations. Is the character doing terrible things for a purpose? If the answer seems to be No, then they’re a monster.
I like monsters just fine, but I prefer villains. I love villains.
Macbeth is one of my favorite villains. It is argued that he is a tragic hero, and not a villain. I say he’s both. He meets the definition of a tragic hero, but he also meets the definition of a villain. I don’t want to get too much into semantics. I want to focus on what can be learned from Macbeth for constructing a good villain (whether he is one or not).
Macbeth was tempted, and he was motivated. Wealth and power is put before him, and he resists until the love of his life pressures him. His motivations early on are clear, and his struggles are understandable and human. Then, once he’s compromised his integrity, it becomes easier for him to commit greater and greater atrocities.
A good villain is relatable
I’m drawn to characters that I can relate to. Roy Batty from Bladerunner, though not human, demonstrates the most basic of human motivations: to live. Magneto, ruthless in his pursuits, ultimately desires something noble: freedom and equality for people of his kind.
A good villain is a good character
This is a much bigger idea than the others, because a lot goes into making a character good. The character should be memorable. The character should have depth. The character should be important to the story.
I wanted to give some examples of villains that didn’t do it for me, but one of the problems with poorly crafted villains is that they are so forgettable. Most characters that do evil just for the sake of doing evil? Characters that have only style, and no substance? Mustache twirling, cloak swirling, cackling, megalomaniacs that just want to tie women to railroad tracks? Those are not my favorite.
A good villain, to me, is one that could have been the hero, if circumstances were different. In fact, if a story has a good, compelling villain, it doesn’t need as strong a hero.