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How to Make a Good Villain


Villains are important characters in plot because they drive the conflict and they capture the viewer's attention.A villain is the opposite of a hero. A villain is the antagonist of your story whose motivations and actions oppose the protagonist and drive the plot of your story. A villain is the opposite of a hero. In contrast to the hero, a villain is usually compelled by a desire to commit acts of cruelty and immorality.

Every great hero needs a great villain. Villains are the antagonistic force of your story that challenges your hero and drives the action. Most great villains share a common set of characteristics:

1) Strong connection to the hero. The best villains are inextricably connected to the hero, and aid in the hero’s character development through their inherent opposition to them. For example, in the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort murdered Harry Potter’s parents when he was a child, leaving behind a magical scar on Harry’s forehead intrinsically connects the two characters throughout the story. This scar serves as a symbolic reminder of the connection between Harry and Voldemort, and foreshadows that the fates of our hero and villain are dependent on one another.

2) Clear morality. Every villain needs to have his own morality. If a villain spends part your story killing people, you need to give him or her believable reasons for doing so. Make the viewer understand exactly what desperation or belief has driven him to it. For example, Thanos's goal in Avengers is to kill the half of universe people in order to make sure it can have enough resources because they decrease while population worldwide increases. He has a strong moral point of view, and the reader believes that he believes he is doing the right thing by trying to burn books. After all, every villain believes they are the hero of their own story.

3) A worthy opponent. A great villain should be a strong and worthy adversary to your hero. They shouldn’t be weak and easily beaten, nor should they be so powerful that they can only be defeated by random chance. In Sherlock Holmes, his arch-nemesis Moriarty is a criminal mastermind who is every bit as smart as Sherlock. Having a villain who is in many ways equal in skill and intelligence to your hero will raise the stakes of their encounters, as it creates a credible threat that your hero might be bested.

4) Compelling backstory. Any good villain should have an interesting and credible backstory. In addition to creating a deep and more three-dimensional villain, a memorable backstory allows ourselves to identify and even sympathize with the villain. For example, the Gollum character in The Lord of The Rings trilogy used to be a normal hobbit until he was corrupted by the power of the One Ring. In addition to deepening the character by showing us the full breadth of his journey from virtuousness to wickedness, Gollum’s backstory forces us to consider how we are sometimes tempted by bad or unethical forces in our own lives.

5) Villains should be fun. Let’s face it: evil villains are fun. In Silence of the Lambs, viewers hold their breath whenever Hannibal Lecter appears on screen. Whether it’s their black-hearted sense of humor or their odious worldview, our favorite villains possess qualities that we love to hate.

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