Writing Tips and Reviews

Villains aren't born, they're made

There's a quote that I found while watching some reviews: "villains aren't born, they're made." And I think that's true, no one is born evil. They choose to be evil.

Look at Mega Mind, he wasn't born evil, he was a kind person who ended up in a place where he was raised to be evil. But he never actually wanted to hurt anyone. He was surprised to see he killed his rival when he just wanted to play.

This "I'm the embodiment of evil" and "I was born to destroy the world" is getting pretty boring. Most villains in today's work are good people who have been pushed to the point of villainy because it's what their peers want from them. If they were capable of living a life where they chose who they were, they would be kind people.

The days of villains who are pure evil for the sake of being evil is dying out. And the days of villains who chose to be evil because they felt like they had no other choice is rising. It's not fun to read a villain who talks about how evil they are when they've done nothing to change their circumstances.

"I was born to be evil" and proceeds to complain about it. Who wants a villain like that? That's not a villain, that's a whiny brat. Even people who have been forced into it by the gods have been seen to be much deeper than the surface level "I'm the embodiment of evil and destruction."

Look at most villains. They lost their families, their homes, and their previous lives to become evil. They weren't told they were evil and laid down with that concept. Although, some still do but at least give them more than "I'm evil lol."

Star Wars, the villain Darth Vader lost his wife and thought his kid was dead. The emperor didn't have much, but he also wasn't the focus.

People want more complicated villains, because it's more exciting. The one note guys can still exist if they're fun, but the main bad guy should have a lot more than being prophesied to be evil and lying down and taking it. I haven't seen any stories in today's age where a pure evil villain with no other reason than "I'm evil" has been the main bad guy.

Yes, someone like the death guild in SAO can be said to be evil for the sake of it. But they're kind of side characters who do very little to the actual plot. I think more monsters killed people than those guys. The main villain was... I'm going to use SAO abridged because that's the version I remember. He was an overworked, tired, and losing his mind game designer. He saw a bug that killed people in real life if they died in the game, freaked out, and locked everyone in.

Villains who people can connect to have been the rising force. People can't really care about a villain who was born to destroy the world and laid down and took it. Maybe if they fought back but every time they tried, it ended up bad. They care about villains who try their best in life and end up in bad circumstances because it happens. And you can see why they went down the road of villainy after so many years of trying to be good just for the world to kick them down.

You can look up the best villains in anime and see how they're not only fun, they're backstory is deep. There are some who can make it to the top ranks by just being evil for the sake of it, but they are fun and good foils for the protagonist, so people ignore that their backstory is "I was told to be evil and I did nothing about it."

The best villains are complicated, they have several layers to them from how they're written, what purpose they have to the story, how they affect the main characters, their backstory, and why they chose to be evil. Villains also don't always say how evil they are because they don't think they are. Most think there doing what's right and the world will be a better place when they're done. The idea of setting the pine woods on fire will eventually grow a thicker forest. It will, but you just set bunch of innocent trees on fire.

That's what people have been looking for nowadays. Villains who are multi layered, who have been beaten down until they gave in to being a villain or who thinks they're doing what's right. One note villains haven't been seen in the top ranks for probably ten years and it's getting rare for them to be written.

Look at Disney, a forgettable villain was from Mulan who people need to look up what his name was. He was evil just because and while he was a threat to the kingdom, he was so one note and boring that people forgot about him. While the memorable villains are: Maleficent, The Evil Queen, Mother Gothel, Hans (for the wrong reasons), and Ursula. All of them have at least one more definition than "evil", and if they do fit the "evil for the sake of it," they're fun.

Maleficent might fit the category, but she's so much fun. The way she talks and how she acts kind while you can feel the malicious intent in her tone. She's just fun. And she was made during a time where villains could get away with being one note, so they really went beyond the standards.

The point is: villains are complicated. They have a reason to be evil and the days of them being born evil with nothing else to them is a dying trade that kind of deserves it. We live in a day of age where people want more complicated stories and aren't satisfied with pure good vs pure evil. Even cartoons are following this trend. Amphibia's Darcy believes in the progress of Amphibia even if that means the destruction of other worlds. And the Owl House's Emperor Belos believes all witches are evil and destroying them is the only way to save humans, an old ideal that has died out in the human world, but he wouldn't know. He also felt betrayed by his brother who chose a witch over him.

That's all I have to say, I've been researching villains for probably six years now and have seen the growth of them. I'm not saying that villains who are embodiment of evil and born to be evil aren't good anymore, it's just society has changed its views and it is true that "villains aren't born, they're made." It's not fun when you hear "I was born to destroy the world so that's exactly what I'm going to do," because we're in an age where the competition is "I was born to destroy the world but I just wanted a happy life, why can't I have that? Why is everything I do need to be bad?" We are in an age where villains have complicated backstories. Where they started out as normal people who turned to evil when they felt like there was no other way. It's Anakin choosing the darkness to save his wife.