How many of you have seen the BBC show Sherlock? I'm betting many, because it's an amazing show with an awesome cast and a gripping storyline. I want to draw your attention to the villain of Sherlock, the main villain anyway. Jim Moriarty. Take away the wonderfully creepy acting and the threatening dialogues and you have a pretty normal-looking guy. I don't know the name of the actor, uber-talented as he is, but he's not that dangerous looking. You hear of Moriarty's actions, and you think that he must look the part of the ultimate villain, complete with an impressive giant physique and battle scars. Jim's just an Irish guy in a nice suit, yet evil just seeps out of his pores.
On the other side of the spectrum, there's the character of the Beast from Disney. One of my favorite Disney movies, and it comes with a really beautiful message. The message is drilled into our heads from an early age to not judge books by their cover, but that's not how things work on Wattpad. No no, on wattpad, the blonde cheerleader is always evil and the guy with tattooed arms is always dangerous.
The villains always look the part on Wattpad stories, well almost always. I'm disappointed in that. Villains always sneer and say vicious things. Maybe I'm being a hypocrite, because my villain's blonde as well, but she's not a cheerleader. Anywho, I would love to have a villain that is so awesome that no one even knows the extent of the poison in her heart. Someone cooler than the star in fact. A villain that doesn't just succumb to the hero's attack and die, but makes the hero (or heroine, of course) squirm and struggle to vanquish them. An awesome example of this is how Hannibal tests Clarice in the SIlence of the Lambs. Of course, Hannibal is locked up for the majority of the story and there's another killer who skins people. But the skinner is a distraction the viewer isn't really that interested in. He has a reason for his mental state, and in the end he is nothing more than a broken child that went down a very wrong path. But Hannibal is infinitely more fascinating, the lethal syngamy of intellect and evil. He forces Clarice to disclose her most painful memories, weakens her and helps her.
It's just pure awesomeness. Watch the movie if you haven't, because the performances by Jodie Foster and Gene Hackman (I think) are truly jaw-droppingly earnest and effective. Another story where the villain is totally different is in the movie Orphan. I'm not going to spoil the movie for you, watch it if you want. It's pretty good, so watch it if you want. Or if you can't, just google it.
I'm just saying that I think in a story the villain is as important as the hero. Sometimes, granted the only villain is circumstance. But when there is a villain, I prefer them to be kick-ass. I'm talking the kind of evil that makes you dream of them at night and wake up thankful that they exist only in stories. The kind of villains that can scare you simply through the cleverly phrased words of an author.
Most of the stories on Wattpad, they make light of the villain. The villain should be given just as much weight, just as much strength as the hero. No one wants to see the hero win the fight without breaking a sweat. Where's the fun in that? They should fight till their dying breath and hang onto life while the villain dies. They should be drained physically and emotionally by the things the villain throws at them. The victory over the villain should be the hero's greatest accomplishment.
I know I gave a lot of examples from movies in this chapter, so I'm gonna try and list some book examples.
- Voldemort. Best book villain ever, with the coolest sidekick (Nagini). He was empty, cold and heartless. the exact opposite of Harry. He was powerful, and made you worry for Harry. Because in the end, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was the strongest wizard of his time. And Harry? Harry's a teenager with a bunch of his friends and a phoenix at the most. It was a fight that we bit our nails and fretted about. Voldemort was what made Harry's victory all the greater.
- Frankenstein. The horror classic is unique in that after reading it, I felt both disgust and pity for the poor creature that Dr. Frankenstein had created. But a creation turning on its creator in such a manner, it's probably the first of its kind. Read it for the goosebumps.
- Dracula. Bram Stoker's Dracula is the first literary vampire and arguably one of the best. His cruel intelligence, a veneer of sophistication over savagery. Beautifully written, especially because I think this is how vampires ought to be, not sparkly metrosexuals in Northwestern USA.
