Writing Tips and Reviews

What Makes a Good Villain?

This is a tricky one. What I've seen from many writers, is their villains psychopaths, murders, insane, which isn't all villains are. Villains are simply the opposite of the hero. The antagonist to the protagonist. They don't have to be an insane psychopathic murder to be a villain. They just need to oppose the hero.

Villains can be good people, or have right motivation for a wrong doing. Many don't even know what they're doing is wrong. There are villains who slaughter people to save them, there are villains who want to destroy the world so it can be reborn, there are some who want to create something to help society but the means of making it harm the innocent.

For me, the line between good and evil is blurred. As Kingdom Hearts says "just as there is night and day, there is light and darkness in your heart". That's the facts, good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. I find villains who aren't pure evil are the most compelling. Villains who are pure evil don't have that spark, they do bad for bad reasons. For me, it's hard to write pure good and pure evil characters, it doesn't exist in real life, so it shouldn't in stories. Yet, there are many new writers who think that light and darkness have to be separated. And that's not true.

Let's look at some examples. Duke from Tales of Vesperia wants to save the world by sacrificing humanity. Izanami from Persona 4 was fulfilling the wishes of humanity with her power. In my series, it is revealed that Nereza from Tales of Eylisia wants her brother back, it was unfair what the world did to them and she just wants to be with him again.

These are examples of villains who can be understood. Not all villains need to have a righteous reason for committing crimes. Sometimes they can just be bad for the sake of being bad. Hotaru Kawashima from Wonders of Mysteria tries to follow her ancestors legacy, while being pretty bad at it, both the legacy and her actions are considered bad in every way possible.

Villains don't have to bad people and they don't have to be good people. The actions of Yuri Lowell are crimes and he's only the protagonist because the story revolves around him. If it revolved around the knights, he would be the villain. I like this comparison. If you switch sides, then the hero becomes the villain and the villain becomes the hero. Tales of Berseria does this, in Tales of Zestiria, the Shepard was the hero and Lord of Calamity the villain. In Berseria, the roles are switched. Both villains want peace, and both heroes oppose the way of making peace. It's the same story with the roles switched.

Pure evil villains are a bit of a problem. And I don't mean writing wise, pure evil is actually easier to write but less compelling to those who are looking for a story about the fight between light and darkness (cough Kingdom Hearts cough). We'll go into that one later.

Now, from what I've seen, people really like to make villains who are "insane". You need to do research about insanity before you make a character that way. New writers have the villain, or really just any character, say "I'm insane" which:
"Believing that you are going crazy is a good clue that you are sane...When someone is developing a serious mental illness with psychosis, such as schizophrenia, they usually don't know it. "Part of 'crazy' is getting away from reality..." " -Gerald Goodman, PhD, an emeritus professor of psychology at UCLA.

To put it simply, they think that they're normal but to others, they're acting out.

Back to pure evil villains. Wanting to destroy the world or destroy the light or whatever evil plot you have, first think about a reason. Is it a good reason? Then your villain isn't pure evil. Is it a bad reason? I still don't believe pure evil exists but sure, whatever floats your boat.

I can't say so much about pure evil villains, I don't like them and making them is impossible for me. I have to make them compelling and interesting, and to me, a pure evil villain is just boring. It goes the same for pure good heroes. What is more boring than watching a pure good hero? They do things for good reasons and don't have any darkness in their heart. Which in Kingdom Hearts terms is: sorrow, hatred, grief and more. All that exist in real hearts.