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Spikytastic β Villains Stamp
Published: 2010-04-22 20:44:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 7229; Favourites: 649; Downloads: 40
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It's not hard to argue that a hero is only as good as the villains they're up against.So make them interesting, for the love of god. If your villain is just "EEEVIL!" because, especially when that "evil" entails every gruesome thing you can think of just becaus it's evil...
Looking at people who have "DARK" and "EDGY" characters who just run around raping and killing for no reason.
I like villains. Well, no-- I like writing villains. I prefer the heroes, generally, when I'm reading or playing or watching, but I love writing for good villains.
Villains are the story-- a villain is what blows the hometown up, kills the adorable sidekick that gets the hero moving, comits the crime, and builds the deathray.
They're really, really important-- they're not just there for the sake of being there. Make them interesting. Maybe give them a good backstory (that isn't just "oh, Captain McEvil Pants' parents abused him so now he rapes people", hopefully), or make their acts make you really want to see them taken down, or even just make them interesting.
Maybe this one is tragic, maybe this one is a pleasant guy (pity he murders puppies on the weekends), maybe this one just enjoys every minute of it, maybe this one tortures people in his basement, maybe this one just steals candy from babies.
Case-in-point, go watch or read Monster, and if you're not in fear and awe of Johann Liebert, I don't want to know what's wrong with you.
When all your villains are the same grade and level of generic evil, it's boring.
Put effort into a villain, don't just make them "EEEEEVIL!" just-because, and don't make them all DARK and EDGY just to make them seem threatening, because it doesn't work.
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Comments: 72
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I prefer "Well-Intentioned Extremist" villains β the ones that have a valid point and/or a noble goal (too bad their ends are completely horrible). My main villain wants to commit genocide on the Abrahamic faiths because in her mind, they did it to her people first (she's a Slavic pagan) and she wants to make sure that they can't finish the job. Β Then I have two completely separate villains who both want to abolish violence, but they both go about it by kidnapping people, albeit for different reasons (with one brainwashing and mutating their captives due to perceiving individuality and differences between peoples as the cause of hatred and violence, and the other resorting to genetic engineering and things that shall not be described because he wants to infuse everybody with the qualities and abilities of plants so people and animals won't have to kill each other in order to keep themselves nourished). Β A fourth villain is a deranged "artist" (read: he petrifies women into lifeless statues to "preserve" them) who has noble qualities and a code of honor (he has deep respect for other artists and has a "may the best man win" mentality to art competitions, so he's a graceful loser). Β There's a few others, but those other villains largely fall into the "generic evil" mold (one of them is the father of the aforementioned artist and, in stark contrast with his son, has a rivalry with another clan of artists that he takes way too seriously, to the point of trying to commit murder β the father and son frequently get into arguments over this β and yet another villain runs a sex slavery operation, 'nuff said, though he does run his business in a very customer-satisfaction-oriented manner (which unfortunately means that the women he's kidnapped go through hell)).
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I have an RP partner that writes really boring "hero" characters but writes interesting villains.... and kills the interesting villains with his "hero" characters long before they could reach their full potential or after a short time which bothers me because then my characters don't get to interact with the villain to much
In our latest RP my main character never even met the villain before the villain was killed....... Simply because he wasn't ready to face him.....
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I'm laughing at the name "Captain McEvil Pants"
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I SHALL random person on the internet!
I SHALL!
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My problem when making villains is that I give them TOO GOOD of a reason so then it seems like they aren't actually in the wrong and then me as the writer has some internal conflict about what is truly morally right
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very true, not a good story without great villians lol
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Absolutely. After all, in the words of the TV show Leverage, "Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys". If you can't make a compelling story with the viewpoint reversed (i.e. the villain is the protagonist of the story and the hero the antagonist), then your villain is probably not a great character. I myself have issues with writing interesting villains, but it is really just a matter of practice.
Great stamp.
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This! SO much win! I totally agree with this!
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I'm so glad you made this. Poorly made villains are one of my top pet peeves.
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Villains are awesome. I always hate how easily most of them are taken out I mean ugh.Β
My favourites are the ones that dont give the hero a chance and just hit them with everything right off the bat. It makes you think harder and makes the story more interesting trying to work through actual challenges rather than the same old same old.
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I love writing villains, too. They create the conflict of the story and most of the plot with it XD Their dialog is fun to work with, too. XD
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I think the best types of villain is the one who doesn't see their corruption and generally believe that they are doing good or the ones who are hurting others because they are hurt themselves.
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Oh yeah, those are the best ones.
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some of my faveorites come from the Tales of Series they had some good villians.
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Never heard of it, but I might look it up though.
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They are quite good rather addictive though.
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I've had a look, they look brilliant. The openings are fantastic! Remind me of Final Fantasy, and that has made me realised that your icon is a chocobo and it is so cute!
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Tales of symphonia is a good place to start. I will give you fair warning, it might just alter your world view.
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That would be about my luck.
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Most tales games tackle real world issues and they are not at all squeamish when it comes to criticizing.
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I see, that's good.
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I've made someΒ villains, and hopefully I could think of a good reason why they're villains in the first place...
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It is a good place for bathos to grow when a villain is unconvincingly evil.
People seem to be only paying attention to heroes partly thanks to the overgrown "Mary Sue" movement, but I think villains are more important, because CONFLICT is what pushes the plot forward
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I agree, and not just villains, but heroes too. There's nothing worse than a story let down by its' characters (except maybe characters let down by their story)
HOWEVER, there can occasionally be villains who kill for the sake of it IF you're careful about it.
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I agree with you. MOST villains need a sympathetic side to them. This goes to the hero as well, most Heros need flaws and mean side. Grey characters are the best.
and Villains who have simple motivations(Greed, power, Ego) need to be used carefully otherwise the story would be boring.
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Exactly. Real people are full of grey areas, and characters with such are usually more rounded - three dimensional if you will.
Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen you elsewhere on DA...
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I prefer villains who seek power, have a vengeance, and kick major butt to wow me.
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^o^ but wha tif i choose no villains? i like cutesy pretty stories with no comflict ^o^. does that make me idiotic?
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The villain or antagonist in this case doesn't even have to be a person. it can even be an inanimate object or the protagonist's own insecurities or even a deadline.
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an object is a conflict too ^o^ and so is an insecurity and a deadline ^o^
what if i just want a 'playground' for the characters and them to be happy? ^o^ am i idiotic?
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Well then that sounds like a "day in the life of" but even those have some issues popping up.
So basically any conflict is kinda unavoidable.
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not if i just put fun objects playing without conflict! ^o^ they will do anything they want without restrictions!
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Minecraft on creative mode?
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I personally feel the problem being that the hero usually is badly written and hardly interesting - how often do I see it that the villian goes completely OOC or gets haxed by something stupid or Mary Sueish just so the sucky hero can win.
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Why do hero always have to win.They don't have to win every battle.For example if the the villian stole a painting then let the hero lose,but if it is about raping that something different
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If you don't like the notion that villians have no foothold in kids' shows, try Xiaolin Showdown - the villian is, while goofy, clearly a challenge for the heroes, even succeeding in some greater plots here and there. It also averts the black and white morality given in most western cartoons.
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Or a baddie could acctually be good, like Snape.
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Or visa versa (Turbo)
((Sorry, don't mind me))
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You wanna know what's really fun about writing a villain?
If you're doing a fan-fiction, and the villain in question is none-other than Majora's Mask.
I LOVE and HATE figuring out what that cursed mask is going to do next, because you think about how sadistic and childish it really is.... And you think about what it should do next, as you really shouldn't use what it already did in Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask... But to come up with something THAT deviously cruel... I mean, everything that mask caused in the game is an EXTREMELY high bench mark to reach o.o
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Villains are what get the story going in the first place anyways. If your villains's motive sucks, the rest of the story suffers because of that.
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I love seeing a good villain and giving them props (not that they should win...but hey, I gotta respect when they're an impressive bad guy!).
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