What separates a bad written villain to a good written villain

Pixytokisaki14

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This question came to my mind after watching the latest episode of Date A Live where in, spoilers

The antagonist is an all powerful spirit known as Mio Takamiya, her goal is to kill off the main cast, gaining their power and erasing the memories of the main character. Why? It's because the person she fell in love with died and the only way to revive him is to basically give birth to him, thats our main character Shido. Now the he is at the right age, Mio has come to take whats hers and bring back the love of her life.

Same with another Villain who has similar parallels to Mio Takamiya, named, Otto Apocalypse from Honkai Impact 3rd. Another beautifully written villain with the same goal of reviving his loved one by any means necessary.

Then I took a look at the TV drama villains and noticed that they're pretty stale. Like they don't have any reason to act villainous other than pride, envy or just being a bad person. They constantly remind you that "Hey, this is the bad guy. Hate this guy" by making said villain do bad things 24/7 everyday and being just an unlikeable prick.

So this constitutes the question, What's the difference between a badly written villain and a good written villain? I like to see what everyone's opinion on this is.

My opinion, is depth. When writing a Villain, make his/her's reason to doing the terrible things, a rational one. Give them more emotion than just being villainous 24/7 like focusing on their relationships to other characters as well as giving them screentime to make the readers understand how much of a threat he/her is in a story and expose the human part of them. After all, in some stories, the villain is just a regular person who is subject to regular emotions and regular existence. So humanize them to make them not annoying, which causes readers to skip chapters, but also make readers enjoy when they're represented in a chapter. By doing these things, the readers start to care and understand the intensions of the Villain making them feel conflicted, this could lead to satisfying endings where both the hero and the villain would get what they want, but only the villain would find out too late that achieving their goals has an enormous price to pay.

So now it's your turn. What separates a good written villain to a badly written one? What are the types of tropes you want to see in your ideal Villain? And How do you propose writing a good villain? I really wanna see all your answers down below! :meowsip:
 

RepresentingWrath

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Villain =\= antagonist, and I do crave some good ol villain for the sake of villain with the amount of villains that have sobby backstories nowadays. Every villain now has a twisted goal or a sympathetic side, bleh-bleh, mehbleh. What happened to the good ol greed or maniacs? Why can't a villain simply crave power? Why can't a villain simply crave money, or women? Why it should always be some hidden, deep-rooted trauma that made them like that? Why can't a villain be a villain. A person you do not like, a person you dislike, a person you wish get defeated as fast as possible by a hero? Why can't a villain's defeat bring actual joy rather than some "grey moral" bullshit or a bittersweet ending?

Anyway, here's my answer. A good villain is a villain that suits the story. A good villain is not the one that suits tastes of readers, falls into the current trends, or fits into a trope.
 

NotaNuffian

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King Joffrey is a good villain. Everyone hates him. Everyone is glad when he eventually dies.
Kind of sad for his actor though.

But that makes him a great actor.
This question came to my mind after watching the latest episode of Date A Live where in, spoilers

The antagonist is an all powerful spirit known as Mio Takamiya, her goal is to kill off the main cast, gaining their power and erasing the memories of the main character. Why? It's because the person she fell in love with died and the only way to revive him is to basically give birth to him, thats our main character Shido. Now the he is at the right age, Mio has come to take whats hers and bring back the love of her life.

Same with another Villain who has similar parallels to Mio Takamiya, named, Otto Apocalypse from Honkai Impact 3rd. Another beautifully written villain with the same goal of reviving his loved one by any means necessary.

Then I took a look at the TV drama villains and noticed that they're pretty stale. Like they don't have any reason to act villainous other than pride, envy or just being a bad person. They constantly remind you that "Hey, this is the bad guy. Hate this guy" by making said villain do bad things 24/7 everyday and being just an unlikeable prick.

So this constitutes the question, What's the difference between a badly written villain and a good written villain? I like to see what everyone's opinion on this is.

My opinion, is depth. When writing a Villain, make his/her's reason to doing the terrible things, a rational one. Give them more emotion than just being villainous 24/7 like focusing on their relationships to other characters as well as giving them screentime to make the readers understand how much of a threat he/her is in a story and expose the human part of them. After all, in some stories, the villain is just a regular person who is subject to regular emotions and regular existence. So humanize them to make them not annoying, which causes readers to skip chapters, but also make readers enjoy when they're represented in a chapter. By doing these things, the readers start to care and understand the intensions of the Villain making them feel conflicted, this could lead to satisfying endings where both the hero and the villain would get what they want, but only the villain would find out too late that achieving their goals has an enormous price to pay.

So now it's your turn. What separates a good written villain to a badly written one? What are the types of tropes you want to see in your ideal Villain? And How do you propose writing a good villain? I really wanna see all your answers down below! :meowsip:
Good villain = the author gives more screentime to show the human side, even if very little of it.

Bad villain = the author could not give a damn and just write an asshole prolapsing.
 
D

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Villain =\= antagonist, and I do crave some good ol villain for the sake of villain with the amount of villains that have sobby backstories nowadays. Every villain now has a twisted goal or a sympathetic side, bleh-bleh, mehbleh. What happened to the good ol greed or maniacs? Why can't a villain simply crave power? Why can't a villain simply crave money, or women? Why it should always be some hidden, deep-rooted trauma that made them like that? Why can't a villain be a villain. A person you do not like, a person you dislike, a person you wish get defeated as fast as possible by a hero? Why can't a villain's defeat bring actual joy rather than some "grey moral" bullshit or a bittersweet ending?

Anyway, here's my answer. A good villain is a villain that suits the story. A good villain is not the one that suits tastes of readers, falls into the current trends, or fits into a trope.
Bad villain = the author could not give a damn and just write an asshole prolapsing.
Enteresting to see both sides.
 

NotaNuffian

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Enteresting to see both sides.
This reminded me of Death vs Jack Horner situation. Many argue that the latter is just a minor threat, not the true antagonist and merely a joke, so no one really remember him than Death. (That and furries and AI Rule63 arts)

But the two characters actually represent something inevitable; Death being responsibility of one's life and Horner being the insatiable greed.
 
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Ain't Heath Ledger's Joker evil for the sake of being evil? Ain't he liked by everyone? Funny example considering I don't like him. Anyway, I was slightly exaggerating, but I don't feel like elaborating.
No, Heath Ledger's joker is not evil for being evil. He also had a sad backstory, and his character was likeable. Not like he was a good person, but he was likeable for being a clown.
 

NotaNuffian

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Ain't Heath Ledger's Joker evil for the sake of being evil? Ain't he liked by everyone? Funny example considering I don't like him. Anyway, I was slightly exaggerating, but I don't feel like elaborating.
I feel like internet trolls like him because he is the meme of Homelander, an epitome of a wretched storm going amok just because.

 
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No, Heath Ledger's joker is not evil for being evil. He also had a sad backstory, and his character was likeable. Not like he was a good person, but he was likeable for being a clown.
In contrast, King Joffrey is not likeable. He is an ass, has no sense of humor and no charisma. He does evil shit without having a sob story too. That's why I used him as an example.
 

RepresentingWrath

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No, Heath Ledger's joker is not evil for being evil. He also had a sad backstory, and his character was likeable. Not like he was a good person, but he was likeable for being a clown.
Did he? I don't remember it. I remember he gave multiple versions of how he got his scars, hinting he had a rough childhood, but we can't be certain it is the truth. Or did I forget some detail? As for why he is likeable, cause he was charismatic. Same as Dio, though Dio does have a confirmed rough childhood.
 
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Did he? I don't remember it. I remember he gave multiple versions of how he got his scars, hinting he had a rough childhood, but we can't be certain it is the truth. Or did I forget some detail? As for why he is likeable, cause he was charismatic. Same as Dio, though Dio does have a confirmed rough childhood.
Well either way he is likeable. Most villains are likeable even without a sob story. I feel like King Joffrey's are a rarity, and that's why he is the only one coming to mind.
 
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