Let's talk about Villains (Off-Topic)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, November 20, 2016, 08:18 (2930 days ago) @ SonofMacPhisto

I've read all these posts, and it has been lovely to do so. Thank you, everyone (still waiting on Raga, though :P).

Oh fine. :p (May have accidentally bought The Witcher 3 and... well... you know how these things go, I'm sure!)

Lots of good posts already so I got to thinking about other things that might help flesh out a Villain:

As other have noted, sometimes perhaps even often times a Villain believes themselves to be in the right. Or if not in the right then at least their actions will help some greater purpose they believe in. Of course, there are also Villains who do what they do to maintain or expand their own power or increase their own wealth.

There are also those Villains who travel down a path of choices starting with small ones, a temptation here, a minor misuse of power or authority there, that slowly leads to ever greater abuses. Don't know what kind of project you're working on exactly, but if you have time it might be fun to start your Villain off as one of these abusers and then come back to them later with them having more authority or a new position they gained by having your hero(es) assist in one of these minor abuses (have the minor Villain make a good, if slightly iffy argument, for the heroes' help) only for it to come back to haunt the heroes later. Personal connection to your Villain doesn't just have to be "the evil Villain kidnapped my son and killed my wife" type situations. Something like "I helped cause this mess and now I have to clean it up" can be fun to play around with.

Another fun Villain type can be the Villain who tries to do the right thing but is forced or tricked or backed into a corner and who then instead of doing the right thing (maybe at great personal cost) instead does or has to make the wrong choice. This could give your Villain a more tragic past. Maybe he or she technically has the power to turn their choice back around but practically speaking doing so would either result in consequences (either personal or on a wider level) that they are not prepared to accept. Maybe they feel trapped even as they are causing considerable disruption or destruction.

There can also be a place for a Villain who just doesn't seem to make sense from the hero's point of view. Maybe they bypasses a town or star system when their forces destroyed so many others. Maybe there are contradictory signs that point to a physical or mental health issue that may or may not exist. Figure out the Villain's reason for these odd actions for yourself (maybe not everything is about or leads to them but rather someone close to them... heh, here I am starting to develop my own villain while listing possibilities!) then weave them into your project as clues and / or dead ends.

I guess to sum up, don't be afraid to go a little off the beaten path here or there in order to give your Villain some unique character.