Exploring your villains...

[D.S.Nate]

I've been asking a bunch of writing-related questions on my discord and thought I'd share some of that energy here lol

QUESTION: What personal 'shadows' or fears do you find yourself exploring through your villains or antagonistic forces? ?
For me, I feel it's the old question 'What if we are not too different?' and 'What changes, (both little and big) could have happened that would make me think like them?'

Because I do try and write villains that although I disagree with, I find it hard not to see their point.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

After decades of gaming, I think I've explored every villain type I can think of, so I write the ones I have the most fun with...

 

[Iri.Mosaic]

I like using villains as a medium to explore the MC's flaws and insecurities. They can be a control freak? Their villain is a despot. They're a misandrist? The villain wants to commit genocide. They fret over their image and appearance? The villain is a narcissist who literally resculpted their body to be 'perfect', and painstakingly sculpted a persona to position them into the role of a charismatic leader, so they can impose brand their perfection into the world's face, thus forcing it to recognize him as such. Make them the worst aspects of the MC's personality, and force them to confront it.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I don't explore anything through my villains. I just write what I think will be entertaining.

 

[RiceballWasTaken]

QUESTION: What personal 'shadows' or fears do you find yourself exploring through your villains or antagonistic forces? ?

everything and unlike the villains, those bastards actually managed to do something with their life for better or for worse. I hate them and the protagonists for their strength that will be greater thaan what I will ever be possible of doing.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I don't explore anything through my villains. I just write what I think will be entertaining.

This.

 

[Hsinat]

My range is either they are dr doofenshmirtz or Silco.

It's no in-between.

 

[MasterY001]

My main villain is a super-genius manipulator from the slums. Since no one took him seriously, he climbed the political ladder out of spite. His goal is absolute control at any cost.

I'm trying to explore two connected ideas: unrecognized talent and vengeful ambition. Deep down, everyone wants to show the world what they can do. But if the world doesn't listen, that frustration could turn into something dangerous.

 

[D.S.Nate]

I don't explore anything through my villains. I just write what I think will be entertaining.

Ay, I respect it.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

I haven't actually introduced any of my main villians in my story yet, but while planning them out I've definitely found myself exploring the concepts of motives with them.

So one's a businessman and views evil as just another form of business.

Another is just a sick and twisted individual who wants to see people suffer to satisfy his feelings of self-superiority.

The third (actually, first plotwise) villian I have planned is just someone who wants to go his own way in life.

 

[MasterY001]

So one's a businessman and views evil as just another form of business.

Another is just a sick and twisted individual who wants to see people suffer to satisfy his feelings of self-superiority.

The third (actually, first plotwise) villian I have planned is just someone who wants to go his own way in life.

So...

Parker Selfridge from Avatar, Nolan's Joker, and... IDK, Sid from Toy Story?

everything and unlike the villains, those bastards actually managed to do something with their life for better or for worse. I hate them and the protagonists for their strength that will be greater thaan what I will ever be possible of doing.

Uh, do you need a hug?

 

[Clo]

My villains are good people working off bad assumptions and flawed data.

They are the worst kind of villains. (In the sense that they are great villains, and hard to hate)

Because they're not delusional, insane or psychotic. They are convinced they're doing the right thing, and they have data and all to prove it.

It's just... that data is using biased sources and skewed data sets, so they are blind to the harm they cause, because they're not out in the field to see what is up.

 

[D.S.Nate]

My villains are good people working off bad assumptions and flawed data.

They are the worst kind of villains. (In the sense that they are great villains, and hard to hate)

Because they're not delusional, insane or psychotic. They are convinced they're doing the right thing, and they have data and all to prove it.

It's just... that data is using biased sources and skewed data sets, so they are blind to the harm they cause, because they're not out in the field to see what is up.

I can relate to this to a degree. I try to write mine more from acting from extremes than just being evil for evil

 

[Jerynboe]

My current planned big bad is essentially based around the question of how much harm someone can do to something they love by not understanding it.

She 100% wants to take over the pirate run chain of islands because she loves the culture that sprang up there, but doesn’t realize that folding the islands into the evil empire she is from would involve crushing the spirits of the people she’s come to respect, effectively destroying the culture.

 

[Forgotten_Fox]

Honestly I'm just writing my first villain and I'm trying to reflect someone on a same journey from the MC, but affected by different circumstances that choice by choice drove her close to madness.

 

[DireBadger]

My villains are good people working off bad assumptions and flawed data.

They are the worst kind of villains. (In the sense that they are great villains, and hard to hate)

Because they're not delusional, insane or psychotic. They are convinced they're doing the right thing, and they have data and all to prove it.

It's just... that data is using biased sources and skewed data sets, so they are blind to the harm they cause, because they're not out in the field to see what is up.

I try to be like this, but my villains are almost always masters of rationalization. They are the heroes of their own stories. It helps that I spent time in an environment IRL where I got to spend every day dealing with true bad guys, and their most notable flaws are a desire for respect, narcissism, and a perfect assumption that everyone around them is too stupid to match their genius. 'Dumb people follow laws and care about not killing people or are willing to ignore disrespect' is pretty common. In their own way, they have their own rules, and while a lot of those rules are ignorant or poorly thought out, KNOWING the interior rules your villains follow makes them far less one-dimensional.

I like to look at them and assume that in their shoes, with their abilities, background, and flaws, almost anyone would behave the same way.

Of course, those 'flaws' could include a Dexter-like desire to feel death in their hands or casual sociopathy, but I like my villains to be understandable on at least some level. Incomprehensible evil is boring.