Writing a Villian MC

[ShieldOfFishes]

How do you think you should write, or the ways to write a main character that is the villian of the story?

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

How do you think you should write, or the ways to write a main character that is the villian of the story?

First of all, you need to define what a villain is to you. Very often, people confuse it with an anti-hero.

Writing a pure villain is difficult because you have to create a character who commits horrible actions but still makes them empathetic and likable to the reader.

So, my main advice is to give them a strong, relatable motivation for what they do, and show their point of view as much as possible, perhaps using the first person.

Another challenge is deciding what kind of opponents to set against this villain. If you really want to highlight the fact that the protagonist is a villain, you need to pit them against antagonists who could be the protagonists of other stories—good characters with moral qualities. Setting up even worse antagonists would essentially turn the villain protagonist into an anti-hero, so that shortcut isn't an option.

The real challenge is making a villain relatable while they’re fighting against opponents who are better people than they are.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

First of all, you need to define what a villain is to you. Very often, people confuse it with an anti-hero.

Or with an antagonist, your antagonist should be heroic antagonists because as long as it isn't a grey world your villain will become fast an anti-hero because they fight only other villains, your villain doesn't have to be the pinnacle of villainy but an enemy of the heroes.

Writing a pure villain is difficult because you have to create a character who commits horrible actions but still makes them empathetic and likable to the reader.

NO, a villain protagonist doesn't have to be empathetic or even likeable, a villain protagonist can have it but it can devolve fast into anti-hero territory, having their behaviour only loosely linked (in causality) can help to let them appear more evil.
Some villains that are manipulative/deceptive or are ideological (in certain ways) could do good things.
Ideological villains can be some of the most interesting and it would help with the things above.
Something that would be essential if you neither make an ideological/empathetic/likeable villain would be making a fun villain, who is just fun to read about.
Go to Tvtropes if you desire a more in-depth explanation or just need ideas.

 

[Kureous]

How do you think you should write, or the ways to write a main character that is the villian of the story?

Make them edgey

 

[Deleted member 84247]

A villain MC doesn't have to be likeable or good. But, something that doesn't happen often enough is the villain MC story ending in tragedy. I want to see it more often. It happened to Light Yagami.

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

It happened to Light Yagami

But Light is likeable.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

But Light is likeable.

I didn't say he was or wasn't.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

But Light is likeable.

That's subjective.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Make the main character behave like a ??????brat

 

[MesaMesa17]

I'm not sure, but I feel like writing your MC as a villain is a high-risk, high-reward endeavour, so best of luck!

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

How do you think you should write, or the ways to write a main character that is the villian of the story?

One way to write a villain MC is to make them cute, lacking in worldly knowledge (or just dumb, I prefer the former), and functionally alien in mindset.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Villain MC should listen to Eminem's Evil on repeat.

 

[Bluefish]

A hero and villian are the same.

Both fighting for their own ideology.

What matters is their motivation. You have to make them believe that they are correct in their actions, and that there is no other way. That they are doing nothing wrong, and it is (enter here) that is wrong and should be corrected.

You can set it up to where the reader follows along, and roots for them. Or partially roots for them.

The antagonist should be portrayed as a villian-isk character without actually being one. They should not be the focal point of the story as they are simply something that stands in the way at times before your Mc can achieve their goal.

Some kind of misunderstanding would be one way to do this. Your character or the antagonist could misunderstand the intentions/actions of the other character which creates a rift between them.

Or they could be trying to stop your character from doing an act. But, your character has to deny this and fully believe they are in the right.

Their main goal is to... let's say burn the world to the ground. They should have a motivation to do that, and something that makes them believe that cleansing the world of people would be better for all of humanity.

In that sense, the antagonist would be trying to stop them, but they aren't the primary focus. Merely an obstacle.

Hero's main goal is to stop X from happening by beating the villian.

Villians main goal should be to achieve (Motivation) by any means.

Everyone is a hero in their head, remember that.

But if everyone is a hero, then that means there aren't any villian.

A villian is simply a hero with differening ideology, which makes them clash with the opposening one.


Watch Law Abiding Citizen.

Might help.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Villain MC should listen to Eminem's Evil on repeat.

Spoiler: evilest

Call this sex ed with a splash of necrophilia (What?)
'Cause when I say that I'm really the evilest, I'm fuckin' deadass

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Spoiler: evilest

Call this sex ed with a splash of necrophilia (What?)
'Cause when I say that I'm really the evilest, I'm fuckin' deadass

 

[LesserSarcasm]

Give them a cause to reach through any means, the greatest villians in history all had some great cause they were fighting for. Also remember the greatest atrocities are usually done for the purpose of the villians greater good. Be it religious or political.

Put a spin on that the classic hero trope, by remembering that the hero's are just a bunch of assassins to the demon army. A group of people invading a foreign land and murdering the whole villages / town on there way to murder high ranking members of a different political / religious society, hero's to 1 side, villians to the other.

 

[Succubiome]

I think if trying to write a villain, you gotta remember that protagonist bias is pretty powerful, so unless you're careful people will interpret them as the hero or anti-hero.

Not something I've tried to do just yet, but I have noticed that people will tend to (although not absolutely) be on the side of the protagonist and take their actions as justified, while any actions against them tend to be seen as unjustified.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

One way to write a villain MC is to make them cute, lacking in worldly knowledge (or just dumb, I prefer the former), and functionally alien in mindset.

A character with a blue and orange morality would definitely make a villain, innocent child would be an interesting villain too.

 

[ShieldOfFishes]

Thanks for the feedbacks, the reason I asked this though is because I want a kuudere MC who would conquer the whole world, and I want to explore the 'nuances' of how one empire could even possibly manage vast lands that stretched to continents
And that with no noble reason like saving earth from destruction or being outright evil, it's simply a story about how one person conquered the whole world

That's why I want the 'villian' MC to be a kuudere, she's not a saint nor an ambitious emperor, instead like a doll with the sole purpose of world conquest, that's what the story is about and what the readers came to read for

But I've never seen in any media a 'villian' MC done like this, that's why I need feedback

 

[Nolff]

How do you think you should write, or the ways to write a main character that is the villian of the story?

First of all, you need to define what a villain is to you. Very often, people confuse it with an anti-hero.

Writing a pure villain is difficult because you have to create a character who commits horrible actions but still makes them empathetic and likable to the reader.

So, my main advice is to give them a strong, relatable motivation for what they do, and show their point of view as much as possible, perhaps using the first person.

Another challenge is deciding what kind of opponents to set against this villain. If you really want to highlight the fact that the protagonist is a villain, you need to pit them against antagonists who could be the protagonists of other stories—good characters with moral qualities. Setting up even worse antagonists would essentially turn the villain protagonist into an anti-hero, so that shortcut isn't an option.

The real challenge is making a villain relatable while they’re fighting against opponents who are better people than they are.