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What traits should a villain have?



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Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:38 pm
Mageheart says...



My biggest goal with my novel Tales is to have some fun lampshading and straight out breaking tropes. It's the entire idea behind it, actually. One of the ways I want to go about doing this involves the antagonist for the first half. I want to make him follow the tropes typically associated with evil characters. So far, he has an eye patch and clothing consisting of black and dark red. I would love to have more physical traits, as well as parts of his personality, how he speaks and the actions he does throughout the novel.

What traits should a villain have? Or, at the very least, what traits do you think this character in particular should have to successfully trick the reader into believing that he's actually evil?
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Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:29 pm
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regismare says...



Disfigurements are often associated with villains, as are other physical abnormalities. Dark, old-fashioned clothes are good, too - or, if you're going for a different kind of villain, suits and formal clothing. Being sly, suspicious, charming, and manipulative is pretty evil, too. For some reason, I associate being tall, thin, with dark greasy hair points a villain out to me. Being generally unkempt is red-flaggish, as is being a loner or social outcast. Introversion and 'weirdness', or simply being eccentric or unconventional can make people wary.

As a final note, TV tropes has a page on villain tropes, so check it out if you want : )

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Tue Mar 07, 2017 11:43 pm
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PrincessInk says...



I don't know if this is the norm but these are my ideas:

Villains are really bad people with no conscience at all and have no origin to their evil. I guess another characteristic that makes me think they're villains is that they love to make people miserable and that they can ruthlessly kill and maim. And maybe that famous villainous laugh. I imagine them dressed in black and covering up their faces with a cloak and that sort.
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Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:14 am
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Brigadier says...



lol
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Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:34 am
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Rosendorn says...



I would avoid "physical deformity= villain" unless you plan on breaking that association. It's a really nasty one for people who genuinely have physical deformities.

For me, it depends on the type of villain you want to create.

Do you want an evil nobleman? A biker? A sketchy creep? A pitiful villain? A prideful one?

Each type of villain has their own "look." If you pick the type of villain, it'll be easier to narrow down all the possibilities.
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Wed Mar 08, 2017 1:38 am
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niteowl says...



For some reason, when I think of villains, I think of cartoon characters first, probably because I was more exposed to those over a longer period of time than any book villain. A couple things that pop up that haven't been brought up yet (though they may be on that list)

-A sort of singular obsession/goal to the exclusion of all/almost all other things. Examples from the top of my head:
Fairly OddParents-Mr. Crocker's obsession with "Fairy Godparents!", Vicky's tormenting of Timmy
Spongebob SquarePants-Plankton's obsession with the Krabby Patty
Kim Possible Dr. Drakken wants to take over the world
Rocket Power Lars constantly tormenting the younger kids

The Much Smarter "Sidekick": I have no idea if this is a proper trope or not, but some of the examples above have a much smarter female sidekick who does the "behind-the-scenes" work. Examples include Plankton's supercomputer wife Karen and Dr. Drakken's henchwoman Shego. The latter is so unbalanced that in the movie,
Spoiler! :
it's honestly not that surprising that Shego takes over and Drakken becomes her lackey in the evil future
.

In fact, I just recently read a trilogy where one of the villains had a similar relationship with his assistant, though it was a little more subtle than the cartoons.

ETA: Found it on TV Tropes, with some variations: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... dAssistant
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Wed Mar 08, 2017 12:47 pm
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crossroads says...



From what I see everywhere, a British accent tends to point at a villain more often than not :P

I agree with Rosendorn, knowing what kind of villain they are would help us suggest traits. Way of speaking, for example, can vary greatly between the different types, from sarcastic drawn-out sentences to short barked orders, to mad cackling following every badly disguised threat...
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Wed Mar 08, 2017 2:15 pm
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Feltrix says...



Accents are definitely a villain indicator. Also, villains are often unstable, having a bad temper.
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Thu Mar 09, 2017 7:37 pm
Rosendorn says...



I'd just like to add a note about "unstable villains"/bad tempers:

The thing that makes an unstable villain use that instability for evil is a lack of responsibility towards their own actions. They blame everything about their instability on others, not taking any responsibility (or, on the flipside, they go completely martyr and set up a situation about "I'm such a terrible person for hurting you" with the full implication the other side should reassure them, which in turn removes all obligation towards themselves).

Regardless of the form it takes, villains basically create a situation of "if you don't want me to react this way, stop behaving this way" and this is highly toxic. There are differences between people voluntarily changing their behaviour because they don't want to hurt others, and changing out of fear.

Instability in general, though, isn't really a villainous trait if it's just there. Some people are very quick to anger, or quick to jump to the extreme, or are just generally unstable. This is not inherently bad, even if their temper causes them to lash out at others. There's a difference between saying "you hurt me badly, so I reacted to the extreme I did. I'm sorry for any hurt I might've caused while I was lashing, but you did hurt me" and "you hurt me badly, you earned any reaction I have." The former is healthy, the latter is abuse.

So if you do go the temper route, just be aware of how to handle it so you create a genuine villain, instead of just villainizing a neutral trait.
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Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:39 am
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Stori says...



I don't know- is it more important to have a stereotypical villain or a good villain?

Possibly the best villain I've encountered was Vikram Szpirglas in Airborn. He was a family man, had a sense of humor and genuinely regretted having to kill people. In other words, he felt like a real person rather than another cardboard cutout.

Or there's Bothari of Cordelia's Honor fame. He isn't precisely a bad man- just an unlucky one. He has mental issues, which his commanding officer exploits and worsens. So the master is the real villain; Bothari is a victim who gets a chance at redemption.

I guess what I'm saying is, try not to make any character simply bad. It doesn't make sense and leads to flat characters.
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Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:43 am
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Fiction14 says...



Sorry a bit late to the party, but contrary to an ugly or deformed villain like Mr Hyde from ‘The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, a beautiful villain would be an interesting idea too.

Someone bewitchingly beautiful and mysterious would be a great villain because they can charm and lure victims into their demise. Someone cold and untouchable like Amarantha (not sure how to spell any JMaas character names) from ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ would be a great example she is not an sexualised beauty but she is portrayed as an innocent and slightly demure beauty and it is pretty unnerving to see so much evil in someone who looks so perfect.

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Fri Dec 22, 2017 10:58 pm
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zaminami says...



I don't know if you read this already, but here's basically what not to do with villians in a very indirect way
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Fri Dec 22, 2017 11:13 pm
Mageheart says...



Thanks for all of the suggestions, everyone! I really appreciate the advice. I'm currently not working on Tales, but I think this thread is a great reference for when I'm trying to trick the reader into believe that a character is the antagonist.

I'd just like to reiterate what I'm looking for in this thread! (Just in case anyone is confused.) I'm trying to figure out what traits make a cliche villain - be it official tropes or things that you've noticed as a reader. That way I can apply them to one of my antagonists and trick the reader into believing that they're a bad person, even though they're not.
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Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:54 pm
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Koitsubaki says...



Oooh, would it be alright if I jump in too? owo

The way I see it, it's making an villain-like antagonist. Villains and antagonists are different in that antagonists are simply forces that happen to be opposing the protagonist (regardless of their moral alignment), while villains are just flat-out bad. Just give the opposing force some villainous qualities.

Speaking of which, one quality they have is being a serious threat. They are very powerful in the context of the story and have the ability to defeat your protagonist. If they're morally evil, but can easily be squished by the main character, then the audience won't see them as a threat.

Sometimes, you don't even have to make them evil: just put them in the way of your main character, and make them really, really strong. Throw in some compelling narrative stakes as well, then you'll have an antagonist your readers will want defeated with all their hearts and souls.

Another characteristic of villains is simply being an a-hole. This includes taunting them, styling on them, being playful even during direct conflict, and resorting to shameless (but not necessarily illegal) methods to achieve their goals. Those things really rile people up and cloud their perception of the character.

If you've watched Kill la Kill or at least listened to the anime community around it, you'll notice that everyone hates this one girl named Harime Nui. If my memory serves right, she was the only one which Ryuuko couldn't defeat without getting extremely angry and forcing the preventive intervention of the other characters. Not only is she ridiculously powerful versus the main character, she's a person who really gets under your skin. She pretends to be this cute, innocent, happy-go-lucky girl, but it's obvious to the audience that she's using this in combat simply to provoke anger in her opponents. That's why the audience hates her so much. That's why she's such a compelling villain.

On making a cliche villain to trick the readers, I don't think it's a smart idea to try too hard. The audience might see it coming from a mile away that you're attempting a deconstruction. Besides, I think there are so many stories out there that turn the initial villain into an ally or imbue good qualities into the antagonists.

Hopefully this helps umu

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