Young Writers Society

Very true, kokobeans- the character's motives must be believable. What are really interesting to me are characters who's actions may be ruthless, but are committed for just motives, because then you have this whole ethic dilemma thingy...

I think what truly defines an evil character is their motivation and their actions. The most evil character to me isn't the powerful one, but the one who choses to act solely because they enjoy making other suffer. If that's why you do something, then you could make something as simple as stealing stick of candy evil.

Unfortunately, from that perspective, ethics can be thrown out the window because so long as a character does something 'evil' for a 'good' reason, then they aren't evil themselves, just deranged. =P So it's a fine line, because that would make a lot of villains crazies (which I find them to be =P)

I'm not fond of "evil" in characters... As a matter of fact, I'm not fond of "good," either. Characters are all (usually) people who have various goals in mind for their lives, depending on what choices they made. There is not "good" or "evil" in this world, only opposing viewpoints. The "good guys" don't want to fight against all that is evil, they want to fight against all that they think is wrong from their points of view.

But I do agree on the "make the reader hate the antagonist" part. That's always good, but I prefer to make the reader start thinking to his/herself, "Hey, who are the good guys and who are the bad? I can't tell anymore!" Because that's how it usually is in real life: no good guys or bad guys, just people who have made decisions for themselves.

I was a going to say the same thing. In a story you don't have an "evil" person but only someone who wishes to do things against the majorities will. If you have ever seen the TV show Heroes. Is Mr. Linderman evil. He wishes to get out all the bad people in New York. But the way he does it is by blowing it up. The goal is good but the ways are bad.

KingKamor wrote:I prefer to make the reader start thinking to his/herself, "Hey, who are the good guys and who are the bad? I can't tell anymore!" Because that's how it usually is in real life: no good guys or bad guys, just people who have made decisions for themselves.

I completely agree with you, it's so true what you say.

In my opinion, a character who is evil but is stunningly good looking and is cold and unfeeling like a robot is boring. I have evil characters in my stories, but they have reasons as to why they got that way. Despite how evil they may be, they're in my head and I love them anyway, which makes them seem more like real people than, say, the main evil boss in a video game. Also, having emotion involved makes it more wrenching as opposed to "He killed thirty thousand people and cackled evilly for no apparent reason." Sweeney Todd is a good example of an evil character who was made evil by his situation (he was wrongly imprisoned and his wife and daughter were stolen away from him. Thus, he now cuts peoples' heads off when they come to his barbershop as a revenge of sorts).

Question: Can a story have significant conflict and a dark plot without a truly "evil" character?

Evil, as in pure 'fiction' evil is not realistic and is often just used to tell the hero side of the story as in some justification or just a means to bring about the conflict. The 'new' side of evil is that of the tortured or 'situation-created' evil, much like Lini-chan noted.

Just because someone has suffered an injustice, that shouldn't MAKE them evil. A lot more has to happen to make someone 'evil' if they were 'good' to start out with.

To make a good evil character, use simplicity and play off a character's personality.

Strong willed and confident are all aspects of a good HERO. Add in 'Spiteful' and you have the basic start of a villian.

You also need to make sure the 'backstory' is ripe for it. Hitler can be called the 'most evil man in history', but without the proper pushing and backing he would have just normal man. Charismatic helps, as no evil villian will keep his power if he cannot keep the people, and leadership is a big plus.

However you have it, the villian should start to be seen as a hero to his people, and that's what you want. All the traits that make a good leader should be in this villian, and it be some kind of twist or overt hate towards the hero to cause the conflict.

Hitler, he didn't like the jews and a lot of hard working Germans didn't either. You preach and shout about them and what you are going to do to make Germans the rightful rulers of the land, what is that going to do? Empower the people, any villian needs to be empowered if he's a big figure in more modern stories.

As for the past, usually assassination is a historic and typical fiction piece on how the villian obtains power. It was done in Hamlet and probably ten thousand times before and since it was written, but none are more famous.

Be creative, but just don't make it 'Generic Evil Character #34'.