The Mind and Thoughts of a Normal Guy

Why I love complex villians

This entry is inspired by a newsletter that is now at least a month old, entitled "Villains have feeling, too!"

I really loved how s/he brought out that villains should be complex and well-written but not enough to steal the show from the hero. The truth, in my case at least, is that I try to come up with the most sinister, evil villain (while trying to stay below 18+ ratings), I have to come up with a past for them that draws the reader in and I ask myself what made them this way? The answer I mostly, if not always, come up with is that evil begets evil; they are the way they are because something evil happened to them. In me, that invokes my sympathy and they become my favorite antagonist - the tragic villain.
When written with the proper effect, I believe you can have your reader root for the villain in the sense that if they see a redeeming quality in him/her, they will hope for their redemption. This does not necessarily mean throwing the hero off the stage, but I believe can in some ways strengthen your readers hope for the hero to see this quality and try to redeem this foe.
However, the villain usually has free will and this is what can make him fascinating if this is the case. In such circumstances, it was ultimately they alone who made this decision to do wrong, no matter what the influences; they always have a choice. This draws the reader in because everyone has made a bad choice at one point in their lives and if the villain is written well enough, the character begins to care for the villain, especially when the reader can see a chance for the characters redeeming quality to come through. (i.e., Will the antagonist show an act of mercy on someone because they care for them or remind them of that person, when before he only acted in a bloodthirsty or uncaring way?) Can your readers taste the struggle that goes on inside the tragic villain, feel their pain, empathize to a degree? The reader has to be left wondering about what final choice a villain will take: Will he be redeemed in some way or will they hold onto their wicked cause till the end, their hatred, or what drives them to destruction. To me this is the ultimate in character complexity.

Two of my favorite villains of all time:

1) Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader - While you may or may not like the prequel trilogy of Star Wars, I think that if nothing else, one of their achievements was in showing Anakin's struggle; how he wants to be good, but at the same time can't get rid of his anger and craving for ambition until at last they consume him and then turn him into the infamous Darth Vader.

2) Lex Luthor (Smallville Universe) - One of the things I find fascinating about Smallville is that they took a well known villain and made him a more likable character, even befriending Clark Kent at first. However, he quest to uncover Clark's secret, he lust for power and his greed begin to transform him into the antagonist that is well known.


These two are villains are exceptional in my mind because even though I know what path they chose for themselves later in life, when you see their good side as they start out, you can sometimes find yourself wishing against all hope that they do make the right decisions. And that is masterful writing.