What makes a good Villian(or villainess) in a fic?

[Jon UKX]

What do you think makes a good villian in a fic, my idea of a good villian is someone who will do anything to get what they want and will even kill someone if they get in their way.
description is also good for a villian ( or villianess) and metaphors are even better.
Here is an example from an upcoming chapter of Skin Deep of the villianess Madame Dussane.


“She was a tall business woman with short blond hair, bright green eyes that were like cat eyes on a very dark night, an evil smile that showed her glistering white teeth and she wore a black pinstripe suit, a long black skirt and black high heel shoes.”

so what is your view on a perfect villain.

[PancaKe]

Well a villan has to be able to not be cliche like dude behind a computer with a cat. :P Villans have to be either schemingful, or just plain evil with power and contacts and a way of drawing tension to the characters and whole fic.

WDC is a good example, how Giovanni tortures them by evil. he's a mean villan. ^_^

~mist

[Powarun]

I agree they have to do what the hero does but opposite, really try to make a plan work and you should make them succeed once. Yes that sounds hard but it boosts the self esteem up so hight they could do greater things.

[Mewfour]

Or it could be someone who makes your blood curdle. Like Jaws from Reckless Micky...


Suddenly, the shadows came upon him with a whoosh, and Micky suddenly felt a sharp pain clamp his hand onto his shoulder and another stab impale his other. Micky was so surprised he never found the voice to yelp. As the pain bit further into his shoulder and hand, Micky felt a furry body brush up against his back. And suddenly, a brown-furred snout poked past his cheek and snickered, "Hello, squirrel."

The breath from the muzzle stunk like rotting meat, something that a vegitarian species like Micky's could not bear. "What the hell are you?" was all Micky could manage to snarl.

"The name's Jaws," said the muzzle, pushing past Micky's face just enough so that Micky could see a pair of red eyes, partially obscured by blonde braids of hair falling in front of them, glaring intently at him. "I am a vampire bat," Jaws replied, "And I'm hungry." Micky tried to raise his left arm, but as soon as he moved it, a sharp pain shot all the way from his shoulder to his fingers, in a painful rush of numbness. Micky looked at his shoulders and saw a set of razor-sharp talons lodged into his shoulders, with his right hand clamped upon his body. Micky looked on in terror as Jaws opened his mouth, revealing two rows of serrated teeth, ready to plunge into his neck. "The boss isn't happy with you getting in our way," Jaws snickered, "So he sent me to make your half-eaten corpse an example." Jaws paused to lick his teeth as Micky began to weakly struggle. "Bon appetite."

Charming, but effective, no?

[dratinihaunter13]

making a villain just ruthless powerful, bloodthirsty, horrible evil brings him or her dangerously close to cliche. imo, the most effective villain is the one with weaknesses and characteristics that villains aren't expected to have. villains should not be a template, but an individual, and have tons of sides to him or her. make sure the villain is a deep character, at least just as deep as the main character if that's the kind of story your making.

and villains are one of the most fun things about writing trainer fics, and anything for that matter ;)

[Jon UKX]

Thanks for your views everyone, but what about villians like Lady Blastoise from Lapras Valley High or Giovanni from When Destinies Collide, In my views they are unique. So how do you make a villian or villianess like them because to me I think they are one of a kind and nobody could make a villian to match them.

[The Rusted One]

Well, I wouldn't just say a villain had to be evil, dark-hearted but with human emotions - yay for that and all, but meh, that in itself is cliché enough to be the same as the last one.

A good villain (wow, nice oxymoron there) should not be ruthless or heartless, per se, but more stuck on what the want and what they believe is right that their personal feelings, i.e., emotions as to what they are doing, don't influence their actions. This can either be because of some kind of mental detachment from the reality of their actions - involving feelings but a self-inflicted isolation from them, perhaps - or just mental discipline - such as the acknowledgement of these feelings, but a continuation of the actions, whether they work with or against the emotions being felt. In the end, either one will be working towards the achievement of their goal, or just a goal, not necessarily their own, if you understand what I mean.

Yeah, I hope this helps too.

[Wild Female Machoke]

To me, a villian is mostly self-centered to the extreme. He or she had this special ability and took advantage of it or maybe use it to intimidate another villian. The Giovanni in my fanfic maybe a villian, but he is scared of another; M. Bison. He is trying to do anything to impress the Shadoloo leader ever since he took over the Team Rocket Organization. Thanks to his nervousness, Giovanni is, how should I say this, degraded.

[Chris 2.1]

I suppose i would like to have Lady Macbeth as a good villan: She seems cruel, unforgiving, a wolf in sheeps clothing. However, at the end, it becomes apparent she is less than all that...an comits suicide.

Sure, maybe not a villainess, but a memorable bad-@$$ all the same, IMHO.

[Kohdok]

One thing that I find as EXTREMELY important in a good villain is that they NEVER EVER say that they're evil. They see themselves as the heroes who are doing the right thing, even if it's merely for their own good, they try to make it sound selfless. Team Magma and Team Aqua are fairly good examples of this, though the villain aspect could use a tune up.

Villains are VERY powerful and are difficult for the hero to overcome. A good villain wins against the hero at least once, usually in a crushing defeat. If the hero beats the villan every time (Like Ash and Team Rocket) The story starts to lose some of its excitement.

One of the many villans for my fanfic is Mewtwo, who I would probably compare to the infamous Sephiroth in level of villany and in personality. Mewtwo works alone, thinks he is doing the right thing, doesn't care what he has to do to get his way, has some sort of link with one of the main characters, and is quite powerful (Obviously). Mewtwo seeks sources of immense power to give him the means to rule the world. In his mind, he believes that ruling the world will make for a better Earth, wheras the things he does only leaves chaos in his wake. However, Mewtwo is quick to anger and has a bad habit of talking to himself. He does, however, do his best to keep a low profile.

[The Rusted One]

Not true...I mean, there are some villains that are so mentally perturbed that they take pleasure from being evil; they may not necessarily think it's wrong, but they don't think that they're acting in anybody's best interests or that their actions are "good". It just means that a good background and good reason for their mentality is needed.

[God of Fire]

Hmm, I'd have to say my fav type of villian is one that wants the World to gain true atonement from previous crimes and wants the world to gain eternal peace...however they see themselves as the only one capable of this feat and tries to lead the world to certain doom for the worlds revival.

basically Good Intentions but Bad way of getting there. The other type of villian I like is the one that gets traumatised when younger and was left in solitude so he grows mentally unstable.

[soggy_cardboard]

i would like to see a villian/villainess with a cute pokemon, but that cute poke is evil :yes:

[Neo-Xantios]

I like villains with weapons other than Pokémon. They should also attack in a large group and try steal other things besides Pokémon.

[classy_cat18]

I'm not very good at making up human villans, but I like to make up Pokemon villans. Everyone who read my fanfic so far already knows Cackle the Haunter and that Seviper (he's nameless for now), and there's more on the way!

[Darien Shields]

Personally, I like the Gundam Wing approach. There are no bad guys, really (If you think they are, in ten episodes they usually turn out to be working for someone who's worse), but people with different points of view. They should usually be fairly different from the hero, but perhaps have similarities (ala Dr. Evil's speach at the end of Austin Powers 1.) Their point should definately be understandable, but the fic's always biased towards the Hero's. I'd like it if, for once, you got to a main battle and were like "But I don't want either of them to lose..." or less like pokemon, where you know Ash's always gonna win because he's the good guy, but more like "The good guy always wins... Which one is the good guy again?" I mean, you can portray anyone to be a hero, or anyone to be a villain, take Zechs for example. In a war, Zechs is a hero, he fights honourabley and conscienciously, (and he also fights really well), and doesn't really give up. However, in peace, he's a warmonger, going out looking for fights, because it's all he knows how to do and all he wants to do (In Endless Waltz I remember him saying something about not wanting to stop fighting, which is why the situation came about.) There are a lot of villains who I much prefer to the heroes, like Spike in BTVS, simply because they're cooler, and generally, they don't do anything that wrong, they just do what they have to do (i.e., Spike has to drink blood, so he does. Spike has to kill Slayers before they kill him, so he does.) In short, their is no bad or good guy, just bad and good perceptions of the same guy, in my ideal fic.

Otherwise make 'em crazy.

[SygmaXE]

Well, in Pokémon fanfictions, I like villians that actually seem dangerous, not so much comical (Jessie & James.) And make their Pokémon evil like in the Pokémon manga in Japan (They battle to kill sometimes!)

In a non-Pokémon fic, there are many, many ways to create a villian. They don't always have to have super powers, but I'd say put them on the same level of strenght or higher as the protagnist. In Wolf Eternal (advertising!!!), my villians may range from having special abilities (Synical's psychic powers) to having an unnatural trait (Kunai has chains he lashes out at his enemies that's actually attached inside of him which gives him the ability to control the chains as if they were alive) or just enhanched strenght (Like Reaper.) Or, if your story is a realistic one, then the villian would probably be a person who'd want to see the main character fail at any attempt they made.

Personally, the more psychotic the villian, the better.

[Dragonfree]

A villain who kills at least one of the good guys is the best. Even better if the good guys kill the villain too. But killing someone isn't enough for a villain alone... a self-centered, smart and heartless pure evil villain who kills some of the good guys and is killed in the end... the very best. For me, at least.

[Legends-Kuja]

I like antagonists more than I like villains. Liike for instance Gold v. Silver (GS hero and Rival) both characters are full. Sometimes they're both good guys, sometimes they're both evil, but there's one thing--they hate each other's guts. That's it, if someone hates your protagonists guts, I consider them villains! Or more appropritely villains.

The misguided, "I'm evil and badass 'cuz I'm trying to break away from the boring/abusive/chaotic life I had" sort villain is the best, i.e Kuja.

[Kohdok]

A good villan is one who thinks he is doing the right thing. I must say I was impressed when the evil organization in pokemon R/S didn't refer to themselves as "Evil". They think they are doing something good.

Another good villan is one who is completely heartless. In my re-creation of Mewtwo as a villan, I gave the anime one a complete overhaul. Mewtwo is completely cold, corrupted by his own power, unafraid to kill, and prefers to work alone while keeping a low profile. In some ways you can compare him to the infamous Sephiroth of Final Fantasy 7. Mewtwo fled from Team Rocket to work on his own. Unfortunately, Mewtwo always seems to be interefered with by "Those meddling kids", as my heroes always seem to show up in the right place. This is probably because of a relationship Mewtwo shares with one of the characters (His creator's daughter).

A cross between Sephiroth and Dr. Drakken (Kim Possible) is basically the mix that Mewtwo has, and it somehow works.

[Iveechan]

Another good villian (gee, an oxymoron!) is one who the reader views as bad but the antagonist doesn't. In "Guilty by Design", Champ the Hitmonchan views Rick as his trainer/parent figure whom he both fears and loves while readers know that Rick is cruel and abusive. Also Champ feels he deserves harsh treatment for doing "something bad" such as losing at a fight or some other blunder. I think Rick's a convincing villian for he makes people respond with "Poor Champ!" People can relate to Champ's pain and fears.

[Mewfour]

I like my villians simply invincible. What better way to spell "Bad guy" than to have someone who does what s/he wants when s/he wants to with no one able to do anythng about it?

[DannyBoy]

I like villans that do really bad things but still are funny and stupid. That makes reading about bad people better to have humor.

[Kohdok]

Originally posted by IloveX-TINA
I like villans that do really bad things but still are funny and stupid. That makes reading about bad people better to have humor.

Like my Mewtwo.

He's pure evil, but he has a nasty habit of talking to himself and he uses a little tape-recorder to help him remember stuff.

"Note to self: Destroy that kid after taking over the world..."

[Toxicity]

I like the evil, serious, anti-comical villans....much like Giovanni, Sephiroth, and Ansem. Maybe in Pokemon Fan Fics, maybe a leader of a Team wishing to corrupt thw world....or wishing for full power. Something like Mewtwo may be good....but I still don't seem to like anything comical.

Non-Pokemon fics have many a variety. They can have one alone, like Ansem, Darth Vader, or the Digimon Kaizer from Digimon Zero Two; or a whole team, like the Dark Masters from Digimon Adventure or Dr. Evil and his crew. Maybe even one who has many minions under his/her power, like Giovanni, Ansem(the Heartless approach), Digimon Kaizer, Myotismon/Devimon, and Archie/Maxie.

But I like the idea of the hero and villan being alike in a way....Like how in Austin Powers in Goldmember, we find out Austin and Dr. Evil are brothers; or Star Wars, with Luke Skywalker being the son of Darth Vader. But I remember the talking to self with a tape recorder thing from somewhere....but that seems a good idea. Maybe reveal later that the villan is commanded by the 'voices' in his/her head.

[SneaselReborned]

Personally, I think there is no way to make a "perfect villain". A villain has to adapt to the story as it goes along.

My favorite type of villain is one that can destroy the hero easily, but just likes to have fun in an evilish sort of way, which finally leads to a downfall due to the toying around.

Also, in Pokemon fics, it really annoys me when people use a villain as a TR type of person. Same with Magma and Aqua. Think of it: these people are in these cool suits and are trying to rule the world, and the best they can do is say, "Lets battle for it!" Hell no. They're going to grab a gun and say, "Die, die, die. I win, bye." Having villains use pokemon is okay, but that shouldn't be how they mainly fight. It should be more of a distraction while another member of the team gets something else. Guns > Pokemon. XD.

Yeah, those are my thoughts. Laugh at them and call me stupid.

[Kohdok]

BWA, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Eh, heh...don't worry. I wasn't laughing at what you said, I was laughing at your sig. It's hilarious!

Another good villain is one who doesn't care what he exploits in order to get his way. I've heard of villains who use hostages, but I mean something worse. There is one who even uses his own dead mother's DNA to create a pokemon that protects him with its maternal instinct. (Cross between a bunch of stuff and a Kangaskhan) He/She will do anything to get what they want. They are syncophants (Ganondorf), Hostage-takers, and have no sense of honor whatsoever. They don't care who has to suffer so that they can get their way. In the end, their own conspiracies might come back to destroy them.

[Darien Shields]

Originally posted by Kohdok
Like my Mewtwo.

He's pure evil, but he has a nasty habit of talking to himself and he uses a little tape-recorder to help him remember stuff.

"Note to self: Destroy that kid after taking over the world..."

Have you no shame? This wasn't (unless I'm mistaken) a post for people to list their own bad guys.

[Almond]

I like it when the antagonist isn't so much evil, as simply opposed to the protagonist. One of my favourite quotes on the subject, from Slayers Try:

Gourry: Who's the bad guy here, anyway?
Lina: Uh... um, well...

Also, I prefer some depth to the story in that the bad guys really don't think they're bad. For example, Yui from Fushigi Yuugi honestly believes that it was the fault of Miaka (the protagonist) that she (Yui) was trapped in the world of the four gods, and raped by a bunch of punks. Thusly, in her mind she is completely justified in having the Seiryuu Seven kill Miaka. What I'd like to see is a rewrite of the series completely from Yui's perspective... ^_^

[Kari and Mewtwo]

IMO, a good villian has to consist of a few elements:

1.) badass (Vicious from Cowboy Bebop, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7, & Magus from Crono Trigger are good examples, even though magus turns good)
2.) bent on world destruction (doesnt all of them)
3.) in some cases, unbeatable
4.) insanely psycho. and by psycho, I mean PSYCHO (Albedo from Xenosaga & Kefka from Final Fantasy 6 are PERFECT examples of this)
5.) the villian should have some comical side to make him seem more psychotic (again, Kefka is the perfect example)
6.) the villian should have some sort of weapon or thing that sticks to him/her all the time (e.g.: The Raven on Vicious's shoulder, Sephiroth's Masamune, etc)
7.) the main villian, IMO, should ALWAYS be male or gender-neutral

then, theres the elements that create a faulty villian:

1.) the villian turns good in the end (Mewtwo is an example of this, he wouldve been perfect if it wasnt for this)
2.) the villian is too girly (Kuja from Final Fantasy 9 has an EXTREMELY small fanbase compared to Sephy & Kefka because of this)
3.) the main villian is simply a puppet, being controlled by another being (Sephiroth & Jenova is a good example. If there's one thing wrong about Sephiroth that sticks out like a sore thumb, this is it)
4.) the villian just pops out of nowhere at the very end with no future reference (Necron from FF9 was like this)
5.) the villian is too kiddish (Bowser from the mario series is like this too an extent, especially in Mario Sunshine)
6.) the villian lacks a sinister or psychotic voice (ie: Sephiroth's VA in kingdom hearts & Bowser's VA in SMS as opposed to Vicious's or Albedo's VAs)

[Darkmaster Kagemusha]

I find that you don't usually know the true nature of a good villian/villianess until about the middle of the story. At the beginning, they should be mysterious, their motives unknown, or possibly not even seen as evil at all--but rather, as a good person who turns out to be evil. They should be cunning and conniving. They need to have strength of mind and body in order to make the hero fall into their traps and battle them in some way or another, while the hero (usually) makes a miraculous escape. I believe Ashram from Record of Lodoss War to be a good villian--can't seem to die, he's intelligent, he's strong, and has or can get strong followers for support.

[Toxicity]

I agree with DK....it's like in 12 Shades of Fear...the villian has two different personas....

SPOILERS INVOLVED!!!!!!1111oneoneone


The first is that evil little black wolf dragon with blood red eyes...and the other is a mysterious half-demonic human resembling Inuyasha in a way, but with black hair and little wolf ears. Though my villian, Youkaryu(or the English name, Demonidra)(the dragon phase), is cold and ruthless....he seems a little mysterious and calmer in his Hanyou form, Ryuu, and actually seeming nice. Ryuu's motives aren't proven vile until true action begins later on...which I plan creating a plot involving Steven.

[PancaKe]

Someone said (and I'm too lazy to find who) that the villan has to be as in-depth as the hero. And somebody else said that for the villan to be believable has to (in some cases) believe that he is doing the right thing, whether it is or not.

This discussion is going everywhere, but I personally believe that a villan is one of two types:

- the ruthless heartless power hungry maniac. People like this are (thinks of some movies) - the villans of Batman (lol), the villans who try and take over the world, country whatever. I cant really think of any unless you want me to name the cartoons that I can think of. But the type of villans im talking about is those with no real reason to attack or hurt anybody.

- the normal villans, thoese who believe that they're doing the right thing, those who have their villan-ness based on what they believe is right for themselves. Take Magneto from X-Men. In the movies he'z not really the villan although he seems he is. He just believes something different to Xavier. Xavier believes that mutants and humans should live alongside each other, Magneto believes that because humans dont know anything about how mutants suffer, the humans should be mutants (this is in Xmen 1).

I think that the second example is the perfect example of the second type of villan, because it makes the movie so much more believable and acceptable if you know what I mean. Its much more realistic in a way than just having "good guy who loves to save the world" "bad guy who wants the world or wants to blow up the world".

~Mist

[Chris 2.1]

Well, I'd like to bring 2 Villains to your attention from 'Monica's Army', just because I want to show how they contrast.

[list=1]
Mortimer. Like Monica, Mortimer is a ghost adept, and from his debut was established as very powerful. His motives are to raid the Lighthouses of Altonia and take from them the specially forged Artifacts there, which are weapons used by the God's the lighthouses were build in memory of. Why he is doing this is unclear, but he is also gathering a band of adepts himself to ensure he has protection and can enter the Clandestine Chambers of each Lighthouse. He does want to stop Monica from persuing him, and has resorted to violence on many occaisons, but as his reasons for his task is unclear, his role as villain may not be quite accurate
James Holmes, who took over Team Rocket years ago and has it named 'The Holmes Organisation'. He featured in The Indigo Road, and re-appears here, leading his team into locating Giovanni, who holds very crucial information to them. He has been biding his time for a while, but after invading Lavender Town, he has struck gold by finding new recruitments for his team, but has caused Monica to flee the confines of her home. He is currenlty tracking her down, as she knows the whereabouts of Giovanni, but has, in captive, Al, who shares the same information as his girlfriend. He is much more of a supervillan, who is plumbing to new depths to ensure the information he needs can be obtained. Where he ends up, I do not know...
[/list=1]


So yea, what I did this for is to show how villains can eisily have more important motives.

A great example is Alex, from Golden Sun and Golden Sun2. He is an antagonist of Issac, and seems to be a rival, an enemy, but has ties with Mia, and had once been a helping healer of Imil. Now, in The Lost Age, he heals you before taking on Karst and Agatio, and, if you beat them, heals them, too. Confused? That's the whole point. I haven't finished the game, therefore I am still unsure of Alex...he's so...strange, in the sense I can't figure out why he's doing this....

Hope they...add to the discussion.