WHY aren't there any good villains out there? What makes a good villain? What traits are so cliche they make you want to cry? What are YOU doing with your villains?

Girlbrainiac

Hannibal Lector of Silence of the Lambs is one of the most infamous ones, because he’s not only creepy beyond words, but he’s SO smart. My sister commented on how he almost mirrors some of the greatest minds in our world since, face it, most geniuses are weird. And, some people get even more unnerved by this character because they can see the logic in his train of thought.

Everyone loves Darth Vader, (Star Wars duh!) it’s a plain and simple fact. He is a classic. The fact he started the whole ‘I am your father” trend is one thing, but the fact he was a villain with a purpose is another. He wanted a strong central government so no one would have to suffer like he and his mother did, and in the process, became a dictator. He shows how easy good intents can go wrong ways.

HAL 9000 of 2001: A Space Odyssey is yet another interesting one. A malfunctioning computer. While a common theme, what makes Hal so creepy is the ending and the lack of inflection. “I’m feeling much better now.”

Amon Goeth in Schindler's List s a good villain. He, unlike most people, is stupid and crude. He is manipulated through out the whole movie. He is wicked and unempathetic.

A lot of people really like the Joker from the Batman series. He is absolutely insane. No, really. There’s an old saying that goes, “when DC super villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories” He killed Robin. And, as a ‘top 10 batman villains’ list commented, “As much as Batman fights for order, Joker battles for chaos. He's irrational, unpredictable and -- as his creation -- ultimately the responsibility of Batman.”

Magnito definitely deserves a special mention. His vendetta against humanity for their prejudice against mutant kind is interesting. Not to mention, he has the deadliest power in modern time. Controlling iron. One of the most memorable scenes from the X-Men movie was when Magnito escaped jail by taking the iron out of the blood of the of the guards.

Sauron is the basis of the fantasy genre. While he’s based off archetypes, he’s also a pure force of evil. He leaves his mark once he’s gone.

Sephiroth of Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most mentioned video game villains of all time. While the minion thinks a lot of his love comes from his pretty character design, she can’t help but admit he is memorable. A psychopath intent on destroying the world in order to heal it in the name of his mother. He also

Psycho Mantis of the Metal Gear Solid videogame series will always have a special place in my heart. He is interesting, a psychic that went insane after looking too deeply into a murders’ mind. He has a hate for love and sex, and how that is one of the main drives of humanity. Not only that, but he has quite the entertaining boss fight, and interesting costumes of all time. “There’s no need for words, Snake.”

Kefka, the main villain of Final Fantasy 4. As a top 10 video game villain list says, “most villains in history of gaming were shadowy, non-confrontational, basically puppets to the last act. Kefka was one of the first to have a genuine ruthlessness and merciless streak. I mean come on, poisoning a city and laughing, destroying the world successfully, and warping the power of three goddesses? Oh, and by the way, he was a clown. Making his whole act even more sadistic. He would lie, cheat, manipulate his way to the top and he did making his presence even more imposing.”

I’ve been reading many more on several lists. Several I don’t know, several I question. The hunter from Bambi, a good villain? Many people also mention the Wicket Witch of the West. Henry F. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life is also mentioned, but I don’t know him.

So, what all can we learn about good villains from these villains? Well, a good villain has a reason for their evil. That reason dosn't even have to be noble or make sense to the common person, but there is usually some reason for the things they do that isn't 'I do evil things.' Also, a good villain has reconizeable trademarks. Darth Vader has his Mask, Kaufka has his clown makeup, Sauron's a big burning eyes, the Joker wears a purple suit. They all have something that marks then apart from the rest of the generic villains that the world has seen. Most villains have some cliches, but the truely memorable villains have a basic theme that's both original and entertaining.

My friends and I are doing an RPG at the moment, though, where two major villains/villain factions will be on opposite sides, employing very different tactics to achieve their ends with the good guys stuck in the middle. The first villain is a necromancer that is secretly building an undead army to take over the city and the government. When the time comes, she will attack openly. She's much more chaotic in her approach.

The other villains, a husband and wife team, are nobles that are slowly and subtly placing themselves in a position of power. They are outwardly the most loyal subjects to the crown. In secret, however, they plan and carry out various plans to 1) discredit, bring into their camp, or do away with their political rivals, 2) gain more power and influence for themselves by making good connections, and 3) manipulate any and all situations to their advantage. They're lawful in their approach.

You see one is an open threat, overtly showing up with an army at the gates; the other is a covert threat, usurping power step by tiny little step. The ones that are a covert threat will work with the good guys to bring down the overt threat... but that will mainly be of greatest advantage to them... Show their great loyalty to the crown... See that a few of their more troublesome rivals are "killed in battle," perhaps the king if it's to their greatest advantage. At the end of the small war, the covert villains may very well have taken over the country.

Girlbrainiac

In a long running series, there will be some villain verses villain action at some time or another, villains just DO NOT get along well for long. It's in their design: they're selfish, and look out for themselves. Plus, villains sometimes have diffrent goals in life. Looking for good examples...

In X men William Stryker has the goal of destroying all muntants, and Magnito has the goal of making them be accepted, by any means nessicary. They usually don't get along, and Magnito does his best to get in Stryker's way.

I've made a couple neat villains. One was Ivan, a berserker. I didn't really put that much complexity into him, but his evil is plain to see. He's a masochist, the concentrated essence of savagery that just loves the taste of blood and the feel of pain. The fact that he enjoys suffering, even craves it, makes him seem more like some beast then a human.

My best villain though, is a necromancer. She's actually the one GB mentioned above. I tried to avoid a lot of cliches when I made her, she's neither a sexy female nor some crazy madman who wants to take over ze world. She's a scrany, unattractive teenager from a family of minor nobility (one of the ones where they're nobles because they're so filthy rich, but still snubbed by all the nobles who have genealogy tables in their studies). Kate isn't mad, nor is she simply evil, she's simply cold and ambitious. No depths are too low for her to stoop to gain power. She's someone who's lived with absolutely no power for years, silently harboring her ambition and hatred for it all. She even scares me.

...“Those people saved your life,” he spoke as he marched towards her. “And they held no ill intent." He was looking her straight in the eye, now. "Their deaths were not necessary!”

“Noooo… they were fun,” She corrected him with a suddenly more devious looking grin stretching her cheeks. “And you know what else? It reminds me of a story.”

He turned around, disgusted, but he didn’t walk away just yet.

“So it’s a lovely day on the first of April and this fellow’s been in the waiting room of a hospital, see? His wife’s just had a baby, right? And he’s been waiting aaall day to see the both of them.

"So he finally meets with the head doctor,” she went on, raising her arms and acting with her hands to help create the scenario. “’Oh, Doc!’ he says. I’ve been so worried, how are they doing? And the doctor, heheh. He just smiiiles and says ‘They’re fine! Just peachy! Your wife’s given birth to a healthy baby girl, and they’re both just A-Ok.” She raised her arms in faux victory for emphasis. “Ain't you lucky?

“So he runs straight for the maternity ward with flowers and chocolates and all that nonsense. But there’s a problem, see? It’s empty. His wife’s bed, it’s empty.

"So he turns around, confused, and looks at the doctor. ‘Doc?’, he says. ‘Doc, what’s going on?’ Ha ha ha! And the doctors, and the nurses, heh, they just wave their arms and screeeaam in his face: APRIL FOOLS! Your wife DIED in child birth, and the baby’s a STILLBORN!! HA HA HA HA HA-"

Cut off slightly for legnth, but that quote alone shows the minion's point on the characters. It's just plain messed up and can't help but unsettle you more than any dark figure stalking in a room.

Also, I think It would make for a better story if the "bad" guy had nothing to lose. Most villains have a ton to lose, lives and plans and such. But what if a villain was immortal/? That he could only be set back, not killed? That would make the story more interesting for sure...

What the minion was thinking about would be having completely diffrent, completely and utterly unrelated in most ways or forms protagionists fighting a single antagionists. Silent Hill and Final Fantasy got close in this respect, but the angtagionists differ in each game as well as the protagionists.

Other than that, the bloodlines are just for the fact that they are destined to save or destroy their world. I like it this way, as it makes me able to turn some of them evil, pawns of the Enemy.

The Joker is crazy. He'll try any crime and kill anyone he gets the urge to. He's impulsive which makes him difficult to predict. Worst of all, he is smart, likely on the same IQ level as anyone you'll find in other media. All these things make him a very good villain because he is unpredictable and willing to do anything at all, but he's smart enough to pull it off.

Lex Luthor is easier. Again, he's smart, but he's mastered the art of presenting the public with a positive image while simultaneously gutting the people who worship him. While not a physical match for Superman, Luthor has survived numerous encounters with his foe and come out smelling of roses. At the peak of his power, he states that he doesn't need to take over the world. He already has.

I have been having the worst time trying to make my evil doer more evil. For one, he's got a really weak name, the Dread Lord, and he's a cross between the horned guy from dungeon keeper and verminaard from Dragonlance fame.

He's just now starting to get introduced in my story after being a behind the scenes character and I'm thinking i need to hold off and think of a better way to describe/make him more evil.

Any suggestions of who you'd model a main evil guy character off? I'm stuck working on a good foundation for my evil doer.

-I'm hoping I don't hear about a Sephiroth knock off.

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/ihynnbad/ihynnbad.html

http://darksites.com/souls/horror/evilguide/index.html

Now, these ones are for Duengeons and Dragons, but have as much merit as the last two if you can ignore the stat parts.

http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/archives.php (search "villains" here and you'll comr up with 5-10 results with pretty good tips on them.)

And a few pretty good villain-based links:

http://www.filmsite.org/afi100heroesvillb.html (top villains according to AFI)

http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html (The evil overlord list, a classic to villain lovers everywhere. Most everyone has seen this already, but it's here just incase you havn't.)

Magneto is fascinating because he's one of the first true anti-villains. Not just a Magnificent Bastard -- there's always been a lot of those -- but someone who valiantly fights for a cause, to save his people, and who deeply believes that he is in the right. Even his own enemies question whether they are right or wrong to stop him, and that's the perfect measure of an anti-villain.

Of course, there's villains that break the mold. The Flash's Rogues are a great example. Supervillains are notorious for not working well together since they always end up betraying each other. The Rogues are (usually) a subversion of this -- a standing army of villains who treat supervillainy as more of an extreme sport than anything else. When they pull off a successful bank heist, they treat themselves to a wild party with hookers and drugs at a hotel. Basically a warp version of the classic family dynamic superhero team.

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