Talk:What Makes a good villain?/@comment-4107522-20161116210057

Often the fall of any character is trying to put them in any camp of hero or villain. Unless a character is distinctly designed for the main purpose of being heroic or villainous, having the mindset that they aren't able to switch back and forth based on any realistic situation that can happen to them (such as the famous Joker line "all it takes is one bad day" that Scourge totally stole but it's Scourge so we give him a pass) will easily keep them in a box. Many characters are heroic, but have a darker side that pulls out and takes over if they get pushed. Other characters simply have personalities that would require a vast amount of negativity for them to change from a "good guy" into a "bad guy" and even then, that's assuming those characters wouldn't end up just giving up and ending up in a depression instead of turning, which with more characters that are pacifistic, fragile, or simply experienced dark times already in their past and came out better will more-likely be the case.

We have the villains that do what they do because they feel they need to. They  could have an addiction to something, need to feed on others, perhaps they know that killing someone or multiple individuals is going to result in something positive in the future.

THESE villains are usually the sympathetic variety because while they do villainous things, it's not for villainous reasons at their core. They're acting evil because they feel they have no other choice, and often it bothers them just as much as it bothers the heroes. It's very easy for these kind of villains to transition into heroes or anti-heroes because if they lose the crutch that makes them think they have to do something (examples: getting a cure for their disease, finding an alternative to their goals without doing the villainous thing), it's very likely they'll turn to a life of good actions, and even try to fix what they did.

The middle point between this and a blatantly evil villain are the VENGEFUL villains or RESTITUTIVE villains. These villains acknowledge what they're doing is wrong, and may feel bad about it, but they do it anyway not because they have to, but because they feel they deserve it. If they're robbed of something, they do something horrible to get it back or to get revenge. (For example: Some ruler of a kingdom finds that someone from another kingdom robbed or humiliated them, so in turn, the ruler does the same back, or goes to an extreme of killing them, their family, or their entire kingdom).

These guys are generally immature, short-tempered, bitter, overreactive, and rarely satisfied. They don't get satisfaction from the idea that they're hurting someone, but they feel almost like it's their duty to put things back on an "even" scale as they see it. Thus, they don't usually take responsibility and will turn to those grieving in the wake of their actions and say something like "You brought this on yourself".

Now there's a slightly different kind of villain that basically ties into this one as well. These are the ones that simply think they know best, but don't need something to react to in order to carry out a terrible deed. These are the Dr. Dooms of the world, who see problems in the world and think they're the best to take care of it, so they put on the mantle of Judge, Jury, and Executioner, without any care for the opinions of others. They can have the same traits as a vengeful villain, in addition to having a massive ego.

Then we have villains that just want to do evil things. It's often argued that having someone that's just "EVIL BECAUSE" isn't realistic, but considering just how many times you can easily find someone doing something stupid to someone else for attention or because they feel like it, it's often quite realistic. These are the THRILL villains or the APATHETIC villains, who are entirely selfish. They understand that what they do is wrong, but they don't care at all, and in many cases, they find enjoyment in further suffering of others.

This villain can go in many directions. You can have the typical person that wants to take over the world or destroy the world--not because they feel they can do it better, but because they just want to take on the challenge or honestly the idea just pops into their heads and they want to see how far they can get--you can have the type that is literally insane--or acts insane--that just sees the world as a plaything that they can do whatever with. (This one can also apply to the Sympathy-based villains to an extent if their mental disorder is forcing them to do something wrong and they don't normally want to--such as with Two Face who has a split personality compared to the Joker who's just chaotic).

CHAOTIC is quite popular. These are the entirely unpredictable villains who are similar to the THRILL/APATHETIC villains in their mentality of not caring, but at the same time... you never know what they'll do. These characters are the definition of "lose your inhibitions". They can be your best friend, saving the world, then suddenly turn around and kill everyone just because. They don't usually have a rhyme or reason, they just go with whatever feels good at the time. (For example: A villain find someone attractive, and they feel good when the person acknowledges them and appreciates the gifts they give them, so they're going to keep being nice, but then they could spontaneously get bored of being treated nicely by the person, so they start being abusive instead and enjoy that now).

There's also fallen heroes which are people who just become fed up and lose it, and usually turn out as a SYMPATHETIC or SELF-RIGHTEOUS types, and many others, but I'll stick to those for now.

I personally dabble in just about all of these characteristics with different villainous characters I have.

~Trisell Chronos: The Fallen Server of Time. Basically a character robbed of his position and so to get it back, he goes to any length to get it back, no matter who it hurts. VENGEFUL villain.

~Astral Hellervein: The lone survivor of a vampire species who regrows his species in a new population, but needs a new world to put them on. He wants to bring his people to the main world, but doing so would lead to massive conflict. He's willing to do so even though it hurts people, though at the same time, he doesn't want to hurt people. SYMPATHY villain.

~SEELA of the Zonac Council: After seeing that things in the Multiverse didn't turn out as intended, she feels it's her duty to fix things and doesn't care for the opinions of others. She's not entirely apathetic, but she feels she is far more experienced than any others and therefore doesn't need their input. She's an EGO villain

~Melcro: Scientist and beneficiary to governments and organizations, basically looking out for number # 1 and not caring who gets in the way. He does what he wants, and his goal is pretty straight forward for the most part, that being researching and developing new areas of scientific and technological advancements. He's an APATHETIC villain

~Virus: My most popular villain--Not only ruler (Pharoh as she prefers) of her own people (and does a pretty good job at it depending on the continuity, in terms of the WIKI canon not so much) but is entirely self-motivated. She goes and does whatever she feels like at the time, and holds no loyalty to anyone, even her own species and subjects. She takes enjoyment from slowly corrupting and destroying people and their lives, though is also known to just blindly destroy things. She's a CHAOTIC villain.

That's a quick little run-down I came up with at the moment. I'm sure if I had more time, I'd go more in depth but hopefully that suffices.