Villains are some of the most versatile, dynamic, and interesting characters in any story. A well-developed, compelling villain will make a reader more engaged with the story versus a story where the villain feels like a generic bad guy. I’ve talked before about creating villains that are compelling, but what about those villains that we all love? There are definitely villains in books that we read and movies that we watch and even video games that we love and sometimes may even prefer over the hero! Today, I’m going to teach you how to create a villain that your readers will love!
Understanding the Role of a Villain
Before we really get into the crafting of our villain, let’s take a look at what the role of the villain is in the story. Now, the villain is often attributed to being the opposition of the hero–then again, your villain can be your main character, so your hero could be the opposition to your villain. Essentially, a villain serves as a character that stands against another character, be it the hero or something else. A villain’s motives tend to be on the darker side and they are willing to commit acts of evil in the name of their goal.
Villain Archetypes (A Small List)
I’ve talked about villain archetypes on my blog before, and you can read that here. I listed 12 in that post, but I’ll list just a few here so that you can get some ideas:
- The Mastermind: Highly intelligent and cunning, always a step ahead.
- Evil Incarnate: The literal personification of evil itself. Unredeemable. Just evil.
- The Sadist: Disturbed personality that commits crime for pleasure
- The Traitor: Was a friend of the hero, not so much anymore
Archetypes like these can give you a sort of stepping-stone for your villain and let you craft one that readers will love. For example, you may think, how can anyone like the sadist, but I dare you go to and search up Ghostface from Scream. You’ll see what I mean.
Your Villain Needs a Backstory
Any villain that you want readers to love will need a backstory to let your readers sympathize with that villain. There’s a lot of ways you can make readers love your villain, and here are a few things that can help to build the villain’s backstory:
Tragic Past
The tragic past is one that often gets to readers. It evokes a sort of sympathy in the reader when they see that the villain had a rough childhood, was mistreated by the world, or is lashing out as a result of something terrible that happened. Maybe it doesn’t justify the villain’s actions, but it helps to contextualize them in a way that will make readers love the villain, strangely enough.
Motivations
Why is your villain driven to do what they do? What does their tragic past help show the reader, if they have one? Is the villain driven by love, power, greed, etc…? The motivation needs to be believable to make your readers understand, because if the villain is not motivated to do anything, then what’s the point of their actions?
Humanizing Elements
Humanizing the villain is a way that can get readers to love the villain. A lot of times, in enemies to lovers stories, you’ll have villains who will be so evil and then the hero gets injured and all of a sudden, the villain can’t stand it. Beyond that though, the villain can be kind to people, which is something we often see in history when gangsters in areas would give back to the people, thus gaining their sympathy while also being gangsters.
Your Villain Needs a Personality
Many times, there are identifiable things in popular villains that makes them so popular amongst fans of the story. Oftentimes, these things relate to the personality and traits of that particular villain, but it’s more rooted in psychology than you think.
Charisma and Charm
Charisma is a vital one to the popularity of a villain, but alongside charisma, charm is a big one too. Charisma is the ability to get people to like a person, and there are some villains that are really good at that compared to others. For instance, Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a very popular villain because he’s charming, witty, and charismatic. Even if we know he’s a bad guy, we still love Loki a lot and even may find ourselves rooting for him.
Flaws and Weaknesses
A villain, at the end of the day, is a being that will have strengths, but will also have flaws and weaknesses. The villain is going to have things that affect them the same as the hero. Maybe the villain’s weakness is his love for the heroine (enemies to lovers again, lol), or maybe the villain’s flaw is that they find it hard to accept injustice. Whatever it may be, your readers will love to see these flaws in action because it helps you create a sympathetic mood around your villain.
Complexity
An amazing villain is one that is complex. Sure, you can have a villain that’s purely evil. In my series, The Fallen Age Saga, the Nightmage is a villain in some ways, but he’s also a loyal companion to those that are loyal to him and he also hates things that contradict what he perceives as right vs wrong, but he’s willing to bend his own rules. This is complex and it allows the reader to understand the villain in a way. Now, the Nightmage is not the only villain of my story, as most of the characters are morally gray, but you can see what I’m trying to say.
The Villain and the Hero
The dynamic that exists in your story between the villain and the hero is a big deal and it helps to create a villain that readers will love. The interactions between these two characters serves more than just the plot, but it also serves the characterization of the two characters.
Personal Connection
The hero and the villain can have a personal connection, such as being old friends, being family members, being exes or something similar. Having the two characters exist with a personal connection prior to their villain vs hero arc could serve to be interesting. You don’t have to do this, but it could be a good storytelling device.
Mirroring and Parallels
Mirroring the hero and the villain is another way that can be really interesting for readers. Maybe the two have very similar goals but their methods of achieving these goals are what makes them enemies. Perhaps the villain is morally on the same scale as the hero, but the villain is just willing to go all the way while the hero isn’t. They can also be similar in strength and ability, which makes their fights more engaging as well.
Respect and Rivalry
The hero and the villain might not just be rivals, but they might even have respect for each other. The hero and the villain both being powerful could serve to create super-close fights where the reader can’t tell the victor from the beginning of the fight.
Romance
Finally, my personal favorite, love and romance. Who doesn’t love enemies to lovers? I dunno anyone who isn’t a fan of that trope, but this trope can really turn a story towards a different direction. The villain and the hero may find they have more in common and start to fall for each other, which may hinder their respective plans or cause rifts in their lives. It’s just an awesome trope!
Morally Gray Personalities
A villain that readers love tends to be morally gray, and by this, I mean that they may have some good in them while still having bad in them. Their actions might have some justification or they may believe that the means justifies the ends, but their ultimate impact is not very good.
Blide Stevens from my book, Malware, is the definition of morally gray. He has psychopathy and he doesn’t mind killing pretty much anyone, but he also doesn’t really do that. He takes out serial killers and terrible people because he finds it funny. So, at the end of the day, we may find a justification for Blide’s actions against terrible people, but his motivations aren’t on our scale. Still, a lot of characters in the story find a connection with Blide and see him as a good friend, even if Blide doesn’t care about anything.
Make the Villain Developed and Dynamic
If your main character gets a character arc, then your villain should too. You can have the villain double-down on their ways, seek redemption for their past misdeeds, experience moments of doubt, grow as a person, ally themselves with the hero or more.
Making your villain developed and dynamic as a character and personality makes it so that your readers can relate more, which in turn lets your readers really find that your villain is interesting and engaging.
Make Your Villain Memorable
A big thing that you should focus on is memorability. Make your villain someone for your readers to really remember! Whether that be due to their outfit, due to a figure of speech they use, a pattern of behavior they exhibit, or something similar, you need something to feel memorable for the readers.
For example, Darth Vader from Star Wars is extremely memorable and everyone knows what he looks like as well as his iconic “I am your father” line.
I think that ultimately, making your readers love the villain comes down to how you as a writer actually perceive the villain. If you love your villain, you’ll be able to write them in a way that will make the readers also love the villain.
It really depends also on your goals as a writer. If your villain will play a big role in the story beyond just a conflict between them and your hero, then you’ll want to ensure that your villain is well-developed.
Before you go, you should check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga. Books 1 and 2 are available on Amazon! And don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter so you can get all the latest news, updates and more!