How to Create a Villain
In order to create a villain,
- You need to have a good plot that features a clearly evil plan that causes harm.
- While the villain is the antagonist in the story, keep in mind that the antagonist isn’t always a villain. The antagonist is simply the one who causes a problem for the protagonist or main character.
- The villain must stand out as a bad and evil person who wreaks chaos for his or her own purpose.
- Any good villain also needs a hero to face, which can be one person or a collective group.
When creating your villain, you need to consider what impact he or she will have on the story. Sometimes, to highlight social issues, we might want our audience to feel sorry for the villain – perhaps he or she was abused and neglected as a child. However, the villain would still be doing evil with a goal. If the villain is meant to help teach a lesson, the evil doings happening beforehand will build up to it. Most viewers and readers enjoy a vile villain to hate, so creating a strong villainous character is important.
When to use Villains
You should use a villain to teach a lesson, highlight an important issue in the world, or if you want to make a truly interesting story. A villain may also be used to showcase a hero or event. Everyone loves a good villain because that bad person is doing all the things we would never attempt, either because we know better, are truly good, or realize that we could be punished for the deeds.
Some villains are used to help young people learn a lesson along with the evil doer. An example of a villain learning his lesson is in the “Spy Kids” movies. In “The Island of Lost Dreams,” agent Donnagon, father of young spy kids Gary and Gertie, is the villain. His daughter Gertie ruins his chance to harm the Cortez family, yelling, “Just way until I tell Mom!” He begs her not to tell. In the next movie, “Game Over,” Donnagon is back in good standing with OSS and leading an operation against a new villain, the Toymaker. When Juni joins the team, he immediately asks if Donnagon has been a good boy. Donnagon’s wife assures him that he has learned his lesson, and he is in fact being good. The lesson we’re taught is that we should always be honest and trustworthy, and achieving goals through dishonest ways will never work.