sapphicrow

[sapphicrow]

me checking this dumb stupid idiot app everyday like there's a daily login bonus

[sapphicrow]

i’ll say it a hundred times because some of you need to hear it a hundred times but the trick to liking yourself again is learning new skills and hobbies or returning to ones you had. it makes you so confident learning new shit all the time.

[sapphicrow]

💀 Making Your Villain Make Sense (Without Making Them Right™)

("because if I see one more war criminal with a sad diary entry get a redemption arc, I’m gonna throw my laptop.")

Here’s the thing: your villain doesn’t need to be redeemable. But they do need to make sense.

And I mean sense beyond "they’re evil and they monologue about it." Or “they have a tragic past, so now they do murder <3.” Or “they were right all along, the hero just couldn’t see it 🥺.”

Let’s fix that.

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🧠 STEP ONE: BUILD A LOGIC SYSTEM THAT ISN’T OURS Your villain shouldn’t just be wrong, they should have their own internal system that works for them. Morally flawed? Absolutely. But coherent.

Ask yourself:

What do they value more than anything? (Power? Order? Loyalty? Vengeance?)

What do they believe about the world, and how did they get there?

What fear drives them? What future do they think they’re trying to prevent?

The villain doesn’t need to know they’re wrong. But you should.

Make their logic airtight. even if it’s awful. Give them cause and effect.

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👿 STEP TWO: STOP GIVING THEM THE BETTER IDEOLOGY Listen. I love a “morally gray” moment as much as anyone. But if your villain is making all the good points and the hero’s just like “no because that’s mean,” your arc is upside down.

If your villain is critiquing injustice, oppression, or inequality, make sure their methods are the problem, not their entire worldview.

✖︎ WRONG: Villain: “The ruling class is corrupt.” Hero: “That’s not nice.”

✔︎ RIGHT: Villain: “The ruling class is corrupt, so I’m burning the city and everyone in it.” Hero: “So you’re just… committing genocide now?”

Your villain can touch a real issue. Just don’t let them be the only one talking about it, or solving it with horror movie logic.

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🔪 STEP THREE: GIVE THEM POWER THAT COSTS THEM The best villains lose things too. They’re not just untouchable horror dolls in sexy coats. They make bad choices and pay for them. That’s where the drama lives.

Examples:

They isolate themselves.

They sacrifice people they love.

They get what they want, and it destroys them.

They know they’re the monster, and choose it anyway.

If your villain can kill a dozen people and feel nothing, that’s not scary. That’s boring. Let them bleed. Let them regret it. Let them double down anyway.

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🧱 STEP FOUR: MAKE THEM PART OF THE WORLD, NOT OUTSIDE IT Villains shouldn’t feel like they were patched in from another genre. They should be part of the world’s logic, culture, class system, history. They should reflect something about the setting.

Villains that slap:

The advisor who upheld the regime until they decided they deserved to rule.

The noble who’s using war to reclaim stolen legacy.

The ex-hero who thinks the system can’t be saved, only reset.

The priest who truly believes the gods demand blood.

They’re not just evil, they’re a product of the same world the hero is trying to save.

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👁 STEP FIVE: SHOW US THEIR SELF-JUSTIFICATION You don’t need a tragic backstory™. But you do need to show us why they think they’re right. Not just with exposition, through action.

Let us watch them:

Protect someone.

Choose their goal over safety.

Justify the unjustifiable to a character who loves them.

Refuse to change, even when given a chance.

A villain who looks into the mirror and goes “Yes. I’m correct.” is 1000x scarier than one who sobs into a journal and says “I’m so broken 🥺.”

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🧨 BONUS ROUND: DON’T MAKE THEM A HATRED MEGAPHONE Especially if you’re writing marginalized characters: don’t let your villain become a mouthpiece for slurs, abuse, or extremism just to make them “evil enough.” That’s lazy. And harmful.

You don’t need real-world hate speech to build a dark character. You need power, consequence, and intent.

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TL;DR: Good villains don’t need to be right. They need to be real. Not a vibe. Not a sad boy in a trench coat. Not a trauma monologue and then a sword fight. They need logic. They need cost. They need to scare you because you get them, and still want them to lose.

Make them dangerous. Not relatable. Make them whole. Not wholesome. Make them make sense.

—rin t. // thewriteadviceforwriters // villain critic. final boss consultant. licensed chaos goblin

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

[sapphicrow]

Been a bit obsessed with this lovely lady

[sapphicrow]

the more i watch gwendoline christie in everything, the more i keep thinking "this is literally alcina with a british accent instead of a transatlantic one" AND IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY

[sapphicrow]

there are people with genders you will never comprehend and people fucking in ways you will never understand and people making art you just don't get and that shit RULES

[sapphicrow]

we all got that one interest that all of our followers ignore in perfect sync no matter how much we post about it

[sapphicrow]

Lady Beneviento with her youngest daughter, Donna, circa 1990

(click for better quality)

[sapphicrow]

art by @vivi_llainess

[sapphicrow]

she could’ve done worse and i only would’ve cheered harder

[sapphicrow]

sorry bro I didn't hear your bit I got a little distracted reflecting upon my inadequacies

[sapphicrow]

(through gritted teeth) sometimes what's good for your mental health isn't another do nothing day or a little treat sometimes what's good for you is putting in some of the work. Not all of it at once but sometimes you have to finish that essay or at least take the next step or you have to clean your room or at least dust the shelves or you gotta do the laundry or at least put it all in the hamper and it's not fun and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks but you have to because i read a post on the internet that told me that's what being nice to yourself is sometimes

[sapphicrow]

fuuuuck i just realized that the future idealized version of myself cant exist without current me being the catalyst for change and doing hard things. has anybody heard about this

[sapphicrow]

Donna (Lord Beneviento) cooking for date night- 6/3/86

[sapphicrow]

Background thoughts on this little scene below:

I think that Heisenberg would feel guilty for a long time that he‘s taking care of Rose when he literally planned on using her as a weapon, and he knows that even though Ethan is dead, the man would NOT approve. So he would always refer to himself as "Karl" to Rose, and discourage her from calling him any variation of "dad". He would actively think that he's doing good: Miranda forced him to call her "Mother" when he didn't want to, so he's sparing Rose from what he went through.

Until this moment.

He'd finally realize that he's been simplifying it too much, and Rose's situation is fundamentally different than his: he didn't trust Miranda, but Rose trusts him, and feels rejected when he scoffs at the idea of them being a "family". And if anything, him dismissing her true needs in favour of what he thinks she needs, is something Miranda did constantly to him.

Idk how much of this comes across in the comic itself, hopefully enough!

i‘m not super happy with the comic but it was sitting in my drafts half finished for ages, so whatever

[sapphicrow]

They should invent a way to sit hunched over doing crafts that is Good for your body