#Villains

[ownlittleuniverse]

scenario #2 - the hero’s in deep trouble

warning: wounds, implied violence

“What happened?”

”Nothing… and why would you care?” the hero snapped, having no patience for the villain's sudden kindness.

First, they broke their body yesterday during their fight, making the hero look weak in front of their team. Then they break into their apartment through the window, and to wrap it all up in a nice little bow, they had the audacity to ask if the hero was okay. Like they cared about them.

The villain slowly walked over to the hero leaning on their bedroom door. They softly brushed their hands over the hero’s wounds, making the hero wince. The hero hated the way their heart was beating in the villain’s presence.

The villain sighed, slowly lifting the hero’s arm, taking a disinfectant cloth from the first aid kit and quickly dabbing it over the angry bloody skin.

The hero sucked in a breath, and it scared them. Not the pain, no. The villain being so abnormally kind.

The worst part, it felt… good.

The hero sunk into the wood door, their eyes watching the villain’s handiwork closely. The villain's soft fingers stroked their arm as they tended the hero, leaving goosebumps all over, making their breath hitch.

The hero wasn’t sure if the villain was doing it to distract from the pain, or maybe they didn’t even realize they were unconsciously comforting them.

”Let me take care of you,” the villain murmured, still cleaning the wounds and looking them dead in the eyes.

The hero wanted them to. Let the same person who gave them these wounds clean them until the hero sank into their comfort.

They were in deep trouble.

The hero’s breath hitched, their body tensing when the villain's hand swiftly grabbed the hero’s chin. The only thing that didn’t completely scare the hero was that their grip was firm but still gentle.

”Then afterwards—”

The hero’s mouth fell slightly open as the villain came closer and closer to their face, their fingers rubbing back and forth.

Their eyes had that glint in them that killed. All the amusement, all the calmness from before had drained from their face. There was only anger left. The hero gulped.

”—You can enlighten me about the handprint on your face that I didn’t leave.”

[epiclamer]

“I wish we could start over.” Civilian mumbled through tears, trying to earn themselves one more look from their hero ex-lover, but Villain saw right through them.

Protectively, they wrapped an arm around the crime-stopper’s deflated shoulders, before they retorted.

“You don’t deserve a second chance.”

[curiositysavesthecat]

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[thedupshadove]

Top-Tier Villain Motivations

They will be safe. It doesn't matter who else or what else burns as long as They will be safe.

I will be safe. The hunger and the cold will never touch me again.

Fuck any bitch who's prettier(/cooler/better-liked/better at making dumplings) than me.

Yes, Master

Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. LOVE ME!

I know the terrible things these so-called "heroes" will do if I don't stop them (<- is absolutely wrong)

I don't want a better future, I want a better past!

No other way to get performance art funded these days

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[probablybadrpgideas]

Ways to make your villain morally ambiguous:

Eats babies, but only for medical reasons.

Every time they kill someone they make a clone, ensuring that strictly speaking they're having no effect on the amount of life in the universe

Want to end all bad things but only has a gun to do it with.

Has exactly five (5) noble traits: tips waiters, donates to medical gofundmes, tidies your bathroom, buys milk for orphans, once gave a dog a hat.

Never attacks anyone who can't fight back unless it's convenient for their plans or they really want to.

Uses your correct pronouns when informing you about the horrible death trap they put you in.

Actually has an antipoverty machine powered by blending orphans. Look, they know its contrived, but you can only play the cards you're dealt, right?

Is pretty sure they're doing the right thing. They haven't actually checked, they've been busy, but they're pretty sure!

Is only doing evil because they got hit by an Evil Ray that makes you violent and dangerous.

Hasn't ever done anything wrong and is actively helping the heroes. It's a very light shade of morally grey.

[timo-0126]

???

[kairenn-n]

must a villain be redeemed? isn't it enough that they're bitter, evil, and most importantly, hot?

[bodhrancomedy]

I think it’s important to have villains who are both nice and human.

Especially nice. Polite. Empathetic. Thoughtful.

Because none of those traits translate directly to good. And a lot of them are easy shields against the description ‘bad’.

[weirdlandtv]

Animation art from the intro to the 1966 BATMAN TV show. (Art by Lee Mishkin.)

I was a kid when BATMAN (1989) came out. It was a massive pop culture phenomenon, here in Holland too, and someone somewhere in television network land shouted out, “Quick! Batman! What do we have!”, and someone somewhere remembered the old TV show, and then someone somewhere dug up and dusted off that old TV show and pushed it into running a few more laps. This hopelessly Bat-crazed kid tho thought the show was hopelessly quaint and after a few episodes didnt tune in anymore same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Annoying snarky tone aside, it’s actually a fun show. It has many fans still, and fans are never wrong.

One thing I only notice now: is that Clayface, between Catwoman and the knife-wielding Texarkana Phantom Killer? (Is that Catwoman?) Also, who are the two villains who lead the charge? There’s one who looks like Shaggy’s evil scientist uncle and a green-shaded one with a scaley mask. They seem too distinctive to be just generic villains. Sending out a Bat-signal to any Bat-fans…

[the-modern-typewriter]

Imagine a villain straight refusing to fight another member of the Hero Team just cuz his hero archnemesis is not present

"Where are they?"

"Oh, not again." The protagonist could feel a headache coming on. "Look-"

"-Are they hurt?" The villain's eyes went dark and dangerous. "Who hurt them?"

"They're fine! Oh my god."

"Then where are they?"

The protagonist definitely had a headache. "It's their day off."

"They didn't tell me they had the day off. What's wrong?"

The really concerning part was that the hero probably would tell the villain which days they were working and which they weren't. The two of them were as bad as each other! The hero was going to be unbearable when they came back and found out that the team had fought the villain without them.

"Can we just get this over with?" the protagonist tried.

"No."

The protagonist sighed. They pinched the bridge of their nose and took a few deep breaths. "Okay," they said slowly. "But you realise I'm still going to have confiscate your nightmare robot."

"It's not for you. And don't think I didn't notice you dodging the question!"

The protagonist considered their options; lies, truth, everything in between.

The villain's nightmare robot hunkered down a little more pointedly in the middle of the bridge. Several people honked their horns. It was, honestly, embarrassing for everyone involved at that point.

"Their grandma died."

"Oh no." The villain's whole face softened. "Grandma L or Grandma P?"

Of course he knew the hero's grandparents. Of course he did. "Look, about the robot-"

"-I'll reschedule," the villain said.

"I can't let you keep the robot. My boss would have my head."

"That sounds like a 'you' problem. I have flowers to send."

The protagonist's eye twitched. "If you try and walk away with it-"

"-Do you really want to traumatize this entire bridge of innocent civilians?"

"I'm sure they're traumatized having to listen to you two idiots on a weekly basis."

"I'm taking the robot. When are they back?"

"They haven't said," the protagonist said, through gritted teeth. "As you know-"

"-They'll be doing all the funeral arrangements. Yeah. You know what, give me their number. I'll text them."

"I'm not giving you their number."

"Why not?"

"It's against policy."

"I'd like to express my condolences."

The protagonist looked them dead in the face. "Mm. That sounds like a 'you' problem. I have a robot to confiscate."

The robot slammed a fist into the bridge. It wobbled precariously.

The protagonist raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. They folded their arms across their chest.

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" the villain snarled.

"I hate you too, don't worry."

"I should kill you."

"They'd have so much paperwork when they got back from the funeral. It would really improve their month, you killing me."

They ended up glaring at each other.

"If I give you the bloody stupid robot, will you give me their number?"

The protagonist smiled sweetly. "That's the only smart thing I've ever heard you say."

Everyone, generally, preferred it when the hero was around.

They all made sure it didn't happen again.

[writingwithfolklore]

5 Tips for Creating Intimidating Antagonists

Antagonists, whether people, the world, an object, or something else are integral to giving your story stakes and enough conflict to challenge your character enough to change them. Today I’m just going to focus on people antagonists because they are the easiest to do this with!

1. Your antagonist is still a character

While sure, antagonists exist in the story to combat your MC and make their lives and quest difficult, they are still characters in the story—they are still people in the world.

Antagonists lacking in this humanity may land flat or uninteresting, and it’s more likely they’ll fall into trope territory.

You should treat your antagonists like any other character. They should have goals, objectives, flaws, backstories, etc. (check out my character creation stuff here). They may even go through their own character arc, even if that doesn’t necessarily lead them to the ‘good’ side.

Really effective antagonists are human enough for us to see ourselves in them—in another universe, we could even be them.

2. They’re… antagonistic

There’s two types of antagonist. Type A and Type B. Type A antagonist’s have a goal that is opposite the MC’s. Type B’s goal is the same as the MC’s, but their objectives contradict each other.

For example, in Type A, your MC wants to win the contest, your antagonist wants them to lose.

In Type B, your MC wants to win the contest, and your antagonist wants to win the same contest. They can’t both win, so the way they get to their goal goes against each other.

A is where you get your Draco Malfoy’s, other school bullies, or President Snow’s (they don’t necessarily want what the MC does, they just don’t want them to have it.)

B is where you get the other Hunger Games contestants, or any adventure movie where the villain wants the secret treasure that the MCs are also hunting down. They want the same thing.

3. They have well-formed motivations

While we as the writers know that your antagonist was conceptualized to get in the way of the MC, they don’t know that. To them, they exist separate from the MC, and have their own reasons for doing what they do.

In Type A antagonists, whatever the MC wants would be bad for them in some way—so they can’t let them have it. For example, your MC wants to destroy Amazon, Jeff Bezos wants them not to do that. Why not? He wants to continue making money. To him, the MC getting what they want would take away something he has.

Other motivations could be: MC’s success would take away an opportunity they want, lose them power or fame or money or love, it could reveal something harmful about them—harming their reputation. It could even, in some cases, cause them physical harm.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be true, but the antagonist has to believe it’s true. Such as, if MC wins the competition, my wife will leave me for them. Maybe she absolutely wouldn’t, but your antagonist isn’t going to take that chance anyway.

In Type B antagonists, they want the same thing as the MC. In this case, their motivations could be literally anything. They want to win the competition to have enough money to save their family farm, or to prove to their family that they can succeed at something, or to bring them fame so that they won’t die a ‘nobody’.

They have a motivation separate from the MC, but that pesky protagonist keeps getting in their way.

4. They have power over the MC

Antagonists that aren’t able to combat the MC very well aren’t very interesting. Their job is to set the MC back, so they should be able to impact their journey and lives. They need some sort of advantage, privilege, or power over the MC.

President Snow has armies and the force of his system to squash Katniss. She’s able to survive through political tension and her own army of rebels, but he looms an incredibly formidable foe.

Your antagonist may be more wealthy, powerful, influential, intelligent, or skilled. They may have more people on their side. They are superior in some way to the protagonist.

5. And sometimes they win

Leading from the last point, your antagonists need wins. They need to get their way sometimes, which means your protagonist has to lose. You can do a bit of a trade off that allows your protagonist to lose enough to make a formidable foe out of their antagonist, but still allows them some progress using Fortunately, Unfortunately.

It goes like… Fortunately, MC gets accepted into the competition. Unfortunately, the antagonist convinces the rest of the competitors to hate them. Fortunately, they make one friend. Unfortunately, their first entry into the competition gets sabotaged. Fortunately, they make it through the first round anyway, etc. etc.

An antagonist that doesn’t do any antagonizing isn’t very interesting, and is completely pointless in their purpose to heighten stakes and create conflict for your protagonist to overcome. We’ll probably be talking about antagonists more soon!

Anything I missed?

[spiderverseconceptart]

Pirate Doc Ock concept art for Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse by Evan Monteiro and Ami Thompson

(Mood Illustration by Evening Monteiro) (Character Design Concept by Ami Thompson)

[sailorsenshigifs]

[leoleolovesdc]

The fact that Batman insists on calling his villains by their names makes me feel so many things.

He insists on these people’s humanity even after everything they’ve done.

That’s not Poison Ivy, that’s Pamela.

That’s not Harley Quinn, that’s Harleen.

That’s not Scarecrow, that’s Doctor Crane.

That’s not Killer Croc, that’s Waylon.

That’s not Riddler, that’s Ed.

They’re not a “rogues gallery”, they are people.

[furikass]

A dear friend of mine made me this beautiful Riddlebird animation and I love it with all my heart <3

Tysm @atalkingcrow-likething!