Villain Meaning & Types What is a villain and what is an antagonist? An antagonist is the force of a story that the protagonist contends with; whether it be human, natural or supernatural. Antagonists do not always have evil intentions, but are defined by their force against the story's protagonist.

Can pure evil villains work?

Many people look down on Pure Evil Villains calling them "Lazy writing" or "Inherently bad villains" but I strongly disagree. Not every story and character needs to be overly complicated and sometimes a simple charismatic villain works just as well, if not better, than a sympathetic villain.

What truly makes a villain?

They're often intelligent, charismatic, and ruthless in their pursuit of power; they want control and will do anything it takes to get it, even if that means destroying everything else around them. The villain acts as a foil to your hero, giving them something to fight against on their journey.

Are pure evil villains better?

Whether a villain's humanity outweighs their cruelty is ultimately for the individual viewer to decide. In the end, there's no inherent superiority in either approach. It's not being sympathetic or pure evil that determines whether a villain is great, but the skill of the writers and actors that bring them to life.

Can villains turn good?

From Maleficent to Darth Vader, here are the best bad guys in movies who had a change of heart. One of the best tropes in fiction is the villain who ends up righting their wrongs and coming into their own, and is revealed as a hero at the end of a story.

a villain who unintentionally always does helpful things

What makes a villain pure evil?

Something you have to make sure they have is a purely selfish motivation. Money for the sake of power, world domination, power, revenge. Maybe they're just doing what they're doing just for fun. They're the opposite of a sympathetic antagonist.

Can villains have morals?

We don't tend to think of villains as moral individuals, but they usually are. They just live according to a different set of values than the rest of society. Morals have to do with our beliefs about right and wrong. To make your villain truly ominous, give her a reason for doing the things she does.

Why do evil villains laugh?

Crucially, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen argues that a wicked laugh offers one of the clearest signs that a villain harbors such evil, gaining what Arthur Schopenhauer called “open and candid enjoyment” from others' suffering–moreover, fiction writers know this intuitively, time and again using the malevolent cackle to ...

What villain is actually good?

What is the perfect villain?

A great villain should be a strong and worthy adversary to your hero. They shouldn't be weak and easily beaten, nor should they be so powerful that they can only be defeated by random chance. In Sherlock Holmes, his arch-nemesis Moriarty is a criminal mastermind who is every bit as smart as Sherlock.

How to make a villain likable?

Give them some positive traits to balance out their sinister qualities. The more your audience admires or relates to an antagonist the more it contrast's their more villainous pursuits. If all else fails and you can't make them likable, if that simply doesn't fit, that's okay as long as they're compelling.

What does every villain want?

Most villains share a desire to obtain power. Some villains only want to have power over your main character. Others want to take over the world and achieve ultimate power. When crafting your big bad, you should analyze your evil villain's relationship to power.

What do villains act like?

Perhaps the most characterizing thing about a villain is that they're often ruthless. They're willing to do violent, despicable things to get what they want. What they want might not even be altogether bad—maybe they want a loving girlfriend, for example.

What is a broken villain?

Villains with painful backstories giving them negative emotions and shaping them into destructive and hateful beings. However, their broken hearts cause their actions since they were forced into darkness and their unfortunate pasts made them distrustful and misled.

Is The Joker broken or pure evil?

1 Evil: Joker

Even when his characteristics are downplayed for laughs (his favorite) or we're given a semblance of understanding to his psyche like in the Joker film, there's still no denying that the Clown Prince of Crime is just pure, irredeemable evil.

Is Maleficent pure evil or broken?

Maleficent can be considered pure evil from any perspective. There is absolutely nothing with which to redeem her. She is easily one of the most evil Disney villains ever to exist, if not the most evil Disney villain ever to exist.

Who is the stupidest villain?

Why does everyone like the villain?

Interestingly, people were more inclined to choose a movie that had a villain with a similar personality to their own if they were going to watch the movie by themselves. This study adds to earlier findings that people feel safe exploring villains that remind them of themselves, as long as it can be done privately.

Who is the most misunderstood villain?

Are villains born evil?

A villain isn't automatically born into a villain by birth. There is always a story behind; a childhood trauma, rejection in society, seeking for validation, or the 'born different' factor that contributes to the epiphany of a villain.

What makes a boring villain?

Villains don't generally arc, so we often overlook the villain's motivations. We fail to appreciate that most bad guys don't think they are wrong. They always have a good reason why they are doing what they do.

Why are villains more attractive?

Another way of looking at attraction toward evil characters is scientific. We are interested in "bad" because it is exciting and it instills fear. Elise Banfield, a Professor of Psychology, states that sometimes people confuse fear with attraction because they provoke the same rush of chemicals into our bodies.

What are 3 characteristics of a villain?

Can a villain just be evil?

There are some villains that are truly pure evil, like Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars), Michael Myers (Halloween), Voldemort (Harry Potter), and Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War and End Game).

Does evil have standards?

The "Even Evil Has Standards" trope refers to a villain's unexpected code of honor suddenly changing their behavior. Frequently, a villain will have no compunction about killing, but crimes like human trafficking or sexual assault remain completely unacceptable.