What makes a villain interesting?

🍁 Aria 🔮 | Mythic Inconceivable!
 
more |
XBL:
PSN:
Steam:
ID: D4C
IP: Logged

10,560 posts
His eyebrows sparkling, his white beard hangs down to his chest. The thatched mats, spread outside his chise, spread softly, his splendid attos. He polishes, cross-legged, his makiri, with his eyes completely absorbed.

He is Ainu.

The god of Ainu Mosir, Ae-Oine Kamuy, descendant of Okiku-Rumi, He perishes, a living corpse. The summers day, the white sunlight, unabrushed, ends simply through his breath alone.
abs, leather jackets, and cheesy one liners
Sounds like an action movie hero.
think of how much property damage they cause and see if they're still heroes #deep
Taxation is theft
action heroes work in conjunction with the government to pave way for rebuilding the state as they wish by destroying the livelihood of innocent bystanders
Captain America is a globalist Jew puppet
Even as a brainwashed nazi super soldier, he only serves to further the jewish agenda by tying the hands of superheroes who might uncover their plots.


 
Jono
| Future Nostalgia
 
more |
XBL: HundredJono
PSN: HundredJono
Steam: hundredjono55
ID: Jono
IP: Logged

18,484 posts
Goodness gracious, great balls of lightning!
Starcraft: Brood War version of Kerrigan best villain


Risay117 | Heroic Unstoppable!
 
more |
XBL:
PSN:
Steam: risay117
ID: Risay117
IP: Logged

2,952 posts
 
It depends, if you are going for realistic and going to give motive, it needs to feel like either he has a reasoning or a person who is so involved into his belief he has blinded himself, or a fallen hero. But mostly there needs to be some depth, and it has to come from the character personality. They can be crazy because even that is potential reasoning.

But sometimes a bad guy just needs to be a bad guy. We do not need a big reasoning for why Sid was evil in Toy Story or any big motive or explanation for why Scar killed Mufasa.

Best way to look at it is what does your story represent and how is the tale told. Is it a complicated game of politics, or a simple story of heroism following a single character

Personally I want a reinvention of the old Sinbad or Ali Baba stories and others from the One thousand and one nights. Mostly about Sinbad and his adventures, with no specific story of triumph but a story of just pure adventure and discovery, with each story being short and each tale entering into a fantastical and strange lands or world. Whether it be sci fi or not.

And stories like those usually have a simple bad guy and do not go into motive of reasoning of a bad guy, they are just bad because in the short time the main character spends with them, these character's are evil, and the only goal of the main character is to survive and escape. But they do not always have to be evil, they can just be a normal obstacle like a big bird that catches you and drops you into it's nest to feed it's kids with your other travellers. The villian main goal in these stories is to just be an obstacle to the main character as he travels.

Which is what made Indiana Jones fun, it was mostly about adventure and less about bad and good characters.
Last Edit: August 11, 2017, 04:05:12 PM by Risay117


Luke | Legendary Invincible!
 
more |
XBL:
PSN:
Steam:
ID: Luke
IP: Logged

4,121 posts
Rinzler
If they gain enough heat  to make you want to see them have their ass kicked.

But you can also respect how great a character they are.



Relatively Quiet | Respected Posting Spree
 
more |
XBL:
PSN:
Steam:
ID: Relatively Quiet
IP: Logged

121 posts
 
I think it depends on how many dimensions you story itself has. It'd be pretty dumb to create this big complex setting and fill it with characters and then get to the villain and just make him a one dimensional cutout. Same thing if the villain is too complicated for a simple setting. Ultimately what I think makes or breaks a villain is the level of dimensions they have in relation to the story structure. You can create any kind of villain you want, but if they don't match with tone and narration with the rest of the story, then they become boring.


Big Boss | Mythic Card Master
 
more |
XBL: Badman Kakarot
PSN: GurrenSwagann
Steam:
ID: Big Boss
IP: Logged

13,961 posts
Jacob Potila was actually a Jacob Flotilla of lies.- WarTurkey
I think it depends on how many dimensions you story itself has. It'd be pretty dumb to create this big complex setting and fill it with characters and then get to the villain and just make him a one dimensional cutout. Same thing if the villain is too complicated for a simple setting. Ultimately what I think makes or breaks a villain is the level of dimensions they have in relation to the story structure. You can create any kind of villain you want, but if they don't match with tone and narration with the rest of the story, then they become boring.

Ideally I'd like to create this big world with lots going on in terms of history and lore with complex characters, but I've never really done it before so I don't want to jump in on the deep end and get myself stuck.


Big Boss | Mythic Card Master
 
more |
XBL: Badman Kakarot
PSN: GurrenSwagann
Steam:
ID: Big Boss
IP: Logged

13,961 posts
Jacob Potila was actually a Jacob Flotilla of lies.- WarTurkey
Some more backstory on the character of the 'villain' (name tba)

Long ago, the land of Thurbasa was not unlike the Earth we know it today.  There was a great war that had reduced the land to ruin. The war was waged between two great armies that seeked total domination over the world. The final battle took place at the Heldegardt fields, where one of the soldiers, sick of the endless conflict, entered a state of intense emotional stress and caused a rift to open beneath the ground that engulfed the battlefield and swallowed all of the combatants of both sides, sparing only the instigator.

From out of the rift a being appeared, the embodiment of death. It congratulated him on having the initiative and desire to want things to change. It asks him what he wants, and he says he just wants to make a better world. Death bestowed him with significant powers with which the man would be able to start rebuilding anew in a way he sees fit. He builds himself a modest dwelling, and populates the area with a number of people to keep him company and hopefully begin rebuilding civilization.  As a result of the rift opening, other worlds were pulled in closer to this one, and portals began to open all around, dragging inhabitants in unwillingly. The man, growing tired and weary of living with his manufactured companions is very confused by what’s happening but comes to welcome the new arrivals, hoping that they can help grow his community bigger. The people that were dragged into the world were of varying races and species, making the budding world quite diverse. As time goes on and more and more different races join the world however, conflict begins to brew. Differing ideologies and beliefs begin to clash, causing a lot of conflict and strife. The world isn’t so ‘perfect’ anymore.

Knowing full well the horrors that war brings, the man decides to segregate the different groups of people that live within his world, shutting them off from one another so that those who believe in different things will not come into contact with each other. He thinks that this is the only way to keep the world stable, with no strife or conflict. The portals continue to open and more and more people arrive. The man, growing tired of having to continuously force his inhabitants into their own zones begins to routinely seek out and eliminate new arrivals, believing that his world, though flawed, functions well enough as it is and any new people could tip the balance into chaos. He doesn’t enjoy the killing but sees it as a necessity.