So, we meet again, my dear meddlesome reader.

In my chapter about horror stories, I briefly dabbled into what can turn someone into a monster. After a discussion with one of my fellow underlings - em - readers, I considered adding a post about villains to my brilliant collection. Now, watch my master-plan - em - master-chapter unfold!

What is a villain, even?

Very commonly, the words "villain" and "antagonist" are used synonymously. A common definition you'll find is that a villain is any character who opposes the hero.

However, the same could be said about the horror monsters which I already discussed extensively in previous posts. However, very few people would consider monsters and villains to be the same. The shark from Jaws is a monster, but it isn't really a villain.

So, can we define a villain as any antagonist with human traits? I don't think so. L is the antagonist of Death Note, but he isn't the villain. The villain is the protagonist, Light Yagami.

In my opinion, a villain is basically an evil character. But what is evil even? Is a high school bully who shoves nerds into lockers a villain? What about someone who kills people, but saves much more people than he kills?

On the nature of evil

You know, there's a bunch of common characteristics villains have. First of all, they are almost always male, even in genres that often have female protagonists (like romance). This makes a bit of sense, after all, most real-life dictators or violent criminals are also male. (It's also why I'll default to male pronouns for this chapter). However, other than that, villains tend to have a lot more diversity than heroes do. Ever noticed how often villains are queer-coded, disabled, or not conventionally attractive?

One might almost say "evil" is everything society deems inappropriate. Like, most people thought homosexuality was evil a few centuries ago; these days, we think differently.

However, it's not that simple. While different cultures consider different things to be evil, there are a few universals. Almost all cultures agree that harming people is evil, is especially if there is no good reason for it. But what constitutes a "good reason" varies from person to person. Most people (except anti-vaxxers) don't consider a doctor giving a child a vaccine to be evil, even it's harmed in the short term.

For this post, a villain is evil if the narrative and the other characters (particularly the ones were are supposed to sympathize with) disapprove of his actions.

Now that this is out of the way, we can jump to our next section.

What made your villain evil?

If there is one way in which fictional villains often fall short, it's in their lack of motivation. I can understand why. It's hard for an author to get in the head of a character that's so different from how the writer and their audience like to perceive themselves.

Personally, I believe there are two broad categories of reasons people have for villainy: Selfishness and being misguided.

Some philosophers argue that everything we do is secretly selfish and that, when we give a beggar money, we want to make ourselves feel good not them. Therefore, I'll define "selfish" actions as those that harm other people for personal self-gain.

The Joker is a prime example of a selfish villain in most of his incarnations. He likes killing people and he rarely has a reason for it that goes beyond self-gratification. Even his anarchistic philosophy is largely just a self-serving excuse.

There are many other archetypes of villains defined by selfishness. The greedy billionaire, the genocidal dictator, the jealous ex, you name it.

But what makes people selfish? Well, for starters, it's trivially easy to rationalize horrible deeds that happen to "nobodies" or to people you don't know. A million is a statistic, after all. Most parasitic billionaires and dictators are far removed from the consequences of their actions. It's easy for them to ignore the deaths of millions of faceless people as long as their comfortable lifestyle is maintained. On a more sympathetic note, plenty of people are willing to do horrible things as long as those who are close to them benefit from it.

Selfishness can also stem from those plain old Deadly Sins we all have in us. Lust, greed, envy, wrath, sloth, pride, gluttony (as in, being obsessed with personal comfort, not necessarily just eating a lot), you name it. (Some might even name excessive love among these vice, as love drove Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side.) If these desires are strong enough, they can even override our basic moral compass. A villain whose family has been murdered might not care if innocents are harmed by his quest for revenge.

Related to the above, a cynical mindset can foster selfishness. If a villain lived on the streets his whole life, he might believe that the entire world only consists of the strong oppressing the weak.

Finally, some people are just born selfish, especially if they fall into the dark triad of personality types. More on that below.

I'd like to add that selfish people thrive if they have systemic power and can hide behind the backs of others. Governments and corporate bodies often do terrible things, but because they have so many members, individuals can easily shift responsibility among each other.

If your villain is motivated primarily by selfishness, it's good to establish how his plan will benefit him. For example, why would he want to blow up the planet Earth if he lives on it?

Besides selfishness, some people do evil due to being misguided. A lot of what I mentioned above (being far removed from problems, having a hard past, being consumed by some primal vice) can cloud one's judgment and prevent people from thinking rationally. We are surprisingly good at lying to ourselves.

But that's not the only thing that can make people misguided. Being indoctrinated with certain ideologies and having toxic parents/mentors can do that, too.

Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender is a classic example of such a villain. From a young age, he has been told that his Fire Nation is the greatest nation and that their war is just. He has also been taught that his honor is the most important thing in the world. When his abusive father banishes him, he is willing to do horrible things to please him.

If you want a sympathetic villain whom the audience can relate to and who might become a hero later (like Zuko), making him misguided in some way can help a lot.

What about mental illness? Can that make people evil?

Yes, and no. "Mental illness" is a very, very broad term and there is, unfortunately, a lot of stigma around it. It's certainly possible that, when someone is depressed or traumatized, that he might lash out at the world through violence. However, such people are statistically no more criminal than the average Joe. It's just that when some school shooter has mental issues, the media loves to emphasize them.

Likewise, many people who suffer from hallucinations and delusions are far, far more likely to harm themselves than others. No need to stigmatize them through inaccurate fictional depictions of their conditions.

There are, however, neurological conditions capable of bringing forth the worst in humanity. The dark triad encompasses Machiavellians, sociopaths/psychopaths, and narcissists. All these conditions reduce people's capacities to feel empathy and, to be clear, while being a psychopath does not automatically turn you into a serial killer, many such people tend to be exploitative or abusive of those around them (although pro-social psychopaths/sociopaths might exist; I'm not super knowledgeable on the subject matter). Either way, the dark triad is something to look up if you're interested in the topic.

How to use a villain in a story

So, now that we have dabbled into the psychology of villainy, we can discuss how to use villains in stories properly. There are many archetypes of villains and you need to find the one that fits your genre.

By far the most common villain job across genres is that villains create problems. In a love story, they cause drama between the lovers. In a teen drama, they might be bullies. In a murder mystery, they cause the murder and complicate the investigations. In a horror or thriller story, they threaten the hero's life. In an action/adventure story, they provide the hero with someone to fight (and in power fantasy stories, they're living punching bags). Moreover, they often provide convenient excuses for heroes to do cool things that would be questionable in real life, like breaking rules and beating up (or killing) people. But hey, it's for the greater good!

Now, there is definitely nothing wrong with that, but it's the minimum the audience expects and if a villain is nothing but a plot device, it might get boring quickly.

That's why many stories also use their villains as counterparts (the literary term is "foil") for the heroes. Often, the villain and the hero will have superficial similarities, but there is a core difference between their character that makes the hero the hero and the villain the villain. Darth Vader and Luke are both part of the same family and both are force-users, but while Darth Vader gave in to his anger and the Dark Side, Luke resisted it.

Now, I get that the "evil counterpart" thing is very cliché and doesn't work in every genre (good luck trying it a murder mystery), but it works well in genres where the hero and the villain interact a lot, like in the action or superhero genres. If written well, an evil counterpart can catalyze the hero's character development and add depth to the story. Black Panther learned about the responsibility he and the Wakanda have towards the world after his cousin Erik Killmonger showed him what the outside world is like.

Something I recommend regardless of story type is to have the villain start stronger than the hero. This adds sympathy to the hero, antipathy to the villain, and adds tension to the story. Just think of the iconic opening scene of A New Hope where we see the tiny rebel ship fly away from the gigantic, seemingly-invincible Death Star. It's also why so many teen dramas have an awkward nerd as the protagonist while the antagonist will be either prettier (if both are female) or stronger (if both are male) than the main character. Making the villain powerful can also explain why no-one other than the hero can defeat him. (Otherwise, you end up with a situation like in the Avengers movie where I wondered why they can't just let the military handle the Chitauri invasion.)

Just be careful not to overdo this. If your nerd is too ugly or awkward and your jock/queen bee villain too charismatic, it might be hard to explain why the love interest still chooses the main character. Likewise, the Death Star from Star Wars has often been ridiculed for its poorly-guarded weak spot which will destroy the entire ship if it's hit (they had to make an entire movie just to patch that plot hole!).

It helps if the villain has an exploitable weakness or a character flaw or if the hero has a special ability or a unique mindset that gives them a win.

You might also try to decide ahead of time whether your audience is supposed to love or hate the villain (although many villains evoke both). If he's supposed to be despicable, make his defeat satisfying. If he's supposed to be sympathetic, have him go down with dignity (or redeem him, if you want to).

Obviously, villains are a veeeery broad topic as far as storytelling is concerned. There are so many subtopics (like evil master plans) to which I could devote entire chapters. This is just a surface-level introduction.

And now, my loyal Legions of Doom, go out and write some diabolical stories for me. Muhahahaha.