Hey guys! I am so happy to present the three best types of villains!!! Which is my personal opinion and let’s not get technical here…because basically, these villains are like several types of villains combined, but whatever…lol…they are my favorites! Next Friday we will begin answering the questions you guys submitted, I’m not gonna say we have all the answers, but we are going to do our best to answer them!

But for today, 3 Best Villain Types in my Opinion!

The 3 Best Villain Types

Let’s get started with Three of the Best Villain types! I love to hate me a good villain! There is just something so rewarding about a villain that is truly bad, that I don’t know…hating on the guy is just right and you can do it without feeling guilty. These days we get a lot of mixed villains, villains with sad backstories, neglected villains, and villains with no motive…this series is going to break all of these stereotypes down. But also establish what is needed to make a good villain.

First I want to talk about my favorite kinds of villains today!!! I have three, and to me, when done well, they are just the best! So, let’s begin!

The Crazy Smart and Hilarious Villain that is also supremely evil!

This villain is a mastermind, even though at first thought you’re like…ehh, he’s not that smart. He’s cruel to the core, even though at first we think, ehh, I don’t think he’s that bad, kind of goofy. He’s this perfect balance of relatable, hilarious, and I-want-to-hide-under-a-table-when-he-comes-on-set sort of guy. Often he doesn’t seem to have many motives outside of a hunger for power (not sure what’s up with that).

One of my best examples of this villain is the Sherriff of Nottingham from BBC’s Robin Hood series! Guys, this guy is such a good actor, and the Sheriff is just…one of my favorite villains ever! He’s cruel, heartless even…but he has a sense of humor, albeit dark at times. But there’s just something about him…you love to hate him. You don’t want him to win but you know he’s a worthy opponent of Robin Hood and his men. He’s chillingly evil, killing and threatening anyone that gets in his way as he strives to take over England. He wants power, prestige, and money…his goal is to rule, and we know early on he will do whatever it takes to reach it.

If you want a second example, I’d say Vizzini from The Princess Bride (Movie), you may only remember him as the guy who says, “Inconceivable!” He’s a little more on the goofy side, but still a very smart guy. Definitely stands out. He’s motives are similar to the Sheriff, and most villains in this area seem to have similar goals…I’d definitely like to see that branch out if anyone is up for the challenge!

The crazy smart and hilarious villains are just so fun to watch play out on screen or page because not only do we get to laugh at or with them, but we are amazed by the plans they make and also fearful of their next movie. Very complicated characters to write, but well worth it if pulled off right!

The Villain you Can’t Physically See

I’m not sure why, but this is one of the creepiest villains to me. This nameless or named evil which you can’t see. No putting a face to the evil…just an evil that penetrates throughout the lands. Darkness that spreads like a plague. This is done in Fantasies more than anything else, but it could be done in Dystopian or Sci-fi as well.

As for examples, well the best one I can think of is Sauron in The Lord of the Rings…all we get is the all-seeing eye…but we never get an actual picture of Sauron. Our heroes never face down a figure, simply are watched by the eye in the tower. If that’s not creepy I don’t know what is? We don’t need to ask why everyone is scared of Sauron because we feel it…he’s unseen and yet he sees everything. Such a creepy thought. His motivations are world domination, he is an evil so old and so dark I don’t need an explanation for it…but correct me if I’m wrong, but I think my brother said you can find one in the Silmarillion if you need it.😉

As another example…I think I’ll go with His Darkness from Moonscript by H. S. J. Williams. I read Moonscript earlier this year and let’s just say…her unseen villain gave me the creeps. Like Sauron, he had a minion that did the talking for him, but we never see him. Only feel the darkness and despair that he spreads in the wake of his shadow. Now, His Darkness is based on satan so, we don’t need anyone to explain why he’s evil, we know, we feel it. Often that’s how it is with these unseen guys…but sometimes you have guys like this next example.

As for something different that I’ve seen done with this villain…Gnag the Nameless from The Wingfeather Saga. For the entire series (well till the last few chapters of the last book) he is a nameless, unknown evil. An evil that has spread his reach across the land. His evil is felt by everyone, everyone fears him, though no one has ever seen him. That kind of power in a villain is very…alluring. It makes the perfect bad guy! Gnag’s motives and twisted mindset are expertly woven in by Peterson and I just…that ending had me heartbroken. (If you read the book, you know it’s not just about Gnag 😉)

When pulled off right these villains are insanely creepy…these figures no one sees, and everyone fears. When not done right, like when they aren’t scary or someone tries to explain why the evil mysterious unseen darkness is evil, they just fall flat. Let the darkness hide in the shadows and let him be evil…

Unless you want to create a physical figure like Gnag who lurks back there in an intense and complicated backstory…I felt sorry for the guy and was angry with another character *glares at said unnamed character*.

The Traitor No One Saw Coming

Oh, these guys love to tear my heart out! Never fail, I am the person who will fall for this guy’s nice act every stinkin’ time! I don’t know why, but I seem to be drawn to them like magnets. I love them and then they destroy me, and I can’t stop loving who they used to be…this nice person that turns out was a fraud and I never even suspected them!

Man, when that happens it is sooo good! If you need a good example of this, read The Green Ember Series…plenty of that going on. The motives for these guys have to be good. One of the traitors from GE was motivated by fear, another felt a sense of duty, still another thought there was no hope for the Cause and he might as well save himself. We need a good strong motive. A reason for the nice guy to turn, a reason he’s tricking everyone instead of being outright evil. Give me a good motive and then justify it!

These guys are usually either fun, charming, friendly, or all of the above and then they turn sour. A snap of the fingers and we find these ugly traitors in our midst. I love when this happens…when I never suspected them and then boom! This is hard to pull off, especially getting the motives right, but I love it when someone does it and genuinely wants to see more in fiction!

Conclusion

Okay, so we covered my three favorite types of villains, you listened to me ramble about them forever! Now, I’m going to give you another article to go read, actually two. They both talk about the motive of villains and justifying the motive. So the first is on Pen and Ink, Annabelle Batie’s fantastic site! It’s a blog tour post for Words a new blog that looks to be promising on all things wordish!

And the next post is from Story Embers, I got an email about it and checked it out, very insightful. I think it’ll really help as you move forward with writing these complex characters. Just because these guys are the bad guys doesn’t mean we should skip over them. In fact, as this series will talk about…I don’t think we spend enough time on them.

What are your favorite villain types? What is your favorite of these three? Do you disagree with me? What are your thoughts on Villain motives? Let me know in the comments and be on the lookout for next week’s post! (Also, Monday’s post is special!)

Bless!

Kayti (Kaytlin P.)