The Making of a Villain
Villains come from all walks of life. They are greedy, evil, without remorse, self-absorbed liars, and very good at taking advantage of human weakness. Villains don’t shy away from violence, often they’ll seek it out to achieve an addictive high. They believe they are smarter than the average person, and can fool them into doing or believing what they want.
Every good story has a bad guy. Cast your characters using this villain list.
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The Dark Overlord
Evil, dark and deadly, this villainous leader takes what he wants, no questions asked, no regard to humanity, made even worse by the fact that usually in control of evil minions (see secondary characters) who will do all his dirty work. Run, don’t walk, away from this villain. (Darth Vader from Star Wars, Voldermort from Harry Potter)
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The Mad Scientist
Crazy? Would you call someone so entertaining crazy? This wonderful villain uses his witty technology to put his schemes in place. Most times those schemes are out-of-the-box and eccentric, making you think these well thought out plots are insane. (Walter White from Breaking Bad, although he is also a dark hero)
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The Thug
Picture this evil dude in dark sunglasses and with a very probable mafia and/or crime family connection or two. He may even report to a boss that’s even a thuggier-thug. He could be the peon or the boss of the peons…either way, he rules his turf and stirs up a lot of trouble with mighty big guns. (Don Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone from Mario Puzo’s The Godfather)
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The Misfit
Who needs to fit in when you know you are right and everyone else is wrong? This villain doesn’t fit in any social or work situation and seen by others as odd or different. He is often misunderstood due to his behaviors and habits. (Dracula)
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The Criminal Mastermind
Brilliant, twisted, and misguided the criminal mastermind is an ingenious plotter. He plans, he schemes, he’s extremely dangerous and won’t think twice about double-crossing co-conspirators. Bank robberies, hijackings, international theft rings…usually a mastermind is behind the crime. (Sethos from Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody mysteries, Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes, Dexter, although he is also a dark hero)
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The Scoundrel
He is sexy, smart, damaged, greedy. A scoundrel can charm the birds from the trees, and a dress off a maid with a simple kiss. They aren’t normally murderous, for one reason, they’re too selfish to commit such a messy crime. They don’t want to take the chance of getting caught, and really don’t find it fruitful. They’d rather cheat, lie and steal their way through life. Killing attracts too much attention, and can cause a very unwanted manhunt. (Don Juan, The Sundance Kid)
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The Extremist
The Extremist is one who goes beyond to the norm to accomplish something they believe in. They are unreasonable and impossible to communicate with outside their own interest. For them, all that matters are their ideals. The world around them misunderstands their actions, because they haven’t fallen completely into step with them. They are the only right one in the room, if not in the world, or at least their world.
Coming Soon:
The Madman
The Puppetmaster
The Egomaniac (Lex Luthor)
