7 types of villains
TRANSCRIPT
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7 TYPES OF
VILLAINSJ.S. Morin
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Not every hero has a villain.
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A hero can battle faceless foes, the environment, or even
his own inner demons.
But if you want to write about heroic deeds you may find
yourself looking for a villain to pit against your hero.
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A villain is a complement to a hero, a contrast to the
heroic virtues for hero embodies.
Whether you decide on the hero first and choose a villain
for him to oppose, or start with the villain and build a hero
to defeat him, it can help to have some archetypes in mind.
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While you’re free to mix, match, and invent your own, here are a few basic types of villains you can look to when brainstorming.
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THE MUSTACHE TWIRLER
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An over-the-top villain who is nothing but a villain
Creates perilous situations for the hero to overcome
A flat character with little or no back story, and one who seems to dare the hero to foil him
Examples: Snidely
Whiplash, AuricGoldfinger
A simple villain for a simple story
THE MUSTACHE TWIRLER
Children’s stories and campy action
movies
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THE ANCIENT EVIL
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Someone has been up to something dangerous, and they should have known better
Opened an ancient crypt, read aloud from the wrong book, or put a magic ring on their finger perhaps one time too many
Something evil and long dormant has come back, and great heroism will be required to save the city/world/universe from it
Examples: Sauron, Cthulhu
An evil for evil’s sake, something beyond
reasoning with, threatening, or waiting out
THE ANCIENT EVIL
The classic villain of epic fantasy
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THE BULLY
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Well down the spectrum from the ancient evil is the bully
The bully is there to make life miserable for the hero, if not actually threaten it
A bully can be a stepping-stone villain
Examples: Biff Tannen, Dudley
Dursley, Mr. Bumble
Bullies are best used when looking to show emotional growth in a
character
THE BULLY
Bullies are not limited to stories with child
protagonists, but they are found most
frequently there
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THE MASTERMIND
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The perfect counterpart to the clever hero is the villain who is always thinking one step ahead
A mastermind isn’t a villain who needs to get his hands dirty, though there’s nothing stopping him from doing so, if the plan calls for it
A mastermind will often have a keen interest in a hero, often wanting to match wits with a worthy adversary
Examples: Megamind,
Professor James
Moriarty, Loki
Often the only plausible manner of their undoing
THE MASTERMIND
This type of hero works when the hero is the sort
who is willing to match wits, rather than try to doggedly
pursue
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THE DARK LORD
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Dark Lord is usually a contemporary of the hero, or a generation older
What sets him apart from other villains is his official status as the leader of an organized group
An arbitrary title for the archetype, the moniker can be applied to kings, dukes, warlords, princes, generals, or any other similar marker of status
Examples: Darth Vader, Voldemort, Mister
Sinister
A Dark Lord will always have minions, henchmen, or underlings to carry out
his orders
THE DARK LORD
The Dark Lord villain is best used in stories with black-and-
white morality
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THE MIRROR
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Evenly matched in brains, brawn, and often even appearance, the mirror is the hero’s equal in every way but one: ideals
There will be some fundamental difference in moral and/or philosophical outlook that will always end up playing into the result of the final confrontation
This match up cancels out all the mundane traits that might set a hero apart from normal people, because the villain possesses those same traits. In this case, it is the heroism itself that matters
Exmaples: Negaduck, Professor Moriarty (a
versatile guy!), General Zod
A great villain for a case study in what being a
hero means
THE MIRROR
Karma, friends, and just the value of having
something worth fighting for – these are the things that set a mirrored pair of
hero and villain apart
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SOMEONE ELSE’S HERO
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They fight for a cause that opposed the hero’s, but for those who follow that cause, this villain is their hero
Turn the tables, and you could tell the story with the roles reversed, casting the villain in the heroic light and the hero as villain
SOMEONE ELSE’S HERO
Examples: Magneto, Khan Noonien Singh,
Benjamin Linus
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There you have it.
Do you have an archetype that needs to
be added to the list?
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Read the full blog post at
http://www.jsmorin.com/2015/02/7-types-villains/