Not all stories are about good versus evil. But when you have a super hero or heroine it’s almost compulsory in storytelling. What would Batman be without the Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler; Superman without Lex Luthor; Thor without Loki: or the Avengers without Thanos? Okay these are comic book heroes and blockbuster movies. But there are lots of other examples: Katnis Everdeen without President Snow; Robin Hood without the Sheriff of Nottingham, Sarah Connor without the Terminator, Luke Skywalker without the evil emperor, and of course James Bond without a host of Bond villains of the most unscrupulous kind. Most thrillers and high action stories are driven by these types of characters.
In heroic stories the villain is the most important character in the story. Without them there is no story. He or she has to be powerful, mean and very nasty. Some writers claim that the hero has to drive the story. Wrong. The hero responds to the actions of the villain. The villain is the story driver.
I looked up a poll on popular villains on the internet and the top three were:
- Hannibal Lecter – Silence of the Lambs
- Norman Bates – Psyscho
- Darth Vader – Empire Strikes Back
Are all these characters evil? Yes. Although a liberal might describe them as simply mentally ill. But while we may be fascinated by these characters they don’t deserve our sympathy. We want them to fail, don’t we? Well, most of us do. And that’s what make us want to read the story until the very end.
Most of theses characters show some psychopathic personality traits:
- A lack of guilt, remorse or empathy
- A pretence to feel emotions
- An inability to form emotional attachments
- A tendency to be successful
- Dishonesty
- Manipulative behaviour, narcissism and superficial charm.
Yes – I cheated and looked up these traits on the ‘Simply Psychology’ website. I might add a sadistic tendency as well as an obsessive motivation to achieve their desires. Nasty villains make wonderful story drivers. They have a plan and they will drive it through. The hero or heroine is the only one that can stop them.
Is this form of storytelling too simple? I think not. Ian Fleming wrote a host of Bond books that spawned several generations of successful Bond movies. Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs was a hugely successful novel and film adaption won the `Big five’ Academy awards. You can’t get much more of an evil villain than a cannibalistic serial killer.
Are all villains evil? Not necessarily – in their own mind they might justify their actions by the weakness of those opposing them, by the challenge they have set themselves, or by some twisted sense of justice. What is importance is they are highly motivated towards a goal, whether it is power, wealth, or notoriety. Thanos for example thought he was saving the world by destroying 10% of life. In his own mind, he was the hero.
The villain sometimes identifies with the hero. It’s a common theme in action adventure stories. Rene Balloq from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was an archeologist like Indiana Jones. He just went about it a different way, or so he claimed in the movie.
If you are developing and action adventure story, perhaps the best point to start is with the central conflict that will form the spine of the story. The antagonist or antagonists will form the key elements of that conflict. So a good place to start is to identify who they are, what are their goals and what motivates them. Maybe then you’ll write that blockbuster novel or movie.
Tell me what you think?
JMJ Williamson 