Villains of Fiction

[firestorm]

What are flimsy motives for a villain?
What are characteristics that make a villain a great villain?

These and vast other things or topics can be discussed about the characters known as villains which create problems for the heroes and others, can be a obstacle to a heroes goals, can be a dark half or opposite of the heroes, etc.

How dull and boring fiction would be without these characters. For it was Azazel the yellow eyed demon responsible for the mother's death of the Winchester brothers with both searching for two seasons for him, Prince Phillip saving the princess aurora from Maleficent, The turtles having to defend New York City from shredder and corrupting the youth with them joining the foot clan, Robocop cleans up Old Detroit a city overrun by crime and corruption and it was Clarence Boddicker responsible for killing Murphy which resulted in the creation of Robocop.

The villains provide conflict or add to it of existing problems, they produce negative feelings from you resulting in wanting to see the hero succeed, also gives the story drama and suspense.

As you can see remove the villains you are missing a major part of the story or it's a car without tires.

There are stories where there are no villains but antagonists but even then they are still obstacles hindering the protagonists from succeeding. Iceland of Mighty Ducks 2 of team USA is a example.

 

[SWIL]

The best villains, in my opinion, are those that reflect our societies deepest fears and prejudices in real life at any given time.

Take Agent Smith in the Matrix, for example.

This villain is great because he is a deliberate reflection of our growing fears on "Big Brother" watching, privacy/security in an increasingly digital world, and the feeling of helplessness in the face of an imposing and seemingly omnipotent government.

To me, villains who are more "real" connect with the viewers on a deeper emotional layer than the over-the-top monsters found in most movies.

Hannibal Lecture comes to mind as one of the best portrayed "real" monsters of all time.

 

[MG1968]

Darth Vader - A man of honor who gives in to his dark side to become an evil, yet sympathetic monster.

 

[firestorm]

Darth Vader - A man of honor who gives in to his dark side to become an evil, yet sympathetic monster.

He's also a hero turn villain, dark lord, and many other kind of villain types which you can find at villains wikia.


The brilliance of Robert Louis Stevenson that wrote Treasure Island that could be the mile high mountain or godfather of pirate stories.

Longjohn Silver
He is the main villain of the book but as I've read still likable as he does have two obvious virtues despite physically handicapped he proves himself to be brave in the combat situations, also unlike most other pirates he is effective of money management instead of the predictable typical consume most of it fast.

 

[firestorm]

The best villains, in my opinion, are those that reflect our societies deepest fears and prejudices in real life at any given time.

Take Agent Smith in the Matrix, for example.

This villain is great because he is a deliberate reflection of our growing fears on "Big Brother" watching, privacy/security in an increasingly digital world, and the feeling of helplessness in the face of an imposing and seemingly omnipotent government.

To me, villains who are more "real" connect with the viewers on a deeper emotional layer than the over-the-top monsters found in most movies.

Hannibal Lecture comes to mind as one of the best portrayed "real" monsters of all time.

As a writer these are Characters I love to write.
How can I make them different, unique, and diabolical if they are suppose to be dark lords.



Seven
What makes seven so terrifying far more than A Nightmare on Elm a street,House on Haunted Hill, The Haunting, etc is because the killer is a human.
It made it clear that we all have dirt on our hands, and that seeing a sin and doing nothing about is awful.

I do think that if a villain takes over the world it results in the problem of lack of conflict. Unless of course it's the repercussions or consequences of said character taking over, along with others attempts at defeating him or her.



I do recall some episode in Boston Legal in a immigrant case where Alan Shore pointed out the hypocrisy of the United States government.
All that I recall is I think he was defending a illegal immigrant, can't recall what he said about the hypocrisy.

New Jack City
While it is a fictional story it still shows how detrimental drugs are, along with empty promises it'll continue to be a plague that infects humans.

 

[BenGrimm]

Darth Vader - A man of honor who gives in to his dark side to become an evil, yet sympathetic monster.

Oddly enough we didn't know he was a man of honor until the end of the (original) second act, yet he was already one of the best villains in cinema history.

---

Some of the best villains are definitely those with whom we can sympathize.

Take Magneto for instance. A holocaust survivor who has seen the worst of humanity. His past experiences lead him to take extreme actions to help his kind.

 

[firestorm]

Oddly enough we didn't know he was a man of honor until the end of the (original) second act, yet he was already one of the best villains in cinema history.

---

Some of the best villains are definitely those with whom we can sympathize.

Take Magneto for instance. A holocaust survivor who has seen the worst of humanity. His past experiences lead him to take extreme actions to help his kind.

Magneto
Understandably having seen the worst of humanity he fears that history will repeat this time with mutants so his response eradicate all the humans to prevent another holocaust.
But there is a amazing irony that what he's fighting against he's using himself to achieve his goal.


Let's not forget some of the scariest and most understandable villains are those they are imitating what they've seen and been victims of
Whether it's being bullied, ruthless big business, etc.

 

[n_huffhines]

The best villain is the stereotypical, slightly-effeminate, deranged businessman who wants to take over the world with WMDs.

 

[firestorm]

There are forgetable villain which are ones with flimsy motives, or they are pushovers and just suck.

Nuclear Man of superman 4
This was a lameass attempt to make a bizzaro kind of super villain but not name him.Bizzaro. But even worse the crappy costume, mullet, a plot device with no damn personality as all he says is destroy Superman if I recall right.
Even the damn terminator had more personality than this embarassment.

The samuria robots of the garbage robocop 3.
Two damn robots surrond him but dont cut his head off, wasting most of the damn time swinging the sword in the first fight, knocking him down instead of cutting off his other hand.
These robots were uneffective, incompotent, chumps, and a damn disgrace to samurias.

But if you watch this as a kids movie and a comedy you could be pleased.


Also the fact that theyre easily hacked shows what crud they are.
This was just one problem in a egregious movie.

 

[BadJerry20]

Skeletor...The GOAT

 

[firestorm]

Skeletor...The GOAT

What does that mean?

Skeletor A villain that know's he is evil as he has called himself the Overlord of Evil.




Mr.Sinister
Thats a terrifying villain as he's a twisted version of Darwin, and I do recall reading a quote saying how the concience is a blasted thing to him how can he get rid of it.
Also has no quams about screwing up peoples lives.

Currently Im stuck on what is the major activities for a fantasy movie villain I thought of.

 

[SWIL]

Some men just want to watch the world burn?

 

[firestorm]

Some men just want to watch the world burn?

Quoting the dark knight.


Villains want to destroy the world accomplish what will occupy their time?
Its a serious question because they cant eat at restaurants, cant see movies, go bowling or any other activities as theyve eradicated the planet making it barren.

 

[BenGrimm]

What does that mean?

Skeletor A villain that know's he is evil as he has called himself the Overlord of Evil.




Mr.Sinister
Thats a terrifying villain as he's a twisted version of Darwin, and I do recall reading a quote saying how the concience is a blasted thing to him how can he get rid of it.
Also has no quams about screwing up peoples lives.

Currently Im stuck on what is the major activities for a fantasy movie villain I thought of.

GOAT = Greatest Of All Time

Btw BadJerry, I saw online a few weeks back Mattell is making a figure of your Baby Skelator for is collectors line.

 

[BenGrimm]

Here ya go...

Baby Skeletor Figure

 

[n_huffhines]

My Dad had a Skeletor toy on his work bench that I wanted so bad when I was a kid. I always thought it was weird that he wouldn't let me play with it. He finally let me at it and I wrecked it over time. I didn't find out until recently that his friend who committed suicide had given it to my him to give to me. Kind of a weird story, but I pretty much think of that every time I see Jerry's av.

 

[firestorm]

My Dad had a Skeletor toy on his work bench that I wanted so bad when I was a kid. I always thought it was weird that he wouldn't let me play with it. He finally let me at it and I wrecked it over time. I didn't find out until recently that his friend who committed suicide had given it to my him to give to me. Kind of a weird story, but I pretty much think of that every time I see Jerry's av.

Very freakin sad story.

This may be the strangest story I've heard that involves a fictional character action figure.

 

[volinbham]

any of the villains from Get Smart with a specific nod to Siegfried and The Claw.

 

[MG1968]

Gollum/Smeagol - for obvious reasons

Dr. Evil

Ed Rooney

 

[Daloth]

Walter White


see what I did there.

 

[BadJerry20]

Here ya go...

Baby Skeletor Figure

Awesome, I'll be getting one.

 

[firestorm]

Green goblin of Spider man
The costume already sucked for green goblin as they wanted to make him more iron man esque, but even worse are his lines a number of them, and no clear damn motive.


There are villains which have good goals but their methods is what puts them in negative territory as it's messy and involves blood.
Ras Al Ghul
He wants to remove pollution along with prevent the earth from getting damaged so his solution which maybe he believes is the only effective one is eradicate all of humans with exception of those in his the league of shadows. So he's using genocide.
Poison Ivy
She wants to protect plants plus trees and prevent trees plus plants from getting demolished by businesses and others. Her solution is invade the companies or corporations , infect them with poison, and murder including feeding humans to plants.

 

[Weezer]

Green goblin of Spider man
The costume already sucked for green goblin as they wanted to make him more iron man esque, but even worse are his lines a number of them, and no clear damn motive.


There are villains which have good goals but their methods is what puts them in negative territory as it's messy and involves blood.
Ras Al Ghul
He wants to remove pollution along with prevent the earth from getting damaged so his solution which maybe he believes is the only effective one is eradicate all of humans with exception of those in his the league of shadows. So he's using genocide.
Poison Ivy
She wants to protect plants plus trees and prevent trees plus plants from getting demolished by businesses and others. Her solution is invade the companies or corporations , infect them with poison, and murder including feeding humans to plants.

The Green Goblin and Ras al Ghul of comics are great villains. The difference is in the comics they've had time to be developed and fleshed out. In movies, it's hard to really flesh out the villain because you spend so much time doing that with the hero. To properly develop characters in a movie would make for some extremely long movies, which most people wouldn't sit through.

It would be interesting to see Marvel do a villain origin movie, then have that villain fight against a hero in another movie.

 

[firestorm]

The Green Goblin and Ras al Ghul of comics are great villains. The difference is in the comics they've had time to be developed and fleshed out. In movies, it's hard to really flesh out the villain because you spend so much time doing that with the hero. To properly develop characters in a movie would make for some extremely long movies, which most people wouldn't sit through.

It would be interesting to see Marvel do a villain origin movie, then have that villain fight against a hero in another movie.

Stranix has a lack of faith in the government which gets explained as to why in the movie including with his explanation on why he flipped.

You could have given him some explanation for a motive that's my complaint so can't say he came close to achieving his goal or goals as he's like a man driving a car around but with no destination along with reasons for that destination.

I'm talking about what is their motive or motives not give them their life story. Voldermot was shown in a flash back it's really not that hard.
Otherwise we are Stuck with the garbage of Scott pilgrim vs the world where there is never a explanation as to why all these exes hate Scott or have some vendetta against him.

Ras al Ghul
It was made known why in batman begins he wants to burn Gotham city to the ground as he believes corruption has a limit and that his methods help to restore order..

In all these examples it didn't take up much of the movie as they were short.

 

[SWIL]

Firestorm, you seem fixated on comic book villains. Do you write comics?