The Villain: The Most Important Part to Any Story (Pt.1)

I have long had a fascination with the villains in stories. I think it stems mostly from playing pretend as a child in grade school, and always being forced to play the villain, which by default meant I lost. Even when I had planned things out perfectly somebody would come along with a magic potion and really muck up my plans. And you could forget completely about killing any of the good guys…which was everyone else. I’ve even gone so far as collecting, what I deemed the best villain, action figures. I’m not crazy I just have respect for the villains.

And why is that? Because the villain drives the story. Without the villain there is no story. What was once your hero is now some ordinary person (albeit probably with powers or some sort of destiny they must fulfill) but they have nothing holding them back. It’s true that there are other ways to cause conflict:

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Self

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Technology/Science

Man vs. Supernatural

Man vs. Society

Those are all great in their own regard, but I think of them more as seasoning. What I mean by this is that they help spice up the story. The story (in most cases) should still have an antagonist, especially when telling a story through a digital medium. So in this series I want to look at what makes a good villain. Because by making a spectacular villain, we as storytellers can often save an otherwise dull story or make the story just that much better.

Let’s start off with an obvious example, the Joker. Both the character in the comics, the recent Dark Knight Movie, and the beloved cartoon Joker voiced by Mark Hamill are all excellent and fit their story accordingly. In the recent movie you have a man with no back story. We’ll get to back story later on villains and why it usually can be a useful tool for making your villain prominent, but the Joker having no past in the movie fit the bill quite well. Instead the viewers are left with this man who is half part philosopher and half part murderous maniac. What I think the movie utilized the best was the two or three times the Joker gives us just a little view into his past. That he was abused and this should strike up sympathy for him…only the next time we hear his story on how he got his scars, it’s completely changed. I don’t know about anyone else but that part gave me goosebumps. Here is a man who we have a chance to feel sorry for, and instead we find out he’s lying. In fact after watching the movie a second time I came to realize the Joker is rarely telling the truth. Why all the lies? Because it’s convenient to get what he wants. What does he want? To show everybody that they’re one step away from being just like him.  There’s a quote from one of Alan Moore’s Batman comics (I believe it’s The Killing Joke), in it the Joker is addressing Batman.

“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once. Am I right? You had a bad day and everything changed”

This is a great example of using a villain in a psychological sense, one that is in fact rarely used in stories. The closer we look at the Joker and Batman, the easier it is to see they are polar opposites (I’m now switching over to the cartoon Joker), and justifiably enemies. Batman is brooding, serious, and wears dark colors. The Joker is whimsical, anything but serious, and wears quite bright colors. And the catch is that they are exactly the same. Each had something go terribly wrong in their life but they both went different ways about it. One began wearing a costume to fight crime and the other started wearing a costume to do whatever the hell would make him smile that day. It’s the case of Jekyll vs. Hyde. Opposites that are at the root the same but complete opposites when it comes to everything else.

So when trying to come up with a villain for your story, look at all the traits and features of your hero. Now try to take everything the hero stands for and do the complete opposite. Sounds easy right? Wrong! The creator of Batman and Joker, along with the writers and various other peoples that have continued their stories have done an impeccable job at crafting the characters together. This is much harder than it looks despite them making it seem so easy. Let’s look at another example then. How about Sauron from Lord of the Rings? Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Lord of the Ring series and when I saw Saruon swing his mace and take out whole groups of people with one swing, it was epic. Sauron fits into the story well because I wouldn’t say he’s the antagonist of interest. Sure he’s pulling most of the strings but he has no personality. All we get is a brief battle sequence in the movie, and then the rest of the time he’s a floating eye. In other words Sauron doesn’t make an incredible villain because he doesn’t have much substance to him. Indeed he’s polar opposites of…well just about everybody in MiddleEarth. He longs to destroy everything and make the lush beautiful world of MiddleEarth a wasteland of ash and fire and…dust…or something. Now how many times have we seen these qualities in villains? I’m sure you’ve run across a couple dozen villains who want to destroy the world. Why? Most of the time they don’t even really have a reason. I mean whose ideal world is having your grandma’s ashes stretching on for miles and miles. It just doesn’t make sense. If I were a villain and I wanted to lay waste to the world I’d make sure you keep some of the tropical hot spots away from my nuclear holocaust. Why? So I have something to enjoy when I’m done conquering. What do you think Sauron would have done had he succeeded?

ORC: Well we did it.

SAURON: We sure did.There isn’t a tree, butterfly, or furry creature left in the entire land.

ORC:Yep….so…um…now what?

SAURON: Ash angels? Ashball fight? Ooo, or we could go tobogganing down the mountain of ash.

ORC: Which one?

SUARON: They look the same, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Race you there.

Storytellers often take the lazy road and in desperation for creating a villain, they come up with someone or something hellbent on destroying the whole world. Now how does Tolkien get away with it? Because Sauron is just the evil presence. The true villain is of course Gollum. Again here we see his back story of once being a nice sane individual but he is consumed by the ring and becomes something completely else. Same with the Nazgul. They were once men but their greed got the best of them and they became wraiths of horseback. So Tolkien is able to provide villains on every front and of every nature, which is why we can overlook Sauron’s desire to destroy the world.

Just for example let’s look at a villain that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I think the widest plethora of flat villains come from video games. So many to choose from. To avoid scathing phists I’ll go with a villain from one of my favorite games, just so it’s fair. Ansem from Kingdom Hearts. Now as soon as I mention that name I’m sure some of you get a headache, and you’d understand if you played the game because there are at least three Ansems that we know of (God help us if they try to add another). So I have a diagram to clarify.

Get ready, because it’s going to get a whole lot more confusing from here on out. Ansem’s character (really named Xehannort) is a man who used to be a scientist (for the real Ansem). He was obsessed with darkness and eventually split his body in twine. One Heartless version of himself named Ansem (because that isn’t confusing) and one named Xenmas, who was a Nobody. First off I dare you to make sense of any of the Kingdom Hearts storyline. Don’t get me wrong, I love the series, both games being up there with some of my favorites, but I’ll be damned if I understand what is going on most the time. Luckily the game makes it pretty easy and actually says in a little word box in the top left corner, “kill so and so” or other various things. Now all this being said, it still doesn’t mean the story isn’t powerful. The music and the characters in the game are really powerful and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tear up a bit. Lame? Maybe, but I’m a sucker for anykind of moving music. Anyway back on topic. Ansem has very little behind his character. He wants to embrace the darkness. Why? I’m sure some hardcore Kingdom Hearts fan out there can tell me why, but I guarantee it probably isn’t a good reason. So again we have a character who wants to plunge the world in darkness for reasons not quite evident. Come on guys, even Satan has a legit reason. He got thrown out of heaven for being a prick and now he’s pissed. He had it all and now he’ll be damned if he doesn’t take as many people down with him as he can. He has a motive…Ansem doesn’t.

Instead I’d like to direct your attention to another character in Kingdom Hearts 2 that was actually a very well crafted villian, and his name was Demyx. Who? Exactly, the character was in the game for a very short time. Perhaps the phrase “Dance water, dance!” will conjure up some memories. That right, the young member of Organization XII who plays a magical sitar that summons water. Now stay with me, because despite his very brief stint in the game before dying…or vaporzing…or whatever happens to Nobodies, Demyx actually showed a lot of potential.

Exhibit A. This is all of Demyx’s scenes. Take note of how he quickly changes in the end.

The first thing to note is Demyx’s soft and child like nature. He makes it quite evident that he really wants no part in fighting.

“did they ever pick the wrong guy for this one”
“Run, run away”

In fact he’s so unsure of himself he even brings a note card explaining what he’s to do should Sora resist.
“use aggression to liberate his true disposition”

Note his mannerisms compliment his general disposition. He seems nothing more than a young guy who’d probably rather being playing video games than hunting down Sora. In fact he even shows that he cares for Sora. You see another character named Roxas (who is the Nobody of Sora) was in Organization XII with him, so to all the members Sora is Roxas.
“Roxas, come back to us”

Now those of you that haven’t played the game, Demyx is a Nobody and in the Kingdom Hearts world that means he is a part of someone else, now seperated. This also means he doesn’t have feelings. As you play through the game you meet several of the Nobodies and some display very little emotion while others (Axel, Demyx) show that they are just as human as Sora. So the second time Demyx shows up he tries being polite but is immediatley verbally lashed out at by both Donald and Sora. At first he just shrugs it off with his quirkyness but as the protagonists continue to demoralize him he gets serious and states:
“You shouldn’t judge anyone by appearance”

Goofy then goes off and says Demyx doesn’t have a heart and even though Demyx protests this Donald states that he’s lying. To which Demyx suddenly becomes quite serious and replies

“Silence, traitor”

Now there are two ways to go about seeing this character. The protagonists would have you believe that Demyx, along with the rest of Organization XII, are nothing but sociopaths who can have no real feelings, and thus they shouldn’t be trusted, in fact they should be exterminated. Sora usually seems like a pretty nice character, but suddenly not so much. Demyx sudden change could be attributed that he was in fact a sociopath and everytime he has personality, he was merely trying to appear normal and fit in. (Fans of the show Dexter out there know what I’m talking about) But I look at it another way. Here is this young man who is struggling because he really isn’t a full person, he’s part of one. Despite all that he goes out of his way to be nice to Sora, Donald, and Goofy and even suggests he doesn’t want to fight at all. Unfortunatley his kind heart is rejected. Not just rejected by Sora, but also being rejected by Roxas (since he’s a part of Sora). So not only can Demyx not seem to even have civil words with the protagonists, he is even told (how he sees it) by one of his closest friends that he’s a kook and has no feelings. To which his response of “Silence traitor” still gives me gossebumps.

Okay I talked a lot about Demyx and I don’t want you to think I’m a Kingdom Hearts nut. I don’t dress as him and I don’t create art or fan fiction of him making out with other Kingdom Hearts dudes. I merely want to point out that this throw away character had incredible potential, far greater than Ansem’s. Demyx was at least part human and on that level we can connect with him, which makes it all the more saddening when he’s killed. Sadly the character was hardly given enough time to engage the audience, despite being one of the only deeper characters in a parade of flat cookie cutter characters.

That’s it for now. Next part I’ll discuss how having your villain have some backstory or humanistic, reedeming quality about them can really add the depth a villain needs to shine. Also, a discussion on characters such as Voldemort, Snape, Kefka, and a few other surprises.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Feel free to comment, just make sure you’re respectful.