A true villain

[SirGeneralSir]

Im looking for some pointers on how to make a true villain, someone that you want to see the good guy brutally beat to death before ripping out his spine and shoving it up his ass kind of thing.

im tired of seeing megatron's, cobra commander clones and skeletor ripoffs that dont actually do anything actually bad, more just annoying than anything.

any thoughts on this?

one thought I had for a fantasy setting would be like a warlord ridding in on his animal and personally throws a fireball into an orphanage killing everyone in it, or sending something hungry inside to eat everyone inside it.

that's someone I would hate and love to see get his ass kicked

[BronxWench]

I guess the first step is to decide what kind of villainy you want.

There's the overt villainy, like wiping out an orphanage, or targeting schools/hospitals/malls with weapons of mass destruction. Then there's the more subtle villainy, the reasonable leader who gradually institutes more draconian measures until you realize you have no freedom left, or who engineers a collapse of your defenses by treachery and deceit, working behind the scenes through people he's corrupted.

For the overt kind, any slaughter of innocents works for me in making me want to see the villain get his, preferably painfully.

For the subtle kind, I'd rather it take a good month to kill that one. Slow, very agonizing, and with great inventiveness.

[SirGeneralSir]

for the moment, i guess a more general one is whats needed, someone that will walk into town and X then work at his command center and order Bob to go and ........

using nintendo characters for example, Bowser just kidnaps the princess every chance he gets, ganon/ganondorf just over throws the kingdom but not much else.

now if they subjugated the people to work in the mines, even the little kids, im thinking there is a reall ass in need of an ass kicking.

but thats just my thoughts and they feel limited to what im looking for or even trying to communicate.

[Melrick]

I think a true villain would need to be a textbook definition of a psychopath. Psychopaths lack the ability to have empathy for anyone or thing. Psychopaths show a lack of experiencing genuine emotions, like remorse, shame and love. They can fake them outwardly but they don't actually feel or understand those emotions. They often possess large egos and are very selfish. They have a very low threshold for things not going their way, and often blame others for their own mistakes. Psychopaths usually aren't violent, but when they are then they can be scary as hell, since they have no way of being able to put themselves in the shoes of their victims and truly understand their pain. But they can also be incredibly charming when it suits them. If some people reading this are saying; "This sounds like my boss!", then you could well be right, since studies have shown that psychopaths are very good at rising to the top of the pile, since they can be utterly ruthless at crushing those that get in their way of rising through the ranks, and many CEO's are suspected of being psychopaths. Like I said, though, in the real world most psychopaths aren't violent, but we're looking for a villain here, so clearly he or she would have to be a tad bit violent!

[JayDee]

Check out the Trump campaign.

[SirGeneralSir]

lol.

Trump is just a moron.

as for the villain thing.

I can see the not caring for others bit, that people are only there to "serve me" mentality, like raiding a village and taking all the young virgin maidens and using them as sex slaves or breeding stock for monsters.

subjugating a people to do what he/she wants for a goal that only helps them and willing to step on anything including puppies to get what they want.

I think that someone like this who actually has power, would probably flaunt it, just like JD mentioned with Trump, he flaunts his potential political power because he has it and can, would do something personally himself just to say "look how bad I am"

[GeorgeGlass]

IMO, one thing that can make villains especially hateable is having some kind of justification for their heinous actions that their followers or supporters accept. It could a racist ideology, some kind of moral relativism, some argument that they are serving the greater good--something that sounds reasonable enough (from some point of view) that others will grab onto it, either as a reason to follow the villain or as an excuse to do the awful things the villain wants.

A good real-life example is Ross William Ulbricht, who used the username "Dread Pirate Roberts" (a character beloved by many) and spouted libertarian ideology to make himself look like some sort of Internet freedom fighter while using the darknet to make tens of millions of dollars selling illegal drugs and, allegedly, arranging contract killings.

[BronxWench]

I really, really miss my "Like" button, so consider me as having liked GeorgeGlass' post above.

[CloverReef]

My first thought was along the lines of what Melrick said. I think the scariest villains are the ones that fool the people around the protagonist, and maybe even the protagonist themselves. Someone charming and likeable who turns out to be really cruel and depraved or messed up in some way. Even more frustrating if they continue to fool everyone but the protagonist throughout the story so there's no one the protagonist can really turn to. Maybe they kill people indescriminantly, maybe they torment/torture in other ways, pervy ways, psychological ways; they could go all cannibal Hannibal. Villains are so much fun.

[BronxWench]

::likes Clover's post, too::

[Melrick]

The risk with creating a particularly nasty villain is going over into cartoon villain territory, something that far too many movies end up doing, to its great detriment. You know the cartoon villain types because they're always massively over the top. Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Hannibal Lecter was so effective because he didn't overact, he really let the character speak for itself without resorting to evil cackling every five minutes.

[Desiderius Price]

If I were to do a self-insertion, I'd rather be a villian, they have so much FUN, at least before the end.

[PervOtaku]

The examples given are poor, because no villain in a cartoon or video game meant for children will ever be allowed to even kill someone, much less do something really horrific. If you want to use, say, the Joker as a model, use Joker from the comics, not any television depiction.

You are asking about a villain that has crossed the moral event horizon, rather than one that merely kicks the dog. Since we are talking about porn stories here, one obvious option is rape.

[SirGeneralSir]

see what i was thinking for a villain type story was, more that he/she does have a goal, a vision for something. (still working details)

when fighting starts, this person is more than willing to use or do anything to have the best effect on the "target" like to demoralize the people their fighting by burning the orphanage or sending something in there to eat all the little kiddies.

an attack on the idealism/culture/religions of the people, would be to not just destroy the churches/temples but to also capture all the priests, priestess etc and do horrible things to or with them.

the women should be obvious, taking their "pure" bodies and defiling them by making them the breeding cows for the monsters, the males would probably be used as food.

the best part of it all, using the joker and deadpool as examples, is that they enjoy every moment of it, they personally enjoy killing the old man in the village while he/she rapes his grand daughter in front of him.

dont need the "evil" toon laughing unless its to show just how crazed the person is.

I can see a true villain leading by both their ideals and fear, because if you try to leave the army, you just might become the next meal of the dragon or next in line to bare the child of X monster, kind of like jaba the hut if you will.

that was just what I was thinking, everyone has made good points though.

so if it was broken down, a true villain should ......

1: have no problem doing disturbing things, may even like it/get off on it

2: force their will on others that can not fight back.

3: use questionable means to get what they want.

4: does not always keep their word unless its in special situations of respect or spite

5: ?

I dont know what else to add in the base idea of what to expect in a good villain, the generals are easy for me