Samven's Writing Lectures

[Samven]

3. Writing the Villain

Introduction - Apocalypse Why?

If you read nothing else in the section on villains, at least read this bit. You'll thank me later.

You remember Square? You remember how their games inspired you to make your own Final Fantasy-length epic? You remember Kuja, Seymour and Sephiroth?

Well, stop remembering all of that because those villains are terrible.

There's an old saying among writers that goes, "Villains act, heroes react." It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the single biggest reason why I believe that a story's baddie can make or break a narrative. Most of the time, the villain is the entire reason why the heroes are fighting and if neither side has a good enough reason for beginning and continuing the conflict then the story sinks faster than you can say the words "Narrative Titanic". Unfortunately, a lot of amateur game makers start off with their plots in punctured dinghies because they borrow too much from Square Enix; a company that repeatedly churns out the same baddie time and time again.

A villain who wants to destroy the world for reasons such as "because he's EVIL" or "because the world is full of pain and suffering" is NOT good storytelling. Even if you throw godhood into the mix, it makes no sense. No villain can possibly get anything out of the destruction of the planet for reasons that should be entirely obvious. Unless, of course, it's to build a new hyperspace bypass.

So, the first and foremost rule of the Samven School of Villain-Writing, therefore, is to scrap any idea you might have about your bad guy hatching some mad scheme to obliterate all life in the world. It's unoriginal, it doesn't make sense and you as a writer are capable of so much more. The only exception to this rule is when you're writing a cosmic horror story. Cthulhu-like entities are, by definition, so far above human understanding that they cannot be understood through normal means. As such, the destruction of all life is an adequate goal for them because their thought processes are just to alien for us to understand. Making a humanoid villain intent on killing everything because he was bullied as a child, though? Rubbish.

Haven't ragequitted yet? Good, then we can discuss how to make a good evil plan for your villain.

Sam Rowett
Pywritechnics