3 Tips For Giving Your Villains Three Dimensions

There is a plot point inherent to every story. It is the battle between good and evil, your hero and villain, the antagonist or protagonist that eventually needs to be played out. Probably before you begin, you will have a good understanding of your main character and his place in his world. You would have followed there path throughout your story. This is not always the case when it comes to your antagonist. Actually, we may have only learned anything about your antagonist through there influence on your world and we could never meet them until confronted by your hero. This can lead to a problem for us writers. How can we create a villain that our readership will believe in? The point can be made moot when dealing with Children’s literature. Children understand that there is black and white. The villain is the vessel of all evil and it is only the hero who can stop him. As you grow up, however, those lines become blurred and people won’t understand a character who is nothing but pure evil. Our own experiences lead us to believe that this could not happen. We can accept that humans can be capable of extraordinary acts of hate whilst still feeling the deepest love. We know that one person can feel both love and hate at the same time. We must create a villain that is as human as possible if we want him to be a character our audience can connect with. They should be able to feel love. They should, if truth be told, be as well rounded a character as your protagonist and his actions should be justifiable, in some form or other. Below are 3 tips, each one will help you create a believable villain. That’s one tip for every dimension.

1) No one is just evil because they want to be
It might seam that way sometimes, but to believe that is to imply that people exist within a vacuum. It is just not true in the real world. The most ardent antagonists can still feel love. Make sure that your villain has a reason for the actions that they take. It might be that they are following there birthright. Perhaps they are scared of loosing power or have been forced in to doing what they are doing. In real life, villains are as human as your or I. So, to make your villain more believable you just have to explain there actions in a way your audience understands.

2) Give your audience an insight in to your villain’s mind
In the same way your audience connects with your hero, they can also connect with your villain if he has likable attributes. It is important for your audience to emote with them. As well as that, you want to give your audience some excitement. Darth Vader, as an example, is an exciting character in that we know little about him to begin with but he welds a lot of power. And power its self can be the thing that connects your audience with your villain. Whatever it is, make sure that your audience wants to find out more about him. We also see Vader (in episodes 1-3) as a likable individual. This is someone who the audience emotes with. His journey to the dark side is seen by the audience, who now connect with the character on a deeper level.

3) Evil can not exist without love
This goes back to the first point. All characters have wants and those wants keep them going. What pushes your villain to do the things that he does? . He can feel immense love towards his family or friends. He can hurt just as much as the hero when he sees injustice for the people he cares most about. Your villain could become evil because of any one of these motivating factors.

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