What Makes an Interesting Villain

Having an indecisive and dry villain in a story, makes for a very dreary plot. In order to have an interesting villain, they must posses certain characteristics.

One important characteristic is intellect. Villains must be able to create an intricate plan, and carry them out successfully. One example of this is Adolf Hitler. He created a plan to take over the world and executed it successfully for a couple years until the hero (the Allies) foiled the plan.

Secondly, a good villain should have no mercy. The Emperor in Star Wars VI is a perfect example of this. He electrocuted Luke almost to death with no remorse towards the end of the movie, and would have killed him if Darth Vader hadn’t thrown the Emperor into the reactor.

Another characteristic that makes an interesting villain is using their evilness for a purpose. In “The Island of Dr. Moreau”, Dr. Moreau was in pursuit to further science knowledge by experimenting on living test subjects. He knew that he was hurting these beings, but was desperate to learn something new.

A villain who is ruthless makes a story much more interesting too. Genghis Khan was one of the most ruthless villains in history. During his lifetime reign, he would destroy whole towns and he would kill women and children. This is a characteristic often associated with Hitler and Stalin as well.

Finally, a villain should be clever and cunning and be able to outsmart his opponents. Hannibal Lector was incredibly cunning and was able to outsmart his prison guards who thought they had the perfect plan to keep him locked up. They were wrong.

In conclusion, I believe that all these things are necessary to have a truly interesting villain. I think that it is important for the villain to show these things in their actions as often as possible to show they really represent each characteristic and so that they will be remembered for them.