A little help Cinemaphile? What makes a good villain?
>drive
>reflection of the hero
>ingenuity
>a dash of absurdity
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Building a Better Bad Guy
A little help Cinemaphile? What makes a good villain?
>drive
>reflection of the hero
>ingenuity
>a dash of absurdity
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>50% good design
>50% show him doing cool stuff
That’s it.
Those and a memorable design.
There's also the relationship with the hero to consider. Joker is only memorable because he had built up a lot of tension, angst, and hatred between himself and Batman. And arguably some sexual tension. That helps him stand out.
>pic
come on, man. That's worse Hard Dick from Iron Man.
I don't think he's only memorable because of that. The first Batman comic I ever read happened to be The Laughing Fish. The Joker had such a striking entrance that I was instantly captivated. That scene didn't even involve Batman at all.
The character's been handled poorly since then. All the writers think that they have to keep upping the ante and making him pull off more and more horrible crimes. That's the wrong way to go, and I don't like most Joker comics. Either way, just saying that the Joker is popular for more reasons than just his connection with Batman. His creepy clown shtick and black comedy seem to resonate with people.
It's a shame that we might never see the Joker as the "Clown Prince of Crime" anymore. imo Suicide Squad had the right idea to return the Joker to his roots as little more than a crazy mobster with a clown motif, but of course that movie ended up being a mess in near all other aspects.
>That's the wrong way to go
No, it's the perfect way to go, and Joker's character has been handled amazingly. It's what Joker is known for amongst modern audiences and the reason he's risen to the cultural zeitgeist he currently is, things like The Dark Knight and the Arkham Games showing the emotional investment between Batman and Joker and things like Killing Joker and Walking Phoenix showing the emotional pathos that have been artfully weaved into Joker's character over decades and dozens of stories. Keeping him as a nobody generic mobster with a circus motif would've satisfied noone but yourself.
A sense of purpose.
A. What they're doing is wrong but they don't care.
B. They know they're in the wrong but it's too far down the change it and they just commit to it.
C. They're completely justified in what they're doing, it just so happens to go against the protagonist.
D. Someone or something is actually controlling or corrupting them
This with a based formula and meaningfup plot.
Really bozo the clown makes for a decent supervillian in the right context.
I have to want to see him get his ass kicked.
There needs to be an actual reason for him to be a villain. He doesn't need a sad backstory or anything, he just needs to be logical. It's fine if he's just a mob boss, he doesn't need to be any deeper than that.
I guess a consistent personality would be important and the ability to plan.
I liked a suicide squad comic where Captain Boomerang gets pardoned, he returns to his house and sees this little lonely ransack shack in the middle of nowhere and does a 180 and returns to his life of crime.
Is the
>i couldn't hack it as a hero so I guess I will be a villain
a good excuse? Think Nightwing/Nite-Wing or Batman/Huntress
Those wouldn't be villains. They would just be antagonists. That's the difference between Frieza and Jiren. While Frieza wanted to enslave the world Jiren was just caught up in events forcing him to destroy one Earth to save his own
Zabuza is forgotten C-list rogue, Orochimaru and Pain are the most popular villains of the series.
That is because of powerlevels.
No, Frieza and Dio are memorable even after being surpassed by many other villains, a person with an eccentric personality and looks is easier to remember, that's why every single iconic villain in fiction either looks or behave in a very unique way.
The original Frieza was only focused on immortality. All the destruction was risk reduction, the Sayians were a formiddable threat so he destroyed Vegeta.
Is Majin Buu a good villain? What about Kid Buu?
Huntress is a perfectly capable hero, Batman just has a chip on his shoulder about her. Nite-Wing is a mentally stunted, possibly mentally ill man whose only frame of reference is 80s action schlock. Neither of them fit what you're saying.
Hello Helena
You will need to give the villain some overthetop personality traits, flanderized is better than bland
I like subtle/more restrained types when that kind of thing adds to creepiness, but as you said it's very easy to screw up and make them bland instead.
Your example personality is quite overthetop as well, he's always calm, polite and smiling no matter what even when in danger or under pressure.
Then why is Zabuza more compelling than someone like Pain?
>What does your villain want?
First question
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=K9tmun1DDWk
Even the lamest most z-tier villain should want the world to eventually be his and won't let anyone get in his way. It's what seperates guys like Firefly, Riddler, Condiment King, Electro from an acerage bank robber.
Bro... you tell riddles. You aren't Darkseid wtf
Being meaningfully able to challenge the protagonists. The keyword is meaningfully. Bigger powerlevel is just a lazy way to do it.
First impressions are important. The character's introduction scene should be memorable, and it should summarize what kind of a person the character is.
The character needs to have a distinct personality. If you were challenged to do that thing from that old Plinkett video (describe a character without telling what they look like etc), you should not have trouble doing so.
The character needs to have flaws. Flaws define the character and make him interesting. They're a good source of conflict too, and you need conflict in order to have a story.
Those rules apply to heroic characters as much as they do to villainous ones. But I don't think there are other hard rules. I've found entertainment value in tons of different kinds of villainous characters. I've enjoyed some megalomaniac villains who love to make a big spectacle out of everything they do, and some pathetic wannabe-villains who always get beaten up, and some idiot villains whose plots get foiled because they're just too stupid, and some mastermind villains who hide in the shadows as they plot complex manipulative schemes, and some morally ambiguous villains who eventually end up joining the side of the heroes.
Having a cool character design might help too. But an interesting and unique characterization matters the most.
one way or another, a great villain has to have a commanding presence. is he terrifying? charismatic? funny? it doesn't have to be so obvious as having some guy as big as Spiderverse Kingpin, but there has to be some aspect that makes the villain take control whenever they're on screen.
Lord Shen has one of my favorite villain introductions ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A89raehoAJc
It shows you so much just watching him fight, and the scene does a perfect job of explaining that while he's not nearly the martial artist Tai Lung was, he's an even bigger threat due to having access to the world's only supply of gun.
So Kite Man? Shocker? Guys who.- if the hero didn't exist- would absolutely lead the biggest crime spree ever seen or have the power that would lead to world domination even if they aren't particularly inaginative.
If Hydro Man or Shocker existed in this world they could overwhelm armies. Even The Riddler with his intellect could fricking own the world by hacking into banks and stealing cryptocurrencies
Personally, overall, regardless of any other traits, I think a villain should be scary. A villain should be the kind of person that you do NOT want to run into on your way home, or be your kids' homeroom teacher, or your boss, etc. The audience, in my opinion, has to feel, above all other things, the threat of such character being loose on the other characters' lives; a villain has to be Bad News: something that you read about on the papers, but don't want in your daily life.
The best villian of all time was Bane in The Dark Knight Rises because of that ridiculous voice. Every villian needs to be excellently eccentric in some way, but the most important component is the script formula and the plot.
Captain Boomerang is based.
Kek. He is. He deserves much better than both those movies. And the Arrow show.
The thing is I'm writing a book and I want the bad guy to have the best intentions but the way he goes about it gets him punished. Kind of like Prometheus. Or maybe Satan in the Garden of Eden
Hey Cinemaphilebros what do you think about my villain?
Is samurai dragon robot who wants to destroy the world and replaced it whit a Dark Earth where he's a God :D?
unironically the villain must be entertaining
>Who are you?
>what do you want?
>how far are you willing to go to get it/how ruthless?
I don't really agree with the presence. I feel like motivation trumps charisma or how entertaining the vad guy is.
The villain must be steadfast in their evil. Audiences are drawn to strong Antagonists and making them resolute in their actions make them stand out from the crowd.
A good villain has a well defined niche to fill. Are they an enforcer to a bigger threat? A free agent loyal only to themselves? Is their villainy personal or professional? These are the kind of questions you need to ask when writing this sort of character.