Powers
I'm
not going to spend a great deal of time on this section as a
villain's powers will be similar in their creation to a hero's
powers. That being said, there are things you want to avoid when
making a villain's powers. Avoid making overpowered villains! Let's
talk examples:
Marc
has created his villain ReallyEvilDude to face off against his
protagonist TheGoodGuy. When choosing powers for his villain, he
decides that he should have the power UnstoppableWorldEnder5. To
counter such a power, TheGoodGuy must be given the power
DeuxExMachina but through the use of such a power is able to end the
threat of ReallyEvilDude and his ultimate power. World saved!
Why is that a bad thing, you ask? It is lazy writing.
Anything that you have to cheat to defeat as the writer, is lazy
writing. A villain should be balanced and concievably beatable. The
heroes should struggle against their foe but in the end, they should
reasonably find a way to defeat their foe through their own agency.
That's right, a hero should be able to defeat a foe without outside
intervention. Now, like any rule, this isn't set in stone but most
dramatic stories are ruined when, even though the hero struggled
through his heroic quest, in the end someone else had to save him
from the Big Bad at the end. It leaves a reader unfulfilled.
Relatable
A
good rule of thumb for any antagonist is that they should be
relatable. What does that mean? A reader should be able to connect to
an antagonist at some level. A parent who lost a thier child and
watched the murderer go free because of the negligence of the court
system who then targets the very officials that let the murderer walk
free is a relatable character. We can empathize with what the
character is going through and, while we may not condone such
actions, we can see where the character would end up taking up the
mantle of villainy.
But
why make your antagonist relatable? They are the villain! Because it
gives your story depth. When you don't feel for the person fighting
your protagonist there is no tension. Evil dragon eats princesses and
hero must stop him. Boring. Overdone. But what if the Mr. Evil Dragon
was once a peaceful creature that sought to preserve the natural
world? But through the continued depradations of the humans of blah
kingdom, the dragon had to watch everything it tried to protect be
destroyed. So, it kidnaps the princess to make the humans stop their
actions and take notice of the destruction that they are letting
happen. Suddenly, the dragon isn't the horrible, unredeemable evil
that he was in the first plot line. It isn't just some ravening
monster doing evil for evil's sake. Through a couple of lines of
backstory, we've given it a soul. Suddenly, it is something that
gives the readers pause when the protagonists finally confront it.
Last Thoughts on Antagonists
Okay,
for anything else that I've left out, it will be the same as when you
crafted your protagonist. Just refer to that post for further
instructions. In the end, when you craft any character, your number
one goal is to make it believable within the context of your
narrative.A believable, well-developed character will enhance the
quality of your storytelling. No person, ever, has said that the
characters were too well-crafted and relatable...
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