We’ve seen good heroes, and now for this post, I want to talk about effective villains from an unusual angle. We’re on the first of October, and I’m initiating “Villain Writing Month” until after Halloween!
When talking about heroes, we often put these characters under microscopes. We await with our holsters filled with terms such as “Mary/Marty Sue/Stu,” and “Deus Ex Machina” when heroes start to get a bit too perfect and profit too much from plot convenience, often done to give the hero a little push by the author to see that the good guys win.
Many people often forget and overlook cases when this treatment is given to villains, called Diabolus Ex Machina by TV Tropes. In this, “the introduction of an unexpected new event, character, ability, or object designed to ensure that things suddenly get much worse for the protagonists, much better for the villains, or both.” This sense of fair play often grows dull to this occurrence because we are tempted to think it evens the playing field. When handled improperly, however, it can grow entirely obvious that the author’s “little push” is still present, just in the direction opposite of that which the readers have invested in. Worst of all, have a tendency to appear in the fallout of the hero’s final showdown or the denouement of the book in the name of “realism.”
Whereas deus ex machina threatens to give the hero a victory that feels unearned, diabolus ex machina has the potential to cheat the hero and the readers out of a victory that has been well-earned through struggle and character growth. Both will make the reader feel cheated, but unfairly pushing to make the villain victorious or make the hero ultimately lose that which he was trying to protect will seem to the reader like a betrayal. A kick in the teeth for the hero in exchange for their efforts. The author will seem to have baited in readers to root for the heroes and their positive ideals only to have the chessboard spun on them just before checkmate.
Remember the purpose of storytelling is to allow the audience to see positive and negative ideals in demonstration. While life might not always give us the complete victories we desire in short term to show an imbalance in favor of evil is not being honest either. After all, for those of my readers who are Christians, if we do not consider God and good to be the ultimate reality nor consider him active in human affairs even as we observe very real life and read from the very Bible we claim to believe, we are letting others and our own faulty, inexperienced intellects deceive us.
Take these two quotes from authors who understood this well.
“Fairy stories are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be slain.”
– G. K. Chesterton
“Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.”
– C. S. Lewis
Therefore, one can make a villain that dragon with all its terrible strength and flames without turning it into the invincible eldritch abomination god of destruction. Villains can and SHOULD be cunning, resourceful, strong, enduring and whatever have you, but should not be made unrealistically powerful or given free hits for the sake of breaking perceived clichés.
- Make villains effective and powerful within their own means and not assisted by your machinations.
- Play fair. If the heroes don’t get your help, villains don’t get your help. The audience will thank you for your balance, especially if the story does not make the effort immediately obvious.
- Let the why rather than the how decide the way the positive ideal prevails. Let both sides have their strengths and resources and let the hero’s virtues or the villain’s corrupted weaknesses decide the how.
The Paladin Author 