#how to write a scary villain

[3hks]

How to Write a Truly Terrifying Villain

Have you ever wanted to create a villain that's actually evil? One that can scare your readers yet also leave them with an everlasting impression? An antagonist is so much more than just a "bad guy", and in this guide, we'll explore how to write an evil character effectively!

*GOALS/MOTIVATIONS*

No matter what kind of character someone is, their objectives alone speak volumes about who they are as a person. Therefore, with this villain, I suggest forming a goal that stems from their selfishness.

Although, what does that really look like? Selfishness is actually quite subjective. From what I have seen, a self-serving goal tends to be quite specific since it's a personalized aim. Don't give them a target that's too broad or too generic because chances are, it won't really benefit them. (Ex: World domination)

Am I saying that you absolutely need a greedy antagonist to highlight their malice? No, but it truly is a great place to begin at.

*EMPATHY*

Next, let's talk about empathy. How well do they understand those around them? Do they care?

Many villains we see lack empathy; they aren't concerned about their victims, and sometimes, even their own followers.

However, there's also the opposite case, where the antagonist does have empathy and fully understands what others may feel, but still doesn't care. This dark empathy is truly a testament of their malevolence because they're aware of the physical and mental consequences of their actions, yet they do it anyway. That, in itself, is rather terrifying.

*NEUTRALITY*

If your villain isn't the main antagonist, this might be something you want to consider.

As I mentioned before, this type of character prioritizes themselves over anything and everything. If helping the hero will benefit them, then why not? If assisting another antagonist will be rewarding, then it's worth it. While your character is a villain, their alignment itself might be a bit blurred.

Although it could seem counterproductive to have an "evil character" who occasionally aids the protagonist, the switching of sides actually maintains a sense of unpredictability for your character.

*INTELLIGENCE*

If anything, I highly suggest not making your villain stupid. While I'm sure there are intimidating dim-witted antagonists out there, the truth is, if your character understands themselves, their limits, their abilities, and the events taking place, your readers will automatically see them as competent and intelligent, which is critical to their credibility.

Have them think things through, plan carefully, and act responsibly. They know what they're doing, you just have to prove it.

*ISOLATION*

Another thing that helps is to keep your villain isolated. You don't need to physically keep them away from everyone, but they might be figuratively, emotionally distanced from others. Sometimes this is on purpose, and sometimes it's not.

*LASTING IMPACT*

This may seem obvious to some people, but there's got to be some key event regarding your villain that has lasting impact on the plot, characters, setting, and/or protagonist. It doesn't need to occur during your story, it could have occurred beforehand, but it still must affect the current time period.

Show why they're the villain.

*REASON, DON'T JUSTIFY*

A lot of people (primarily readers) nowadays are obsessed with the idea of justifying a character's poor actions. But the truth is, you can't justify everything, not to mention that it's just unnecessary. It's unrealistic. Instead, provide a reason as to why they chose to do something. What instigated their actions? What goes through their heads? Did their past influence their current motives and character?

Don't try to balance everything out! In the end, a wrong is still a wrong, and it's okay to let it remain as such.

*CONCLUSION*

With all of these ideas taken into consideration, you have to remember that an evil character doesn't exactly correlate to a hateable character. Are there hated villains? Yes! But don't go out of your way to make them loathsome in order to establish their "evil-ness".

At the end of the day, they're still people too, so give them dimension, complexities, and weaknesses to prove it.

Happy writing (and New Year)~

3hks <3

[unboundprompts]

How do you make a villain unlikable? Not “badly written” unlikable, but more “I’m terrified of this guy, and I would not want to be caught alone in a room with him” unlikable. His main motivation for being a villain in the story is that he was the Elv king’s Hearthsman, which is basically the court mage of the Elv kingdom, but he became mad with pride, and began abusing his given power. He was to be put on trial by the court, but he slipped away in the night, taking a forbidden book of spells with him. I thought about calling him “The Butcher” since he goes around slaughtering people without being caught, like Jack the Ripper, but I was wondering what other names would work. I just want to know how to make him terrifying, and since he’s not in the story most of the time, I want the readers to be scared of when he’s going to pop up next.

How to Make Readers Fear Your Villain

-> 10 Ways to Make Readers Loathe Your Antagonist: helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com

-> How Do I Make My Audience Fear My Villain?: Reddit

Show Your Audience How High the Stakes Are

Show what the consequences of crossing this villain are. Show how powerful they are and what they are capable of. Why is this villain such a threat? Why are your characters so afraid of them?

Having your characters talk about how afraid they are of your villain will not have the same effect as having readers experience why your characters are afraid.

Include scenes of your villain demonstrating what they are capable of. Have scenes of your characters being afraid of the villain.

Give Your Villain a Clear Goal

What does your villain want most? What are they willing to do to get it? How far will they go to get what they want?

Do they believe that what they are doing is justified?

Make Your Villain Cruel

Villains that are cruel just for the sake of being cruel. Show your villain acting heartless and doing cruel things without remorse.

Give them a history of evil. This gives them credibility and makes the readers believe they could truly do something horrible.

How Your Other Characters Act Around the Villain

When the villain is mentioned in conversation, how do your other characters react? Does their demeanor change at all? What if the villain was in the room?

Flesh out your other characters' fear of the villain. Why are they so afraid of them? Did they do something to them personally? Are they afraid because of the stories they've heard?

Examples: An outgoing character who is usually happy-go-lucky going dead silent when the villain is mentioned. A character who is never afraid having nightmares about the villain.

Villain Name Ideas:

-> here are some name generators!

Killer Names - fantasynamegenerators.com (this one will give you more names similar to the vibes of "The Butcher")

Killer Name Generator - name-generator.io

Villain Name Generator - namegenerator.og

Villain Character Name Generator - blog.reedsy.com

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[kirkwallguy]

ok im glad i got spoiled for the "secret ending" in advance because it's SO stupid i would not want to go into that blind. not actually surprised since it's kind of the epitome of what annoys me about dai/dav's narrative focus but also ??? are you insaaaaaaaane. did you get some kind of disease from not washing your hands after watching avengers endgame? is it contagious?

[sweetlullabyebye]

[coolesthscharacter]

not to be that guy but i feel like the only reason latulas winning currently is because of hs2 which took dirk strider from being ‘guy putting up a cool front but he still does actually cool stuff sometimes’ to ‘comedy relief loserguy in anime cosplay’ which makes it literally impossible to vote for him vs latula because compared to her, a character whose only character trait is very similar (surfacewise) to how dirk was in homestuck, like obviously people are gonna pick latula even though compared to regular dirk shes kind of a loser because compared to ult dirk shes radical as hell and solos ez

(this isnt a criticism btw its an observation . i like figuring out trends in stuff im an analysis nerd. pls still vote for whoever you want)

[ambipotentsbestie]

im back after ditching the internet to avoid atsv spoilers after finally seeing the movie and guys 😭why was that an out of body experience for me, like I feel changed as a person, enlightened you could say, it could’ve been as a result of the spectacular animation and score and storyline and devastating cliffhanger, or it might’ve just been Hobie brown

[raineandsky]

#67

The hero can hear the museum alarms wailing despondently even from outside. They thank the agency driver before getting out of the car, surveying the area. It all looks fine at the front. The criminal must have gotten in through the back somewhere.

They make their way to the rear, pleased to find a catering door swinging open in the late-night breeze. They trundle in, unbothered. It’s odd being in such a tourist trap so late, seeing it so empty. Everything seems to be intact. They’re not entirely sure what they’re really looking for.

Then—out the corner of their eye, a figure darting across a corridor nearby. Their head snaps to the side, peering through the slowly blinking red lights. Then another; a person staggers unmistakably across the gap in the corridor.

“Hey!” the hero shouts, even though they shouldn’t. They dart down the corridor, skidding to a halt at the end and quickly checking their chances of success.

Two are making their getaway in the direction they were expecting. Three more that hadn’t the time to cross are fleeing in the opposite direction. Whatever happens, the hero isn’t going to win this one.

They start after the closest person, lagging behind the rest a little. A giant vase clamped in their arms is dangerously slowing them down, and the hero decides that this is going to have to be their win. 

The hero grabs a fistful of the criminal’s hoodie, earning a horrified yelp as they tug them backwards. The vase loosens from their grip and bounces off the tiled floor with surprising sturdiness.

“Alright, I’m afraid you’re under arrest,” the hero starts with a scowl, pulling the criminal around to face them. “I don’t think your friends will be too—”

The words die on their tongue when the criminal finally turns to stare up at them. Wow, they have the sweetest dark brown eyes, almost the colour of the night sky. It kind of makes the hero wish they could see the rest of them, but the black mask is obscuring the rest of their face.

“You, uh…” the hero starts awkwardly. “You have beautiful eyes.”

There’s a slightly confused crease in the criminal’s brow. That’s fair, to be honest. They probably expected to be arrested, and the hero’s standing here fawning over the one feature they can see on this stranger. Embarrassing.

They realise all too late that the criminal is breaking away from them. They snap back to the present as they wring their hoodie from the hero’s grasp, and they waste no time bolting down the corridor as soon as they’re free. The hero lets them, a little startled and flustered at their own stupid thoughts.

The criminal pauses at the junction in the hall, surprised to only hear their own footsteps echoing off the walls. They turn back to stare at the hero, almost expectant, and the hero stares back until the criminal decides to make the most of their luck and flee.

The hero glances down at the vase at their feet. The agency’s going to be disappointed in one rescued valuable. It even has a crack in its side.

[aritany]

i’m beginning to think there’s a kind of indestructibility that comes with the territory of your first heartbreak being from your parents.

like, what are you going to do to hurt me? my superheroes chose religion over me. good try though

[kermalerma]

Grammar

CW: Torture, stabbing, mockery, English lesson

"I need to get out of here..."

"Need..? I'll show you the difference between want, need, and hope; my dear hero."

Villain stabbed a knife into the bound hero's leg, forcing out a scream. Hero struggled not to cry as Villain leaned close.

"You want to take out the blade. You need to keep it in to prevent blood loss. And you hope that I'll stop there."

The sick grin on Villain's face only grew. "But my dear, I don't want to stop." Yanking the knife out just to plunge it into the other leg. Hero's cries echoed through the chamber. "I don't need to be anywhere but here. And I certainly hope that you'll fix your grammar by the end of this session~ "

[donnie-and-their-backup-turtles]

i kinda think part of why people treat donnie as less caring than he is is like. sometimes not knowing when he's joking? like that time he threatens to be "semi-lethal" when splinter's in the truck with meat sweats. like i'm sure most of you knew he was joking but like. do some of you realise he like, would not have done that? like remember how he was sad? when splinter actually got hurt? same with leo in the movie? and all of them at every other time?

like he's self proclaimed funniest. and also a mad scientist aesthetic doesn't make a character a villain by itself it's what you actually do with that (yes he has done bad things within that area (haunted stare towards mind meld) but you have to admit he like. did fix those. and feel bad and hopefully learn his lesson but hey that's another analysis)

i have mixed feelings on villain donnie stuff, as an example, because like. ANY character put in a situation where they lose their way is really fun and if in character is really interesting as to what could cause that.

but when it's treated as like. inevitable. who he is, or phrasing his brothers are the only thing stopping him being evil. it's like hm. ugh. kind of hurts a bit actually but that's probably because i relate to him ghfdjk

like the seen in snow day with the tech bo chainsaw like. all he really DOES is cut a snowman there but he's just like. leaning into being "evil" with the chainsaw but like he's just being silly with it. acting like that's proof of anything is wild to me, without any other data points.

also kind of separate but i think there's a dissonance between what is like. seen as evil? between me and like most people lol. like the scene in the movie as well with like "finally, man and machine, entwixt in perfect bionic synergy" someone i watched it with was like "haha evil moment" or whatever where i was just like. yeah real that would be rad as hell. honestly gender also.

not saying he's never done anything wrong but i am saying he immediately tries to fix all of those things

anyway he does have a really interesting relationship with morals in my eyes but like, at his core he really cares about people, you know?

this isn't hate to anyone btw i just care about donnie a lot as a character and as really layered autistic representation

[cookinary]

Buddy doodles cuz he's been on my mind lately

[computerpeople]

having a schizophrenic character in a group of popular image-obsessed shallow rich kids is a really fascinating concept to explore which i might end up doing later in some fanfics because of how strongly schizophrenia is a disorder that essentially erodes your ego. it's something that's extremely hard to explain to other people but it starts to strip you of any care you'd have about what others think of you in a societal aspect, which is okay when it comes to social anxiety (this is something i think josh would have a lot, being the cool confident friend when in reality hes just sort of detached from reality) but i also think it'd be a nightmare for someone like emily since josh wouldn't exactly care to have the social graces she'd want him to (or would have had years ago before it started getting bad)

[delusionalinsecurewreckpiningphd]

procedural cop shows, especially those that feature action a lot more frequent, have a stupid writing problem where they hyped up a bad organized crime boss that controls an entire region with vast resources and infamy but always ended up with a final showdown where the boss has like 1 bodyguard and their hideout is no better guarded than a public playground

[1shimaru]

bad dream, everyone died. everyone in my family. demons were there, ai and anime come to life, party party party, fun chaos. cousin, my oldest, the first, she died. we left her body in her room. multiple storylines, multiple ppl dying, left to play out their storyies or rest in different rooms. some bad guys frozen in time too, and stay as long as you dont open their doors. one set of cousins, a middle and the youngest, left on their own, summoned a really bad demon to bring oldest cousin back, unstoppable force. So much rain and wind and begging and sorry. "When we went into the tunnel, we just wanted to-- its not his fault--" Many demons released to battle unstoppable one, in exchange for our individual souls, or our labor, for eternity. Otherwise if deemed useless, we disintegrate where we stand, into the sand below us. Oldest Cousin is technically alive, but like a zombie. Cant age, and still a but mangled. As the one with the dream, Ive got partial understanding of whats to come but no control over it, or how I can warn people. All I could say was "I don't like it. Im scared." Dream ends when everyone dies.

[haeigoo]

toxic ex!chenle is gonna fuck me up so bad 😓 wish me luck y’all 🤞

[ozzgin]

Hi!! Your writing it truly lovely 😭<33 If i could request anything with Zzy? Thank youuu

Yandere! Demon x Gloomy! Reader (II)

Featuring the goat-legged boy Zzy and a gloomy, newly employed detective Reader! By the way, his name is a little tribute to a series I like. Can you guess who inspired it? Hint: it's Jhonen Vasquez's first comic :D

Content: female reader, perverted goat demon yandere, dark/crass humor!, monster romance, mildly NSFW

[Part 1] [Monster masterlist]

The detective man, at the very least, kept his word. The pay is good, and you barely have any work to do. The jobs themselves are similarly not too challenging: so far you haven’t had to deal with any murder mystery out of an Agatha Christie novel. Rather, most of the time, it’s someone asking you to investigate their cheating partner, or sending you to do a background check for an employee. Every now and then you’ll get the odd client, but that’s something for another day.

Your boss isn’t all that bad either. You were initially quite hesitant to be alone in the room with him. He always seems to be surrounded by an eerie, dark aura, and you’ve only seen him smile in a menacing, villainous way. Now you’ve gotten used to his strangeness. In fact, it’s almost comforting. There’s something refreshing about another human being honest about their misery. He seems to be just as uninterested in this job as you are, spending most of his time reading at his desk. Despite his unkempt, scary appearance, he's pleasant enough and looks after you. Which, now that you think about it, is a little suspicious. You've seen him act around other people: curt and to the point, disinterested, even potentially rude. With demons, he's ruthless.

"Have you had lunch yet?" the man asks, standing up and dusting his knees. "I can get us something."

You nod and flash him a flaccid smile, although you can't help but ask:

"Listen, aren't you being a little too nice? I mean, I'm not complaining...but I've seen how you behave in general, and I have a hard time coming up with a reason for my special treatment."

He ponders your question for a moment, before his sunken eyes look ahead, somewhere behind you.

"Well…If I’m being honest, you’re kind of pathetic, aren't you? I’m just a little worried that if I’m too harsh, I’ll find out you hanged yourself in your apartment or something. Not that I’d care, but if you’re gone, I’m the one stuck with…that thing.”

Ah. That’s what it was. Almost immediately, a shiver runs across your spine.

“(Y/N)! Are you done yet? I’m booooooored”, a prolonged whine erupts from the neighboring chamber.

“I’m about to have lunch, actually. Do you want any-”

“You know I do! Spread those legs and I can start”, the goat demon declares with a grin, clacking his hooves in your direction.

You sigh.

Of course. Months ago, you were tricked into signing a lifelong contract with Zzy. It was the detective’s way of washing his hands off the matter and warmly welcoming you into the agency. It makes sense that he'd treat you with utmost care, otherwise he'd have to deal with this pest from Hell once again.

How's your life with Zzy going?

You've since found a way to seal your bedroom, in order to avoid waking up with his groping hands under your sheets. Sadly, the stubborn creature keeps finding ways to bypass your safety measurements. Who would’ve thought that lust is such a powerful driving force?

On top of the nightly shenanigans, you obviously have to deal with him during the day, at the agency. “Listen, it’s like…one of those fidget toys. It helps with stress”, he explains fervently while pointing at your chest. “You want me to do my work properly, don’t you?” He concludes theatrically. “You’re not holding my boobs. This is the end of the conversation.”

If you’re having a bad day, it won’t go unnoticed. “Boy, what a smell, what a delicacy. You’re even more miserable than usual”, Zzy will exclaim, throwing his hands together in a graceful prayer. “You know what the best medicine is? A quick fuck. Let me pound that sadness out of you, eh?”

Despite his constant clowning, the demon does have moments of clarity. He becomes particularly serious when jealous. “What have you done?” You shout in despair, gawking at the client - now morphed into a pig - foaming at the mouth and running around the room. “He was staring at your ass. Only I can do that.” The horned man stands proud, arms crossed, nodding at his own courageous act. His most treasured belonging has been defended once more.

As expected, the jealous curse has gotten both of you into time-out. Zzy because he cursed the client in the first place, and you - despite your protests - because you didn't stop him in time. "Can't you wear something easier to take off? It takes two business days to unbutton this crap", the demon complains as he fiddles with your shirt. You're laying on the sofa, hands behind your head, gazing at the clock on the wall and counting the minutes passing. Unbothered, compliant. The peacefulness of someone who's given up. "Zipper is to the left", you add, aiding the process.

Another irritating detail is that the damned beast can detect the slightest arousal coming from you, and will make sure to announce it loudly, regardless of who is around. "Someone's horny! Whew, getting me all worked up, too." You slap a hand over his mouth, a deep red blush rapidly spreading across your cheeks. You turn to the detective and apologize profusely, but he remains unconcerned, flipping another page. "Let me take care of her first, Mr. Detective", Zzy manages to mumble through your pressed fingers. "As long as you get the task done", your boss responds plainly, never bothering to look up from his book.

"You should visit me down there sometimes", the horned creature suddenly mentions, his head resting in your lap as you idly browse your phone. You stop to glance down at him. "In Hell, you mean?" He snickers at the thought. "No one believes me when I tell them I have a human girlfriend. I need concrete proof, ya feel me?" You raise an eyebrow. "Girlfriend?" He disregards your inquiry and continues: "At least give me a pair of your panties to take back home." Absolutely not.

"Were you this much of a menace before I showed up?"

"What's that supposed to mean?! You can't blame a demon for being in love."

You sigh once more and roll over.

"Does that mean we can go for round two~?" Zzy is grinning at his own suggestion.

"Just go to sleep. Or something."