A good villain doesn’t need the most tragic backstory and sympathetic motivations—they just need to feel like a believable person.
But how do you determine if your villain passes the test?
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What is Evil?
Every villain is lemons, obviously.
But on a serious note—the main element that separates your villains from the heroes is a lack of empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand, be sensitive to, and sometimes even experience the feelings of another person. Heroes (and most of us regular folk) possess it in abundance. It’s the reason you feel bad when something negative happens to somebody else, or you witness someone else’s suffering.
Villains, however, lack it; either wholly or to some degree. Those who once possessed it have usually crushed it within themselves (or have had it crushed for them).
Even if a villain is capable of showing fondness towards other people or beings, it’s important to know where and why they draw the line. After all, if they were capable of feeling empathy towards someone else, then why would they have turned evil in the first place?
That’s the question you have to answer.
One way is if they care about those who have shown loyalty to them—if they’re willing to protect whoever stands at their side; but they only really care about the devotion, not the companionship, and won’t think twice about harming anyone who tries to cross them.
Another could be if the person they make an exception for is the object of their selfish desire. (Even then, they may not treat the person as kindly as they could, especially if it’s an obsessive relationship.)
Or maybe your villain chooses to dehumanize anyone they don’t know in order to rationalize their lack of care towards them.
Your villain isn’t required to care about anyone; and their emotions will largely depend upon their personality and their circumstances. A robot built specifically to do evil might not have the capacity to care about anyone or anything; but a warrior who went too far in avenging a fallen comrade would still have the ability to understand and empathize with human suffering.
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How far should they go?
To be crass, a proper villain can’t be half-assed. If you’re going for evil, then you have to commit to evil.
This doesn’t mean they have to commit the most horrible atrocities known to humankind. But there’s a difference between a character who merely serves as an obstacle to the MC, and a villain who’s a character in their own right.
You can include an antagonist that isn’t strictly a villain—usually a character who hasn’t committed any sort of an atrocity, who’s merely a part of the obstacles the MC has to overcome. This could be a sheriff who misreads the clues in a murder mystery and arrests the wrong person; the rival student striving to win the academic competition; or the next-door shop owner who believes your cheese-scented-candle store will drive business away from the street.
These aren’t characters who lack empathy and strive to reach their selfish goals beyond all reasonable means—they’re just people who happen to conflict with the MC’s goals.
If you want to include a villain who provides more of a challenge, then you have to make sure they feel intentional, threatening, and not just thrown into your story to check a box.
What to Consider When Crafting a Villain
Backstory/motivation. We don’t have to get into the nitty-gritty; and not everyone has to suffer a terrible tragedy. But why does your villain do what they do? Did someone wrong them—as every Iron Man villain was once allegedly wronged by Tony Stark? Or do they simply want power, like Emperor Palpatine?
A backstory definitely adds a layer of richness to your villain, and can help explain (though not justify) why they’re doing what they’re doing. It often plays into the story’s central theme, and/or commentates on something—such as a villain who’s trying to usurp a royal due to a childhood in poverty; or someone trying to burn down an organization that caused their family to die.
Though depending on the motivation, it’s not always necessary for the villain to have a complex backstory. Take Palpatine again—he didn’t suffer a horrific childhood, nor some terrible wrongdoing at the hands of another. He was simply selfish, hungry for power, and felt the allure of the dark side.
Whether or not they can stand on their own. If your villain can’t exist outside of the context of serving as an antagonist to your MC, then they’re not strong enough of a character.
Your villain isn’t just a bump in the road. They should experience emotions outside of “I’m angry at the hero,” and a personality beyond “I’m mean just because I’m the villain.” You don’t necessarily have to show them going to the grocery store or hosting a game night for their friends—but they should show some range.
Villains with more of a backstory are easier to give more depth, because you have to think about their nature and their background—how their personality and environment shaped them into who they are.
Even if they’re more of a generic force of evil, driven by a desire for something broad like power or wealth, you just have to ensure that their role in the story doesn’t collapse if the MC isn’t there. Would they still be doing what they’re doing if they weren’t just there to give the MC a challenge to overcome?
Their actions shouldn’t only be driven by their meanness. No one is evil because they “feel mean,” or they’re channeling a torrent of blindly screaming rage 24/7 like LEGO Batman. Their rage can absolutely be a motivating factor; but they do what they do for a specific reason, not just because it makes other people sad.
For example, a villain who wants ultimate power would justify conquering and enslavement as a means to reach their end; not because they woke up one morning and said “I’m mean for the sake of the story, so I’m going to do some evil things without anything in it for me.”
Villains always want something (as do all characters, really). Their shtick is that they’re willing to do anything to get it—even at the expense of other people’s safety and happiness. And their lack of empathy allows them to justify their means.
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Redemption
Redeeming a villain can be a tricky task. Not only do you have to answer the question of “why are they evil?”, but you must also satisfy the question of “why would they then turn back?”
Redemption is where a backstory comes heavily into play. A villain like Palpatine, with no discernible tragedy nor a desire to release his selfish ways, would make little sense suddenly renouncing his actions and joining up with the heroes.
Meanwhile, we know more than enough about his lackey Darth Vader’s past to understand what drove the man to where he is, and why he ultimately chose to turn back.
Villains meant for redemption must retain at least a shred of their empathy—and it must make sense why that thread didn’t stop them from choosing evil in the first place.
In Vader/Anakin’s case, he was born and raised a good person, but he was corrupted by a myriad of factors: Palpatine, his disillusionment with the Jedi, and the complicated factors of his joining the Jedi and fighting in the Clone Wars.
But deep down, he still does have the capacity to care about his loved ones—hence being moved by his son to seek redemption.
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In conclusion, if you’re going to include a villain in your story, make sure of a few things first:
1) You actually want and/or need a full-fledged villain, not just an antagonistic force or some lesser obstacle.
2) You’re prepared to deal with them as robustly as you would any other character. Not to say they need to be as fleshed out as the MC; but you should know their goals, their personality, and why their motivation is their motivation.
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