So... something very particular that I am dealing with right now in my current writing is that the main villain which I am writing is supposed to be someone overwhelmingly intelligent.

It's not that this character isn't flawed, as a matter of fact in his backstories and previous endeavors he was someone who was very easily irritated and often would fail because society seemed to be against him and what he was trying to do, but he learned from those failures and continued working towards his goals until everything fell into place - at which point the story begins.

Which means that from the starting point of the story, the villain is already supposed to be developed, and extremely intelligent, essentially flawless.

He has a plan in order to become immensely powerful both in terms of combat and in terms of having influence over others. So powerful in fact, that his plans are essentially perfect.

But it's quite difficult to write a villain who is flawless, as you have to find a really good reason for them to lose in the end.

In my previous series, my main villain was overwhelmingly powerful and had a great amount of influence over people, excessively manipulative, etc. However he was very overconfident in himself because of this. When your villain is overconfident, it's easy for them to overlook some major thing that will lead to their downfall.

But what about a villain who is meticulous to the point of insanity?

Someone who freaks over every last little detail, ensuring that everything is going perfectly according to plan.

It's going to be an adventure writing this villain - most particularly forming plots that are successful, with one particular point ending in their loss.

On the other hand, it could be this very meticulous nature which could lead to the loss of the villain.

The very fact that they are able to predict things with certainty, as if they knew exactly how things would play out - would mean that a wrench in their plans would mean all the more chaos.

I'll have a lot of fun with this. But first... I have to figure out a plan in the first place.

    If you don't mind me posting here I have some ideas!

      This is just for me. But I love a relatable villain. The type of person who, regardless of evil and horrible they are, you can't hate them. And I feel like the only way to really achieve that is to justify their actions with emotion. And for the villain to be able to show that emotion. Someone who either lost everything or is griping at what they have left. The beauty of inspiration shines through to create a wonderful villain!

        Dubstheduke

        Even if you have a perfect plan, nothing will happen exactly as you think it will. This trope is difficult because you need to show intelligence without having it seem unrealistically scripted. That being said, a hero that does random or unexpected things would certainly throw this villain off. Like an anti-hero who doesn’t feel the need to save everyone, he just wants to beat the villain.

        This anti-hero would confuse the villain and be hard to plan for because he can’t set the usual traps that a pure hero that’s trying to save every person while fighting would fall for. It’s like the bus scene in spider man. Drop the hero’s girlfriend off a bridge in one direction and a bus full of people in the other. The anti-hero says, “Screw all of them! I’m going to punch the villain really hard!”

        That would really throw off your villain. He might even get defeated easily when his plan doesn’t work at all. However, he might have some sort of contingency for if the plan fails that allows him to escape and try again. The details are really up to you.

        Another option is to have a hero that is just so superior in skills that a plan doesn’t matter. If the plan does go perfectly, but the hero is just stronger than expect and breaks through, then your villain is in trouble. He also would be in trouble if the hero somehow bypasses or sabotages the plan. Hmm my bomb isn’t exploding… now I have to fist fight this guy with super strength. I know the villain is smart, but he can’t have unlimited contingencies…

        This is one of the areas this trope can get really cringe. Don’t make every plan very specific and perfect without a single unexpected failure or twist. That just doesn’t happen. He can’t know (for example) exactly where the hero will step. The general area the hero will enter might be possible to guess, but he can’t just put a shoe shaped piece of tape and catch the hero… no one is that good at predicting. He would have to plant something with a wider area of effect to cover like a door or hallway (as an example).

          Dubstheduke yeah all loveable villians have a story which makes us like them. Either tragic history or at least reasonable explanation we can accept. Or a charm thats hard to resist :) Joker has his tragic and also that lunatic mind and charm which makes us love him. And Killmonger his dad being killed and the rise against racism in the western world which made some people like him.

          Dubstheduke he was someone who was very easily irritated and often would fail because society seemed to be against him and what he was trying to do

          This, my friend, is the most CRUCIAL part of your character. The reason for this character to become a villain is absolutely essential to building a solid villain these days, with all the "relatability" and "relativity" and "50 shades of morality" going around these days as compared to, say, 50 years ago.

          Society is a common trope, but it's not very original and greatly overused. Sure, it's something we see every day, but you know, hammering home the idea isn't solving the problem either, now is it? It's like stating the problem but never offering a solution for it, which makes the characters weak in that respect. The villain has their solution, right? But what is yours? What is the hero's/protagonist's? Surely you aren't going to simply say "Humanity is better than that!" or something naive like that. After all, people can be quite nasty in real life, regardless of their backgrounds, and you can't really paint over it all with "your" solution; after all, there isn't really a solution. it'll all fall apart, starting with your villain, if you don't think about these kinds of things.

          So I would suggest making it a little more complex than simply "society", or if you're going to go that route, at least make it something unique, rather than the cliched bullying or naivety routes.

          One example? Perhaps the realization that everything around him is fake, a construct of the human imagination, where nothing is held sacred, and relationships, cordiality, and the concept of civility are merely feigned or acted out in the daily theater of misanthropy. It's important that your villain has this mental dystopia in their head, disillusioning them and driving them to do the things they do.

          These kinds of "epiphanies" are somewhat more complex, and have to do with how the villain sees the world, rather than, y'know, "feeling" the world" through a punch in the gut or experiencing some traumatic event. It just makes them more interesting this way, and for some, more relatable.

          It's also important that your villain has an idea of what they're trying to accomplish. Sure, this guy wants to be smart, and flawless in every respect, but to what end? Does he want to change society? Does he want to burn it to the ground? Or is he going to lord over it all, once he's reached the peak of society's hierarchy?

          Dubstheduke But it's quite difficult to write a villain who is flawless, as you have to find a really good reason for them to lose in the end.

          Not as hard as writing a good reason for them to be a villain in the first place. In fact, it's so important to have this reason, that it will play into every part of your villain's failure. It must, otherwise, there's no continuity. Perhaps it was something they overlooked while stewing in their illusory dystopia, some silver lining that no one showed him, or he never saw for his own bias.

          The villain, somewhat similar to Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, realizes how he can change to a better person, and that momentary emotion causes his downfall.

            LordHermes

            Quite interesting that you say this, because as a writer I have always loved relatable villains - however this is to the point where my main characters don't usually tend to be heroes, but rather relatable villains taking on even worse villains.

            There's something that has always charmed me about someone being evil but for good reason, throwing aside morality in order to do something that is in a very distorted way, moral.

            Write a Reply...
            Novel Ask