Villains

So, yes, another writing post. I like these. They are fun. Even though I used more movie examples than actual books, if you think about it, they can be used in the same way. The same things can still be applied. :)
I think villains are misunderstood.
"Villains are just victims whose stories were never told." ~Chris Colfer
No, I am not going to go off on "Well they had a perfectly good reason to kill two-hundred people and try and take over the world" argument. What villains do is still evil. It is still wrong, but they are still human. Make them as such. (unless your villain is an alien, then probably don't make the "he's still human" argument.. That's just weird. *nodnod*
"Even isn't born, it's made." ~Once Upon a Time.
This is so true. All villains start off good. All villains start off as normal people, as humans with hearts, with brains, with love. No one is born evil. And no one just wakes up one morning and decides to be evil. It's a process. And I think a lot of people miss this. They don't even care to look past the evil and see why the villains are the way they are. However, I do believe we are starting to see a little bit more of the "why" now. Think of Maleficent for example. She was a sweet girl, in love, had a life. She was happy. And then what? Slowly, she became lonely, she became weaker. And then her love comes back, and she finally sees a bit of hope, but then her hope is crushed. Her trust was broken. Her wings were taken. We see why she became evil. Why she became wicked. She wasn't just born this way, was she? She was made into that by circumstances.
Another example is the Evil Queen from Snow White. If you look back and see why she hates Snow White so much, you see that it didn't just happen over night. Circumstances made her bitter and eventually made her evil. She wasn't born that way.
Loki from Avengers. He was told his entire life that he had a chance at the throne. He was lied to. He was betrayed. And the situation with Thor made him wicked. He was a sweet little kid. Loki and Thor used to be the best of friends and loved each other. But once power set in, Loki became evil. He wasn't born that way. (On a side note, I don't agree with the "Loki Arguments" about how his actions are "okay". What Loki did was wrong. But it's fiction. And at least we see "why" he did what he did.

I could go on for a long time with examples of villains that were once heroes and circumstances changed them, because every villain has a reason for the way they are. I read books a lot, and often times I run across dry villains who are always power hungry. We don't get to see into their past. We don't get to see why they are how they are. We just see them as evil. We just see them as the bad guys and we hate them. We just know they are trying to kill off the Hero who has just become one of our best fictional friends. We just see the villain as a person in the way. There is a lack of villain development. Give me reason to love the villain. Give me reason to care for the villain. Because they are humans, too. Magic or no Magic, they are still humans. It is very important to give them a reason for why they are evil. Don't just show them shooting at the Hero. Don't just show the Villain throwing magic spells at the Good. Show their past, show why they are the way they are, and the readers will come to love the villains, and it will engage the reader even more.

Character development is everything. It is the most important thing in a story. Without well developed characters you are going to lose your readers interest in the story faster than anything. And just because the Villain isn't the MC (main character) doesn't make him/her not important. In fact, the Villain is probably the most important character in the entire story. He will cause all the conflict, will be involved in all the pain of the MC in one way or another. He will be the one that will make it harder for the MC to achieve the story goal. Don't just make your villain a side note. Don't make him/her not important. Find a way to show your readers the back-story of your Villain. Show your reader why he is the way he is. Show them the way he was before an evil curse caused him to spin gold for the rest of his life. Show them the way she used to be before that other woman stole the heart of her true love. Show them the way she used to be before her wings were taken away. But also, don't forget to make the Villain as evil as possible. If everything you loved was taken away, and bitterness built inside of you, it isn't like the worst you're going to do to get revenge is cut the person's favorite flower out of their garden. You're going to do everything you can to make them feel the same pain they caused you. So, keep them human, let them have soft spots and show their back-story, but still make them evil and power seeking.
 "If you can make the reader love the villain as much as the hero, then you have a truly good story." ~Unknown.

//Randomness from my chaotic writing heart. 

~Sarah