Saturday, January 31, 2015

Villains


 For anyone who wants to write a villain but needs some ideas, here's a chart I made up about a year ago. 

If you have an additions, I'd be happy to hear them.  In any case, this chart is hardly complete, and it certainly doesn't cover every villain ever. 

Some villains also fall into multiple categories. 

Anyway, this is food for thought.

 

 

 
THE PERSISTENT/ UNSTOPPABLE ANTAGONIST
THE GAME-PLAYING ANTAGONIST
THE SEEMINGLY ALL-POWERFUL ANTAGONIST
THE ONE-TRICK/ HIDDEN ANTAGONIST
THE NEEDY/ DAMAGED ANTAGONIST
THE INTERNAL ANTAGONIST
THE HUMAN MONSTER
 
General Zaroff, Jumanji hunter, Anton
Gollum in the Hobbit,* the Master from Doctor Who, Hannibal Lecter, Moriarty
The Emperor from Star Wars, abusive parents
Voldemort, Visser Three
Syndrome, Jack Torrance, Gollum in TLOTR, Carrie
“Harvey” from Farscape, Timmy/Malcolm from Identity
THE INHUMAN MONSTER
 
Dracula, T-1000 from Terminator 2, Aliens
Other Mother, the Fairy Queen, the demon from the Exorcist**
IT from A Wrinkle in Time
Hexxus from FernGully
Some vampires
Antagonist from the Hollow City
THE ANIMALISTIC MONSTER
 
Zombies, Mummies, Velociraptors
Cat-like creatures
 
The Minotaur, orcs
Cujo
 
THE COLLECTIVE/ NON-HUMAN MONSTER
The Borg
It from Stephen King’s It
HAL, Big Brother, Sauron,* haunted houses, possessive force in Event Horizon
The Birds and other plague-swarms, etc., the Langoliers
Some aliens, Audrey II
Legion (Mark 5:9)***
THE NON-MONSTER
 
The principal from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
 
Aliens that have Superior Alien Syndrome
Future Cute Animal Friends
Professor Snape,*
 
Antagonist from the Bird’s Nest

*=debatably

** I haven’t actually seen the film, so I can’t swear to this.

*** From the Bible.  There was a possessed man who had a legion of demons in his head.  He clearly wasn’t happy about it, because he asked Jesus to help.

 

Motivations: power, programmed instructions, instinct, survival, greed, insanity, desire, best intentions/wish for autonomy, revenge/punishment

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