User blog comment:Chesha/Hello everybody!/@comment-4675595-20120623231642

OHGOD ITS CHESHA <333

WOW I just spent like ten minutes writing a response to this, and then my window derped out and I lost everything. Wow. Fuck you too, Chrome.

Paraphrasing what I was trying to say; A good villain, at least in my opinion, is someone who isn't totally evil through-and-through, at least not from their perspective. They do some awful things, but they can justify them in some way, though their reasoning may not always be very sound.

Using your mean girl example - the typical popular girl character is probably used to getting whatever she wants, and being the center of attention. If someone came along who she perceived as being better in some way, she'd feel threatened - here comes someone who may be better liked than she is, and that would take her power away. In order to keep this new person down, the popular girl would try to dominate or humiliate her, or at least intimidate her in some way to tell her to watch her step. Those aren't very good reasons to be mean to someone, but from the popular girl's perspective, her actions are justified.

Or, hopping over to the extreme, a large-scale villain like Moriarty from the Sherlock BBC series can reason that it's all right for him to do whatever he wants, because he feels that his intellect makes him superior to "normal people." Like Sherlock, he's a genius, and that makes it almost impossible to relate to most people, and he needs to challenge himself with puzzles and things to keep from getting bored. It's safe to say that, instead of trying to become closer to people by helping them the way Sherlock does, Moriarty was probably just frustrated by being on the outside, and figured "Well, screw you guys. I don't need you." Because he's detached himself from other people, he's able to hurt them without remorse. This is, of course, selfish, inconsiderate, and absolutely insane, but it's a reason, and in his eyes, it's totally acceptable.

In my opinion, some of the best villains have some good qualities - a good story will make you kind of sad toward the end, even if the hero wins and the villain falls. They don't have to be 100% sympathetic, like some kind of good guy led astray, but it's best if things aren't totally black and white.

Going back to Moriarty, he was an egotistical murderer hell-bent on ruining Sherlock's life, but there aren't many fans who totally hate him. He was sassy, zany, and wicked hot - his interactions with Sherlock were some of the best scenes in the series. His final scene honestly made me tear up a little bit, even before all that other stuff went down (MOFFAT -fistshake- ) Even though he did horrible things, he was a fascinating character, and always entertaining to watch.

Even if a story doesn't go with that approach, it's still good to make a villain that isn't totally detestable. Like in Mean Girls, the Plastics were the absolute worst kinds of people, but they were fun to watch because they were hilarious. You still rooted for the main girl to best them in the end, but the Plastics were still entertaining, because of the way their shallowness and airheadedness was played up.

...now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go nurse my Sherlock feels.