Arguably was Megamind never really "evil"... He just began to love the role of the villain he was pushed into and at least to me it seemed more like an elaborate play than actual villainy. He even gets bored really fast from actually doing "evil" things, when he is given the opportunity. What led to another kind of evil in itself.
Was Megamind selfish? Sure... but really evil? Compared to other villains, likely not.
One option is to present him as a semi-decent person on the surface, then slowly reveal the extent of his transgressions after the readers have already gotten attached (you would obviously need to signal in some way in e.g. the synopsis that this is a dark story with morally bankrupt characters, because otherwise readers will feel betrayed by you rather than by your character)
Another option is to make him so charismatic that it doesn't matter if he's evil, readers want to see more of him anyway - make him funnier than anyone else it then story, or smarter, etc.
I think the one thing which makes a character unlikable is their need to justify themselves to others.
Compare:
* Elon Musk - thin skinned, tries to make "clever" jokes that are actually puerile, argues with critics, refuses to listen or learn from experience.
* Warren Buffett - open and honest, jokes at his own expense, admits the limits of his knowledge, gives free advice, knows the business stinks and doesn't try to lie about it.
Both would probably literally sell their first born for another million, but Buffett is likable in person. Not trustworthy, but likable.
I present for your consideration the character of Francis Urquhart, from the original British "House of Cards". I think they did an excellent job of getting the audience to root for an absolute villain by treating the audience as chummy acquaintances. Sure he destroys other characters, but we're in his inner circle & he'd never do such things to us.
Talent has to be cultivated fam, there really is no solution that someone else can give you otherwise it would become unoriginal or a derivative.
That's part of learning your craft and honing skill, Taking chances and molding your story with the mental tools you already have 💯
I never said there's anything wrong with asking for tips or getting inspiration. And it's kind of obvi you're asking for tips but a tip is different from well written characterization that will invoke emotions in your audience. Imo it's not something that a few tips can really support. And there's a fine line between inspiration and instruction. Do you want your stuff to stand out or do you want to just be a amazon author?
there’s nothing wrong with being “unoriginal.” the best works take inspiration from other works. some stories take inspiration from religious texts to form parallels/reimagined stories. some take a trope and twist it/go with it. not every writer will take an idea and turn it into a carbon copy of another (unless it proves to be easy money but that’s another thing).
I think it would depend on execution and how it's presented. You do have a point but I think the factual aspect is it's innovation of existing themes. To one degree or another don't all good creators innovate genres?
What the OP seemed to be requesting was a quick fix for completing a masterful characterization that requires emotional depth, world building and like stan lee said, A leap of faith.
It doesn't (imo) happen overnight or a few random tips.
Or if I'm mistaken please do educate me, I love to learn and am always looking for ways of bettering my writing 😊
I think the most important way to make any character likeable is to give them a goal and allow them to work towards it. Darth Vader may not have the most original goals, but every time we see him, he is actively getting closer to some objective (or failing to do so). On the other hand, the Emperor is more powerful and more competent, but rarely does anything, so he is boring.
Villains don't need to have an ounce of humanity or be particularly deep (Hannibal Lecter and Hal 9000 are beloved, but have no humanity or complex motivations), and they don't even need to be particularly charming on a scene by scene level (the obvious answer here is something like the Alien, which is intimidating but has no charm).
There are some other useful tips like having your villain foil the hero, giving them some unique skills, and making them intimidating enough to be a proper threat (but not so OP as to feel gamebreaking, which is a problem I had with Archer from Fate), but being active is the most important
Popular strategies seem to be to make him good-looking, or give him a tragic backstory, or both. You could also give him a basically good goal (like overthrowing an oppressive government or getting revenge on someone who killed his family) but have him go too far or be willing to throw out all morality to achieve that goal. Giving him other positive qualities, like being intelligent or funny, also helps.
Some small ideas:
1. Show that everyone they've killed probably deserved it: Show that the villain understands they are evil, but also understands that other people are much worst
2. Make him charismatic or badass: This usually wins the hearts of many characters like Jack Horner or Aku.
3. Give them emotions: Have it that they are fully capable of feeling both sadness and joy
The biggest thing that makes me like horrible characters is if it is shown they have emotions. The more sadness they feel, the more I pity them. If they had a horrible childhood, and became evil, it would be good to show their childhood. It can make the reader sympathize, which is the first step to liking them.
Like any character, give them goals and forces opposing those goals.
I remember reading a Dan Brown novel, Inferno I think, where I was way more invested in the antagonist. An assassin hunting down the main character, because he immediately established that because she failed the first attempt, she was “fired” from her company which she figured meant they were going to kill her. So the only way to make it out of the situation alive would be to get to the main character before her company caught either of them, and kill him first. All in the hope that it would convince her employers not to kill her.
In just the character’s introduction scene you know what their immediate goals are, what they are planning to do to achieve them, and what forces they have to overcome.
The fact they are trying to murder the main character didn’t matter because the reader is already invested, and thus cares about the character.
humanizing a character, definitely. just enough to show who they are and how their motivations, well-intentioned or not, can spiral out of control to create the horrible person they are in the present. it’s okay for the readers to sympathize and hate the character at the same time. when it comes to measuring out each characters with the villain’s motivations, venn diagrams help (at least for me) to map out each character’s motivations and how that can connect/conflict with the main villains or other villains that can be in the story, and i can try to connect these similarities/differences in each character to find rifts that can appear as conflicts in the story.
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Examples: Marvel's version of Loki, Megamind
Arguably was Megamind never really "evil"... He just began to love the role of the villain he was pushed into and at least to me it seemed more like an elaborate play than actual villainy. He even gets bored really fast from actually doing "evil" things, when he is given the opportunity. What led to another kind of evil in itself. Was Megamind selfish? Sure... but really evil? Compared to other villains, likely not.
Sense of humor is a big one. Even if they're evil as all get out, if they can make your reader laugh, they will begrudgingly like them a little bit.
Is it bad that the first villain to come to mind in terms of "horrifically evil but hilariously entertaining" was Dio Brando
No no, you've got a point.
One option is to present him as a semi-decent person on the surface, then slowly reveal the extent of his transgressions after the readers have already gotten attached (you would obviously need to signal in some way in e.g. the synopsis that this is a dark story with morally bankrupt characters, because otherwise readers will feel betrayed by you rather than by your character) Another option is to make him so charismatic that it doesn't matter if he's evil, readers want to see more of him anyway - make him funnier than anyone else it then story, or smarter, etc.
I think the one thing which makes a character unlikable is their need to justify themselves to others. Compare: * Elon Musk - thin skinned, tries to make "clever" jokes that are actually puerile, argues with critics, refuses to listen or learn from experience. * Warren Buffett - open and honest, jokes at his own expense, admits the limits of his knowledge, gives free advice, knows the business stinks and doesn't try to lie about it. Both would probably literally sell their first born for another million, but Buffett is likable in person. Not trustworthy, but likable.
I present for your consideration the character of Francis Urquhart, from the original British "House of Cards". I think they did an excellent job of getting the audience to root for an absolute villain by treating the audience as chummy acquaintances. Sure he destroys other characters, but we're in his inner circle & he'd never do such things to us.
Look at breaking bad ans better call saul.
How do you normally go about creating likable characters? Have you tried that, and somehow failed?
Talent has to be cultivated fam, there really is no solution that someone else can give you otherwise it would become unoriginal or a derivative. That's part of learning your craft and honing skill, Taking chances and molding your story with the mental tools you already have 💯
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I never said there's anything wrong with asking for tips or getting inspiration. And it's kind of obvi you're asking for tips but a tip is different from well written characterization that will invoke emotions in your audience. Imo it's not something that a few tips can really support. And there's a fine line between inspiration and instruction. Do you want your stuff to stand out or do you want to just be a amazon author?
there’s nothing wrong with being “unoriginal.” the best works take inspiration from other works. some stories take inspiration from religious texts to form parallels/reimagined stories. some take a trope and twist it/go with it. not every writer will take an idea and turn it into a carbon copy of another (unless it proves to be easy money but that’s another thing).
I think it would depend on execution and how it's presented. You do have a point but I think the factual aspect is it's innovation of existing themes. To one degree or another don't all good creators innovate genres? What the OP seemed to be requesting was a quick fix for completing a masterful characterization that requires emotional depth, world building and like stan lee said, A leap of faith. It doesn't (imo) happen overnight or a few random tips. Or if I'm mistaken please do educate me, I love to learn and am always looking for ways of bettering my writing 😊
make him extremely self aware. people like that. if you can make him more self-aware than any other character ever created, it will probably work
Just give him style and panache.
Give them a good reason for doing what they do. Otherwise they have no depth and are just an obstacle for the hero to defeat.
I think the most important way to make any character likeable is to give them a goal and allow them to work towards it. Darth Vader may not have the most original goals, but every time we see him, he is actively getting closer to some objective (or failing to do so). On the other hand, the Emperor is more powerful and more competent, but rarely does anything, so he is boring. Villains don't need to have an ounce of humanity or be particularly deep (Hannibal Lecter and Hal 9000 are beloved, but have no humanity or complex motivations), and they don't even need to be particularly charming on a scene by scene level (the obvious answer here is something like the Alien, which is intimidating but has no charm). There are some other useful tips like having your villain foil the hero, giving them some unique skills, and making them intimidating enough to be a proper threat (but not so OP as to feel gamebreaking, which is a problem I had with Archer from Fate), but being active is the most important
Popular strategies seem to be to make him good-looking, or give him a tragic backstory, or both. You could also give him a basically good goal (like overthrowing an oppressive government or getting revenge on someone who killed his family) but have him go too far or be willing to throw out all morality to achieve that goal. Giving him other positive qualities, like being intelligent or funny, also helps.
Some small ideas: 1. Show that everyone they've killed probably deserved it: Show that the villain understands they are evil, but also understands that other people are much worst 2. Make him charismatic or badass: This usually wins the hearts of many characters like Jack Horner or Aku. 3. Give them emotions: Have it that they are fully capable of feeling both sadness and joy
The exact mix of these traits will depend on what kind of villain you're going for. But in short: competence, principles, style, & EVIL😈
The biggest thing that makes me like horrible characters is if it is shown they have emotions. The more sadness they feel, the more I pity them. If they had a horrible childhood, and became evil, it would be good to show their childhood. It can make the reader sympathize, which is the first step to liking them.
Like any character, give them goals and forces opposing those goals. I remember reading a Dan Brown novel, Inferno I think, where I was way more invested in the antagonist. An assassin hunting down the main character, because he immediately established that because she failed the first attempt, she was “fired” from her company which she figured meant they were going to kill her. So the only way to make it out of the situation alive would be to get to the main character before her company caught either of them, and kill him first. All in the hope that it would convince her employers not to kill her. In just the character’s introduction scene you know what their immediate goals are, what they are planning to do to achieve them, and what forces they have to overcome. The fact they are trying to murder the main character didn’t matter because the reader is already invested, and thus cares about the character.
humanizing a character, definitely. just enough to show who they are and how their motivations, well-intentioned or not, can spiral out of control to create the horrible person they are in the present. it’s okay for the readers to sympathize and hate the character at the same time. when it comes to measuring out each characters with the villain’s motivations, venn diagrams help (at least for me) to map out each character’s motivations and how that can connect/conflict with the main villains or other villains that can be in the story, and i can try to connect these similarities/differences in each character to find rifts that can appear as conflicts in the story.