Writing Villains: Sympathetic or Pure Evil
Villains come in all varieties, but one of the big questions to ask is sympathetic or pure evil? A sympathetic villain is one whose motives are not only clear, but we think “Yeah, I can understand that”. Pure evil is self-explanatory. That’s the kind of villain that doesn’t cuddle puppies, but kicks them. Hungry? That baby’s candy looks delicious, and its tears will probably taste good too. There are great examples of each in literature.
In Redwall, Cluny the Scourge is pure evil. He wants to rule the world, and will happily kill anyone that gets in his way. In Animorphs, Visser Three has a bad habit of decapitating his underlings. Visser’s in a bad mood? Decapitated. Didn’t take off fast enough? Decapitated. Interrupted the Visser? Decapitated. While both of them are pure evil, we understand their motives. Cluny isn’t given a backstory, but we accept what he’s doing. He’s built up as a nightmare, a legend, a force that conquers the world. We don’t need more than that. But saying “That one’s pure evil” isn’t enough to make your audience believe it. You have to make your readers feel it. The name “Visser Three” looks evil to me, because this was done well.
In Wings of Fire, Darkstalker is a sympathetic villain. We see him talk to Moonwatcher and show her his vision of a better world he wants. The way he gets there is what makes him a villain. He’s been corrupted by his power, believes his way is right, and isn’t good at listening. We don’t want to see him killed by the heroes, we want to see him realize the errors of his ways. Sympathetic villains walk the line between antagonist and villain, a distinction I’ll talk about more in depth next week.
When writing either a pure evil or sympathetic villain, it’s important not to skip on motivation. Their motives should be clear to the readers, even if not clear to the main characters. The choice depends on the story you want to write. Classic fairy tales often have pure evil villains so the choice is easy. Sympathetic villains should be used if you want your readers to think more about it. It’s your writing, so it’s your choice.
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