July 2, 2019
[This guide was copied, as is, from Wattpad. At the time, I had no intention of posting it here. Please excuse any discrepancies.]
This section specifically focuses on the villains. Villains are not necessarily antagonists by default, as an antagonist is someone or something that opposes the protagonist's goals. It goes over common uses for villains and how to make them more effective.
There is no shortage of antihero/antagonist centered stories out there. In many fictional worlds, the antagonist captivates audiences more than the protagonist. This means the villain is being pushed aside as a go-to trope. Audiences grow tired of the enemy who, with no reason or motive, seeks to do something that no one (no one) wants. But villains do not have to suck. To put it bluntly, writers and industries make them suck. We will talk about that now.
PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE
The villain is an evil character; their motivations, actions, or personality can be considered evil when they go against the established norm of the universe they inhabit. It is one of the most common archetypes in human history, and has spanned religion, region, language, and folklore. Warriors is no exception. It has several villainous characters. As I said earlier, the villain does not have to be the antagonist. It just ends up that way in most stories.
An example for context. I will go over villains in other fictional worlds and describe why they are villains rather than just antagonists:
- Warriors - Two obvious examples: Tigerstar and Scourge. Tigerstar's initial evil was killing Redtail so he could advance in rank. He also teamed up with Scourge to dominate the forest. He also encouraged Brambleclaw to kill his half brother, Hawkfrost. Yes he got a backstory, but it did not justify or explain why he wanted to subjugate and conquer. Scourge, while also having a backstory, cannot be justified enough to be sympathetic. He wants to control the forest and expand his BloodClan. He even betrays his partner, Tigerstar, by killing him in cold blood in the middle of a battle. Neither are particularly well-written, but they are classic uses of the archetype.
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Despite what you may think of its fandom, we have plenty of villains in this children's show. Tirek, a centaur who can absorb other's magic, is an obvious example. His end goal is simply to become more powerful, and is supposed to be one of the show's representations of selfishness. Magical theft is a pretty high crime in this universe, so Tirek is pretty high up there on the most wanted list for the inhabitants of Equestria. He is straight up a villain. The same kind you would find on 80's Saturday morning cartoons.
- Naruto - This anime is over 20 years old. And it took almost as long to reveal its main villain: Madara Uchiha. He is what you would call a sympathetic villain. His goal was to end all wars, famine, poverty, and everything else bad about the world. His means: lock everyone in a state of perpetual hypnosis, letting them psychologically live out their idealized lives (a little like The Matrix). Are his intentions good? Yes. Are his means? No. Not in the Naruto universe.
- Star Trek (any series) - Villains have been kept out of regular appearances in this famous fictional universe. The show tries to portray different psychologies and moral viewpoints. Therefore, villains generally do not get a place in the show. The ones that do show up are given one-off or very minor roles in any given narrative. Even Khan and Dukat, two of the most evil main characters in Star Trek, stay away from being all-out evil. They are antagonists. And while they are considered bad, others in the universe sympathise (and even help) these characters for reasons other than causing discord or malice.
These examples are here to show you what a villain looks like versus an antagonist. Remember, in stories where villains appear, they are generally the antagonist. Not all fictional universes have or need villains. But a vast majority of them do. And they are no better or worse for it. They are always bad, but they are only bad for the reader when the writer writes them poorly.
VILLAINS FOR YOUR FANFICTION
Villains are easy to write. That much is true. But fanfictions still tend to mess them up sometimes. Given that our villains are pretty standard and well portrayed as such in canon, we have decent examples to draw from. Think of villains as other characters. They require work, thought, and time in focus to make them compelling enough to carry the plot and protagonist through to the end. I will cover character villains here.
Speaking of here, here is an example villain from our nonexistent fanfiction:
- Catpaw, an apprentice of ShadowClan, has abandoned her clanmates and her littermate, Otherpaw. She had received a prophecy from StarClan that said that, between the two, one would destroy the lake-forest. She simply could not ignore it any longer, as the nightmares tormented her night after night. It was a long time in the story before anyone heard anything from her. Many fights and skirmishes broke out as clans became more aggressive towards each other. She emerged one night as Catstar, leader of EnemyClan. And she would subjugate all of the lake and her littermate to prevent the destruction she felt was coming. Otherstar, now leader of ShadowClan, leads hers bravely against her littermate. Eventually the other clans follow and win. Through it, they learn the importance of not fighting. Hostilities end and the clans try to find peaceful solutions to their problems from then on.
Seems like a normal fanfic plotline, right? But we have some problems for the villain. Not knowing the arc of our main character, Otherpaw, our Catstar did not really have one. The entire reasoning behind her actions is that she is convinced a prophecy will bring ruin to the lake territories unless she does something about it. Obviously, we know she is the destruction her prophecy foretold. For her, it is justification to subjugate the forest and kill her littermate. But is it justification enough for our audience? Our villain here has more motivation than Tigerstar, but she is still not very interesting. The plot that revolves around her actions does not have much tension in it, either. Why is that?
For starters, our villain lacks anything for our audience to latch onto; our villain is unobtainable. This means that there is no way, shape, or form that our audience could picture a human in the real world doing such a thing for such a reason. This is not relatability. This is a matter of our audience seeing our villain in their minds, but being unable to make a character of them. Unless it is your goal, villains must be more than evil for evil's sake.
A reason they fail to grasp our villain is because they lack characterization. Being a villain is an archetype, not a character trait. It is something that summarizes or encompases our entire character. And yes, the villain is a character. They may not need as much work as our main character in terms of internal struggles and secrets, but they need work. Our villain has to be more than just evil for our audience to properly grasp their concept.
Third, remember when I said main characters must drive the plot? The opposite goes for villains. They cannot be the sole driving factor for the plot. Our main character's actions have to have some effect on it. If they do not, then why is our main character our main character? Our Otherpaw could be replaced by anyone. It does not take a littermate to know that Catstar's actions are detrimental to the quality of life in the lake territories. And if the only thing to do is stop Catstar, then why does it even have to be Otherpaw?
* I know that we have not gone over other factors in the story, like if Otherleaf even had a character arc or what subplots, if any, we went with.
This nonexistent fanfic has its fair share of problems. Our villain is the one we have decided to highlight here. Nothing obtainable, no characterization, total control over the plot. We do not want to write 80's Saturday morning cartoon villains. At the very least, modern media has put the spotlight on them more. Our audience wants them to be compelling, too.
IN CONCLUSION…
Your villains can have character. Just because the ones in canon lack it does not mean yours have to. It is important, especially since almost all Warriors fanfics fuse the role of villain and antagonist. Give some rhyme to your villain's reason. If your villain is to be your protagonist's target, they better have a reason to be targeted, an argument against it, and an explanation for targeting everyone else. Otherwise your main character may hit them, but your audience will not.
Your evil must have a face. Otherwise it is just a destructive force of nature your audience cannot fathom beyond just that.
- Tyto
