What kind of villains do you like?

Question

I'm trying to create a villain for a story, just for fun, and I was curious to see what kind of villains you liked.

Do you like completely crazy villains like the Joker? Or do you like villains that are cool-looking and have interesting voices like Darth Vader?

Also, almost all villains have a 'goal'. What goal do you think is the most realistic/you most like. Should a villain be aiming for absolute power? Should they be going after money? Are they simply trying to cause chaos? Do they live to thwart the hero's plans?

What would YOU do as a villain?

Thanks for responding!

Answer 1

I like the villains that outsmart others.  They anticipate what the hero will do and wait for their scheme to work.  Also villains that have a good side make them hard to hate.  Lex Luther in "Smallville" has all these characteristics which makes him fun to watch.

Answer 2

Ever heard the phrase, "Stay away from choir boys"?

I had to learn that lesson the hard way. Anyways, I like villains that don't look harmful but are, and have a justified reason for it. I also want one that will do what a "bad guy" would do in the real world (A common thing that I hate is for the villain waiting long enough for the hero to defeat him, in real life, things don't happen that way.)

Answer 3

I like villans that would kill anyone to get whatever they want. I like some dark story about their past so they want to kill everyone on Earth. Kinda like Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. Psycotic works just fine. Also the villan has to do some horrible thing to the hero's morale like when the joker from the dark knight switched the addresses of Harvey Dent and Rachel so that Rachel would die.

Answer 4

i love villains that aren't totally evil, like theres a flashback and it turns out that they had a troubled childhood or something. if you can evoke sympathy or them it makes a more complex story because its not just like good and evil.

i really did love the joker but maybe he was a bit to crazy.

the villains that are really calm and smart sort of give me chills. i don't like the idea of having a weird voice, it should either just be normal, really smooth and might be cool. although jigsaws creepy, raspy voice from saw was super scary.

well, this is obvious but please don't make their goal taking over the world, that is wayyyyy to cliche.

an interesting idea is to have a female villain, there aren't many of those. maybe as a young girl she was raped or something and so she sets out to punish all men as a way of revenge.

i like how a lot of villains have a deformity of some sort, ie, the jokers scars, but you could also twist it up a bit by making the villain really good looking and the hero deformed in someway.