How to Create LIKABLE Villains (Writing Advice)

get ready because today we're going to talk about making likable charismatic villains that audiences will love by the way my name is Brandon McNulty I'm the author of bad parts also the author of Entry wounds and welcomed my writing Channel a few weeks ago I did a video on how to create nasty disgusting villains that audiences hate with a passion and some of my subscribers requested that I do a follow-up video on likable villains so we're going to talk about that today and I'm going to explain what a likable villain is why they work in certain stories and I'll give you five tips for creating them and I'm also going to give examples from the Terminator die hard and The Dark Knight so consider this your spoiler warning for those stories all right let's get right to it by answering the question what is a likable villain and a likable villain is one who captivates the audience and often steals the spotlight from the hero these villains they display immoral Behavior things like murder theft Etc while also displaying redeeming qualities like Charisma and intelligence persistence a sense of humor and so on and these likable villains they usually have a clear goal and motivation and remember when we're talking about goals we're talking about what a character wants and when we're talking about motivation we're talking about why a character wants that goal and then one last thing to keep in mind with likable villains they usually attack the hero in clever creative ways okay now that we've got that squared away let's talk about why likable villains work and they work for many reasons but I want to focus on three particular reasons here the first one is that deep down audiences love to explore dark selfish desires most of us in our daily lives we restrain ourselves from doing horrible things saying horrible things whatever it is but when we watch a movie or we open a book and we get engaged with a likable villain that villain gives us the opportunity to live out those dark experiences to explore those dark impulses those dark thoughts another reason why likable villains work is that these villains tend to be clever and they challenge the hero to either grow or display their best skills skills like resourcefulness intelligence Etc and this is true of the stories we'll be talking about today in The Terminator the T800 forces Sarah Connor to become a warrior in Die Hard Hans Gruber forces John McLean to use his cop skills in order to rescue his estranged wife and in the Dark Knight The Joker neutralizes Batman's strengths he forces Batman to rethink the way he does things physical power expensive gadgets a secret identity those are not enough to stop the Joker and this pushes Batman to his limits and then the third reason why likable villains work is because they create an entertaining hero villain Dynamic where the two characters battle back and forth while the audience is engaged by both sides it's like a twisted marriage a twisted argument that we can't look away from all right now I'm going to give you five tips for creating likable villains and I'll back them up with examples from the three movies I mentioned and we're going to focus on three specific villains the first one is the T800 this is of course the cyborg from Terminator that is sent from the future all the way back into 1984 with the goal of murdering Sarah Connor then we'll also look at Hans Gruber from die hard he's a criminal mastermind who creates a hostage situation in order to steal 600 million dollars from nakatomi Tower and then finally we'll look at the Joker from The Dark Knight he's an agent of chaos he wants to prove that everyone in Gotham isn't that different from him he wants to prove that everyone can be corrupted first tip is to introduce your villain by showing their strengths whatever they're good at we need to see that right up front maybe they're strong they're organized they're crafty whatever it is make sure it's on display in their intro scene and we see this in the Terminator we see right up front that the T800 is brutal methodical and Relentless in getting What It Wants even when it only wants something as simple as a shirt and pants and then in Die Hard when we're introduced to Hans Gruber we see him leading a group of criminals that effortlessly overtakes nakatomi Tower we see right up front that Hans is a smart man and a great leader and then with the joker we see him robbing a bank casually murdering his henchmen and escaping without a hitch we see his intelligence ruthlessness and cunning on display second tip is to balance your villain's Sinister methods with understandable motivations and this is so important it's much easier for an audience to get attached to a villain if they understand the basic motivations of that villain you don't need to give us tons of backstory just hint at why villains are willing to cause suffering for example the T800 is determined to kill an innocent young woman because that's what he's programmed to do it's a simple motivation but it works and this is why audiences love villains like the xenomorph from Alien or the shapeshifter from the thing or the shark from Jaws it's because these creatures are acting by their nature in Die Hard Hans Gruber wants to steal money so that he can retire in luxury and we don't get many of explicit details about his past but we do learn that he was once expelled from a terrorist organization and we get the sense that Hans views himself as an intelligent competent guy who deserves a lavish retirement and this is something that resonates with people especially people who are stuck in miserable jobs and yearning for more out of life and then the Joker is motivated by a belief that society's rules laws moral codes and structures are all jokes and he believes that anyone who defends these laws can be corrupted and he wants to bring those people down to his level and the way that the Joker intelligently explains his philosophies helps draw us into his worldview third tip is to let your villain outsmart the hero and the authorities especially the authorities audiences love it when villains manipulate the people in charge not only does it make the villain look like they're in control but it makes the whole hero villain Dynamic even more personal because audiences get the sense that the hero is the only person who can stop the villain we see this in the Terminator when the T800 methodically tracks down Sarah Connor while committing murder avoiding capture and even launching an assault on the police station where dozens of cops fail to stop the thing in Die Hard Hans Gruber outsmarts Everybody by pretending to be a terrorist when in fact he's actually a thief and he does this in order to trick the authorities into cutting the building's power so that his people can access the Vault and steal the money the man is strategic and confident through and through and he even uses John McLean's biggest physical weakness the fact that he's Barefoot against him during a pivotal scene in the movie and then the Joker outsmarts Everybody by crushing the mob compromising the police and corrupting Harvey Dent who was Gotham's best hope of cracking down on City corruption Joker also uses Batman's strengths against him especially when he threatens to kill people each day until Batman Reveals His secret identity tip number four is to have your villain punish characters that we hate and this is one of those things we don't always think about but it's satisfying to see a villain put annoying characters in their place in The Terminator we see this right off the bat when the T800 beats up the annoying Street punks in Die Hard we see this with the character of Ellis and if you remember Ellis is the obnoxious cokehead who wants to hook up with John McLean's wife and Midway through the movie Ellis attempts to play Hero by trying to negotiate with Hans this of course doesn't work out and Hans mocks the guy before killing him for being useless and then finally in the Dark Knight The Joker terrorizes criminals mobsters and other unlikable characters and then the fifth and final tip is to give your villain style and this can include things like Personal Touch confidence and fearlessness in the face of danger and even though the T800 is a machine it's a cyborg with personality it cares about its appearance it fires rifles and shotguns with one hand and it even gives smart ass remarks you can't do that then with Hans Gruber we have a character who's a fashion Enthusiast a history lover a witty conversationalist and he's someone who's versatile with different languages and accents and no matter how many things go wrong he's always confident and in control and then finally you have the Joker who laughs in the face of danger injury and death when the mob threatens him he offers to show them a magic trick when he gets punched in the face he cackles when he gets thrown off a building he howls with laughter he's unshakable and that's part of his charm and the other part is that he's not interested in common criminal goals like wealth control and revenge he burns his money he ruins the city's leadership and rather than trying to kill Batman he Embraces the Dark Knight like a best friend so I hope this helps question of the day which villain do you love the most let us know in the comments section below thank you for watching if you want to support the Channel please pick up a copy of either one of my books bad parts is great if you like small town horror it's about people trading away their sick and injured body parts in order to get healthy again and then entry wounds is great if you like Thrillers it's about a guy who picks up a Haunted Gun and he cannot put it down until he kills six people with it also be sure to check out my other videos like share and subscribe and as always remember to keep on writing

Channel: Writer Brandon McNulty

Views: 101,655

Keywords: Writing, Writing advice, Writing Tips, Fiction, Creative Writing, How to write a book, How to write a novel, novel, book, villains, villain, unlikable characters, villains writing, movie, movies, evil characters, evil, characters, likable, likeable, joker, the joker, the dark knight, heath ledger joker, die hard, hans gruber, terminator, t-800, how to write great villains, likable characters, antagonist, how to create villains, writing great villains, how to write villains, likable villains

Id: qnGElwSuZww

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023