How To Make A Great Villain

hi guys Henry here from the closer look and today I'll be asking the question what makes a great villain for this case study I'll be focusing primarily on the Joker from The Dark Knight all materials used in this video of a nonprofit educational purposes and for wealth in the guidelines of fair use so the Dark Knight this film received practically universal praise and according to IMDB it's the fourth best film of all time there are many reasons why this film is considered in such high regard but today I'll be focusing on just one The Joker the vast majority of filmmakers screenwriters and storytellers alike will all tell you the same thing that the villain must have more power than the protagonist personally I think it's an interesting statement but I respectfully disagree sort of in the Dark Knight the Joker has no money and no resources to mention he has absolutely no power in the traditional sense yet he is still one of the best villains of all time a bad filmmaker will give his villains a massive army and near limitless power take for example Red Skull and Captain America Sauron in Lord of the Rings Malekith and Thor 2 wrote in in guardians of the galaxy that the list is endless all of these characters have massive amounts of traditional power and none whatsoever of the non traditional saw this is where these villains differ from the Joker he has power just not in the way we're accustomed to his entire power comes from his ability to attack with great intelligence and cunning straight at the Dark Knight's greatest weaknesses the Joker even confesses how he has no real resources at all so this leads me to add point one onto the villain creation guide your villain needs to have more power than the hero but don't make the mistake of giving them only the traditional power we've just discussed it's fine for your villains to have massive amounts of money you're a group of intimidating henchmen but unless you can back that up with an interesting villain your conflict will be bland and uninteresting this leads me to my second point which is another field of characterization that the Joker excels out okay I know this is completely unrelated to everything but did you know the character of Rachel was played by two different actresses in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight someone told me last week and it blew my mind anyway I just thought you I just thought you might want to know anyway another element of characterization that the Joker excels at is motivation this right here is the bread and butter of a good villain if your villain has a very weak or no real motivation then your audience won't believe that character at all and the conflict will again become bland and uninteresting a word of advice but if you want your audience to empathize with the villain having a solid motivation is the best way to do so take for example Loki in the film The Fool his motivation is not more power or revenge but rather the love and approval of his father if you want to see how I reach that conclusion they click here to see my video on why Thor is the best Marvel movie of all time sorry sometimes I can't help myself anyway The Joker has an amazing motivation which is cleverly explained by Alfred right here because logical reason the Joker's motivation is not more power or personal gain and like 99% of all other villains he quite simply is a nihilist which means he doesn't have any morals or beliefs he genuinely doesn't care about any human life including his henchmen and also including his own which is illustrated by how he starts laughing maniacally when Batman throws him off the roof towards the end The Joker's philosophy of nothing really matters is illustrated at least 50 different times in the movie but one of my favorite times is when he tells his story about how he got his scars the first time he says his father did it while on a drunk rampage and the next time he says he did it to make his wife happy the difference between these two stories is no accident it proves that the Joker truly doesn't care about anything including his past because to him it doesn't matter because to him everything is a joke and believe it or not his end goal was never to destroy Gotham it was to prove that deep down everyone is like him this battle between the Joker and Batman is highlighted in their last shared scene the Joker doesn't want to destroy the world he just wants to convince it that when it comes down to it him and the rest of humanity are not so different in his opinion for a regular person to become the Joker you and the Batman's philosophy is the exact opposite he believes all criminals can be redeemed that deep down everyone has the potential for good the dynamic between the Joker and Batman is not the same as most other hero villain dynamics out there in most other stories the villain wants to achieve an end goal and the hero is the only obstacle in the road that can stop them or vice versa the hero wants to achieve the goal and the villain is the only one who can stop them well in the Dark Knight that is not the case they are both competing for the exact same goal the soul of Gotham and what I consider to be the icing on the cake for the Joker is in the end he wins the Joker is interesting because at every point he is one step ahead of the Batman a genius move by the Joker was with Harvey and Rachel he lighted Batman and swapped their addresses meaning no matter what Batman chose he would lose if he chose to save Rachel she would die and the Joker would win and if he chose to save Harvey he would die and the Joker would again win in the end he accomplishes his true goals and shows the world Gotham's true face the face of a big lie see when the Joker turned Harvey Dent into two-face he did it for a very specific reason to create another scenario where it is impossible for the Batman to win if Batman Gordon decided to reveal to the world the Harvey became to face that he murdered innocent people then the reputation of Gotham's government would be forever tarnished and the Joker would win and if they decided to cover up Harvey's atrocities and maintain his reputation as a white knight of Gotham which is what they did in the end the Joker would win because an entire system of Justice millions of people now believe and place their faith in one big lie now that's one hell of a last laugh that even the Joker can appreciate this leads me to another point of making a great villain let them win this doesn't mean they have to have a complete victory in the end but when the villain is victorious even in small little ways like the Joker did throughout the whole movie as a realistic grit to the story and makes the audience feel even more invested in the hero's quest as they want him to succeed even more if the Joker did not succeed in any of his plans the audience would have been less engaged in the story I have a technique I like to use whenever I want to test whether the villain will have an interesting dynamic with the protagonist try and swap your villain around with other villains in fiction and ask yourself does it have any impact on the narrative and is it still largely the same if your answer is it makes no difference then your villain still needs a little more work if Nolan put another version of the Joker in this film it just wouldn't work right Jared Leto's Joker Jack Nicholson's Joker or even the animated series Joker none of them would have worked because of the nature of the film but this is the only incarnation of Batman that has gone for absolute realism and if the Joker were making wacky jokes or using explosive whoopee cushions for cheap gags it just wouldn't be believable the Joker is delivered in a tone that is consistent with the rest of the Dark Knight trilogy a tone of utter realism and this is why the Joker in this film is the best villain of all time when Jack Nicholson's Joker killed a man by throwing aquila his throat it was interesting but it was also quite ridiculous and reminded the audience that they weren't watching real life they were watching a movie and in the animated universe where the Joker poisons a group of people with his smile gasps it's shocking yes but it's also cartoony in nature and reminds the viewer that they aren't watching real life they are watching an animation but that is where the Dark Knight is completely different to every other incarnation of Joker in history when the Joker slams a pencil through that man's head it was shocking yet completely believable when the Joker blows up their Hospital sets fire to that pile of money and last when he's thrown to his death these moments are all delivered in a completely believable way at no point in the Dark Knight does the immersion break for the audience because the Joker is delivered in such a terrifyingly realistic way the audience believes every second he is on screen he isn't just a character from a book he is a real-life human being Red Skull Sauron Loki they aren't inherently bad villains but the audience doesn't believe that they truly exist in our world but with the Joker he is so believable so hauntingly accurate to real-life that while the audience is watching The Dark Knight the Joker could be right behind them thanks for watching this week's video this is the second video I've ever uploaded onto my channel and I've no clue whether I should continue uploading this kind of content if you have any ideas at all on how I can improve my content then please tell me in the comments below all feedback both good and bad is hugely appreciated also if you could like and subscribe that would be pretty prime Zoo anyway thanks for watching and I will see you guys next time on the closer look

Channel: The Closer Look

Views: 2,502,641

Keywords: how to make a villain, guide, villain, evil, hero, joker, the dark knight, the joker, heath ledger, the closer look, jack nicholson, animated, christopher nolan, nolan, tutorial, batman begins, comic, movie, film, how to, how to create a villain, case study, power, the dark knight rises, conflict, jared letto, motivation, ruskie

Id: Ga0rs2G8BGI

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 02 2016