How to Write Anti-Villains (Writing Advice)

get ready cuz today we're going to discuss anti-villains and how they fit within stories by the way my name is Brandon mcnalty I'm the author of bad parts also the author of Entry wounds and welcome to my riding Channel a popular request I've been getting lately is to do a video on anti villains now this is a somewhat confusing topic but today we'll break things down we'll discuss how anti villains work and I'll give you some tips for using them and as always here's your spoiler warning the ones in red contain the heaviest spoilers now the easiest way to define what antiv villains are is by identifying the key roles that characters play in a story most stories will have a main character or protagonist who is opposed by an antagonist often times in good versus evil Stories We simplify things and say that the protagonist is the hero and the antagonist is the villain this gives you your basic good versus evil conflict where the heroes represent good while the villains represent bad but things are not always so simple sometimes you have Heroes who occasionally act like villains and vill villains who occasionally act like Heroes that creates a gray area populated by anti-heroes on one side and anti-villains on the other now anti-heroes play the role of Heroes while displaying dark or negative traits these characters might break the rules or commit immoral acts to get what they want they might do good things for the wrong reasons or they might simply lack the qualities of a traditional squeaky clean hero and then there are anti-villains they play the role of villains while possessing heroic or redeeming qualities they might oppose the hero for Noble reasons they might possess admirable motives or they might be portrayed in a way that gets us to sympathize with them and this is often done by revealing tragic backstory now for clarity let's talk about what anti-villains are not and they are not purely evil villains if your villain is pure evil that means they have no redeeming or humanizing qualities and there's nothing wrong with these types of villains and they work really well in certain stories but they are strictly bad guys and another thing that anti- villains are not they are not not morally good opponents or antagonists and those are people who oppose the hero because they need to or because their job dictates that they have to for instance Apollo Creed from Rocky is not a villain he's an athlete and a businessman who happens to oppose the main character Apollo doesn't fight dirty or anything like that so he's just an opponent and the same goes for Tommy Lee Jones's character in The Fugitive Jones plays a US Marshall who has to track down Harrison Ford after Ford is suspected of killing his wife Tommy Lee Jones isn't a dirty cop or anything like that he's just a man trying to uphold the law and then one last thing that villains are not they are not villain protagonists sometimes the protagonist in a story is an outright villain and one of the most iconic examples of this is Patrick baitman from American Psycho he has bad intentions Sinister habits and no real redeeming qualities and because of this it's hard to label him as a hero or anti-hero he's just a complete villain who happens to be the main character all right now I want to share with you six tips for writing anti-villains and the first one is to decide why you need an anti-villain remember not every story needs one sometimes traditional villains or purely evil villains are enough other times an honest opponent will fit perfectly so if you're going to use an anti-villain decide what unique aspect they will bring to your story do you want moral complexity where your audience has to wrestle with the question of whether the anti-villain is good or bad do you want the possibility for Redemption where the anti-villain may or may not join the heroes do you you want your anti-villain to make your evil villain look more unhinged or Sinister by comparison there are many possibilities but make sure your anti-villain serves a purpose and gels with your other story elements tip number two make sure that they're actually villainous remember anti-villains are still villains meaning that they should engage in some sort of immoral Behavior I already talked about how Apollo cre is not a villain because he's a good guy who happens to oppose the main character now on the other hand in the movie Creed 3 Apollo's son Adonis Creed has to fight against an old friend named Damen Anderson Damen is an anti-villain because while his motivations are human and understandable he still fights dirty manipulates the hero and takes other selfish actions tip number three remember that villain Hood status can change and since characters often grow over the course of a story or a series you have the possibility of anti-villains developing into heroes or Heroes developing into anti villains and this can create some great scenarios where the audience roots for redemption or dreads the possibility of the hero joining the bad guys either way it can add a compelling Dynamic to a story so keep it in mind tip number four remember that anti-villains can be heroes in Disguise and if you want to have a shocking plot twist create a scenario where a character acts like an anti-villain for much of the story until it's revealed that the character is actually working with the heroes this can add impact to many types of stories and it especially worked well in the Harry Potter series where Snape terrorizes Harry for years then appears to go full villain by killing Dumbledore and then later on we learned that there was a noble purpose to snap's cruel Behavior tip number five pair anti-villains with evil villains One thing I notice with anti-villains is that they often work with or for the main villain of the story think about Two-Face carrying out the Joker's plan in the dark KN or Elsa working with Walter Donovan in the Last Crusade or Darth Vader working for Palpatine in Star Wars in some cases the anti-villain might carry out the main villain's agenda and in other cases the anti villain might be tempted to turn against the main villain which can create suspense as well as some powerful payoffs and tip number six is to explore moral complexity in other words make your audience ask questions like is the character good is the character evil where do you draw the line how many times can you cross the line now if you follow this channel you know I'm a big fan of Jamie Lannister from Game of Thrones and the reason why is because of how complex and interesting he is the guy is introduced as a conventional villain he's this arrogant Noble who bangs his sister and pushes a kid out the window but as the story develops he enters anti-villain territory and eventually joins the side of the heroes though for much of the story he remains on the side of the Lannisters it's hard not to sympathize with him when we learn his backstory when we see him suffer and when we witness him making heroic sacrifices for the greater good so I hope this helps question of the day who is your favorite anti-villain 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 and be sure to leave reviews on Amazon bad parts is great if you like small town horror it's about people trading away they're 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 can't put it down till he kill six people with it also be sure to check out my other videos like share and subscribe and as always remember to keep on riding

Channel: Writer Brandon McNulty

Views: 41,688

Keywords: Writing, Writing advice, Writing Tips, Fiction, Creative Writing, How to write a book, How to write a novel, novel, book, storytelling, story, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Antivillains, antihero, antiheroes, anti-villain, antivillain, anti-villains, villain, villains, how to write an anti villain, anti, anti villain, writing anti villain, What is an Anti-VILLAIN?, The Dark Knight, antagonist, opponent, protagonist, morally gray, morally grey, characters, morally ambiguous, evil, complex

Id: dHvVB7aOHLw

Length: 6min 53sec (413 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024