Writing Villain Protagonists

I'm working on an original fiction project, and I have recently come to the conclusion that my villains are more interesting and well-developed characters than my heroes, so I am considering making them the main characters. I would not really want use Sympathetic P.O.V. - the most righteous of them is a major racist and Knight Templar, and they get worse from there. Any advice on how to pull this off?

Refuge in Audacity. The Draco in Leather Pants Effect will take care of the rest.

The unfortunate thing is that SPOV is pretty hard to avoid with protagonists... most of the time. Your Knigh Templar thinks what he is doing is right which means the audience will either feel a little bit of sympathy or think he's just batshit insane.

If they get worse from there, I think you've got a good shot at Evilly Affable if you write them well. A evil character can really draw us in because we don't really understand how they could think that way (it's part of the reason I am personally obsessed with Villains and The Fair Folk. You will probably be forced to give reasons for why their evil so you do risk Villain Decay if you go down the Freudian Excuse path. If they don't have one then just try and make their 'evilness' believable. Remember sometimes Even Evil Has Standards.

I go into a lot of detail (probably a hell of a lot more than I should ) with my own villains, and they do get the Freudian Excuse, however their 'reasons' soon get a little clowded by their lust for power: they may not start out that way but it's very easy to get Drunk on the Dark Side.

I hope you get whatever it is I am trying to say. It makes sense in my head.

If they get worse from there, I think you've got a good shot at Evilly Affable if you write them well.

I'm actually going for Evilly Affable and Refuge in Audacity for one of my villains.

You will probably be forced to give reasons for why their evil so you do risk Villain Decay if you go down the Freudian Excuse path. If they don't have one then just try and make their 'evilness' believable. Remember sometimes Even Evil Has Standards.

I'm a little bit afraid of Villain Decay happening, actually, as the motivation for some of my villains are classic Freudian Excuse material(spousal or parental abandonment). I am planning on exaggerating it to insane levels and having some of the other characters lampshade or mock it.

Now that I have my thought in proper order (kinda) a note on the Freudian Excuse.

The lampshading and insane levels are good, after all Evil Feels Good, but I just thought I'd throw in my favoured methods just in case.

Perhaps the reason they fall so far is because they find themselves liking being evil and forget what they orginally wanted. Or perhaps it's a combination of the two and they lose the true meaning of what they had wanted: which can help be a set up for a Villainous Breakdown or a My God, What Have I Done? moment later on if you want.

My villain has a bit of a From Nobody to Nightmare background: he gets these powers and when people start respecting him he really likes it because nobody had ever done that before, but fear came with the respect and he soon found himself unable to tell the difference. Fear became his main food source, if you will, and he became addicted to it.

Sometimes it's just the freedom that come with being evil, even more so than chaotic. I mean, what would it be like to tell that blasted conscience to shut the hell up so many times that it doesn't bother talking anymore?

It's a slow descent but in my opinion it's a pretty good way to avoid Villain Decay.

F.Y.I. Lampshading how nuts a villain is, is always great (and pretty funny) so no complaints about that.

edited 10th Jan '11 9:24:45 PM by StolenByFaeries

Cast them in a negative light.

Don't try and show their actions positively.

If they cross the MEH... Try and not make them bastards about it, or your readers will likely go 'meh' and put down the story.

Look out for Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy.

Above all: Make them seem human and relatable. Not likeable, but relatable.

Is good advice.

I add: Make them witty. People love a villain who can crack a good joke (cynical humor is best).

Hmmm...

I was going for general advice. The advicee I gave above could apply to near any character.

Being witty may run against the grain of the character, though. Like, your villain may be the Unfunny.

Maybe I misread the thread. Is this how to make a villain people can sympathize with, or just how to write a good villain in general?

Though stone-faced villains do work as well, I suppose on further reflection.

I've read it as writing an unsympathetic, but still readable villain POV.

In that case, occasional use of Dude, Not Funny! might be applicable here.

I've written characters that tear off the genitals of certain men so that they die from blood loss without their source of sexual pride, perform unethical human experimentation projects, use strong poisons on civilians, and causes the annihilation of more than half of the world population.

And he was still sympathetic to at least 21 people.

So i'm not so sure if that would work.

I have an interesting variant on the Villain Protagonist:

While my heroine's demon (the one powering her ability to rot and decay things) isn't the main character, it is definitely active in its attempts to get free of its host's body and annihilate the rest of the world. Of course, since it isn't that strong it needs to absorb other demonic entities to grow in strength. So it's a constant power struggle between the heroine and her inner demon.

I've written characters that tear off the genitals of certain men so that they die from blood loss without their source of sexual pride, perform unethical human experimentation projects, use strong poisons on civilians, and causes the annihilation of more than half of the world population.

Most of my villains are at that level of evil, but I want to try and play at least some of it for laughs. I'm a bit worried given that I do want to the reader to react differently to when the Moral Event Horizon is crossed by one of the more "justified" bad guys than when it is done by the guy who is in it for the lulz.

As for Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy, I want to try and avert it by making clear that no matter how many flaws the "good" guys have, the universe would be way more of a Crapsack World if the protagonists succeeded.

By the way, if anyone is interested, these are my villains:

• Asmodeus: a demon lord who wants to take over the universe and establish a more just order, but one that would put at least two other races(including humanity) in the underclass of civilization.
• The estranged wife and children of God. They primarily want to defeat God because they felt He selfishly abandoned them. Crushing humanity is also on their to-do list, however.
• Diablo: A murderous Otaku teenager with godlike magical powers who wants to overthrow the current rulers of the universe and put himself in charge for shiggles. Probably the biggest Complete Monster, but I'm also really going for Refuge in Audacity and Evilly Affable with this one.

They all basically

Remember, villains aren't evil, bad or wrong. They are the good guys, the heroes are the bad guys — to them. The only difference is that they see the heroes as self-righteous, thieves, scum, stuff like that.

Well unless they're Card Carrying Villains.