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7 TYPES OF

VILLAINSJ.S. Morin

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Not every hero has a villain.

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A hero can battle faceless foes, the environment, or even

his own inner demons.

But if you want to write about heroic deeds you may find

yourself looking for a villain to pit against your hero.

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A villain is a complement to a hero, a contrast to the

heroic virtues for hero embodies.

Whether you decide on the hero first and choose a villain

for him to oppose, or start with the villain and build a hero

to defeat him, it can help to have some archetypes in mind.

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While you’re free to mix, match, and invent your own, here are a few basic types of villains you can look to when brainstorming.

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THE MUSTACHE TWIRLER

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An over-the-top villain who is nothing but a villain

Creates perilous situations for the hero to overcome

A flat character with little or no back story, and one who seems to dare the hero to foil him

Examples: Snidely

Whiplash, AuricGoldfinger

A simple villain for a simple story

THE MUSTACHE TWIRLER

Children’s stories and campy action

movies

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THE ANCIENT EVIL

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Someone has been up to something dangerous, and they should have known better

Opened an ancient crypt, read aloud from the wrong book, or put a magic ring on their finger perhaps one time too many

Something evil and long dormant has come back, and great heroism will be required to save the city/world/universe from it

Examples: Sauron, Cthulhu

An evil for evil’s sake, something beyond

reasoning with, threatening, or waiting out

THE ANCIENT EVIL

The classic villain of epic fantasy

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THE BULLY

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Well down the spectrum from the ancient evil is the bully

The bully is there to make life miserable for the hero, if not actually threaten it

A bully can be a stepping-stone villain

Examples: Biff Tannen, Dudley

Dursley, Mr. Bumble

Bullies are best used when looking to show emotional growth in a

character

THE BULLY

Bullies are not limited to stories with child

protagonists, but they are found most

frequently there

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THE MASTERMIND

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The perfect counterpart to the clever hero is the villain who is always thinking one step ahead

A mastermind isn’t a villain who needs to get his hands dirty, though there’s nothing stopping him from doing so, if the plan calls for it

A mastermind will often have a keen interest in a hero, often wanting to match wits with a worthy adversary

Examples: Megamind,

Professor James

Moriarty, Loki

Often the only plausible manner of their undoing

THE MASTERMIND

This type of hero works when the hero is the sort

who is willing to match wits, rather than try to doggedly

pursue

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THE DARK LORD

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Dark Lord is usually a contemporary of the hero, or a generation older

What sets him apart from other villains is his official status as the leader of an organized group

An arbitrary title for the archetype, the moniker can be applied to kings, dukes, warlords, princes, generals, or any other similar marker of status

Examples: Darth Vader, Voldemort, Mister

Sinister

A Dark Lord will always have minions, henchmen, or underlings to carry out

his orders

THE DARK LORD

The Dark Lord villain is best used in stories with black-and-

white morality

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THE MIRROR

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Evenly matched in brains, brawn, and often even appearance, the mirror is the hero’s equal in every way but one: ideals

There will be some fundamental difference in moral and/or philosophical outlook that will always end up playing into the result of the final confrontation

This match up cancels out all the mundane traits that might set a hero apart from normal people, because the villain possesses those same traits. In this case, it is the heroism itself that matters

Exmaples: Negaduck, Professor Moriarty (a

versatile guy!), General Zod

A great villain for a case study in what being a

hero means

THE MIRROR

Karma, friends, and just the value of having

something worth fighting for – these are the things that set a mirrored pair of

hero and villain apart

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SOMEONE ELSE’S HERO

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They fight for a cause that opposed the hero’s, but for those who follow that cause, this villain is their hero

Turn the tables, and you could tell the story with the roles reversed, casting the villain in the heroic light and the hero as villain

SOMEONE ELSE’S HERO

Examples: Magneto, Khan Noonien Singh,

Benjamin Linus

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There you have it.

Do you have an archetype that needs to

be added to the list?

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Read the full blog post at

http://www.jsmorin.com/2015/02/7-types-villains/