Fantasy Foretold Forum The villain

Every fantasy story has the hero who saves the day and the villain, who tries to stir some trouble. I wanted to ask you what, according to you, makes the fine villain? What types of villains do you like. What traits should he have?

I find when watching movies, reading books, however a villain is presented to me :P the villains i find the most hate-love-able are the ones that are suave, and are in it just to piss off the hero, devilishly handsome and not necessarily genius but ingenious i guess. :) those are my favorite.

I have difficulties making villains, because I don't want to make a cliche villain, but then when I try to break away from the normal idea of what a villain is, it seems like that is a cliche as well. It's hard to be an out-of-the-box writer type when there's so many books in the world. What's you're guys' idea of a cliche villain?

I have a suspicion that most of all like clichee villains with black capes swishing behind them and the diabolical laughter.

When I think a typical villain, one word comes to my mind - revenge. Usually a villain has some vendetta against the main hero, often it has to do with the hero's dad. I absolutely used those clichees to create my villain in the Mystical Mirror, but only to cover up that the reality wasn't like it seemed. Yes, I have a huge surprise in store regarding the villain. Nevertheless, a swishing cape is a must. It's also quite common when a villain is a close person to the hero, often a relative ("Luke, you're screwed") or former best friend. And scars or burns, a pretty villain is somehow less believeable. However, I like being surprised and love beautiful women becoming most evil villains.

I personally love when the villain decides to join the bright side of the force (watched Star Wars too many times in my chilhood, it got me brainwashed) and atone for his sins. I always want him to survive, but somehow it's a pattern that the atonement, if it happens, is rewarded with a dramatic death scene. Well, villain has to die, one way or another. Poor things, these villains.

Now, dear fellow FF-mambers, share your opinion too.

First and foremost a good villain is human. It's important to show them as being subject to human weakness and human strengths. Giving your villain a bad past and explaining it gradually through the story really helps to make them more relatable. Readers need to be able to look at both characters (villain and hero) and be able to identify with them. A lot of time people like to make their villain the ultimate evil. This just takes away from the story because it polarizes and segregates the characters. Villains that are circumstantially bad instead of psychotic are always more interesting to read about. Maybe instead of him being insane he's doing _____ for some kind of higher purpose. One thing I love is posing a big huge moral question in the middle of the story. Then you take the hero and the villain and you explore different answers to the question. This gets the reader thinking what would they do in that specific situation.  

My favorite villain is the kind who believes 100% in their cause. Their drive to do whatever they are doing is what they believe is right.