Revenge can be an excellent motive for a villain- they have been hurt or slighted (whether intentional or not) and now their goal is to make the ones who have hurt them pay.
Revenge is a form of retaliation whereby one seeks out hostile confrontations with others, motivated by a desire to pay-back another they feel is responsible for a hurt or suffering (Crowe & Wilkowski, 2013, Uniacke, 2000).
Usually the motive is just to feed their lust for power, their massive egos, and their Greed, but sometimes they've got somewhat twisted ideals that they want everyone else to adhere to and world domination is the Path to a Better Future.
A villain is defined as an evil or wicked character that enacts evil action and/or harms others. A villain may have a justification for their actions that is in line with their own principles, but their actions inflict harm and create ruin in the process. This is not the same as an antagonist.
Crucially, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen argues that a wicked laugh offers one of the clearest signs that a villain harbors such evil, gaining what Arthur Schopenhauer called “open and candid enjoyment” from others' suffering–moreover, fiction writers know this intuitively, time and again using the malevolent cackle to ...
A truly terrifying horror story requires a memorable villain who is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. A villain who is completely unhinged, with no regard for human life, is far more dangerous and unpredictable than one who operates within the confines of the law.
Villains are not born, they are made. A villain is someone's hero with a broken heart. There is ALWAYS a reason they behave this way.
No matter how far-fetched and ludicrous those plans may be, villains understand the importance of setting goals for ourselves. And, most importantly, no matter how many times they fail, they persist and try again.
A villain is the antagonist of your story whose motivations and actions oppose the protagonist and drive the plot of your story. A villain is the opposite of a hero. In contrast to the hero, a villain is usually compelled by a desire to commit acts of cruelty and immorality.
This structural role of antagonising the main character is the reason the villain is often described as the antagonist. They are a character who stands in negative relation to the spiritual, emotional, moral or financial progress of the main character, a character who is often described as the protagonist.
People who set great store by their reputations, for example, are more likely to seek revenge if they feel they and their honor have been unfairly impugned. But the clear top-scorer on the vengefulness scale is the person high in narcissistic traits. Up next? The one high in neuroticism.
Vindictiveness is a strong desire to get back at someone. People who hold grudges and seek revenge are full of vindictiveness. If someone steps on your toe, and you put on boots to stomp back, you're full of vindictiveness.
Desire and instincts toward revenge can take over, as satisfaction in the face of retribution comes to feed on itself. In this way, the goal of revenge may move beyond a means-to-an-end process, as the feeling provides enough motivation and reinforcement to generate revenge-seeking behavior.
Studies have proven that it's possible to be attracted to our dark side. Thus, making villains more likable and relatable because we can resonate with them more. Even in movies where it centers around a villain undergoing a mission that is supposedly not encouraged, we would also root for them.
Many villains are often designed to be an obstacle or challenge to the hero they face. Something they must overcome in order to succeed in their goals. To do so they'd at least have to be stronger at one or many concepts.
The antagonist can be one character or a group of characters, but they have to get in the protagonist's way of pursuing their goals. In conventional narratives, the antagonist is synonymous with the “bad guy,” while the protagonist represents the “good guy.”
Or even a creature. Sometimes the villain is entirely inside the characters' (almost always the protagonist's) head. The villain can be a fear, an obsession, a desire, a dream, a conception of reality, an idea of what “the truth” really is.
supervillain, a fictional evildoer or antihero—widely popularized in comic books and comic strips, television and film, and popular culture and video games—whose extraordinary powers are used toward nefarious ends. Supervillains are the counterpart and arch-enemies of the superhero.
Most villains share a desire to obtain power. Some villains only want to have power over your main character. Others want to take over the world and achieve ultimate power. When crafting your big bad, you should analyze your evil villain's relationship to power.