Tell me, how would you keep a villain from being cliche? How you you keep him/her/it from being another stereotype of the insanely happy, dark past, or 'oh so ominous' antagonist?
I'm curious, really, after reading these past few stories.
>>8214368
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WellIntentionedExtremist
Not that hard, actually.
>>8214376
Like this hasn't been done to death and badly.
Miyazaki, bro.
>>8214368
he actually turns out to be the good guy
and the good guy's side turns out to be like nazis or something
>>8214368
Villains are a meme. Pretty hard to make one that isn't worn out
Empathize with the villain. The best villain ever, judge holden, is derivative of the oldest and tropey-est ones in the history of lit. Make them as 3-d as your protagonist and no one will care if he's the beaten child of an alcoholic or the fallen angel or whatever.
>>8214406
>The best villain ever, judge holden
lol
So far 3/5 (possibly 4, I don't know Miyazaki, and the other just called villains memes) have essentially said "make the villain likable". I bet there is an absolutely hilarious psychology behind this.
Looks like likable/identifiable villains are the generic cliche you want to avoid OP.
>>8214445
OP here .I find that trying to give the reader a way to empathize with the villain oftentimes feels forced.
The villain will falter, maybe reveal something in his monologue, or make statements that are meant to get close to people's heartstrings.
Nah. It feels out of character and/or unrealistic entirely. Then again, I'd rather have that than a character who's a chaotic evil, does it for the 'thrill', etc.
>>8214368
What do the various types of cliche villain look like?
>>8214468
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Villains
A bunch of these.
>>8214368
Why make a villain when you can make a competitor?
Make a pure antagonist with no ridiculous faults or negative personality traits. Make someone who happens to not want the protagonist to succeed.
EXAMPLES
General that has to defend a city from the protagonist's rebel army.
A competing athlete who is also after the protagonist's goal.
A sentient species of foreign creatures that have made you the newest target.
Some suggestions to use all individual like, or mix and match
>Make the villain a happy person who lives an ordinary life
>Make the villain consistently happy throughout the story
>Make the villain someone who believes they are doing good and helping people through their bad deeds, and is shocked and confused when anyone suggests otherwise
>Make the villain poor and powerless
>Make the villain someone with no self consciousness about their own actions who thinks they are innocent
>Make the villain sexually chaste or in a loving, monogamous couple with a non villain character
>Make the villain someone who dresses normal
Stop limiting yourself to the binary of hero and villain, anon.
Stop thinking of your antagonist as an archetype, or a subversion as you may hope, and just work on understanding and conveying who the character is.
Though the tone of this thread makes it sound like you're just trying to figure out how to create your own personal genre mold.
