What makes the perfect male villain?

18 comments

1. Glasses and something something was always a part of my plan

2. Heath Ledger (RIP 🙏)

3. Gender isn’t important.

4. All work and no play.

5. They either need a good motivation, i.e. Magneto, or the absolute removal of any motivation, i.e. the Joker.

6. Jack Horner is the perfect villain. He is sympathetic to a point you could even support him. He treats his work employees fairly, he is a compassionate human being with a passion for collecting magical items, he treats animals well despite the fact he never had much growing up as a kid… just loving parents; stability and a mansion… and a thriving baked goods enterprise to inherit. Useless crap like that. But once he gets his wish, he will finally have the one thing that can make him happy… this is character motivation I can get behind

7. A villain is a threat to very concept of what is a hero.

   He is the opposition of a hero, they belong to the same story they are just different aspects of it. A hero represents order and something natural, a villain chaos and something unnatural. It’s a contrast to the hero as much as a hero is a contrast to a villain. A villain chooses the easy way because they hard way belongs to the hero.

   The villain is the hero’s shadow, a form of twisted hero. The parts they hide and don’t want to face. The ones that they suppress. Their desires and their survival instincts.

   They have no moralities, they will sacrifice others. They are controlled by negative emotions and thoughts.

   Specifically for a male villain the worst could be: toxic masculinity, machiavellianism, narcissism, unhinged, psychopath. Although it’s a wide range of what a villain could be.

8. Need a big window to stand in front of and survey things, while you clasp your hands behind your back

9. Competence.

10. Google “Alan Rickman villain”. Everything you need to know is there.

11. When their intentions are pure.

    Hannibal Lecter: get rid of rude people

    Thanos: End over population

    Some of the best are basically heroes in many ways.

    Light Yagamami from death note is considered a villain but arguably he is also a hero as he never killed an innocent person.

12. ***Villains and heroes possess the exact same qualities***. It is how they are presented to the audience that determines which is which, who you cheer for, and who you hate.

    For example, Star Wars could be re-written and re-filmed to make Darth Vader and the Emperor be the heroes. Luke Sywalker and Han Solo could easily be portrayed as bad guys. It is actually pretty simple from a script writing perspective. Audiences are easily manipulated into believing anything.

13. Giancarlo Esposito

14. like any villain.

    they need to feel like they are doing the right thing that or their so unabashedly dastardly and enjoy every single bit of it.

15. When they think they’re doing good.

16. Either the cold, calculating mastermind (Primal Fear, s7ven), or on the other side, flawed, emotional, chaotic, eccentric, and unhinged. Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker, Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

    Then there are those like Gary Oldman in The Professional that are kind of both.

17. Their motivation must be rooted in their experience, and the audience must be able to empathize.

    A good villain presents the audience with a moral conflict. Cartoonish mustache twirling villainy is boring.

    Conversely, the hero must also be imperfect.

18. One of those twirly mustaches.