Villians

Today, I am going to talk about Villains! What is a villain you ask? According to the dictionary, (dictionary.com) a villain is 1.a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.  2.a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot. In a book, the villain is an instigator. I mean, would Batman have ever become Batman if the Joker wasn't terrorizing the city? Or would Eragon (from the Inheritance series) ever have become a deadly half-elf dragon rider if the king Galbatorix hadn't killed all the other riders and had a reign of terror? A good villain can make or break a book. What is a good villain? Well I think a good villain is a villain that you can almost sympathise with. One that makes you look at the good guys and wonder if they are actually wrong. One that is not just malicious but also deadly smart. If you look at some of the most well known villains like Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes, they are geniuses. One of my favorite moments with a villain is when the people involved make a choice. They are given two psychologically difficult choices and the heroes have to choose. To clarify my confusing statement, in the movie Spider-Man, Spidey has to choose between rescuing Mary Jane and saving a bunch of people from a falling billboard. In the end he saves than both, but the choice is a mad attempt buy the Green Goblin to hurt Spider-Man. Then you have the more soft villains like Dr. Doofensmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. He isn't exactly a maliciuos person. He cares about his nemesis, Perry the Platypus. He makes a more or less lovable character for the children who watch the show. In the end, no matter what kind of villain you have, you need to make him or her human. (That is if they are human) They need to have some measure of understanding by the readers. I love a villain I can almost relate to. So go and enjoy the flavors of books with good villains!

~Leslie