 Okay, I know the title of this video is gonna seem kind of aggressive, but don't don't worry I'm not like calling any particular people out here, and I'm not attacking anyone or not even really attacking any viewpoints here I just noticed something that Really irks me and it's basically that no one seems to understand how villains work or at least on YouTube and the internet in general whenever people talk about villains and If they're doing writing advice like how to write villains or even if they're just reviewing something and examining how villains work just Anything like that. They never seem to totally understand What they are and what they're supposed to be and so I'm just doing this video It'll probably be short or at least relatively short about How they're supposed to work and how no one seems to understand that this is the introduction song It's not very good, but it's not too long Okay, so before we really get into this just ask yourself What is a villain like you know or an antagonist if you'd rather like what are they supposed to be in a story? What role are they supposed to serve? Fundamentally they are an obstacle, you know They are there to prevent the hero or the protagonist, you know, whatever term you prefer to use there They're there to prevent them from reaching their goal whatever that goal may be now It isn't necessarily a person, you know a villain can be a person. In fact, I'd say most of the time It's that there are other types of stories though, you know There's the classic man versus man, but there's also stuff like man versus society or man versus nature or man versus self You know that sort of thing The point is that the villain is there to make their goal difficult whether their goal is to become the president or Just survive or save the world or something like that. It has to be hard for them to do Otherwise, there's no real conflict So the villain is there to serve as an obstacle to that like you know if it's a man versus nature story They get shipwrecked on an island Well nature is just everything around them and it's trying to kill them if it's a man versus self story It could be something like he has a severe drug addiction and he's trying to get better But it has to be difficult for him to get over that, you know It can't just be oh, I don't feel like doing heroin anymore. So I'm gonna stop now like that's very boring You know, there'd be no conflict in that story and therefore it would be an extremely boring story Like it has to be hard, you know And another bit a bit more of a flashy example would be in pretty much every shonen battle anime ever made The hero has crazy powers and is super strong and likes to fight dudes and then the villains Rather a succession of villains usually They have to be as strong or stronger than the heroes because it has to be difficult for the heroes to fight them and defeat them You know, like if they were just mooks that got taken out real easy then Well, what would be what would be the point in reading it would be or watching whatever The anime and manga are basically the same thing fight me on that But what would be the point in reading or watching, you know, like the story would have no tension no real conflict No real story and I feel like a lot of this Seems basic, you know, it seems like yeah, everyone knows this But I never seem to hear anybody bring it up, you know Whenever people talk about villains whether it's talking about this villain that they liked in a review or whether They're talking about how to write a good villain or anything like that They always seem to talk about the villains Motivation, you know how to make them complex and interesting now. Don't get me wrong. That's obviously still very important I'm not saying like oh, you're all wrong villain motivation doesn't matter like no It's not at all what I'm saying the best villains are both is the thing, you know The best villains are complex and have interesting motivations and are also very powerful like Probably probably the best example of this that I can think of from the past Couple of years would be Thanos from Avengers Infinity War now the first time we really see Thanos He has already taken out Thor who we know is extremely powerful And then we see him just completely wipe the floor with Hulk who we know is also extremely powerful like He doesn't even break a sweat when he does it and he doesn't use any of the infinity stones Which we know When he gets those those are also very powerful So he gets stronger and stronger as the movie goes on and that's the thing We know right from the beginning and we continue to know throughout the rest of the film Thanos is a threat He is threatening. He is intimidating and yes, he does have some interesting motivations for doing what he does I'm not saying that he isn't a kind of a complex character. He's still wrong obviously, you know He's still a villain. He's still a bad guy. He's still going out to kill a bunch of people For reasons which don't really make any sense when you actually think about it, but he is an Interesting character, you know, he He's fun to watch. Let's say that and he has a lot of presence when he's on screen But none of that would matter in the slightest if he wasn't a threat, you know He if he had just managed to steal the stones. Let's say like he Stole them through some clever plan or whatever and then when he fought the Avengers they just beat him without any trouble then well Why he wouldn't work as a villain then because that's the thing Fundamentally speaking Thanos is an obstacle to the heroes saving the world And if you really want to get into infinity war, it's actually kind of structured with Thanos as the protagonist But that's a that's a different discussion I think and that's something that I just don't ever fear people talk about, you know people that like Infinity War because a lot of people really enjoyed that movie even people who aren't super into Marvel movies said yeah That one was pretty good And a big part of the reason for that was because of Thanos, but they barely ever talked about How his threatening aura is what made his complex motivations really work in the story, you know Because other than that he might have been an interesting character, but he wouldn't have affected the story much And yeah, so basically what I'm getting at is that these are equally important Okay, the the villains having complex motivations and Interesting motivations and just being interesting characters in their own right and then on the other hand they still have to be an obstacle Okay, and that goes for again Whether it's man versus man man versus nature man versus self man versus God whatever it is It has to be an obstacle there has to be some Threatening aura or an intimidating aura like they have to be able to stop the hero from completing their goal Or at least it has to feel like they might do it now This doesn't have to necessarily be physical power like even if it's a man versus man story But they have to have some sort of advantage of some sort, you know like maybe they're in a position of power like they're a King or a president or something and they use that institutional authority to Do that nasty things like job Joffrey Baratheon would be a good example of this Like is he a particularly smart character? Not really is he a particularly tough fighter or anything not particularly? But he is king, you know He is king throughout the story and he uses that authority and that power to do really unpleasant things to people and They're not completely helpless to fight back against it But they can't do a whole lot against it at first because well He's the king. There's a lot of people that are Willing to do what he says either because he pays them or just because it's the law and they're going along with it Or whatever there's a lot of reasons for it. The point is he has that institutional power So even if he is not the most Intimidating person on his own he is still a threat and he is still an obstacle to the heroes Another fun example would be like Lex Luthor. At least when Lex Luthor is done properly, you know Superman is a Fucking god, you know, there's there's basically nobody who can fight him toe to toe So there's no one who is really a threat to him, but Lex Luthor is really smart He can come up with clever strategies clever plans and met new technology all sorts of stuff, which would That that can pose a threat to Superman. I completely forgot words for a second, but I'm not doing more I got more stuff to film. Let's keep going and so on and so forth There's other examples of this, but I don't want to just list those off mindlessly The point is those are both very important and I'm not gonna come here and say like oh one is more important than the other if you have to choose one then choose this one because like Ideally you should have both and if you feel like you can only have one and not the other then you need to fundamentally look back and rewrite some stuff and All that said if you can't have either of those if you cannot make your villain a proper obstacle to the heroes and you Cannot make them complex and interesting in their own way then at least give them personality Now what I mean by this is just make them Entertaining to watch or read or whatever it is like probably the best example of this would be profion from the Dungeons & Dragons movie Like that's a terrible movie profion's not a good villain you know the heroes defeat him without too much trouble really and He doesn't have any real reasons for wanting power. He's just yes I'm an evil dude who wants to take over But he's by far the best part of the movie because Jeremy Irons just has The craziest most over-the-top performance of him that I think I've ever seen in a villain Like it's genuinely hysterical to watch him throughout the whole movie. It's really really fun and I Because of that. He's just the best part of a really terrible movie I mean granted that whole movie is terrible to the point where it's funny But still the point is Jeremy Irons as profion Even though he's not like a good villain. I don't think I could really say. Oh, yeah He's interesting or threatening or anything like that But he's just so much fun to watch and that's a million times better than apathy or just thinking that Oh, he's he's fine. I guess like that. It's a million times better But you know, that's that's about all I have to say. I feel like others have given much more in-depth Advice on how to write good villains because you know, I mean, that's not what this video is even really about It's not about oh, here's how you write proper villains. It's just odd to me How no one ever mentions this aspect to them like, you know, make your villains a proper threat to make them an obstacle Otherwise all the complex motivations and everything in the world aren't going to matter and that's about it. Good. 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