Villain archetypes: Who is your villain in your RPG?

[servantb7]

For me, motivation and backstory make a good villain. I enjoy characters who are realistic in their motivation/rise to power, so I think history can be a great place to look for inspiration. For example, if you were to make Hitler a villain, you could go with the lazy 'madman trying to take over the world' angle. While not untrue, it is incomplete and not nearly as interesting as if you lay out the events and circumstances that led to his rise to power. Germany was devastated after World War I. They had been given an unfair deal in the Treaty of Versailles, and their economy was floundering. A young visionary rose up, determined to lead his people to greatness again. The people of Germany were angry about their circumstances and felt they had been treated unfairly; Hitler gave them a scapegoat and unifying goal.

People are driven by previous experiences, so I think it is critical to show the gamer what has happened to make the villain the way he is. Otherwise, that part of the story will likely be cliche and boring.

 

[Ooda]

The villains I enjoy the most are villains you love to hate:3

Not many games seem to do that for me, but, kudos to the ones that do.

My project has an emphasis on making the big bad guy an almighty demon, however, he is not the main antagonist. Sure its a demon and you would expect it to be, but because he's so powerful and invunerable, it makes him more intimadating. Therefore the main antagonist(s) of my project focus around the people trying to revive him; and their leaders.

 

[Luminous Warrior]

One of my favorite villain/hero relations is in a tv series called Oban Star Racers. The plot of the show is

Spoiler

a young girl named Eva, who was left at a boarding school by her dad, a famous racing manager, when she was young, runs away from school to see her dad. But, when she finds him, he doesn't even recognize her! So, she pretends to be a girl named Molly, and becomes a mechanic at his company. Soon after that, the president comes and tells Eva's father that he needs him to join in an inter-galactic race to save the world, because the prize is any wish you can think of, and one of the Earth's alien enemies is participating in the race. Eva stows away on her father's ship and, after the original pilot crashes, becomes the pilot for the Earth team. Throughout all of this, the true villain is working behind the scenes to make sure Eva wins, because he has been manipulating her life, since birth, including the death of Eva's mother and the original pilot's crash, to make her the one person who would refuse the real prize, becoming the next Avatar. He was the Avatar before the current Avatar, and now wants to become the Avatar again to destroy the universe and remake it in his own image.

It is a pretty good series, with a lot of awesome characters and villains.

 

[Aureon]

LOVE Oban Star Racers! I happened upon the series totally by accident and it is one of the best I've seen lately. I would agree with you about the main badguy too - awesome villain.

 

[Raine Fallon]

I love villains like; Caius from Final Fantasy XIII-2. I haven't seen many like him really; he is quite a unique villain in addition; he is my second favorite character in the XIII universe next to Lightning.

In my game the villain isn't the main villain either, but his goal is nothing evil, but he fights for his beliefs. In the world he is put in; he fights for what you can call; his "Religion". He punishes those who appose the "government" of the game. I would not define my villain as someone evil, more like; someone hidden from the truth about his world, constantly fighting against; those whom he should fight with.

No point in dragging his background story inn either, but all you need to know; he has had a hard life.

So my favorite villains are those who fight for what they believe is right, what they hold dear, fight for their vision of "the truth". Now that was deep right? haha

 

[Luminous Warrior]

In my game, the person you think is the villain, isn't actually the villain.

I just LOVE plot twists!

 

[Cryranos]

My antagonists are rarely true villains. Oftentimes they are forces of nature that operate on orange and blue morality, far removed from our own. Even my mortal human antagonists (and some protagonists) are often "touched" by such an entity and become aligned with it. Of course, I have to be careful not to make them be simply controlled; these forces operate within the person's own desires and goals. I don't want to end up with another Golbez on my hands.

My favorite antagonists are those who are sincerely trying to make the world better, and often their only difference from the heroes is that for the antagonist, the ends justify the means.

 

[EFizzle]

In my current game the villains are... lady luck and the world. Sure having a demon that wants to take over the world is nice and all, but I wanted something that I could relate to. (I don't know any demons that want world domination, what about any of you?) I personally would like to be able to relate to my story and characters, and I just don't know any villains... Does this mean I need to get out onto the world more?

 

[RyanA]

Whenever I make stories, my villains are either unexplainable beasts who just go around doing bad stuff, villains that used to be good but became evil after they saw how things really were (but still didn't understand how to change them as much as the player characters) or....not really a villain at all

In fact, in my master plan, you are the villain, and your enemies are all who stand for light, justice and blah blah > However, you still get a reason to hate the good guys and root for your evil player characters, though!

 

[Chaos Avian]

My game has more antagonits than it does villains. Man the line between those words are very fine (i.e. Gary from the Pokemon games was an antagonist, not a villain. Team Rocket were the villain(s).) My game doesn't revolve around a main character, its shown from various perspectives so at times a different protagonist can antagonise the current protagonist vice- versa. In fact the- actually that will give too much away :3

Also, can an anti- hero be defined as a villain? Or are they classified as such before we know they are anti- hero?

When it comes to the whole antagonist, anti- hero or villain subject, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a pretty decent example.

That's my two wings, you may now shoot me

 

[The8th]

Also, can an anti- hero be defined as a villain? Or are they classified as such before we know they are anti- hero?

Yes, this is possible.

In the novel Logan's Run (a personal favorite), the main character starts as an anti-hero. He is a Sandman tasked with killing anyone who seeks to live pass the age of 21 (aka Runners) and escape to a secret haven called "Sanctuary". To Logan, this is his duty as a citizen. In fact, all citizens are constantly reminded of the slogan "Duty. Do Not Run!"

In the beginning of the novel, Logan seeks to infiltrate Sanctuary and expose it (which makes him a villain). However, he develops sympathy toward Runners (as he too becomes one) and changes into a hero. Logan's Run is a great read for any science-fiction fan and I strongly recommend reading it.

 

[tpasmall]

To start with, all the Sephiroth talk is awesome. If you play the game through more than once and pick up on a lot of the subtle and optional stuff, you'll catch a lot of what Touch was talking about. Even if you don't like the game, saying Sephiroth was a one-dimensional villian just doesn't make any sense. His story, told in bits and confusing pieces throughout the game, is complex. The connection with Hojo and Lucretia, Gast and the Turks, all deep, plot forming stuff.

Anyway, the main villian in my game is the descendant of another villian. I don't want to get too deep into the plot, but:

Early in the world's history, the darkness was all there was. Evil abounded, but a group, known as the Creators, discovered an energy source that they would call Elementra, flowing inside the planet. When they learned to harness this energy they created six large glowing orbs, the torches, that drove the darkness away. They divided into separate groups and carried the torches across the land, gathering people together and spreading the glow of the torches to push the darkness away.

But one of the Creators, Edacian, grew envious of the power of the torches, feeling that he wasn't given the credit he deserved for helping to discover the energy that made them glow. As his complaints fell on deaf ears, he grew angry and began to fight with the other Creators. In the midst of the argument he broke one of the lamps. So they drove him away, into the darkness.

As time went on, the light grew, and darkness faded away. The people were happy, love and peace filled the land. They soon forgot about Edacian, and built cities around the power of the torches.

But Edacian had other plans. He was building an army of darkness to destroy the torches and plunge the world back into darkness. He had learned how to focus the energy source into creating weapons, and armed his monsters with powerful weapons of dark energy.

Anyway, a bunch of stuff happened and years went by and now his descendant is bent on redemption. I'd write more about it all but I don't want to divulge too much of the plot. It's a lot more involved and twisted then this short synopsis can tell, but I think it has depth.

 

[Ksi]

I'd have to say my favourite villain is one of the best video game villains I've had the pleasure of beating the crap out of. Luca Blight.

dayum Prince Luca fothermucking Blight.

Spoiler

As a young boy he watched as his mother was attacked and raped by ruffians who were hired by the City States - the same place that his father had just signed a peace treaty with - while his father ran away. The fact that the ruffians were ordered to do the deed in front if him and that his father never addressed the issue afterwards helped to twist his mentality to the extremes. Add in that his mother went insane from the rape and resulting pregnancy and that he was brought up being forced to consider the product of that rape as his legitimate sister - even though he knew she wasn't - and you have a clear case for the madness that gripped him.

In the opening scenes of Suikoden II he orders a part of his army who are camped on the border between the two countries to be killed and ambushed by the rest so as to make an excuse for war against the City States; which he hates with a passion and, rightly, blames for his mother's insanity. The group he orders killed are made up of the newest recruits - mostly young teens - to create a greater cry of outrage from his country people. He then allows two of the innocents to take the blame as spies and sends them to hang - they being the heroes of the game and the only two who managed to make it out alive.

He then goes on a killing spree across the City States, burning towns and killing people. It's one iconic scene after another, with him cutting down a woman after ordering her to act like a pig to save her life and attacking the sole survivor of another town - a young girl who becomes a mute after his attack. He also sacrifices a whole city to power up his True Rune and, well, let's just say he does a hell of a lot of evil things all in the name of cleansing the City States from the world map. He truly believes every person in the City States to be less than animals.

Then comes the battle (he's not even the last boss of the game, btw) against him where it takes betrayal by his strategist, several volleys of arrows, three separate fights with six people, another few volleys of arrows and a one on one duel with the main character before he is cut down. His last speech is also terrifying and sums up his character very well. (Just ignore the terrible grammar. Suikoden II suffered from it, sadly.)

Luca: I don't have the power to swing my sword anymore.... Riou........... Why do you fight!!!!!! Why do you wish to destroy me!!!

Riou: To end this war.

Luca: To end this war? That's a fairy tale... It's a foolish child's dream. Even if you kill me and defeat Highland, you won't have peace!!!! You'll have a defeated country screaming for our vengeance!!! Hoohahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! Hohohohehehehehehahahaha!!!!!!!! Excellent!!!!! Excellent!!!!!! The rumbling in my body!!!!! The thirst that scorched my flesh! It is dissappearing!!!!!!! Hoohoohahahahahahahahahahha!!!!!!! Listen, Riou!!!!!!!!! It took hundreds to kill me, but I killed humans by the thousands!!!!! Look at me!!!! I am sublime!!!!!! I am the true face of evil!!!!

If you're curious, check out this and the other three videos of the fight. (Skip to 4:50 for the action to start)

Now, about my own villains. I try to make them human, to give them reasons for why they do the things they do. Hell, I even try to make them likeable and I like to give them screentime because there's nothing better than a villain who you feel reluctant to destroy or make you scream for their blood. If I can make you feels something about them, I've done my job in creating a character. Here's two from each side - one that's likeable, one that's not.

The General: He's tasked with taking over the kingdom of which one of the main characters is a protector of. The party first meet him schmoozing at the bar and end up paying his tab for him after he tries to flirt his way out of paying. He comes across as a funny drunk. You meet him a few times before the big reveal, but even after that, he's still a nice guy. Sure, he's trying to take over the kingdom - not for himself, but for his king - but he genuinely cares about the innocents he comes across, takes care of his own people and doesn't wish to destroy. For example, there's one scene where you kill a monster that attacks you in the forest. Then you get a flashback to him and his men going through the same area, but when the monster attacks he orders a retreat. The reason? He points out to a soldier a nest nearby with babies. The monster was just protecting its young. The General is supposed to make the player think about who really is in the right in this game. At the end, he starts to actively work against you, but the main reason isn't shown until the last scene - you have to choose which world to destroy and which to save. He was trying to save his world (The main character comes from the mirror world of that one, so most likely will choose that one to save.) and the people in it.

Currently Unnamed: My newest villain, there's still a lot I don't know about him. Note that this is from a Breath of Fire II fangame.

He was born of a Windian father and clanless mother and didn't inherit the wings. Feeling cheated of his birthright, he blamed his mother and hated her, that hate eventually growing to include those who interbred with other clans. His goal is to shape society in such a way that people wouldn't breed from out of their own clans. He does a lot of research, looking into family trees, genes and comes across an old story about the Cursed Wings. Eventually he figures out that said wings aren't really a curse, but were named such to protect the bearer of them who would have enormous magical ability. This person is Nina and he sets into motion a plan to get close to her. Unfortunately she disappears just before his plans come to fruition, but lucky for him he meets her children (Mina and Neyu) and join them in search of their mother, pretending to be a friend the whole time. Once they find out where she is, he goes ahead and attacks her, using a special spell he helped Neyu create which nullifies magic. He rips off her wings at the same time that Mina runs in, then proceeds to brutally murder Nina in front of her and Ryu, who also just arrives in time to see his wife killed. Then, while Mina is having a breakdown, he rants about how power is everything, then lets Ryu know that he'll be back for Mina (who is about 10 years younger than him) and takes off. He tries to abduct Mina twice - failing both times - before succeeding and brainwashing her into being his pet, at least for a while before she breaks free, but during that time she almost kills her brother and other friends, as well as helping him to unlock the full power of the wings. By the end of the game you really, really want to kill the bastard. He's also quite smug about all that he accomplished and is prone to rants about race and interbreeding. I still need to refine a lot of things about him, though. ^.^;

 

[Kaiser]

In my current game there are three villains, One villain leads a group that wants to purify the world by eliminating all forms of darkness Good darkness and Evil darkness, even if the group had to eradicate civilizations, everything had to be pure and holy. The other group is a rebel group that wants to bring the world back into its purest state, which is darkness. Another is a villain that gets in the way of the two groups and through the hero's eyes he sees that villain as a mental case that sees joy in others suffering and pain. And flat out wants to piss the hero off.

 

[m4uesviecr]

The villain in my current game is actually the main character! In the history of the game, there were beings called Immortals, whose jobs were to communicate between the Gods and the races that lived on the world below: Humans and another race called Patenkinds. Patenkind could already speak with the gods, but humans couldn't, thus Immortals were created.

Due to an edict, the Immortals couldn't have children. Yet, one of them did. His seed was cursed, being forced to wander the earth until the Gods decided to take away their right to wander, thus turning them into stone. The main character is a descendant of the disobedient immortal, and has spent majority of his life seeking out other people to fight and defeat him. It gets to the point that he is fighting, not to be defeated or to find a way to lift his 'curse', but out of anger for his immortality. He knows that he is immortal, but refuses to believe it. Instead he continues to fight, harming others, killing one man, and nearly killing a VERY important person.

He ends up being a hero later on, so I can't really make him SUPER evil.

 

[RachelTheSeeker]

The villians for my main, story-based game (an urban fantasy with possibly a few sci-fi anachronisms) are supposed to be not quite what they seem. The "Big Bad", who actually is implied not to be quite as dangerous as it's held out to be, is more or less a "root of all evil" enemy not unlike Giygas or Dark Falz/Force. The reason I say it's not supposed to be as dangerous as people think is because, around halfway through the game, the heroes predict that the Big Bad knows it will be slain by them. As such, the last quarter of the game will be trying to confront what I intend to call "the Successors of Sin" -- essentially, candidates to obtain much of the Big Bad's powers and serve as a vessel to bring about the end times.

One of the underlying themes to the game will be this: "darkness lies within the hearts of all people, but many also have the power to suppress it". One of the party members will be a reformed villian, and another hero will face her personal demons throughout the storyline, even be tempted toward the "dark side", so to speak. In addition, there will be a few characters the party members know who will become candidates for the Big Bad's unholy blessing.

 

[demmozero]

I dont really have a villain for my current project yet but in a previous one I did the main villain was a charismatic demon named Loki I named him according to his personality. And his ultimate goals were to kill an ancient demon overlord in order to obtain its power and then open the gates to the demon world and flood gaia/earth with demons. I had it set up so that he had to manipulate the hero into doing the first phase for him.

 

[Des]

my villain is an evil alien who wants to conquer the earth.

that's about it.

Frick all that **** about giving villains huge deep tragic backstories. hell, these days that **** is more overused than the classic "i'm just evil" approach.

sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

 

[crimcrim]

my villain is an evil alien who wants to conquer the earth.

that's about it.

Frick all that **** about giving villains huge deep tragic backstories. hell, these days that **** is more overused than the classic "i'm just evil" approach.

sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

adding on to this even further.

backstory != personality (tl note: != means 'does not equal)

you can have a brilliant villain with an excellent personality and never mention his backstory

 

[Des]

adding on to this even further.

backstory != personality (tl note: != means 'does not equal)

you can have a brilliant villain with an excellent personality and never mention his backstory

heath ledger;s joker

the ***** intentionally **** all over any potential backstory. so good