How to Write Anti-Villains

The anti-hero is an increasingly popular trope these days, but it also has an antagonistic counterpart: the anti-villain! Although the two are often conflated, the anti-villain is a separate trope with its own unique subcategories and qualities.

RELATED VIDEOS:

TIME STAMPS
0:00 - Intro
0:20 What is an anti-villain?
1:14: The well-intentioned extremist
1:50: The noble anti-villain
2:18: The villain in name only
2:47: The woobie villain

READ MORE:

FIND REEDSY HERE:

RESOURCES:

[Johnny-mpew]

Different iterations of the joker are ideal examples of types of villain:

Anti Villain: Joquin Phoenix Joker

Pure Evil Villain: Heath Ledger Joker

[robert]

“She uses her powers to kill everyone in her school and town, which is
:'D

[sirreepicheeprules]

Anti-villains tend to be much more interesting than your typical villains because they usually have interesting backstories that led them to their path, good-intentioned goals that most people would like to see (though their methods less so), or maybe they are genuinely good people in a bad spot. I wouldn't consider Thanos an anti-villain since he did not think through his plan very well. Rather than bringing stability, he brought utter chaos and confusion to the universe.

A good anti-villain is a likable character with a good nature but has their morality or worldview warped by some tragic event or perhaps another much worse villain.

[ideas_inkwell]

Magneto from the X-men is a classic anti-villain example. The whole series is an allegory to the US Civil Rights Movement between two styles of leadership being Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

[adeleinetheartist]

Spike from Tom & Jerry, he wants Tom to teach a lesson, but he fails and bullies him instead. he also raised his son named "Tyke"

[TomorrowWeLive]

Probably my favorite villain of all time is The Operative from Serenity. He's really interesting as a villain because in some ways he's more honourable than the protagonist, Mal, who is himself an anti-hero. The Operative is fully aware that what he does is evil, but he truly believes it's for the sake of achieving a better world.

[infinitetundra]

Magneto=Anti-Villain
Deadpool=Anti-Hero

[theironqueen]

The antivillan that's the antagonist though the main character

Perfect example is sidestep in the fallen hero story and it's sequel

[keithnayo]

Thanos is an anti-villain. Never knew.

[nicholascauton]

Although I haven’t written a story for this kind of character, I did create one with a backstory. While I won’t go into the backstory of my anti-villain, I will explain why I consider him an anti-villain.

Suarez Mora (a.k.a. Diablo Daga = Devil’s Dagger) actually runs a gang he formed on his own. In a post-apocalyptic environment outside his home city-state Calivada, he’s a powerful man. Unlike the Road Ranger (my anti-hero) who kills murderers (serial killers, mass murderers, religious extremists, and racist hate groups to name a few) without any second thoughts, El Diablo believes that his enemies can be spared if they willingly submit to his rule. Which in a way is kind of like forgiving his enemies for their trespasses but with a catch.

As a means of establishing and maintain order, Suarez is trying to reestablish a centuries-long dead empire which is the Spanish Empire. Driven by his Spanish bloodline and heritage, he claims that he is the descendant of Hernan Cortes. And while he is trying to establish order in a largely lawless region, he does run a mafia-like gang. So really while he is technically doing something good, he has a sinister motive behind it all. And as you can guess, yes he’s basically the arch-adversary to my anti-hero.

[mintysauce]

The secondary antagonist of my main book series is a woobie anti-villain.

[thehippie]

Dr Doom is a good example of Anti-villain

[riiddisbuk]

I am writing an anti-villain that's similar to Darth Vader. While his goals is to destroy a greater evil, he is a monster no better in terms of genocide.

Edit (and rather spoilers): He's ALL types of anti-villains. Starting with The Villain in Name, to The Woobie Villain, to The Noble Anti-Villain, to The Well-Intentioned Extremist. Again, his ultimate goal is to destroy a greater evil that the heroes would be willing to destroy, but is ultimately the villain because of his genocidal means of achieving such goals.

[Killobot]

Try the story “Worm” from the parahumans series by wildbow. The creator actually changed their mind on why the main character would be cause the villain he made fit into the role better. It’s all about a girl making the wrong choices for the right reasons.
Sadly a major theme of the story is “it gets worse” so it’s not for the faint of heart. People who participate in the fandom even go as far as to call it grimderp

[moneyc]

I'm thinking of making the main character of my story an anti-villain, and this video helped SO much. Thank you!

[MyKillerMoth]

Stain from MHA is by far my favorite anti-villian.

[dioio]

An anti hero is a cruel and bloody hero, or a neutral person which in the deep is good.
Examples:
Deadpool
Venom(movie)
Wolverine
Batman(Nolan trilogy)
Maybe also Feri Ats
An anti villain is a villain that is not cruel bot honest and/or with an achievement that they want to achieve and that's makes sense in some ways but is wrong.
Also corrupted heroes or conflicted villains.
Examples:
Thanos
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Darth Maul
And obviously Darth Vader
And also Joker(2019)
Count Dooku
Kylo Ren

[johnhendricks]

Johnnie from the first Karate kid. But Kobra Kai i think goes in between Anti hero and Anti villain. Magneto and Killmonger might be seen as Anti Villains as well.

[gachinx]

I've attempted to write one. His name is Falcon.
He's a villain, but he doesn't want to be too bad because he knows there are still good people in the world who mean no harm. Those are not to be targeted, and instead the badness in this world. Falcon sounds like a hero, but he is not, because heroes don't do the things he does, and when he is a hero, it's too subtle to count. Falcon refuses to be called a hero or a villain. He's just... Falcon. And often when a villain kidnaps someone, they torture them or treat them badly. When he HAS to kidnap someone, he treats them with a lot of respect, and honestly it wouldn't surprise me if the victim wanted to stay with Falcon, because he's actually a really nice guy if you treat him with the right amount of respect. But if the victim has wronged him in any way, then he won't be as nice to them...
Also, he uses quite advanced vocabulary, and this is sometimes one of the reasons people like him because that combined with the tone of voice he uses sounds oddly comforting. When he's mad, it feels like you're a small child being yelled at by an adult. Both scary and makes you feel like a horrible person.
Idk what else to say

[noellewillow]

This video helped me alot to develop my antivillian- Caeli Kafla ! His determination to eliminate the fundamental factions in the world to create peace . In order to stop war, he believes he has to eliminate everyone who holds a grudge. One of my favorite characters I've written