7 Worst Villain Cliché Mistakes New Fantasy Writers Make

[The_Trident_Master]

The monologuing thing is why I love the Incredibles, Watchmen and Age of Ultron so much. Mr. Incredible uses it against Syndrome, Ozymandias enacted his plan thirty minutes before the heroes arrived and only monologued after, and Ultron has that “oh, here’s the part where I was going to explain my evil plan” and then cuts himself off by starting the fight

[abcdef]

My least favorite Villain cliché: Killing subordinates for minor mistakes.

It just breed internal rebellion, and there are other punishments that could be more effective in order to intimidate the minions, like reducing salary or taking away a promotion.

[abcdef]

“Real life villains are not cartoonishly evil”.

Well, read about Idi Amin Dada, Pol Pot, Francisco Macias Nguema, Nicolas Maduro, Jean Bedel Bokassa, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and anything about the last rulers of Turkmenistan. Maybe you will rethink that phrase…

[intergalactic]

Reminder that tropes are tropes for a reason, because they have been used to great effect in many a story. But you need to understand why they work to use them effectively. Poorly used tropes become cliches.

[ShaneStapler]

i really admire and appreciate the consistency on the uploading and doing the community posts. that commitment and passion does not go unnoticed

[TruthStalker]

I think a little "cartoon-ish" villains might be what stories need nowadays. Too often do we have antagonist with deep back stories that are designed to make the reader/viewer sympathize. It's honestly getting overplayed, and has muddied the morality pool to the point modern fictional villains are just misunderstood and not purely evil or having malicious intent or behavior. Let villains be villainous again without all the ambiguity.

[s.q.-e]

The villain in my story is secretly a dragon that views humanity as his possessions and play things. Is very possessive, and he shape-shifted into the form of a powerful human to rule as an emperor for centuries.

[eyeamthei]

I agree almost all of them. With the exception of cliché 5. A manipulative women who has the self-confidence to use her femininity [and attractiveness] as weapon is scary as hell. Personally, I find them even more scary, than smart women. Not to mention, smart people use everything they have in their disposal [including their beauty].

[stephenfitzgerald]

Great video! Though honestly, I think that Cliché#5 deserves a bit more nuance. I just finished _The Wheel of Time_ books last year and one thing that I loved about Robert Jordan’s villainesses (the female Forsaken, specifically) is that they would use *_ANY & EVERY_* tactic available to them: deceit, misdirection, traps, seduction, and brute force; everything was on the table. If they weren’t dæd or otherwise neutralized, the protagonists were in danger– full stop.

Lanfear was probably the most dangerous one and her main weapon _was_ seduction. She could spam magic spells all day, but her bedroom eyes were her most dangerous weapon; because destroying Rand Al Thor morally and spiritually was more effective than hitting him with bale-fire.

[nyarparablepsis]

You explained the clichés in question well! Definitely agree with your choice.
Could we say that basically, it's about nuance? As you have shown, the same ideas can be used in completely different ways.

As always an inspiring video! I am currently trying to plan around the last cliché in my game (leaning on TV Tropes to create good human villains). Would love to hear your opinions on the different relationships between main villain and their heavy.

[gabrielzinho]

I actually have a fake ally character who has infiltrated the group of heroes. She's a femme fatale, but she's much more than that. Her lens are our only peek at the villain's plan and the true extent of his powers, and she seduces the protagonist because she falls in love with her. This makes her super interesting because she can now tilt the scales in favor of either side, and her mood and opinions are a huge source of conflict in the story.

[GoranXII]

In terms of lesser villains who are more complicated than the main one, it worked okay in Star Wars.

[karatekoala]

0:50 I love Drew Hayes's take on this in his "Villain's Code" series. "Everyone wants to take over the world until they see all the micro managing involved"

[Abegilr_Dragonrider]

I might be guilty of clichés 3, 4 and 6.
The BBEG of my story was abused by his parents, and that pain attracted a demon that corrupted him. He killed his parents, but his future mentor took him on as his apprentice (the mentor has his reasons).
The BBEG got therapy, but due to outside forces that therapy didn't help much.
The mentor's goal is to stop demons from invading the world, but his research into demonic nature was banned, so he looked for other alternatives. He planned to summon a demon to use its power, but his apprentice, the BBEG, went to stop him, but he was too late. That demon summoning ritual left both of their souls scarred and vulnerable to evil spirits. They both fell to evil, and set out to get revenge on those that had wronged them.

[TenorCantusFirmus]

"What if the worst villain in your story is your own writing?" - Yes, I feel like sometimes bad writing decisions make the author him/herself being the main villain.

[kiwilemontea]

I have something fun planned when it comes to villainous monologues. My main villain is a cheerful, peppy social butterfly who wants to be best friends with every one of her allies. One of my main characters is going to temporarily turn against the other protagonists and join forces with this villain. When they do, the villain immediately latches on to her new "bestie." She'll gleefully try to tell this ex-hero her entire plan, her tragic backstory (which DID create her skewed moral compass and worldview), what she had for breakfast yesterday... But the ex-hero is having none of it. They don't want to know the villain's whole plan, because they know step one of the evil plan will give them what they need to escape the situation entirely. They'll constantly cut off this chatty villain, but while working for her, they'll learn what she's really up to and figure out why it's so important that she be stopped.

[MichaelReddick-gr]

Thanks for giving tips about characters, including antagonists.

[dr.jekyll]

Relevant and Supportive Comment to feed the Algorangim

[sohrabroozbahani]

This was actually good, I need to devise my fantasy series a set of really good dark lords... i will keep all of this in mind when i get to that bridge...

[MythicAce]

My "main" villain is basically cliche 1. Basically the goal is to revive the this primoridal being that if revived will probably destroy the world. The thing is however this only serves as the common goal for the organization to be grouped up together. When in reality they all have there own personal goals. The story starts out very simple. Since its about a guy who after the loss of his mother, became an emotionlees void and sets out on a journey/adventure to forge relationships and hopefully rekindle that emotion(that and just wanting to explore the enitre world) so having an organization with a common goal but also personal goals is a easy way to actually connect everything and get the MC involved with the main plot