Antagonists

[Pibs]

Hey, I was wondering if anybody had any tips for creating antagonists for stories. I've always had trouble creating complex, believable, un-corny villains, so any advice or ideas would be really cool!

PS: I'm working on a science fiction idea right now... *shrug*

[Rafael Domination]

Ah...'cool' villains in sci-fi. Yep, I like.

Here's a tip: try feeding their personality to the audience in smaller doses. By this I mean, try not not to exaggerate them too much. You can put emphasis on a few parts, but not too much at too many times. Villains don't always have to do the 'evil' laugh. They can grin, too. They don't always have to spew out sinister comments and/or death threats. If they do, they don't always have to be dramatic about it. (i.e: BOW BEFORE ME, AND WITNESS MY POWER - blah, blah, blah.)

Yeah. Limit the drama. That's one way of making them look cool. Take a look at Sephiroth, from Final Fantasy. He has got to be one of the most bad-ass villains of all time.

[Zombified]

How about a villain that the reader can interpret as good?

Its more complex, but in the end, you may find yourself more attached to the villain that anyone else.

Like in Macbeth!

[Imelda]

Give the villain a good reason to do whatever they're doing that makes them 'bad'. Then even if they do crazy laughs, you know it's not just because they're a villain. Give them conviction, and it should be ok. :)

[Christy]

The best villians I've ever seen in film include Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs, played by Anthony Hopkins) and Anton Chigur (No Country For Old Men, played by Javier Bardem). Both or eerily calculated and even more eerily resentless. And like Imelda said, antagonists need motive too, like any other character. Even if you don't really see it in the story, maybe figure out the general idea of how they became the way they are in the back of your mind.

Really, villians are just like any other character, they are against another character. Maybe try thinking of them a different way than as villianous.

And if that didn't make any sense at all to you, I won't be surprised. Sometimes I confuse myself as to what I mean.

[Shaun]

My recommendation is trying to create characters that are ambiguous. Characters that could be good or bad, you just don't know. It makes the reader really have to think about it. Cold, calculated individuals that do things that seem like they make sense are really good from time to time.
Also, another way to have villains is more cliched, but it does seem to work every time it's used: if you have a character very close to your protagonist break off from whatever it is that is good to your protagonist. It makes that break away a greater impact for the protagonist.

[Pibs]

Thanks you guys!
With help from this thread and the "The Woods" RPG, I've been motivated to start writing again! And I have a plot idea in my head! YAAAAY!!!!

You guys rock. ^^

[lango]

I suck at creating villains, so I usually just make them pure evil. They werent abused in childhood or picked on by every bully in the school, theyre just evil, they like it that way :D