Villains You Love to Hate

What is the difference between the hero and the bad guy? My favorite villains are the ones you root for...and the ones you didn't see coming. The first time pulls at the heart strings but they always do something irredeemable. The second one...when you're surprised by the story villain, you want them dead. Quickly.

I have to tell you...I have a soft spot for a fantastic villain. Even when I love to hate them...a great hero/heroine deserves an equal and opposite. One thing, though, no one ever believes they're bad. They're righteous in their path. That includes the bad guy. I'm going to share some videos with you of my favorites.

Spoilers a-plenty my friends. You've been warned.

I got chills when Khan used Kirk's conscience against him in Star Trek: Into Darkness. The way he used Kirk's morality against him is what makes him such a remarkable villain. Righteous anger. And delicious sex appeal. 

I love the Master from Doctor Who in almost all of his incarnations...but the last one...oh man. My heart broke for the insanity he suffered (and when you found out why...). His relationship with The Doctor was amazing. 

When Moriarty wants to make a statement...he does it in style. You have to admire him for it.

Dolores Umbridge. Oh the hate I had for that woman. 

What about that moment you found out who the REAL bad guy was in Along Came a Spider? 

Pinhead of Clive Barker's Hellrasier. The character is loved, feared, and lusted after by so many. The only way you'd meet him, however, is when he'd rend your flesh...not fun. He was, at all times, logical. 

The Joker. Heath Ledger's performance was incredible. The movie gave me chills. I've always loved the way the Joker baited Bats. Heath nailed it.

What about you? Who are your favorite villains? Is there something you love about them?

Leave a comment and let us know!

Keep Reading!
Dawn Montgomery
http://www.dawnmontgomery.com
Writing Blog

Action. Adventure. Erotic Romance.
Website | Twitter | Writing | Facebook

Primal Hunger- available now from Ellora's Cave
With war on the horizon, they must fight to stay alive. And together. 
Haunting Melody St. Claire - available now from Ellora's Cave
Do you believe in love after life? 

Good things happen to bad people

Yeah, I know that's not how it goes. But I think it's even more interesting when good things happen to bad people, instead of bad things happening to good people.
We all love a good villain, and many of us love to hate them. I often think the villain is a neglected subspecies in a book. Your bad guy needs to be as well developed as the hero and heroine.
And once you got your badass meany...let good things happen to him. It will stack the odds in his favor -- and usually against your hero.
In Howl, poor Zalin handed the villain the ultimate piece of information -- and enabled him to carry out his master plan without interference. He had no one to blame but himself, and it seriously screwed up his day.
Yep, all those good things happening for your bad guy...give the book a whole new dimension. It keeps your hero out of step, makes things that much more difficult and dangerous, and thus keeps the reader groaning right along with the unfortunate hero.
Imagine you have a valuable commodity or important information which is needed by the hero to save the heroine, but in order to get it, he has to jump a few hoops -- and he's not the only one after it.
Let him get to the safe--five minutes after the bad guy got the map out of it. Let the bad guy get hold of the only vehicle for rent. The only guide who knows the jungle. The key to the dungeon. Let him find things or be handed things just before the hero gets there. He's having all the luck, while the hero struggles to keep up, putting the heroine's ultimate safety more and more at risk.
Let the villain walk away with the only thing able to save her.
Your hero will have to be resourceful and determined, even in the face of adversity. It gets even better if both the hero and the villain have the same goal...saving the heroine. But while the hero does it for (more or less) selfless reasons...the villain might do it to gain something she has and couldn't give two hoots about what ultimately happens to her.

What I'm trying to say is, it doesn't always have to be the same old, same old. And who says you can't start out with two villains -- and no hero? Why not make your villain the hero?

I'm bored with the same format. :) I think we need to shake it up some.

I'm working on a story at the moment where the good guy is also the bad guy... Let's see if I can pull it off. :)

What do you like about villains and heroes?

Silke grew up in Germany and is used to things going bump in the night -- and it wasn't always the acrophobic cat, or someone hitting their head on a low beam on the ceiling.
She writes paranormal romance, usually at night, and blames Anne Stuart to this day for all her ambitions and strange stories, after reading one of her books.
These days the only thing going bump at "oh-dark-thirty" is her -- usually when she smacks into the sofa while creeping to the kitchen for another cup of coffee.
Silke likes to hear from her readers.
Feel free to contact her via her blog at http://www.evilauthor.com, follow her on Twitter, look her up on Goodreads or become a friend on Facebook and G+.



Her books Howl and Smitten are available at all major ebook retailers.

Let's Talk Villains

My topic today is about the villains. The low-down dirty, I-can’t-believe-they-said-that, the people we love to hate bad guys/girls that can make or break a story. Yeah, them.

As much as romance readers root for the hero and heroine, you’ve got to admit, deep down, there’s something about the antagonist that makes the heart pitter-pat. Why? Not because we’re in love with the bad guys (although I will freely admit there have been some that I wished would have given the hero a bit more fight) it’s just because they’re so dang bad that we can’t wait to see what else they’ll do. How difficult will they make it for the hero/heroine to get together? Will they really kill Our Hero? (although, in recent days I’ve been irritated the villains have plenty of time to kill the hero but they waste it by talking about how they’ll kill them. Just do it already!) But that’s a post for another day…

When I first dabbled in romance writing, I was still a fresh-faced, bright eyed kid in school, content to entertain my fellow students with my scribbles in many, many notebooks. I had a creative writing teacher in high school who once said “Your hero is only as good as your villain.” Back then, I was like sure, whatever, villains can’t be good—that’s why they’re villains not heroes. But later on as my writing evolved and I learned I didn’t know all I thought I knew back then, those words returned to me.

And what is more? That teacher was right.

You see, a hero can’t stand on his own. He needs someone bigger and badder than he to create conflict, add drama, and be an all-around pain in the butt so the reader wants the bad guy vanquished and the hero to prevail. On the other side of the coin, a villain can’t exist without the good guy, otherwise, all his oozing underhandedness has nowhere to go. Sure, the villain has minions, but minions have agendas of their own and they’re a dime a dozen to a really good villain.

So, the better you write the villain, the better your hero will look when he defeats the supreme pain. Whether the Ultimate Problem in your novel is a demon lord, a mad scientist, a thwarted lover, or a mentally deranged killer, it doesn’t matter. These people have one goal: to stop your hero from reaching his HEA. The more roadblocks the Ultimate Problem creates, the more the reader will root for the hero.

Why?

Because every one of us has an Ultimate Problem to deal with in our own lives. Annoying relatives, delinquent mortgages, crappy job, broken-down car, sickness, bullies, whatever it is, you can bet it needs vanquishing. The stakes are high and will probably rise higher, but when the rubber meets the road, we are the heroes in our own tales and we will beat the Ultimate Problem—our villain. There is no other option. Do it or die. Fight and die free.

Readers aren’t stupid and neither are authors. When we write, we pour our heart and soul into the story. We’re wordsmiths, story-tellers, and anthropologists, but we also infuse the books with a little truth. The villain in a story can always represent whatever is going on in the author or reader’s life, and we always want the hero—the author or reader—to win. We quest for the happily ever after that sometimes we don’t have in our own lives but we want desperately.

And if reading books can make us braver, even for a tiny minute, then more power to all of us. So, ladies and gentlemen, feel free to take up your imaginary sword and slay that make-believe dragon. Empower yourself with the fantasy and maybe, just maybe, the villains in our real life won’t seem so scary after all.

Thanks for reading! Hope to see you back here next Wednesday.