[sindohte]

So what goes into making an effective evil character? And when I say evil, I mean someone who according to the American Heritage dictionary is - "morally bad or wrong; wicked." In the course of your reading and/or writing of fanfic or literature in general, what have you seen that has worked? And more importantly, what has not worked? Imho fanfic is plagued by Evil Bastard caricatures instead of well rounded characters whose motives are at odds with the motives of the hero.

[SpaceWeavil]

Personally I like ambiguous villains - ones who might not seem wholly bad all the time. I like evil characters who have odd sides to their nature, maybe something tragic or even likeable, like perhaps there might be some hope of their redemption. Even if, in the end, they give in to the 'evilness' I still find that sort of character interesting. Also sometimes I like villains who might not be 'morally wrong' as such but, as you said, are just at odds with what the hero wants to do, so that, as a reader, I'm in a quandry as to whom I should want to win. Maybe that is just my weirdness

One big factor for me though is to avoid 'pantomime' villains, bad guys who ought to be twirling their moustache and tying young damsels to the railway line just as the 9:34 from Paddington is due. I much prefer bad guys with proper motivation and reasons behind the awful things they do.

Sometimes a kind of 'camp' theatrical villain can be well done, after all that, if it's done in a sort of semi-humourous way. Sometimes you can actually enjoy someone who is just sooo evil.

I am just kind of rambling out thoughts as they come to me here, so I hope something in amongst that lot is of use

[DarkElfChilde]

I like it when evil characters are unique, let me give you an example...my character, he's an elf, (you don't see happy go lucky elves that are like him anywhere) and he's "evil"- his alignment is considered evil but he's just 'mentally ill' you can say that because of everything that happened to him- He snapped basically; it's a long story why he is what he is so I'll save all of you from all the details. Mwhahaah! He's definately a different character that I have ever created- took me 5 years to get him just right. No one in the story is the hero, and you can't tell who's the true bad guy and who's not until the end of the series. Once I get my site back up...anyone can go there and read about him, and read the horror series that I'm working on. if you like twisted horror stories, then you'll like this one. I'm going to stop before I babble on some more...lalalalalala -wanders off-

Your friendly elf,

DarkElfChilde

[sindohte]

Morally ambiguous characters do make for the most interesting villains. The way I see it, people simply do not wake up one morning and say, "Hey I think I will become evil today." Instead it tends to be a slow descent into evil through a series of seemingly inocuous choices. It is a more difficult task for an author to write a story where the reader connects in same way with the villain, than it is to write a story where the reader loathes the bad guy.

[Jomitsui]

I've read alot of different evil characters and there is one group of writers that wrote them very well. They are known as 'Clamp', manga(japanese comics) artists.

Characteristics...are they kill without finching, smiling while they take away lives, play with their preys. They don't care abt who or what they destroy as long as they got what they want...even if it means destroying themselves too. What make them unforgetable is that there is always a reason which makes it impossible to hate them...even when they kill the good characters. You may not even blame them when they kill you.

Their series that contain unforgettable evil characters are "RGVeda", "Tokyo Babylon", "RayEarth", "X1999" and many more. "RGVeda" is the most unforgettable...as the reason behind it is the most undenialble. More than half of the characters died but you can't say that it is a sad ending too...nor happy.

Quote from RGVeda
"It's very strange to bear a forbidden name. His ears are pointed. His eyes are golden, and his features are typical of theAshura clan.The blood of the ruling family flows in his veins.

Hey, Yasha, such carelessness. You're playing today with the child that will kill you tomorrow."