Character 201: Villainy and Honour
Greetings and scumble! Nah, I don’t need softening! But a brush can feel nice! Today is another joint one with Lady Verbosa! Which, like Lord Kelvin in another time prior, is, in her case, Anne Winchell!
What is a Villain?
(Anne:) The role of the villain is a complex one in writing. It’s often associated with being an antagonist, but it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of stories told from the perspective of the villain, and one of the things that allows the audience to identify with them is the use of lines, which we’ll define after exploring villainy. Good villains have lines, but as you’re probably aware, not all villains are the same. That means having a line isn’t in the definition of a villain, but it is in the definition of a certain type of villain.
So what exactly is a villain, in the broadest sense?
A villain is a character whose morality opposes the morality of the world of the story and who opposes or prevents the advancement of the character whose morality does match that world.
What do you think, Vivian?
(Vivian:) I think that pretty much nails it. A lot of bad villains are just EVIL! But you can have fun with that too if you do things well.
(Anne:) We’re going to zero in on villains with lines, and we’re going to start by explaining some of the roles that they play in the story. The distinction between the narrative and moral roles of a character was introduced in Vivian’s blog on corruption as Narrative Characters and Morality Characters, and we’re going to expand on that quite a bit, using the slightly different terminology of using Narrative and Morality to describe the character’s role in the story as opposed to the character themselves, because the same character will have both a narrative and moral role in a story.
Narrative role
(Anne:) The narrative role of a character is, well, the role they play in the narrative. Basically, what is their relationship to the conflict driving the story? With villains, it can seem tricky, because they oppose whoever or whatever the Hero character is, but you have to look at who the Protagonist is.
A protagonist is the character who moves the conflict towards resolution, and an antagonist is a character who, consciously or unconsciously, prevents or slows that resolution. The trick is that your Villain can be either!
Whether a protagonist or antagonist, your Villain should be working to prevent a “good” resolution (see below for the moral role), but if your Villain is the protagonist, they should have their own resolution that they’re trying to achieve, even if the audience doesn’t exactly agree with that resolution (they might, they might not, depends on the resolution!). And if your Villain is the antagonist, they usually also have their own resolution, but the story is positioned so that their resolution is undesirable to the audience for narrative reasons, not just moral reasons.
I’ve mentioned morality a couple of times here, so I’ll let Vivian take over and describe a Villain’s moral role.
Moral role
(Vivian:) Life can be tough; it can be REALLY tough and rough. And things can get worse or better, and people can be absolutely horrible. You can have settings where there really is no good guy because everyone has to be awful just to survive… and then you have the villainous Villain villaining villainly. They are so horribly morally bad compared to the rest that they give a definite “Oh yeah, at least the others are not THAT bad.”
So a Villain can serve to make the protags less repugnant morally. A Villain often sets a, if not the, lower bound of morality in some sense for people to compare other characters to and feel that less morally acceptable choices are… okay, enough.
What is a Line?
(Anne:) So we’ve got a morally reprehensible person with a resolution in mind that people might object to morally… Why does it matter whether or not they have a line? And for that matter, what is a line?
(Vivian:) You know how it is said that everyone has a price? Well, it is because given enough, virtually everyone will cave in and do what is asked to get what is offered. Now, what does that have to do with this? That is most people, and there is a line there where they are ready to do something, but here we are going the opposite direction!
A line that they refuse for some reason to cross. Sure, murder is fine, business as usual, but letting innocent pets get harmed in the crossfire!? Now that is unacceptable! Maybe it is because the villain is a pet lover. Or maybe they refuse to do rape, which most avoid anyway because narratively it is absolutely horribly used in most stories. Though this is one of the times when a line, or at least hints of it, can serve a good purpose, namely establishing there is A line.
The line can be almost anything, and the villain will not under any circumstances violate it no matter how badly it goes or the opportunity presents itself.
Why do characters need lines?
(Anne:) As you can see, lines are pretty important! They say a lot about the world and character both in the Villain themselves and in people’s reactions to them. Having your Villain have at least one line can do all sorts of things for your story! We’ve broken it down into the main ones here so that you can see exactly why it’s a good thing for your Villain to have a concrete limit to their Villainy no matter what else they’re willing to do.
Help humanise and increase empathy
(Vivian:) We all know the kick the dog trope. It is meant to establish someone as inherently evil by them doing immoral acts just for the pleasure of it and gain nothing else. It is a great way to show someone being evil, but is that ALL they are? Alright, some Villains can be like this, like AKU!
Not every Villain can be the Shogun of Sorrow, Deliverer of Darkness! Now having a line, unlike AKU!, establishes the very opposite. A line serves the purpose, at least partially, to humanise and empathise with the Villain. The picture at the beginning of this section was not for no reason!
This line means that there is a shred of humanity left in them; they are not a heartless monster of pure evil that only wants bad for people. There is still a tiny itty bitty amount of good in them that they refuse to let anything and anyone crush. Think of it like the hope in Pandora’s box!
This helps people empathise with the Villain and can even start cheering for them because while they do evil things, they become a lot more relatable and fun. How many of you have not watched a series with a villain, and they never tell a lie and always keep their word? Now, why would they do that? Many reasons, but that makes them infinitely more interesting on an emotional level and… I think actually Anne can do the next bit of this example.
Help drive conflict and heighten stakes
(Anne:) Thanks, Vivian! It’s always interesting how turning those lines into weaknesses can advance the plot and increase the stakes, and even be turned to your Villain’s advantage! In stories, you want your Villains to be as powerful as possible. After all, the stronger the Villain, the stronger the Hero if/when they defeat them! So in many ways, Villains often have access to more resources and power than the Heros. This can be dangerous and lead to them being overpowered at times, but having a firm line in the sand, so to speak, gives that power a hard limit. They have all the power in the world, perhaps, but there’s one thing they would never do with it. And it’s your job as the author to make sure they have to face that challenge.
Whether the Villain is your protagonist or antagonist, a good story will force them to face that line head on. After all, that’s where the conflict is! Those are the highest stakes possible! The fate of the Villain’s resolution hinges on this line: whether they cross it, whether they skirt it, whether they make it their line and refuse to engage. Telling a lie might get an honest Villain out of trouble or even save their life, but if this Villain’s sense of identity and humanity rests on their refusal to tell a lie, how far will they go to preserve that line?
This can be a great way to make the audience care about the character and story because the audience knows this is their line (or should, if the story is well-written) and knows that failure to cross their line will result in utter failure. But the Villain should not cross that line. If your Villain never lies, you do not want them to lie at the climax of the story when everything rests on that one decision.
How will the story resolve? Well, the audience might respect their decision to hold the line and, in the case of Vivian’s honest Villain, refuse to lie, and if the Villain is defeated, the audience is sympathetic. Maybe they were terrible, maybe it’s good that they were defeated, but they were honourable in their defeat, and that alone is worthy of respect.
If the Villain holds the line and wins, the audience cheers, no matter how awful the resolution. Sure, the world might now be an apocalyptic hellscape under the rule of a tyrannical despot, but that despot has that bare minimum morality that earns respect. They might be terrible, but the audience identifies with their struggle and respects their decisions. In a very, very small way, they have become a Hero in that they have a morality and cling to it.
If they cross that line, though, that destroys the conflict and turns your Villain into an amorphous blob of evil. The Villain has no identity anymore. Before, they were someone who never lied, in our ongoing example. But if they lie at that critical moment, it reveals that their honesty wasn’t a character feature, it was just coincidence that they never needed to lie before. If that’s what you’re going for, great. If not, well, crossing the line destroys a lot more than the plot.
Help define the story’s world
(Vivian:) Well, this is my blog, so of course it has to be about the world as well! I explained above how villains can set a lowest bar for your world that people stay above, and that is what makes them good despite it being a dystopian hellhole a la Warhammer 40k, which I do love, or, you know, anything Anne writes. 😛
But a line that even the worst of the worst villains refuses to sink to shows that some shit remains so awful even in this awful world that it is still too bad for someone so horrible to do. Even evil has standards sometimes! And what that standard is depends on the world.
Another way to think about it when it comes to the world is that it helps establish a scale of good and evil in the world. Many children's books and series for example have a very low barrier for what is “evil” and what is “good”, which fits, given that the perceptual scale of children is very small. But you can use the same technique in your world: if the most evil will not do certain things, that means that the scale of good shifts as well. For example, if evil will not kill, then a character like Batman is not particularly good but starts looking pretty bad, after all, he beat the baddies just as much as the baddies beat! It is like I have said many times: people judge things by comparisons, not by absolutes.
Help shine a light on our world
(Anne:) So that’s a bunch about the character and story and world and yeah yeah that story stuff, but what about the author? Well, a lot of times authors will use lines to make a point about morality in the real world. Now, Vivian and I will write a post at a later date about how to make a point in your stories without coming across as preachy, and one way to do that is to have these lines.
If you’re trying to say people are terrible scumbags and the world is doomed no matter what, then the line is going to be pretty minimal. But even the worst of the worst will have some line, and authors can use that to make a point about humanity itself and what humans will protect even when everything else is lost.
If the author is a bit more hopeful, like Vivian and, despite Vivian’s possible objections, like me, then the line is a bit higher, and it’s used to show values. If even the villain won’t cross a line, then it’s clearly important! And if you’re an author wanting to make a point about humans or morality, that’s a great way to do it.
Say you’re a writer who deeply believes that honesty is a virtue and wants to write a story about how honesty is great. You can have your characters talk about how wonderful honesty is or compliment each other's honesty, but that’s pretty preachy. A better way to do it is to have a Villain who, no matter what, refuses to lie, just like our Villain from previous examples. The author doesn’t have to say a single thing about honesty, doesn’t have to point it out, nothing. They just have to draw that line, then have the story hinge on it in some way and have the Villain stick to their guns despite their potential failure. Enough said.
Any point about morality the author is trying to make can work like this. The more subtle it is, the more likely it is to be impactful. Want to show the importance of family? This Villain will massacre continents without a second thought, but put his family in harm’s way, and they will do anything and everything to save them, even if it’s teaming up with the Hero, even if it’s acknowledging defeat. Again, if you want to demonstrate the importance of some element of morality, just make it the Villain’s line and say no more.
How are lines shown?
(Vivian:) Just draw it in the sand! Or with a paintbrush and paint, or finger paint! 😛 Jokes aside, as anyone who reads these, or knows us, knows, we are not fans of on-the-nose garbage. “My line is X” is not dialogue worth a bloody damn and is just terrible writing. Anne has already somewhat gone into this, but I will go into it yet another time and fill it out more.
There is a classical example which only kind of fits here, but let me grab it.
Sure, it is used as a joke, but it is a line the Joker will not cross. Tax evasion! The motive is fairly selfish because the IRS will come for you no matter what, but you know, it’s still a line! The reason I brought it is that you can have henchmen and minions or others tell the Villain to do something, and they tell them not to. The scene can continue with them pushing for it, and the Villain reacting in a less than pleasant manner for the minions.
Another alternative to this, for the Villain, is that the minions have already gone past the line of the Villain, and show how the Villain reacts to someone of their own minions transgressing the line. This can be quite illuminating because you can have the line being what many will call fairly mundane, and then punish the minion by doing things much worse.
Another alternative is during a fight, battle, or anything, the Villain stands before a great choice. Namely he can cross the line and get something they want immediately, as Villains are generally not known for their long perspective, or maintain the line and get what they want at a later time. When they chose to not violate the line it once again illustrates so much. How this is done can be quite revealing for the Villain; namely, how they react will show how much they value both things before making the choice. After all, we all know how much people hesitate when things they value highly are both at stake and there is only one to pick, a phenomenon absent if the value between the choices is widely different.
The biggest and most final way to show it is, well, if they chose to stop their villainy. There comes a point where the choice is either give up the line or stop being a Villain, and they can make this final choice. This one is rather rare to actually find in a lot of fiction because it kind of kills the Villain in a way and thus cannot be used anymore, and writers, especially in series, want to be able to reuse them. But this can be good for redemption arcs. Do we have a post about redemption arcs and how they are overdone on the list yet, Anne?
(Anne:) We’ll definitely get to redemption arcs in a post eventually, as I’m a sucker for them. One other thing this final strategy can be successfully used for with the ability to keep the character in the story is to use one of my favourite character types: the Villain who becomes a Hero (or at least Neutral).
Throughout most of the story, they oppose your Hero and your protagonist, but eventually someone so much more evil comes along who threatens the Villain’s line, and they’re willing to side with the Hero to stop that Ultimate Villain. Is it a permanent shift, or just a temporary alliance? Depends. Maybe you’ll get a redemption arc where the Villain’s line saves them from falling into pure evil. Or maybe they’re just making a cold calculation that they can use the Hero for their purposes right now and possibly even use the opportunity to sow the seeds of the Hero’s downfall while the Hero believes they’re helping. So many options, and I love when this happens.
What does this mean for creators?
(Anne:) Basically, unless you’re going for a Villain who is absolute utter evil incarnate, you want to have a line. We explained several reasons above, and a Villain’s line just improves a story so much and makes it so much more interesting. Absolute evil can be done well, but it’s hard to develop a unique character like that. Lines make your characters interesting. Interesting characters make good worlds and good stories.
As you develop your Villains, whether protagonists or antagonists, think about what they absolutely would not do under any circumstances. Now, this is not exclusive to Villains! You want to figure out what lines your Heroes have, and really any characters who get any type of development. The difference is that Villains tend to have only a couple of lines, maybe even just one, and they can and will do everything else that opposes the morality of the world. Heroes tend to have far more lines, but pitting them against their lines and tempting them is also great storytelling. So think broadly about lines.
(Vivian:) Another thing to think about when it comes to lines is that while authors and their views are distinct from the work that they write, having a recurring line helps solidify a position that the writer themselves holds. Sure, when you write about genocide, it doesn’t tell that you’re a genocidal maniac–though you might be–but when it comes to more everyday stuff, it can help the author’s image. Though one should never be afraid to write things that are horrible or that look bad just because some people are too stupid to understand that writing and believing are two different things.
(Anne:) Lines can actually really help you if you’re worried people will judge you because of what you write. Where do you draw that line between acceptable and unacceptable? That gives the baseline of absolutes, as Vivian discussed earlier, and more clearly reveals the morality of your world that you are creating.
Summa Summarum
(Anne:) The main point we want to make is that you can’t forget the Villain in this. Generally speaking, interesting Villains have lines. We’ve talked about some fairly generic lines in this post–although they’re still excellent to use!–but you can be extremely creative with your lines. I have a Villain who will do anything if it brings her entertainment, but that’s her line: does it amuse her? If not, she’s not interested. Sometimes she makes “moral” choices as a result, sometimes people around her die. She doesn’t care about any of that. This is an interesting line, and you can do a lot with your lines as well. Be creative! How will your lines show your character, your world, and you yourself?
(Vivian:) Yepp, those can be interesting lines. I have a Villain in my currently shelved story who has absolutely no qualms about billions dying because of her actions, she wants them to do it to, uh.. tenderise the people. But she has lines, some of which are not explored in the book, but one shown is that she doesn’t leave people behind who are under her.
So make certain to have some lines that they will not cross; it helps villains be better people and more interesting, exactly as Anne said. But as the last one on this post, I get all the credit. Muhahaha! Good luck with your villainy, readers!
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Copyright ©️ 2024 Vivian Sayan and Anne Winchell. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as Villains and lines are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific ideas such as the characters from Anne or Vivian’s story and all language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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