How do I write a lovable villain?

Question

I'm not sure if it's possible but I'm trying to create a villain that is likable and relatable to the audience before the audience realises he's the villain. The story is written from the villains perspective.

Answer 1

Well, what is a "likeable villain", anyway? A likeable villain is a fictional character whose behavior, personality, and values the audience can identify with and appreciates, but whose goals are opposed to that of the protagonist and whose methods are "villainous" and which the audience will dislike or even abhor.

1

So, one version of a likeable villain is a person who is a good person, kind to the weak, loyal to his or her friends, and who attempts to do something that the audience perceives as good and worthwhile. Only through circumstances is the likeable villain forced to adopt villainous methods.

Many Robin-Hood-type heroes (and real world organisations) are basically likeable villains.

2

Another option is to have a truly villainous person who in the beginning of the story only pretends to be good and likeable but the protagonist later discovers their true evil nature. This villain is likeable and relatable to the audience only as long as he or she keeps up their pretense and will become unlikeable as soon as their lies are revealed.

But even a bad person can be relatable to the audience, because we all have immoral and "bad" urges and tendencies (such as greed, envy, hate etc.), so if you create a character that isn't purely evil but show their development from a normal beginning towards their present villainy in a believable manner, then even an unlikeable villain can remain relatable for the audience.

Many villains (in fiction and the real world) are quite relatable once you try and understand their history and motives. It is only the fact that we are their victims or opposed to their goals that they become villains in our eyes.

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TV Tropes has a page on the likeable villain that lists subtropes of this supertrope. On each page for each subtrope is a detailed description of the characteristics of that subtrope as well as a list of examples from different media.