: Re: How to avoid the villain being a caricature I am on draft 4 of my story now, and many things are hanging together well. As a result, lesser items are coming into sharper focus. I need to

@Nimeshi163

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I am not sure if this helps, but I found this YouTube video a while back and it made sense to me. It's more about comic book (super)villains, but it talks about a lot of the choices you need to make in creating a believable villain, so perhaps it'll be up your alley.

The video can be summarized as follows:

First, and foremost, it makes the point that the most compelling villains are righting a perceived wrong, from their viewpoint. This concept is illustrated with the villain Zod (Superman). Zod fails as a two dimensional villain, and is sometimes portrayed that way. But he succeeds as a villain in versions where his villainy is borne from trying to save humanity from itself. Zod sees the worst in humanity: War, suffering, domination of others, and so on, and wishes to prevent those things. The audience comes to understand his motivations.

Of particular note, Superman is a more compelling hero under this construction, because it is precisely his ability to see the good in humanity - Hope, love, trust - that drives his motivations. Thus, the main point from the video is that a three dimensional villain is driven by a perspective in which his actions are for good. Ultimately, the video says, villains succeed when they are about the conflict that is within us.

A second point of the video is that some literary forms, such as comic books, often rely on a villain remaining unchanged. The Joker is generally the Joker every time Batman meets him. In franchises (e.g. Marvel Universe) it may serve a purpose to have villains that are two dimensional, because the audience is paying for a particular experience. Loki is not changing much, for example. This idea was not the main message of the video, but does provide fodder for thinking about the various types of villains.

A third useful feature of the video is the sheer number of examples flashed through, that exemplify the two points above. The video primarily describes Zod, but the lessons apply to other villains as well.

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