: Re: Sympathy for a villain I have a villain. The villain is the hero of their own story. The villain starts off as good, looking to overthrow a monstrous leader. They were once in the same shoes

@Marchetta100

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You don't need to do much to make a reader sympathize with a villain. As you said, a reader doesn't have to like or agree with the villain, and in most cases they really shouldn't. However, a reader should be able to put themselves in that antagonist's shoes and see why they think the way they do, and why they have the mindset they do and make the choices they make. This is the key to creating believable villains that the reader will connect with and understand, despite not actually agreeing with their goals and their (usually horrible) actions towards the protagonists and others.

Great ways that I have found to make a villain more sympathetic and believable, while still keeping them "evil" enough:

Give the villain a backstory that shows where their dark side comes from. Perhaps they are cruel and hateful towards others because other people in their life have been cruel to them, and they have never learned any different. Perhaps they were brought up in poverty and needed to do terrible things to survive. Maybe their close friend or spouse fell ill and they turned to dark arts in desperation to save that person's life, but those arts slowly corrupted them. Whatever it is, give them something to show why they became this way and make them more sympathetic to the reader.
Give them a personality beyond just "being evil." A personable, charming, charismatic villain is sympathetic even while they perform horrible acts, and even small character traits beyond "evilness" go a long way to making sympathetic villains. A great example is Gollum from the Hobbit, who was corrupted by the One Ring's darkness but still retains flickers of his old personality and kindness he once had, making him sympathetic.

"Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo's knee." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Have a character whom the villain shares their thoughts with or confides in, to shed light on how they think. This could be a foil to the villain, or a captured protagonist whom the villain debates philosophy with, revealing layers of their character. An example is the imprisoned soothsayer from Kung Fu Panda 2, with whom the antagonist, Shen, debates the morality of his actions and thus illustrates why, under the cool facade he presents to the protagonists, he really wants to conquer China.

Soothsayer: Are you certain it is the panda who is the fool? You just destroyed your ancestral home, Shen.
Shen: A trivial sacrifice, when all of China is my reward.
Soothsayer: Then will you finally be satisfied? Will the subjugation of the whole world finally make you feel better? ...It is time to stop this madness... So your parents can rest in peace.
Shen: My parents... hated me.

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