Does the villain make or break your book?

[Imowen]

I've been told this many of times. In my opinion I find it about as real as a democrat telling the truth. You can make a bad ass villain and still have a weak story. On the other hand I have been told main character makes the story. Emphasis on the challenges the character faces and over comes. From working on my work, I feel that both character(s) and antagonist have to be almost equal to strength and weakness in order to make almost real characters.
But the trick is getting it to work, keeping the readers locked in and have the readers guessing when they turn the pages.
To clarify make the main character a villain without the reading really looking at the vileness in his heart.Your thoughts?

[Lily]

Imowen, I don't mind your topic, it's a decent question, but I would appreciate it if you would consider the fact we have 1500+ members from all walks of life, all political stripes, all races, and from all over the world.

For anyone who descides to answer this question, please refrain from any political debates and just focus on the question only, thank you.

[Courtney]

Yeah, I don't think that's an appropriate analogy for a public group just as I'm pretty sure anyone is capable of lying.

In respects to your question - I think a hero is only as worthy as the villain and vice versa.

[Kimberly]

I would have to agree with Courtney, I would love to read a novel with the villain as the main character.

On a side note I feel like a villain is the icing on the cake. A cake is even better with badass icing

[Courtney]

I think an interesting, dynamic villain is an indicator of an author's talent, though. Heroes have the luxury of being moral paragons and pillars - traits that are easily relatable and commendable. Villains can't be conveniently evil without being contrived to the reader.

They need motives and meaning behind everything because a villain can't get away with being evil for evil's sake like a hero can be good for the sake of good. Essentially heroes only exist because villains exist. They would just be people if there wasn't a threat to rise against.

Villains are inherently proactive. They generate conflict the hero reacts to. That's a lot of demand and it's a challenge writers have to rise to.

[Lily]

A villain is just one typ of antagonists. It could be a villain, an anti-hero, an evil twin, or a house pet. It could be anyone or anything.

There always has to be an antagonist to a protagonist, in one form or another. Something that stands in the protagonist's way. Without an antagonist, there's no conflicts, the story doesn't have a plot, and no one wants to read a story without a plot.

So, considering that, I feel it's safe to say that an antagonists isn't optional.

[Courtney]

Oh yeah - antagonists are a creature all their own with much more leeway than villains. Like a rival sports team are antagonists in a story - not automatically bad people or even jerks, just people who are in the way of the protagonists' goals.

[Renee E]

Ah, but sometimes the antagonist is within the protagonist: the protagonist striving to overcome his baser nature, to become the Hero.

So, a villain won't make or break your story, unless the villain is a weak link. For the story to succeed, it's ALL got to be well wrought.

[Lily]

Exactly Renee, the posibilities are endless. Which why it's so important to fully develop all characters, including villains.

Courtney, an antagonist is just the literary umbrella term for all kinds of baddies ;)

[Courtney]

I wouldn't recommend any character aside from extras and backdrop fodder being less than three-dimensional and more than just functional. Like even the check out girl has hopes and dreams just as the bellhop has a personality and drama outside work.

[Lily]

Agreed. I'll spend weels fully developing a character who ends up having one line in one scene in the whole story. I gotta know all my characters.

[Richard]

Make. the villain is always the most interesting character. How could they not be? They represent our basest instincts. the best of them are pure id.

[Courtney]

LOL I'm actually driving myself up a wall coming up with signature weapons for my villains. I'm going to have them chucking bricks and pillow sacks stuffed with doorknobs soon :D

[Renee E]

Courtney wrote: "LOL I'm actually driving myself up a wall coming up with signature weapons for my villains. I'm going to have them chucking bricks and pillow sacks stuffed with doorknobs soon :D"

Have you considered the Illudium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator?

[Courtney]

That was actually the first one I assigned right after a rusty chain with a padlock pummel ;)

[Jason]

I love a good villain even more than a strong protagonist. I want a villain part of me secretly wants to see succeed or one that is so damn bad even I can't cheer for him or her or it.

[Lyra]

I'm a big fan of villain point of view, where they are shown as real people with real dimension. Sure, they may be delusional and downright cruel, but WHY they are and what got them there matters! My role model would be Shakespeare. His villains are usually full of dimension, and you get the sense they are real. Black and white villains with little backstory bore the hell out of me, so I never want to write (or read) one that doesn't stand out as complex. The more complex they are, the more interesting.

I wouldn't say that the entire story depends on an interesting villain, but it definitely helps.

[Justin]

I would say they should be as important as the main character or protagonist. I know for my book, I tend to at times favor the villain Javier "Bones" Jones, maybe because his portrayal is easier to grasp whereas I make my main character mysterious and have the reader judge for themselves. I think a villain can really put a story forward if done right. From a comic perspective and to quote Mr. Glass, "you know how you can tell who the villain is going to be? he's always the exact opposite of the hero".

[Lily]

It's like a math equation. At the start of a story...

Hero: 5 minus Villain: 5 equals 0.

Omg who's going to win at the end?

[Quentin]

As some people have stated earlier, the best villains are the ones that think they are the good guy. It's all about the motivation.

[Michael]

If you skimp out on either or, then the story becomes boring. even if it's fantastically written hero and sub plots and such, it would be boring without a well written villain.
at least that' my thoughts

[Renee E]

I've always been caught by the conflict of the good guy whose conflict is internal, that inner villain.

We've all got it.

[Eric]

As I understand it, the expression is "the villain makes the plot"...and in the literal sense the antagonist does precisely that.

At the foundation of any story lies a conflict, and the villain is the one who starts the conflict rolling. If you think about it, the hero of most plots spends a goodly amount of the story reacting to the villain's actions. It is only near the end where the hero or heroes begin proactively defeating the villain.

In the general sense, the villain creates the context in which the hero gets to be heroic. Its fair to say that without villainy there would be no need for heroism.

With that in mind, having a compelling villain who creates an interesting conflict is a crucial element in a story. Can an author screw other elements up and make a book suck? Sure, there are all sorts of ways to fail. But having a good, solid, three-dimensional villain with a scheme that makes sense and motives that the audience can almost identify with is most important. Sure you can fail with a good villain. But I doubt an author could succeed without one.

[Amber]

I like books in which the antagonist is not purely vile and villainous. A favorite series, the Amsterdam Assassin Series, has--obviously--an assassin as the protagonist, not the villain; and in two of the books the antagonist is another strong female character who works in law enforcement. In a more typical suspense/thriller model the roles would be reversed. No one is exactly a villain, and it works.Reprobate: A Katla Novel
Rogue: A Katla novel
I think the series does make the reader aware of his or her shadow side in a subtle way.