Villians

At the black end of the character spectrum, you have the villain.



Okay, so the Hero has his Best Friend, his Lover, his Mentor, and maybe an Antihero tagging along on a Grand Journey.


So, who brought them together and made them a team?  Who ruined the world and needs them to fix it?  Who gave them a purpose to be bigger than themselves in their world?  Who game them something to do! for crying out loud?


That's right.  The villian.

Who's my favorite villian?  That's a tough one.


A good villian I can think of would be Keeper from Entwined by Heather Dixon.  (I have a review of her book here.)


He's charming, debonair, dashing.  You know the type.  About as seductive as a Regency Rake.  I think he was even described as good looking.  Or perhaps striking or handsome was used?  (Someone's borrowing the book, so I can't check.)  No matter, our heroine liked him, or at least saw that he was good for something.


But he was also manipulative, sadistic, and a thief.


For a villian, I think he was well done.


*cue pyscho music*


I never like villians.  They're villians, after all.  But I love what they do.  Without them, the world would be really boring.


Villians, the presence of conflict, make our heroes heroes.  If not for villians, our heroes would still be farmboys, poor saps, and pathetic.


Thank your villians.  Without them, there's no story.