When setting up an antagonist for your story, you can pull from various types of villain. There are a number of tried-and-tested tropes and archetypes to look to for inspiration. In this post I’m going to cover some of the most common ones! We’ll also look a little at how to choose, if you can’t decide which one you want to go for.
Types of villain
The monster
This might be a literal monster, or a person with no apparent hesitancy around evildoing. This is a villain who can’t be reasoned or worked with, there’s no room for common ground. The monster just wants to destroy the hero. The monster can make for a menacing opponent for your hero, precisely because it’s not a force you can understand.
The machine
With this type of villain, it’s not personal! The machine is just executing its programming. It can’t feel pain, or empathy. Maybe it’s malfunctioning, or its programming is flawed in a way that has resulted in it becoming evil. Or maybe it was programmed to oppose the protagonist in some way. It’s similar to the monster, but there’s something particularly intimidating about facing off against an enemy with no feelings whatsoever.
The Bully
The bully is mean for the sake of being mean. Maybe there’s a backstory that explains why the bully is so needlessly cruel. Whether they were picked on themselves, or hurt somehow in their history, a sympathetic backstory can redeem a bully. Or at least give them a little more complexity. Alternatively, the bully might just be… kind of a dick? The bully isn’t one of the more sinister types of villain, but their everyday nature can also make them a better fit for certain genres or styles of story.
Evil Itself
This type of villain is literally evil incarnate. It might be disembodied – a dark force sweeping the land – or it might take the form of a person. This kind of villain doesn’t necessarily need any real backstory, or much in the way of characterisation. They probably don’t have a personal interest in the story’s hero, except insofar as they’re standing in the way of evil taking over the world. Or whatever it is that pure evil wants.
The Sympathetic Villain
This might be a villain who believes themselves to be the hero. To some groups of people in the story, maybe they even are the hero! They have good reasons for the things they’re doing, or at least reasons that make sense. They might even feel bad about the lengths they have to go to. Although, naturally, they believe the ends justify the means.
How can you choose the type of antagonist you want in your story?
Possibly the most important thing to bear in mind when writing a villain is how they play out with your protagonist. A compelling villain is great, and important, but they’re most useful in your story when paired in an interesting way with your main character.
Do they represent an ideal that your main character aspires to in some way? Does their primary strength match up with your protagonist’s greatest weakness? Or is their weakness something the protagonist also has to learn to defeat in themselves?
What is your favourite type of villain?
Your favourite to read, or your favourite to write! And let me know if I missed off a type of villain that you particularly enjoy.
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