A lot of novels/movies make their villains powerful enough or in some cases, much more powerful than the hero himself, yet the villains somehow end up being beaten to death.
Ever since I saw the movie megamind, I have been thinking a lot about villains. Well, to be honest, I always felt villains are better thinkers, better attackers and better in all possible ways than the hero; still authors (mostly) end up killing them. So, what goes wrong? Why do villains fail?
Putting on my evil hat let me present to you some flaws I found.
Flaw number 1 : Villains always leave trails.
Whenever the villain commits a crime or something bad, he leaves certain subtle insinuations that make the hero or in most cases the supporting hero suspicious. Surprisingly, the hero’s assistant or sidekick sees those trails, interprets those simple hints incorrectly, making a hero, THE hero!
If the villain would forget such dumb mistakes, he could actually come out as the winner.
Flaw number 2 is more illogical. villain always go after the hero’s girlfriend.
Yes, that reminds me to state it clearly that the hero always gets the prettiest girl of the lot and the villain starts lusting after her. Common man! There are other fish in the sea. Go get one. Also, it’s puzzling the hero almost always saves her or hero’s sidekick end up dying trying to save the girl.
Third flaw would be, even if the villain, is succeeding in all his plans, he ends up telling his cruel methods to the hero somehow, which ultimately proves fatal for him.
Well, in this case the saying “Don’t count the chickens before eggs hatch” stands true. First let the plan execute then tell him that you won, that it was the work of your mastermind. It’s absolutely ridiculous how the villain is so confident of his future and ends up gossiping everything.
Fourth flaw would be, villains are mostly dependent on machines or wingmen.
The author first shows him to be the most powerful person on this planet and as the book/movie unfolds he ends up surrounded by bodyguards and men with guns. Act like a proper villain who can beat the heck out of any hero. Also, what’s with the taglines a villain ask to follow or their signature movements, like hail mogambo, shakal moving his hand over his bald head, or saara shehar mujhe LION k naam se janta h….and of course, AAaooooo!!
Fifth flaw, mostly villains are normal in their childhood and then something bad happens that transforms them.
An old ideology. The sufferings make them tougher and vengeance grows in their mind along with biceps. But, ironically if a person is evil from his childhood itself, circumstances never make him better.
Sixth flaw would be Villain’s avarice for money is insatiable.
Villains love money. They can’t get enough of it. Even if they have looted thousands of banks still they would go for another one hoping to be a tad richer. I say, get enough and run away. Be satisfied. Leave some for hero, and get the hell out of there.
Seventh, well, I absolutely hate this one, The villain “laugh”.
huhuhaha.. or muhahaha .. it just shows immaturity. Also the smirk villains possess shows how overconfident they are. And this laugh has existed for centuries, for instance ravan, kansa etc.
P.S : The article is the creation of the darker side of me and was written for fun. I like heroes and I wish heroes only win in the end. If you wish to improve villains and have some ideas, do comment.
you missed out a major point! when there is a chance to kill the hero...he should bloody get him killed!! but nooo he thinks playing with the hero is way too much fun... and insists on killing him later(length of the movie) himself!
ReplyDeletebut true...its a good villain and not a good hero that makes a good movie!