# The typical villainous mistakes



## Saigonnus (May 13, 2012)

Hey everyone, just curious as to what you think the most common mistakes are that villains in literature or movies make? I don't know if this has been discussed before but I thought perhaps others could give thier input on what NOT to do for a villain. 

I always found it amusing when this supposedly supremely confident and masterful villain fails to kill some person that could potentially come back to defeat them. They may leave them for dead or just don't check to make sure they've really killed them. Being unable to kill them for whatever reason is one thing, but when they simply choose to let that person live eventually spells certain doom for them.

Another one I find silly is when the villain has a known flaw or defect, maybe a deficiency in their character or personality (especially a well-known one to others) and they do nothing to fix or protect against this defect that could easily be exploited by anyone at all with the will to do so and eventually spells their doom.


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## Ireth (May 13, 2012)

There's a whole website dedicated to compiling a list of the top villain mistakes: Peter's Evil Overlord List It's hilarious. XDD Also quite long, but well worth the read. I should go through this and see what mistakes my villains commit or avoid. ^_^


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## Max Cooper (May 13, 2012)

Like having a hole that can blow up your death star?


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## Elder the Dwarf (May 13, 2012)

Ireth, that's hilarious.  #12 is brilliant.


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## Saigonnus (May 13, 2012)

LOL... Ireth, that is too funny and I remember seeing a few of those in fantasy... and science fiction. I don't think my chief antagonist will make most of those mistakes, and actually I can't think of an instance where they've done any of them, so I guess I'm good to go. The Antagonist captures a threacherous underling and tortures him, but the sequence of the capture and torture is the method to the creature's escape, not because the villain overlooked something, or their guards are lacking.


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## Steerpike (May 13, 2012)

Max Cooper said:


> Like having a hole that can blow up your death star?



They could have covered it up with something, but ....


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## Saigonnus (May 13, 2012)

I often wondered that myself... why would an "exhaust port" have to go directly to the reactor? You'd think in the future, technology would be such that exhaust ports wouldn't even be necessary as the reactors wouldn't produce any waste materials, they'd be self-sustaining and clean energy. Even taking into account that it's necessary, likely they could use a waste collection system that takes in a redirects the waste and takes an indirect route to disperse the material into the blackness of space. Just that alone would make the death star indestructable.


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## ThinkerX (May 13, 2012)

Legitimate failings:

Big one would be 'tunnel vision' - so convinced the villians way is the only way, they simply can't see the problems with it, or admit that alternate solutions are credible.


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## ArielFingolfin (May 14, 2012)

Ha ha, number 15 cracked me up. They always do manage it the last few seconds, don't they? I'd love to see the timer go off when it reaches 7 or 8 instead of 0. I also liked 42 and 92.


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## RavenBower (May 14, 2012)

The villain wasting time gloating and prattling. If they'd just killed the hero five minutes sooner they would have succeeded before rescue arrived or hero managed to find that conveniently sharp object to cut his binds.


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## ArielFingolfin (May 14, 2012)

With some villians though, the gloating makes sense. You tend to have two types of villians: the logical, completely unfeeling types and the ones who are just filled with rage at life. It wouldn't make sense for the first to waste time rubbing his vidtory in his enemies' faces, but that's kind of what the second one lives for. 

Of course that's not to say it's not overdone.


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## Hans (May 14, 2012)

Ireth said:


> There's a whole website dedicated to compiling a list of the top villain mistakes: Peter's Evil Overlord List It's hilarious.


That list is flawed. Peter obviously believes in security by obscurity. That does not work. Better guard and secure your important points than hide them.


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## Saigonnus (May 14, 2012)

Hans said:


> That list is flawed. Peter obviously believes in security by obscurity. That does not work. Better guard and secure your important points than hide them.



He does mention that the list is compiled from hundreds (if not thousands) of entries and he tried to pick the ones that were the most commonly used in movies or books. I don't think he even suggested that the list is perfect, just very commonly used mistakes that villains make. 

Stopping to gloat is probably another big one... I mean seriously, the hero is on the ground catching his breath after being stabbed or whatever and instead of just taking out a gun, blaster or whatever and ending him then and there; he feels the compulsive need to say "I told you so." or reveal some crucial thing that the hero uses to gain the upper-hand. 

"I could kill you, but I have to go hit that blue button to turn on the death ray that will completely obliterate your home planet..."


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## Ankari (May 14, 2012)

I read Peter's List then promptly shared it on Facebook.  That was a good read, especially point 12.


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## The Dark One (May 15, 2012)

As Tuco would say: If you're gonna shoot, shoot...don't talk.


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## Steerpike (May 15, 2012)

The Dark One said:


> As Tuco would say: If you're gonna shoot, shoot...don't talk.



There are two kinds of people in the world...


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## Telcontar (May 15, 2012)

Second-to-last frame in this OOTS comic is also related: Giant In the Playground Games


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## Queshire (May 15, 2012)

I personally really like villians that consiously aknowledge and avoid these flaws, I find it gives them more depth and makes them more credible threats.


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## Saigonnus (May 16, 2012)

Queshire said:


> I personally really like villians that consiously aknowledge and avoid these flaws, I find it gives them more depth and makes them more credible threats.



Same here, I find them to be more ominous and dangerous if they don't fall into the traps of their own devising. Nothing is better than a villain without remorse who has a hero in his grasp and simply destroys him without hesitating, and without using some time-delay method (strapping him to a bomb or slow-acting poison) They recognize it doesn't serve their best interest in prolonging their enemy's agony or postponing his death; too many things can happen to change the circumstances for both of them.


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## Ireth (May 16, 2012)

One of the (very) few things I like about the villain of one of my novels is that over the course of the story he does learn from (some of) his mistakes in handling the heroine and their upcoming marriage. When she tries to escape from him again and again with weeks to go before their planned wedding date, he basically says "screw this" and bumps it up to the very next day, and also shackles her to him for the time being so she can't escape again. She still manages to throw that completely out of whack, but still.


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## The Dark One (May 16, 2012)

Ireth said:


> One of the (very) few things I like about the villain of one of my novels is that over the course of the story he does learn from (some of) his mistakes in handling the heroine and their upcoming marriage. When she tries to escape from him again and again with weeks to go before their planned wedding date, he basically says "screw this" and bumps it up to the very next day, and also shackles her to him for the time being so she can't escape again. She still manages to throw that completely out of whack, but still.


You've got to LOVE everything about your villains. They are so important to the story and the plot. In my first (and most successful so far) novel, there were a few different classes of villains. I just loved writing the vicious football hooligans and in all honesty, I probably derived a sort of id-state vicarious freedom from their antics.

Bernard Cornwell wrote of how saddened he was when he finally killed off Sergeant Hakeswill (Sharpe's great nemesis). I can understand why. Hakeswill was a fantastic character - utterly dripping with pure evil - brilliantly drawn and brilliantly used.


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## SeverinR (May 16, 2012)

"You sly dog! You got me monologuing! I can't believe it"

The elaborate mechanical marvel constructed to execute the hero, with dozens of places to stop it, is over done too.

Thank you for pressing the self destruct button. (Spaceballs) "Have a nice day." moral;always make sure the Self destruct cancellation button is not out of order.


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## Ireth (May 16, 2012)

The Dark One said:


> You've got to LOVE everything about your villains. They are so important to the story and the plot. In my first (and most successful so far) novel, there were a few different classes of villains. I just loved writing the vicious football hooligans and in all honesty, I probably derived a sort of id-state vicarious freedom from their antics.
> 
> Bernard Cornwell wrote of how saddened he was when he finally killed off Sergeant Hakeswill (Sharpe's great nemesis). I can understand why. Hakeswill was a fantastic character - utterly dripping with pure evil - brilliantly drawn and brilliantly used.



I love to loathe my villain, does that count? ^^; Seriously, I cannot freaking stand him. He's this smug, arrogant prince with zero class and zero knowledge of how to properly court a woman. He's abusive, manipulative, condescending...  really not a nice guy. It gave me a LOT of satisfaction to see him grievously maimed by the heroine at a critical moment.


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## ArielFingolfin (May 16, 2012)

Ireth said:


> I love to loathe my villain, does that count? ^^;



Been there


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