The typical villainous mistakes

[The Dark One]

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.

 

[SeverinR]

"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.

 

[Ireth]

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.

 

[ArielFingolfin]

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

Been there