Love to hate ‘em
July 20th, 2010 by Edie Ramer
BP has been in the news lately with even more than the oil spill. To get permission to drill oil wells off the Libyan coast, they apparently helped secure the release of “Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man ever convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 that killed 270 people.” (Anyone see three villains there?)
In Cattitude, I have two villains. One a greedy CEO, the other a former beauty queen. The greedy rich man has been a villain for many years before BP. Think of It’s a Wonderful Life, with the bank’s owner as the villain. Or real life villain Bernard Madoff with his 65 million dollar ponzi scheme. As for beauty queens, they may be wonderful people, but the contests have a bad rep, perhaps because of the the inherent shallowness, plastic surgery rumors and canned speeches.
Politicians! Politicians were also involved in the release of the Libyan bomber. Absolute Power, David Baldacci’s first book, debuted as a New York Times bestseller. The villain was the president of the U.S. who killed his mistress during rough sex. It became a Clint Eastwood movie, with Gene Hackman as the president. An excellent movie, an awesome premise, and an absolutely powerful villain.
I don’t know about you, but I hate bugs. How smart of the creators of the Alien movies to have a parasitic/bug-like alien as the villain. Men in Black had some bug-like aliens too. The exception was E.T., a cute bug-like creature with a glowing heart.
Sharks! The word can make us shiver. Jaws by Peter Benchley, was a great book, and Steven Spielberg turned it into an even better movie.
Lawyers, of course. Think of John Grisham’s books with lawyers as the villains and the heroes. It’s easy to believe they can be either.
Who do you love to hate? Can you think of a ready-made villain, just by profession? Any in your books?
21 Responses to “Love to hate ‘em”
In my first manuscript, the EPIC, I fashioned a villain after Cruella DeVille. She was philanthropic as long as the road led to her man. She seduced him when he was too drunk to run away…it was hilarious now that I think about it. And in my second the villain was a creepy wife who hid her affair from her husband, whom she accused of sleeping with a much younger woman. Finally, the third novel’s villain was a mother who couldn’t cut the apron strings, doing whatever it took to keep her boy from marrying the woman he loved.
In my current the villain is a bit understated – a born again Christian hiding behind false values.
And I love to hate Tiger Woods.
Kath, Cruelle DeVille is an awesome villain. Hypocrites who hide behind their religion are great too. We have built-in disdain for them.
I feel pity for a man with a wife like that, just as I would do if the roles were reversed. For the apron strings one, that’s an icky situation.
My favorite villains are the ones who seem like villains, but have a heart of gold.
The canned characters that I hate? Hm, I don’t really hate anything. The spiders in HP-2, but they aren’t really villains, they are simply trying to survive.
My favorite villains are the ones who seem like villains, but have a heart of gold.
Margaret, the best thing about the villains with the heard of gold is that they can be redeemed and then have their own book.
Hey Edie, I do love redeemable characters. Sometimes villians can make you cringe, but beneath all that there’s a heart and it’s beating. Life has a way of letting the good stuff rise, though, if one lets it.
I do wish the world had more Jimmy Stewarts and John Waynes, though. I like it when there’s more white hats than black out there. As far as favorite villians, nothing scarier to me than a politician, or preacher with his eye on the offering plate.
Corruption is a sad thing.
Hate is such a strong word for an even stronger emotion. The villains with stereotyped personalities, such as Madoff and those Wall Street types,insurance companies that don’t help when needed, same with HMO’s top my list and don’t get me started on politics which loves to use people’s fears. GRRRRR.
LaD, it seems like too many people in power can tip the wrong way. You’re right, it’s very sad. And they do make believable villains.
Mary Jo, an insurance exec would be a GREAT VILLAIN. What’s not to hate about that?
I think that is why, in THE INCREDIBLES, you excuse Mr. Incredible’s double life, even though he’s lying to his wife, who you like even more. Because he was working for an insurance company, and everything about it, especially his boss, was exactly what we hate. It was killing him, and you understood why and wanted him to break free of that.
I love really complex villians. Quite often, my books have more than one, and they are definitely the heroes of their own stories. I also like having a more ambiguous figure. Neither overtly evil or good, but acting from a self-interest that sometimes works for the protagonists, sometimes against them. Henry VIII is that figure in my historical series.
Michelle, a friend worked for an insurance company, and she hated it too. She didn’t last as long as Mr. Incredible.
Henry VIII is a great villain! My villains in Cattitude are kind of black and white, but they think they have a good reasons for committing murder. The former beauty queen is more of a psycho than the CEO, but I gave her a backstory that shows why she might be that way.
Villains with a very real reason behind their villanry. Whether its fear, greed or just plain hungry for power. I don’t particularly see a need for a villain to have redeming qualities. Afterall, every story has to have a bad guy. Every writer is looking for a new bad guy, whether its a buggy alien, a terrorist, or the creature from the Black Lagoon. There is always something to fear.
Personally I found Alexa (is that her name?) in Basic Instinct to be a great villainess. She was totally nuts but had a mission.
Liz, I’m not sure what Alexa’s name is. And yes, some villains can just be psychos. Or a giant spider. LOL I like spiders but I think I’m in the minority. And think of Hitchcock. Who else would’ve thought that birds could be a villain in a movie?
I think the one of the scariest villians I read was one who didn’t actually seem evil in the beginning. In fact, the way it started out– you’d think he was a good guy.
He was an average Joe, with a wife he loved, and kids he loved. He’s in line to get a promotion at work, he’s a sure-in. Life is good. You think he’s the good guy.
And then on the way home, after celebrating with his buddies at work. He hits someone. It isn’t his fault even, the person he hit stumbles infront of the car. But because he was drinking, he panics and flees the scene. That one step into the gray zone leads to another and then another as he tries to cover what he did up. By the end of the book he tries to kill his wife, so his kids won’t find out.
It’s an absolutely chilling look at how an average/normal person can let weakness turn them evil.
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LOL, Edie — I was thinking of lawyers and sharks before I got to the end of your post, and there they were!
For me, a perfect story villain is someone like Mr. Wickham in Austen’s P&P — so charming on the outside but a real slime when you know what he’s actually up to. And, oh, the character of Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel… I really LOVE to hate him!!
Theresa, I got chills just reading that. I think I’d rather read about an evil CEO. That’s too close to people I know.
Marilyn, I never read Scarlet Pimpernel, but I know Wickham. Shallow and vain and a liar without a conscience. He’d make a great villain in a contemporary book too. Totally believable.
The scariest villains to me are the ones who truly think they are doing good.
Wow, Karin. So true!
Edie,
Great topic. Linda Wisdom also blogged about villains today.
I actually love writing scenes from the villains POV. What does that say about me?
Some of the scariest villains to me are those that have religious undertones. Those that say that their God told them to do it. How can you argue with that? Ya know? Crazy scary and unfortunately, it’s not just in books or movies.
Wow, Karin, had to pop in and say that’s profound. You are soooo right. It’s like they have a piece missing or something.
Elle, I’ve heard the villains drive the plot, and that’s true in my books. Their moves drives the timetable.
Oh yes about religion. Some of the greatest atrocities came from religion. The Crusades, for one.