Why would anyone want to be the villain?

[Jeric 46,854]

On 9/12/2017 at 0:51 PM, ooReiko said:

Villains are the heroes of their own stories. No one is villain just because they want to be one.

This. 

A good villain represents the IRL nuance of the fact that even the worst human beings justifies their beliefs and does not feel they are evil, that their actions help a greater good. 

[Xe__or 4,377]

Well, villains often have a very valid point, from a certain point of view (theirs anyway). And the fact that they're opposed by the "good guys" make them want to affirm their point even further. Thus, they're seen as charismatic characters, thus the reason why so many people want to be a villain.

But most of us would suck really as villains 

[Guest]

Without the villain, there wouldn't be the disparity of good and bad. There can be no hero without a villain to overcome. Often times villains truly believe what they're dong is for the greater good, despite the rules, norms and laws they break. They tend to be more passionate and forthright about what they believe in as well, it's just that you can't support doing wrong or being misguided. Personally I tend to appreciate the story, world or history of a piece of fiction more for having a well-written villain than having a decent hero.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Guest

[DubWolf 17,271]

I used to be the villain in a space RPG; no rules and you get to force your beliefs on people as you wish  .

[Steve Piranha 29,428]

Because more often than not, villains beat the heroes in many departments. Heroes often go with unrealistically positive ideals, simple goals, and even simpler methods to achieve them. They go about the power of friendship and feelings, and they mostly go raw power to fight. In other words, overrealistic goody-two shoes.... ar at least the traditional hero archetype . Villains on the other hand, are more relatable lately if they go beyond of evil because so. Where the hero have overly positive ideals, the villain have more realistic ones. The hero have simple and standard goals, the villain have vision. The hero is straightforward, the villain thinks all angles to reach their goals. Heroes: power of friendship, villains: they have charisma and inspire. Hero: raw power, villain: master tactician. Heroes are simplistic, villains are more complex and interesting 

[heavens-champion 1,905]

6 hours ago, Steve Piranha said:

Because more often than not, villains beat the heroes in many departments. Heroes often go with unrealistically positive ideals, simple goals, and even simpler methods to achieve them. They go about the power of friendship and feelings, and they mostly go raw power to fight. In other words, overrealistic goody-two shoes.... ar at least the traditional hero archetype . Villains on the other hand, are more relatable lately if they go beyond of evil because so. Where the hero have overly positive ideals, the villain have more realistic ones. The hero have simple and standard goals, the villain have vision. The hero is straightforward, the villain thinks all angles to reach their goals. Heroes: power of friendship, villains: they have charisma and inspire. Hero: raw power, villain: master tactician. Heroes are simplistic, villains are more complex and interesting 

Yes, because nothing says realistic like destroying the whole world. Go ahead, villains who want to destroy the world! Have fun being alone! When the madness sets in, just remember: You wanted this. You wanted to wipe out the human race. And now you have the pay the ultimate price: Your sanity.

[Olly 1,011]

because you get to laugh! like, so much. all the time.

 

plus imagine all the hand sanitizer you get

[mcpon14 87]

Of course, lol.  They are what makes a movie interesting, lol.

[EpicEnergy 23,220]

Because villains have backstories that are relatable.

[Splashee 28,565]

Depending on how good the backstory is, even a hero can be the villain to some degree. It can get very complicated. That's what makes story telling such a great thing!

[ExplosionMare 18,065]

So they can go “MWAHAHAHAHAHA” whenever they want

[Pastel Heart 6,466]

Because being bad is just so much fun.

Embrace chaos~

[Twilight Luna 31,410]

Not every villain thinks of themselves as being a villain. They think that they are being a hero. These are the best kind of villains. 

[Here No Longer 5,276]

Because unlike heroes their trope isn't so obnoxiously self-righteous.

[Stone Cold Steve Jobs 22,441]

Villains don’t see themselves as villains usually. They do what they’re doing to achieve a goal of theirs. They don’t necessarily wake up and say “time to be a bad guy!”

A good villain doesn’t have such clear motives in my opinion, but they can be found with some effort.

Badly written villains are villains who are bad because they’re meant to oppose the hero and you’re just not supposed to like them. It’s a testament to lazy writing that way.

[HereComesTom 2,268]

Sometimes, the price of doing the right thing is just too high.  For example:  a corporation just bought a plot of land and found a rare, endangered species there, so now legally they can't build on it.  But that corporation paid a fortune for that plot of land, and the corporation literally won't survive if they don't build on it...so they conveniently lose any communications saying that the endangered species is there, build anyway, and destroy a piece of nature.

It's easy to imagine scenarios like this that apply to the level of an individual human being, too.  When the price of doing the right thing gets unacceptably high, a person will do the wrong thing knowing it's the wrong thing. 

I'm not sure how many villains get created this way, but it brings up the question of how heroic a person is if they call the villain out on their villain, but still do nothing to help them mitigate the high cost.

[Tao 7,862]

1. Evil laugh
2. Henchmen
3. Evil lair
4. More evil laugh

[vampireponyprince 184]

I think it has something to do with people being attracted to people with dark sides and the want to be edgy 

Idk in video games with choices I tend to to a hero run then a villain run for contrast

[Splashee 28,565]

I want to be a villain if I am allowed to win!

[Flying Pencil 3,024]

I would like to be a villain that manipulates ponies from the shadows. Win or lose, I'd would like to be that type of villain.

[Pentium100 2,136]

Normally someone would become a villain if he's too greedy or thinks that the circumstances make him do it (the example with buying some very expensive land only to find that some endangered animals live there - especially if that species is very likely to go extinct anyway). An interesting thing is that pretty much everyone, including the villains are the heroes of their own stories. 

Then there are people who are insane or psychopaths, they usually behave more like the villains do in some movies ("I'm doing this because I'm evil").

Just like, for example, some terrorists do their crimes just because they want to kill people - it may not matter to them who they kill, but if the government or whatever actually allows some killing, then they'll do that.
However, some other terrorists may actually honestly believe that what they are doing is going to help some noble cause (protect their families from some even worse evil, committed by the "enemy", put their nation at the "rightful place", help take back the land that's "rightfully theirs" etc).

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,691]

To challenge the hero at anything, get into a sword fight, and of course die.  

[Xe__or 4,377]

Honestly I'd just want to fuck around with people, I mean I get the appeal Good villains have convictions, true; but it appears I prefer villains who just want to be asses (Dio, Frieza, you name it)

[Envy 6,169]

IRL villains oftentimes hold massive amounts of power and money and get away with it because our government systems are too corrupt to take them down.

[Clawdeen 14,871]

This depends on what sort of "villains" we're talking about here and the extent of what they've done and are doing. 

Also context on what "be the villain" even means. In real life or in a role? As I used to do cosplay tiktok content like seven years ago as an OC of mine who was a villain with others OC's. I typically roleplay online villains or antiheroes as they're more interesting and roles I personally play better. I can write a better mean girl than I can the sweet kind girl. 

If we're talking in real life in some form.

There's the category of villains of those with tragic backstories and bad life's circumstances that made them turn to that path that some people really relate to. If someone were to want to be the villain, it could be because they find themselves relating to those sorts of villains. Revenge and Vengeance could also be big motivators for someone to want to be the villain. 

There's a bunch of different reasons someone could want to be a villain.