Writing Tips

Stock/Mob Villains

A couple years ago by now I was a part of a conversation about villains, and them being made not born.

People pretty much agreed that villains need some sort of backstory, to prevent them from being black or white villains, but those against, gave two arguments against it. The first was psychopaths, and the second was a person not wanting to put in the effort of making a backstory for a character that was going to die within a few paragraphs anyway.

Back then I wasn't really sure what to answer, but I've put words on my thoughts on this, so let's talk about it!

—-*-—

The first thought I had, was always what the goal with these doomed to die or be forgotten villains was, and I mostly come down to these two:
- Showing off the awesomeness of main character that defeats/kills them
- Causing traumas to start a character's sad backstory

Now, the villains used to fulfill these conflict goals usually come down to two kinds of people:
- (Arrogant) Psycopath Bandits
- Arrogant rich people

The point is that these people are easy to treat like arrogant psychopaths with no respect for human life, which means that the main character can treat them like crap or kill them without getting any moral qualms about it later. This makes for a simpler and more light hearted story in many ways, despite the dehumanization taking place to fulfill the goal.

My goal for this chapter is to talk about these two stereotypical villains, and why I am a bit tired of them, before proposing some slight variations to them that you can use as stereotypes without working out an entire backstory.

—- Psychopathic Bandits -—

Let's start with the psycopath bandits.

These are usually portrayed in larger groups, raping, pillaging and most importantly, enjoying every little bit of suffering they can make their targets suffer. Almost cartoonishly, they lick their knife or sword before attacking, and giggle creepily. Completely unaware that they could be in danger. When they finally ARE in danger, they either charge in brainlessly, or they flee in desperate fear, being all bark no bite. Further more, they usually have little to no sword skills.

I'll be honest, it took a long time for me to think of any way to see these characters as actual humans.

First of all though, these people aren't psychopaths.

I know that they are made with the intention of being psychopaths, but they're not. These are the usual traits of psychopaths: ruthlessness, fearlessness, charisma, focus, and a lack of empathy. Furthermore, they seek power.

These bandits are ruthless, and lack of empathy, but none of the rest. The only character in the gang of bandits that at times could fulfill the role of psychopath, would be the actually scary and skilled bandit leader.

Then, what are these people if they're not psychopaths?

They aren't desperate people just trying to stay alive.

They have proper weapons and do this pillaging good enough to live by it. Not a proper army.

There is however something that fits. Let's take a look back towards the end of ww2.

As the Germans pulled back, and the Russian army marched into Germany, they left a trail of destruction behind them. Raping and pillaging where they went. This of course, was a sort of retribution against what the Germans had done in Russia, but the women that suffered, had never themselves been to Russia or done anything.

However, at this point the Russians had dehumanized everything and everyone German into Nazi, and turned that label into that of a monster, that they could do everything they wanted to, without feeling guilt. Watching the arrogant, cruel Nazis suffer after all the pain they'd given others, was likely as satisfying, as we feel it when story villains get killed.