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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36343
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36343
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'd say **the way to make the villain sympathetic is to make him human**. Someone who errs, someone who regrets things he's done, someone who isn't always up to his own standards. Look for example at King Claudius's monologue in _Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2_:

> O, my offence is rank! It smells to heaven.  
> It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,  
> A brother's murderer. Pray can I not.  
> [..]  
> - but O, what form of prayer  
> Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?  
> That cannot be, since I am still possessed  
> Of those effects for which I did the murder -  
> My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.  
> May one be pardoned and retain th'offence?

Claudius is sympathetic because we all do things we then regret, and yet do not dare to own up to. Our wrongdoings are different in magnitude, that's it. At the same time, Claudius's struggles can hardly make Hamlet less likeable for feeling he must avenge his father. Our sympathy for Claudius doesn't negate what he has done.

* * *

Then, you have **how the protagonist feels about killing the villain**. Does he struggle with it? Does he _regret having to_ kill him? Does he try to find an alternative? Or is he gang-ho about it?

In Roger Zelazny's _Amber Chronicles_ (the first pentalogy), the antagonist has almost been successful several times in murdering the protagonist and several members of his family, he's betrayed their kingdom and is actively trying to destroy the world. He's too powerful to be stopped in any other way than killing him. He's condescending, deceitful and self-absorbed. He's also an artist, a poet, and the protagonist's brother. And so, we get the following gem:

> I wish... I wish that some time, long ago, something had not been said that was said, or something done that was not done. Something, had we known, which might have let him grow differently, something which would have seen him become another man than the bitter, bent thing I saw up there. It is best now if he is dead. But it is a waste of something that might have been. (_The Hand of Oberon, chapter 13_)

It's not on the antagonist to make the protagonist likeable. The protagonist has to do something we are not comfortable with. Very well - how does he treat it?

Original score: 2