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Q&A Non-cheap ways to make villains evil?

On the flip side, let me comment that one thing I really dislike in many works of fiction is when we are told that someone is a villian, but he never actually does anything evil. To take a well-kno...

posted 11y ago by Jay‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:36:57Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/6827
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Jay‭ · 2019-12-08T02:36:57Z (over 4 years ago)
On the flip side, let me comment that one thing I really dislike in many works of fiction is when we are told that someone is a villian, but he never actually does anything evil. To take a well-known book as an example: Consider "The Picture of Dorian Gray". The whole point of the book is that Dorian Gray is a horribly evil person who nevertheless does not suffer for his crimes. And yet ... what does he actually do that is evil? He's rude to his girlfriend. That's about it. The fact that his rudeness leads her to commit suicide left me thinking more that she was mentally unstable than that he was to blame for her death. I've seen lots of movies where at some point I find myself saying, Wait, what did this guy do that justifies the hero destroying him like this?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-12-18T16:07:01Z (over 11 years ago)
Original score: 5