Control: Villains Reign

I, Dalton Lewis, have a villain problem: my villains suck. I can’t come up with an evil person who is charming, hardworking, and relatable. They suck. They just want to kill people and take over. Well, Hitler wanted to kill people and take over. Why is he an impressive villain? Why are my villains so terrible and bland and devoid of charm and irony?

People tell me to write villains who are sympathetic and have some good qualities — people we can relate to. Then I look at the Joker, quite possibly the greatest villain of all time. He’s not mostly good — he’s bad beyond comprehension. He blows up hospitals, he tries to kill Batman, and he lies outrageously about his tactics and strategies. He has no loyalty to his fellow villains and kills them as often as he kills heroes. He lacks any sympathy at all, and yet we like and enjoy him. Why? Why do we like someone so reprehensible as the Joker? I don’t understand.

Thanos confuses me, too. I get that he’s super powerful and good at fighting and has a huge fucking army — I understand that. I’m impressed by that. He seemed a little bland. He wanted to kill half the galaxy to save the other half? A math equation? Come on. Then, when that doesn’t work, he tries to kill everyone in the galaxy but him. He will remake the new galaxy however he sees fit. I don’t understand — we don’t really feel for someone with a math equation and a desire to kill people. He abuses his daughters, too. There’s a problem for me with that, too. He still looms large as one of the top villains of all time.

And my villains? In Impressions of Suburbia I present a killer who wants to destroy art and the artists who create that art. I wanted someone angry and vicious and jealous of the people who make real art. I wanted a surprise when revealing the killer, too. I wanted a number of discussions with the main characters in which the main characters are menaced by the villain. I thought I did a nice job with that character.

I didn’t do as well with Jace Windhelm, the villain of Teenage Nightmare Chronicles — which is universally called my worst book. He was a writer of a brilliant new intellectual property called Space Limited. He created the new billion dollar property and decided to kill the teen heroes and best teenagers in America. The novel didn’t feature characters who were sympathetic and pissed off most of the readers.

What should I do going forward? I want to write better — that much is true. I can either make very sympathetic villains or very evil villains who reflect that the villains in real life are often very, very guilty. I don’t know what to do with my new stories. I want to show the world the greatest stories that can possibly be told — I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to write someone that does evil deeds and cannot be forgotten. I simply have to work harder at inventing someone who reflects problems with society.

Thanks, and take care, friends.