Whether it’s a movie, a book, or a video game, a sympathetic villain is guaranteed to make a story much more engaging. There’s a conflict between wanting the hero to succeed and commiserating with the villain.
It’s a complex feeling that’s hard to understand, much less rationalize. However, there’s no denying how much more enjoyable it makes the reading experience.
What Is a Sympathetic Villain?
A sympathetic villain is an antagonist you can relate to, has redeemable traits, and is overall not an absolute evil. Even if they were the most vile characters, some part of you understands where they’re coming from.
They can be tragic figures driven by their horrible past or misled individuals who can no longer escape from their path. They might even consider themselves heroes. These types of characters blur the lines of good and evil, right and wrong, hero and villain.
Gone are the days of choosing between two absolutes. Many readers now crave more complex stories that often require characters who don’t fit neatly into preconceived boxes.
Examples of Sympathetic Villains
Here are a few sympathetic villains that have appeared in various media.
1. Thanos from The Avengers
Thanos, the bid baddy of Marvel’s Infinity Saga, is driven to save the universe by killing off half its population and ensuring the survival of those who remain. It is murder on an unimaginable scale, though his reasons give insights into what kind of character he is.
The trauma of his people’s destruction, his loneliness, and his misguided ideals become causes for sympathy for the audience.
2. Severus Snape from Harry Potter
Severus Snape is first introduced as the Potions professor who is prejudiced against students not of his House, especially Harry. He’s a menace throughout the series, often making Harry’s life difficult out of petty reasons.
And yet, as his tragic backstory is revealed, the audience begins to make sense of his character. His morally ambiguous actions, loyalty to Dumbledore, and complex relationship with the Potters leave the audience with complicated feelings about him.
3. Frankenstein’s Creature from Frankenstein
Abandoned right after being granted life, Frankenstein’s monster is subjected to nothing but hate and fear. This, along with his loneliness as the sole member of his species, drives him to malevolence. It makes him difficult to hate and easy to sympathize with.
4. Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke
Lady Eboshi is the leader of Iron Town, a settlement focused on mining iron and clearing the forest. Her actions and decisions therefore directly harm nature and its spirits. She even wants to kill their god so she can expand her operation.
However, her actions aren’t out of megalomania. Rather, she only aims to improve the lives of her followers, particularly the lepers and former prostitutes.
5. Lotso from Toy Story 3
Due to a series of misunderstandings, Andy’s toys arrive at Sunnyside Daycare. They are welcomed by Lotso the Bear, who secretly runs the daycare with an iron hand.
Further into the movie, you begin to understand where Lotso’s bitterness comes from. Lost and then replaced, he vows to protect himself and other toys from experiencing the heartbreak he endured. But his fear of being abandoned again leads to him becoming ruthless and authoritarian.
Writing Sympathetic Villains
Here are a few tips on how to write sympathetic villains.
Give them a backstory that resonates with your reader.
The easiest way to gain sympathy for your villain is to give them a backstory that your readers will sympathize with.
Villains aren’t born villainous. Mold them with events or characters from their past that push them into their current path. These transformative elements give your readers justification to understand and feel for them.
Give them a redeeming trait.
Villains don’t need to be absolute evils. They might be bad guys but they can have some admirable traits too.
Give them a quality that your readers would either like to see in a character or in themselves. Make them fiercely loyal, smart, or have some morals. Better yet, tie these redeeming traits to their backstory.
Explore the villain’s perspective.
Knowing the “why” of a villain’s action gives your readers insight into who the character is, their motivations, and their end goals. It doesn’t necessarily lessen the wrongness of their actions, but it does give more context.
This turns them into a multi-layered character rather than a flat caricature of villainy. Realistic characters are much easier to believe and sympathize with.
Flesh out their personality.
The characters who are easiest to hate are those with horrid or annoying personalities. You quickly get tired of do-gooders who fail to see the most basic tricks, “dark” protagonists who do nothing but mope, and sidekicks who keep on whining.
Take time to develop your villain’s personality. Give them quirks, likes, dislikes, passions, and interests. The more you make them realistic, the less your characters will think of them as the “token” bad guys whose only role is to be defeated at the end.
Having an attractive personality makes your readers like them more. This further complicates the narrative, as when your villains do something villainous, your audience won’t know how to feel.
Make them believe they’re the hero.
A sympathetic villain might be aware they’re not a good person but still believe what they’re doing is right. Make their beliefs even more difficult to refute by having them make sense.
This wreaks havoc on your character and the audience’s moral compass—which almost always leads to a more complex narrative. Who’s truly in the right? Who deserves to win?
One side wants X, but the other wants Y. Both can’t happen. What justifies whether one is better than the other?
Use supporting characters.
A villain could be an unreliable narrator, which puts their redeeming traits and actions into question. Use supporting characters—even the heroes themselves—to affirm and exemplify these qualities.
For example, your hero might try to redeem your villain multiple times throughout your story. That, behind all the villainy, there still remains some good. It’s also a great opportunity to explore the central concepts of your narrative and the clashing morals, perspectives, and actions of your characters.
Why Are Sympathetic Villains the Best?
Sympathetic villains are the best because they provide a story with more complexity, realism, and surprise. And when your readers not only love your heroes but also your villains, it just makes your story much more memorable.
Now this doesn’t mean that absolute Good or Evil characters are no longer effective. It’s just that most readers now prefer stories that blur the lines between opposing sides.
Who is your favorite sympathetic villain? Share it in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- 12 Types of Villains in Fiction
- 15 Books About Villains: Can a Protagonist Be Bad?
- Big Baddies: The 30 Best Villains On Screen and Paper
- 13 of the Best Anti-heroes in Literature, Video Games, and Cinema
Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
