Good Villains Don't Pull Punches

Easy to say. Much, much harder to pull off in writing. Why? Because realistically, there's only so much that can be done to a character before they break. The more realistic the story, the more the reader identifies with the protagonist. The more the reader identifies with the protagonist, the more the events in the story don't just happen to the characters-- they happen to the reader, too.

I've toted my love of George Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' series before. Why? Well, one reason is because a very well developed character, a beast of a fighter that had been developed painstakingly for three (long) books can win a fight, take an injury in the process, and die of tetanus. There are so many characters in his books that he can realistically kill a huge portion of his cast like that. It heightens your sense of danger for the favorite characters, it takes away the safety net, and the knowledge that some of these characters are not going to survive the next few hundred pages makes the material gripping. Good villains don't pull punches.

The problem with imitating this style, however, is that stories that aren't a series of 200k novels have a much smaller cast. You can hurt them, you can kill them, but know that whatever pain and torment they go through... it's not just going to magically go away. These characters are going to have to last you till the end of the story. And a good villain, a good danger, is going to hurt what it comes across.

Writing with this sense of danger and urgency is going to take a very careful balance between the power of the villain and the protagonist. If a villain has the advantage in a situation, he should press it, and if he does not, you'd best give a good, solid reason why it's not acceptible. Monologuing only detracts from the villain's character. What's scarier, really? A man who explains how he fooled you all along, while you're down for the count, or a man who takes out a gun and shoots you, then says, "You got it all wrong," on his way out?

On the other hand, if you take away his advantage, let the protagonist win the struggle immediately, then he's not much of a villain. Give him too much, and he ought to win. Good villains don't pull punches. There is no 'before I kill you' monologue. No last requests. No 'by the power of sheer will' victories. No drastic change in skill when it's convenient for him to lose a fight.

Why do people love a good villain? Because that struggle between the characters, the wavering balance of power, the trade of victories and defeats is what makes the adventure. Without tension, conflict, that sense of danger and concern for losing something precious... there is no story.