Battling Bad Guy Clichés

“Clichés remind and reassure us that we’re not alone, that others have trod this ground long ago.” —Miguel Syjuco

It’s easy to create a bad guy who is too evil. If you don’t build your antagonist up in layers of light and dark, your work will suffer. An evil antagonist is predictable, even boring. Even psychopaths are capable of acts of kindness—though their motivation for doing so is likely unclear and not what you would expect.

A cliché becomes a cliché because it works. However, once a particular phrase or character trait becomes overused, its effectiveness wears off. Check the following list to see how many attributes your antagonist matches. One or two isn’t a big deal, but if you’re hitting a lot of these, you might want to take your baddy back to the lab.

Your character’s name:

• Is an ominous noun. Examples: Blade, Phalanx, Torch, etc.

• Is based on their rap sheet or previous accomplishments. Example: Jail Break.

• Contains a title like “Dark Lord.”

• Is just one of many.

• Contains the word “Death.”

Your character’s origin:

• Your character is a deity.

• Your character is of the “fallen angel” type.

• Your character is an ancient, brooding intelligence brought back to power by a bumbling fool.

• Your character is a member of an “evil” race.

• Your character lives forever unless wounded by a particular weapon.

• Your character is a vampire or werewolf.

• Your character has betrayed their family or clan and is now an outcast

• Is more powerful than would be expected given their race/species.

Your character’s relationships:

• Your character has a family member or close friend who is “one of the good guys.”

• Your character became evil while lurking in the shadow of the protagonist.

• Your character has a secret crush on the protagonist.

• Your character is forced to marry the protagonist.

• Your character has an intense rivalry with the protagonist.

• Your character massacred the protagonist’s family or clan.

• Your character has hoards of minions at his disposal.

Your character’s deeds:

• Your character is known for holding public executions.

• Your character destroys his or her own minions for pleasure or to achieve some magical or mechanical end.

• Your character tortures prisoners.

• Your character is a rapist.

• Your character punishes minions for failing a task even though the task was impossible to begin with.

• Your character destroys entire villages simply because they can.

• Your character has no regard for nature.

• Your character experiments on people.

Your character’s traits:

• Your character is vulnerable to a spell, a weapon or some other unique artifact.

• Your character is most often seen raging at the minions.

• Your character is brought down by his or her own megalomania or narcissism.

• Your character uses the words “fool” and “weakling” to describe people.

• Your character monologues at length about the genius of their evil plan.

• Your character tends to do the above while holding the protagonist at their mercy—often allowing the protagonist to escape.

• Your character hisses or cackles.

• Your character wears a cloak.

• Your character dresses in black.

• Your character has serpentine eyes.

One sure-fire way to rid your story of cliché is to identify your character’s vice and replace it. For instance, if your villain is a police officer with a drinking problem, why not make him addicted to orange lollipops instead? Instead of raging at a sullen spouse, how about if they blame their financial hardships on their dentist. Sure, it’s illogical, but personality quirks that are hard to understand are inherently unnerving.