Sentai Villain Writing: What I Think Makes a Good Villain Plot

After reading Fantasy Leader's post on his favorite villains, I was encouraged to write this post.  Now here are just a few examples of what I think makes a good villain with some examples:


You may want to consider the truth of inner conflict.  For example, Doctor Man may be a mad genius who's always aiming to ascend above his human self to the point he completely mechanized himself.  The adding of conflict to Doctor Man was when he was struggling between his battle with the Biomen and his son Shuichi who loves him dearly.


There are also the writing of misguided villains.  Take Igam for example- being raised as a prince instead of a princess while wanting to restore the Igam family honor is one of the things why I like Igam as a villain.  So she's disguising as a he, or two she really got everyone but us fooled.  But the point is that, she's very misguided thinking that all she is doing is restoring the family honor, she does her work with much vigor until she realizes that she has been misguided and evil all along.


Trolls who work with neither the heroes nor the villains but are seriously a real menace as they know how to torture the heroes.  For example Silver in Bioman added conflict to the series considering his fanatical vigor to kill ANYTHING with bio particles plus he's got the anti-bio particles which killed Mika Koizumi!  Kiros is another- he works completely alone with no allies (except for stealing some Ground Beasts) while he does try to make an alliance with Zeba to get Ial for himself, even on his own he destroyed the Shot Bomber and two, he really is a pain the neck for than most of the villains.  My third would be Basco- he's really got little or no remorse after betraying Marvelous or the fact the'll do anything to get the Greater Power for himself at the cost of people makes him a real menace.


Usurpers who really know how to get the job done and how to keep themselves in power for long periods of time.  So okay it's really not too hard to figure out that Zeba isn't human considering he's always wearing a disguise but he does manage to keep things in control.  So while under the guise as a great monarch hiding he is in reality the second Lethal Dobler, he really managed to keep everyone under his control.  So nobody really questions who he is and why and if they do, he really shows just how cruel he is by ordering their executions.  Made me think the way he manipulated Igam, Fumin, Baraba and Oyobur was really one of the best plots ever.


Not just a complete monster for complete monster's sake or as to call it evil for evil's sake.  Sometimes you can have a complete monster but can be poorly written.  Radiguet is one of the best well-written complete monsters considering he's got development.  Radiguet despite being a complete monster thinks he's purer than everyone while he carries his unjustified genocides against other people he thinks are stupid and bastards, he's got a few chances to redeem himself (like when he helped the Jetmen twice but for the reason he wanted to kill them himself later) BUT he tosses them aside wanting to remain who he is and the fact he really makes the Jetmen and his fellow Vyram hate him so much.    The other example might be Shaddam who is more or less a cruel bastard who is portrayed to be very cunning and will get the job done... while portraying to be somebody who can be a real life character who doesn't even care about his own family even willing to kill his own sons to get what he wants (that does happen in some royal families).


Giving the villains some redeemable value.  So we might as well consider the fact that although they have irritated the heroes for quite some time, let's think some of them do have redeemable values.  Buuba may be a menacing threat to the Changemen yet in the end, he began to see Gozma's cowardly ways, he delivered Shiima from her brainwashing and he chose to battle Change Dragon to the death so he can die a warrior's death rather than die at Gozma's hands. Gure despite being a villain in Jetman, he truly loved Maria and was even willing to let her go if it made her happy, he even asked the Jetmen to help restore Maria and he decided to fight Black Condor one last time in an honorable combat so he could die a warrior's death.


Okay both characters are played by Akiko Amatsuri.  After watching Liveman and Dairanger, it made me think Mazenda and Lt. Gara were both a mixture of cunning, sneakiness yet they can be utterly cruel whenever need be.  The mixture of cunning and aggressiveness makes these ladies truly dangerous while having some backstories that are pretty interesting.


Personal rivalry that goes a way back.  Yup, that's one.  I thought of the rivalry that has a long way like Dr. Kemp's rivalry with Yuusuke/Red Falcon was unexpected since they were best friends (that kind of plot was also written with Basco and Marvelous) but later both are forced to fight against each other as Dr. Kemp keeps throwing aside every chance of redemption he gets.  For Yaiba in Boukenger he really has the most roots in the show considering he REALLY messed up Masumi big time since as a little boy to the time he was an adult, he constantly menaced Masumi to the point that the rivalry had grown very intense more than Garoa's wound from Gaku/Five Red as a child.


Villains who actually care for their subordinates.  While it does get cliche with villains who don't care abut their subordinates but it can also make a good villain plot to have villains who do care about them.  For example, Bandora herself may be an evil queen but she does care about her minions and same went with Hedrian from Denziman, both played by Soga Machiko.

Overall, it does take a lot of effort more than just being a skilled writer to do this.

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