How to Write Villains Part 3 – Backstory

Contains some spoilers for Vicious and Vengeful.

What is Backstory?

Backstory is what has happened to the character prior to the story beginning, although sometimes features in prologues. If the motive asks ‘what does my character want?’ the backstory ponders ‘why?’

Your reader does not necessarily need to learn everything about your villain, in fact, they shouldn’t, but hinting at why the villain is the way they are can make them relatable and interesting.

“People are not born heroes or villains; they’re created by the people around them.”

Chris Colfer

Villains aren’t born, they are made.

‘Evildoers’ are created from a series of events that feed feelings of hatred and anger over time, until they are finally tipped over the edge. How many failures would a hero need to face before eventually giving up? Picture a protagonist you’ve created or one you love and imagine what would happen to their admiral character if they failed one too many times, suffered through too many deaths, failed when the world relied on them to succeed? One of the most popular character traits for a hero is the ability to overcome adversity, keep pushing, keep trying, keep getting back up when the world knocks them down, hold on to their integrity and inherent goodness, but every character has their limits. A villain just reaches theirs first.

The villain is just a hero who has faced too many failures and set-backs, and finally crosses a line they can’t come back from. It’s not a single moment in time that causes a sudden turn around, it is a growing thing, starting as a seed and blossoming. The villain’s motivation stems from their backstory. There’s a reason they believe in what they believe and a reason they do what they do. Like the good guys, their experiences shape who they are and what they stand for. In some cases, the hero and the villain have similar experiences, but it’s their perspectives that define them.  

Nature vs. Nurture.

Backstories in fiction often favour nurture. It appears move believable to give a reason for despicable behaviour, whether this is due to some underlining hope in society that evil isn’t born, or simply because we see so much evidence of it in everyday life. Even the people we meet in life – whether they are the wrongdoers we read in the news or simply that person we work with who constantly undermines others – make us wonder: why are you like this? What happened in your life to lead you to be this person?

In fiction, every crime from thievery to murder, is usually done for a reason. Sometimes in desperation, grief, longing, or revenge. Backstory tells us why the villain is the way they are.

Through experience, our characters are moulded, created. Those early feelings of fear, isolation or abandonment can heavily influence the person they become, for good or bad. Sometimes, it is the experiences as an adult that turns them to wrongdoing – a sudden life change like bankruptcy or loss of a loved one impacts them so deeply that all they see is a way to get their lives back, or seek revenge when they can’t. The sudden ruin in their lives leads them down a path of decisions that ultimately lead to their downfall.

Inherently Evil

The inherently evil protagonist does not often need or have a backstory. In the case of vampires, demons or aliens, the monsters or beasts are believable as being inherently evil. They are motivated by desire or need, as opposed to past trauma or experience. However, in the case of evil spirits or ghosts, their origins are often traced to cruel or violent deaths.

            Heroes of their own Story

In lots of cases, the villain believes they are the heroes of their own story. They believe they are ‘washing evils of the world’ to make it a better place. They are seeking revenge on those who wronged them, therefore ‘righting’ the world. They are making sacrifices for the ‘Greater Good’. They are seeking the power or wealth that was unfairly stolen from them or they were denied.

Overly bad vs. Overly good

Like a traumatic upbringing can impact a character negatively, so can a ‘proper’ upbringing. An adult brought up in wealth and power can, in many ways, become a villain. From the snobby girl in high school, to the American Psycho, getting everything, you could ever want does not a grateful character make. The spoilt child turns into the adult used to getting everything they want, and assuming they deserve it. Born into power can lead to not only a desire for power, but a demand of it.

The snobby, rich character has been a villain in many stories. Caledon Hockley, the villain in Titanic, was born into power and wealth, and displayed many traits depicted by powerful men during his time. He was controlling of Rose, attempting to undermine her, as well as Jack, and influencing his surroundings with his own social standing. He thought himself superior above others, more deserving of his wants, and grew increasingly angry and violent when he didn’t get it.

Influences

Backstory influences beliefs and values. What does your villain believe in and what are they willing to do to get it? What could cause that particular type of behaviour?

There are many different kinds of influence we see that affect characters in many different ways. A primary influence are the people in the character’s lives, the people who are close to them and have strong relationships with, and people on the outside looking in. Primary influences can be the character’s parents, their mentors, their siblings, their lovers, their friends. The secondary influences can be the people they come across once or repeatedly in their lives. These people take the forms of teachers, other children in their school or home, work colleagues, people they pass by on their everyday commute. The relationships, whether positive or negative, have the capacity to greatly influence characters and people. The way they are treated by these characters, or they interact or are affected by them, creates some kind of turmoil within the character, whether its long and harrowing, or sudden and devastating.

Mistreatment

Commonly, we see many villains impacted by the mother/father figure in their lives, through mistreatment or abandonment. However, mistreatment can come from anywhere. When examining villains intent on inflicting harm, their motives usually stems from varying forms of mistreatment, seeing firsthand the very evils of society they wish to rid the world of.

 In the case of Carrie, her mother’s abuse was the main contributing factor that led to her final, violent conflict. In the case of Harley Quinn, she fell in love with someone who manipulated and abused her, but her infatuation was so strong, she followed his path. Using Loki as an example, being treated different to his brother gave way to sibling rivalry and jealousy, creating resentment and later, anger.

Abandonment  

Feelings of rejection and loneliness often plant potential for evil in characters. In some cases, it affects social skills and, thus, further negatively impacts characters and their place in regular society. Feelings of normal and accepted are out of reach. These characters are isolated, they do not confirm to the idealistic vision of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

X-men’s Mystique was a character abandoned as a child and rejected by society because of her mutation. The early rejection she felt developed into hate for society that rejects those like her.  

There are many ways a character can be made to feel this way, and it’s not always at the hand of evil adults.

Betrayal

Betrayal by a friend or loved one creates a want of revenge, or resentment. This betrayal damages a character’s ability to trust, which continues to affect their relationships long after the betrayal has occurred. In some cases, it can create the primary conflict between the hero and villain as the story progresses. Examining the character of Buddy in the Incredibles, he feels betrayed and rejected by his hero, and then develops a hate for heroes and works towards his goal of making ‘everyone super’ and, by extension, ‘no one super’.

Grief

Death of a loved one can lead a character toward evil and sometimes, good. Many heroes begin their stories trying to avenge those who have hurt someone they cared about. In some cases, it drives a character down a darker path. The path leading to Magneto’s villainy began with the tragic death of his mother. Dr Freeze has a famously tragic backstory surrounding his wife’s illness.

Religion

            Religion has the ability to help craft characters as well as the environment they are in. While writing this post, there were two examples that came to mind that I felt needed to be mentioned in reference to their religious beliefs or affiliations. In some cases, the influence of their religion, or religious household, has warped their sense of right and wrong. For Carrie, her abuse came from her deeply religious mother, who used religion as a way to control Carrie, insisting she had to be ashamed of normal, everyday occurrences as they were sinful. In the case of Eli Ever, his experience with religion as a child led him to believe that God was guiding his hand, even as he committed wrongdoings. Eli then committed murder and other crimes under the pretence that he was acting under God’s guidance. In Stephen King’s The Mist, Ms Carmody’s fanatical beliefs drove her to believe that divine intervention was taking place, and that a sacrifice had to be made.

            Lifestyle

            A character born of poverty can act unfavourable out of desperation or survival. A character suddenly bankrupt and needing to pay for medical bills may do the same, desperate to right their lives. Often, characters already experiencing abandonment or loss are left with nothing. They struggle to survive, to eat, to find money or shelter. Not only does desperation lead to desperate acts, but also a fierce determination to live a life better than they had. They seek money, they seek power, all in the pursuit of gaining stability they never had.

Pressure

Influence of relationships does not have to be mistreatment or death, in order to leave a scar. In some cases, they simply impart their own beliefs and values onto another, in the case of Draco Malfoy being influenced by his parents. There are also villains intent on carrying on the legacy, having admired the villain in some way, like Kylo Ren influenced by Vadar, or Amanda Young influenced by Jigsaw in Saw.

How to write a backstory for your villain

The history of a single person is not one cataclysmic event. Its multiple experiences woven together to create the character. It is not a matter of picking a tragic event for your villain to justify their behaviour, but creating a layered, three-dimensional character. Their experiences often link with each other, like a domino effect. I mentioned Eli Ever in one of the examples above, but his origin is more complicated than that. He was mistreated as a child and, as a child, pushed his father down the stairs to end his suffering. Eli then spent years in temporary homes, bouncing between families, pressured from other children to be normal. Eli then found a better home, only to have it torn away from him again by death. Through his developmental stages, Eli is living in fear, has no stability or comfort, and when he finds a sense of normalcy, he loses it.

Backstories unsaid

The author should know the villain’s backstory, but it doesn’t mean it has to be written for the reader or monologued by the villain themselves. Some of the examples throughout this post are characters whose backstories have been explored, not through the original narratives, but in origin stories. In other cases, they have been gently revealed throughout the story, in easy-to-manage snippets. Voldemort’s backstory, for example, was not outright stated in the very first book. In fact, his overall motive was not stated in the very first book. As readers, we knew he wanted the Philosopher’s Stone, that he may still be alive and looking to find a way to live again, and that Harry had once thwarted him, but that was it, and it was all we needed as readers. However, the deeper the story went with Voldemort still prominently the main antagonist, we got to learn more about his backstory, and more about his motives. And, this only came to be written as Harry needed to know. Us readers uncovered his backstory as Harry attempted to search for the Horcruxes. Dazzling information uncovered for a reason that served a purpose in the story.

There have been plenty of villains throughout history with no known backstories, or backstories provided with only minor details. We do not need to flood our reader with information, but implying can sometimes lead to an even stronger understanding than outright stating it.

Lots of Disney villains have little to no backstories, and have been considered by some as two-dimensional. In some cases, I agree, however, plenty of fairy-tale characters and children’s stories have influenced popular fiction, and ourselves as writers.

Personality can be used as a tool for painting a picture of a likely backstory. In the case of Scar in the Lion King, we see obvious conflict between he and Mufasa, and a resulting bitterness and resentment toward the ‘ruler of the pride’. Scar’s demeanour and attitude towards Mufasa hints at these feelings, implying sibling rivalry, jealousy, and perhaps favouritism from their parents. Scar’s comment, “Well, as far as brains go, I got the lion’s share but when it comes to brute strength… I’m afraid I am at the shallow end of the gene pool.” Tells us how Scar knows his traits are not what others view as what a lion or king needs. This gives us an idea that Scar says what he thinks everyone else knows or, perhaps, has been told by others. The relationship between he and Mufasa hint at his upbringing and childhood experiences. We can see his bitterness, and it gives us a nod as to why.

We see little of the glimpses, but they guide us to following how the villains thinks.

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