How to Captivate Your Audience and Write an Amazing Villain
Inspiration from Pokemon Sword and Shield
Most writers have simplistic beliefs when it comes to crafting story villains.
For instance, most people assume that the villain is either sympathetic or not. They’re either scary or they’re not. They’re either impressive or they’re not.
Why do people think in such black-and-white extremes?
This rigid, surface-level thinking really limits what they can achieve in their stories.
To show you what I mean, let’s talk about the villain in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
There will be spoilers for the game.
Chairman Rose is the wealthy, charismatic man who organizes gym challenges and the Pokemon league for the Galar region.
He also helped to develop dynamaxing, a new battle mechanic that makes Pokemon become gigantic in both size and power. Dynamaxing is powered by items called Wishing Stars, which are amazing energy sources.
But it turns out he has ulterior motives for collecting Wishing Stars. He wanted to use the stars to awaken the ancient legendary Pokemon, Eternatus, to give endless energy for Galar’s towns and cities.
He anticipates that in a Millennia from now, there will be an energy crisis and everything they built will be gone.
Rose believes they have to act now, and call on Eternatus. Though it’s a dangerous pokemon, he thought that he, or the Galar Champion Leon, would be able to capture and control the pokemon.
But he finds out later that Eternatus is uncontrollable. Even Champion Leon couldn’t beat it. Chairman Rose feels resigned but still battles you.
After you defeat him, he thanks you for the battle, and urges you to head up to help the Champion restrain Eternatus.
However, you fail to stop the legendary Pokemon. In fact, none of your attacks even hit it!
When all seems hopeless, your rival Hop reminds you that you picked up the ancient item, the Rusted Shield (and Hop picked up the Rusted Sword. Or vice versa). You’ll use them to summon the Sword and Shield pokemon for help.
The Sword and Shield legendary Pokemon, Zacian and Zamazenta, indeed appear. With their aid, you can finally hit Eternatus. Zacian and Zamazenta are unbelievably powerful. Before long, you defeat and even capture Eternatus.
Much later, you learn that Chairman Rose has turned himself in to the police.
Is Chairman Rose a sympathetic villain? Or something else?
Now that you’ve read the above story (or played the game), what is your impression of Chairman Rose?
Is he sympathetic?
I trawled the internet for opinions, both through gaming articles and Reddit posts. Some people say yes. His methods were terrible but he deeply cares about the Galar region and wanted to save it
And yes, it’s something that won’t happen in 1000 years. But this is an underlying message about the climate change warnings in our real world.
We won’t lose our homes and our planet won’t be destroyed anytime soon (we hope). So people just put their heads down and continue going about their business. We won’t act until it’s absolutely urgent, and by that time, it would be too late. Just look at what happened to Florida.
Chairman Rose is what I would call a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
But just because he has good intentions, does that make him sympathetic?
Some people answer yes, because he does seem to be a kind and generous man overall. And he encourages trainers to have fun battling and become stronger. He even admitted he was wrong in the end and turned himself in to the police.
Some other people say no. He tried to guilt-trip Champion Leon into helping him with this crazy scheme. Rose is supposed to be super smart, being both a CEO and a master scientist, as well as a formidable pokemon trainer. Yet, he was dumb enough to think he could control the powerful legendary Pokemon, Eternatus.
A stupid villain is an unsympathetic villain, right?
But some other people pointed out that, while he is smart, human beings are not rational. Rose was acting out of fear. He was genuinely scared that if they didn’t act now, the citizens of Galar would all be doomed.
In a way, he’s like a caricature of an environmental conservationalist. Alarmist, paranoid, and inconsiderate of other people’s lives despite wanting to “save” everyone.
Of course, in reality, not all environmental activists are like this.
Nevertheless, whether Rose is a good man deep down who chose extreme measures, or is just a dumb lunatic, depends on your opinion.
Is Chairman Rose a scary villain?
I read an article where the author claims that Chairman Rose is one of the most terrifying villains in the Pokemon franchise.
Their reasoning was that he was charming and likable. He seemed so friendly and kind that you would never have thought he would be a villain.
Moreover, he passionately believes in what he’s doing, that the energy crisis will end them all if they don’t act now.
I have to wonder what villain doesn’t believe in themselves and their mission, though. But these are interesting reasons for why someone might find him terrifying.
Did I personally find him scary? Perhaps not. It was exhilarating, even spine-chilling, to see him try to sway Leon the Champion. Rose didn’t hold him hostage but he got him alone to talk in his private Rose Tower, which he barred off from all intruders.
The tension and buildup at the end was fun, and his battle music was epic. Someone compared it to a Hans Zimmerman soundtrack and I had to agree.
But despite the thriller vibe that I enjoyed, I admit that I didn’t find Rose frightening. The setup was sinister enough, but perhaps his good intentions made him not that scary to me.
Not sure I would call him a “good person” per se, but I wouldn’t call him a “bad person,” either. Also, good people can do bad things.
Moreover, he gives up quite easily. He concedes defeat to you after you beat him. He even apologizes and encourages you to help Leon restrain Eternatus. After that whole incident, he surrenders himself to the police, too.
In fact, many players complained that Rose just dropped off the map after that. He’s not the most persevering villain ever. No comebacks, revenge, backup plans, nothing. So he’s not that scary, in my opinion.
Some people even called him an underwhelming villain.
What makes an “underwhelming” villain anyway?
This might be the most intriguing point of contention for me.
Some people thought he was unimpressive because he was so stupid and ridiculous. Why did he think he could control a legendary Pokemon to get what he wants? And he wishes to save Galar by unleashing a pokemon that can destroy the world!
Furthermore, he freaked out over a crisis that won’t happen till a millennia from now. It’s one thing to be prepared for the future, but using such an extreme and risky measure for something that won’t happen in 1000 years is absurd and foolish.
Champion Leon, despite disagreeing with Rose that they need to save Galar now, promised to help him the day after the Championship Cup, since he wants to battle the player.
But Chairman Rose couldn’t wait. So, right before you battle Leon, Rose wakes Eternatus and causes a blackout. He broadcasts his face at the Pokemon League stadium, announcing the whole energy crisis. This is disturbing too, since Chairman Rose was always there to encourage these pokemon tournaments, not disrupt them.
Many players protested that Rose was so impatient that he couldn’t wait just one day for Leon to help him.
Some other folks argued that Rose wanted the spectacle, the heroics, the credit of being the one who saves the world. Obviously that was the wrong way to go about it, but Rose is driven by emotion and ego like any ordinary human being.
The other complaint about Rose, was that his villain arc seemed slapped on, with little to no signs of his villainy until the latter part of the story.
It’s as though Game Freak realized last minute that they didn’t have an evil doer, so they turned him into a bad guy.
Nonetheless, others think that the subtle signs earlier in the game are enough to give us a warning.
Another factor, is that the character we play is an “outsider” with little access to Chairman Rose’s story. Someone remarked that they’d love to play as Champion Leon, as he gets an insider view of these crucial plot events.
That’s a great point. If you’re stuck in the perspective of a character who gets to see so little of the villain, of course you won’t see much.
But if you were in the perspective of someone who is more involved in the villain’s plot, you would see much more. Rose’s progression would likely look more believable from Leon’s standpoint.
People also disagree about whether his bad guy actions are convincing or not. Some say that his devious and extremist plot, is inconsistent with his friendly and open-hearted character.
Hmm on the one hand, I believe people can be inconsistent. On the other hand, maybe the reason why some saw his behavior as too inconsistent to be convincing, is because the “subtle signs” of his villainy were too well hidden.
Were the subtle signs too subtle?
Some players bragged that from the first time they saw Rose, they could already guess that he was the big bad guy.
Other players did not see it coming at all.
I confess that I’m in the latter group. However, I thought the warning signs were enough. Let’s see if you agree with me:
First of all, people adored him to excess. I always find it fishy if someone is praised to the high heavens.
Plus, his secretary, Oleana, often seemed to be hiding something. Rose was so warm and open, but Oleana kept being hush hush about her boss’s work.
It was also strange how they had to keep collecting Wishing Stars. I wouldn’t have noticed this if Oleana didn’t act sketchy about it, though.
Some other commenters said that they were struck by Rose throwing Bede under the bus. Bede is a boy who Rose sort of adopted. He saw Bede’s potential, gave him a pokemon, and encouraged him to become a great trainer. Rose then endorsed him to be a gym challenger.
But later, when Bede uses the Chairman’s pokemon to destroy a historical artefact, Rose shakes his head in dismay. He says that he’s very disappointed in Bede, then Rose withdraws his endorsement of him as a gym challenger.
Bede is a terribly arrogant and obnoxious guy, so I didn’t feel much sympathy for him. Also, I think it’s awful that he had to destroy a historical artefact, and with the Chairman’s own pokemon, too. The pokemon was clearly uncomfortable, and Bede kept pushing the pokemon to do his bidding.
Frankly, I didn’t blame Rose for “throwing him under the bus.”
So this Bede incident didn’t count as a sign of villainy to me. But it did count for many other people.
Nevertheless, do you think these “subtle signs” are enough to clue you in to his badness? Or do you think the game makers were being too discreet that you wouldn’t have noticed?
An awkward last point
Finally, there’s an awkward point I must acknowledge too.
Some players also liked Rose…for himself. He’s nice, warm, and hot. (In some people’s opinion.) One commenter bluntly said that they want to sleep with him, and someone else agreed with them. Some other commenters called him a Daddy.
Okay, Rose is not my type. But physical attractiveness (as subjective as it is), can contribute to how compelling a character is to someone.
Maybe this sounds shallow to you. But it’s also snobbish to pretend that a character’s looks have no effect on the player. And we all have different aesthetic tastes, anyway.
I was personally glad to see people thirst over a male video game character. Since the usual thirst is over female video game characters.
So what can we do to write great villains?
From Chairman Rose’s example, we see that when we ask whether he’s a sympathetic, scary, or impressive or underwhelming villain, different people have different opinions. They’re not just trolls messing around, either. They are all valid and well-argued opinions, even if we don’t agree with them.
What we feel will also be shaped by our personal experiences and preferences.
For instance, I find villains with good intentions to be sympathetic but not scary. But someone else found him to be one of the most terrifying villains in Pokemon history, partly due to his benevolent motives.
Not everyone even agrees that his motives are benign. Some think this is just an ego trip for him, an arrogance that he can control a legendary Pokemon and claim to be a hero.
But with all these disagreements, does that mean we should throw our hands in the air and give up? Should we just write anything?
My answer is no. We should still write a villain that is compelling to us personally. Whether you want them to be sympathetic, frightening, etc. is up to you. Some people want their villain to be utterly irredeemable, which is fair. Some others want their villains to have good moments, so that it’s hard to hate them completely.
We can be mindful of how different readers may interpret our villain. Some readers will appreciate our villains more than others. You can always ask for honest feedback from others.
Just remember, as always, that not everyone is in your target audience. If someone gives you a suggestion that helps you communicate your intentions better, that’s great! But if their suggestion just steers you away from what you intended, you can feel free to ignore it.
There are so many ways to write a fascinating villain, after all. Pick the path you like best.
