Writing a Good Bad Guy in Books (In Fact any media) is the “classic choice” sometimes they are really poorly made, and don’t work. Other times, they are loved so much that when the character was only added to kill the hero, they end up becoming an Icon
I really liked the villain in a book called “Little Fuzzy”. It’s public domain, here’s a link:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137
The gag is this… A habitable, but uninhabited planet has been discovered. A corporation has been granted infinite rights to the planet and has set up colonies, mining operations, terraforming operations, the works. It’s been running well for 30-40 years and people are making money, notably the CEO Victor Grego.
One day, one of the miners finds a little fuzzy bi-ped in his camp, nobody has seen an animal like this before, and he treats it like you or I would a lost cat turning up at our door.
The more time he spends with it, the more he thinks the creature is intelligent, and maybe more than intelligent, maybe sapient. Which would mean the planet is inhabited after all.
When the corporate charter is for an UNINHABITED planet. As videos start bouncing around and scientists and psychologists start getting involved, the CEO becomes worried that he could lose EVERYTHING, and pulls out all the stops with his cronies to shut “this nonsense” down, including, at one point, offering a bounty on little fuzzy pelts.
At the end, it all hinges on a legal trial, are fuzzies sapient or not?
It’s a good, short read. You can knock it out in about 2 hours. Highly, highly suggest it.
Bonus - There were two more that AREN’T in the public domain. :(
The best type of villain is the type that thinks they’re the hero.
For this, I turn to Atlas Shrugged. The villain is John Galt.
And dear God. John Galt is fucking boring.
he is the object of its often-repeated question “Who is John Galt?” and of the quest to discover the answer. Also, in the later part it becomes clear that Galt had been present in the book’s plot all along, playing several important roles though not identified by name.
Seems like the guy was written to be cool but isn’t
Galt follows Dagny to New York, where he hacks into a national radio broadcast to deliver a three-hour speech that explains the novel’s theme and Rand’s Objectivism.
That speech is sixty fucking pages of bullshit. He’s boring as living fuck because Ayn Rand had a boring fucking mind and wanted to fuck rich men.
Oh my god, this is a book in a book
He’s meant to be the hero, but it’s all such a joke… and he’s the rich man who can control it all! Like, my eyes couldn’t roll any harder. He’s the “hero” of her story but I’ve never unearthed a more boring or evil motherfucker.
When people say “The banality of evil” my mind goes “John Galt.”
