Villains for Valentine's Day?

I have to write about villains on the most romantic day EVER? (Whine.)  Reviewing the topic as assigned: development of positive traits builds better villains. Hmm. Somewhat tongue in cheek, I offer:

In my novels to date the "villains" have been:

Isis, Queen of the Egyptian Great Ones, who doesn't think a god and a mortal should fall in love...

Nephthys, her sister, who doesn't think humans count for much and doesn't care about two mortals in love...

A Hyksos commander who's been ordered to retrieve a certain Egyptian dancer...

A practitioner of black magic (can't say who or we'll have spoilers happening)...

Various assorted demons...

Or, if you prefer science fiction romance, I've had:

The penny pinching and evil corporation behind the Wreck of the Nebula Dream...plus pirates and very scary aliens...

The person masterminding a planetwide rebellion in Escape From Zulaire...(again, no spoilers)...

And, last but not least, a barbarian warlord who's determined to keep the unwiilling bride sent to him in an arranged marriage....

Well, ok  each of my villains has their reasons for doing what they do, even the demons, who have to report back to their scary master (and who might be hungry as well...). Isis and Nephthys certainly have their attention on the greater good of all Egypt in 1550 BCE, and it's up to the human heroes and heroines in the Gods of Egypt books to figure out a way to survive while still accomplishing the mission....

I just tend to focus more on my protagonists and take the villain at face value. He's got his motivations but he (or she) is the Big Bad and we're in the middle of the story when I start Chapter One and so let's just get ON with it. Can I make a tiny confession? There's a series I used to read (not written by a fellow Word Whore) where I skipped PAGES of internal monologuing from the villain in every book. Ok, don't be shocked! I'm sure it was all very well written but I...just...wasn't...that ...interested. Give me the stuff about the hero and the heroine.

Perhaps it's because I was imprinted young by Ming the Merciless. The one in the 1930's serials actually, because our local TV station ran them every day in the late afternoon. Do we know Ming's back story? Do we know what motivates him, other than a craving to conquer the universe and quite understandable desire to marry Dale Arden? Do we enjoy the adventure and know who to root for? NO! I rest my case.

Now I will say there's one villain I always was fascinated by, and

Richelieu & Milady deWinter

that was Cardinal Richelieu. I did get that - as portrayed in The Three Musketeers -  he was motivated quite a bit by his desire to do the right thing for France, and a little bit by his um 'admiration' for the Queen. So he could be flexible, and not all evil all the time.

Perhaps at some point in my writing life I'll have a villain who compels me to delve deeply into his/her backstory and have sympathetic aspects. I do have a couple of characters in mind, both in ancient Egypt and for my SFR's who might start out as less-than-white-hat people and evolve. We'll see.  

Musketeerly goodness for you:

Villains (Twirl Mustache Now)

I think the actual subject this week is something along the lines of Villain as Protagonist, which just isn't something I really do in my books. Obviously there has to be a "villain" of some kind. I was imprinted young by two very different, old fashioned science fiction classics (as shown on late night TV, badly cut up to allow time for endless used car dealer ads). So on the one hand we have Ming the Merciless whose only motivation seems to be that he feels born to rule the Universe and consort with hot babes...and on the other hand we have Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet, who has so many motivations and so much backstory, including being based on a Shakespeare character, that it's hard for one movie to contain it all!

Flash Gordon kinda says "Not my planet and not my hot girlfriend - hands off!" in reaction to "his" villain. Captain J. J. Adams  has to keep Morbius's id from killing them all, rescue the hot lady (and the all knowing robot) and get the heck back into space before the planet blows up.

Entertainment Weekly very conveniently has a story written by Anthony Breznican on this very subject in their November 8, 2013 issue, which I received today. Good thing I got my mail today! I don't know if the article is also on their website at  http://www.ew.com/ew/ but it's a fun story, including a table of the five Archetypes, including such tropes as The Snubbed Sibling and the Vengeful One, tracing them backwards and forwards in time. Sauron from LOTR is a Power Monger, according to them. I think Ming probably falls into that category too, although I can't recall Sauron paying any attention to women, which was a key oversight on his part. (SPOILER: Remember Sauron's subordinate the Witch-King and what Eowyn did to him?) And we don't know if Sauraon had a mustache, come to think of it.

The article also has this great quote from Sean Bailey, President of Production at Walt Disney Studios:
"The better you make your villain, the better your hero has to be." Mr. Bailey goes on in the article to discuss John McClane of "Die Hard" and how he had to rise to a level where he could defeat Hans Gruber.

Some of my books have a specific villain, as in Escape From Zulaire or Dancer of the Nile, but often this person is working within the framework of bigger events, like a war. So he's on his side, which is the opposite side from that of my hero and heroine. The conflict doesn't start out as personal.  In Wreck of the Nebula Dream the disaster traces back to a greedy corporation more than anything else and the fight during the book for Nick and Mara is just to survive and get off the wrecked ship.

Now I am writing a villain (or maybe a villainness, just to keep you guessing) in Magic of the Nile, which will be out in January, and I'm giving this person more of an in-depth set of reasons why they do what they do, and why they feel what they feel about the heroine and her hero.... no war, no wrecked cruise ships...

But so, if you know that I began with Ming and Morbius, you can probably figure out that I won't be writing any villains on the level of what my colleague James A. Moore talked with such enthusiasm about on Monday.

Although I do have an idea for a D'nvannae Brother* gone bad......never say never, I guess!

(*think Ninja/Monk/Badass/serves an alien goddess - first introduced by me in WRECK)