So I have this villain and his name is Derek. He’s a prince and he will become king. I’m trying to think of how to make him a better villain and I kind just got the thought… he’s a sociopath.
In the story, he acts like he’s in love with the MC to make this other girl jealous, and then he cheats on the MC with the other girl, and then from then on is constantly cheating and has very bland relationships. He never cares about any of them.
He is very clearly going to become king, but there’s a time in the story when the LI and him are kind of competing to become king even though Derek has the upper hand, and then when the LI is going to be declared as king, Derek sets fire to the wing of the building the LI is in, intending to kill him, but of course, the LI escapes along with the MC.
Is this a good villain? I feel like he’s lacking something, like good motivation. He wants to become king, of course, but I feel like there could be better motivation, because, until that final moment when he set the fire, he had never done anything like that before.
Well why does he want to be king?
What influences his decisions and causes him to hurt the MC?
What made him this way?
He wants to become king because all his life he was raised with the idea that he was going to become king, and that was all he could think about over the years, and all he ever wanted.
Entertainment? I can’t think of anything else other than he knows the MC and the other girl fight a lot and he likes to see that happen, and he also wants to be seen as “helping the poor” (they’re poor) and raising his image in that way.
His mother probably
Great questions btw.
And great answers, lovely answers.
I know that he sets that fire because he had expected to become king, acted nice around his people, studied, did everything, and now it was just getting handed over to someone with no experience. That’s gonna be an important turning point.
I wanna add something extra though… idk.
Like? Maybe someone is controlling him??
Ooo… that’s interesting.
He ends up marrying the other girl who was fighting the MC for him in the beginning, and I can’t think why he would because he doesn’t need her for his image anymore. Maybe he ends up falling in love with her and slowly realizing something is off?
Yes, that’s perfect!
Like he’s smart, and he realizes that having Sandy for his image isn’t smart anymore because he’ll win more of the kingdom over with his “play boy” type attitude, but he doesn’t want to give her up. Then he realizes he was controlled by his mother and that love, actual love, is helping ease that control. Ooh this is perfect!
I love it!!
Sounds great! 
If he’s a sociopath, you kinda have an out in that he would probably just want power for the sake of having power and control over others. Sociopaths tend to enjoy being in situations where they have at least some control over people. Army generals, CEOs, managers, etc.
And also, I would personally play up the manipulative side of him. Have it be very believable to begin with, have him seem like the perfect choice in almost every way for the main character and then for that to flip when his goal changes. The sociopath angle breaks a few usual character writing rules, but it can work really well
Yeah, in the story I do the cliche of having the MC and the mean girl both being in love with him, and have that competition but he appears to choose the MC in every situation. I’m also going to have the MC tell him EVERYTHING and him getting away with telling almost nothing about himself, but seeming as if he does.
If I were you I would twist the plot after all that has happened so the mc becomes queen and neither get what they want.
I like twists like that
Closing this cuz it’s no longer relevant to me.