Redeeming Villainous Characters

Hello and welcome to my end-of-month blog post! Goodness gracious, February flew by, didn’t it? It feels like I just sat down to write last month’s newsletter! And there’s even an extra day in February this year!

Following the pattern I decided to set, these posts are a chance for me to write about one of the things I love: Stories. These are also a chance for you to read about something you love as well. (Because if you are reading this, I’m guessing that you enjoy stories too.)

If that’s true, pull up a chair, get cozy, and let’s talk about Villain Redemption Arcs.

Diving into the deep end of stories without my floaties on, I love a well-written Villain Redemption Arc. I honestly can’t get enough of them. I’ll talk about them all live-long day.

(But to keep this blog post somewhat brief, I won’t.)

I believe all good Villain Redemption Arcs should have two things: (1) Plenty of redemption seeds sown well before the villain turns from their wicked ways, and (2) Motivation that fits the story being told.

So as not to be too spoiler-y for any books you might not have read, I’ll stick to one, classic example of this from film: Darth Vader’s character arc in Star Warsthe Original Trilogy.

If you haven’t seen the Original Trilogy yet, go watch them right now, then come back and read this post. And if you’re not a Star Wars fan, well, then you probably won’t mind if I sort of spoil the first three movies for you.

***AHEM, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***

From his first moment on-screen, viewers know that Darth Vader is a villain who does—you guessed it—villainous things. He literally strangles a helpless, unarmed guy whilst lifting him off the ground after walking through a hallway filled with the bodies of rebel soldiers! (That sets the bar rather high for villainous deeds if you ask me.)

That level of despicable villainy continues throughout A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. From shooting down rebel ships (including Luke Skywalker’s childhood friend—RIP Biggs), freezing Han Solo in carbonite, to dueling Luke Skywalker in Cloud City, Darth Vader is a villain. But toward the end of The Return of the Jedi, we see a beautiful, masterful storytelling moment of redemption for this villainous character where his love for family wins out over loyalty to the Dark Side.

BUT—and I can’t stress this enough—when it comes to redemption arcs, the villain’s character development and arc have to be well-written for it to satisfy. As I said, It’s my opinion that the seeds of redemption have to be sown well in advance. Otherwise, the arc seems forced and likely won’t sit well with viewers and readers.

The same could be true for Hero Turns Villain Arcs. (I don’t know if that’s what they’re called, I’m making this up as I go along.) I’m talking about the character arc where the hero slowly becomes the villain… Sort of like what happens with Anakin Skywalker in the Prequels. The problem—ahem, one of the problems—with that particular character arc is that viewers know he’s going to become a villain. It’s only a matter of time. (Good writing will take some of that away by making people ask the question: How is it going to happen?)

Continuing with the Original Trilogyexample, right from the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope, the seeds of Darth Vader’s redemption are already being planted… By the time that it’s revealed in The Empire Strikes Back that Darth Vader is actually Luke’s father (gasp)—Anakin Skywalker—here comes the second vital part for the character’s redemption: Motivation.

(Not just in the hearts of the characters, but also in the reader/viewer’s hearts—that’s important!)

This motivation is multi-faceted. Luke wants his father to be redeemed, and viewers want Luke to be able to save his father from the Dark Side. The key component that is lacking is that Darth Vader doesn’t want to be saved. Not yet. In fact, when Luke tells his father that he knows there’s still good in him, Darth Vader claims that it’s too late.

So when the penultimate moment in the Emperor’s Throne Room comes, and Darth Vader is forced to watch the Emperor torture his son with Force Lightning (yikes), it makes his moment of redemption all the more beautiful. His love of family won out over his devotion to the Dark Side. (And yes, to be clear, I’m referring to the scene where he hurls an evil old man down an elevator shaft. Still. It’s a touching moment between a father and his son.)

What makes this Villain Redemption Arc work so well? The seeds for redemption were planted way back in the beginning of the story, and there was proper motivation to turn from evil to good that made sense within the story being told.

Well done, Mr. Lucas. That’s just plain, good writing, and I love it.

I could go on and on about villain-redemption character arcs, but I want to keep these newsletters (somewhat) short and readable instead of long and rambling. So that’s all for now!

With March coming up, here are a couple of exciting things to look for:

The next installment in my blog series, “Poking Fun at Fantasy Tropes” comes out in the middle of the month. Check out the first humorous post in the series, The Uninviting Tavern if you haven’t read it yet!

I’ll be posting short stories on the blog twice a week for the next twenty-six weeks! These are all from my book, Collected Short Stories: Volume One. If you’re wondering why I would post stories from a book that I’m trying to sell, this post gives a (hopefully) satisfying answer. The first short story goes live on March 4th.

Don’t want to miss out? Subscribe to the blog and you’ll receive an email as soon as new posts come out! In addition to being among the first to know about new blog posts, you’ll also periodically receive exclusive content such as first-looks at new short stories and books!

Until next time,

Al