All About Villains!

 

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Devin Davis: Because we all know that in so many stories, the good guys wouldn't be as awesome if they didn't have an equally awesome bad guy. We are talking about villains today on Writing in the Tiny House.  Hello, hello, hello! And welcome back to the show Writing in the Tiny House. I am Devin Davis. I am your host and I am the guy living in a tiny house in Northern Utah, who is here to show you that despite how busy you think you are, that one book idea that you have bubbling in the back of your brain is completely possible to do.

[00:00:59]Over the next few episodes where it is just you and me, I am going to put together a series on villains. We're going to talk about why villains are awesome.

[00:01:11] We're going to talk about believable villain dialogue. Backstory actions, all the good things, because villains are awesome. But first let's do some announcements with the podcast. We actually have a brand new patron who signed up to support this podcast. His name is Sam. Sam, welcome aboard. Thank you so much for your generous donation.

[00:01:36]Sam and I actually go way back. I know Sam, we have been friends for a long time and I was just so excited when he said that he was going to be signing up to become a patron through Patreon with Writing in the Tiny House's program with Patreon. So welcome aboard. Thank you so much for your donation.

[00:01:58]Also a quick shout out to another podcast. I just want to mention the podcast called Finding the Magic, with Trisha Copeland. This is a podcast dedicated entirely to interviewing authors and talking about their books.

[00:02:14] It can be found on, I think this one is exclusively on Anchor. But go ahead and see if it's found everywhere else too. And it's a good one, guys. It is definitely one worth checking out. 

[00:02:27] So this episode will be coming out the Wednesday after Independence Day. I hope that you guys had a good federal holiday. I certainly did. It has been spent putting together a lot of content for this podcast. I've been doing my darndest to get all the interviews lined up and done and interviews are really good.

[00:02:50] Interviews are special. I love the interview episodes. They bring so much value to this podcast and they are actually the episodes that are the most supported. I have been interviewing my head off over these past two weeks to get more of that content here, just because it's something that I enjoy and it is something that has proven to be valuable for all of you as well.

[00:03:17] In the meantime, though, there are still plenty of episodes where it's just going to be you and me and over the next few, it's going to be me and you. And we're going to be talking about villains. So let's go ahead and get into the main body of this episode.

[00:03:32] So let me tell you my story when it comes to villains, what made the villain such a unique part of my enjoyment of fiction? This actually goes back to high school. Yes. I am going to tell you about the magical time that I was in high school. And the Broadway musical Wicked just came out. And of course I bought the soundtrack.

[00:04:01] I knew all the words I went and saw Wicked here in Utah, the instant that it was here playing. And the reason why I bring up Wicked is because of the unique take that that story has on who the villain is. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with the musical Wicked or unfamiliar with the book that the musical is based on, the book is called The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

[00:04:32] The book was hard for me to read, but the musical was wonderful and I would take anybody to see the musical, including all of my kids. The reason why this carved a wonderful, beautiful little space in my heart for villains is because the main character Elphaba is treated like a villain. She is actually the main character.

[00:04:53] She's the person that we are cheering for, but she is misunderstood. She is a victim of circumstance and the entire city notices that she is different and because she is different and because she is powerful, she is treated poorly. She is treated with violence. She is treated with bias and with fear and with all of the horrible things that you could treat a person.

[00:05:22] And so towards the end of the story, or at least I guess the second act, she says "Fine! If this is what you think I am, then this is what I shall be!" And I love that. I love a good villain and my love for villains grew from my experience that I had with this story of Elphaba. And it was from there that I came to really appreciate everything that a good villain brings to the table in a good work of fiction.

[00:05:56] Now, granted, there are plenty of works of fiction that don't have a villain just because the story may revolve around some other form of conflict. It could be disease, it could be a competition. It could be other forms of trials in a person's life. Or it could be that unseen villain, like going up against an institution or something like that.

[00:06:22] So not every work of fiction has a villain, but when it has a villain, I feel that it gets to be a good villain. And that matters.

[00:06:32]With more and more people coming out with fiction with fantasy fiction, with these more epic battles, there gets to be good villains and the classic space opera-- I'm talking to you, Star Wars-- this space opera is where there is an obvious good side and an obvious bad side. And the heroes are pure good heroes and the bad guys are pure bad guys. And there is never confusion about that. With the more recent movies of Star Wars that have come out, they're starting to become more nuanced than that. With the original many episodes and original many movies, it was that classic space opera of the good guys are the good guys. And they're always the good guys.

[00:07:25] And then the bad guys are the bad guys. And now that so many people are writing these epic genre-specific stories, we are beginning to get more nuanced characters and especially more nuanced main characters and better villains. It's becoming more common to see a main character that has a dark side, or that sometimes chooses darkness or chooses a bad thing or chooses to hurt someone. But they're still the good guy. And they're still the person that you're following in the story and kind of rooting for. At the same time you get to see them make these dark decisions. Also it is becoming more common and I'm so grateful for this because of the color that it adds to the storyline. It is becoming more common to see villains that have redeemable qualities, even though their role in the story is not redeemable. Or a villain in their secret identity, they're a family man and they're a good dad and a good spouse, but behind the scenes, they're like ruining the world or you can see a villain who is doing what they're doing, but they have a completely legitimate reason for it. And that adds such wonderful flavor and wonderful complexity to the storyline itself. When you have this guy who is not so obviously evil, it becomes so fun to kind of feel out what do I really want to get out of this story? Or where do I find myself in this conflict? Am I really siding with this main character who's kind of a jerk sometimes? And he was written that way on purpose. Or am I siding with this villain who has a completely legitimate reason to do the things that she is doing? And I get it. Under the same circumstances I would hope that I would be courageous enough to do this too. And so it can be this big, moral dilemma that can kind of rip you apart.

[00:09:42] And I love that and I love the excitement and the confusion, and just the wild ride of being taken on this emotional roller coaster. I love the dichotomy and I love having to choose or to do some soul searching, to see if this was a real circumstance, where would I be? Which team would I be batting for?

[00:10:08]So for today's book review, I am going to talk about a book that is near and dear to me that was released very recently called The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by VE Schwab. This was released just a few months ago and it was one of the first books that I read in 2021. And I knew after I finished it, that it would be one of the best books that I would be reading in 2021. The writing style of this novel is incredible. VE Schwab has definitely built for herself a name in fiction, and she has built it from the ground up. She has done an amazing job and this book, I'm not going to pretend that this book is perfect or complete in all aspects, because it is not. But there is profound beauty found within this book. And the most beautiful parts, I believe, are the exchanges between the main character Addie LaRue and the bad guy, Luc. So I'm not going to give away all of the premise of this book, just because it is something that I want you to go out and read. But the entire premise of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is it is a deal with the devil trope. The devil comes in every other chapter and has a thought-provoking and meaningful conversation with Addie LaRue, where they discuss life and they discuss morality. And it is the most wonderful thought-out villain that I have read in such a long time.

[00:12:03] So add The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue to your To Be Read list today. And I hope that when you read it or if you've already read it, you can share with me your thoughts of the bad guy, Luc, just because I want to hear what you think. It was one of the most impressive things about the story for me, but I want to know what you think, and I want to know what you thought about him as a villain. So be sure to join the Facebook group of Writing in the Tiny House and share with me your thoughts. I give that book and easy five stars. Like I said, the book is not flawless in all respects, but it is definitely a five-star book.

[00:12:49] So go ahead and check that out today. And that is it for today. Thank you so much for joining me with this episode of Writing in the Tiny House. Again, I am Devin Davis and thank you for listening. A big thank you to my new patron, Sam. Welcome aboard.

[00:13:05]If you want to join the Patreon program, go to patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse. Go ahead and sign up for that today. Also that special shout out to the podcast, Finding the Magic, with Trisha Copeland. You can catch me on Instagram. My handle is @authordevindavis. And the social media things, the links are all in the description of this episode. So thank you for joining and we will see you next time. Have a good one guys.