Who you are vs. What you did

Not everyone deserves a redemption arc

“Hey, I steal things but I’m not a thief!” - quote from a troubled youth I heard on Oprah one time.

The key to writing a good villain is to understand how they view themselves. Rare is the villain who twirls his moustache and muses to himself, “Yes, I shall cause misery for its own sake!”

Nah, he always has a reason, which is why we’ve seen a rise in morally grey villains of late (see Killmonger, Thanos of the MCU) vs unambiguously evil villains like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Gul Dukat.

We’ve also seen a rise of redemption arcs for villainous characters, largely due the increased popularity of tropes like enemies to lovers, bully romance (seriously wtf?), and the HOT villain.

I’m actually working on a redemption arc for a villainous male character and, honestly, it’s tough. There are limitations on when a redemption arc is even possible, which I touched on in my captive woman/sexy kidnapping post.

Because not everyone deserves grace do they? And most of us have lived long enough to not…