Tia's Tips! Villainous Characters and how to roleplay as one.

I've been thinking a lot about this, so I decided to make a blog (Tia's Tips!) about these particular kinds of characters, and how fun and sometimes beneficial it is to roleplay, or roleplay with a villainous character. To start, I have to say that villains are one of my favorite types of characters. They are complex. They require a lot of thought regarding their behaviour and motives. They can make some of the best roleplays ever, if portrayed properly. And naturally, it's just damn fun to be bad sometimes. I am sure many of us feel that way from time to time, too. But like all things, there's a good and bad side to playing a villain character. The first point isn't even about playing the character itself. It's about the reception that character has in the roleplay community. Now as someone who has played a villain, and played with other people who play villains, one of the biggest downsides is how people will react to a villainous character. Generally, there are three types of responses from the roleplay community when a non-canon villain appears and tries to quote-unquote, make a splash. -The first type is nay-saying. Scoffing or dismissing the evil character before giving it a proper chance. It's incredibly disheartening, especially when a villain character has genuine potential for roleplays. Sure, it's not everyone's cup of tea, and you have every right to not roleplay with a villain. That's perfectly fine, but like the saying goes, don't knock it til you try it. -The second type is what I call the 'Insta-heroes'. The ones who roleplay specifically with a villain to oneshot the character or make themselves win every battle, no matter what. Not too many like this, thankfully, but I've seen them. -The third type are the ones who want to take these types of characters seriously, and these are the ones that like a bit of violence and something out of the norm. I'm sad to say, this is a small group from what I've observed over the years. Being a villain is incredibly hard, especially on a site about a show that's about friendship and magic and blah blah blah. But even in the show, there were genuine villains. Genuine characters that had motives for their villainy, be it personal reason, or because they just wanted to fuck shit up. Like I said, playing a villain character can be very complex if you want to do it just right, and canon villains are no different. One point I will make, is that no villain should be easily defeated. That's just bland and uncreative. But they shouldn't be ridiculously powerful enough to walk through literal death and be completely unharmed, or unfazed. Again, bland and uncreative. A proper villain should be somewhere between. Intelligent for sure, as many villains will retreat when things don't go in their favor. This means they will come back again later, and create more story plots to roleplay through. A villain should be defeatable, but resilient and determined. Whatever they hope to achieve, they want it. And they want it bad. Another point is that not every villain needs to be mean. I play quite a few charming villains that make it easy to forget they are in fact, a villainous character. Deception is a large part of what makes a villain good, as we want that "twist" when they reveal their true, underlying nature. Making a villain to roleplay with is a long process. They require more thought than any other character, in my opinion. You can't just plop them in a bar and hope they hit it off. Before even roleplaying a villain, you need to work out their history and personality, so that at least YOU know their possible motivations and reactions for certain situations. It's probably the most time consuming part, and by the time you're done, you'll be eager to test the waters with your new character. To which I say, slow down champ! As I said, a villain can't just be placed in any old setting right off the bat. It takes time to break them in, slowly, and get a feel for the inevitable negative energy you're going to feel and harness to roleplay your new baddie right. I recommend starting with a close friend or two, then branching out to others once you're more comfortable with your villain's personality and behavior. It may take some adjusting here and there, but this step is important for shaping your character more profoundly. Now, this next part may or may not annoy some people...but don't do one-sided roleplays! A good villain/hero aspect is that sometimes the villain DOES win once in a while, even if it's brief. But they do! That way, the villain player feels some satisfaction, and once they are "defeated" again, that will make the hero's side even more satisfying to accomplish. But don't be disheartened, villainous one! Make your escape and plot your next nefarious scheme! Unless you allow your oc's death in that one roleplay, but that, my lovelies, is the final point. Ah, yes. The death of a character. This path should only be taken if the roleplayers feel that they have reached the end of their campaign and wish to try or move on to something else. Now the death in a villain/hero type of roleplay can be a hard decision to make, but it would just mean that the character would be dead for that particular roleplay and partnered character(s), not forever! But again, I stress not to be one-sided about this. Heros often die too, but admittedly, villains more often than naught meet their ends through some form of karmatic justice. Break the mold! Be bold! And whatever you agree on, it will make for a great story either way! That's all for Tia's Tips! I hope this helps people make great characters, as well as allow non villainous types to understand how much fun roleplaying with a villain can be! Of course you can totally ignore it all the same! No big whoop~