Western Villan Archetypes

[O'Grodney]

I am stumped, blocked, deadened, whatever you wish to call it. I am writing a western novella and I'm about halfway through but I've realized my antagonist has very little character depth and even littler development.

I need a few ideas on archetypes, in order to be culturally sensitive hes not a marauding Indian warrior or something of that nature. He is actually a senile old man dying of tuberculosis....yes take that in that's my bad guy. I've got a pretty solid backstory (he's a landowner intent on expanding his holdings at any cost e.t.c) I'd just like to get a few ideas on basic character development not just about this character but on western villains in general, this is my first foray into the western written world and the extent of my research comes from L'amour novels and Eastwood films. Any help is appreciated and I will post the fruits of my labor within a few months. I swear I'm not fishing for your own ideas (I detest plagiarism as I've had it happen to me) and if I absolutely must use something you've written (word for word) you will receive full credit, I'm not looking for YOUR ideas (Your genius is your own) however I just want a simple conversation/brainstorm.

Thanks! Go raibh míle maith agat! (literally: 1,000 thanks to you)

[LawOfTheLand]

Well, the main thing about villains that I've seen is that they always have their own twisted rationale for doing what they're doing, which more often than not contains a grain of truth but is warped beyond recognition by their own extremist standpoint on how they think the world should be.

Take your land-holding robber baron that believes he must expand his domain no matter what. How does he justify this course of action to himself? Is he the puppet of a more sinister figure? Does he believe that he has a great new idea for how the world should work, therefore he should be the one to rule it under this system? Is he simply trying to ensure that his descendants are as well off as possible before he passes on due to his condition? Is he looking for something that might cure him that he believes to be in the surrounding lands? The possibilities are numerous.

[O'Grodney]

Thanks! Ill take your words into consideration, like I said hes senile and suffering from tuberculosis, thus lives in great pain I figure this could make him heavily embittered. His motives so far are driven primarily by greed, but I like your idea about the descendants, I'd like to incorporate a granddaughter possibly as I feel that would make him more realistic as it would be a bit of a human emotion but would that make him appear too human? As a villain I want him to have a sort of dangerous yet alluring feel (think Bella Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula). Due to his mental condition I think I can bring in the puppet idea as well one of his thugs whispering in his ear perhaps.

I appreciate the Ideas you've been a great help!

[Sciamancer]

superstar writes it good. The #1 thing to keep in mind when writing villains is that no one considers themselves a villain in real life, so if you want it to be realistic and not a farce, try thinking about their perspective. Try, as an exercise, writing through the villain's perspective, and make his position actually one that a reader could empathize with (or almost empathize with) when fed through his personal filter of bias.

Also... you want to be culturally sensitive. The best way to make a villain "sensitive" is to make him or her have motive that isn't 100% evil in nature. A Native American warrior villain who attacks innocent villages because his tribe was wiped out by white men and has thus gained a need for revenge and a giant anti-white sentiment is still a good villain, and no reasonable person should be offended. An old dying white guy who just wants to kill everyone for no good reason is, while perhaps not culturally insensitive, very silly, and likely to piss off old people for such a poor portrayal. So much fiction works on the basis of definite good and evil forces. I don't particularly like that, but maybe it's just me. I like moral ambiguity.

On the other hand, you do want to make sure he is seen as the antagonist. Based on what you've told us, though, that would probably be achieved simply through either telling all the facts as an omniscient narrator, which could make the villain seem more morally ambiguous, or through telling the protagonist's side of the story through a limited narrator, which would make the villain seem more evil by filtering the knowledge through the bias of the protagonist.

[O'Grodney]

The story (I should've mentioned this) is structured so that perspective changes between my protagonist and antagonist with each couple of chapters. He is an old pissed off white guy so far (I know the lack of depth in him is sickening) but I am progressing heavily since my earlier posts, my writers block is almost completely gone. Thank you for your input and I take your words heartily into consideration.

I have incorporated two of qbsuperstar03's ideas both the descendants and the puppet ideal. I now have him driven by pseudo-greed with a hidden motive of supporting his granddaughter (dunno about her yet but possibly illegitimate? I toyed with the idea of a grandson however I liked the granddaughter idea better.) He's also influenced by his bodyguard (not a beefy type hes more Leon Van Cleef http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Van_Cleef, still menacing but very intelligent.) but I don't want the influence to progress to total dominance....yet, toying with the idea that as the disease worsens so will my antagonist's mental condition thus leading the bodyguard into further control, HOWEVER I dont want the bodyguard as the main antagonist at least in this current story.