The Villain Combo Platter

Back when the Deep Space Nine series was developing into a more serialized kind of story, the writers wanted to define the major threat from the distant Gamma Quadrant. Who was going to be the big villain for the series?

The stakes were pretty high, here - what if the villains didn't work? It could undercut the entire series.

To help make sure it worked, the writers decided that it wouldn't be one villainous race - it would be THREE.

The J'em Hadar would be the muscle. Bred for battle, designed to be killers. Incredibly tough and capable warriors.

The Vorta were the negotiators. They would do the diplomatic relations and negotiations with various civilizations. They represented a different kind of evil - the "company man" types: deceptive weasels who were good with words and contracts, but conniving and deceptive.

The Founders were the masterminds, the puppetmasters pulling the strings from the shadows.

It was a good way to give the enemy a more full-bodied identity, and give the Protagonists different types of challenges to face.



This kind of villain combo platter can be seen in the Indiana Jones movies:

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, you have

Toht - the black-coated, creepy torturer who does the field work
Dietrich - the company man (the company being the Nazis), and
Belloq - the mastermind who had a prior conflict and connection to Indiana Jones.

This combo platter can be seen to some degree in all the classic Indy movies.

Not every story will need every kind of Antagonist/Villain, of course. There might just be one type, and one villain in your story. Or you might have a villain who encompasses two or three of these types threats in one person.

There is room for flexibility with these villainous types, too. The "muscle" one might not be physically strong, but have a brutality to their personality. Depends on what kind of story you're telling, and what kinds of conflict are playing out within it.

I'm not sure how common this is, but as I develop the villains for one of my comics, I'm using this idea of multiple "types". I think it'll be interesting for the readers and fun as the writer.

What do you think? Are villains divided into "types" a worthwhile approach?

See you next time!

- Banes