Surprise! I am actually Alive! I swear, it didn't show up on review, hence the year's delay. This literally took only a night ro write. I swear. But I'm still having tech issues, so yeah... Anyways, here we are!

Dear Fangirl Consultant,

What if you find yourself fangirling over the villains instead of the heroes? It's actually not a lot of fun to have this happen because unlike the hero, the villain sometimes doesn't have a set origin, has favorite events and memorable episodes retconned, and is generally not portrayed as a great guy (obviously), even though they take all of this trouble to portray him in the first place. It makes you wish they would come up with a redemption arc or something, but often the fandom refuses to do so, relegating your "hero" to one of the criminal masterminds the boring guy everyone is supposed to be rooting for has to fight. Besides ignoring it and writing off the comic creators as a bunch of morons, what should I do?

-krb501

Dear krb501,

I think I hear Khan, Loki, Moriarty, and Smaug all laughing in the distance.

Honestly, there are plenty of occasions where the villain is actually treated to a pretty nice set up, and I'm not just talking about Megamind here. Yes, there are the Malekiths out there (the villains who probably had 'wants to destroy the universe' as their sole descriptor during development), but you have to remember that for every twenty Iron Man Mandarins, there's a Spiderman:Homecoming Vulture waiting in the metaphorical wings.

You don't have to come up with a redemption arc to like a villain. You like him, and that's that. It somewhat plays off of the bad-boy trope, part of which I blame on Paradise Lost (thanks, Milton), but a lot of time fans can find something to tug on heartstrings in a baddie. Sometimes it's because he has such great character development (Moriarty), sometimes it's because (no matter how much you don't like it) she's hot (Jeanine from Divergent) And sometimes it's both (Bucky Barnes). No shame in thinking that Sauron may or may not be something that you'd do. No shame at all.

And sometimes comic writers are morons. Sometimes they're lazy. Sometimes you've got to do it yourself. They don't call us fanficiton authors for nothing.

But a few words of caution:

When creating the villain's backstory (because sometimes you gotta do that. Thanks, Stan. Thanks, Gene. Thanks, JJ. T_T ) avoid making it overly gushy. If he's (or she's) anywhere a half-decent villain, they'll already have some decent backstory, and some good characterization. Especially live-action. It's literally an actor's job to impersonate someone else. They probably have their own matching headcanon for the role, and they play it as such. You can read into that, and create a relatively accurate image of the picture that the actor (voice or otherwise) is trying to make. So keep it real. A good villain isn't an injured puppy that needs to be rescued. He or she is generally pretty dangerous as it is, and maybe there's a chance for redemption, but don't overhype the idea that they've been turned into what they are by factors beyond their control. That's a nasty trope and something to avoid if at all possible.

By all means, try for a redemption arc. But before you do that, try doing a character sketch- the thoughts and mindset of the villain- in a mini story. It doesn't have to be long, even. I know that my character sketches typically turn into some of my best stories, because the point is not to redeem the villain, necessarily, but to show character development: what decisions did he or she make for better or worse, and what circumstances governed those decisons? What helped make them into the 'person' they are today? KEEP AS CLOSE TO THE SOURCE MATERIEL AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN. Once you do the character sketch, then you have a foundation to work off of. Because you've written something in the stylization of the character themselves and know waht to look for and expect from your pen, it's now you can expand on that. Try a redemption arc. The character sketch is like a practice round, to help it get more believable. Now go nuts.

I hope this all goes well for you. :)

-The Fangirl Consultant