If the “bad guys” are not relatable; then they generally come off as cartoonishly evil, and unrealistic.
Think the bad guys in Avatar, going after the unobtainum or whale brain juice. They are evil for the sake of the suffering, getting the macuffin is seemingly secondary to that; and thus are a joke.
If they are totally two dimensional, they don’t make good villains.
Great villains; have merit to their plans, it is the methods they use and the suffering they cause in pursuit of those goals that marks them as bad.
Look at Killmonger, in Black Panther. He is 100% correct, his view that Wakanda’s isolation has caused great suffering is true, his plan to open it up to the rest of the world is what happens in the end; just not by him…it is his methods that mark him as a bad guy.
If the “bad guys” are not relatable; then they generally come off as cartoonishly evil, and unrealistic.
Think the bad guys in Avatar, going after the unobtainum or whale brain juice. They are evil for the sake of the suffering, getting the macuffin is seemingly secondary to that; and thus are a joke.
If they are totally two dimensional, they don’t make good villains.
Great villains; have merit to their plans, it is the methods they use and the suffering they cause in pursuit of those goals that marks them as bad.
Look at Killmonger, in Black Panther. He is 100% correct, his view that Wakanda’s isolation has caused great suffering is true, his plan to open it up to the rest of the world is what happens in the end; just not by him…it is his methods that mark him as a bad guy.