Yuffie's Writing How-To's

TV to Books: Once Upon a Time

No one is born evil, and the tv series Once Upon a Time really hits that point home. 

This show has three main villains (as of mid-season 2): Cora, her daughter "The Evil Queen" Regina, and Rumplestiltskin. Here are some reasons these villains really worked and had a lasting impact on the story.

1. These villains weren't born evil--they were influenced and driven to become ruthless and cunning and merciless and hateful and jealous.

Regina was a really good person until Snow White accidentally ruined her life (I won't say how because spoilers). After that, Regina was bent on revenge and wanted to take away everyone's happiness just like hers had been ripped from her.

Let's look at another example in the case of Regina's mother, Cora. Cora is even more ruthless and powerhungry than her daughter, but she wasn't always like that. She grew up the miller's daughter, in poverty, and was treated like shit. So when the opportunity arose for her to marry the prince and be able to have THEM kneel at her feet, she immediately took it. Who wouldn't love to spite the people who treated you like cow excrements?

Rumplestiltskin (I'll refer to him as Rumple from now on) was a poor man who was forced to kiss the boot of some soldier, right in front of his son. From that day on, he became obsessed with obtaining power so he'd never have to be so humiliated again and so no one could push him around. Same thing here--we can see a clear and believable reason why Rumple made the decision to use dark magic.

We all want justice and want to see bad karma dished out to those who've wronged us, but what makes a villian is that they take this way too far. They keep going and try to dish out as much pain and suffering to those people as they can, long after their sins were paid for. It's a "You screwed me over once, I'll screw you over ten times that" mentality.

2. All of these villians go back and do the very thing that drove them to become vengeful and powerful. Recall the chapter on the Hero's shadow--we want Villains that make the Hero do the very things he hates. The Hero becomes the villain he's trying to stop. Same thing happened with all the OUaT villains.

Regina was the typical tomboy heroine who loved riding horses bareback and had a secret romance with the stable boy. Her mother, Cora, wanted Regina to be in power by marrying someone with high status. Cora used magic to keep Regina from running away and threaten her back into line. Literally once Cora magically levitated Regina into the air and threatened to drop her unless Regina followed orders. Great parenting, huh?

Years later, Regina has a son of her own, and what does she do? The exact same thing her mother did to her. Even the spell was the same. Regina became her mother--the thing she hated most (though Regina constantly claims she loved her mother regardless).

The same thing happened with Rumple: Earlier, a soldier forced him to kneel before him and kiss his boot, but once Rumple gained power, he made a soldier kiss HIS boot and really reveled in this.

When your villian starts acting like the person(s) who drove them to villainy, you've got a deep and tragic character on your hands. It's phenomenal characterization, in my opinion, and if pulled off well, you can manipulate your readers' heartstrings and make them really pity that villain. Recall an ealier chapter of this guide where I said a great villain/antagonist makes us feel MULTIPLE emotions toward them, not just anger and hatred. With Regina and Rumple, we feel anger and hatred, but also pity, sympathy, remorse--

3. --and love. Not so much with Regina, but there's a lot of moments of love and affection for Rumple (well, at least just a little bit). Bascially, he got the Beauty and Beast storyline tacked onto him where he's the "Beast" and he kept Belle captive in his evil lair. Over time, Belle coaxed him into making a few right/good decisions, and soon they fell in love. Here's where we actually start to really like Rumple as a person. He cares deeply for Belle and will do anything to keep her safe, and those really get to us. Also, the fact that Belle can see the good in him and is willing to put up with his bad side so she can draw out that good hints to us that maybe Rumple isn't such a bad person after all. He can be redeemed.

4. But they still go and make stupid, bad decisions. The first time Belle kissed Rumple, he got so scared and angry that he drove her away. Her "true love's kiss" was breaking the curse on him, but that would also take away his powers, and he couldn't have that.

Regina truly wanted to change and become good at one point, but then she goes and plots to kill everyone and kidnap her son, Henry (he's actually an adoptive son and his biological mother, Emma, is the series's protagonist, and she's fighting against Regina to get Henry back).

What makes a villain bad is that at the first hint of danger or risk, they take the easy way out, the evil way. Regina would think: it's easier to kill Emma (and everyone else in the entire town), so Henry's affections won't be split between Regina and Emma, than work to gain his trust and love. Yeah, reallyyyy skewed way of thinking (obviously, if Regina kills Emma, Henry will NOT love Regina more), but a skewed thought process is often seen in villains. It just takes a great deal of mastery and development for those skewed reasonings to make sense to the readers. Handle this with care!


So there are a few reasons why the villains in Once Upon a Time were such developed, 3D characters that left a lasting impact.

Do you agree with the above points? Disagree? Who's your favorite fictional villain of all time and why? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

And Captain Hook in the sidebar because omg my heart.