Building the Bad Guy

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Lord Halsar

A good villain should not look like an old man in a turban with a humorous accent and a beard that makes him look... odd.

I'd normally pass this statement by, but it's definately worth a second thought. Besides my forthcoming point, you've just unwittingly described Disney's Aladdin's Jafar, and he was a fantastic villain.

Call me on it if you want, but the human brain, the human mind, is part of the human body. No matter how far you want to go with your personal separation of mind and body, you're still thinking with part of a living organism. You are your body, and villainy can (and dare I say it, should?) have much to do with physical matters.

Look at Shakespeare's Richard III for one of my favorite examples of a villain with an 'odd' body. Here's part of the play's intro, the first soliloquy, spoken by the title character.

Originally Posted by Richard of Shakespeare's Richard III

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

Not all bad guys wear all black and look intimidating. Not every villain has a suave demeanor and a sleek ability to lure young virgins out of their qualification to be ritualistically sacrificed. An old man in a turban makes a fantastic villain if he's true to your story. If the writer doesn't have the guts to write him or can't pull it off well, that's his or her own problem.