Making Likeable Villains (Spoilers)

So you have a protagonist. That means he needs some opposition. This could come in any form, but what we're talking about here is the classic antagonist. When you think of an antagonist, you think of an evil man with a long, curling mustache and a top hat.But antagonists come in all shapes and sizes, and, believe it or not, they need to be as three-dimensional as your protagonist. Why?

Well, another three-dimensional character is another character that your readers can make their own, kind of take under their wing and into their fold of favorite characters. Examples are Marvel's Loki, DC's Clayface, and Rick Riordan's Luke Castellan. All these antagonists have one thing in common-- humanity. We can relate to their motivations. Loki is motivated by his love for his adoptive father and his hatred of his real father. Anyone who loves and/or hates anyone can relate. Clayface was driven crazy and turned into putty by the Joker, and try as he might, he cannot resume normal life. Anyone who feels like an outcatst (which is most of us) will feel for him. 

Luke Castellan is a bit harder to feel for. At the end of The Lightning Thief, he drops the world's deadliest scorpion on Percy Jackson, telling him he regrets nothing. But in the later books, we find him trapped in an impossible situation-- he must serve the evil titan Kronos or die. The titan forces him to serve as a host body, and the only way to kill Kronos is to kill Luke, who by now everyone loves. He kills himself to send Kronos back to Tartarus, dying a hero. 

We relate to his feeling of being trapped by someone more powerful. Maybe you have a boss, or anyone really, who pushes you around. You don't like that feeling, and you don't like it when others feel the same way.

So, what makes a villain great? The motivation behind his cruel actions. Maybe he's mean to your protagonist because your protagonist was mean to him. Maybe he feels threatened by your protagonist. Maybe he feels like your protagonist is getting in the way of his important cause. Don't have him be a total jerk just for the sake of having a total jerk. Have your villian be just as well motivated as your hero.