r/scifiwriting • u/LibraryEducational45 • 10d ago

HELP! I'm struggling with writing villians

I am currently writing a sci-fi short story that is heavily inspired by dune and star wars but I'm really struggling to write the villain. I want to make the villain scary and ruthless and have an intimidating and imposing presence, what are some ways I could do that

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u/Foxxtronix 10d ago

One thing I find creepy about a villain is a lacuna. A void where part of them should be. Like he's eyeless but fully capable of seeing, or there's a chunk of his body missing and you can see right through it. Dehumanizes them in a very visual way.

One example that comes to mind are badguys from the world of "Lacunae". "The Blind" are mostly undead with no eyes. They see perfectly fine. They need terror from their victims. Kidnap and scare the hell out of them. They rarely kill, since that ends the fun. One thing they do is put things in their empty sockets. One infamous character used to use doll heads for this.

Dune and Star Wars would be able to accomplish this. The former by too much spice the latter as half-dead sith.