All of those are complex. Think of WHY they became evil. Joker's one bad day is a perfect example.

Darth Vader worked even before we understood his complexities and backstory. I kind of liked him better that way. But only because the prequels sucked.

This is the problem with all these advice videos. They give niche examples and claim them to be a general rule.

While I am not Mr. Jenkins, I’ll lend my thoughts. The first two sound like they have enough room to cooperate, at least when the need calls for it. While I do not understand “power” (political, magical, or otherwise) I say that cause it for some reason reminds me of the the Chinese civil war between Capitalists (Chang Kai Shek, misspelled his name) and Communists (Mao Zedong). Both were bitter rivals until the Japanese invaded in the late 1930’s. That war bled into world war 2, and afterwards the fighting occurred again. Today the capitalists were bailed out by America, making Taiwan their new home with communist China taking the mainland. If the main character and second villain are the first two factions I mentioned (not literally, comparatively) then the third villain could be something like Imperial Japan. Imperial Japan was a vile nation that had to be stopped, the atrocities they did to the Chinese were so brutal that even Nazis thought they took things too far. (Look up John Rabe). If you want to compare the third character to a “demon” then Imperial Japan might help you in crafting this character. Furthermore, the rivalry between Japanese army and Japanese Navy might offer some clues on how “personalities” act towards one another, in Japans case, highly competitive to the point of detriment. Since the main and third character know each other, it might be a good idea to show some modicum of humanity towards each other. For this example I think of the American Civil War. There was a moment known as the “battle of the bands” where what at first started as a rivalry developed into both armies singing “home sweet home.” The next day they were at each other’s throats. One of the themes of the American Civil War was brother vs brother. Some people in that war literally found themselves staring at relatives at the other end of the barrel, one example was a son who found himself taking his father prisoner. If you could show the main and third seeing each other’s humanity that might make for a fascinating story that I have no idea how to pull off… yet anyway. Let me know if you have any questions. Hope this helps! Have a blessed day!

@@yanceyricks2601 Ok... You have no idea how everything you said hits home in the way I'm conducting this narrative Yes, the main and the second does end up working together when a war falls upon them and in fact the three-way conflict also bleeds into the major conflict (the aforementioned war) Yes, the "demon" goes exactly like Imperial Japan, not even the most aggressive parts of the war ever even thinks of siding with the demon no matter how powerful he is (both magical and political, he's a speedster with an army of living zombies) and he has to be stopped at all costs. Also because the demon is corroding itself into the beast that he becomes because of his competitive nature to be the single most powerful being in detriment of his own body and mind. Now, I don't know for sure if this bit is on the same page but after discovering the demon's true identity the main character has a vision of his friend withering away inside the demon's mind. Nothing of his consciousness left, only a body made out of agony but the friend instead of the beast nevertheless. It's the moment he realizes the demon has to die so his friend can have his pain ended, shared between them in a dream. His friend's last wish. Is it something like this you're talking about with the battle of the bands? But anyway this is going to help me SO MUCH, thank you. I didn't knew about this time of history. I'll look further for more inspiration. Thank you!

@@CanaldoPortador You are most welcome. While I agree with the assessment that the "Battle of the bands" does not neatly fit with the kind of story you're crafting, the sentiment of it might be borrowed. The idea of two radically opposed yet brotherly beings sharing a moment of calm before the storm is an idea I like, feel free to use the concept no pressure. Since your using Imperial Japan, I recommend looking up Emperor Hirohito. He is not as vile as his military, in fact if he had his way, they wouldn't have even invaded China. It took two nukes and the threat of invasion by USA and Russia to actually get the Japanese military to ask THEIR Emperor what to do, even that decision cause a small revolt. It may help if you know the scale of the second world war in Asia, if your story used historical numbers in a zombie apocalypse... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/et17g6mFkrjNn4k.html Keep in mind that the Chinese were fighting each other BEFORE the Japanese invaded. If you want to learn about World War 2, there is an AMAZING channel called... "World War 2" where they break down the war week by week. I've been watching it for a while and the war in China is brought up sometimes but mainly focuses on the war in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. If this interests you, check out the "Great War" channel which breaks down World War 1 week by week. I don't know how much of this will be used but hope it goes well. God Bless. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Yancey Rick's really happy to see someone in this website acknowledges the vile cruelty of imperial Japan. Kids these days are so in bed with nazis that they ignore and straight up deny the sheer brutality of imperial Japan. Which at BEST matches the nazis and at worst are infinitely worse than any nazi. Thank you for bringing awareness to the topic, more people should know about that

not to throw around hurtful words, but I think you should revise writing in the literal sense - grammar, punctuation.

@@naliesnikas English may not be this person's first language. Perhaps they are trying to respectfully thank Jerry in his own language.

@@tlwilson32 then they would... use their own language? This is english - crude though it may be - not some other tongue. Once again, I mean no disrespect to the aspiring man or woman. I think it's great that he or she is trying to get better at these things. I just wanted to leave this observational if not slightly condescending piece of my mind.

Same with the Beast from Over the Garden Wall, Erebus (ESPECIALLY Erebus) from WH40K, and SO many serial killers from real life. Some people are just pricks for no good reason.

Dang I was about to mention Sauron! I think almost if you have your villain be a believable threat to the hero then you got a good villain it doesn't matter if he's complex or one dimensional as long as he makes you believe that he can harm the hero then I feel like you've done your job

They also belong to allegorical fantasies. In the video he's talking about reality

hence the word "complex". Those villains are great, but they don't exactly have the most depth...

But they were each unique and memorable. Palpatine is THE Evil Galactic Emperor and Sith Lord, complete with sorcerer powers, almost a throwback to arthurian tropes, and sauran was a literal demigod semi divine fallen angel taken almost straight out of myth by a genius philologist Tolkien. So they were "Complex" not to mention Palpatine's manipulation of the galactic senate highlighting dangers within democracies without a constitutional representative republic. He was a political villain in ep 1-3 not just a mythological villain like in ep 4-6. But you brought up an interesting point.