Evil villan that is actually terrifying

Studying what makes homelander possibly the most terrifying villain ever (after the
monkey in toy story 3 obviously)

What makes Homelander (a charming, patriotic, cape wearing superhero) so much

scarier than many other villains. How is their a tension in the audience whenever
he is on screen? Here are the four most crucial points that creates a villain.

1. Power
The villain needs to be much more powerful than the protagonist. If the hero is
more powerful, then there is no fear that the hero will lose. You need it to feel
more likely that the villain will win. We also need to feel that the villain
(through power) can get whatever, whenever they desire.
This doesnt need to be literal power (such as laser eyes); it can be something such
as their intimadance, having blackmail threats, or even just being the boss that
could fire you.

2. Motive
The villain needs to have a credible motive. When the villains motive kicks in,
then they could do whatever they want but they always needa reason. Having multiple
motivations is very good in a villain (and hero) becase it leaves you without a
knowing of what motivation will override the other, leading to which overall 'path'
the villain will choose (uncertainty).

3. History
The villain needs to have a history. Mistakes in writing villains is that you
fufill criteria 1 and 2, but they are still not too terrifying because they have no
history of doing anything terribly bad. But when you have knowledge of the villain
previously doing truly horrible things, it gives them as certain credibility. It
makes you fear that they actually would at any point do something horrrible.

4. Uncertanty
The most effctive and crucial way to make a villain scary, is to surround your
villain with uncertanty. People fear what they dont know, the villain becomes most
terrifying when you are unsure of what they could do at any time.
For example, if the villain murders someone for no apparent reason. This
reason/motive may become known and understood later on, but if the villain is shown
plotting the attack or continuously ominissing about the victim, then it would not
come as a surprise or shock. A scene becomes much less terryfying if you know what
they are going to do. For example if you have an illness that has been diagnosed,
it is much easier to cope with rather than having an illness that you have no
knowledge of.
The fear of the unknown...
Because suspense and terror are so closely related. When a villains suspense is
lost through predictability, they inevitably lose their terror aspect as well.
Because you know exactly what they will do, and nothing comes a surprise or shock.

How to add the uncertanty factor:

-The hair trigger. The tiniest incident puts the villain in anger imediatly. It
makes everyone walk on eggshells. However, DO NOT do too much of the hair trigger
otherwise it can backfire and the character could be so predictable for killing
anyone who does the tiniest wrongdoing that it becomes boring. Lazy writing occurs
when the character is written off as 'mad'.Writing them off as mad, meaning they
can do whatever they want without any motivation is boring. Dont get me wrong,
having a mad, insane character is okay, but even characters like that still need to
have motivation for everything they do.
-Narcasism. Caring about their own image most, and not admiting any of their
problems to themselves.
HOMELANDER
Homelander ticks off all these criteria with flying colours.
-Power; homelander is physicaly the most powerful supe on earth, as well as him
having an incredible amount of power in his intimidance and the tension created
whenever he enters a room.
-Motive; homelander has two motives, to be the greatest and most powerful person in
the world, and to be loved. Homelander being the narcisist that he is, does not
admit that he wants to be loved but it is always in the background of his mind and
actions.
-History; apart from homelander having an incredibly detailed past (raising some of
the reason that he turned out the way he did), he also has been seen killing and
doing other very horrible things all the time. This gives him credibility, and
makes the audience actually fear hiim because they have seen what he can do.
-Uncertanty; The thing that makes homelander most terrifying. Nobody knows what he
is going to do at any moment and everyone is alsways walking on eggshells around
him. He has motives and reasons for things he does, but these only become apparent
after he does something, which at the time seemed to be for no reason at all.
However, while he definitly has the hair trigger, homelander does not do it all the
time because if he did he would become preidctable for killing anyone who does
anything wrong at all. Homelander leaves the audience to hang, and is extremely
unpreidctable.