How do you present your BBEG as an irredeemable piece of shit but also with a human side, maybe even a fun side?

How do you present your BBEG as an irredeemable piece of shit but also with a human side, maybe even a fun side?

his family matters to him and nothing else

He likes to play games of all sorts. He's a sore loser, and often throws his weight around when he loses.

He views life (and all his plans and schemes) as games.

He loves dogs.
He's a cruel ruthless bastard but whenever he sees a dog he can't help but pet it, feed it, rub its belly, call it silly names and play with it.
He's apathetic towards cats.

Make him only do evil things when he needs to. He'd rather get what he wants through negotiation and trade than treachery and deceit, and through treachery and deceit rather than torture and murder. But if torture and murder prove to be necessary, well, that's just how it's going to be.

He'll feel bad about it, of course. The same way you might feel bad about taking the last seat on a bus when someone else is standing, or borrowing someone's pen and forgetting to return it. And he'll get over it just the same way.

The Phantom Troupe from HxH.

They have no problem killing anyone and everyone but they look out for each other like family and will swear holy vengence against anyone who harms any of their membeers.

Real fucking easy: Develop a character for them.
You dont need to water down the evil or make it about some psycho obsession like the other posts, simply write about him. Give them a sport they like, a social life, a couple of pets and after the curtain falls, make him face rape some old man to death or whatever despicable evil thing you can think of. Its honestly a matter of thinking up of a really fucked up things than a character.

You want to mix up fucked up evil unlikable asshole just look at serial killers, actually take a look at those two school shooter cunts in the 90's. Popular guy and his friend, lots of people who until when they got shot, thought they were really fun, cool people. Rarely its the actually obvious ones.

Introduce BBEG as just normal NPC, develop a grand friendship with the party.

You make them a person. A person with interests and hobbies and skills and feelings unrelated to their big evil plans while still being a gigantic piece of shit.

By doing the latter before the former.

This. It's extremely clichéd at this point but it works really well.

Make other people like him, his henchmen, his family, his hometown. Sure, to your characters, the BBEG's plan is horrible and apocalyptic, but you can see how if you were on his side, you could support his actions.

Make the dread marsh great again.

>apathetic towards cats
what a piece of shit

He is a perfectly fine person but achieving his goals means the end of life as we know it.
Good and evil are bullshit. Your stories will improve drastically when you trade Good for Constructive, Evil for Destructive, Lawful for Collective, and Chaotic for Individualistic.

>He's apathetic towards cats.
true evil

Dogs are bros, cats are lame

Make the BBEG a bad guy that came out of another, lesser bad guy's fold.

Ramsay Bolton comes to mind. He was chaotic evil and betrayed his lawful evil father.

Roose compelled half of the North to follow him. Ramsay took his father's army and led them with fear and insanity.

Pic related?

Note: don't watch HxH if you want to know more. Just read the wiki, and save yourself some pain.

^this^
I don't know why people like those ineffectual pieces of trash.

A dog is literally breed to unconditionally love you, a cat pays lip service so you keep the bowl full.

>Scale is more like filling cups with a mixture of each trait. 60% Selflessness leaves room for 40% Selfishness.
>Constructive - De-constructive
>Selfless - Selfish
>Morally Conscious - Morally Apathetic
>Honorable - Dishonorable
>Passive - Aggressive?

How would you improve this system Veeky Forums?

pic related?
also tarquin

I miss malack/durkon broship

So he should sing and have a thicc butt?

You make pic related.

...

I did something like this once. Had an NPC who was the main instigator of the PCs' quest to bring down the then-BBEG. He showed up occasionally to offer them advice or support, and ended up being considered a close friend.

Then they killed the BBEG and he revealed that his intentions the entire time was to take said BBEG's place in taking over the world, genuinely thanked them for their help, and offered them a hefty reward and a place by his side.

Check out OOTS Xykon. Compare and contrast all the 'Funny Xykon' scenes with the one where he forbids Redcloak from regrowing his eye and taunts him about his brothers death.

he captures the PCs and makes them eat one of their own

Remove morality.
Unless your world is a monolithic entity, morality means different things to different people and personal morals are literally already covered by honor.
>Constructive - Destructive
>Selfless - Selfish
>Honorable - Dishonorable
>Peaceful -Violent

bump

;_;