User blog comment:LuluTDFan/What makes a good villain?/@comment-2186558-20131010223352

the simplest answer is, in my opinion, that you shouldn't avoid these tropes! the fact that they're tropes means that they're good and work well- the secret to being creative isn't doing something no-one's done before, but to do something someone has done before and change it around

for a bad example, that will hopefully help you understand what i mean anyways: have a Sadist villain, but mix him with a Tragic Villain and make it so that the reason he enjoys hurting others is because his parents abused him so it makes him feel more at home

or, have a Scrapegoat who, instead of just having really bad luck, saves his friend/romantic interest a lot and gets hurt a ton because the main reason he's being the villain is because he really likes said friend/romantic interest a lot and wants to make them win (and then perhaps the person he was trying to bring to the end gets eliminated and he's on his own, adding to the Scrapegoat factor)

of course, neither example is that great, but hopefully they get my point across- don't try to avoid stereotypes, just don't follow them to the letter