ANK on: The Hidden Beauty Of The Beast - or how to craft a likeable villain

The likable villain. A paradox! Right?

Not necessarily.

We all know the evil witch from Hänsel and Gretel is - well - evil. Just that. No redeeming features. Whatsoever.

There are times in our lives when we like the world to be easy and monochrome: black and white. We need good and evil to learn about moral boundaries, how to respect them, and how not to trespass.
Learning the basics of any craft requires clean-cut situations. Too many grey areas confuse matters.
Ideally, we learn to judge, decide, and act in a straightforward situation.
We don't make the first meal we ever cook a three-course stately affair.

We don't take off the learning wheels of our bicycles and (intentionally) go off-road straight away.

We don't go speeding down black runs when we stand on skis for the first time.

First times are all about dipping our toes into unknown waters. We enjoy the novelty and savor the adventure, but we stay close to the shore. Only once we grow more confident, do we venture into deeper waters.

We love to listen to classic fairy tales when we are little - because they teach us. There are no mixed messages, no moral confusion. And we go to sleep at night, safe in 'the know' that the darkness loses and the light wins. Always!
Then we grow up, and things become more complex; less clear. We learn about grey areas. We learn that some people are not evil by birth, but they have been tortured, bullied, and mistreated all of their lives, and so become a reflection of their environment.
Evil is all they know. Yet some of them surprise us. They find their inner light - of their own volition or being aided by others.
Some of literature's most loved heroes actually started out as villains!
Think Mr. Darcy, Severus Snape, or Satan in Paradise Lost. See, even the Devil himself can become likable.
As writers, we need villains to antagonize. We need them to draw the line between good and bad. But we also want them to redeem themselves. Because we are grown-up. Because we know how easy it is to stumble and fall. Because we know that people can change - and last but not least - because we all harbor the hope that the light will always banish the darkness.

Like it happens in most fairy tales.