Originally posted by: mango.falooda
disagree with you on that villain standards are less important than heroes. in many cases, they are more important from a writing perspective. technically speaking (from a literature point of view) -- villains are not second fiddle to the hero. they along with the hero move the story along. so if the standard of villains fail, then the story stalls.
there are 7 parts of a story that occurs regardless of literature or medium. these are plot, character, setting, conflict, climax, theme, resolution.
villains contribute external conflict but their motivations need to be clear. as audience, we need to be invested in the struggle (the conflict) or we are bored.
you can still write a story without a villain but those are internal conflicts -- in essense, the villain is self. those stories deal with issues like grief, trauma, family problems etc etc.
you can write a story with a substandard half-baked hero -- they tend to show up in romantic comedies where viewers are more concerned with songs, cinematography and some chemistry. they also show up in action movies. basically these are just heroes where they just react to the situations and so they don't need to be so developed in terms of characterizations -- it is the situations that need to be interesting. also, romance movies/dramas/books are shorter and that is why they end on the note "they all lived happily after" -- there is no conflict to keep the momentum going beyond a certain point.
but any dramatic material including daily soaps require a good villain -- the plot will fall flat like a crater without support. every single piece of great literature, movie, drama has a memorable villain. that is why standard of villains matter.
when it comes to this drama, technically the hero of the drama is imlie -- it is her name on the drama and it is her story we are watching. now aryan has been included in the montage but depending on the writers, they can always turn him into anti-hero or villain to provide conflict (like it happens with many ITV dramas when the couples separate and we in essense see one long nasty marriage dissolution play out on screen).
does imlie have no game -- you could argue for or against that but at the end of day, it is the villain and conflicts that drives episode count in daily soaps. we are all tuning in to see how the hero overcomes a certain problem -- otherwise, why would we tune in? so the problem -- whether it is in the form of villains, conflict or situations -- matters.