Tauriq Moosa wonders:

It's time we take back the villain. It's time we destroy his boring, cackling face, his sharp teeth, his banal "evil for evil's sake", his consistent outlining of his plans to quivering minions or tied up heroes in shadowed fortresses. We're better than this, which means our villains can be, too.

He urges writers to give villains understandable motivations. In a follow-up post, he provides examples: