Difference between ArcVillain and MonsterOfTheWeek

What is the difference between Arc Villain and Monster of the Week?

I know that an example of Arc Villain is Rosamund Wilcox from Criminal Case - a Serial Killer who kills parents who argue with their teenaged children, having a god complex and believing she is liberating them, believing all parents are abusive because hers were. But I don't know the difference between that trope and Monster of the Week.

Edited by IITestTubeFan on Jan 9th 2024 at 4:47:47 PM

Monster of the Week is usually for a single episode of a TV series. Arc Villain is about the main villain of an entire story arc, which will often take place over multiple episodes if in a TV format.

Edited by PhiSat on Jan 9th 2024 at 9:52:59 AM

By way of examples, to go to all the way back to the origin of this website, let's look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• The Master is an Arc Villain. He's the primary villain of the first season who's behind a bunch of the smaller-scale villains, but he gets killed by Buffy in the season finale and subsequently is rendered Deader than Dead, and the Undead Child he creates as a successor is then killed by Spike pretty much for the hell of it so he has no further role going forward.
• A Monster of the Week constitutes all the various one-off bad guys like the man-eating praying mantis demon thingy.

Edited by StarSword on Jan 9th 2024 at 6:28:45 AM

this thread would be suitable for these types of questions.