McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Writing villains
Gilitine_Memitim:
My hero's are rarely actually "good", they usually exist in a gray area. As for my villians some are simply twisted and others actually have good reasons for their thinking.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Aminar on August 15, 2012, 09:36:02 PM ---I'm in a way just the opposite. I'm tired of stories that are so realistic I can't derive joy from reading them. I don't read to feel reality, I live in it. I deal with some of the worst of it(via my job) every day. Why would I want my free time devoted to that?
--- End quote ---
The balance I look for is plausibly uplifting. Without a certain amount of plausibility, all the good things in the world won't cheer me up.
--- Quote ---Otherwise you end up with either Game of Thrones level depressing or cartoon level cliche villainy.
--- End quote ---
mmm. Game of Thrones striking you as depressing makes it clear that we're looking at things from different angles; I'm with Iain Banks on the standard for a happy ending being "not everybody is dead", and GoT is well short of my depressing threshold.
trboturtle:
I see it this way -- evil has a goal and will do anything to acheive that goal, Need to seige a city and kill everyone inside? Evil does it. Need a super weapon and the only person who can create the weapons don't want to have anything to do with you? Grab his daughter and give him the orders. A little old lady between you and a fortune? A shove down the stairs.
In short, Evil will do anything it can to do its thing. Most heroes have some sort of line they won't step over. Evil had only the restrictions that have been palced upon by someone with grater power than them and even then, Evil is looking for loopholes (Reason why Lawyers are mistaken for being all evil (Actually only 99% of lawyers are evil -- the other 1% are shoved into political office where they can do little harm...))
Inshort, evil is power without much restraint (For the most part) Good have some rules to follow, even if they are flexable...
Craig
Aminar:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on August 16, 2012, 12:58:32 AM ---The balance I look for is plausibly uplifting. Without a certain amount of plausibility, all the good things in the world won't cheer me up.
mmm. Game of Thrones striking you as depressing makes it clear that we're looking at things from different angles; I'm with Iain Banks on the standard for a happy ending being "not everybody is dead", and GoT is well short of my depressing threshold.
--- End quote ---
I make a living off of empathy-my sympathy gene is way over-active.
OZ:
--- Quote ---I'm in a way just the opposite. I'm tired of stories that are so realistic I can't derive joy from reading them. I don't read to feel reality, I live in it. I deal with some of the worst of it(via my job) every day. Why would I want my free time devoted to that? At the same time I try to mix the two. I have evil people. I have good people. I have evil people doing good and good people doing evil. A story can and should have both. Otherwise you end up with either Game of Thrones level depressing or cartoon level cliche villainy.
--- End quote ---
I would have to agree with this at least for the most part. Specifically I tire of reading horrific stories with disgusting endings that are defended by people saying, "That's how real life works." I can read the newspaper if I want to read about people doing horrible things to each other and getting away with it. When I read a book, I want a little fantasy, a little triumph of good. I want to put the book down and feel good about life for at least a few minutes until I hear the latest news about whatever new trajedy is in the news.
Having said that I would partially agree with Neurovore. There has to be plausibility. There also has to be tension. Evil has to be successful enough, at least for a while, that I can feel some fear that the hero will die or at least be permanently scarred. I guess it just doesn't take as much grief and depression to make a story plausible to me as some folks require.
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