One of my Favorite types of characters: The villain who really isn't

By DeathandGrim · Jan 28, 2013 ·
  1. A character type I been messing around with recently is the character who is forced to play the villain

    A character who really wants to be the good guy and do right but is locked into doing wrong

    One of my working characters Evelyn Shields, a struggling author, is forced to take on the role of a villain to raise money to buy the controlling share in her husband's company while he's kidnapped to prevent it from happening by someone both she and her husband despise.

    Evelyn goes under the identity of the Shadow Lady and employs Nicholas Blade, the MC of the tale, to do some mercenary contracts and by doing so Nicholas raises the bounty already on his own head to which she wants to claim in order to achieve her goal.

    Throughout the tale her real character shines through her facade as the Shadow Lady. She proves that she is just incapable of being a true villain by consistently stepping out of character, being quirky, having full conversations with Nick and trying to relate to him, being honest to her plans of betrayal, almost blowing her real identity, and even housing Nicholas at one point. She does all of this because she's just not able to not be stop being Evelyn Shields sometimes, she just can't help it. It eventually leads to an accidental friendship that the two don't speak of but acknowledge

    And at the end of the tale she has a final showdown with Nick, ( See Fighting a Shadow)forcing herself to attempt to kill someone she had become attached to and on the inside it destroys her as she berates herself to commit her conscience begins attacking her with thoughts like "You're the villain right?! Do it! Come on Evelyn! This is what you wanted to be, isn't it! Do it!"

    Its a unique character type that embodies the concept of morals and at the same time the stress of desperation and the weight of decisions.

    She eventually continues the series under her real name and identity becoming an ally and very close friend to Nick over time

    Her type of character is one I love seeing portrayed due to just how much can be put into the character and their dilemma and it helps to characterize them under adversity

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