I think this is just relevant enough to post. Ignore all the crap at the top and scroll down. http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
Hee hee. My Evil Overlord messes up on No. 77: If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutentant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.
Can Vido somehow overpower the soldier and torture him into talking and confessing the plan, or is Vido not the type do that?
In keeping with the conversation going on on the "Clishay" thread, I'm going to write a non-heteronormative fantasy where the evil overlady has her male prisoners guarded by women, on the premise that there's no way they could fall for each other.... edit: Duh, forgot to say why. Rule 84. I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex
Well can't wait to read this. Should be interesting to see what happens. I kinda broke the one about the messenger already. To be fair he was killed well over a year after he delivered his message.
There are a few possible reasons... or 8. 1) Misinformation. By feeding the hero an incorrect plan, and possibly allowing him to escape, you can waste time and resources of the hero and any assistance he or she may have. This also includes the reverse. The "hero" may have originally worked with the "villain" basically as a spy. 2) To turn the hero onto their side. A common saying is that no one considers themselves evil. The "bad guy" could quite simply believe that what he or she is doing is the right form of action. In this case it's possible that the villain may try to win over or manipulate the hero. 3) Manipulation. While it may be foolish to reveal a plan in it's entirety revealing certain specific parts can be used to direct the actions of the hero or illicit an emotional response resulting in a careless mistake. For instance, revealing that part of your plan is to kill a close loved one may result in anger clouding the hero's judgement and distracting him or her from the larger picture. 4) Infected with a truth serum. Or spell or lasso or truth or whatever the hell your story calls for. 5) Ego. Which is ridiculous, meant more for comedy than anything else. People die, even heroes. Especially ones incompetent enough to get caught and need CliffNotes to figure out the evil plan. 6) Serious ass whooping or torture. Was in some book I read... was actuality kind of scary. Includes threat of death or imprisonment (surrender). 7) The "bad guy" turns into a "good guy." Oh you're actually my son that I haven't seen in forever, forget joining the dark side it's called lightsaber for a reason. I see the light now! Oh... lightning bolts, never mind. 8) Bad writers with little to no creativity. Hey, just an opinion. Sounds lazy to me unless in a comedy.
I'd question why a foot soldier would even know the details of the evil plan. Like, they just follow orders - they don't know the why or how or much else beyond the immediate next step, really. The truth is, if you have to ask, "But why would he do that?" - the answer is probably, "No, he wouldn't, not unless he's either stupid or the story's contrived." And I dunno - sounds to me like it'd just be infodump, which is almost never a good thing.
Low ranking soldiers of any organization tend to talk when their superior isn't around. If they happen to think that the prisoner is unconscious it allows for tidbits to be gathered. Low ranking soldiers would never admit to having said anything to their commander, thus not ruining the information. I know they are aliens, but even in movies/books we tend to assign them human responses and pathology. Added Note: They wouldn't know everything, but they would likely know where they are headed to next, and the overall general picture of things. Or at least what they believe. (This is actually great when this contradicts the truth)