Making A Female Villain Feel Intimidating

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Marthix2016, Jan 13, 2018.

  1. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    The Judge in Blood Meridian?
     
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  2. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    "Womanly" is different things to different people. There is no such thing as "womanly" or "manly" because everyone has their own views of what that is. They are opinions, not facts.
     
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  3. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    I agree, but I do also think it's worth considering that as a culture there are things we typically regard as feminine and masculine. The fact that it varies from culture to culture - and even subculture to subculture! - is pretty clear proof that it's bullshit subjective, but it's not helpful to pretend as though that veneer of 'objectivity' just doesn't exist. (Not saying that's what you're doing, just offering sort of a counterpoint.)
     
  4. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    This. It's not about so much about brawn, it's about making people think you can take them down. Intimidation is more of a mind game than anything else.
     
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  5. CerebralEcstasy

    CerebralEcstasy Active Member

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    Currently Reading::
    The 5AM Club, Robin Sharma
    Research on some of the most terrifying women in history may be in order. Study the traits of these women and how they manipulated others into doing what they wanted.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karla_Homolka

    This woman here, in my opinion is a woman who should have never been let out of jail. She played the victim card, but was a willing accomplice in many different crimes, one which includes the rape and death of her sister.

    Yet, thanks to Canada's injustice system, she's free to volunteer with her child at school. She's one of the few which made me wish Canada still had the death penalty.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2018
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  6. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Yeah, maybe... damn, he was creepy!
     
  7. surrealscenes

    surrealscenes Senior Member

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    Yes! 99% of fights are won and lost before anything ever happens.
     
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  8. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Sun Tzu said that ;)

    A victorious warrior wins first and then goes to war, while a defeated warrior goes to war first and then seeks to win.
     
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  9. Alastair Woodcock

    Alastair Woodcock Active Member

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    Give her young children and then have her give them up for adoption because she wants to focus on her career.

    That would certainly scare the shit out of me.
     
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  10. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    It occurs to me that there are (at least) two kinds of scary here. I’m going to call them Killer Bunny and Godzilla.

    Godzilla is pure, obvious brawn and fury. I think that the thread started out being about the fact that it’s harder for a woman to be Godzilla.

    But Killer Bunny is IMO, scarier. Evil children and dolls in horror movies, for example. I think they’re scarier because something that we thought was safe turns out not to be, so now we can’t trust safety.
     
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  11. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Thats like saying a bodybuilder can't also be a physics professor. Not out of the realm of
    possibility. Though I think it goes without saying the more they can toy with you on a
    psych level makes them scarier than simply being overly monstrous in their daily activities.
    The little touches like a creepy friendly note, whistling a happy tune on a killing spree,
    and/or even trying to be seductive towards their prey are good ways to mess with their
    opponents mind. Though that last one makes them especially devious and dangerous, as
    it alludes to the moniker: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. :)

    Just a thought.
     
  12. Ethan Harris

    Ethan Harris New Member

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    Simple, if you have a good villain, they could be anything. A character of any gender/race/species/people-who-identify-themselves-by-their-zodiac-signs is good as long as they have good character traits. (I know a million people have said this already but I like to think I helped)
     
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  13. Lemie

    Lemie Contributor Contributor

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    I'd choose career before children any day - so I'd totally sympathize with such a woman.
     
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  14. jim onion

    jim onion New Member

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    Have her turn into a giant spider. That's what I did.
     
  15. Alastair Woodcock

    Alastair Woodcock Active Member

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    Gina went to the front door. There was a letter on the mat. She recognised the childish handwriting. She gave a sigh. She opened up the envelope and unfolded the piece of A4 inside.

    'Dear mummy, we miss you so much. please come and visit us. we miss yor smile and yor laughta. signed Jane and Peter (Peter's now six! he had a birthday lass week!!)'

    Gina held the letter in her hands for 10 seconds. Then she scrunched it up into a ball and threw it into the wastebin.

    'I have no time for such sentimental shit', she said to herself.

    She pulled her coat off the peg, collected her briefcase from the kitchen and swept out the door.

    'Let's get some work done, baby', she said, remotely opening the doors to her Ferrari.



    She can be a heroine to you and a villain to others. As a writer, you can't assume all readers will react the same way to your characters, I guess.
     
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  16. raine_d

    raine_d Active Member

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    Livia from I Claudius. One of the best female villains ever.

    Madame Defarge, A Tale of Two Cities

    Phyllis Dietrichson, Double Indemnity

    Three of my favourites
     
  17. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Well, if she's written as a cartoonish caricature of heartlessness, it'll probably be pretty hard to sympathize with her. But hopefully our characters are generally given more depth?
     
  18. surrealscenes

    surrealscenes Senior Member

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    Or a banned one. I spent a number of years getting banned from mmo's. Developers never plan for players to use psychological warfare against others and really freak when used against their accounts.
     
  19. 8Bit Bob

    8Bit Bob Here ;) Contributor

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    What do you mean by "psychological warfare"? o_O
     
  20. surrealscenes

    surrealscenes Senior Member

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    Most of it was pretty basic. Lots of testing accounts to see who used alerts. Then figure out how to set off alerts (scouting, sending $1, etc repeatedly). I would do this against 'bully' type players. I would go after the rest of the 'clan' or whatever it is called there and just bombard them with alerts. After a day or two most turn off the alerts. Then it is only a matter of time until they slow down and eventually stop logging in. I would do all this with a tiny account that couldn't really be touched, then go after dev accounts when they told me to stop.
    I played one for years and the devs, from Romania, thought it was hilarious that I figured it out and as a massive credit to them, when I explained that the only real rules in the game 'is what button can be pressed when' I couldn't violate any rules, they agreed and let me carry on, but changed a few things and made spamming $1 against the rules. I then switched to the cheapest weapon ($5 I think) and they gave up trying to stop me.

    Some people will do it with multiple accounts, befriend someone, then attack them with all the accounts while also attacking them in chat/forums. There are a lot of ways as each game is slightly different.
     
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  21. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    In every WIP I've worked on, the main villain has almost always been female (maybe I hate my own gender, idk), and I haven't found it particularly difficult to write them. I just give her some sinister motivation and make her go to any lengths necessary to accomplish it. I don't mean world domination, but stuff like wealth or love or pleasure. I try to "keep it real", write her in a way that feels authentic to me. Sometimes her gender plays an important part as she might be able to use it to her advantage to gain favors or avoid punishment while sometimes it can make things more difficult for her and even embitter her, justifying--in her mind--all the grief she ends up causing to the heroes and heroines.

    I think women as villains are quite effective as we as a society don't usually expect cruelty or unhinged ambition from women, so it still has some shock value.

    One of my favorite novels ever, Dina's Book, is basically written from the villain's POV. Sure, we learn why she's a murderer and a manipulator, that she's been traumatized as a child, but she's one scary character and, in the end, it's really hard to feel sorry for her because you'd be asked to sympathize with the devil, kind of.

    ETA: I had forgotten about Glory's character in Buffy, probably because I started skipping the episodes she's in on my subsequent buffy binges. She was too cartoonish for my tastes, even for a Buffy character (though I love Buffy almost as much as Angel). Callisto, on the other hand, is one of my favorite characters in Xena -- right after Joxer.:D
     
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  22. Marthix2016

    Marthix2016 Banned

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    Interesting thoughts. I think my female villain has a very sinister motivation and she will do anything to get it...not along the lines of world domination but I think she wants to be loved and becomes obsessed with violence for pleasure to get what she wants. I really want the reader to connect with my villain on a sympathetic level...at the beginning she is a good character and is great allies/friends with the main hero...and as story goes on she turns dark, very dark, and becomes my main hero's archenemy but there is still that personal connection between the two though its brittle.

    My villainess will become more violent as time goes on and sees pain as pleasure. I want people in the story and the reader to really fear her...there's one point where a knight challenges her to a sword fight, calling her a coward for 'hiding behind' all of her henchmen to do her dirty work...she gets very angry and fights the knight herself and kills him in a very gruesome way. She shows no mercy and her thirst for pain grows the deeper into the story. I can really feel my villainess...I think her backstory is really sad and I personally sympathize with her on that...yet there are so many things she does that will make people really fear her. She's going to be really fun to write.
     
  23. Marthix2016

    Marthix2016 Banned

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    Good idea for a story. But this particular female villain of mine, she'll never have any children. She is very career driven from the start. With some of the things she does to get what she wants, it will scare the absolute shit out of people. I think people in the story will be so frightened by her that they'll quiver even when she takes a sip out of a glass of water. Her every movement will be watched...and feared. She'll build up a very bad reputation in quite shocking ways.
     
  24. Marthix2016

    Marthix2016 Banned

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    One thing I always think about is the end of the story. How will it end for my main hero and my main villainess? It's inevitable that there will be a very emotional final battle between the two. Not saying anything is final
    This gives me an idea. In some ways, I think younger people like children will view my villainess as a hero...at least early on...they look up to her, inspired by her, but secretly she despises children...I think it will be fun to 'show' that. She is a very career-driven person and I think showing her despise for kids may add to her character. Thanks for the tip. Gave me a great idea
     
  25. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Would it be a sign of ultimate evil for a man to dislike kids, or would it just be a character quirk?

    Honestly, the link between "woman" and "must love and want children" is a bit shaky.
     

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