For the characters in my story, I'm creating them to be very tall, especially the main antagonist who's like this crazy militia religious guy and I was thinking of making him around 7 foot 2. My MC would be about 6 foot 1 so not as huge but I have other characters that would be around 6 foot 8, 6 foot 6, 6 foot 10 and so on. Is this unrealistic? Even though my story is set in the future, can this be believable having standard antagonists being that tall? Usually it's the very brawn and brute bodyguard type of characters that are usually that big. I appreciate it.
How far in the future? Thousands of years, or decades? I think that lightning is allowed to strike once in a story, so ONE character is allowed to be ridiculously tall. If many characters are ridiculously tall, I think you need a reason--like this group actively recruited tall people from a very large population. (Maybe a basketball team converted and formed a militia?)
I'd say around the years 2800s or 2900s. They'd just be more like super villains and bad guys. Probably with years of military training, assassins, killers, super geniuses, cirrupt businessmen and the like. Could it make sense for an intellectual genius villain to be 7 feet tall? Not basketball players unless I decide to make at least some or at least one of them a basketball player thst they were previously, which could make sense I guess if he became corrupt later in life.
Any one person can be seven feet tall, but for a group to all be in the above-6-6 range requires, IMO, an explanation, probably a deliberate and concerted recruiting for height.
My only explanation is that it's in the future and people, especially rulers and leaders are much taller now. Other than that, I don't have a real reason why they are so tall. Don't Marvel and DC have lots of hereos and villains that are extremely tall without explaining reasons why?
You can do it. Depending on how many really tall characters you make, you may need to provide an explanation.
Can being set in the future be a good enough reason? That people just grow taller? Obtaining some kind of powers or experiment that could enhance their size? Is it better to have the muscle and brawn type villains who are extremely tall, to have been previously athletes that were recruited and trained into the bad guys organizations instead? Should the intelligent and mastermind bad guys be better off around average to somewhat tall in height more plausible?
Yes, you’ll have to include it still as an explanation, but you can do that. That’s really up to you. What do you like? What do you as the writer think sounds/works better? Personally, I see no problem if the antagonist is really tall. You could use it to his advantage, such as his height is a way he proved his dominance or something.
I have one species that averages 7ft, and another at 8ft. So yes you can have them that tall, but it is rare in Humans since they tend to live shorter lives compared to more average sized ones. So yes. Now if they were at giant height/proportions they would be stronger by far, but much slower.
Yeah him being very tall could be used as a form of intimidation. I just want to use some logic and not just have "villain who just happens to be 7 foot 1 whatever" cause being a mastermind and such I wouldn't see him as being just some brute. It's just that being that tall on a daily bases, unless he was just some huge bodyguard or athlete who's used to dealing with their size, would put a lot of strain and discomfort for someone who lives a lifestyle of being a business or military commander leader, a rich scientist, a criminal pastor teacher, etc. Those guys can be very tall but usually they would have huge bodyguards working for them that are 7 feet that work as the backup muscle. I just want to make sense of it and not make it seem ridiculous like some cartoony beyond tall super villains. Maybe that would work. Perhaps advanced nutritional suplement or nanotech enhancements? Cool are either of them human or are they neither human at all? Cause I know I could get away with making 7 or 8 feet tall characters non human. Here lies my problem, it wouldn't be much different from today as peoples heights would vary like they do now, just that these particular villains I wanted to make them very tall, either cause of their genes or whatnot. Guess this leaves me in the red zone of needing some explanation or it will seem kind of strange Then again guys like Apocalypse, Rhino and Ra's al Ghul are very tall and human right?
One is reptilian and carbon based and has tails, the other taller is silicon based and has 2 pair of arms.
But those guys are huge, tall brutes that usually fill roles as super strong bodyguards. Not mastermind leaders like Lex Luther who's more like average tall 6'2 as opposed to being a 7'3 giant who has to use up more energy on their body, which is usually used for brute force.
Well that makes sense, considering they are a non human race so that height could be their norm See in my case I have lots of explaining to do as to why 7 foot human corrupt geniuses and average humans are walking around 7 feet and over without a logical explanation other than nutrition and being the future, cause nutrition really doesn't matter much unless they are using enhancements or they are of a different race where 7 foot is their average height.
Not at all. It's just that I'm using physics and logic for characters that would be doing lots of maneuvering around which could put strain on the body if over 7 foot and conquering nations and such through sneaky undercover schemes, their huge size would likely make them easily noticeable so I just want it to make sense so readers are not thinking I'm creating huge tall villains cause it looks "cool and badass"
Well, I assumed that was why you wanted them to be tall. Why do you want them to be tall? Maybe I missed the post.
Cause I've been told in the past that making outrageously tall villains is over exaggerating it that audiences would be in disbelief in terms of physics where as 6'2, 6'3 is not that big of deal. That's why it's easier to get away with though explaining why humans are that tall takes a little more work, especially if there are humans that will also be of average height. I will, I just know lots of people aren't going to like it.
Because I want some of my villains to be very tall but I don't want to have to make everyone in the story tall, including all POV and everyone that exists in the story just to make it reasonable as to why these guys have such a tall height cause if everyone in my story is 7 feet then it makes it less variable and it's not like I want characters that are 5'7 or 5'10 to be non existent
While it is rare there have been humans that have grown to 8-9ft tall due to certain conditions, but that is rare, but not outside the realm of possibility/plausibility. Look at Shaq who is 8 ft, or Yao who is closer to 10 ft. Rare yes, impossible no.
So... I wasn't going to comment because honestly I don't have a clear solution, but... I think you may be missing the point. If I had to sum up my observations... No one cares if you have a bunch of tall fellows and it's not unrealistic in a science fiction to have characters or beings with traits unlike modern humans. However, the fact that this anomaly seems semi-common means it has to have some sort of reason. So why? The answer shouldn't because they're just tall. If I wrote a story in which way more people than usual have heterochromia... it'd help to have a reason besides "they just do." Now another important question is... are the "bad guys" solely these tall folk? Is it a racial war between humans and a hybrid breed which means there's a genetic distinction between the two groups? Or is it just over-time evolution / mutation in the whole population, which means there must be some tall "good guys" as well, yes? You don't become a villain because you're tall and you don't become tall because you're a villain. Or maybe someone has become a villain because they are tall; I'm short and wouldn't comprehend such matters.
Right. But. Why do you want them to be tall? I'm not saying that you need an excuse or anything. But if you don't want people to think you're doing it because it seems cool, and you ARE doing it because it seems cool (which is fine!) then maybe it's best to just embrace, yeah, you're doing because it seems cool. Then figure out some reason and be done.
