Who loves to create evil charactors for your stories. Me I prefare to write about the baddies those charators are always the ones remembered. What do you based your baddies on.
I don't go in for the whole Good V Evil thing. That's boring, to me at least. You can't really have a compelling baddie without a reason for their...badness. So my villains are insane, religious zealots, or just on the other side of the conflict-a soldier doing their job kinda thing.
Well, seeing as my most successful series (Based on response and commenting) centers completely on the evilest person in the world, I guess you could say yes I have a thing for bad people (See The Jack Files to get it). I find the whole notion of people being evil for no reason other than just to be evil hilarious and absolutely ripe for humor, because a person with this type of personality is just so...open, in every way to be written about. So yes, I do like evil characters, but mostly as humor.
Alot of what I write is set in the future were alls not well for the Human race and so I follow that kind of theme mostly. I wrote a four part fan fiction story set in the warhammer 40,000 universe and created some really nasty villians but out of them all i think my favourite was the villian i wrote for the second story Crimson Fist 2 : Volcane I liked what i did with him. But some of the other stories I've written its been more on race than a particualr villian. ~Raven.
I like to create an evil character within every thing I write, I tend to be good at creating a character that everyone hates. I created a character for a piece I have been working on for a couple of months now and let a friend of mine read it and she said straight out that she hated the character a lot. His actions and personality within the piece she thought were just repulsive and vulgar, but what more can you expect when your evil character is a sick and twisted mass murderer lol. I always aim to try and make a character that is despised by the reader for the way the character behaves and responds to the situations that arise in the story. ~Torana
My 'bad guys' are usually the main character. I like to attempt to get the audience to find some sort of compassion for this bad person even though they have done bad things. They are still people. =)
Anti-heroes are common these days. I do think a really hateable character works wonders for a book - I personally greatly enjoyed Harry Potter 5 because of Dolores Umbridge, whereas I though 6 was weak. But then, I love Bender and Mr.Burns...Actually, Bender is my total hero. I'd love to write a character like that...
My current project is based on a character who feels righteous in his causes. But if you were hearing this from another perspective you would think he was insane or just evil. He is rational but it is really hard to understand his direction. I have always felt that the 'evil' characters are the most important. They help you to understand the POV of your protagonist. I try to mix it up in my writings, but I always have one common element: the 'evil' character is only evil to his adversary. I like to write it as almost a fist fight between the 'good guy and bad guy.' Of course I am willing to try it other ways, too.
A character I've been working on for a while is a deeply religious and charismatic man who, after a disease wipes out half of humanity, realizes that a virulent form of radical Islam is spreading very quickly nearby, so he makes a deal with the virulent movement's leader: he'll help the guy conquer new land if he is allowed to retain control of his territory, separate from the radical Islamic state. The guy ends up having to do terrible things, but then he dies when his kid is only about fourteen, so the son firmly believes that they are on a sort of Crusade for God without understanding all of the back story. When the son grows up, he continues the expansion with his father's associates, and ultimately turns into a kind of dictator. The scary part is how normal he can be at times - he is, after all, a slightly bright person thrust into a bad situation. (Remember, they're still recovering from the disease's impact.) So he will be perfectly civil to an emissary, then order one out of every three men in town R shot because they conspired to smuggle weapons into a controlled zone. He is outrageously evil and conniving, but the reader can actually understand why (given the background politics) he would feel that it was the only way to save the most people from a) the disease, b) the post-disease anarchy, and c) the radical Islamists. Disclaimer: by radical Islam, I mean jizya-taxing, fundamental shari'a law-following, women-can't-be-out-unescorted radicals. Some characters in one town are Muslim, and they are just as horrified at the rumors as anyone else.
To me, bad character are the most interesting to write about because they have no limit. If I wrote about a bad character, I would most likely make her (I always write from a girl's point of veiw) some kind of a rebel like character. I think those are the most interesting to write about; they have attitude and humor.
As writers, we must hold true to the human condition. *yes i'm using big words to boost my self-esteem* We must understand that gone were the days where dark and light could be distinguished so easily, characters are the same. Even if they are truely evil, they have a purpose and a cause for that, and they may yet be redeemed. Now everything is a shade of grey, even the characters and the motives that drive forth the wheel of the plot.
I don't believe in good and bad in works. Writer is not to judge, but to show. But you may still call some of my charachters "bad", since they are killers or whores or pimps.
I agree with the complete hateable character, such as the Dolores Umbridge post, simply because it is harder to create. I found myself saying things like, "I hate her," and "Oh my Gooood..." during that book, heh.
Meh. I've always tried to create a character that you don't hate, but don't want to win either. In other words, make the antagonist a likable guy with reasons for what he's doing...
But that makes it boring... Example: Susan sat down for a cup of tea. "Tiffany," she said, "I'd like a cup of tea." "I'm very sorry, Susan," Tiffany said. "I can't give you any." "Why not?" Susan whined. "We're running low on tea, and I'm saving up for Christmas, and you know how I like to divvy up the shares for everyone," Tiffany said. "You know I'd give some to you if I could." "Oh, you've always been nice enough," Susan said. "I guess I'll let you get away with it this time." Susan and Tiffany laughed at Susan's wit, and they both had a glass of milk instead. YAWN. Tiffany was a likeable person with motives for her actions, and it had to be the most laughably boring piece of words I've ever laid eyes on.
Ah, you see , fair Ivan, that it gets far more interesting. Susan owns a tea depot, and one night she catches Tiffany stealing crates of the stuff to feed her tea-addicted family. She would love to give her the tea, but her family needs it too. Dilemma. They fight, both trying to do what they think is right. Ultimately ending three books later in fight a-top one of NY's tallest buildings, with Susan hesitating in the final blow, as Tiffany isn't a bad person. Rather a great person, but having opposite objectives. Did I get the names right?
.... ....I'll answer you after I find my spleen. It fell out my chest after I split my side laughing. Sorry to have doubted you! =D
I think one of the most notorious bad guys ever was Boba Fett. Yoiu see enough of him to appreciate him yet not too much as so the villian is preserved.
I think the version of Lex Luthor in the current Smallville series is becoming a fascinating villain. He is not particularly driven by world domination, but he is desperate to make a name for himself separate from being the son of Lionel Luthor. He has become ruthless in building an army of superpowered soldiers, but he believes it to be the only way to save the planet from aliens like Zod who possessed him, and others who wrought devastation at that time. He has never had a satisfying love relationship, and has now driven away the one woman who seemed to love him for who he was. This is a masterfully developed villain, shaped by his world, trying to be a force for good, but burdened with skewed priorities.
Yes, probably. Most of my characters aren't actually good guys, they are either in it for themselves or for revenge, though a few have deep religious reasons, or are doing a job. Some are downright nasty and sadistic, but to have an 'evil' character, you first must define 'evil', and decide whether there even is such a thing as 'the fundamental evil'.
There's no sought thing as good and evil. It all depends on your point of view. The word, evil, is use to make someone look bad, just because either he or she doesn't follow someone else's rules, or get a long with people. And good is use for someone who follows the rules or is nice. For example, the Christain religon calls witches evil, because witches do not believe in the same thing as the Christains. Evil is moslty use in racism, sexiesm, discrimmnation, religon, and stupidty. Many people don't want to follow rules, because they want freedom, rights, and stuff they want. I hate stereotypical villains, because they have no reason why they are bad. Unless they are funny and stupid. Their creators probably made the villains like that to make kids follow the rules in the state. So evil is just use to stereotype someone else, who do not follow the rules. And if you call someone evil, you're the one being evil. Because you do not know what that person is really like. Just have your serious characters a reason what they want to do.
Evil characters like good characters think what they are doing is right, and that they are justified in doing whatever it is. Although this is a kind of insanity, because certainly they are blind to "common sense" for some reason, their wishes override the rights of others. Many of the qualities used by evil people are the same used by good people. Take a ruthless businessman who down sizes a corporation putting thousands of people out of work. Is that person evil? Not by business standards. A lot of "win at any cost" types of people might be considered "evil." But then again by whose standards would they be judged? Robin Hood was a bad man and a robber. People loved him. For some reason they thought that by giving to the poor he did something right. There were people who adored Hitler-- seen now as one of the worst bad men in history. So who's to say? I think the character in The Talented Mr. Ripley is a really good example of an excellent anti-hero (evil person who is the main character). I think Ripley was one of the best Bad characters ever written about.
I don't have evil characters as such, usually the hero is a flawed person who fixes himself by the end of the day. If I have someone evil they are probably not important except for being evil. My 3rd novel has about three evil people, a 19-year-old boy who suffer Schizophrenia, so he's not evil, just messed up. Then there's an old hag who wants money. Not much of a trouble. But the last category of insanely evil politicians stabs upfront. I think they're ferocious. The idea of making the evil guy your hero is good when you're portraying the message of metamorphosis, rather than being 'acceptive' of evil, in my opinion.
