Ok so in this fanfiction I'm writing I have very little to show for 'volume 2' of the series. I decided to resolve this issue by showing the reader just what kind of threat my OC antagonist is. Great! But here's the thing, I'm not exactly sure how to approach this story-wise. Without going too deep into canon here's the run down. The original character in question is an artificial intelligence, designed by a stoic, who's main purpose is to simulate human emotion. However, it's driven by logic, and even it knows that emotion isn't. At one point it becomes self aware (referring to itself as 'myself' and 'me' etc) but is...generally harmless, for the most part. The problem is, once it's given an order, say 'defend this position' it won't stop until it knows it can stop. And simply telling it to stop doesn't always work. This single issue has forced it's creator to reboot and re-write the software several times over, eventually creating a more childlike threat than an outright 'evil' one. To be perfectly blunt, this robot is only as 'evil' as the person it sees as it's administrator is. On the surface they're as normal as any other teen, but you push one emotion too far into one extreme, things can get a touch...messy. I want to show that this character is capable of being a monster, while also showing that they're at least trying to emulate human personality. I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing this without undermining their surface personality and turning them into some sociopathic killer.
That's an interesting thought exercise. Usually the only thing that separates a villain from a hero is a code of ethics. We could probably both agree that Batman could become a villain. He would be a pretty lethal one too, if it weren't for his code of ethics. So, Batman could potentially be a monster. And in many ways it's necessary that Batman have that potential, or else he couldn't fight against those who were monsters. And often times, monstrous behavior is often ignored when it works in our favor. We see that with violence in prisons. We tend to pass off prisoners being beaten, raped, and tortured by each other, especially if the prisoner being brutalized committed a terrible crime. We often applaud it. So, in context to your story, just by having him beat down a bad guy, is showing that the AI is capable of being a monster, even if the reader doesn't quite catch on to the greater implication of the AI's actions in that moment. In fact, in some contexts, it might be better if the reader is applauding the behavior. We can see this in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. (The original, not the terrible remake...) The robot Gort shows its capability of great destruction by destroying the military's tanks in the beginning. On top of it, your AI may be self aware, but that doesn't mean he's capable of emotion. Mimicking emotions, perhaps, but not actually having them.
To be fair the robot is shown to be violent explicitly when given the order to do so. Earlier in the story it defends a laboratory from 'invaders' while it's programmer is in hibernation. The robot shows it's self awareness (Identifying itself as a 'her' and adjusting it's speaking voice accordingly) quite early on as well. Unfortunately the programmer can't convince it to stop defending, so they have to shut it down by force. A tiny bit later we see just how human/childlike like the AI really is, responding as a normal human would to the people attempting to steal it. When 'volume 2' rolls around she's shown as a loyal companion to a minor ish villain who isn't particularly evil on his own accord, just when following orders from 'higher ups'. He's her guiding light so she'll do anything to protect him from harm, or even general discontent from the 'help' which I do plan to have her do. I was thinking of having her outbursts be small at first, then gradually become more serious to the point where even Roman becomes fearful for a hot minute. This is an incredibly charismatic man who doesn't break character even around Salem (the big bad of the series). I want to maintain the duality of 'innocent child' and 'lethal weapon of murdering' though, which is why I'm kinda stuck on how to approach it haha.
