So the lie my villain believes is: Love makes you weak and vulnerable. But is it a lie if it's partly true? Love can make you vulnerable and make you a weaker person when dealing with those you love. So it is really a lie?
It's not a lie, love does make you weak and vulnerable however, love can also make you Brave and willing to sacrifice yourself for those you love. It's why a lot of superheroes avoid relationships. Or why a King might show no love or care for his family
I think the Lie here is one of omission, rather than outright falsehood. Yes, love can leave you weak or vulnerable. But it can also fill you with resolve or give your life purpose and direction. "Love makes you weak and vulnerable" leaves that last part out. It might be helpful to get a little more specific and say that the Lie your villain believes is that love can only make you weak and vulnerable.
This was what I was going for, I think I just worded it incorrectly. I had this realization just before I read this. It's mot really a lie because it's partly true. But if my character believed that love only made you weak and vulnerable that's not true. thanks for confirming! xxx
It's sort of like 'It's better to be feared than loved', where the last half is 'but better to be both if possible' or 'Jack of all trades, master of none', without 'better than a master of one' or 'Curiosity killed the cat' without 'but satisfaction brought it back'. Life is full of half-idioms, concepts that are in their part true and in their whole truer. 'Love makes you weak' is true; 'but it can give you strength' is true as well, and the second half of the saying.
Maybe that's a better what if putting it? The idea is, my villain had two big influences in her life. Her stern Grandmother and her loving, gentle mother and neither had the equation right. Her mother valued love, her grandmother valued power. It feeds back to my characters dilemma because she has a choice between power and love. Although, she doesn't want to be feared just safe. But if you're feared you are safe because not many people will challenge you.
Go read a synopsis of Machiavelli's The Prince if you want a lecture about the line, but that's the heart of it. Most people won't betray someone they're afraid of, but they'll betray someone they love. Machiavelli does say that both is preferable, certainly. "Men love at their convenience but they fear at the convenience of the prince." Love is less of a motivator than fear in the hearts of the weak, and most people are weak. That's what separates the heroes from the villains, I think; a villain navigates the weakness of others to a position of personal strength. A hero navigates the individual strengths of others to a position of communal strength.
Thank you, I will go and read it. The thing is my character has a direct conflict between her need for power and her need for love. Her mother and grand-mother were just concrete symbols of this life long struggle between love and power and a need to decide which one is more valuable to have. So I wanted a lie based on this idea I just don't know how to word it and still may need some help. Maybe her lie needs to be something different since a character lie is something they believe.
