So, in my story I have this character named Blade. (Guess who he is!) He is the lazy, arrogant, chauvinistic jerk of my main little group and he turns out to be the bad guy. Big surprise there. And this is where my problem lies. I just think he is to stereotypical. Though I'm not quite sure how to get him where i want him. I kind of wanted and element of surprise instead of the "i think he will be the bad guy, oh look he is!" type thing. So maybe someone would have some pointer? He is, though, one of my favorite characters because i love to cause him pain and make him bicker with one of the other characters!
Two pointers that I can think of: First, present an alternative bad guy. Nobody will be looking for a hidden villain if you're waving one right in front of their noses. Secondly, have him show the occassional flashes of good qualities, that way everyone will expect him to become a better person through character development, rather than turn around and say that everything good he did was all part of the plan.
I second Smithy's call, but I'd say it goes deeper. Right now, you don't have a character, you have a villain, and a villain who twirls his moustache whilst tying helpless young maidens to the railway tracks. Remember that villains are people too. See the world through his eyes, and remember that he should be a hero- but we never see it. He should think about things like a hero would, only with a slightly skewed POV. Try this: Take a positive trait, say, bravery or charity, and push it too far. Too much charity and you have a cult leader or someone who wants to take over the world so that it can become a better place; too much bravery and you have a warrior who took on something he couldn't beat and came back changed. But keep that positive trait active; the charitable person is still nice to her neighbors and knows her henchmen's names, and the brave man cannot be scared by anything and never backs down from a challenge. He's probably got a code of honour as well.
thank you so much for the help and by the way, you hit it dead on! The main bad guys are just that. Thanks!!
So make the reader like him. Make him the nice guy that's always got your back (you think). Make him dependable, reliable, likable and then WHAM shock the reader with the realization that it was all an act and that they were being played. But make it believable. *also the name "Blade" kind of makes him stick out which, as a reader, would make me suspicious of him
Good idea. Well. All the names are weird. Like, Jolon happens to be the hero of the story and his name mean valley of dead oaks. but i guess that requires random knowledge.
Not necessarily. Robin Hobb uses the name Blade in her Farseer stories, and the character is just a humble guardsman of no particular importance whatsoever. He's a nice guy, but he doesn't really do anything.
Try and make him kind of the anti-hero. Make it seem like he does good things but in a bad way, until in the end you realise everything he's done really is just evil.
