Editor's Note: Anti/Villain

kementari

New member
Mar 18, 2008
159
0
0
I've always preferred a well-written antagonist to any other variety of character archetype. Well thought, and well said.

And if you ever do decide to become a villain, and need a henchwoman, I'm your girl.
 

Rick1940

New member
Jan 11, 2010
53
0
0
Russ Pitts said:
Editor's Note: Anti/Villain

Russ Pitts roots for the bad guys. Don?t you?
Rooting for the bad guy in fiction is one thing, but with anti-heroes I often can't figure out who the villain is.


Take Dirty Harry Callahan. He's the main character. If he were actually on a REAL police force, however, he would be a serious menace to society. People would be rioting in Oakland because he killed a perp without the proper procedures. Seriously, what if your stupid kid brother got stopped for speeding by Harry Callahan? You'd be worrying about how you could get a surgeon to put your kid brother's face back together.

In fiction, it's easy to say that the bad guy is the only sympathetic character.

Trying to extrapolate over to real life (as Russ Pitts does at the end of the article) opens up a large can of worms.
 

Kollega

New member
Jun 5, 2009
5,161
0
0
The Random One said:
The idea of a benevolent dictatorship exists, although only in theory.
Yup, it does - but a benevolent dictator who only takes away freedom to improve living quality is an exception, not a rule. Let's face it: even in our post-post-modernism age you've so appropriately mentioned, the bulk of villains (over 50%, i'd say) don't have any "higher idea" - they just want to conquer and then rule shit. Those who do have that sort of idea though are true anti-villains.

Or it could be Brave New World. Yeah, probably this one.
I should probably quote George Orwell here and say: "man cannot live by hedonism alone". Well, i can't, at least.
 

vxicepickxv

Slayer of Bothan Spies
Sep 28, 2008
3,126
0
0
kementari said:
I've always preferred a well-written antagonist to any other variety of character archetype. Well thought, and well said.
Well written and thought out antagonists are great, in fact here's a like to a couple of them. Some of the villains start out very poorly written, but become greater than their stories.

My current favorite character though is, well for lack of a better term difficult to define. Her first appearance appeared to be as a villain, but she's not. I wouldn't call her a hero though, she does what she needs to do to get the job done. Her name is Abigail Brand, and she is awesome. As far as I know, her first appearance is in the Astonishing X-Men graphic novels.

IGN Comic book villains(1 by 1 slideshow, if you don't count the alphabetical list at the bottom) - http://comics.ign.com/top-100-villains/
 

MissAshley

New member
Jul 20, 2009
128
0
0
Remove just the right mental check and/or balance and suddenly it doesn't really matter what other people think of you. It doesn't matter who you hurt or what you destroy. Clear your mind of all existential angst and suddenly the difference between right and wrong recalibrates - what is right is what you want right to be, and what is wrong is anything that stands in the way of that.
It's this right here which makes me afraid of going insane. As a teen, it chilled me to think just how easily I could manipulate people to my own ends if I were to destroy my own "Bubba." Thankfully I realize to do that, though, would be to destroy a part of myself, and that's something I cannot do. Hopefully, that will never change.

Nice piece, Russ.
 

Rick1940

New member
Jan 11, 2010
53
0
0
Blue-State said:
It is pretty impressive how villains manage to get shit done even when they lose. In the Bond films, the opening sequence is usually about them tying up some lose end. The only flaw is that they can't find a way to do it without getting MI6 involved. It occurs to me that if these people had put as much attention into "public relations" (bribery) as they did into super-lasers, Bond would be working for them. I see all these evil plans get developed so smoothly then I remember the healthcare debate and I feel like crying. Why can't the goodies get shit done? :(
Getting stuff done is considerably easier in fiction than in real life.

See also:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WellIntentionedExtremist

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IDidWhatIHadToDo

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AntiVillain