Creating a memorable bad guy (or girl)

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Creating a memorable bad guy (or girl)"

Lester Nelson
5 years ago
Views:

Antagonists Part I Creating a memorable bad guy (or girl) photo courtesy of paperorplastic Let s stop and think for a moment before we begin the long trek through the land of the rotten and

1 Antagonists Part I Creating a memorable bad guy (or girl) photo courtesy of paperorplastic Let s stop and think for a moment before we begin the long trek through the land of the rotten and villainous, about the difference between the bad guy (antagonist) and the good guy (protagonist). Well, there s the obvious. The good guy always wins. Right? Wrong. Or at least half wrong. Well, maybe we re supposed to hate the bad guy? Again, not necessarily. The bad guy has to be evil incarnate, especially in fantasy. Another misconception. Starting to get the point? The bad guy is not the exact carbon copy we always thought he was, especially if you want a book or story everyone will remember. The protagonist has one big job to do (and possibly a bunch of smaller jobs on the side), and that big job is to stop the bad guy (antagonist) from winning. Of course, your antagonist may be just an obstacle to overcome, such as fear of speaking in front of an audience, rather than an actual person to defeat. But you simply don t have a story without an obstacle, conflict, or bad guy. Without the conflict, the protagonist has no reason to exist. It s an interesting way to think of life in general. We don t find out what we re made of until we have something to push against. That is something that forces us to be our best so we can discover things about ourselves that we never would have known otherwise. Without a whole lot of pressure, a diamond is just a piece of coal. Let s look at the three main types of bad guys, and then we ll break down the various motivations to be bad.

Antagonist as absolute evil My apologies to all of the The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and Harry Potter fans out there (myself included), but it is more than a little cliché to have a character

2 Antagonist as absolute evil My apologies to all of the The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and Harry Potter fans out there (myself included), but it is more than a little cliché to have a character of absolute evil. In fact, only in fantasy could you really get away with a character like this, and then it has to be done with such finesse and care that it makes it hard to pull off without a roll of the eyes from readers world wide. This is a good bad guy for fantasies (and I say bad guy, but it could just be an evil force or chaos, or demon running amok in the world) because the foundation of fantasy is the story of GOOD VS EVIL. That all-powerful, story line. You ll find this story line everywhere in myth, the Bible, and movies, and it s the foundation of fantasy. But because of how popular it is, some writers use this as a scapegoat for doing real character work on a bad guy. For example, when creating a good guy you know a lot about him or her. She likes to ride horses and play chess, and she reads in her spare time. Well, what does the devil do in his free time? Does evil incarnate have free time? It s hard for a basically good person to imagine what motivates badness. So, to make it easier, we slap the name evil on it, and we re done. Well, that s not always good enough. Now, I hear ya. If it s good enough for Tolkien, it s good enough for me. And that, my friend, is exactly the point. Tolkien s books have been around for decades and decades. He is, for the most part, the father of modern day fantasy, and as such almost every fantasy author that has written a story in the last forty years or so has followed his lead at some point or another. So, the question is; do you want to be a Tolkien copy, or do you want to be your own writer? Okay, so having given you a serious question to think about, I can go on to say that absolute evil is not all bad. No pun intended. Just because many fantasy authors have used it doesn t mean you can t put your own spin on it, or build a different kind of story around it. Perhaps you could even go the Star Wars route and explain how that person

3 became so evil. There is an old saying- "There s nothing in the world that hasn t been done before." Nowhere is that more apparent than in writing. Some joke that there are only a handful of story ideas in the world that have been recycled since the dawn of time, each author putting their own spin on the same basic ideas. Well, I can totally see that. Read a few fantasy books and it s pretty obvious, but that doesn t diminish the stories any, because each author has added something new to the concept. So, don t be afraid to take absolute evil and play with it a little. The power hungry bad guy photo courtesy of Muffet This is a fairly common bad guy, especially for fantasy novels. Perhaps the antagonist is already in power and wishes to keep it that way, at any cost, or they seek power again at any cost. Characters like Lord Voldemort, Count Olaf, and countless other fantasy antagonists fit this bill. And the reason it works? Well, as cynical as it may sound, power is a seductive thing. It s human nature to fight for power, whether it be on a small scale, like in a relationship, or on a global scale. To be sure, not everyone is like that, but enough people seek power to make this kind of bad guy understandable, if not particularly likable. To really make this character work, and work against your protagonist (hero), you have to set the bad guy's desires in direct opposition to the well-being of the hero. For example, if your bad guy wants to build an evil genius superhighway, well that highway better plow right through our hero s town. There is a trick that can make your bad guy seem more human, as well. Try giving him at least one-- two would be great-- positive traits. Sure, he wants to own the world, but he feeds the orphans, or he s very loyal. Something small will work, too. Maybe he is very gentle with his dog, or he has a pet bunny rabbit. Just be careful of two things. One, you don t make that trait seem unnatural, like something you just stuck in there for the heck of it. And two, don t make it seem funny (unless you mean to). For example, a bad guy who talks to his pet gerbil in a high pitched baby voice is hard to take seriously. So, make sure it s funny only if you re trying to be funny.

Anti-villain sympathetic bad guy photo courtesy of Yersinia Let s say that a young boy was treated terribly as a child, and eventually grows up to be a troubled youth and adult.

4 Anti-villain sympathetic bad guy photo courtesy of Yersinia Let s say that a young boy was treated terribly as a child, and eventually grows up to be a troubled youth and adult. He struggles with his negative emotions, not always knowing how to diffuse his anger. At the same time though, he cares for his handicapped sister, who has been confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. In order to provide for her, maybe he feels like he has to steal, or kill, or collect as much power as he can. Now, is this evil? No, this is a person confused, torn apart by anger he has never learned to control, and protecting his loved ones in the only way he knows. Is he wrong on many levels? Of course. Could he be a bad guy? Absolutely. Could this type of character even be an anti-hero (or your main character/hero just with none of the traits a usual hero has)? Yes he could. The first thing you need to do when creating an interesting bad guy is define evil in your opinion. This is going to take a lot of thought, because normal people make mistakes. They lie and steal and hurt other people without really meaning to. Are there times when it s okay to steal? What if you re Robin Hood? Are there times when it s okay to kill? What if it s to save your own life, or the life of someone you care about? What if it s just for revenge? Is it okay then? What separates a good person who does bad things from a bad person who does bad things? Most humans aren t perfectly good or perfectly evil. We are all various shades of gray, and we spend our lifetimes defining just what that means and how we came to be who we are. I ve never in my life met a person who was evil for the sake of being evil. I ve met some people who are walking what I would call a dark path, but that doesn t necessarily make them bad. Define what evil is in your opinion and that will give you the basis from which to grow this dark character. Being bad is all about perception. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has had or will have moments in their lives when they act selfishly. Some just cross the line. Do you think the guy robbing the bank is thinking to himself Geez, I sure am a rotten guy. I should probably be punished for this. I think I ll turn myself in now. Heck no. He s

5 not thinking that. He s thinking about how he deserves this money, or about how badly he needs it. Now, you can guarantee that the poor bankers who are being robbed think he s a bad guy and deserves to be punished. It s all about perception, and as a writer you have to take advantage of that. People are going to think their motives and actions are justified, no matter what they are. Some examples of this kind of bad guy are: Dr. Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the phantom in Phantom of the Opera, The Joker and Catwoman from Batman. Almost every Shakespeare play has one. In fact, a lot of comic book bad guys would fit this bill. You kind of feel sorry for them even though they're as bad as rotten fruit. What you have to understand about this kind of antagonist- and creating a good one- is that they are exactly what it means to be in the gray area. They are neither absolute evil, nor absolute good. They are humans. Humans who have crossed the lines of decency to be sure, but humans nonetheless. Don t forget all the complicated inner workings of a human being when you create these kinds of characters, and you re on your way to an unforgettable antagonist. Photo courtesy of Zoomar Think About This: Who were some of your favorite bad guys? What made them bad? What motivated them to do what they did? Were they well developed or just formless personifications of evil?

February 4-5, David and Goliath. 1 Samuel 17. God rescues his family.

February 4-5, David and Goliath. 1 Samuel 17. God rescues his family. February 4-5, 2017 David and Goliath 1 Samuel 17 God rescues his family. Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. Large Group (30