Quick question, since you talked about shaking up your formulae:
Why don't you treat this as a challenge? Is it really impossible to create a complex, interesting villain despite him/her being purely ruthless and diabolical? It seems to me as though both aren't really very exclusive, and investigating it might give you a way to shake up your writing.
I suppose so. I mean, Darth Vader proved that you can have a complex villain even in spite of being ruthless and diabolical. The Master from Doctor Who too, along with a lot of Doctor Who villains. Not to mention Nero from the 2009 Star Trek, and John Harrison/Khan from Star Trek Into Darkness . *Sighs* So you are definitely right there. :) I'm just worried on occasion about my writing a pitiful dimension to my villains somehow making them weak. That and I don't know how good I am at writing ruthless or diabolical (still, I guess I can take this as a challenge, and not a source of anxiety) -- most of my villains just come off as people sort of improvising as they go along to get to their goals...although, who says that that and ruthless and diabolical have to be mutually exclusive?
And that could definitely work. Thanks! (And sorry if I temporarily derailed my War Doctor post with writing angst; it was just something that was bothering me. I really need to cut back on that stuff, though)
Here's the other thing: I don't think complex and interesting dimensions necessarily require the character to be pitiful. Which is another interesting direction you can take this, if you want to write out of your usual box. It strikes a bit closer to dark fantasy or 'dark and gritty' than I'm usually writing, but it's possible. (Note: we're not talking about G.R.R.Martin sort of 'gritty', but Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, etc. And I'll agree those are hit and miss, because a lot of writers in that category sometimes throw so much shit in your face that despite the (apparent?) humanity/complexity of the characters, you just can't root for them, period.)
I think that depends too. There's the usual saying about how all plans don't survive the first engagement with the enemy. People like Palpatine are very good at planning, and even he's been phenomenally lucky, not to mention, he did have the advantage of some form of prescience. Most characters probably can't get to that extent. Frankly, the moment the villain has everything going
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I guess so. I just tend to go for the pitiable because I think if one can pity a villain and hate them at the same time, it's definitely an achievement. That and I guess I want to understand people. Even if it is...well, via pity. But that's definitely true. After all, there are other ways to build complexity, such as moments when they're just being normal, moments where they have to team up with the heroes, having people they care about, etc. (I'm certain there's more) And yeah, I can definitely imagine that
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Why don't you treat this as a challenge? Is it really impossible to create a complex, interesting villain despite him/her being purely ruthless and diabolical? It seems to me as though both aren't really very exclusive, and investigating it might give you a way to shake up your writing.
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And that could definitely work. Thanks! (And sorry if I temporarily derailed my War Doctor post with writing angst; it was just something that was bothering me. I really need to cut back on that stuff, though)
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I think that depends too. There's the usual saying about how all plans don't survive the first engagement with the enemy. People like Palpatine are very good at planning, and even he's been phenomenally lucky, not to mention, he did have the advantage of some form of prescience. Most characters probably can't get to that extent. Frankly, the moment the villain has everything going ( ... )
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