Ashin Cardé Varanin
Couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos
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Question What makes good evil?
- Thread starter Darth Daiara
- Start date
Pirate Prince
AGGGHHH I'M LATE
Without repeating what anyone else has already said, I talked about this topic in more depth in this post, buuuut an antagonist doesn't even necessarily have to be evil. They just have to oppose the hero/protagonist. This might sound like anathema to RP writing, where character is everything, but if you think about it, the antagonist to your character in a thread could easily be someone who is in the same faction as you, not just the opposing side. All you have to do is create and/or be an obstacle to their progress, or oppose them in some way. Doesn't even have to be negative. I've done this - I've been the thorn in my ally's side, a burden or a nuisance, and it isn't just because I'm weird as hell. Every story's gotta have some conflict, so why not be the conflict?
If this sounds impossible and/or incoherent, it's very late and I'm tired. But! You asked for examples, I have examples. I just finished reading Jane Eyre. Great book, def a literary classic, NOT A LAME ROMANCE. The closest any of the characters come to being "villains" are a) a mean aunt who dies halfway through the story, b) a strict and priggish schoolmaster who only appears in, I dunno, two chapters at the most? c) a rich girl who looks down on servants and poor people, and d) a very mentally ill woman who runs around setting fires and biting/stabbing people. Also, maybe the missionary guy who is introduced in the last 1/4 of the book; he's a bit too controlling. But I wouldn't really call any of these people evil - they aren't even in the same category as someone like Darth Vader. Most of them are just unlikeable, their cruelties small, their evils banal. Making somebody's life miserable is surprisingly easy, who'd've thunk.
It's the same way with most of my favorite books. The one exception I can think of is Mary Hightower from the Skinjacker trilogy. She was one of those self-righteous types who was utterly convinced that she was correct in her goals... even though her grand visionary quest involved literally murdering children and then preventing their spirits from moving on to a proper afterlife. I feel like she wound up becoming a little bit overdone by the end of the series, far from the misguided but very human girl we were first introduced to and more into supervillainess territory. It was bad enough that there was no way she could have a redemption arc. One of my personal philosophies is to never write a villain who is so incredibly horrible and vile, their having a redemption arc would be unbelievable or come across as insincere/laughable.
Anyway, I think a lot of people here on Chaos get bogged down in wanting their RP writing to be like... well, like Star Wars. They want the big dramatic villains dressed in black with yellow eyes and "kneel before the monster mash and pledge your loyalty to the graveyard smash", that kind of thing. Why they want it (aside from the obvious answer, which is "I come to the SW RP site to do a SW RP"), I don't know. Star Wars isn't really known for its writing. People have been making fun of George Lucas' dialogue for decades now, most of the EU books are trash, don't @ me, you know it's true.
Basically, do whatever you want to do, enjoy it, have fun with it, try something new. I sleep now.
Without repeating what anyone else has already said, I talked about this topic in more depth in this post, buuuut an antagonist doesn't even necessarily have to be evil. They just have to oppose the hero/protagonist. This might sound like anathema to RP writing, where character is everything, but if you think about it, the antagonist to your character in a thread could easily be someone who is in the same faction as you, not just the opposing side. All you have to do is create and/or be an obstacle to their progress, or oppose them in some way. Doesn't even have to be negative. I've done this - I've been the thorn in my ally's side, a burden or a nuisance, and it isn't just because I'm weird as hell. Every story's gotta have some conflict, so why not be the conflict?
If this sounds impossible and/or incoherent, it's very late and I'm tired. But! You asked for examples, I have examples. I just finished reading Jane Eyre. Great book, def a literary classic, NOT A LAME ROMANCE. The closest any of the characters come to being "villains" are a) a mean aunt who dies halfway through the story, b) a strict and priggish schoolmaster who only appears in, I dunno, two chapters at the most? c) a rich girl who looks down on servants and poor people, and d) a very mentally ill woman who runs around setting fires and biting/stabbing people. Also, maybe the missionary guy who is introduced in the last 1/4 of the book; he's a bit too controlling. But I wouldn't really call any of these people evil - they aren't even in the same category as someone like Darth Vader. Most of them are just unlikeable, their cruelties small, their evils banal. Making somebody's life miserable is surprisingly easy, who'd've thunk.
It's the same way with most of my favorite books. The one exception I can think of is Mary Hightower from the Skinjacker trilogy. She was one of those self-righteous types who was utterly convinced that she was correct in her goals... even though her grand visionary quest involved literally murdering children and then preventing their spirits from moving on to a proper afterlife. I feel like she wound up becoming a little bit overdone by the end of the series, far from the misguided but very human girl we were first introduced to and more into supervillainess territory. It was bad enough that there was no way she could have a redemption arc. One of my personal philosophies is to never write a villain who is so incredibly horrible and vile, their having a redemption arc would be unbelievable or come across as insincere/laughable.
Anyway, I think a lot of people here on Chaos get bogged down in wanting their RP writing to be like... well, like Star Wars. They want the big dramatic villains dressed in black with yellow eyes and "kneel before the monster mash and pledge your loyalty to the graveyard smash", that kind of thing. Why they want it (aside from the obvious answer, which is "I come to the SW RP site to do a SW RP"), I don't know. Star Wars isn't really known for its writing. People have been making fun of George Lucas' dialogue for decades now, most of the EU books are trash, don't @ me, you know it's true.
Basically, do whatever you want to do, enjoy it, have fun with it, try something new. I sleep now.