Villainy is one of those subject that gets radical opinions. But from a Christian perspective, most people declare those who go against the laws of the bible as villains, which, while that makes us sinners, I’m not sure that’s what constitutes as villainy, though it’s a good start; so far I’ve yet to have seen a villain who was without sin…. That would be the weirdest and most difficult idea for a villain ever.
Ok back on my trail of thought: Villains spark some kind of emotion, a villain can not be really a villain without sparking an idea that what they are doing is wrong; or can they? Some of the greatest villains in real life were people who were originally thought to be heroes, look at Hitler, the man was pretty much worshiped in Germany
So, what is a villain? That’s my problem that I’ve been dealing with lately, Sometimes those who are portrayed as heroes really are villains, and quit often it works the other way too, so I started anylizing villainy not at the black and white obvious, but the grey, who are the souls who lie in between the war of good and evil.
The Anti-hero, and the sympathetic villain. These are both loved in modern story telling as it is more dimensional than: “I’m evil, I wear Red, FEAR ME!!!!” Not that having a 2dimensional villain is always bad, it just isn’t as thought provoking as a three dimensional one. Same goes for heroes, if they all are just “Good good blabbity blabbity get the girl kill the bad dude….” See my point? People like deep stuff…
Problem is, anti-hero and sympathetic villain can be interchangeable. I will take Doc Ock for example. He’s a sympathetic villain who’s lost his wife, and balmes spiderman, so he goes out to…. Kidnap Mary Jane, and rebuild the machine so that mankind can have free energy….
Ok kidnapping bad, he robs a bank, bad….. this si getting really hard here people, in return he’s gonna give us unlimited energy, world peace, and oh right, those really cool arm things could help the disabled.
Oh wait the machine goes wrong, his calculations wer a little off HE WAS SO CLOSE!!!! Seriously, had spider-man came up to him and went: “Hey dude, I had an idea, the generators failed last time, so I was thinking, lets make the reaction smaller, and the field bigger….”
….
….
….
Oops, yeah… villain gone, hero born.
Lets look at the flipside.
Wolverine tormented as a child, loses his family, tortured by his arch nemesis Sabertooth forever, and um loses his memory….
So in return he puts his dark side behind and goes around saving people in bad situation right?
No that’s the 80s incredible hulk.
This is wolverine, keep it straight.
Wolverine goes around killing people who tormented him, or maiming them, or threatening to kill them, then years later killing them. He’s gained loyal family, but um, ditched them in favor of random killing sprees and anger management issues.
(Ok he’s helped out people in bad situations too, and he’s even taken care of others, but without fail he’ll be on the road fighting some blood bath soon enough)
ARGH!!! It doesn’t make sense, Wolverine’s an anti hero, Doc Ock’s a sympathetic villain, but on the surface they should be opposites!
So….
Ugh.
Ok this is hard, no one knows where the grey line is, so here, I’ll define it FOR everyone.
Villains are those who do wrong, and continue to do wrong, it’s not that they can’t escape their one mistake, it’s that they choose to live in it, and continue it. They become the antagonist, and drive forward into further sin and chaos
Hero’s are those who rise above their possible darkness, and even if they start out bad, they WILL stand for what is right. They will not let themselves fail time and time again
My point behind this? Well honestly but I’ve had a villain for a while, and I’ve not known what to do with him.
The truth is: he’s my oldest villain, in every sense. He was derived from a villain I made when I was four, and the guy is 4,000 years old. He’s evil, and charming, and has light blue eyes, and long blond hair. He looks like an angel, but oh my goodness is he evil. He starts his story by killing his family, removing the protection from his kingdom, and starting his own kingdom. He has his people worship him, perform human sacrifices before him, he kills when he feels like it, but you never know when he’s gonna feel like it, he might kill 12 guards in one week during a time of peace, but when they are losing a war, he’ll be calm, almost kind to his guards.
Figured it out? He’s Devioun. And he was derived from a very early creation of mine. I consider him my most evil character besides possibly Sinner, but whereas Sinner is focused on one man, Devioun is concentrated on everyone. He’s studied witchcraft of all forms, but has never been satisfied, he’s a scientist, but uses his devices and creations to control others. He darks to the dark Spirits, and is even allies with a few, and he has the largest country under his thumb.
Sounds like I’ve got him down pat right? Wrong. Truth is, he’s always been stable in who he is, it’s his position in the hierarchy that is out of whack. In the early pre Devioun days he had a witch who was ugly and cast spells for him, and he was the science guy. Well I gave him her powers, and so he became a sole leader.
Then I brought in the Dark Spirits to the world, it gave a truly gritty and believable edge to his magic, but it also was a threat to him, someone who held his puppet strings. His greatest Ally: Skorpukeil, who in all honesty was supposed to be both a replacement for the witch, and the Devil himself. Bad move as Devioun’s threat goes right out the door when someone bigger and badder than him is in charge, so I made Skorpukeil weak, but that brought in the question: Who WAS in charge?
I created Sklurn, new Satan, and he was a lot better at it, but here’s the catch: Sklurn was again too good, taking away from Devioun, and hampering the story.
So what do I do? I’ve done every rebalancing I can think of, and still I am stuck nowhere.
I came up with another idea, Devioun was supposed to be the main bad guy, and he’s an ultimate evil, why is he not the devil of their universe? Sklurn is so OBVIOUS and cliché it’s not funny, and Skorpukeil is a laughable puppetmaster, so why not Devioun being the real leader. They all thought he was their puppet, but he had some trick up his sleeve, that made him the master of all evil?
Suddenly the doors open up. What if someone took the idea of man being the highest creation of all, both physical and spiritual, and suddenly twist it, He’s taken over everything, and he abuses all power. He controls the Dark Spirits, giving them but the illusion of power and freedom, but he’s more like a controlling master. Then with his people and animals he uses his dark arts to make them worship him, and give themselves for him./
It’s to me, perfect, really, what if Satan was a man, and used every element of his being to destroy all creation? Would he be worse, or Better than a Spiritual Satan?
That is why DEVIOUN will be the new master of all evil. Sklurn was bad to the bone, but he was not a good villain, Skorpukeil acts more like an angry secretary than plot master, and Devioun is a cunning methodical planner with a creative sense of destruction and horror.
