Some thoughts...
21/9/06 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minervasolo...on villains. And, primarily, what I really like.
So, recently, I seem to have started going backwards through my fandoms. If I went Buffy, Weiss Kreuz, Harry Potter, Marvel, DC, I'm now back to Harry Potter. Which, I must say, caught me entirely by surprise, since I can't even remember most of the last book.
What drew me back, actually, was a cheerful AU by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mistful, wherein Malfoy is sorted into Ravenclaw by accident. Reading through her other fics, I've come to a conclusion.
I like possessive villains.
(and, also, platinum blonds, which I didn't even realise until this morning).
I liveviridian5's Crawford in Glass Houses, mistful's Malfoy in most any of her longer fics, Shalott's Lex Luthor. I've not made it back to Buffy yet, but you can bet I'd like possessive Spike, too. He's possessive of Dru in the series, right?
It's something about selfishness, and over-inflated egos, and maybe even abandonment issues, but mostly it's "This person is mine, and you can't have them." Sometimes just a person, sometimes a group, sometimes a country. I don't care. I want them to fight because they don't want what's their's taken away. It can be protection, it can be reputation, it can be envy, it can be anything. I just like that line, that "mine". It doesn't have to be good for the person they possess, it doesn't have to be for 'the right reasons'. It can be very much possess in an object-like sense, but that doesn't matter.
Schuldig is Crawford's. The Slytherins are Malfoy's. Kon is Luthor's. Dru was Spike's. It's a certain quality that will make me adore a villain every time, no matter what else they're doing. "This person is mine, and you can't have them. This person is my propety, and I won't let you steal/damage/destroy them. Mine."
#
Lance (who still needs renaming!) in Greenhelm, is possessive of, well, Greenhelm. He think the country, and the people in it, are his. He thinks no one else could do as good a job as ruler, he thinks no one else has the right to try, and he thinks very little else beyond 'mine'. He seems to get it less on a smaller scale. In fact, most of the villains I write don't fit my favourite mould at all, except at a stretch. sSathos is possessive of his family, but because he cares for them, not because he doesn't want anyone else to have them. The bigbad mostly just wants his shinbone back.
#
It's also about confidence, and about priviledge. The belief he or she has a right to what they consider theirs, and that nobody will be able to prevent them from having it. I like confident villains. People who demand absolute trust from their followers, and assume they'll get it. I like them to be challenged, but mostly I like them to be proved right. It's the confidence to declare "this person is mine" without considering their opinions, and the idea that they have a right to possess that person. The confidence that no one will be able to take that person away. Possessiveness without confidence is just clinginess and jealousy. I like viallains who doubt only rarely, and who succeed regularly. They've got to, or they're no threat at all. They can doubt in other aspects of their lives, but when it comes to the people surrounding them, I want them to have absolute faith that these people won't leave, won't fuck up, won't die.
I like them to have some kind of desire, as well as motivations. I think I actually prefer "because I'm evil" to "because someone did something to me and I want revenge". Revenge can make a villain seem weak. I like "because I can do it better" and "because it's my god-given right, even if I won't be able to do it better". Not "because I was a deprived child" or "because thanks to my upbringing I only know how to hurt". There's enough heroes with that as a motivation. I want "because I'm better than you". I want "because I can".
So, what does everyone else like in a villain?
So, recently, I seem to have started going backwards through my fandoms. If I went Buffy, Weiss Kreuz, Harry Potter, Marvel, DC, I'm now back to Harry Potter. Which, I must say, caught me entirely by surprise, since I can't even remember most of the last book.
What drew me back, actually, was a cheerful AU by
mistful, wherein Malfoy is sorted into Ravenclaw by accident. Reading through her other fics, I've come to a conclusion.I like possessive villains.
(and, also, platinum blonds, which I didn't even realise until this morning).
I live
viridian5's Crawford in Glass Houses, mistful's Malfoy in most any of her longer fics, Shalott's Lex Luthor. I've not made it back to Buffy yet, but you can bet I'd like possessive Spike, too. He's possessive of Dru in the series, right?It's something about selfishness, and over-inflated egos, and maybe even abandonment issues, but mostly it's "This person is mine, and you can't have them." Sometimes just a person, sometimes a group, sometimes a country. I don't care. I want them to fight because they don't want what's their's taken away. It can be protection, it can be reputation, it can be envy, it can be anything. I just like that line, that "mine". It doesn't have to be good for the person they possess, it doesn't have to be for 'the right reasons'. It can be very much possess in an object-like sense, but that doesn't matter.
Schuldig is Crawford's. The Slytherins are Malfoy's. Kon is Luthor's. Dru was Spike's. It's a certain quality that will make me adore a villain every time, no matter what else they're doing. "This person is mine, and you can't have them. This person is my propety, and I won't let you steal/damage/destroy them. Mine."
#
Lance (who still needs renaming!) in Greenhelm, is possessive of, well, Greenhelm. He think the country, and the people in it, are his. He thinks no one else could do as good a job as ruler, he thinks no one else has the right to try, and he thinks very little else beyond 'mine'. He seems to get it less on a smaller scale. In fact, most of the villains I write don't fit my favourite mould at all, except at a stretch. sSathos is possessive of his family, but because he cares for them, not because he doesn't want anyone else to have them. The bigbad mostly just wants his shinbone back.
#
It's also about confidence, and about priviledge. The belief he or she has a right to what they consider theirs, and that nobody will be able to prevent them from having it. I like confident villains. People who demand absolute trust from their followers, and assume they'll get it. I like them to be challenged, but mostly I like them to be proved right. It's the confidence to declare "this person is mine" without considering their opinions, and the idea that they have a right to possess that person. The confidence that no one will be able to take that person away. Possessiveness without confidence is just clinginess and jealousy. I like viallains who doubt only rarely, and who succeed regularly. They've got to, or they're no threat at all. They can doubt in other aspects of their lives, but when it comes to the people surrounding them, I want them to have absolute faith that these people won't leave, won't fuck up, won't die.
I like them to have some kind of desire, as well as motivations. I think I actually prefer "because I'm evil" to "because someone did something to me and I want revenge". Revenge can make a villain seem weak. I like "because I can do it better" and "because it's my god-given right, even if I won't be able to do it better". Not "because I was a deprived child" or "because thanks to my upbringing I only know how to hurt". There's enough heroes with that as a motivation. I want "because I'm better than you". I want "because I can".
So, what does everyone else like in a villain?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 21/9/06 02:46 pm (UTC)I like some of my villains to be human in the GRRM manner; there are no villains in aSoIaF, just bad people who do good things and good people who do bad things. I love that.
Otherwise, a nice, mad, arrogant, imposing villain does me very well. I don't want excuses, I want human evil. Telling me X was abused as a child is a bit of a cop-out. Evil actions can come from people with good childhoods and otherwise healthy relationships. And that's more fun, because you don't know what weaknesses they have - if any.
Alternatively, if my hero is a rogue, a good upstanding justice-type is a good villain to have on occasion.
no subject
Date: 21/9/06 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21/9/06 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21/9/06 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21/9/06 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21/9/06 04:18 pm (UTC)Mostly, though, I just like to be given a good reason for why they do what they do, and I prefer it if it's not based on their originally having been an upstanding moral citizen who was corrupted in some way.
The childhood abuse thing is understandable to an extent - something like 97% of serial killers experienced abuse in their childhoods - but too many authors use it as a copout. It can create a certain kind of person, but they often use it for a character that doesn't fit that profile. They assume that people can't cope with the idea that someone might just be different in their thought processes without someone fiddling them as a kid.
no subject
Date: 21/9/06 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21/9/06 05:33 pm (UTC)