How to Write the Perfect Villain

[Harry Easter]

This is exactly what pissed mi off in Pillars of Butthurt, aka "you did everything right yet his plans proceed anyway, because fuck you". I'm all for the player not being the center of the world, but railroad plot is a stupid way to do it.

Well it didn't worked out as planned, didn't it? He got more desperate and in the end it were your decisions, that either doomed his plans or brought them to success. In fact, his last move was so desperate, I think it showed that he got sloopy over the course of time.

His problem was the "boogeyman" factor overtook the rest of his characterization going so far as to sideline what should have been the real threat in the game, Jenova.

Imagine having some Cthulu-type space monster threatening the planet only for it to be made the lackey of some emo solider because that soldier is just so fucking badass he's even stronger than a Cthulhu-type space monster!

Me thinks they fell in love with their antagonist a bit too much.

Wasn't that only in later installments? Because technically you don't fight him most of the time, you fight Jenova, who used his body for her plans. But the plot of VII was always open for interpretations (on it's own, not with all the tie-ins).

 

[Beastro]

Wasn't that only in later installments? Because technically you don't fight him most of the time, you fight Jenova, who used his body for her plans. But the plot of VII was always open for interpretations (on it's own, not with all the tie-ins).

I'll have to see. It's been a long, long while since I played it and have been wanting to do a replay lately and then FFIX when I'm done with it.

I do know that Sephs body had been sitting up in the Northern Cave ever since he emerged out of the Lifestream after being thrown into it and Jenova working her way there along with the Seph "clones" is them being called to him, which supports him having dominated Jenova rather than the other way around.

 

[bminorkey]

I realized that villains have this thing I want to call "degree of transparency". Some villains are like a transparent glass, the apparatus through which the story is told. These villains are often closer to a natural disaster than to a fully fleshed out character. Their motivations and background will typically be left untold, and they are often shrouded in mystery. Other villains are an opaque centerpiece, a beautiful statue in the center of the world. These villains are charismatic and fleshed out, they have a personality, and their motivations are communicated to the player and examined in the course of the story. Most villains lie somewhere in the middle of this scale.

For example, zombies are very transparent. They have no personality to speak of and only serve to create a situation in which the story can be told. The same is true for the High Ones in Enderal.

The Transcendent one is an example of a character who lies somewhere in the middle, but closer to the transparent scale of things. For most of the game he's portrayed as more of a looming "phenomenon" than an actual force actively involved in the story.

Villains that lie somewhere in the middle, but are more opaque, include Irencius, Kreia, The Master and Thaos.

Highly opaque villains would be The Joker (in some portrayals), Sephiroth and GLaDoS. These characters are made to be centerpieces of their stories, stealing the limelight from the protagonists, and receiving just as much if not more exposition.

It will be nice to see where other villains place on this scale.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Fin.

 

[ilitarist]

How is he a villain?

 

[laclongquan]

This is exactly what pissed mi off in Pillars of Butthurt, aka "you did everything right yet his plans proceed anyway, because fuck you". I'm all for the player not being the center of the world, but railroad plot is a stupid way to do it.

Sometimes you've just fucked no matter what you do.

People's STILL screaming about NWN2OC Trial scene is scripted and nonsense just because they cant weasel their way out of the combat challenge no matter what.

 

[Iznaliu]

Highly opaque villains would be The Joker (in some portrayals), Sephiroth and GLaDoS. These characters are made to be centerpieces of their stories, stealing the limelight from the protagonists, and receiving just as much if not more exposition.

People seem to like these kinds of villains.