Evil is Boring (And Your Story Deserves Better)

We've all seen this story before. It's the young idealist versus the Evil Empire in their snappy uniforms and insidious weapons of mass destruction. It's the empty waste of fire and filth that births monsters that fill the ranks of the Dark Army. It's the mummified husk of an ancient sorcerer who serves the Gods of Wickedness. From the Empire, to Mordor, to Mum-Ra, some of our most popular stories have a clear good guy, and a clear bad guy. Right versus wrong, good versus evil.

This week I wanted to talk about that. Because while there's nothing wrong with having two clear sides on an issue so your readers can figure out where the lines are drawn, this is a trope I think far too many of us lean on in our work. In short, the idea that our bad guys are evil... well, because they're Evil!

Well, our holy books explode with hellfire. So that's probably a bad sign, I guess...

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Evil As a Fact Feels Lazy

I blame a lot of things on Tolkien, but honestly he feels like the tip of the iceberg on this topic. From Christian scholars slanting and re-writing pagan mythologies so there was a clear good v. evil dynamic (look no further than the changes to Loki made by Sturlson), to the explosion of knightly tales in the Romantic period, a massive amount of our stories have this dynamic in place.

And what makes it boring is that this capital-E evil is a default. It's a placeholder for actual motivation and purpose held by our villains. And the more detailed and involved our heroes become, the more bland and boring Evil may seem. Because no matter how many skulls are on the warlord's armor, or how fearsome the demons they command are, it can leave the audience scratching their head and asking, "Okay, cool aesthetic... but why?"

Seriously... what are you getting out of this?

No one is evil for the sake of being evil. Not only that, but evil is not a universal constant across all peoples and cultures. Taken on a wide enough scale, the very idea of evil as a force becomes almost meaningless... and that can really bring down the story you're trying to tell.

Take one of the most basic versions of this concept; a knight in shining armor standing against a fearsome foe. Sure, you can just say, "Well, it's a dark army of the undead ruled over by a necromancer who's going to kill everyone because they're evil," and just leave it at that. And there's definite stakes to that confrontation... but it's kind of like a burger with no condiments. You can eat it, and it might be a good experience, but you could make it so much better with a few added spices.

What does this necromancer hope to gain in their victory? Why did they join this conflict in the first place? Why have they chosen this particular method to achieve their goals instead of something else? If we don't have answers to this, then our villain is just some nebulous bad thing that our hero is opposing, and we never have to really think about their actions because hey, whatever the hero does has to be better than the army of the Horned King over here, right?

The Broader The Population, The Worse It Gets

Having an evil god, or a powerful evil enemy, is one thing. Having an entire evil nation, though, is where things can really start to fall apart. Because whether we're talking about a regime of fantasy fascists who bind devils to their service, or a nation of orcs that are seen as brutish, backward, and wicked, there will always be nuance in these populations. By not providing that nuance, though, you just have a big lump of people that are painted with a big brush, and we don't have to think about who they are, what they're doing, or what their place in the story is other than as plot-filler villains.

I'm a respected member of my community, you know.

This is something I've been tackling myself while working on my fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age, and I thought I'd offer some tips based on what's worked for me thus far.

As an example, Ironfire: City of Steel is a place that's built on forging Dragon Steel. That's the primary industry, and in the city's early days it was a target for a bandit army that wanted that valuable resource. This conflict escalated to violence, and the city employed several free companies of mercenaries to defend itself. This led to Ironfire becoming the center of the mercenary trade in the region, and it is the presence of so many freelances for hire that has kept the city safe from outward attack as it's grown.

There was no need for an evil, outside force there. No need to make the antagonists bloodthirsty cannibals dedicated to a dark god of murder. A simple economic interest (one side has a valuable resource, and the other wants to take it by violence) was more than enough to stir that conflict and cement the city into both the setting, and the reader's memory.

These are the kinds of conflicts I set up, planting the seed of the challenges unique to the different locations one might come across. In Moüd: City of Bones we have a city deep in the desert run by a guild of necromancers. The challenges are not liberating the city from the black-robed wizards who dabble in the dark arts, but finding relics buried beneath the city, and helping to keep the elements at bay so the living can still survive in this particularly harsh environment. In Silkgift: City of Sails we have a place whose primary industry is innovation and invention, but whose government provides food, shelter, and enrichment for all citizens. As such, industrial espionage, and attempts to sabotage creations that could upset the status quo beyond the city are far more common. And in Hoardreach: City of Wyrms we find a place where refugees and outcasts of every sort are taken under the wings of the Cooperation of 5 dragons. It's a place where there's friction, yes, but also where plotting and machinations of outside forces may try to sabotage this "monstrous" place before it grows too powerful.

Broad social ills can be a part of a given society. Whether it's exploitation of the lower class, human trafficking, chattel slavery, or similar awful institutions, we all know full well that these things can and do happen. Political systems based on fear and hatred, like fascist movements, are also something that can happen. However, it's important to examine the role of these elements in a society, to ask what affect these things have on the story, and to use them to put things into context. Don't just front-load a location or culture with these things so we don't question the actions of our hero who opposes these cultures. That's just cheap shock to code these cultures or nations as evil without having to use the word.

Don't Be Afraid To Ask Questions

To be clear, it's still very possible to have a conflict in a story where one side is clearly in the wrong. Whether it's a more powerful entity trying to force people off their land, one class of people exploiting another, purges over ethnic identity or religion, and so on, and so forth, these are all bad things. However, all it usually takes is a glimpse into the motivations of the antagonists to see the structure of these conflicts at play. It lets us see what our hero is fighting against, rather than just keeping the villains in the dark, as it were.

And, as always, this is your story. If you want to have light side v. dark side, there's nothing to say you can't just do that. Angels and devils, the whole nine yards, if that's the structure you want then it's your story.

All I'm suggesting is taking a moment to pause, and ask if that is the best frame for your conflict. Because if you decide to use it after careful consideration, more power to you! Just don't assume that it will automatically make your story better just because it's worked for other stories in the past.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Why is Your Villain Needlessly Exposing Themselves To Danger?

A long time ago I edited a manuscript whose author I won't name, and whose title I won't give. However, the plot summary was that a young noblewoman and a merchant prince were planning to run away together, until her uncle intervened. A sorcerer who was bartering her hand in marriage for an item of power key to a ritual, her uncle used a spell to transform her lover into a ring. Then, for some reason, explained to our protagonist that should this curse ever be broken, and she and her lover stand against him, it would be the only way to defeat his power.

This is literally the description given for the transformation, as well. Seriously.

Fast forward a few hundred years while our female lead has lived a dozen different reincarnations, her lover has been imprisoned in a gaudy piece of jewelry, and her "uncle" has made himself the next best thing to immortal with the powers at his command. Then (because there would be no plot otherwise) the current incarnation of our protagonist awakens her ancient lover from his prison, and breaks the curse. The lovers are confused, but reunited.

For a bit of context, the lovers are in Australia when the curse is broken. Our villain is in Thailand.

Despite having absolutely nothing to gain from confronting the two lovers, and everything to lose (as was previously mentioned, the two of them are now empowered in some unspecific way to stand against him now that they're reunited), our villain hops a jet, and flies for hours to a nation halfway around the world to find these two people who don't remember he even exists. He then confronts them, repeatedly taunting them with who they actually are, only to get himself killed due to hubris, and lack of imagination.

This sounds stupid (because it is) but this is something I've seen writers do time and time again.

The Villain Needs Goals, Too

In the scenario presented the villain has precisely zero reason to get involved in this situation. Even if we acknowledge that putting this dire curse on the man centuries ago was better than, say, just cutting his throat for some reason, confronting our heroes now is all risk and no reward. The villain could have paid a hitman to off them, keeping himself completely out of danger. He could have worked a dire ritual (or at least tried to) to slay them from afar. Or he could have just moved on with his life and let time kill them, because he was still immortal, and neither of them were now that the man was no longer a metal finger decoration.

Time, my friends, is one thing I have that you lack.

Breaking the curse did not, for example, cause the villain to age at a rapid rate, requiring him to kill or re-curse the original victim in order to maintain his immortality. The villain didn't have some great slight on his pride that still burned hundreds of years later that he needed to humiliate these two over. Hell, he'd completely lost track of the ring not an hour after the original curse was laid down, and he hadn't bothered in the slightest about the condition of his niece's soul moving from one life to the next.

He was there for one reason only; because the protagonist and her lover-out-of-time needed some threat to face together to add drama to the story.

The problem is, of course, that if a villain's presence seems pointless, then it causes the reader to start questioning why they're doing anything. And once they've stepped back to start questioning the narrative like that, it makes it easier to notice other flaws they might have been overlooking before. Which is why it really pays dividends to make sure the ballistics of your plot (the direction shots are fired from, and the purpose those shots were meant to accomplish) make sense.

Try To See Things From Their Perspective

Villains need to be just as organic and believable as any other character in your story. Perhaps more so, as people need a concrete reason why they're opposing the villain's actions and goals. And when you just sort of leave them on the back burner (or worse, make them arbitrarily evil just because that's easier to do) you end up with a bad guy who's carrying an idiot ball.

Which is to say, you have them taking certain actions or making certain mistakes that only an idiot would make, because if they didn't there would be no book to read, movie to watch, game to play, etc.

Seriously... just step back and question things for a moment.

This is not to say your bad guys should huddle in bunkers or remain entirely hidden in the shadows all the time. However, they should have a compelling reason to step out into harm's way, and that reason should do something to fulfill their needs, or achieve their goals. Maybe it's a thirst for vengeance, and wanting the protagonist to know who it was that killed them in their final moments. Maybe it's a special skill set that only the villain possesses, so they need to be present at a certain place at a specific time in order to do their thing. Whether it's purely practical, or something to feed their ego, make sure your villain actually has skin in the game before you put them in front of the protagonist's fist.

Because if they stand to gain nothing whatsoever, it makes no sense for them to risk everything.

Lastly, if you haven't signed up for my weekly newsletter, do so to get all my shiny new updates sent right to your inbox! Also, if you're having trouble dealing with villains in your story, consider checking out 5 Tips For Playing Better Evil Characters. It's meant for tabletop gamers, but it's also useful for writers to think about.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

What if The Entire Marvel Universe Switched Sides?

The Internet has been on fire for over a week now regarding the latest comic book controversy. Though I haven't read the story line myself, I think we've all seen the panel where Captain Steve Rogers is standing in his full red, white, and blue regalia, and he says the two words that sent tectonic cracks raging through Marvel's fan base.

No, this is not a joke.

If you're interested in more information, you can get a general gist on a website like UpRoxx. I only brought up this controversy because the night before it broke wide open across the Internet, I was engaged in a thought experiment with a friend of mine. One of those little conversations that happens when you examine stories and characters, and ask yourself what would happen if you shined a light on them at a slightly different angle? That conversation was sparked by a Cracked After Hours video where the hosts asked why we regard Charles Xavier as a hero in the X-Men?

Think about it. He trains super-powered child soldiers, wipes the minds of his loyal pupils when they begin to question his mission, and rather than using his intense psychic abilities to influence elections, or to help stop prejudice against mutants on a national scale, he uses pawns to win ground battles in a literal race war. Those don't sound like the actions of a hero, and all we did was shift our view slightly so the shadows sit a little differently on his bald pate.

The conversation we had took this experiment to its logical conclusion, and we went through the Marvel universe hero by hero, and villain by villain, asking what would happen if their traditional roles were reversed? What we found was that the difference between good guys and bad guys isn't as far as the black-and-white natures of their comics would have you believe.

The Lensherr Academy For Superior Learning

The conversation began with the obvious starting point; if Professor X is the callous, hyper-intelligent villain who plays chess with real people's lives, then Magneto is clearly trying to oppose him in this endeavor. Which would make sense, since he was a survivor of the Holocaust, and he saw what the sort of total war waged by unquestioning fascists in black leather could do to people. And given the raw power of Xavier's mind, Erik's team was formed from the outcasts, the dregs, the unwanted, and the indomitable. Toad is a socially maladjusted jokester who lashes out when he's backed into a corner, but with a family to call his own could grow into a fighter to be reckoned with. Mystique has lived many lives in the shadows, and she's seen first-hand the destructive power a psychic with control over minds can wreak. Even Cain Marko, realizing the threat his step-brother posed, sought out the fabled Gem of Cytorak in order to unleash his own hidden potential just to stand a chance.

Mr. Marko's work attire.

And really, why wouldn't someone be afraid of what Charles has done? He's used a device that amplifies his own power, allowing him to seek out mutants anywhere in the world. Invasion of privacy on a massive scale is just the first step, though. He's used that power to gather a pair of living guns (the Summers' brothers Cyclops and Havoc), a woman worshiped as a god (Storm), a disenfranchised genius who can crush a man's head in one hand (Beast), and dozens of other people who possess colossal power, weak wills, and who devote themselves wholly to his cause. He even keeps a violent, unkillable government experiment on a leash, always helping him just enough that he can never leave... assuming that Charles is really "helping" Wolverine when he goes digging around in his brain.

It's not a superhero team... it's a cult.

How Much Further Does It Go?

The Marvel Universe is full of popular characters, and many of them can turn on a dime with minimal, if any, changes to their backstories and existing canon. For example, The Fantastic Four are seen as some of the greatest heroes in the world, and one of the first superhero teams. However, their family dynamic tends toward abuse and neglect, and it's perpetuated through continual attack and threat from the outside. Reckless behavior, personal endangerment, and experimentation for the sake of experimentation are not the actions of heroic scientists and selfless do-gooders. Is it any wonder that Victor Von Doom, a man who has learned painful lessons at the hands of his own hubris, sees the threat they pose to the world and attempts to find countermeasures?

A true scientist, and a true hero.

Pair up and hero and any villain, and you'll be surprised how easy it is to shift those shadows. What if Bruce Banner hasn't been able to cure himself because, deep down, the Hulk is who he really wants to be? A force of nature who doesn't have to think about right and wrong, good or bad, but which is like injecting yourself with a hurricane? Who would give up freedom and power like that? And, of course, wouldn't it be a mark of great bravery and selfless sacrifice to try to fight fire with fire, as General Thaddeus Ross did when he underwent experimentation to protect the world against the random rage and destruction that followed the Hulk everywhere he went?

Dr. Stephen Strange is a crippled alcoholic with an ego that destroyed his life... is Baron Mordo really that suspicious for not trusting a man like that to turn over a new leaf so quickly? Thor has the power of a god, and though he often regrets the misuse of his strength, he can be like a child throwing a tantrum among breakable toys. Loki might be seen as mischievous, but is it really such an evil act to try and hold back a thunderstorm's indiscriminate violence with nothing more than cunning? The Red Skull was the embodiment of the Nazi war machine's ugly evil... but what if "Johann Schmidt" had been a volunteer from Poland who's main goal was to get close enough to cut off the Third Reich's head, only to find when he dug deep enough that he was one man, outnumbered, and hopelessly outgunned despite the power he'd paid such a dear cost for?

What's The Point of All This?

I'm sure there are some readers who've gotten this far, and wondered if they showed up at the wrong blog. After all, isn't the point of a writing blog to talk about writing?

What do you think I've been doing?

This week's Craft of Writing post has been an exercise in creative flexibility. Because when we sit down to tell a story, we often think we know who the good guys and the bad guys are. Even if there's going to be a heel-face turn somewhere down the line, we've got a solid grasp on what's going on. But it pays to examine your characters in alternative lights, because you might find alternatives to what you thought you knew. And, as I mentioned in Under The Black Hat: Writing Believable Bad Guys, no one thinks of themselves as the villain.

Even in comic books.

As always, thanks for stopping in to hear what I had to say this week. For those of you who'd like to help support me, and keep the content flowing, stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page today. As little as $1 a month will make a big difference, and it will earn you some sweet swag while you're at it. Lastly, if you haven't done so already, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter?