We've talked about villains on the Quackcast plenty of times before.This time it's very different though…
I want people to talk about their OWN villains!
Promote your comic as if your antagonist was the main character.
GIVE your antagonists the time in the sun that they so desperately CRAVE!
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Comic Talk and General Discussion *
QUACKCAST 268 - VILLAIN-cast!
Interesting that I've been thinking about this! My main villain from The Godstrain would have to be Eli Hoff, Kimber Lee predator-uncle, but even though I'm over 300 pgs into the comic, he's actually gotten very little 'face time'. He appeared in an early dream sequence, briefly as a fellow prisoner of Jack Caleb (where he gets shot in the head almost immediately), and as a giant force of nature (more monster than person). Any character development from him has been solely limited to Kimber Lee's thoughts and reactions to him or because of him.
But that is a huge influence! Kimber Lee's mind (using the Godstrain's power) is changing herself and others in incredible ways… Her mind, heavily influenced by the childhood trauma she suffered at Eli's hands… In a way, Eli's overarching presence is sorta what the story is built on!
But Eli really does crave the spotlight in a direct way! He wants people to understand his point of view, relate to him, maybe even be on his side…! He'll get his chance to sway everyone…! Soon enough!!
Villains can be tough. In BASO I set out not to make villains, just people, yet Johnathon seemed to take a life of his own and became more villainous. Although much of that is him trying not to screwed over in a snake eat snake society and instead of just being an unwitting antagonist for Stavlov he became a full on villain.
In Lore I set out to make far more obvious villains. But for the most part they haven't been very engaging. This is something I'm working on in the newer chapters.
I have so many antagonists and protagonists, and changing pov (protagonists antagonising antagonists who are antagonizing worse antagonists… Etc.) Not a defined single big villain. My nastiest characters are not as influental as more middle-ground ones. That said, I am giving your challenge a whirl by picking one of the longer-standing "villains" (who has lately been more of a backstage protagonist).
Used Books is the story of Raidon, charismatic leader of a team of mercenaries working within the ranks of a larger company, whose mission is to pull talented citizens out of poverty through employment. Raidon is on a mission to rebuild his team following its destruction by a renegade cop and to reconcile with the love of his life, Kaida, who married (and divorced) another man – one of Raidon's apprentices, and then left to be friends with the renegade (now ex-)cop.
In the latest developments of our saga, Raidon has been coming into direct conflict with his boss Dirk, who has been micromanaging Raidon's own team, giving orders to Raidon's right hand assistent in direct defiance, encouraging the actions of a crazed serial killer, and making veiled threats against Kaida. Now backed by his own small group of loyal associates (including his butler, a tech geek, and a character actor) Raidon prepares to defend his position.
(Is that what you had in mind? Or first person?)
So Pinky TA is OF COURSE "really" about Ace and Cc.
AKA Ace Kinkaid and Cynthia Crow.
Ace is a brave, heroic, dashing, American mercenary. He'll always do what's right, as long as it's right for HIM. He believes that helping others is great as long as it helps you in the process, if not, what's the point?
He's a good fighter, skilled with machines, a snazzy dresser with a penchant for 1920's hero gear, and he has a magnificent mane of windswpet blond hair.
Cc is a beautiful, cold, lean, muscular woman. She's fiercely loyal to her homeland of the Crimean Empire- so incredibly patriotic that she's appalled at any show of weakness by her country and would even consider betraying it to outside forces in order to help put it back on the correct path.
Cc believes that any means justify the ends. All her moral values are based on that.
She's extremely intelligent, a great hand to hand fighter, and she doesn't hesitate to do what she has to. One of the best Crimean army officers there has ever been. She has short cropped hair, dresses to compete with Pinky in her own style. Her personal colour is purple and her trademark is a heart on the crotch.
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All through Cc's career Pinky has managed to bumble into her life and get in the way! Cc can't stand her, she's too much of a ridiculous idealist to make the tough decisions. Cc wasn't born into minor nobility like Pinky, she had to fight for her place in the officer academy, there were no high ranking family members there to smooth her way and constantly give her a leg up, covering up mistakes and failures, fudging exams and test scores…
NO, Cc had to be a paragon, a perfect student, a perfect soldier and officer! Her family were respectable, lower middle class. Cc always admired the bright and beautiful, wealthy nobility from a distance and thought that if she just worked hard enough she could achieve that sort of glory… but then she learned just what sort of people make up that class and realised that it's people like HER who truly represent her nation and know what's best for it, not decadent degenerates.
Now she's a highly respected covert operative, valued by her superiors for her ability to understand the bigger picture and operate independently. And in spite of the set-backs that IDIOT Pinky throws in her way she still manages to pull her fat out of the fire and come back better than ever.
Ace is always happy to play the hero when he can. It's a natural role for him, he looks and sounds the part and he makes a great effort to dress like his favourite screen idols- posing for ages in front of the mirror, brushing his hair JUSSSST right…
Women naturally adore him and he takes that for granted, he always has, but he doesn't respect them or anyone really. The most important thing in Ace's life is Ace and the money he needs to have the lifestyle he wants.
He claims his family were wealthy old-money from New England, but you can hear the sounds of the farmboy in his accent. Ace his someone for whom image is very important and all his actions are spent maintaining that.
Cc and Pinky made useful tools for him, but they were nothing more than that. If only they knew their places better!
Seeing ozones I feel I should expand on mine.
Jonathon 724.
Jonathon is a citizen of the Antini empire. Slavery is legal and he is the bastard son of a lord and a slave. Being the son of nobilty meant that he escaped being a slave like his mother, however he retains the number designation that Antini slaves are given at birth. This marks him as a second class citizen and as such he has had a tough time working through the military. Or he would have. He is also an unregistered telepath. He needs to make physical contact to establish a telepathic link, this may be due to a lack of training or be a limitation of his power levels. That has yet to be shown. All Antini telepaths should be registered and are slaves to the most powerful nobles of the empire, however jonathon has managed to keep his abilities a secret. A secret he has used to his advantage to rise through the ranks of the imperial Navy more quickly than he should have been able to given his lineage. This has been through subtle use of his powers to manipulate his was to the top. He used his powers to manipulate Stavlov into killing Baron Matravers who had a distinct mistrust of him and now seems close to making it to the big leagues after discovering one of the original Antini colony ships that crash landed on Skohra prime hundreds of years previously.
Jonathon was always supposed to be more relate-able than he came out as. Perhaps it is because I have barely shown his struggles to fit in and be accepted in Antini society and his constant fear that his telepathic abilities may be discovered.
Oh my… Where to start in WM? I just killed off a couple of villains (and still got plenty more! XD) but I'll give this a shot by sticking to the main ones, without giving any spoilers about any that haven't (or may have not… hem hem) revealed their colours yet.
So let's see…
We got the distinguished Claus Bohm, a Standartenführer of the SS stationed in Athens. This tall order of a man believes he's a hit with the ladies and wastes no opoprtunity to prove it. He loves parties and glamour and decadence. He also prides himself on being efficient, though that element might have taken a bit of a hit lately… He is a Philosophy, Psychology and Classics scholar (hence his fluency in both Ancient and Modern Greek as well as Latin) who found, in his opinion, the recognition he deserved in the NSDAP. He really found his groove in the Euthanasia program of 1939, being in charge of screening procedures amidst the German population. A career man through and through, he plans to see the world through the services he is rendering to the Reich. He's thrilled to be in Athens, as any scholar would.
Then we also have Fridric Eichel, Oberführer and Bohm's boss. He started off as a priest! He quickly became a fanatic follower and clergyman of Positive Christianity, the only version of Christianity fit for the Aryan race, of course. All other Christian denominations are dangerous sects he worked hard to expunge from Germany, or at least weaken significantly. He couldn't but be selected for his fervor and integrity and loyalty to Hitler's Creed and his teacher Hans Kerri. He now teaches by example how to properly be pious in the thousand year empire. He hates being in Athens. It's such a peripheral, outer rim bog.
And then of course we got the Greek collaborator who as of yet he is unnamed, but has been seen working hard by the sweat of his brow in the black market of downtown Athens. He is an honest man, looking to promote his family, and ensure a bright future for his kids. Who can find fault with that? Cooperating with the Germans is the sensible thing to do, they're the new world order. It's not his fault if his honest, legal, hard working work leads sometimes to problems with his compatriots, or even deaths and raids and executions. None of that would be necessary if everyone followed the law like he does and looked at reality.
Reading others, I thought maybe I'd give it a whirl with a less empathetic villain or two. (Raidon is kind of a cop-out. I always get kind of uncomfortable climbing into bad guys' minds.) This is a little tricky without spoilers, but I'll try.
Henry Gibson is a career assassin. He was a loyal syndicate member since its foundation decades ago. He's a fairly average man, pushing 60, leading an unremarkable life. His job may seem unconventional, even cruel, but to Gibson, it's all business. He makes good money to support his family. It can't be said that Gibson doesn't value life. On the contrary, he knows the value down to the dime. He is disgusted by any waste of life and takes extra care not to incur collateral damage, especially of any person who could someday be marked with a substantial commission. In his younger years, Gibson and the company were relentlessly pursued by a federal task force, but Gibson neutralized one of their star agents, a man Gibson doesn't realize is still alive and now working in the shadows.
Courtney Blaine showed promise as a child with his fascination with anatomy and biology. He dabbled in taxidermy even at a young age. He aspired to become a surgeon but was kicked out of medical school when he couldn't pay tuition. Determined to pursue his dream, Courtney tried to raise money using his hobby, advertising as a hired hit man under the alias "Red Valentine" which eventually led to his career in the crime syndicate.
Now as Valentine, he has a life others envy, making money at his passion both as an assassin and a syndicate medic. Valentine is a religious man and has a rigid set of morals. He will not tolerate insinuations that he has murdered anyone. The lives he claimed were not of men but women, property gifted by God for man's enjoyment. He will concede some level of destruction of property, but he tries to leave other men's wives alone. Valentine most objects to women who pursue higher education, steal men's jobs, or are activists. He finds it insulting that the police department has assigned a female officer to his case, but also wonders if it's validation that they don't view him as a criminal. Valentine continues studying physiology and surgery both from journals and on live subjects as he is able. He misses university life and enjoys being around students when possible, but he may have to abandon his dream of acquiring a degree. He contends that he's smarter and more experienced than the professors, so pride would prevent him even without the law.
This is interesting to think about because Lady Unlucky essentially already is a story from the perspective of the villains of 20 Galaxies, though LU takes place after 20G. That and Marlin, the major antagonist of both stories, is literally evil incarnate and proud of it. I'm guessing a story strictly from his point of view would be something like Goodfellas, where it doesn't seem like you're necessarily supposed to empathize with the main characters, but go along for the ride.
Some people do empathize with Marlin, though, which makes for an interesting conversation when they start talking about how he can't actually be evil because (reason). But that's a discussion for the comic to handle.
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