Hoy there everyone, I've finally decided to begin working on something I've kept procrastinating for a while now, its something I've long wanted to do, namely a blog dedicated entirely to the creation and development of some of the nastiest characters ever written by a human hand. Why do I want to do this? Well, I could give you the short version but I'm far too convuluted and excessive to do that. Besides, if I only write a single sentence then what's the point of writing a guide at all?
So, without further ado, here is my personal reasons for wanting to do this guide, highlighted in italic for my err... your convenience (and to make my words seem more amazing of course!) Keep in mind that anything I say within this blog is my own view on things.
There's no doubt in this area, I love evil characters, a trait exemplified by the fact that my own main character is evil. The reasons for this are varied; too much so for me to pinpoint them exactly, but in general it can be summed down to a simple sentence
Evil Characters are generally the most realistic and interesting characters
They really are, through and through - Ichigo might be nice as a rolemodel and some would argue as a protagonist, but is he truly that realistic a character? Not in my book, he's too kind, too warm and fuzzy; sure, he's abit of a jerk at times, but overall he's a nice guy. People generally aren't like that, we may pretend to be, sure, we might even pretend to be chivalrous and attentive, but the fewest people are like that. We want to be that altruistic, but most of us don't care that much for the random people we encounter on the streets to go the distance. Would you be willing to sacrifice your life for your friends the way Ichigo constantly does, even if you don't know them that well? Probably not.
However, all of us have had much to do with our own inner evils - now, before I continue onwards with this blog is that evil in this blog will be extremely broad and encompass alot more than what it would commonly assume, this is not a moral issue in this blog, but more like a tool to make it easier for me to explain. In essence, for the purpose of this blog, evil lies in the intent, not in the actual action (which might come off as being simply petty by comparison)
A Short Story[]
I'll start this blog by describing how I myself handled a bully in my youth, as well as how I felt afterwards
Unsurprisingly, I was bullied alot in my youth, not due to my sexuality but rather because I was a rather unique boy with unusual interests and failure to adher to the social norms and stereotypes. But I digress, anyway this one particular bully would usually chase me down after school ended and beat me up for no apparent reason, he was a fat insecure boy of the type we all know. So, one day he promised to beat me up after school (how thoughtful of him) after I had accidentally managed to knock down his pen from his desk during the math session. This gave me ample time to prepare for the confrontation.
In the recess I immediately set out to prepare some kind of weapon, and I found it in the form of dry sand, with which I filled the pockets of my trousers. Now, I was quite interested in botany when I was a kid, so I knew of the effects of various plants on the human body, and I also knew where and how to find them. The stinging nettle is very common in Norway and close to my school there happened to be a large number of them. So when school ended I rushed out of the classroom and headed for the place I knew the nettles would be most wildly distributed, and luckily for me, they were.
My bully, being the stupid silly oaf he was naturally followed suit - he hadn't prepared for the fact that I wasn't cut out to be a whiny victim anymore. So when he closed in, I waited until he was within range to stick my hands into my pockets and draw forth two fistfuls of dry sand which I threw directly in his sight. Now crying and clawing at his eyes, he was distracted enough for me to escape if I wanted to, but I was a vindictive little boy and he needed a true lesson on how it felt to be a victim. Not to mention that I felt the thrill at seeing my bully so helpless and at my mercy. So, I quickly snuck up behind him, grabbed his backpack, using my weight and momentum to hurl him around and throw him down the roadside, right in the middle of dozens of stinging nettles.
This was in summer, so he was wearing very little clothing, limited to a T-shirt and shorts, and shoes - so his skin was exposed to the nettles stinging hairs quite freely, temporarily blinded by the sand, disoriented by the fall the only thing he could do was to crawl around down in the bush and receiving innumerable stings all across his body in the process. By now he was wailing openly and screaming for help, and I figured that enough was enough, and ran home.
So, how did I feel about all of this? Fuckin' fantastic! I had single handedly defeated my most vicious bully, in the most painful and agonizing way I could think of, and I had concocted a plan to deal with him that worked wonders, I was proud and I was immensely happy with this development. That my bully was lying amidst nettles screaming in searing agony didn't seem at all disturbing or wrong to me, it was my vengeance for all those times he had kicked my ass without any apparent reason. This was an evil act, pure and simple; I didn't do it for self-defense because I didn't expect him to stop his bullying, I did it solely for the sake of causing him harm, as much harm as I could inflict. Had I merely wanted to go home unscathed, I hadn't thrown him into the bush of nettles, but run away the moment he was distracted by the sand.
I assume most would say that my actions were indeed justified, and that they were. The motivations behind them however were entirely cruel and selfish, and once I had comitted it, I reveled in his agony with an almost sadistic glee. Suddenly I had become the bully, and I friggin' loved the feeling. My actions were immoral, but they were realistic, I'm pretty certain that most others would've done something similiar in a similiar situation as mine and at a similiar age.
Evil Characters[]
Alright, now we've come to the true purpose of this blog, namely to discuss evil characters and more importantly how to portray them in a decent way, keep in mind that evil characters need not to be villains, they can be part of the good guys teams just as easily as being the bad guys, although their reasons for sticking on the good side are usually much different from the more altruistic and ideal characters.
Keep in mind that there is alot of ways to go with evil characters; they don't need to be omnicidal murderers or megalomaniacs, they just need a solid and nuanced personality -- the evil overlord whom torments and tortures whomever dares speak against him is not a proper evil character, he's what one would call Evil Stupid! There's no gain in being evil for the sake of being evil, nor is it a goal or an ideal in and of itself. Evil overlords get toppled all the time, ruling by fear and threats is a very flawed concept, because its impossible to stay at the top if people aren't somehow loyal to you.
In this guide, I'll provide a few video examples of the best-written evil characters I know in video games, and I'll go on to describe their personality and motivations as well as I go by, as well as introduce them to the community. Most of these examples are from Neverwinter Nights 2 - a game I absolutely adore for its dynamic characters and interesting storyline.
I'll start off with one of my favorite characters of all time, Bishop. Bishop is an extremely interesting character in that he's one of the best-written and most realistically portrayed characters I've ever seen in a game. Bishop's viewpoints are frequently lampshaded in the original story and you'll note that some of the things he says actually do make alot of sense and might even come off as profound at times. This is what we call Wisdom From The Gutter - insightful remarks and comments sometimes come from the most unexpected sources imaginable.
Below here I've prepared an example of Bishop having a little chat with Casavir, a typical righteous knight-type of guy whom he always comes to blows with; an inevitability considering that Casavir is Lawful Good whereas Bishop is Chaotic Evil. In this particular clip, Casavir expresses concern for how Bishop seems to be getting closer and closer to the female protagonist; and being the uptight, boring Paladin he is, he decides to have a little talk with Bishop because Casavir, thinking himself to be the protagonsits knight in shining armor decides that its his duty to protect her from the handsome hunk of anarchy, selfishness and greed that is Bishop.
The results? See for yourself!
Right, as some of you may have noticed by watching the video, Casavirs motivations are quite skewed, he wants to keep Bishop away from the protagonist because he thinks she needs to be protected from bad influence. He doesn't trust her to make what he considers to be the right choice, so he basically seeks out Bishop in order to make the choice for her. Neither his motivations nor his actions are particularily noble, even if his intentions are so.
Bishop's viewpoints are much more natural in this case, he ironically ends up claiming both the moral and ethical highground because he provides such atrocious insights which, while cynical and degrading are undeniable true. Bishop thus respects the protagonist more than Casavir does, he's willing to sit back and let her make her own decisions and come to her own conclusions.
But what do I want to do with this clip, what was my purpose for showing it to you? Well, the short answer is to give you a fair indication of the fact that while an evil character is well.. evil, they might very well be actual characters nonetheless, capable of all the same feelings that good characters are capable of, even love. So, earlier I was talking about the motivations of evil characters and I find I might've been slightly misleading in what exactly motivates an evil character, and to claim that it wasn't the same thing that motivated good characters - and in general this holds true. The motivation of an evil character might in some cases actually be noble, but its the means they go through to ensure their goal that actually matters, not the goal itself. Also, an evil character might have dubious goals but have agreeable methods, it all depends upon what is more convenient.
I'll later provide another example of such a character, also from Neverwinter Nights, but before that I'm gonna open with a far better known example, namely one of the best villains of Naruto history - Pain. Now, we all know that Nagato is extremely cruel, wicked and a mass murderer (like pretty much every other decent Shinobi in the Naruto franchise; they happen to be few and far between) - but his ultimate goal is actually extremely benign, he wants to force all wars to end, to stop the constant circle of manslaughter and cruelty that the Shinobi world cultivates and even thrives off of. He'd save millions of lives by this course of action, and probably make the world a better place too. Too bad that Naruto is a naive fool who believes that man can coexist in complete and utter harmony simply by the goodness in their hearts. Does this make Pain good though? No chance, he's ruthless insensitive and extremely vindictive in his pursuit of his noble goal. Pain's methods are what defines his alignment, not the goal itself.
However, as we note during his arc, Pain is much more personal than alot of other villains and he's far more methodical in his work. One of his primary quirks is that Pain is actually willing to discuss his plans with Naruto during their exchange, they had a long talk about the meaning of peace; not only did Pain consider Naruto's words he even allowed him to speak freely in his presence. What does this say about Pain? It says that despite his malice, Pain was honorable and at times even virtuous, fitting considering how he denoted himself as being a God.
What importance does this have though? Well, it has the importance in that there is some semblance of good and right in every single evil character, just as there exists a semblance of evil in every single good character. But when I say this, its important for me to stress that whatever inherrent goodness or redeeming features they may have, its highly important that you know how to balance those traits well, otherwise your character will come off as being too sweet, which might end up destroying their character - some conflict of personality, will, morals or ethics is excellent but you need to make sure that they do not put how the character is portrayed in an unrealistic light. To conclude with this intro, I'm adding the video example I spoke about earlier.
This is Ammon Jerro, a powerful Warlock who initially serves as a major antagonist but later, as the story progresses becomes a part of your party. Ammon has a goal not usually seen in an evil character. Ammon learned of the main threat by studying dark secrets and magic, but because of the mistrusting nature of humans he was incapable of convincing others to act upon what he had found. Because of this, and the severity of the threat, Ammon Jerro decided to act on his own, and in his quest he resolved to find allies in the most unlikely of places. He thus learned how to summon Demons, Devils and other powerful fiends in order to build an army of his own which could stand against the threat he knew he would someday face.
Ammon Jerro's willingness to commit atrocities for his goal is what cements him as evil, he fully believes that by sacrificing some he can save countless more in the long run. He stands by this philosophy unrepentantly - and over the course of the game he massacres entire villages for his ultimate goal, killing his lingering remorse and empathy to be capable of doing what he knows must be done. Here is another video of him, and one of the demons which he previously enslaved but which the protagonist freed earlier - now come to take revenge on Ammon Jerro for his humiliation.
Evil Characters as Heroes[]
Contrary to popular belief, evil characters may indeed be heroes, although the manner of heroes often leaves something to be desired, as these types of heroes are typically considered Anti-Heroes. Very unusual in shonen works, but it does happen at times - its far more prevalent in Seinen works, whose stories are usually much darker and edgier than their shonen counterparts, along with being much more mature and complex overall...