I thought of this question while looking into the thrashing Terry Goodkind's books have received. Some people think Goodkind is a sado-masochist freak whose books deal way too much with rape and sexual torture.
So the question is... how do you make a REAL bad guy without resorting to sado-masochism or cliche-style Evil Overlordism? In a genre where thousands of bad guys have done badguyish things and received their eventual comeuppances... how exactly is a Fantasy writer to make a new bad guy, BAD? Without getting stuck with a reputation like Goodkind's, and without being ridiculous? How do you avoid the evil "mwahaha's" over lines that aren't even remotely funny? How do you avoid the "I shall rule the world" rants?
In my own writing, the villain is by far the hardest person to write. I find it very difficult to imagine the way the evil brain works--without it collapsing in its own wrongness. This is especially difficult if the evil guy is supposed to be intelligent (which your primary antagonist usually is, or should be). Obviously, the best way to start is to make him believe he's the good guy. Now, if we've done this believably, it probably means that we've given our evil person's ideals some kind of logical (if not ethical) merit. Does this mean that every conflict of good and evil is a conflict of 2 (or more) philosophies, each of which sees itself as "the good"? Does this mean that, in casting a hero and a villain as such, respectively, the Fantasy writer is ALWAYS making a political/philosophical statement? Hmmm... if nothing else, at least Goodkind is kind enough to let us know where he stands He's certainly not trying to trick anybody.
I'm afraid I'm derailing myself here.
Has anybody got examples of deliciously evil villains who aren't a complete joke? Has anybody struck upon interesting methods of writing villains?
So the question is... how do you make a REAL bad guy without resorting to sado-masochism or cliche-style Evil Overlordism? In a genre where thousands of bad guys have done badguyish things and received their eventual comeuppances... how exactly is a Fantasy writer to make a new bad guy, BAD? Without getting stuck with a reputation like Goodkind's, and without being ridiculous? How do you avoid the evil "mwahaha's" over lines that aren't even remotely funny? How do you avoid the "I shall rule the world" rants?
In my own writing, the villain is by far the hardest person to write. I find it very difficult to imagine the way the evil brain works--without it collapsing in its own wrongness. This is especially difficult if the evil guy is supposed to be intelligent (which your primary antagonist usually is, or should be). Obviously, the best way to start is to make him believe he's the good guy. Now, if we've done this believably, it probably means that we've given our evil person's ideals some kind of logical (if not ethical) merit. Does this mean that every conflict of good and evil is a conflict of 2 (or more) philosophies, each of which sees itself as "the good"? Does this mean that, in casting a hero and a villain as such, respectively, the Fantasy writer is ALWAYS making a political/philosophical statement? Hmmm... if nothing else, at least Goodkind is kind enough to let us know where he stands He's certainly not trying to trick anybody.
I'm afraid I'm derailing myself here.
Has anybody got examples of deliciously evil villains who aren't a complete joke? Has anybody struck upon interesting methods of writing villains?