Main character finds out he/she is related to the reining monarch
or
Main character finds out he/she is related to the villain
or
Main character finds out he/she is related to the villain
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Which trope would you rather see or write about and why?
- Thread starter Banshee_Lingers
- Start date
If I had to pick, I suppose villain, because being related to the king is something one normally knows and it feels cheesier to me. Both are kinda cheesy though and would need to be well done to be worth doing.
Villains can often be more interesting to me because they're not anchored to the same morals many people share, therefore they're at liberty to do more.
Haha, now that is an interesting mash-up of the two tropes. There are so many ways to play with this.
King has an illegitimate child with a woman who ends up being the daughter/grand-daughter of the villain. Child how has two potential paths they can take.
Villain's son/grandson somehow manages to get with the queen (marriage, affair or ... whats the male version of a mistress?) and their child follows potential path of above.
Woman is the villains plaything, escapes somehow and ends up marrying the King. Dunno how the child would fit into this. Either raised as an illegitimate child, or raised assuming knowledge of parents then finding out later. This one could make the child feel a sense of betrayal and lead them down a darker path.
A lot of tropes can appear cheesy, cliche and way over-done. Some are adored by readers while the same are abhorred by readers. Good tropes can be badly written and bad tropes can make amazing stories.
How do you feel about regular people who have to make decisions and deal with the consequences? Few people look at themselves and say, "Man, I'm a crappy human being." Usually, people justify their actions. I suppose that's where the saying, "Road to hell is paved with good intentions" can come to play. But if your villain appears to do bad things because they have no moral compass, and you later find out they thought they were doing the hard things for the better of the world/kingdom/nation/society... do you then come to like the villain more or hate him?
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Main character is tricked into believing he/she is related to the reining monarch, then finds out he/she was in fact a decoy to protect the true heir/heiress.
Main character is tricked into believing he/she is related to a villain, then finds out he/she was in fact a decoy to protect the true fiend.
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Main character is tricked into believing he/she is related to a villain, then finds out he/she was in fact a decoy to protect the true fiend.
-cb
I could have fun with either of these, but I'd have to be very careful. Anything even remotely conjuring a Luke/Vader dynamic would turn people off instantly, because it's so iconic.
I try my best to write characters as neutral - and acting in their own best interests. Hero / villain and good / bad largely depend on the point of view of an individual. People do what they do for what they believe are good reasons - but not everyone will agree with them.
I think it makes people like them more, and I really hope that's somewhat of the consensus, because I have a "villain" (antagonist really) who later in the series becomes a secondary protagonist.