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Old 12-31-2012, 02:55 AM   #1
keepcalmandwriteon
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which idea is more interesting
Which of these ideas sounds the most unique and interesting...

A villian is seeking a healing power so he can gain immortality

Or

A villian seeking a healing power so he can forget past emotional pain
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Old 12-31-2012, 03:24 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by keepcalmandwriteon View Post
Which of these ideas sounds the most unique and interesting...

A villian is seeking a healing power so he can gain immortality

Or

A villian seeking a healing power so he can forget past emotional pain
Oddly (for me) the first is more interesting but also less original. The second just makes me picture some mad scientists sitting on a couch at his shrink's office.
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Old 12-31-2012, 03:34 AM   #3
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Why not make it both? Your baddie doesn't want to live out eternity with the burden of painful memories and emotion, so he's hoping that the healing power will rid him of both while granting immortality.
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Old 12-31-2012, 03:36 AM   #4
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Or . . . a villain seeking a healing power so he can gain immortality and begin live anew and forget his emotionally-scarred past.

Well, maybe. :-)
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Old 12-31-2012, 04:56 AM   #5
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Hmm I suppose I could do both.

Missesdash your comment made me lol
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Old 12-31-2012, 05:03 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by keepcalmandwriteon View Post
Which of these ideas sounds the most unique and interesting...

A villian is seeking a healing power so he can gain immortality

Or

A villian seeking a healing power so he can forget past emotional pain
The second one. Or how about a villain that seeks a healing power to bring his dead child back to life?
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Old 12-31-2012, 05:06 AM   #7
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I like the second one... or Gynn's idea.
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Old 12-31-2012, 05:08 AM   #8
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I'd want to know why your villain was a villain. Living forever is overrated and cliche. And the second? I'm thinking heroin. Granted, there are side effects, but desperate times and all.
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Old 12-31-2012, 05:16 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by keepcalmandwriteon View Post
A villain is seeking a healing power so he can gain immortality
Been done a million times. NBC's Heroes, anyone?


Quote:
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A villain seeking a healing power so he can forget past emotional pain
Sounds more like a hero than a villain.

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Old 12-31-2012, 08:37 AM   #10
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The second sounds more interesting to me, especially if part of the story is written from the villain's POV.
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Old 12-31-2012, 09:35 AM   #11
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Or . . . a villain seeking a healing power so he can gain immortality and begin live anew and forget his emotionally-scarred past.

Well, maybe. :-)
Reminds me of my (all time favorite video game plot), wherein the main character, the Nameless One, has immortality...but every time he dies, he comes back to life without his memories. He has lived thousands of times and finally figures out why he is immortal: He was once horribly evil, but changed his ways and realized that one lifetime of penance wasn't enough time to set the cosmic scales right (and, thus, avoid an eternity in hell).

But the process that rendered him immortal ended up stripping him of his memories.

Also, every time he died, someone else would die in his place. Plus, some of his incarnations were horribly evil people!

Oops.
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Old 12-31-2012, 09:38 AM   #12
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use both
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Old 12-31-2012, 02:07 PM   #13
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Probably the second idea because it sounds like it has potential to make an interesting villain - they're a "baddie" but they're suffering from something which might make us sympathise with them? Are they the MC? If so, even more interesting ...
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Old 12-31-2012, 02:16 PM   #14
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How about this?

The villain seeks the healing power as a means of keeping himself alive out of fear that death will lead to nothingness. However, his resulting immortality condemns him to a life of boredom and despair that is arguably worse than his previous state.
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Old 01-01-2013, 08:16 AM   #15
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A villain seeking a healing power so he can forget past emotional pain

I think that this is a setup for a great character that is human, evil, but also has flaws.
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Old 01-01-2013, 09:13 PM   #16
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How about this?

The villain seeks the healing power as a means of keeping himself alive out of fear that death will lead to nothingness. However, his resulting immortality condemns him to a life of boredom and despair that is arguably worse than his previous state.
I need to stop reading so fast. I read that as immortality condoms and had to do a double take.

That's not a bad idea, though.

Hmm... if you're going to go through on this general idea of immortality and what-not, do not fall prey to the same pitfalls Masashi Kisimoto did with Naruto. His Orochimaru plotline got old, quickly. One note villains are boring.
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Old 01-02-2013, 09:14 PM   #17
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I think the second one might be bordering on anti-hero territory. Unless the villain's anguish is directly related to the MC in some way, then it'll be a little more difficult to pull off and sound convincing. Doing this will also do one of two things: 1) make the villain sympathetic and therefore diminish his villain-like qualities (hence anti-hero) or 2) make an unconvincing villain. Villains are villains after all.

Making the villain the victim of something cheapens the villainy. BUT (and this a big ol booty) if that's what you're aiming for, then it could by all means work very well. It'd probably work even more if it was a twist at the end of the story. But I could only imagine that they would have to redeem themselves at the end to be emotionally satisfying. That or become completely jaded and insane.

I can be terribly wrong. It seems that everything I've said is something I would do and not necessarily a fact (or correct for that manner) or anything anyone else would do.

Carry on, I'm rambling. Never good.
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Old 01-02-2013, 10:46 PM   #18
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A couple of you have brought up that giving the villian emotions would make him less of a villian and more of a hero. Do you think this is a bad thing? Does a villian have to be super evil with no feelings except hate and anger?
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Old 01-02-2013, 11:15 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by keepcalmandwriteon View Post
A couple of you have brought up that giving the villian emotions would make him less of a villian and more of a hero. Do you think this is a bad thing? Does a villian have to be super evil with no feelings except hate and anger?
Personally, I don't describe a villain solely by what he feels but what he DOES.

Look at examples of real-world villains. Hitler is the biggest one I can think of. Yes, his over-powering emotion was hate. However, there have been plenty stories/images where he's smiling and laughing. He had the capacity to feel much more than just hatred. He was just driven by his hatred and that dictated his actions.

If you stick with only one emotion, I think your villain becomes a one-note and a caricature. (Of course, plenty of people don't mind these types of villains. It all depends on the reader.)
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Old 01-02-2013, 11:22 PM   #20
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A couple of you have brought up that giving the villian emotions would make him less of a villian and more of a hero. Do you think this is a bad thing? Does a villian have to be super evil with no feelings except hate and anger?
Thing is, often times when the reader sees that there's a redeeming quality to a villain or if he's become jaded or they feel a bit bad for them, automatically the reader starts hoping that the villain seeks redemption. It's human nature to want to forgive. So I suppose that's kind of why it lessens the villain's villain-ness. And if the reader doesn't obtain this at the end, they may or may not feel cheated.

It is not a bad thing. I repeat, not a bad thing. Darth Vader blew up his daughter's planet containing billions of people. He murdered children! Then, when he sees his son in pain, he saves him. Voila, emotionally satisfying redemption.

And if they don't achieve redemption, then that only leaves the reader to pity them. Look at Voldy. The reader (along with Harry) felt bad for him, not because he grew up without love, but that he didn't know what love was at all.

P.S. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Often those who do wrong do so thinking it is the right thing to do.
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Old 01-03-2013, 02:50 AM   #21
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I think the second one is more interesting because it makes for a more complex/layered villain. For some reason, my mind just flashed to Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog lol.
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