[ SECRET POST #2283 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2283 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 032 secrets from Secret Submission Post #326.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://oi50.tinypic.com/swq002.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I definitely agree with you. At this point, I find people who are willfully evil, or people who are thoughtlessly evil, much more interesting than sympathetic villains who think that it's All For The Greater Good or have Sympathetic Backgrounds. I think people are mostly familiar with the idea - it's not really a shocker anymore. And the prevalence of that type of villain also seems to go along with the idea that all villains and all evil is of that kind, which I really don't agree with.

[badass_tiger]

I think we still have a fairly large amount of villains who are villains because they're dickwads. Tbh, I like that we have a more diverse range of villains these days. It'd be pretty boring if all villains followed one archetype, even if it was from different angles. They'd be exhausted pretty quickly.

[fenm]

I was actually pissed off when the new version of Doctor Who gave the Master a somewhat sympathetic back story. Heaven forbid he just be a power-hungry psycho. d-:

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

Just watch some old stuff, then! Highlander for example; there's plenty of that type of character to be found there.

[(Anonymous)]

This reminds me of one of my favorite arcs of Skip Beat, where the main character has to figure out how to play a girl who does evil purely because she's bored. SHE IS TERRIFYING IN THAT ROLE.

[intrigueing]

It's a cyclical trope for sure. First, people got uncomfortable with villains with too much moral ambiguity, so they made stricter guidelines for acceptable character portrayal, then they got sick of all the cardboard lulzy villains with no motivation that cropped up, so they made villains more deep and complex, and now the Complex Villain with a Meaningful Tragic Backstory is so predictable it's becoming irritating too. To which I say: shake things up and try something new, we can always shake them up all over again once we get sick of them.

[ex_mek82]

This is p. much why Cad Bane is my favorite Star Wars villain: he's ruthless, greedy, and evil simply because he chooses to be. In a way, it was kind of refreshing to me. So far as I know, the EU hasn't given him a tragic sob story... and I hope it remains that way.

[(Anonymous)]

...So the Joker, Voldemort, Agent Smith, Damien, and Sauron don't ring any bells...?

[(Anonymous)]

even if they didn't have one, fandoms would manipulate the plot and shit to create one lol.

fandoms #1 favorite thing always seems to be making woobies of characters that are fucking assholes.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm only 23 but I remember a time when people complained about these villains that had no reason for being evil and had no sad backstory at all.
People are never happy.

[elaminator]

I don't mind there being a sympathetic backstory behind the evil, but usually it's not a backstory I can fully buy. Plus, as others have said, it DOES eventually get tiresome

So...I kinda agree. We just need variety really.

[(Anonymous)]

If you pick a game, a book, a series or a movie, not to mention animu or mango, you have very high chances of getting what you want. Because MWAHAHAHAHA I'M SOO EVIL BECAUSE I'M JUST THAT, FLAT CARDBOARD EVIL is still a DEFAULT way of writing a villain. It's like gamers whining there is not enough games with white-dude 30yrs old protagonist in games, while it's probably the most common hero for them.

[visp]

1. Humans are complex creatures. Cardboard villainy is unrealistic.

2. Do you really hate tragic!backstory villains or do you just hate woobifying fans? Because they'll woobify anyone, regardless of canon.

3. Go to Girl Genius for a good 'I just love being evil' villain. http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

[(Anonymous)]

Co-writing something like this. Our villains had great childhoods (in a dystopia, but they were at the top of the social heap and came out okay) and could potentially have been decent people if they hadn't met each other. They spent centuries psychologically bouncing their worst sides off each other, and now do ridiculously over-the-top violent things partly for fun and partly for reasons related to their weird religion which would take too long to explain. Kind of fun to write that sort of thing sometimes :)

[(Anonymous)]

Villains are best when they have a wickedly awesome philosophy for being evil, an entire code of their own that is so wrong yet makes so much sense.

When I game mastered I loved putting some villain out there, maybe leak some sob story that's probably true, get the players all sympathetic, then, pow! The villain screws them over.

There is an artistry to villainy. Sob stories? Yeah, the villain exploits that if there is one, or they keep themselves mysterious to keep others guessing while they exploit the fascination the protagonists have for them. Evil just to be bad? Meh, that's boring. Any neighborhood bully can do that

[tasogare_n_hime]

I recommend the Last Exile anime. Delphine Eraclea is exactly what you are looking for.

For me it all depends on how the villain is written, and how it fits in with he story.

[(Anonymous)]

I mostly agree with you, however I'm prepared to tolerate "tragic backstories" as long as they're something other than MY GIRLFRIEND DIED/LEFT ME/CHEATED ON ME AND NOW I'M EVIL WAAAAAH. I know love makes people do crazy shit, but it's always really eye-rollingly lame when it's the big reveal of the villain's motivation.

[gobbledigook]

I'll be honest with you OP, I think villains that are just crazy and evil are boring. I don't really think that much of the ones with bad backstories either because I can't think of a single one that I cared, I think that if you're gonna have a human villain, you might as well give him some sort of humanity.

I'd love to see more villains like Lavos from Chrono Trigger though, just a menacing force the heroes can't hope to comprehend or defeat, bringing imminent destruction due to it's nature. Aww yeah

[(Anonymous)]

Read One Piece or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Most of the villains are evil just cuz.

I was gonna suggest reading Shonen series in general but Naruto and Bleach try to make their villains sympathetic in the most bullshitty way possible so I suggest those two.

[(Anonymous)]

Gee, I don't know. Most people have motives for the things that they do, whether we agree that they are good motives or even understandable ones is another thing all-together. After all, that old chestnut about villians being the heroes of their own stories has some truth to it. So, maybe what you're really looking for is no backstory whatsoever. Maybe you can just ignore/fast-forward/stick your fingers in your ears and close your eyes for those parts when they have them - then it can be just because.

[pengychan]

While I do appreciate evil character who are evil just "because" once in a while, it's SO easy for such character to turn out really, really boring. I think any "good" villain needs a motivation to be truly interesting. On the other hand, yeah, it is just as easy to turn said motivation into an excuse and make the character equally boring through over the top angst.

[sensualcoco]

I get where you're coming from.

I like villains where there's a back story so you can kind of understand the type of person they are and why they do the things they do, but I don't necessarily want it to be sympathetic. I just enjoy a character being fleshed out... even if it's showing what makes a psychopath tick.

[gamma_orionis]

I think that there's a place in this world for villains who have tragic backstories, and for those who are just in it "for the evulz" :) I love both kinds, really!

[(Anonymous)]

I hate villains with tragic backstories because they're so unrealistic. All serial killers are proven born psychopaths. If their parents were abusive, it's because they were psychopaths too. Americans have been spoon-fed villains with Freudian excuses and now want to hear that society corrupted someone, no matter what they have done.