[ 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

[(Anonymous)]

We need more villains who are just boring and grey, instead of being either lulzy and demonic or sympathetic with tragic backstory.

[intrigueing]

But those are...well....boring.

Of course, you can be interesting and grey, but it's hard to do unless your writing is really good.

[cadremage]

Before I EXPOUND on my FEELINGS, I shall ask...are you being sarcastic?

[(Anonymous)]

A little bit, maybe, but mostly not?

I mean, it sounds ridiculous on the face of it, but I do think characters like that can be really, really interesting and I think it would be cool to have more of them and there's a lot of cool things you can do with them, and I think they're worth examining.

But please expound on your feelings either way! Let it all loose.

[cadremage]

Ah, well, thank you for the explanation! I appreciate your perspective.

To me, there's not much of a point to a boring and grey villain, as he or she doesn't pose much of a threat. There's little risk that they'll convince others to go along with their plot, and there's little that they'll do to thwart the heroes. And consequently, there's little to latch onto as a viewer or reader.

I have a feeling that you view the terms differently, however, so I'd be interested to hear more (actually, I'm already starting to envision different scenarios, so that's super cool).

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I think you can have a villain who's boring who's still powerful - that is, the villain's ability to affect the characters is a different thing from their motivation and personality. I think it could be interesting to have a villain who isn't motivated by any strong feelings, either sympathetic ones or simply evil ones. Who simply views what he's doing as necessary but without any real passion about it. Or who simply hasn't thought about it that much, who just accepts the idea that the protagonists are wrong or that he needs to do whatever they need to do or need to oppose - maybe he's just a functionary following orders, maybe he's just not someone who thinks about things much. Maybe they don't need to convince anyone else because they're in an environment in which everyone more or less agrees with the villain already.

And I think you can write a story where any of those characters are interesting and their relationship with the main characters is interesting, and I think that kind of evil is, in a way, interesting in itself. It would be interesting to examine a character who does something really evil without really thinking about it. There's certainly historic precedent about it.

[(Anonymous)]

The fist thing that came to mind was the Auditors, from the Discworld series. They are literally the definition of boring, and they want to get rid of humanity because humanity is too exciting. It's like being menaced by tax accountants and it's excellent.

But yeah, I think I see where you're coming from. Villains who don't chew the scenery. Villains who don't have huge dramatic evil plots. Villains who just quietly make everyone else's lives a little bit worse.

[intrigueing]

IMO, those sound like boring people, but not boring characters. They sound quite exciting as characters through their very boring-ness. Kind of like how some of the most hilarious characters in comedies are hilarious because they're such unfunny stoic people.

[(Anonymous)]

Exactically! I thought that was what anon #1 was referring to, boring people rather than boring characters.

(Although the Auditors aren't exactly people. Or even separate entities. It's complicated. And a little confusing. Especially when it comes to pronouns.)