I’m doing double duty blog postings today because I’m in the middle of a weekend Facebook event and I’m as sick as dog. So, if you follow me on Paranormal Romantics and you happen to catch my Weekend Writing Warriors post and think . . . Déjà vu! . . . you’re not wrong. It’s not often that both posting dates fall on a 25th that just happens to be a Sunday, so I’m taking it advantage of it . . . and then I’m going back to bed.
I picked a topic that would boost my adrenaline level enough to overcome my cough medicine and lack of sleep. Villains! Oh, I LOVE a good villain and one of my own favorites is in the series I just finished reading through again while keeping my sniffling away from the fam. RISE BY MOONLIGHT, the concluding book in my “By Moonlight” dark shapeshifter series had to go BIG with a bad guy (who just happens to be a BAD girl!) to tie up all the overlapping plot danglers. And Genevieve Savorie is the Queen B (and I don’t mean Bee!) of them all; the big bad in charge of all the other bad-enoughs that have darkened the pages of earlier books. Here’s a glimpse of her . . .
Evil whispered in his ear, “Hello, Michael. Friends again?”He turned to face the lovely creature he’d once admired, back when having a soul was a deficit and cold cunning, the highest aspiration.“You use that word as if you know what it means.”“I’ve no use for things that get in the way of what I want or what our people need. Have you remembered what those things are or have you called me here for a different reason, one that would allow you to live beyond our reunion.”She was so beautiful it was difficult to believe such evil thrived beneath that glamorous surface. Tall, fashionably garbed, flawlessly pale, dark in hair and soul, a lovely surface covering the blackest ichor, her resemblance to her sister Marie went only skin-deep. She craved power the way her poor sister, Marie, had sought love, with an unquestioning fervor that brought about her destruction - a fate Genevieve would share if her nephew had his way.In that moment, Father Michael Furness decided he would not fall with her.
Soooooo, what makes a villain a reeeeeal nasty piece of work? One that’s terrifying . . . and yet strangely fascinating beyond just being a foil for the HEA? Here are some of the things I want from my favorite villains:
- Provide contrast to the hero/heroine. The villain is what makes their heroic traits shine, he’s their dark mirror and tempter;
- A lack of boundaries. Good guys have to follow a moral code. Bad guys throw it out the window. They’re full of nasty surprises that walk outside the norm and the acceptable;
- Add plot movement. The quality of the villain/antagonist in any form heightens the tension and ups the conflict to force an active response to overcome them;
- Lack of remorse/empathy. That’s why they’re called Bad Guys. They walk unapologetically on that dark side without regret or concern for the evil they do because they have a reason to justify their actions – unless they’re just plain nuts;
- Force conflict/heroism: Even the mildest, meekest character can become heroic if the stakes make them desperate or the corner they’re in requires action to escape or save another. There’s a lion inside every mouse.
No one appreciates a good nasty bad guy for contrast like the film industry. Here’s the best of the baddest . . .
Who are some of your favorite Baddies?
♚♚♚♚♚
Nancy Gideon on the Web
2 comments:
Those are great points, Nancy! Very helpful! I'm not sure there are any antagonists that I like. They're usually done so well that I don't like them. In a lot of my favorite movies, the "bad guys" tend to be AI or zombies. Sometimes aliens. Though, they are the "good guys" in some of my other favorites. LOL
Hope you feel better soon!
My favorite contrary bad guy is Dexter Morgan. A serial killer you found yourself empathizing with and sometimes even cheering for. THAT was a well written bad guy.
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