Monday, May 26, 2014

Dum dum dum! I’m the Villain!

Last week, I wasn’t feeling so well, so I pulled up Netflix and decided to try “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.”  I’m not always a fan of sequels, and I went in not expecting it to be as great as the first one.

I thought it was actually pretty creative, though there was one thing that really bothered me.  The villain came in the first few minutes of the movie and announced to the audience that he was indeed the villain.  Then he went on to become the main character’s mentor, though everything he did was clouded by the fact that I already knew that he was up to no good.

As I was watching, I started wondering why it was so important for the audience to know that he was evil to begin with.  Would the story have been different?  Probably not.  The young, enthusiastic inventor would have still learned from the older, wiser inventor.  He would have been sent out to save the island and ultimately saved the ‘animals’ living there.

The difference would have been that I wouldn’t be waiting for the other shoe to drop.  And I kept wondering how the main character couldn’t see it.  I mean, after all, he’s been so obvious in his evil intent that I told the audience within a few minutes.  How couldn’t he see it too?  I think I would have enjoyed the movie more if I had been with the main character, wondering if he was doing the right thing, instead of knowing he was making a mistake.

Which, in turn, made me wonder what kind of villains I’m creating.  Are they all so evil that there’s no chance of redemption?  Does the main character know who they really are or do they have an angel face hiding what they’re really up to?

Personally, I’m starting to really enjoy creating angel faces. 


How about you?  What kind of villains do you like to read?

2 comments:

  1. This is something to think about. My current WIP is written from two perspectives. One character knows the villain is the villain from the start (and therefore the reader knows too), and the other doesn't. I think it works for the the story, but I'll have to see if that gets flagged by any of my readers.

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    1. I've written WIPs where the villain is obvious from the start, and others where it takes the MC a while to figure it out. I feel like if your MC (or one of your MCs) is still trying to figure it out, maybe the reader shouldn't know. But if one of your MCs does know, I'm sure that it wouldn't seem as odd to announce it to the reader.

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