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kawacy · 5 months

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Lucas

#little may's vampire #lmv #lucas #human #antagonist #comic

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k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9 · 10 months

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ℌ𝔢𝔩𝔩𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔰𝔢𝔯 𝔓𝔞𝔯𝔨 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔘𝔯𝔟𝔞𝔫 𝔅𝔦𝔯𝔡 𝔒𝔟𝔰𝔢𝔯𝔳𝔞𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔶!

#Hellraiser #pinhead #park #urban bird #Observatory #eugene #oregon #random #horror aesthetic #terror aesthetic #antagonist #fictional character

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taffybuns · 29 days

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studio investigrave games youve captivated me

#elevator hitch #dead plate #antagonist #coworker #rody #uerm..srory..im just trying to make it look like i have art posted.. dont look at me #doodles

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eloquent-edits · 2 months

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🗡️ Stop looking for monsters under your bed

you are the monster 🗡️ villain/anti-hero prompts 🗡️ based on MNQN’s “What Have You Become?”

“I don’t know who you are anymore.” “Then you never knew me.”

“Care to watch the show? You can’t stop it, so you might as well enjoy it.” B grinned, sparks in their eyes and the air.

“Oh be quiet dear, this will all be over soon.”

“You say that we’re doing something different, that we’re making the right changes to protect people, but all I see are more corpses.”

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

“Oh god, oh fuck…” A crumpled to their knees, helplessly watching B’s blood pool on the floor. “What did I do?”

“I… I think we’re the monsters here.”

“Did you actually think you could save them?” B laughed in disbelief.

“People die all the time, why would you be any different?”

A looked at the sky, avoiding B’s gaze. “The night is in everyone. Hope dies like stars, happiness crashes like meteors. The night remains.”

“If you do this, heaven will not know your name.” “They will know it, and they will fear it.”

“You asked for a savior, not a saint.”

Their face was carved from the malice of millions.

“They chose me. I must carry out my duty or thousands more will die.”

“That’s enough A! We’ve tried everything, hell, nearly lost everything too. One of us will die if we keep going...” “And we let them win?” “It’s the only way we get a happy ending.”

“I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time.”

“Why are you doing this? What did I ever do to deserve this?” “Don’t be naïve. You know exactly what you’ve done.”

“You should’ve seen the look on their faces. It was delicious.”

A collapsed, thoughts swirling in a mess of confusion and betrayal. Their arm stung. Their bones ached. Their heart hurt. “What happened to you?” “Nothing happened. You became weak.”

“I don’t want to do this. But it’s the only way out.”

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writingwithcolor · 3 months

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What Makes an Ethnic Villain "Ethnic" or "Villainous?" How Do You Offset it?

anonymous asked:

Hello WWC! I have a question about the antagonist of my story. She is (currently) Japanese, and I want to make sure I’m writing her in a way that doesn’t associates [sic] her being Asian with being villainous. The story is set in modern day USA, this character is effectively immortal. She was a samurai who lost loved ones due to failure in combat, and this becomes her character[sic] motivation (portrayed sympathetically to the audience). This story explores many different time periods and how women have shown valor throughout history. The age of the samurai (and the real and legendary female warriors from it) have interested me the most, which is why I want her to be from this period. The outfit she wears while fighting is based on samurai armor, and she wears modern and traditional Japanese fashion depending on the occasion. She acts pretty similar to modern day people, though more cynical and obsessed with her loss. She’s been able to adapt with the times but still highly values and cherishes her past. She is the only Asian main character, but I plan to make a supportive Japanese side character. She’s a history teacher who knows about the villain and gives the protagonists information to help them, but isn’t involved in the main plot otherwise. Are the way I’m writing this villain and the inclusion of a non-antagonist Japanese character enough to prevent a harmful reading of the story, or is there more I should do?

Why Does Your Villain Exist?

This makes me feel old because David Anders plays a villain with this kind of backstory in the series Heroes starring Masi Oka.

I think you want to think about what you mean when you say:

Villainous (In what way? To whom? To what end?)

Harmful (What tropes, narratives and implications are present?)

I’m relatively infamous in the mod circle for not caring too much about dimensions of “harm”. The concept is relative and varies widely between people and cultures. I don’t see much value in framing motivations around “What is less harmful?” I think for me, what matters more is:

“What is more true?”

“Are characteristics viewed as intrinsic to background, or the product of experiences and personal autonomy?”

“Will your portrayal resonate with a large audience?”

“What will resonate with the members of the audience who share the backgrounds your characters have?”

This post offers additional questions you could ask yourself instead of “is this okay/not okay/harmful.”

You could write a story where your antagonist is sly, sadistic, violent and cold-blooded. It may not be an interpretation that will make many Japanese from combat backgrounds feel seen or heard, but it’s not without precedent. These tropes have been weaponized against people of Japanese descent (Like Nikkei Japanese interned during World War II), but Japan also brutalized a good chunk of Asia during World War II. See Herge’s Tintin and The Blue Lotus for an example of a comic that accurately showcases the brutality of Japan’s colonization of Manchuria, but also is racist in terms of how Japanese characters are portrayed (CW: genocide, war, imperialism, racism).

You could also write a story where your character’s grief gives way to despair, and fuels their combat such that they are seen as calculating, frigid and deeply driven by revenge/ violence. This might make sense. It’s also been done to death for Japanese female warriors, though (See “Lady Snowblood” by Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura here, CW: sexual assault, violence, murder and a host of other dark things you’d expect in a revenge story).

You could further write a story where your antagonist is not necessarily villainous, but the perceived harm comes from fetishizing/ exoticizing elements in how her appearance is presented or how she is sexualized, which is a common problem for Japanese female characters.

My vote always goes to the most interesting story or character. I don’t see any benefit to writing from a defensive position. This is where I'll point out that, culturally, I can't picture a Japanese character viewing immortality as anything other than a curse. Many cultures in Japan are largely defined by transience and the understanding that many things naturally decay, die, and change form.

There are a lot of ways you could conceivably cause harm, but I’d rather hear about what the point of this character is given the dilemma of their position.

What is her purpose for the plot?

How is she designed to make the reader feel?

What literary devices are relevant to her portrayal?

(Arbitrarily, you can always add more than 1 extra Japanese character. I think you might put less pressure on yourself with this character’s portrayal if you have more Japanese characters to practice with in general.)

- Marika.

When Off-Setting: Aim for Average

Seconding the above with regards to this villainess’s story and your motivations for this character, but regardless of her story I think it’s also important to look specifically at how the Japanese teacher character provides contrast.

I agree with the choice to make her a regular person and not a superhero. Otherwise, your one Asian character is aggressively Asian-themed in a stereotypical Cool Japan way (particularly if her villain suit is samurai-themed & she wears wafu clothing every so often). Adding a chill person who happens to be Japanese and doesn’t have some kind of ninja or kitsune motif will be a breath of fresh air (well, more like a sigh of relief) for Japanese readers.

A note on characterization—while our standard advice for “offset” characters is to give your offset character the opposite of the personality trait you’re trying to balance, in this case you might want to avoid opposites. You have a villainess who is a cold, tough “don’t need no man” type. Making the teacher mild-mannered, helpful, and accomodating would balance out the villainess’s traits, but you’ll end up swinging to the other side of the pendulum towards the Submissive Asian stereotype depending on execution. If avoiding stereotypes is a concern, I suggest picking something outside of that spectrum of gentleness to violence and making her really boring or really weird or really nerdy or a jock gym teacher or…something. You’re the author.

Similarly, while the villainess is very traditionally Japanese in her motifs and backstory, don’t make the teacher go aggressively in either direction—give her a nice balance of modern vs. traditional, Japanese vs. Western sensibilities as far as her looks, dress, interests, values, etc. Because at the end of the day, that’s most modern Japanese people.

Sometimes, the most difficult representation of a character of color is making a character who is really average, typical, modern, and boring.

- Rina

#writeblr #Japanese #Japanese women #Villain #antagonist #tokenism #characterization #representation #stereotypes #immortality #superheroes #supervillains #asks

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the-modern-typewriter · 5 months

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Hey! Asking for some writing advice here.

How does one write a villain exactly. In a very simple world with no superpowers and stuff how do you give them motivation. How do you make them slowly descent into villainy. Somehow when the villain actually thinks they're doing the right thing until the very end?

Thx love

There are a few different questions here that I'm going to try to to unpick.

I'll start with a brief overview of the connections between protagonist + antagonist, just because recognising them can be really useful in shaping your own ideas. Then I'll dive into motivation. So.

Antagonist + Protagonist = CONFLICT

If you know your protagonist well, then you have all the ingredients you need to write a great villain/antagonist for them too. Here is why.

Your villain/antagonist is, at the most basic fundamental starting point, something that is between your protagonist and what the protagonist wants/needs. As a very simple example, if your protagonist wants to make sure that everyone is free, then your antagonist is going to in some way be involved with making sure they are not free. Once you know what your antagonist needs to do in a story, then it's a lot easier to pose the question to yourself of 'okay, why would someone do that?'

Villains often reflect an opposite or warped view of the values and motivations that your protagonist has. They mirror or foil your main character. So, your antagonist's motivation will often be either opposite to the protagonist (e.g, your protagonist is motivated by selflessness, so your antagonist is motivated by selfishness in some way) or they will be the same motivation or value gone twisted (e.g. we both have people we love who we would do anything to protect...it's the villains way of acting on that motivation that makes them the villain, not the motivation.)

Of course, you can not have your antagonist + protagonist connected in this way. This is often the case if the source of conflict in your story is not another actual character or if you have a more generic villain. Lots of great stories have generic villains. It typically just means the villain is not a focus. It might be, like, about the friendships made in the journey instead.

Motivations:

I find it helpful to think of all my characters having two motivations.

The external story-specific motivation. This is whatever the antagonist is trying to achieve in your particular story and where things like genre and superpowers etc come into play.

The internal motivation that is more universal. The internal motivation is, while still specific to the character, the driving emotions and values. With a villain, that is often hatred or fear or lust for power because they're villains, but as noted earlier it can be a twisted form of love, or a strong sense of an injustice committed against them. This shapes the external motivation (e.g. 'lust for power = I want the throne, 'fear' = I'm going to kill or belittle or control what scares me so I don't have to feel scared anymore', justice might equal revenge or gaining power to ensure that a wrong is corrected. ) It could also be a bias or a prejudice that they're raised on driving them, that they genuinely believe in. Lots of possibilities!

I think this is true of people as well. We have our foundational core beliefs and desires (to be loved, to succeed, to be accepted whatever) and then we have the things we try to get in the real world to meet those needs (whether they really will or not).

Either way, it's the second one that comes into play with the slow descent into villainy and the villain thinking that they're doing the right thing until the end. Because, initially, their heart genuinely is not in a villainous place. They may actually be doing the right thing at the start. And then bad things happen. They are changed by the journey. They are a protagonist gone tragic.

We all experience emotions that can drive us to behave poorly; the desire for revenge or recognition, to ensure that the people we care about are safe, to get money so that we can provide for ourselves and others etc. None of us are without prejudice or privilege. Those things do not make you a villain, but they can be an excellent starting place for one.

Think about times when you've messed up. A villain is often an exaggerated version of that. You start pushing your own boundaries because there is something you really want/need and, depending on how far you push that...do you feel like you can still go back? Or do you feel like you might as well finish it after everything. At what point do you breathe for air, look up at what you've done, and go shit.

That's the villain who realises way too late that they're the villain.

Final note: I've been using antagonist and villain pretty interchangeably here...but they have slightly different connotations. Your antagonist does not have to be a villain to be effective. They just have to be an obstacle to the protagonist. E.g. if two people are going for the same dream job or trying to win a competition, the other competitors are antagonists to a certain extent, but that doesn't mean they're villainous or bad people. Whether you have an outright villain will depend on your story.

I hope this helps!

Some going further questions to take with you.

Is your villain trying to stop your protagonist from reaching their goal? Or is your protagonist trying to stop the antagonist from reaching their goal?

How does the villain's external goal in the story reflect the inner need? Note. They are aware of their external goal. Most people are not aware of the inner goal in the same way.

Do you know what you want your stories themes to be? (This doesn't have to be complicated and it's fine if you don't, that's what editing is for). Your protagonist and antagonist often weigh in on these themes. For example, your antagonist might be a path the protagonist could have gone down, if they made a different choice or something happened differently in their past.

#villains #antagonist #writing advice #writing tips #writing talk #writing villains #writing tip #writing help #character creation #character building

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navigatorwriting · 2 months

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24

"Hold this for me." Before the hero had a chance to object, the villain shoved the bloodied axe into their hands and dropped to rifle through their bag.

The hero squeezed their eyes shut and took a shaky breath, trying not to think about the smell. Oh God, they were holding the villain's axe. The blood was probably still warm. The hero's chest tightened. The stench was overwhelming. They thought they might faint.

"It's not going to bite you," the villain said.

The hero's lower lip trembled. "P-please take it back."

The villain sighed. The hero felt the axe lift from their outstretched hands. They opened their eyes.

The villain was looking at them, a mix of understanding and impatience in their eyes. "If you're going to vomit, let's get it over with," they said, "but don't faint on me. You're no good to me unconscious."

They started to cry instead.

The villain let out an exasperated sigh and stooped to pick up their bag. "Cut that out, I don't have time for that." They hoisted their axe over their shoulder. "If you're not going to vomit, let's go."

"Why are you doing this?" the hero choked out.

The villain looked them up and down. They had already noticed the hero was small; it was why the villain chose to spare them. But there was more that the villain hadn't realized immediately... they looked frail. Shellshocked. And, frankly, too young for this kind of setting. They had a feeling the hero wasn't too loyal to their team's cause, or at least that's how the villain wanted them to feel. It would be easier to earn the hero's trust if their morals weren't in the way.

The villain blinked. Were they going soft?

"It's business," the villain said finally, furrowing their eyebrows, mildly irked at how protective they suddenly felt. "And it should be for you, too."

They grabbed the hero by the shirt collar and pulled them face to face, startling them. They'd be damned if they went soft on the hero already.

"Because I'm your best shot at getting out of here alive."

#writing #fiction #snippet #writeblr #hero #villain #hero x villain #protagonist #antagonist #protagonist x antagonist #villain x hero

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styrbear · 5 months

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To quote the famous Russian line: "Whoops, I should've predicted that someone could escape out of a ventilation shaft using discarded mirrors as stairs. "

Another one of my favourites from Murder Drones. Doll is super interesting, threatening and sympathetic. I hope that perhaps at the roads end, the end of her path isn't a bitter one.

#murder drones #fanart #worker drone #murder drones doll #doll #villain #villain?#antagonist #absolute solver #glitch productions

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esti3 · 5 months

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⛓𓌹*♰*𓌺⛓

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marsadler · 8 months

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Yeah I like queer characters.

I like messy, raw, scraped bloody queer characters. I like it when they don't learn their lessons, when they become worse, where they don't have a positive character arc.

But even more than that, I want fucked up characters who just HAPPEN to be queer. No soft realizations of queerness here. Those stories have their place but they aren't for me. I came into this world bloody and screaming and I want to read about people like me.

I like it when they are vindictive, when they are abrasive, when they hurt people they love and don't know how to say sorry. I want them to be brutal and nasty and to keep me up at night. I like it when they can make mistakes and have to pay for them.

I like seeing the worst pieces of myself in fictional characters, who are telling the story, who were lovingly crafted by a writer. Someone who was brave enough to say "I don't want to make a good guy."

So yeah, I like queer characters, but I want to feel them eating my heart out as I read or watch their stories.

I hope this shines through in my work as well.

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uiiyru · 9 months

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Old Drawing of my antagonist OCs, that I really like :D

What do you think of them? You can ask me anything ab them btw :3

#my art #artists on tumblr #digital art #original character #antagonist #illustrations #sketch #sketches

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hoolay-boobs · 9 months

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I know we all love Anti Heroes (Nimona, Deadpool, Wednesday, Glimmer, etc.) but please consider-

Meme format not mine, found off of Pinterest

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k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9 · 1 year

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#jason voorhees #satire #flowers #friday the 13th #random #Antagonist #fictional character #cosplay #american slasher film #american slasher movies #80s slasher movies

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aight-griffin · 22 days

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I didn’t really think Dungeon Meshi would have the best antagonists, it relies so much on the (frankly awesome) cooking gimmick and party dynamics that I thought the Lunatic Magician would just be a fun boss fight.

Turns out I was wrong though, because even just at ch68 Sissel is just as well written as anyone else in this wonderful manga.

#dungeon meshi #sissel #sissel dungeon meshi #antagonist #he’s a great foil to Laois and particularly marcille

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fireole-a-r-t · 8 months

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The Fire Princess

I know she's a villain and at first I really didn't like her, but in the end I find that she's a super interesting and well written character.

#princess azula #azula #artists on tumblr #my art #drawing #avatar the last airbender #avatar fanart #girl power #antagonist #fire #lighting

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the-modern-typewriter · 6 months

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Hello, love your work so much!! Could you do one where the antagonist has betrayed the protagonist (their lover) and their friends but instead of handing protag off to whoever like the friends, they’ve been allowed to keep them to do whatever because they’re very very off the rails obsessed with them and very possessive of them too? Sorry if it’s specific and thank you!! Have a lovely day :)

"You can't be angry with me forever, love," the antagonist said, from the doorway. "Would you rather have been taken away with them?"

The protagonist said nothing. They seethed with everything they wanted to scream, with the accusations ready to be hurled like missiles to end the world. Too much.

"I told you I'd protect you," the antagonist continued. "That I'd always protect you."

"This is protection?" It spat out before the protagonist could stop it. They gave the chain around their ankle a rough shake.

"From yourself."

The protagonist barked a bitter laugh. They clamped their jaw shut again.

"From the world," the antagonist continued. They moved further into the room. "There are many people out there who would hurt you, take you away from me."

"Seems like a blessing to be taken away from you!"

"You don't mean that."

"Oh, I do. Come closer and I'll show you just how sincere I am."

The antagonist stopped just out of arm's reach.

It reminded the protagonist of the handover. Their friends bundled bound and thrashing into the backs of vans, still reeling from the anti-magic pulse and the betrayal of it all, until the protagonist was the only one left.

The governor had turned towards them, had started to move forward with all of his goons, before he'd seen the look on the antagonist's face and the way their body wrapped around the protagonist. Gravital orbit. A warped black hole of a love.

"Try," the antagonist had said, almost pleasantly. Almost.

The governor had not tried.

The governor had flinched.

"I understand that you feel betrayed now, you loved your friends," the antagonist pressed. "You're good like that. But you'll come to see that separation from them was for the best."

The protagonist squeezed their eyes shut and wished they could block the poisonous words so easily.

How could they have been so wrong about their lover?

"They were a bad influence," the antagonist said.

"You mean they weren't you."

The antagonist paused.

When the protagonist looked at them again, the antagonist's head had tilted, curiously. They didn't seem offended.

Bile burned in the protagonist's throat at the truth of it. "They're not a bad influence, they never were, you just don't want me to have anyone who isn't you. I was getting too into the resistance. Too into something that wasn't you. You, you, you!"

A mask had fallen away from the antagonist's face. They'd always been attentive, but the betrayal had stripped the lies of normality away. There was only obsession left in their eyes. Raw and burning. A supernova of love, taking out everything in its path.

The protagonist swallowed and faltered. For the first time, fear crept past the fury, cold and slithering.

"And now," the antagonist closed the gap between them, "I'm all you have." They captured the protagonist's face in their hands, anticipating the protagonist's attempt to lunge in one devastating move. They leaned down, looming, to press a claiming kiss to the protagonist's mouth. "I win."

It was like being winded. Like being stabbed. Like being run through entirely. The protagonist made a soft, pained sound.

The antagonist smiled, thumb caressing their cheek. "Love hurts."

"I don't love you. I will never love you after what you did."

"You will."

"If you truly loved me, you wouldn't do this. If you truly loved me-"

"-I said you can't be angry," the antagonist said, after a beat, "but honestly I don't really mind. It just felt like something I should say." Their whole posture relaxed, alarmingly away from whatever front of concern and regret they had been putting up. "Your anger is mine too. So is your hate. So is everything you are. It's interesting seeing this side of you."

The protagonist stared up at them.

"That is true love," the antagonist said. "I love everything about you. I will take it all for my own. To have, to hold and cherish, until death do us part."

"You're crazy," the protagonist whispered.

"Crazy in love."

The antagonist leaned down and kissed them again soundly.

They really wished they'd been handed over with their friends.

#hero x villain #antagonist x protagonist #writing #toxic relationships #story #ficlet #antagonist #protagonist #villainous characters #villain #obsessive love

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