Ramblings of a Samurai and his Duct Tape

We want bad things to happen

I've come to a conclusion about the human condition. We want to see bad things happen to people. We don't truly consciously want to see bad things happen, or hear about them, but in a way we kind of do. There are strings attached to this phenomenon though...





We want to see the people who we care about or can identify with rise above the bad things that happen to them. Now this doesn't always happen, which is the start of the truly epic journeys like the illiad, star wars, pick your fav.





I've found something recently with my characters that led me to this conclusion. The villains I create are whole and mostly easy to root against. We may root for them for a moment, but then we realize who they are and we want bad things to happen to them. Mostly we want the hero to do bad things to the villains. So I've found I treat my villains in a certain way, and even if they're not human, they bring a certain human quality with them.





My heroes I also treat a certain way. I treat them deficiently, giving them a leg up in situations. Because of the way I treat them, they are handicapped, never truly coming to life. Like a balloon that has a ribbon tied around it, it can't inflate all the way to it's maximum potential. I need to start treating my heroes like villains too, and then pit them against each other. I have to let them figure out who's better themselves, and then twist the light to illuminate the victor. Isn't that what history always does? Twists the light to illuminate the victor and keep the villain confined to the shadows?