Hey folks, today I would like to talk about villains. This is an important topic for me because I love exploring the psyche of the antagonist. I could write chapters on this subject, so I am going to try and keep this article self-contained for the most part at least because I’ve a lot on my mind, I would like to highlight some key aspects of what makes a successful villain without branching off into other topics along the way like I usually do. You guys are busy people too and would probably prefer it if I stick to the one thing this time I’ll do my best – Yes I have gone back and read some of my old work and reached this conclusion myself, I tend to rant – With that being said, I would like to offer you…Yes you…My thanks. I was alerted by WordPress a little while back notifying me of my viewing stats, they have gone up. I do not usually check to see who is reading my stuff, I glance at it from time to time I suppose I am interested to see what parts of the globe light up but even if it was only one person reading my articles or if only one person was reading my book, I would still do what I do, because I love what I do. There is so much to explore and to think about in this one short life we lead, and I use my writing as an outlet to express myself. I made the decision to translate what I saw into a book of epic proportions at the age of eighteen, I knew that after College I could not simply put this away and go and do something else, I had to carry on, I remember it as clear as day in fact, sitting on those steps near my exhibition, an exhibition I spent years creating for all to see and now it was over, but it was only truly over if I decided it to be. This is what I am here to do. I encourage everyone in fact to search for their niche in life whatever that may be, it does not matter what it is, it could be anything, so long as it is not hurting anyone else or anything, go and find that one thing that you want to do, find what you’re passionate about and strive to make your own dent in the universe. If you are unsure about what it is you are doing, ask yourself these questions and answer honestly; Do you want to do it all the time? Are you excited about what you can potentially achieve? Is it something you want to nurture every day? Do you go to bed excited about it and equally excited when you get up? But more importantly, you should not want a holiday from it, no, you take it on holiday with you! That is one of the most important things to think about and is the reason I laugh when I hear people say “I love my job” yet at the same time they cannot wait to just run away. That is the big difference between the passionate people who take risks, and those who simply work for money because it’s easy, because it’s safe, because the road is clear. If that is the life you want to live, if that is what you’re here to do then fine, but the fact of the matter is that most people are too afraid to take the dark path, they’d rather be safe and it may indeed lead you to security and safety, but once you get there you’ll look back and think what if? For those who take that dark path may not make it, they may stumble, they may fall risking humiliation and crisis, but in a way that is the same as where adventure leads, adventures are never easy, the hero often faces trials, he often meets powers he cannot overcome, the risk of failure and retreat is great, but if you make it, if you keep going, if you choose to follow what it is you were put on this Earth to do, you will end up living a life that most people admire, you have to be wise and you have to be brave. You may not be a howling success at it but at least you’ll know what you’re supposed to be doing, it certainly makes the daily chore of life, the day to day endless grind a whole lot easier, by simply knowing that you’ve something waiting for you when you get home after that long, bothersome shift at work or knowing that once you’ve finished that arduous drive along the boring motorway there will come a moment where you can relax into what your purpose is. I do encourage you to go out there and find your purpose, really what have you got to lose? You’re here for three score years ten and you’ll be lucky to get through that smoothly, as far as we know this is our one shot, this is the one time we’ll be here, for fuck sake make it count! Don’t get totally derailed by the events of the world, don’t let it take power over you because you are important, your ideas and what you can contribute is important more so than you know and I implore you to find it, don’t put off your purpose. Once you’ve found it, going back to how you were is almost impossible, like taking the red pill you can’t just go back, which leads me to that dreaded question I was asked not so long ago, they asked; What will you do when all five of these Episodes are completed, what happens when you’ve finished The Ancestral Odyssey? The answer to that question is, I don’t know, I’ve been thinking about it, I guess I’ll have to try something else when all of this is said and done, what that is could be anything at this point, but I’ll find that out on the day. I’ve finished Episode One-The Utopian Dream, I am nearing the end of Episode Two-Rise of The Black Doves, I’ve a somewhat clear idea on how Episode Three-Seeds of War will turn out as with Episode Four-Rainbow Dawn and do not get me started on Episode Five-The Chosen Kindred because simply thinking about those events gives me a lap of excitement. I have already failed guys, I have already ranted, I will do better next time, I hope. Grab yourself a drink, this will not be a long one, but I will do my best to explain what I think makes a great villain, enjoy.
I believe that one of the key aspects into what makes a compelling villain, are his or her own motivations, when they’re made to serve a purpose, to add a meaningful dimension to the narrative you’re constructing. A good villain is more than just a position to be filled and a box to tick to make scenes happen. Villains written with their own journey, their own character and mission in mind, that directly conflicts with your protagonist or protagonists is tantalising stuff, readers are hungry for this sort of material for a great villain is often a bigger selling point than your hero, a hero is not much of anything without worthy opposition. Yes, it is easy to create a villain who wants world domination, it’s easy for creatives to raise the stakes to ridiculous proportions, it’s a quick seductive tactic to insure the importance of your heroes success, but rarely does this methodology work. This idea of ultimate destruction has been done to death, it has become tedious and to my mind is bordering the lines of laziness, unless written with an adept hand it can still be served with a justified impact, you just need to be a master at your craft before you go down this path. However, before one goes this way, I will advise you to rethink this common trope, because you are missing out on something wonderful, you’re missing out on a treasure trove of ideas and a wealth of topics that can assist with your story, your characterisation and your world-building. Exploring your villain’s motivations that counter your hero, allows you to see a different side of the same coin, it will encourage you to know your creation in the utmost detail. If you do this correctly, if you set up your world in such a way that isn’t flawless and create a villain who can slip through the cracks, who looks at the systems, the heroes in a different way, the pool of your story will grow deeper and wider, it will instantly become far more realistic, something almost tangible with a mind of its own. An example I usually use when discussing this, is from a religious angle or a political angle. Religion typically comes from ancient texts, they are full of scriptures, poems, teachings and lessons in life, man’s first attempt to explain the world and for that it deserves credit. Some of the stories contained within are quite beautiful, some are indeed quite thought provoking and hold great meaning and value, others not so much, others are freakish and ghastly. These texts may present themselves as Gods word, but any thinking person of the modern world, someone with an education, who practises critical thinking regularly, will be able to debunk stories presented as gospel, stories considered even to this day to be historical fact when clearly they are not. I am not here to talk religion, but if you need a classic example of this, think of the story of Noah’s Ark, a story which on the surface is cool and interesting, I’ve read it times over and enjoyed the movie with Russel Crowe, but when you actually start to think about it, it just isn’t true, and I know that many religious people will say to me, ‘Duncan it’s all metaphorical’ there are still droves of people who believe it as fact, who don’t care about the science, they just like it because it’s part of their religion, my point is, is that there is a problem in God’s holy book, and there are thousands of issues I’ve just expressed the one, all of this calls into question as to whether or not people should take The Bible, The Hadith or Quran as it’s presented, the word of Gods and prophets and I am sorry, I just don’t! In the US you’ve two major political parties, Republican and Democrat, both parties want what is best for everyone, both want to prosper but the differences come through the execution, they too are a side to the same coin essentially and each side comes with sets of ideas not everyone agrees with due to a whole list of things, from birth place, certain experiences, their history, everyone has a political leaning, everyone has their view on religion and can provide you with reasons as to why they feel strongly toward said views. This is the reason why you never bring up these two subjects when sat around the dinner table or when out with friends, because the moment you do, your once healthy, happy, friendly dialogue will spiral into a whirlwind of bullshit. I actually had an uncomfortable dialogue very recently which resulted in unnecessary tension, they didn’t know any numbers or facts, they didn’t know the names of the certain people I was referring to, they thought I was listing off conspiracy theorists yet they themselves do not even know who Alex Jones or Rachel Maddow are, instead they called me names, labelled me and refused to engage, they preferred to shout and scream which has become the norm these days, but quite simply they haven’t been paying much attention of late, they just recycled go-to arguments, arguments which hold little water, arguments reported by a severely biased mainstream media. I’ve little faith in the mainstream media these days, big tech included because it has been shown to report one side of the story, I always suggest you broaden your search, listen to BOTH sides to assist with your opinions. I’ll leave a link below to a source I trust if you’re curious as to where I get my news, but save yourself the trouble when arguing with people who simply have no desire to listen, pick you battles carefully and do your best to empathise with someone who disagrees, have a conversation, and politely persuade them of your argument if you can and move on. With this in mind, think of your villain as the person who disagrees, colour it in with the world and rules in which you’ve created, add flavour with their sense of style and do not be afraid to give the villain the upper hand, do not be afraid to be bold and inspire empathy toward the antagonist, doing so will result in your audience feeling challenged, it will trigger their thinking and get them to question themselves. Readers and movie goers tend to like this, it tickles them. When a villain perceived to be an absolute savage turns out to be someone the common man can empathise with, creates meaningful friction and gets you a step closer to understanding the other sides motivations, it’s not just mindless.
This is just the basics alright, but so often I see the fundamentals being ignored. It is partly the reason as to why I am writing this, but now let’s take it one step further, let’s advance and get a little more interesting, class is now in session ladies and gentlemen and I am going to start by asking you a very simple perhaps off the cuff question but please bear with me, and that is:- ‘What is the movie Jaws about?’ Before you answer, have a proper think, and consider this next question:- ‘What is Darth Sidious’s greatest power?’ Darth Sidious is The Emperor from Star Wars if you didn’t already know. I use Jaws and Star Wars to explain this segment because they are popular and the likely hood of someone not knowing about either film is extremely remote. If you’ve not seen these movies, if you have no idea what I am talking about, message me directly, there is help out there, you can still be saved, you’re going to be okay…Hopefully you’ve given some thought to my questions, I am hoping that you know what I am about to say because so many people only see what is right in front of them when actually, there is more going on than meets the eye, and this reason alone is why some works of art withstand the test of time and others do not despite their grand spectacle most are pumped full of these days, story it seems has been replaced with spectacle and it should be reversed, story comes first, always it must come first.
Jaws, and you may look a gasp at this is, not about the shark, and The Emperors greatest power is not shooting lightning out of his fingertips. If you thought this then I am afraid you missed the point. Brody, the main character in Jaws played by Roy Scheider, is or was a big city cop in New York. He moved to a small town on Amity Island having grown tired of, from what I gathered from the plot, unable to make a difference. He hates the water, the film does indicate his fear of water quite a few times brought on by a traumatic event (drowning) when he was a younger man, and every time it is brought up he closes down, becomes uncomfortable or grows defensive. This leaves you with the question:- Why did he move to an island in the first place? If you look carefully, when the shark claims its second victim and everyone runs into the water to get their loved ones out, Brody does not put a foot in, his feet do not even get wet. So, what is this all about? The more you think about it the less it becomes about the big fish and more about his character, maybe it is about Brody coming to terms with his worst fears? Maybe it is about him resolving a traumatic experience which has left him scarred and that means going out into the water, to face an authority, an apex predator that just ‘does,’ similar to that of a mindless, merciless criminal by the likes of which he has never seen. Out there in the water he is not the Chief of police, he is not the authority, the shark is, the shark is an embodiment of his trauma that he has chosen to overcome.
In Star Wars, arguably the most powerful character is The Emperor, Darth Sidious. Unfortunately, his character was compromised in the prequel trilogy, why they decided to give him a lightsabre (as with Yoda) was a ridiculous notion. To my understanding, Force users such as himself had transcended the use of such weapons, as Vader points out in A New Hope; “The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of The Force.” Later, The Emperor was brought back and utterly ruined in the sequel trilogy for reasons I will not go into here because – Look, say what you want about the prequels, they were bad but not nearly as damaging as the sequel trilogy, the sequel trilogy as stunning as it looked, was not only executed horribly, their characters were made of cardboard wallowing around in a non-sensical plot, it did nothing but divide the fan base, it was an utter sin what happened to Star Wars – But at least the prequels had somewhat of a focus, at least George Lucas was at the helm and had an idea as to where it was all going, sure he may have been a bit drunk behind the wheel and had too many toys on Adobe Photoshop to play with, but he was a man with a vision, he gave a shit. The sequel trilogy had no idea what it was doing, Force Awakens got off to somewhat of a good start, Last Jedi dialled back the movie industry as a whole, and Rise of Skywalker spent half its time repairing the damage. All you need do is watch them to see this, I am not going to spend an article breaking this down further, the internet has already done so and continues to do so. Right now, I am talking about The Emperor as he appears in the original trilogy, the best three which everyone loves, and one reason why people loved them, was that there was more going on than just the spectacle, there was substance here, there were relatable characters and a plot with a message. Star Wars has always been about family, the duels, the battles, the powers are secondary when compared to the message of the importance of family. This is where The Emperor’s greatest power lies and was lost in Rise of Skywalker, he was able to turn Anakin Skywalker, a good man and father, against his son, it was never the lightning, the Force pushes or the lightsabre’s, it was his ability to corrupt the unconditional love family members have for one another to the point where Luke, was able to turn this around. For the most part the prequels lacked any character investment, there was a little going on in Revenge of the Sith with Obi-Wan and Anakin, but it really hammers home in the original trilogy, in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There is more than just a battle taking place, more going on than two men hitting light sticks together, it is a struggle to regain control of what makes us human and part if not the most important thing humans have on our side, is our love for one another, particularly the bonds between family and The Emperor infects that.
Villains do not necessarily have to be in the form of someone or something. In the movies and the book world they often come across as such things, but there is usually a deeper meaning behind their presence that gives them more to think about. A villain can be one’s own anxiety or bouts of depression, it can be disease, even the passage of time can act as an obstacle. There is so much to explore here but it is fair to say, the villain is as important as the hero, for one would not exist without the other.
I’ll leave it there for now, do check out my Twitter if you’d like to see one of my own villains drawn by the same artist who drew The Star Callers, the protagonists for my up and coming book titled – ‘Episode Two. The Ancestral Odyssey: Rise of The Black Doves.’ Episode One. The Utopian Dream is out and available for purchase, the links are below, but please, if you are going to buy it I recommend The Kindle Edition or Paperback Edition Volume One and buy it new and NOT from another seller or worse e-bay. Over lockdown the first book went through a soft edit, I didn’t change the story but I did clean it up, I stretched out the kinks, removed some clutter, fixed the odd typo and re-released it in 2020. Check out The Soft Edit link below for more information. I chose not to make a note of this anywhere else but here. I must admit the launch of Ep1-Dream was a disaster because I was inexperienced, like with George Lucas I had all the pieces just no clear understanding of how to use them, which is why I always advise if you decide to buy my work, buy it new because I want you to have the best experience possible. If you’re wondering who the beautiful woman is in this Blogs header picture, it is a picture of the lovely Holly Yohanne, she played my villainess, Cephie Melias in the Live-Action Trailer found on my YouTube and Bitchute, a project I am still very proud of. Cephie is the lead villain in Ep2-Rise, to my mind she is a worthy adversary for our Star Callers in this next instalment, an embodiment of all their worst fears so to speak, powerful, wild, unpredictable and malevolent, although she is not without meaning, there is reason to her, there is purpose here I do take my own advice and I think you will be very impressed with the results that follow.
Look forward to Ep2-Rise, it really is going to be something, and I will talk to you guys again soon. Thank you and PEACE!
E-mail – taotome@outlook.com
Twitter – @MegasTeque
Author Page UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01JMZ2BE6
Author Page US – https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01JMZ2BE6
My Promotional Material YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-nc_VEmC27AIz6pP51UVkQ?fbclid=IwAR26b3631qny1hSdZJx0iASzDUhTptqKI-NszWisWfRkB_uNFVBAGyZATLM
My Promotional Material Bitchute –https://www.bitchute.com/channel/x9K5vwi2SsNu/?fbclid=IwAR2JpxeNGCSbYxTEuuI5D1EiUtbq5CaBiDF2LtUlXAs9K97_w8m0YRmjEBg
The Soft Edit Article – https://taoscribe.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/the-soft-edit/
News Source – https://www.youtube.com/user/Timcasts
D.W.Gill
Taoteque: The Blog 