The Best Kind Of Villain

[Crayfishchris 748]

Hey everybody! I'll try to be brief... ah, who am I kidding. Listen up, I got some things to say.

 

To fully understand why I am writing this, you need to understand the events of today. This may come as a bit of shock to the Lumi'drim, and the Delvers, and a good few of the people in Malinor. To the rest of you, bear with me, I make my point.

 

My character, Kristian von Craw, was a spy. He was feeding information from the Lumi'drim to a high elf named Zaniil Tinuvriel for about 6 ingame years. Rosters, known criminals, activity that they were doing. He gave it all away for a good while. Later, he signed on known cultists to the guard force, knowing full well of their position, attempting to destabilize the Malinorian guard (and hey, it worked a good bit, didn't it? ;P). Heck, even up in Herendul, a company that he helped run was protected by the Antag! Now, Kristian is regretting his actions and is working to repair his country, but today, these events led me to a massive epiphany. 

 

The best kind of villain is one who remains secret.

 

I never told you guys anything (besides you VA folks, who had to know). IC, OOC, nothing. I doubt many of you knew about this until today. I was keeping this a secret to keep people from accidentally meta-gaming and excluding Kris for no apparent reason, but I feel like this actually adds to the severity of what he did. A lot of stuffs was leaked and a few infiltration missions were planned (they never really got off the ground), and no one had a clue.

 

You see, villains shouldn't be blatantly obvious. In the real world, villains are people like you or me. When you walk down a crowded street, I would bet any amount of money that there was at least one person in there who was a thief. Or a fighter. Or a vandal. Or a conman. But you can't tell. They look like us. They work like us, act like us, have lives like us.

 

The best kind of villain is normal.

 

For goodness sake, people can tell you're evil if you have red eyes (for no real reason), or if you reveal it to us through L-OOC. It ruins the fun of the villainy. A real villain is working behind the scenes, and you wouldn't normally be able to spot him out of a crowd. (Now, Antags and monsters and the like... that's a bit different. You guys are corrupted). It's incredible to finally realize who the thief was, or who was terrorizing the town. It adds fun to the RP when you realize someone who you regarded as a best friend was actually a murderer, or a torturer, etc., etc.

 

We have so many obvious psychos on the server, but you know what? Psychos are people too. When you hear reports about those serial killers, no one ever saw it coming. "Oh, Timmy was such a nice boy. A bit secluded, but always sooo... polite." Little did that person know that Timmy was kidnapping little girls and feeding them bit by bit to the squirrels in the oak tree outside. You don't see it coming, even if your person is crazy. Having cultist robes, tons of weapons, and freaky (not just shy, really creepy) is just not feasible... at least not on a daily basis.

 

The best kind of villain is a unique villain.

 

We've all seen the person going into town and just attacking someone for the fun of it. Or the cultist sacrificing someone to a dark power. Heck, it's regarded as a common thing nowadays! When I see unique villain RP, I just feel all happy inside, as I know the person put time and effort into making their character and making the villain events that they create special. 

 

In LoTC, the best kind of villain is one who does villainy for the benefit of others.

 

There is so much potential RP that can stem from a person turning to villainy. So much. And if it is interesting, and afterwards people go "Wow... that was pretty neat..." then the villains have done their job. I feel that in LoTC that we want that certain sense of fame gotten from being that well-known villain who is on every wanted poster. We want to get out there, I know. I'll give an example here.

 

I had a blast figuring out who maskman2303, casanova9, and GurenRycerz's antags were, because they made the RP incredibly interesting without screaming to the world that they were a villain (off-duty, of course~). They created RP for everyone. They did their job.

 

The best kind of villain is a character, too.

 

The great thing about LoTC is that we're all characters. Unlike a movie, where you have one main character and the rest get little to no development, everyone here has gone through something. That one guy in the background? Yeah, he's got a story. That street rat stealing apples from the market stall? Of course there's a reason he's like that! And finding out these reasons and knowing that there was development towards this is just the reason why villains are so... cool. And when a villain became a villain because of OUR influence? That just makes it that little bit cooler.

 

 

tl;dr: In short, I don't mind villainy... but as villains, let's do our job and be /real/ evil. Let's play behind the scenes. We don't have a need to make a forum post, we don't need to scream it out on the skype chats and teamspeak. Let's be truly evil and pull strings, steal food, and maybe kill when necessary. Make villain RP special.

 

Alrighty, that's it. Thank ya for reading!

 

-Crayfishchris

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

I want to add that the best kind of villain is also the villain who knows how many times he should die reasonably before staying away from an area for the sake of courteousy towards the guards in the area.

[Ogdan 158]

I love this and could not agree more +1. 

[✿Honeybear✿ 84]

*Gets mentioned*

*Swells with pride*

 

Great post, i'm glad you took the time to write all your feedback out~ 

[Tom_Whiteman 949]

If you're a villain, like Kraal, you always have a constant urge to kill those around you. Try being secret with a disadvantage like that. 

[Cyndikate 2302]

I want to add that the best kind of villain is also the villain who knows how many times he should die reasonably before staying away from an area for the sake of courteousy towards the guards in the area.

You're still going on about that?

[Pinsir99 525]

If you're a villain, like Kraal, you always have a constant urge to kill those around you. Try being secret with a disadvantage like that. 

Then don't make villains who have the urge. Problem solved.

[Glyc 234]

A good Villain makes fun rp for those around him, he/she adds a spice to events and complicates things.

[KidKrinkles 267]

While I think that is a great villain, some villains get in your face, slap your milk out of your hand, give you a wedgie, then torch your home.

 

It's just about how you go about doing all of that.

[Tom_Whiteman 949]

Then don't make villains who have the urge. Problem solved.

 

  Kraal was born into Lichdom with the urge to kill. 

[Elad™ 550]

 

 

 

Edit: Woot! 100th Post. This deserves a gif

[Pinsir99 525]

  Kraal was born into Lichdom with the urge to kill. 

Then go tell his 'Master' Nuh-uh with sass and walk away.

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

You're still going on about that?

When they stop coming back, I'll stop taking issue with it.

[Crayfishchris 748]

Everyone has their own view of what the 'best' type of villain is. However, I've noticed that lately we've all been the same type of villain. This is my view of how it should be. Heck, maybe I'm wrong and you're all secretly planning to destroy Anthos and just doing a really good job at hiding it! :P I'll respond to you guys a little more in depth tomorrow.

 

On the 'red eyes' issue. Yeah, there are peaceable characters with red eyes, but they are few and far in between. I've generally taken it for granted that someone with red eyes, strange tattoos, cultist robes... you know, all that good stuff, I've taken it for granted that they are a villain. Those obvious things that essentially shout to the world that you're evil (although it is not always the case).

[Aelu / Rel (Combustionary) 1535]

When they stop coming back, I'll stop taking issue with it.

 

It's something that's always happened and always will happen. Bad villains exist.

 

Get over it. Bringing it up and complaining on what is a rather positive topic does nothing to help. If you don't like what entails from being a guard, the simple solution is not to be a guard.