Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
Post By
CrazySugarFreakBoy!
will reply to HH's story after replying to this

Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
In Reply To
Visionary 
Moderator

Member Since: Sat Jan 03, 2004
Posts: 2,131
Subj: I'd add a layer to it.
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 at 08:05:24 pm EDT (Viewed 456 times)
Reply Subj: The arch-enemies of the Parodyverse...
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 at 10:29:15 am EDT (Viewed 519 times)

Previous Post

Note: Jason and HH were having an interesting discussion down the board a ways, and I was going to chime in there but then figured the board could stand to have a little more activity, so why hide it halfway down the board?



    Quote:
    There are three classic enemy types, the opposite, the almost-alike, and the manipulator. The opposite would be someone very different in power-set but still able to threaten Yuki physically; a biological monster stronger but slower, perhaps. The almost-alike would be another cyborg - maybe a male - who can do what Yuki can but who uses his abilities for evil. Their confrontations then become battles of wits and strategy. The manipulator is more like the puppet master you cite and would need to be tied to Yuki's past, her origins.


Interesting. I hadn't really stopped to examine it that blatantly, but those categories do fit well... although "the opposite" can be applied rather broadly as a catch-all. Looking at Spider-man's rogues gallery for example, Venom is an obvious almost alike. Doc Ock comes in just around the line, being alike in scientific thinking and the 8-legged animal motiff, but not an obvious twin by any means. Norman Osborne is clearly the manipulator type (quite common for the one who gets the "arch enemy" designation). But much of the rest... Rhino, Electro, Vulture, Sandman, etc... that's just a grab bag of opposite. I suppose it's much harder for characters in this category to really jump to the top of a hero's rogues gallery because of this lack of obvious connection.

In any event, I thought it would be fun to run down the Parodyverse's Heroes main enemies and see how people would define them. Hopefully others will chime in and add their own characters to the list (Hatty and CSFB have some clearly defined arch enemies, after all...) and I'll probably need to come back to it a few times as well as I think of others:




Visionary:

The Apostate is a manipulator first, although there's a healthy bit of opposite in him... But when your hero is Visionary, you can't really help that. I admit, though, that his position as Vizh's nemisis is largely manufactured. There's no compelling reason given why he and Vizh are linked in a way that only allows for one of them in the Parodyverse...

Roni Y. Avis is probably as close to an "almost alike" villain as Vizh has, in that he's mostly a buffoon and no physical threat at all.


Hallie:

Rikka Ulz Hagan is definitely her arch enemy and a manipulator. She also has the familial history link to boost her to that "arch" position. Unlike many other villains, she genuinely has little interest in tormenting anyone other than Hallie as well.

HAGGIE is a clear almost alike, although the damaged robot body does make her a bit different now. Still, I would expect her to be able to do most anything Hallie can do.


Magweed:

Camellia is likely her arch enemy, a manipulator type again. Then again, I could see Auntie as the arch enemy of the twins with Camellia a larger threat to the entire family...





While it's an astute observation, I almost feel like it's conflating 1) ideology (or at least personality) and 2) methodology, although I'll acknowledge that the two categories tend to be linked in most instances.

Here's what I mean; when you're talking about the Evil Twin and the Evil Opposite versus the Master Manipulator, what you're REALLY talking about are INDIVIDUAL Evil Twins and Evil Opposites versus Master Manipulators, since the latter class of character is ALSO made up of Evil Twins or Evil Opposites. Luthor is a Master Manipulator who is Superman's Evil Opposite - the amoral human super-genius versus the super-strong alien whose most admirable trait is his moral code - while someone like the movie version of Obidiah Stane is a Master Manipulator who, even BEFORE he dons the Iron Monger armor, is the Evil Twin of Tony Stark - brilliant engineer who's just as good at the business side of the house.

For instance, in CSFB's! rogues gallery, PAPG! is (or was) the Evil Twin, while Pelopia is the Evil Opposite, whereas The Word is CSFB's! Evil Opposite who is ALSO a Master Manipulator. Granted, depending upon the ideology or personality of the hero, it can be very difficult to do an Evil Twin who's also a Master Manipulator - Peter Parker, after all, is a very ground-level guy, so any Master Manipulator is going to be a bit the opposite of him anyway, but Doc Ock probably qualifies, since Otto Octavius is basically Peter Parker if he was older and hadn't had an Uncle Ben and Aunt May to give him a functional family upbringing.

Of course, in CSFB's! case, the character dynamics are fueled by the division of many of the main characters into either Forces of Order or Agents of Chaos, and the further division of the Agents of Chaos into either the Chaos of Creation or the Chaos of Destruction. CSFB! is an Agent of the Chaos of Creation, while PAPG! is an Agent of the Chaos of Destruction. Part of the reason I put PAPG! on the road toward redemption is because I wanted to show that Destruction doesn't necessarily equal Evil, just as CSFB!, who aspires to support Creation more, has occasionally skirted the line between Good and Evil by having nothing but the best of intentions.

Of course, that leaves a gap in CSFB's! Chaotic Evil solo enemy category, so I created UltiMAX-TremeMan to serve as his Evil Twin in PAPG's! stead. I still need to do some more work with him, just as I need to follow up on the fun introduction I gave to Lionel, Lord Lodestone, a.k.a. the Viceroy of Vice, who is probably as close as I could get to an Evil Twin Master Manipulator for CSFB!, since he represents the dark side of the entertainment media and open sexuality that CSFB! swims in.

Well, that, and having Lodestone around allows me to further perpetuate my Dune fetish, since he's pretty much the Parodyverse version of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who is a total fucking badass. The Baron was always like a more elegant and debauched version of the Kingpin, and he was almost surely the inspiration for Jabba the Hutt.



So few mastermind villains outside of Shakespeare deliver expository monologues on their plots in rhyming couplets anymore.