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Subj: Re: Dwindling Participation and Dangling Plotlines Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 at 05:36:25 am EDT (Viewed 5 times) | Reply Subj: Dwindling Participation and Dangling Plotlines Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 at 11:15:16 am EDT (Viewed 8 times) | ||||||
Quote: But seriously, I think HH's villain breakdown can be a bit more specific. Having two of your three villain types be "the total opposite of the hero" or the "almost identical to the hero", well, that covers a lot of ground. Venom and Scorpion both could be clasified as "almost alikes" to Spider-Man, but they were both vastly different characters. Er, when they were different characters, of course. TV tropes has a nice list of all the villain tropes that is a bit more comprehensive, if overlapping in places. The point of the "almost identical" category is that the villain has the same power and skillset of the hero, demanding something extra from the hero to win - more heroism, more sacrifice etc. That's why Spidey has so many different variants of "almost like him" (Jameson supported the creation of the Scorpion because "Scorpions kill spiders"); it's so that Parker can be a hero because of his character not his powers. By the way, I don't want to claim that I'm offering a comprehensive guideline to rogues galleries. The conversation Vizh snipped the paragraph out of was about finding a single specific recurring threat for Yuki, not about populating an entire fictional universe. Quote: As for the Parodyverse, I find it interesting that two of its bigger villains more often than not are on the side of the heroes. The Hooded Hood and Akiko Masamune are usually allies or at the very least some kind of support, so as interesting as they are I don't think they can be considered archenemies of the Lair Legion. The problem with a recurring poster character villain is that they need reasons not to either destroy or be destroyed by the poster character heroes. The traditional way of doing it is to have the villain do wicked background things setting up a great masterplan and establish some even nastier villain the readers can boo while the "regular" villain takes him down - or even teams up with the heroes to take down. The last time the Hood and the LL clashed head on was around UT#68, but I'd say they were overdue for another go. In fact I'm working on it. Quote: As for the rest of the Parodyverse rogues, well, who is there? The Baroness and Baron Otto are two of my favorites. I've used them quite a bit in my own stories. I'm a sucker for the criminal mastermind type who has no powers, which Beth Zemo pretty much is. She's done some truly villainous things yet still has that hunourous undercurrent to the character that makes her fun to write. Same with Otto. Camilia of the Fey is another great villain, powerful, interesting motivation, a personal connection to the heroes, and truly detestable. The Word? Sorry, hasn't done enough to warrant being considered a top tier guy in my opinion. Apostate? At this point the same thing holds true. Parody Master? To me he's just a jumped up Dark Thugos, but at least Thugos is a parody of one of the greatest villains ever created, so you can swipe ideas from that character's mythology and use it to make the PVB version more interesting. I really like what HH is doing with the character right now. Thugos is a up and comer in terms of Parodyverse bad guys. So's Doorman, if Jay ever gets around to continuing that story.I've mostly shied away from putting the Word, Factor X, the Apostate, or any other active poster character's personal archvillain as centre stage in an LL story. That's because it would be over-the-line to show the villain being significantly defeated (that's for the character's creator to do) and unstatisfying if the heroes didn't get to chalk up a win. When I have used absent poster villains I've usually tried to give them "one last hurrah" then put them aside in case they're required back by their creator (Balefire, Magnetic Techbird, Pierson's Porter, etc). Quote: Speaking of never getting around to finishing stories, I've made a ton of villains in my time here at the PVB. Most are rip offs of characters that exist in the Marvel or DC universes, and beyond my own stuff haven't had a huge impact on the Parodyverse as a whole. I suppose my three major contributions are the Grey Eminence, who outside of his name I don't think is all that unique, Factor X, again, not an original concept, but probably my best villain in that he is extremely competent and can be considered major threat, and the Idiom, who might be the one bad guy I have that could actually relocate to an existing superhero universe be her own person, even if she is equal parts Catwoman, Riddler, and Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor.The Idiom is good fun. I also like your mid-level "working-class" villains. | |||||||
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