But the only reason he did it was to hide his identity so he could operate in seclusion from those who wanted to probe (the fingermen)

Then he plots each faction in England against each other to bring about anarchist type system and chaos.

The graphic novel really has you debate whether he is good or not. I think it puts him in a "bad guy" perspective at most times but again, it's for the reader to decide.

My villain is a character who grew up in a rough situation. Despite being quite intelligent and strong, his life circumstances left him antisocial and insecure. He works hard to improve his situation and develops a thin layer of confidence from his relative success. However, there are always unfortunate barriers preventing him from reaching his goals. Endless frustration causes him to lose touch with reality. His once noble goals become warped as he turns to methods of 'questionable morality'.

This information is gradually leaked to the player throughout the game and raises questions about the nature of the hero's fight. Is the hero fighting good vs evil like he originally believes, or is he simply on one side of an issue with equally valid sides? The villain's goals seem twisted and wrong, but when seeing them through the villain's eyes, the player can logically follow his reasoning.

In a nutshell, 'evil' in the traditional sense is boring. A villain who cackles while threatening to use his super weapon with a big red button that destroys the world is... less than intriguing. A story that represents 'evil' as nothing but irrational and crazy is one-sided and shallow.

Some evil charcters:
Jago from Shakespeare's Othello
Anakin Skywalker from Starwars 3(I don't consider darth vader as evil, cruel, but not evil)

The reason they are evil is because they used to be good but betrayed "the good guys"(including the reader/viewer) and to some point the reader/viewer can understand why they are doing what they do.

Killing your lieutenants randomly isn't evil.
Killing your lieutenants because they failed isn't evil.
Killing a few of your lieutenants to escape "the good guys" might be. Depending on why you want to escape. If the reason is to continue doing evil stuff then you are evil. If it is to save the life of a family-member or a friend then you are a "good guy".

hth

well my cillain is a guy who brought his misfortune on himself. Son of an Emperor, he's a prodigy of a fighter at only 7 years old. Mostly because of childish ignorance, he goes against his father's wishes and kills hundreds of savages who murdered his mother. His father exiles him and the boy is corrupted by words of hatred from people against his father's rule. He comes back 5 years later and completely destroys the empire and takes control for himself.

Now, is he evil for killing the people who murdered his mother? Is he evil for letting outside sources influence hatred for his father and the empire?

Im asking this because I want most of the actions made by my villain to be perfectly reasonable so that if I made a game from his perspective, a player would have no problem enacting certain events of mass killing.

Quote: Original post by KidAero
Now, is he evil for killing the people who murdered his mother? Is he evil for letting outside sources influence hatred for his father and the empire?

It is generally suggested that a character is evil for enacting revenge in such a manor, but that's up to you to decide (because of how you describe his actions, you can suggest whether it was evilness or goodness). He is definately not evil for letting himself be influenced, but surely no-one who commits evil deads is really evil since they were influenced into being evil;)

Quote:
Im asking this because I want most of the actions made by my villain to be perfectly reasonable so that if I made a game from his perspective, a player would have no problem enacting certain events of mass killing.

If the player has to be evil they would probably resent you for it. If they have to perform a horid massacre by role playing, it could in theory be ok, but be very careful not to alienate your player.

If you remember that your main character should describe what your trying to convey to the player, they cannot simpliy perform such actions unless your trying to say something *about* those actions. You could possibly allow this if you were to use a narative contrasting it, or have them playing against the heroes of the story at the time (in which case the gameplay is not necessarily just massacring inocents which doesn't really have any useful gameplay pottential in an rpg or shooter gameplay.

Otherwise you could use it as history (flashbacks or whatnot) and describe the villian becomming aware of his evilness?, but that would probably change your story which isn't what i'm trying to suggest.

Cheers,

Lorenz