Complex Characters (or where I fangirl George RR Martin)

I've decided my favorite characters--heroes or villains--are the ones that I'm not really sure about.

In the last few months, I read all five of the books in George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Fire and Ice. One of the main plotlines revolves around The Game of Thrones because 15-20 years before the book opens, there's a rebellion, the former ruling family is overthrown and most of them killed off, and the leader of the rebellion makes himself king. Only he was a better solider than he is a king.

I could say I devoted a lot of sleepless nights to the several thousand pages in the series so far because I love the worldbuilding. (I do, it's the closest thing to Middle Earth I've ever read). I could say it's because I love the fact that no one is safe that I know GRRM won't pull any punches. (Sometimes, I don't love that, though.) Or I could say that I love the twists, the gasp inducing scenes that always convince me I have to read just one more chapter. (There are some big ones).

But really, it's the complexity and moral ambiguity of all the characters. Because for each character, everything happening in the books relates to that rebellion, to what happened to them in their past. They remember events differently and their actions are based on those memories. When I first started reading book one I was convinced who the good and bad guys where, only when I got to book two and started reading from some of those "bad" guys' points of view, I realized they weren't all that bad. In fact, in some instances, my opinion was completely turned on its head.

There are other great examples of really complex morally ambiguous characters that I've loved. When I was reading Harry Potter my opinion of Snape and whether he was good or bad changed with each book. And it took me most of The Hunger Games to figure Haymitch out. And that's why I found them so interesting.

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Liz Norris briefly taught high school English and history before trading the southern California beaches and sunshine for Manhattan's recent snowpocalyptic winter. She harbors dangerous addictions to guacamole, red velvet cupcakes, sushi, and Argo Tea, fortunately not all together. Her first novel, UNRAVELING (Balzer+Bray April 2012), features a 17 year old girl who mysteriously comes back to life after dying in a car crash. She sets out to avenge her father’s murder, solve the case he was working on, and stop the rapidly approaching apocalypse. And unravel the mystery of the boy responsible for bringing her back to life.

Top Ten Bad Boy Characteristics

Since we’ve already talked in depth about villains, I’m going to take a minor step toward the side of good and talk a little bit about bad boys.

Even bad boys need a magazine

I think bad boys tend to toe the line between good and down right evil. Which is the whole reason we love them. Today they might help your grandma cross the street only because it’s The Right Thing To Do, but tomorrow they’ll bash someone’s face in simply because they questioned Bad Boy’s motives.

And I’ll be the first to admit, bad boys might be a tad cliché. Inherently, I think they’re similar. Because what makes a bad boy? Dark, moody, strong-willed, badass.

But let me say this: I DON’T CARE.

I want my bad boys moody, broody and sexy. And I want them to be badass. So a writer’s biggest challenge is to make a bad boy bad, but give him a characteristic totally unexpected.

Make him a genius. Give him a weird habit, like drinking a seaweed smoothie every morning. Maybe he does Yoga. Maybe he’s religious. Something to twist that cliché a little bit and make it crack.

With that said, let’s go over the Top Ten Things I see often in bad boys in fiction, so you can either a) use them or b) avoid them. Or z) just wing it and see what you come up with. I’m willing to give a nerdy bad boy who knits and smokes a pipe a chance.

Top Ten Bad Boy Characteristics

1. Wears a leather jacket

2. Speaks a foreign language

3. Shows little emotion

4. Has a dark past

5. Drives a classic muscle car

6. Rides a motorcycle

7. Killer abs

8. Night owl

9. Doesn’t say much

10. Powerful (either because he’s a badass magic-wielder or because he knows how to properly fistfight/use a gun)

[Side note: Wanna know which of the Top Ten apply to Sam from ALTERED? 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 --- but you can bet I would have given him a leather jacket if I could have --- they were fresh out of leather in the lab where he was ALTERED J ]

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates. 

Villains: The ones who think they're heroes

Villains! What can I say about villains that hasn’t been said already?  Everyone has touched a little on this, but I think I’m going to go a bit further.  I think the worst kind of villain is the one that doesn’t realize they’re a villain.  And the one that makes us question, if we’d been in their shoes, which option would we have chosen.  And hopefully that answer isn’t as easy as we think it is.  Sure we’d all like to say we’d have done the good thing, but when it comes down to being “in their shoes,” would we?

Most villains aren’t born evil.  Their circumstances and their choices are what’s made them the villain.  Whether or not they’re truly evil.

I like what Lenore said last week about giving us a villain to root for.  For their change if nothing else. For them to see the error of their ways. But what if they don’t realize what they’re doing is wrong?  What if they can justify what they’re doing as the “right” thing?

The tagline I gave my novel (and one I hope sticks in at least some form) is:  “Some sacrifices must be made for the greater good.” And I think that explains everything. No one is truly good.  Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils. So what if your villain thinks they are doing “good” by doing “bad?” 

I think of my villain as that kind of villain.  She truly sees what she’s done as trying to improve things.  To make them better.  (Or at least that’s what she tells me.  :P) And I don’t think she started off being bad, but her circumstances and the way she saw things made her make the decisions she made.

I’ll admit that my favorite villain is Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.    

At first glance she’s this truly evil witch that destroys a girl’s entire child hood, but if you think about it.  She was snubbed by the King and Queen of the kingdom.  She didn’t even get an invite!  Um…hello?!  That’s not very nice.  Who wouldn’t get upset about that?  Granted she took it a little far, but who hasn’t wanted to “curse” someone for snubbing them? 

So…what’s your favorite villain, who doesn’t realize they’re a villain?

 J.A. Souders is the author of RENEGADE a YA dystopian that takes place in an underwater utopian society, coming Fall 2012 from Tor Teen.  For more information visit her blog or website.

The Bad Boy: Villain Edition

So, confession time. One of my favorite shows? The Vampire Diaries. Hands down. It has some great story-telling (if a tad too many carnivals, I mean seriously, it's a small town, I know you carnival-or-town-gathering-of-some-kind-with-scary-things-happening-in-shadows setting, but one every couple episodes is kinda pushing it!) Ahem, back to my main point. Or rather my two main points: The Salvatore Brothers. They are delicious on a stick.

My other confession. From the start, I've thought, wow, while I do love this whole Elana-Stephan eternal love thing they've got going on, a big part of me wishes she would have fallen for the more tormented brother Damon! I think: She could have saved him! All he needs is her love in order to come over to the good side!

Yeah. This is really bad Real World Logic. Bad boys are not good for happiness, stability, or sanity in general. But ever since Lord Byron and Mr. Darcy (and I'm sure others long before), readers find something delectable about the bad boy. Bad boys. Doing bad things. On the very edge of redemption... but never quite making it. Yet the eternal question remains, taunting us romantics: but what if they could? What if, maybe someday, they will turn from the dark side of the force and be the sexy dark romantic good guy?

There's a bad boy in my debut novel Glitch. He's veritably villainous. And yet, of all my characters, he's the one who keeps me up at night, my heart breaking for him even as I prepare to write the next scene in which he will do what bad boys do. He's also the one that every reader comments about making the most lasting impression!

So, the takeaway from all this? Bad boys make for good fiction ;)

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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Spring 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more info, news, and updates.

VERONICA’S VILLAIN AWARDS

I was going to write about villains, but Jodi, Lenore and Emily covered much of what I had planned to say (and said it better.)

Instead, allow me recognize favorite villains in film and literature. Sometimes it's just so good to be bad.

So without further ado...

Most Reluctant Villian Award: Ender of Orson Scott Card’s ENDER’S GAME. (Wait… Is he a villain? No, he’s a hero! But he’s a kid! But he does terrible things! But he has to! I’m confused.)

Here a Villain, There a Villain Award: For sheer volume and awesomeness, the award goes to George RR Martin for making every character a villain at one point or another. (I love you, George! I did years before the HBO series!)

Most Lovable Cannibalistic Serial Killer Award: Hannibal Lecter ("Remarkable boy. I do admire your courage. I think I'll eat your heart.") (Isn’t that adorable?)

Most Zen Villain Award: Darth Vader ("I've been waiting for you, Obi-wan. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner. Now I am the master.") (Ommmmm.)

Best Smile Award: Jaws

Best Evil Cook Award: Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, played by Glenn Close (Poor, poor bunny)

Freakiest, scariest, scariest omgcan’teventalkVillain Award: Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men (Even the hair was too much.)

Most Dastardly Line Award: “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” (Joker, Batman)

Best Villainess Award: Three-way tie between Belatrix Lestrange (HARRY POTTER Series), Mrs. Coulter (HIS DARK MATERIALS), and Ann Wilkes in MISERY

Best Family of Villains Award: The Corleons, The Godfather ("Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" = pure badassery)

Best (Evil) Looking Award: Davy Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean; Dead Man’s Chest (Can't stop watching the tentacles. Amazing. How did they do that?)

Best Villain EVER Award: Well? Cast your vote in the comments below!

The Villains You Like

This is probably going to be a popular answer, but my favorite kind of villain is the one you can identify with. One you sympathize with. One you maybe even sort of agree with.

To me, one of the most dangerous and compelling villains is one who could be a hero, if only his/her methods or motivations were slightly different. In some cases, the line between hero and villain can be quite blurry. Exploring where a character tips from hero to villain can lead to fascinating discoveries about characters.

A recent example of this type of villain is Magnito in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. Xavier and Magnito were friends and shared a lot of the same hopes for mutants. They got along; they'd been through a lot of plot together. But not only did they have different ideas of achieving their goals and what kind of losses were acceptable, they had different outcomes in mind as well, with one wanting peace and equality, and the other wanting to replace humanity with mutants.

In spite of their similarities, and the likability of both characters, one turns out to be a villain.

That said, the absolute evil variety can be interesting when they have a personality. (Think Angelus from BUFFY.) Or absolute evil with one redeeming quality. (The Mayor with Faith from BUFFY. Now that I think of it, that show had some fab villains.) Absolute evil is scary. It's looming. It's dark. There's no reasoning with it. You never know what it's going to do next. WATCH OUT IT'S GOING TO GET YOU!

But the villain you kind of like . . . Well, what does that say about you?

That's what I find interesting.

Give me a villain to root for

Just like Emily said in her post yesterday, I like my villains to be layered.  There is nothing more boring to me than a villain who is irredeemably evil and whose sole motivation is power.  I want to be able to root for the villains in books I read.

Now don't get me wrong - I don't want to come to the big showdown in the book and have the villain defeat the protagonist.  No - I want to see something in the villain that makes me root for his or her ultimate redemption. 

One of my favorite villains is Mayor Prentiss in Patrick Ness' Chaos Walking trilogy.  Mayor Prentiss is a nasty guy - a mass murderer and an extreme misogynist - but you understand his motivation.  In a world where men broadcast their "noise" (all internal thoughts) and women don't, women have a huge advantage over men.  Mayor Prentiss wants to live separately from women and learn to control his noise so he can regain his political advantage.  He wants Todd on his side, and so many times (especially in the second and third books), Ness makes both Todd and the reader desperately hope that Mayor Prentiss really is turning over a new leaf.  

Another villain I love is Mr. Octavio Phipps from Paul Bracegirdle's The Joy of Spooking trilogy.  Mr. Phipps wants nothing more than to see Spooking - the terrible town on the hideous hill - razed to the ground.  And we learn during the course of the series that he has very good reasons to wish Spooking ill.  But Joy, our protagonist, is Spooking's biggest fan - which puts her at odds with the devious Mr. Phipps. And although Mr. Phipps performs some despicable acts, his character experiences so much growth over the three book series, that I almost wanted to give the poor guy a hug.  And there aren't many villains you can say that about.

Did you ever find yourself rooting for a villain?