In lieu of what month it is, I’d like to talk to you about monsters/villains. This is not your typical ‘here’s my favorite monster list’. This is a rant about how infuriating it is when the rules for these types of character are treated more as a guideline, turning that villain into an SNL skit.
Example: the cartoon Megamind. (This is a really cute cartoon if you haven’t seen it). Megamind’s character is a spoof on Superman’s villains Lex Luthor and Brainiac. His schemes don’t work so he never truly poses a threat to anyone. Because Metro Man can stop him every time, with very little effort mind you, Megamind is 100% ineffective as a villain. For a child’s cartoon, this idea is funny and entertaining, but if it is a novel geared for an adult, this is just lazy writing in my opinion. I’m not saying the villain must be insane and extremely cruel, but he at least needs to do SOMETHING to prove, to me, that he’s a bad guy. Kicking a dog or stealing someone’s bike is not enough, either. It has to be epic damage. Otherwise, what is the point of this character or any of his evil sidekicks? They all become a waste of time and space, if they never do anything but make empty threats.
A bad guy must be a bad guy, period, whether he is human or not. If he says he’s going to hurt someone, he better hurt someone or at least destroy something to show his ‘power’. There has to be some kind of irrevocable damage somewhere. Anything less makes it hard to take the character, or story, seriously. Either he’s good or he’s bad, there’s no in between. Yes, the monster can have a heart, he/she can even have good intentions for the sake of the humanity. However in the end, if his motives are still cruel, he still hurts people to get the result he wants, then technically heart or no heart, he’s still bad.
What I’m trying to say is, when I pick up a novel that mentions mayhem and destruction, I expect just that. I don’t appreciate getting a G rated attacker that whines and makes empty threats, or pulls off piddly excuses of wreckage. That is so not what the job description says, or even the synopsis for the novel. Why promise epic battles, when all you give is two, 6 year old’s fighting with wooden spoons? Or why promise dangerous creatures when they are nothing but lap dogs? Give me a bad ass, mo-fo like your synopsis mentions. Someone who does what they say they will do and who doesn’t blink at the horror they create. Cause that is what it means to be a villain, or monster.
