Does my villain-OC sound horrible?

[TreadingWater 6]

Hi guys!

I have been working on this villain-OC for a while now and, while I don't have a finished design yet that I can show, I do have a concept for my character.

And as such, I would love some input before I start to design him in case my concept sucks. After all, I don't want to have put in a ton of work into a design (since all of my pony-designs are handdrawn) for a character that isn't even good to begin with. And by the way, he is supposed to be a dark menacing character so keep that in mind before you complain. My world of Colshire is a darker place, one where the once happy and peaceful kingdom has been shattered by one distaster after the other. So a lot of characters from there are darker and less cute and innocent. Just saying that beforehand. 

So with all that said, this is my first villain-OC and one that I had a lot of fun coming up with. 

Blight - The Embodiment of Corruption

Genderless

Species: Draconequus

Powers and other Talents: Mindcontroll, Shapeshifting, Emitting poison and other harmful substances, Skilled actor, Incredible knowledge of the mind and the heart.

Weaknesses: Relies almost entirely on mind-games, Incredibly vulnerable to the Elements of Harmony, Not a physical fighter, Is so confident in his ability to control and manipulate that he often overlooks a pony's capability to overcome his powers. 

Personality: Manipulative, he knows how to make ponies listen and how to make sure that his words sink in. Patient, he can lie in wait for years if his plans require it. Sadistic, both emotional and physical pain offers him much amusement and even more so when he barely has to lift a paw to cause it. Poetic, as mentioned he has an amazing skill with words and when he isn't plotting his next move he often puts together poems that he stores in massive volumes (one of which is said to be kept under lock and key in Colshire's royal library). Though incredibly beautiful and masterfully put together, it has been said that the ponies who read them for too long loose their minds.

Appearance/Design: His body is covered with large sheets of dead skin that drapes over his head, back and the base of his tail. He has the head and left front-hoof of a pony, the right arm and one wing of a dragon, the horns and the left hindleg of a goat, the body of a raven, the right hindleg and a wing of a fly and the tail and eyes of a snake. 

Background: He is a mysterious evil that has haunted Colshire for hundreds of years, it is said that he was born from the chaos and corruption that ravaged the kingdom after the death of the king. He watched with glee as dark desires and thoughts begun to break free within the once innocent ponies and begun to see himself as the new ruler. He wrought destruction and misery wherever he went as the mind of the ponies warped within his presence and soon a good chunk of the population was under his control. However, his reign of terror was put to an end by the royal unicorns who managed to fight back against his corruptive influence and seal him away deep within the mountains in a dark cave. However, even thought Blight might have lost the battle, his legacy still lives on. The influence that he once had on the ponies can still be seen in them to this day, as their minds are still haunted by the darkness. This has led to increased crime and other illegal actions, especially from the cult known as The Keepers of the Fog who worships Blight. They are looking for a way to free Blight from his prison and it is said that he whispers to them in their minds, giving them instructions to prepare for the big day when he will be able to join them...

 

[Goat-kun 2,527]

I just don't feel the weight of evil. It seems like another creature with a decay aura that acts like a schemer even though its skills are made for front lines where it can inflict the most fear and pain. It behaves too much like Discord when its name screams "close & personal". The whole deal with blight and toxins should be pushed further, beyond a simple passive ability and into the realm of high tier magic. Elements of Harmony are crap and so is the concept of a draconequus. It should be powerful. It can even give one an impression that it is all-powerful, but it should have weaknesses that are not just six petty excuses for bad writing with some lack of friendship on the side. However, all canon characters are weak and making villains that suit their power level is no fun, so there's that. And you should perhaps consider choosing even more creatures that are traditionally linked to disease and decay for body parts. The cult part is a nice touch but it should be a little more fleshed out. Why are they named Keepers of the Fog?  Are they watching over something? Why not Liberators of the Fog? Why do they even want to serve Blight?

 

TL; DR: it's too much like Discord.

[TreadingWater 6]

As I mentioned earlier, this is a basic concept for one of my first characters. There is a lot more retooling  and expanding on certain concepts that I am planning on doing before he is a finished character, you had some good points that I will take into consideration. I am sort of a newbie when it comes to making OCs so sometimes I just gets lost in my ideas and don't realize how unoriginal some of they are. I have a few more ideas when it comes to his backstory but I didn't want to write a 80 000 word document in case nobody would want to read through the whole thing. 

However, I think that you misunderstood what Blight actually represents. He doesn't represent decay, he represents corruption. Especially so the corruption of the mind and the heart. Hence the satanic symbols in the animal-parts I chose (goat representing Bathomet, fly representing Belzebub and both snake and dragon from the bible). It was something I didn't realize until I had chosen the animals but it fitted the theme really well. This is also why mind-control and manipulation is a big part of his powerset. I suppose that I perhaps could take the madness-angle a step further to make that clear. As well, the poison/pullution-part of his power is something that I am going to expand on in the future. 

And the reason he is vulnerable to the Elements of Harmony is that corruption doesn't take hold in places where the elements represented in MLP are still in place, it is the whole reason why he is able to take over Colshire as relatively easily as he did. His weaknesses is something that I am planning to go back to the drawing-board with, you are right in that it kind of sucks. 

I will concede that he is similar to Discord in certain ways but I am planning to make him a more serious threat. What I wanted to do with Blight was to make him an embodiment of what Colshire is compared to Equestria, a sort of dark reflection. Unlike Discord who might cause a bit of trouble but really won't do too much serious harm in the long-run, Blight causes disasters wherever he goes because he twists the minds of the ponies around him and makes them perform horrific actions they wouldn't otherwise do. And unlike Discord's little mindgames like in 'Return of Harmony', Blight's mindaltering can linger for many years and can be incredibly difficult to fully shake off. He is sort of like a demented sadistic puppeteer who enjoys the suffering of his puppets, breaking their minds and blackening their hearts for the sake of his own amusement. 

One of my early ideas was that he only existed inside the mindscape after he was sealed away and that is why he appears as a draconequus. Perhaps I could play around that a little bit?

I have a lot of things to think about regarding this character and I will continue to work on him. Thank you for your input!

 

[Shine Runner 20]

Oh, this is cool

I have to see this drawn! I want to know who we're working with here

On 2/16/2019 at 10:50 AM, TreadingWater said:

As I mentioned earlier, this is a basic concept for one of my first characters. There is a lot more retooling  and expanding on certain concepts that I am planning on doing before he is a finished character, you had some good points that I will take into consideration. I am sort of a newbie when it comes to making OCs so sometimes I just gets lost in my ideas and don't realize how unoriginal some of they are. I have a few more ideas when it comes to his backstory but I didn't want to write a 80 000 word document in case nobody would want to read through the whole thing. 

However, I think that you misunderstood what Blight actually represents. He doesn't represent decay, he represents corruption. Especially so the corruption of the mind and the heart. Hence the satanic symbols in the animal-parts I chose (goat representing Bathomet, fly representing Belzebub and both snake and dragon from the bible). It was something I didn't realize until I had chosen the animals but it fitted the theme really well. This is also why mind-control and manipulation is a big part of his powerset. I suppose that I perhaps could take the madness-angle a step further to make that clear. As well, the poison/pullution-part of his power is something that I am going to expand on in the future. 

And the reason he is vulnerable to the Elements of Harmony is that corruption doesn't take hold in places where the elements represented in MLP are still in place, it is the whole reason why he is able to take over Colshire as relatively easily as he did. His weaknesses is something that I am planning to go back to the drawing-board with, you are right in that it kind of sucks. 

I will concede that he is similar to Discord in certain ways but I am planning to make him a more serious threat. What I wanted to do with Blight was to make him an embodiment of what Colshire is compared to Equestria, a sort of dark reflection. Unlike Discord who might cause a bit of trouble but really won't do too much serious harm in the long-run, Blight causes disasters wherever he goes because he twists the minds of the ponies around him and makes them perform horrific actions they wouldn't otherwise do. And unlike Discord's little mindgames like in 'Return of Harmony', Blight's mindaltering can linger for many years and can be incredibly difficult to fully shake off. He is sort of like a demented sadistic puppeteer who enjoys the suffering of his puppets, breaking their minds and blackening their hearts for the sake of his own amusement. 

One of my early ideas was that he only existed inside the mindscape after he was sealed away and that is why he appears as a draconequus. Perhaps I could play around that a little bit?

I have a lot of things to think about regarding this character and I will continue to work on him. Thank you for your input!

 

I reeeeaaaaalllyyyyy want to see this drawn and drafted up

[TreadingWater 6]

Hi! Great that you liked the character, Blight is probably my favorite OC of my collection so far in concept and I am hoping to expand on the character in the future, already I have a few ideas that I am working on. 

Sorry for the late reply but I am moving on to a new job soon (on top of having a nonMLP-fanfiction that I am writing on) so I haven’t been checking in for quite a while. 

There is no colored drawing of Blight since my new computer doesn’t want to connect with my printer for some strange reason but here is an old sketch of him from quite a while ago. Ignore the text, I usually tend to write down basic ideas for personality and backstory about my characters on their sketch so I have all the info in one convenient place.