OC Villains: How evil is too evil?

[SilverStarApple 849]

Thanks to the events of Keep Calm and Flutter On, my MLP/The Big Bang Theory now needs a new villain.

 

So, I was writing ahead, and I wondered: How evil is too evil? He traps Celestia and Luna, and he actively tries to murder the Mane 6. He may or may not suceed in killing Angel Bunny in front of Fluttershy and killing Rarity. (Spoiler alert - He does.)

 

But apart from those two things, which are vital to the story and can not be changed, how evil do you think is too evil?

 

The story will me mostly SFW, with only violence and severe psychological torture going on. Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, Penny, Leonard and Sheldon get some particularly vicious psychological torture. Just thought I should say - Most of these are my favourite characters, and it'll hurt to write the verbal beatdown scenes, but it must be done.

 

Also, what would work best as my MLP/TBBT story crossover's villain?

 

1. Something from a possible sci-fi magitek future, with nanomachines and powerful magic, sent back in time because the evil organization that created him/it wants to take over the world, and they try that by sending evil-eldritch abomination-GlaDos-terminator-pony MK VI back in time.

 

2. An evil earth pony that starts a earth pony VS everyone else 'Uprising/revolution', TheDarkKnightRises-Bane-style. He becomes an Alicorn near the end, insert 'you are what you hate' here. Insert N~~~ .a ...zzz .... i symbolism here. Heil Ponitler!

 

3. Some sort of generic 'God of Evil' that tries to DESTROY THE WORLD!!! ("Of course!" - M Bison.) His Large-Ham over-acting will be hilarious. His casual slaughter of everypony he sees will not be hilarious at all.

 

So, which would make the best villain? And how evil is 'Too evil'? I want him to be evil, but I don't want to make my readers stop caring by making him too evil.

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

As a fellow fic writer and a lover of villains allow me to offer my views.

 

When you write a villain, remember that it isn't just his/her actions that
makes them evil but their mind and personality as well. If you just have
random killing and slaughter than the character might as well be thrown
out the window for it is the most sterotypical and bland type of villain in existance. Remember to make the character a villain that you LOVE to HATE, not just dislike because he's a jerk.

 

As for "How Evil is too evil" there is no such thing. It all depends on how you write them.
Just remember that sometimes, esp with villains, less can sometimes mean
more (meaning don't need to go into explicit detail in deaths or murder).

 

Anyhoof, as for your choices:

 

First off, throw away choice 3. Pointless slaughter villains, like I said,
are a dime a dozen, easily written, and won't challange you as a writer.
There is a reason SLASHER horror is usually the least appreciated and
its due to pointless villains who kill everyone for no real reason.

 

As this is based off Big Bang Thoery, the first one seems more plausible
as the show is about science. In this sense the first one seems to work
but might I suggest one of my favorite villain types: "Trying to do Good
through Evil" (such as Jigsaw from SAW in how he wants to save people
but does so by putting them through deadly traps).

 

So it could be a scientist character who is trying to do the Greater Good
despite who he/she hurts, maims, or kills in the process?

 

Does any of this help ?

 

 

(*discovers this forum really hates cut/paste*

Edited February 2, 2013 by DiscordAnarchy

[Rainbow Dash 1,472]

just depends on how dark you want to be. Killing characters,even minor ones, would be too evil for the regular MLP we are used to. But if you want to go dark, there is no such thing as too evil. If you arent going for the cursing and bloodines then just stick to psychological torture.

1. Something from a possible sci-fi magitek future, with nanomachines and powerful magic, sent back in time because the evil organization that created him/it wants to take over the world, and they try that by sending evil-eldritch abomination-GlaDos-terminator-pony MK VI back in time.

that looks like the one i would go with

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

 

just depends on how dark you want to be. Killing characters,even minor ones, would be too evil for the regular MLP we are used to. But if you want to go dark, there is no such thing as too evil. If you arent going for the cursing and bloodines then just stick to psychological torture.

that looks like the one i would go with

 

Agreed. Of course it is all about HOW you do it. In Chaos and Anarchy, I did have some characters who were killed off, but I did a lot of it through implying and "off screen". I don't particularly like the over-use of gore and violence in pony fan fiction and I personally find it better if the writer found ways for us to use our imagination when it comes to the darker things.

 

For example:

 

In Silence of the Lambs when they show Jodie Foster the picture of a nurse Lector attacked, they describe the phyiscal damage but they never show it. This allows the audience imagine the violence instead of seeing it which can be a lot more frightening than reading about organs being torn out, you know?

[Rainbow Dash 1,472]

 

This allows the audience imagine the violence instead of seeing it which can be a lot more frightening than reading about organs being torn out, you know?

Call me weird but i actually laugh at the description of organs and entrials being violently pulled out. If you want a shock value sort of thing were the readers will go wtf i wrong with you than i a visual image is highly recommended. Since this is fan-made and not funded by Hasbro entertainment then he doesnt have the same worries as the directors of S.O.T.L. had

[SilverStarApple 849]

Ok, so GlaDos-Terminator-Metal Sonic-nanomachine/liquid steel-robot it is, then.

 

I'm trying to avoid making it too NSFW, and I guess I'll be going down the 'less is more' route then. Angel Bunny still dies, though. Fluttershy kills him, thinking he's just another magical illusion. (Actually, the villain uses hardlight holograms, not that a pony would know that.) It makes sense in context, and it leads to -SPOILER-.

 

So, I've got the villain, and the plot. Let's do this thing!

 

Just so you know - Rarity and Angel Bunny will die. Sheldon Cooper becomes the Element of Generosity in her place. Who else in the mane six can I replace with TBBT characters?

[RoseLaflesh 38]

If I could just add one more piece of advice for your villain, try to remember that everyone is the hero of their own story.

 

An example that fits your villain, the terminator originally was only acting to preserve his own. Skynet only wanted to live (it's programmers were trying to shut it down), so it fought  in the only way it knew how, war (after all, it was programmed for the US military). Because it wanted to ensure it's own survival, all humans became a threat. That's the fun part about writing, seeing the world through the eyes of both the hero and villain.

[SilverStarApple 849]

Do you remember the episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon Cooper and Penny get into a fight, and it ends up as a cruel version of a prank war? Penny takes advantage of Sheldon's disorders by trying to disrupt his carefully-planned life, and the fight escalates until Sheldon steals all of Penny's panties and, using physics, he hangs them on the telephone wire outside.

 

Sheldon: "Anything is possible when you understand physics."

 

Well, that line gets one hell of an epic call back/reference in this fic. Sheldon will say it, at the climax, after being awesome.