02-25-2003, 10:54 PM | #61 | |
Elven Warrior
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Galenavar Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo If there's no magic, there's no meaning. |
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02-27-2003, 10:10 PM | #62 | |
Elven Warrior
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Human kind cannot bear very much reality. dreamflower - for all things Lady Galadriel |
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02-27-2003, 11:17 PM | #63 |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
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I agree, quite good indeed. Especially if he's a tad bit (or more) vain.
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
02-28-2003, 01:51 AM | #64 |
Elf Lord
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Well, yah, but in my book, good characters have flaws too. The bad have flaws and so do the good, but the bad started out just like the good, only their flaws became emphasized. The way to turn a person to wickedness in books is to reach out to what is bad in him and bring it more to the surface, causing it to be the more dominant streak in him. The good in them, just like the good in normal good characters starts out in dominance, but because the individual is only human, they have character flaws.
Just like the way a person turns good can sometimes be the decreasing of the bad in them and the new dominance of the good. It's all a balance thing, in some cases like that. So! Any favorite good characters, anyone? I know they tend to be a bit more boring than bad characters, frequently, so I'll expand on my statement. Better yet, how about good characters with FLAWS!? (Or any characters, for that matter, that are in or pass through the gray area between good and evil?) Last edited by Lief Erikson : 02-28-2003 at 01:53 AM. |
02-28-2003, 10:30 AM | #65 |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
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Sounds like Raistlin Majere and Dalamar the Dark a bit.
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
02-28-2003, 11:01 AM | #66 | |||
Elven Warrior
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Galenavar Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo If there's no magic, there's no meaning. |
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02-28-2003, 11:29 AM | #67 | |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
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03-01-2003, 01:31 PM | #68 |
Elf Lord
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Yes, you guys are right on that one . I forgot to mention that possibility. In my book too, I have villains that aren't human. They're just less interesting so they aren't the first ones I think of. In my book, as a matter of a fact, my favorite character could well be the primary villain. That's primarily because he's so clever and I really love how he manipulates everything from behind the scenes. Rather similar to Palpatine actually, now that I think about it.
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03-01-2003, 06:08 PM | #69 |
Elven Warrior
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I find that sometimes a villain who is perfect and without flaws can be more interesting than a villain with flaws. It gives the hero a reason to doubt himself and say, "How in the heck am I supposed to beat this thing?" And, sometimes, perfection can be a flaw. It all depends on how perfection is defined.
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Galenavar Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo If there's no magic, there's no meaning. |
03-01-2003, 10:54 PM | #70 |
Elf Lord
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Oh yes, I'm not opposed to villains being brilliant. Recall that I said my favorite character in my own book could well be the villain because he's so clever.
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03-01-2003, 11:51 PM | #71 |
The Redneck Elf
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I don't think of perfection as a flaw as much as I do pride.
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03-02-2003, 12:20 PM | #72 | |
Enting
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Interesting suggestions, everyone!
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"...So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the corner at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure." ~ J. R. R. Tolkien |
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03-02-2003, 04:10 PM | #73 |
Elf Lord
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But one interesting thing of how perfection can be a flaw is that it can lead you to pride. When one gains great abilities in a field, one naturally becomes more at risk of becoming proud of those abilities. And that pride, as you pointed out , Laurus, can be a very dangerous flaw. I've used it as the flaw that defeats my villain in a book before.
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03-02-2003, 05:53 PM | #74 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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Lief, you sound like a pro.
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03-02-2003, 06:09 PM | #75 |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
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Yeah, I'll say! You wouldn't happen to eleventy-one, would you?
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
03-03-2003, 11:05 AM | #76 |
Elf Lord
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No, but because of people like you I've got a lot of pride, so I know what I'm talking about .
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03-04-2003, 01:05 AM | #77 |
Empress of the Writewraiths
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*sigh* One of the two books I wanted to do is probably going to have to be put off for a few years. If you want to know why (and the book's premise), PM me and I'll tell you, but I'm not going to get into it here.
However, I'm still working on the other one, and while we're on the subject of villains, I'll tell you about one of mine. She started the chain of events that leads to the main conflict in the story, but she's not precisely evil. Mistaken, and rather patronizing, but her most destructive act was actually one meant to help magical children. The problem is, my villain was an orphan who was abused in her childhood. Thus, she never truly understood "family," and she didn't realize how much it meant to children and their parents. |
03-04-2003, 01:23 AM | #78 |
Elf Lord
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Background definitely can have an effect upon characters' tendencies toward evil. Children that have parents involved in drugs or violent behavior tend more frequently to grow up with such tendencies themselves. They don't look upon it as wrong. At that extremely young stage, they learn from their parents. That is why it is so important for children to be raised in good surroundings. Two of the main villains in The Uirlon Cord are evil because they were brought up that way and one of the main good guys still has trouble because of his background.
That's a realistic way of doing your villain, Silverstripe. |
03-04-2003, 12:55 PM | #79 |
Elven Warrior
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I think that everyone here has a lot of great ideas. I would love to read some of these stories!
I might have to "steal" some of this for my own stories...
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Galenavar Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo If there's no magic, there's no meaning. |
03-04-2003, 10:20 PM | #80 | |
Hobbit
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A good tip, from one who had to learn it the VERY HARD way, and still hasn't fixed it, is to SAVE YOUR WORK IN MORE THEN ONE PLACE! Really! Really do it! I lost about 30 pages of work that way (Lost a floppy. Only had it on floppy) >_< Not too smart. I have this whole thing down for beta'ing. I'm a good beta... well, at least I like to think so with my little system going at least. it works like this, i read the piece as soon as I get it, just once through so I can get a feel for the plot and what's going on in the story and then I go through and edit it with RED (I use a different color with then the text is typed in) And if I edit a word I change the font color of the word infront of it and behind it so that it sticks out more and you can see more of how it went. Another thing that's important when beta'ing is keeping contact. You don't want to let the person down. I try to get everthing back before a week... and if I can't its probably best to send an email to them, giving yourself a reasonable deadline. If its short (2-3) pages except to spend 3-4 hours editing, maybe you want to take it in short pieces because if you do a whole chapter thats 20 pages long it could take a long time... but if you break it up in reasonable amounts (nothing ridicoulus like paragraph or liek that) Umm.. I write a lot, but lately I've practically lost everything. I have two Star Trek things I want to write before returning to Fantasy. Its partially because I have to retype a lot of my stories because I lost the disk that held them... and I am waiting until I get a new computer; one that likes floppies. Heh... so yeah If anyone want sot chat about writing, or cares to help with my Star Trek fantasy thing, please email me! I love talking to people so if you just want to chat, I hope we can strike up a chat real easily. Thanks! Tari
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