How to use these characters

[Scalvi]

I mentioned before that I had an idea for a bandit to kill the savior of a realm. The synopsis is that the bandit kills the savior and then decides to try to take the savior's place.

What I'm wondering is how to integrate the previously murdered savior? Or if I even should?

I feel the bandit -- his name is Cadge, currently -- needs a mitigating force because he has pretty much no natural, good qualities. At best, he is chaotic neutral.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

Hard to say much with what is written here. Why does the bandit kill the saviour? Is there some connection between them or does the saviours ideals conflict with the bandits? How do others react to the saviours death.
The bandit can see the effects of what he has done and try to mitigate it- affected by the suffering of others; the saviour may transfer something to the bandit in death; others may place a curse on the bandit that makes him become good (like Angel in Buffy). A few ideas, hope they spark an answer for you.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

Hard to say much with what is written here. Why does the bandit kill the saviour? Is there some connection between them or does the saviours ideals conflict with the bandits? How do others react to the saviours death.
The bandit can see the effects of what he has done and try to mitigate it- affected by the suffering of others; the saviour may transfer something to the bandit in death; others may place a curse on the bandit that makes him become good (like Angel in Buffy). A few ideas, hope they spark an answer for you.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I know of one well known series that has this type of twist, but it isn't revealed until the end.

To avoid spoilers, PM me if you're interested in the title. Might give you some ideas on how you'd want to do it differently.

 

[Scalvi]

Hard to say much with what is written here. Why does the bandit kill the saviour? Is there some connection between them or does the saviours ideals conflict with the bandits? How do others react to the saviours death.
The bandit can see the effects of what he has done and try to mitigate it- affected by the suffering of others; the saviour may transfer something to the bandit in death; others may place a curse on the bandit that makes him become good (like Angel in Buffy). A few ideas, hope they spark an answer for you.

There is no real connection. That was the point I wanted to play with: one character was supposed to be some unexpected savior of everything...but then he is killed by some common bandit.

The bandit finds out, after the fact who he killed, and decides to try to milk being a savior for all it's worth. Before the world ends from the World-Ending-Cataclysm that is going to occur now, that is. I would like writing that story but I can't see a satisfying end coming from everything being destroyed through casual cruelty. It might as well end with a the words "GAME OVER" written in white on a black screen.

 

[skip.knox]

It needs to be a choice. Your hero must choose between everything being destroyed and some other option.

Or, let him find out that the stakes are rather different than he imagined, than what the legends say they would be. I love it when prophecies get it wrong.

I like the idea of the wrong guy turning out to be the right guy.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I think you're right about the ending. Maybe he could become an anti-hero?

Does he not care that the world is going to end, or does he simply think there's nothing that can be done to stop it now that the savior is dead?

If it's the former then you'd need to give him a reason to care. Perhaps he finds one or more people he actually cares about and reluctantly becomes the hero he was pretending to be, hating every minute of it.

If it's the latter, he'd need to be convinced. He could discover some information that could mean there's hope (A depiction of the savior? Except it looks like him, not the other guy?). But you wouldn't want to make it easy for him so maybe the people could then discover the truth about him and turn against him. So does he try to save this world that hates him, or does he let them all burn along with himself just to spite them?

These are just some rough ideas I thought up in a couple of minutes using the information you gave. I don't know your story or if this is even close to the story you want to write, but maybe it'll help. If not, maybe it'll give someone else some ideas.

 

[Spacebar]

The big question I would start with is; can Cadge save the world? Presumably your world is full of people who want it to go on, so why is the savior the only one who can do anything about it?

 

[Gurkhal]

I mentioned before that I had an idea for a bandit to kill the savior of a realm. The synopsis is that the bandit kills the savior and then decides to try to take the savior's place.

What I'm wondering is how to integrate the previously murdered savior? Or if I even should?

I feel the bandit -- his name is Cadge, currently -- needs a mitigating force because he has pretty much no natural, good qualities. At best, he is chaotic neutral.

One thing is that you don't need the bandit to be the main protagonist but instead other people could be that? In that case the bandit wouldn't need to have sympathic traits. Especially if someone thinks that they can re-do Cadge's feat and claim the mantle of savior from Cadge.

 

[SeverinR]

I mentioned before that I had an idea for a bandit to kill the savior of a realm. The synopsis is that the bandit kills the savior and then decides to try to take the savior's place.

What I'm wondering is how to integrate the previously murdered savior? Or if I even should?

I feel the bandit -- his name is Cadge, currently -- needs a mitigating force because he has pretty much no natural, good qualities. At best, he is chaotic neutral.

I think this might be appropriate: How to Write Captivating Villains
Even if we don't know about his good qualities at the start, maybe have it hidden or brought out by events. Because the perfect villian/hero is usually unrelatable. Every good person needs to have flaws, but so does every bad person.

Very few in life are ultimate villians/heros. (No good/evil in them at all) If they have no other love then sex, chaos or money, then they are a shallow character. Very limited to drive/ motivate them.

I guess an example of pure evil would be Jason (Friday 13th) just kills anyone he meets. Even Freddy(Nightmare on elm street) had a reason to torment and kill the kids he did, revenge. But I had to go to slasher movies to find pure evil villians. People don't want to care about the slasher in a thiller, they want to hate the person without regard to why they do what they do.

Find that piece thats missing from Cadge, that one piece that will relate to your reader. Not just the typical Don Juan that can swing a blade(knife, sword, light sabre) or shoot a missle(arrow, bullet or laser gun) well. Don't let him be an average character, make him life like.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

When I read this the first thought that came to mind was "The Postman" by David Brin - a truly excellent read (I haven't seen the movie and don't intend to.) Although he didn't want to become the hero (and didn't kill any saviour) as you read the book and live in his thoughts and world, you start to see the reasons that an opportunistic thief with a lie to spout starts to become a saviour. And mostly it's about the underlying humanity in him, that is slowly masaged out of him. He was an opportunist because he was afraid. But slowly he becomes a hero because the world changes around him, and because of the sacrifices of others that he cares about.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Spacebar]

Another thought; Cadge doesn't have to be a good guy to save the world. As I understand it, bad guys really really like living, and survival is a potent enough motivation for anyone.