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blog Dark Lord Darkington Darkingly — How to Avoid the Dark Lord Cliché

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
Ah, the BBE (TM)...the Big Bad Evil. In my writing gig for the Legend of the Five Rings game setting, the desirability of a BBE to oppose the characters is a matter of much debate. In the original setting for the story (when its IP belonged to the original owner, a company known as AEG), the story started with the various clans of "magical samurai" vying for power in the world of Rokugan; this soon evolved into the realization that the TRUE antagonist was Fu Leng, a fallen and evil demigod i.e. the BBE. The story was excellent and, in this case, the BBE worked very well.

That was in the mid-late 90s. The debate began as the game setting continued for the next 20 years (and it's still going strong). The story kept going back to the BBE well in one form or another, and it became...kinda repetitive. "Oh, look, another massive, evil, supernatural threat. We'd better all put aside our political intrigue and internecine wars and unite to defeat it." This made me start looking at the whole idea of a BBE in some detail.

So, Sauron is one of the preeminent "prototypes", and probably THE preeminent one until Voldemort came along. Interestingly, what makes Sauron work so well, I concluded, is that he explicitly is NOT a character--he's a plot device. If you haven't read The Silmarillion, then all you know about Sauron from LotR itself is that he's wants to rule over Middle Earth, that he'll do all sorts of evil things to accomplish that, and that he's really powerful BUT he sunk a lot of that power into the One Ring, the story's MacGuffin. And that's it. We never see him on screen, he doesn't have any lines (yes, the Mouth of Sauron kinda speaks for him, but that's not the same)...he just remains a looming, ominous presence, hovering over the story like one of his winged Nazgul. That works quite well. We don't NEED to know anything about him other than this because, again, he's not a character--he's just a plot element (and, btw, those Nazgul? They were really the closest thing we got to an "on screen" expression of Sauron...more a way of letting Sauron actually DO some things himself in the story, by proxy, without really turning him into an interactive character).

The trouble with introducing a BBE as an actual character is that he (or she) is immediately diminished. And the more they appear on-screen, the more diminished they risk getting. The writer/reader collaboration that is the foundation of every story simply can't maintain the degree of menace a BBE really needs when they get "humanized". Legend of the Five Rings had a BBE named Iuchiban who, for the first ten or so years of the game, was just a name spoken in ominous tones. He was what the reader imagined him to be and, with so little detail, readers could bring the full weight of all the dark things they could imagine to bear on how they perceived him. And then...he was brought back into the story as a character. All of a sudden, he was a guy, he had lines, through which he revealed his motivations, he acted and reacted...he was no longer "malign and ominous off-screen presence", but rather "evil on-screen guy". It just wasn't the same. He kinda futzed around being all dark and conquer-ey, before having his ass kicked. Kinda lame, actually.

So I guess my contribution to this thread is...if you're going to have a BBE in your story, give some serious consideration to making him (or her) the looming, dangerous "thing" off in the distance, wreathed in smoke and shadow and menace. Your on-screen antagonists can be his (or her) minions, with all the things that characters need i.e. characterization, motivations, flaws, strengths, etc. As soon as the BBE comes on-screen, you risk turning them--no matter how powerful or evil you portray them--into "just a guy".

Because, in the end, the BBE is going to be thwarted...right...?
Nicely written. I think you summarized the problem with BBE at the end. They're pretty much guaranteed to be thwarted. Their fate is sealed from the beginning.

Robert Jordan took his BBE and used it as a plot device. He added a second layer, the Forsaken, and made them actual characters. They were evil, but they had motives, many of which we could identify and empathize.
 

Futhark

Inkling
Very thought provoking. My Big Bad is a character in his own right and I was even going to do some chapters from his POV (I’ve since decided to do it from a minion’s perspective). He was always meant to be a mirror of the Protagonist, that certain someone that the hero is turning into. But he was never a looming, ominous ‘thing’, but rather a sinister shadow lurking and pulling strings.

However, thinking on plot devices, I realise I do have a few of those too. There are powerful and dangerous forces that the Antagonist is aware of. The Protagonist learns about, and comes to the attention of, these groups throughout the story.
 
Dark Lord Darkington Darkingly frowned while stroking his chin. A thought came to him that was so devious, so devastating, that he had to share it with someone. A useless henchman stood patiently before his table. He would have to do.

“I am going to destroy the world!” Dark Lord Darkington Darkingly shrieked.

The henchman arched an eyebrow “Why?”

“Because it needs to burn!” Dark Lord Darkington Darkingly pounded the table with his fist to hammer the point home.

“What will happen to you?”

“What will happen to me?” Dark Lord Darkington Darkingly stroked his chin in thought. This is where the plan failed. The henchman wasn’t useless after all.

“OK, Toby. Make sure you eat all your food. Remember, if you finish your peas, we’ll take you to the mall to buy you a new game.”

Dark Lord Darkington Darkingly eyed his peas suspiciously. His father always wanted him to eat his peas. They needed to burn. The whole world needed to burn!
This should be in a story
 

Toby Johnson

Minstrel
how to not overdo the dark lord theme is to make a side story in the book where he is a regular guy, lets make a guy like voldemort but there are side chapters where her goes on dates and just lounges about the house cleaning, make it seem like a regular guy then you wont over-do it
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
how to not overdo the dark lord theme is to make a side story in the book where he is a regular guy, lets make a guy like voldemort but there are side chapters where her goes on dates and just lounges about the house cleaning, make it seem like a regular guy then you wont over-do it
In essence, make the Dark Lord not a Dark Lord by including other motives to their life than just total destruction.
 
I've moved away from the idea of big bad enemies, and the idea of pure evil. The more evil and powerful the bad guy is the more unrealistic the protagonist's victory becomes. Unless you make then super powerful as well. The whole simple farm boy beats mega powerful dark lord cliche is just too overdone now.
 
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