Very stuck, I've created a monstrosity of an antagonist

[psychotick]

Hi,

Hell's teeth this is old! And I haven't spent the last eight years thinking about this post / thread. But I have had the cataracts in my eyes done, which lets me now see all the mistakes I typed before!!!

However, more on topic, I like the last couple of posts. A lot of these battles could be fought and won by placing a divide between the deadly sin and the human who's sort of embodying it. Say take wrath. The embodiment getting perpetually angry at everything because that's what he has become - or almost become. But then manufacture a reason he might be angry at his wife / daughter. And then suddenly instead of needing to destroy them he has doubt. Doubt is the enemy of faith / belief. And if he has doubt and can't destroy them no matter how much his overriding deadly sin is telling him to, maybe he fails and the sin itself destroys him? He becomes wrathful at himself.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Daan Doornbos]

Wow, a very old thread indeed. Interesting topic though, so why not?

 

[Empathy001]

I'm starting to think the reason why so many writers default to and evil race that is an obstacle that must be defeated or fought is it gives the protagonist a defined opponent. I'm basing this of my own WIP, I've created a nightmare of abstract antagonists that has grown beyond my control. I've been thinking that the only real paragon to describe my antagonists is a terrorist organization or a pathogen. I've been stuck for months trying to figure out how I can resolve my story. My physical antagonists are based of the seven deadly sins, they basically go around and corrupt people towards that sin, (very simplified). Sometimes it can be one person other times given an entire city. It takes time for them to corrupt people and after a certain number an exponential growth takes over. These seven are also the most ordinary people, they are like the granny next door that turns out to be a cannibalistic ax serial killer, no one suspects them. Their affects on the people they corrupt are visible after a while, some become zombie like with the flesh rotting of their bodies. The abstract part is that they are also something intrinsic to human nature. So my antagonists are both human nature and the phiscial bodies of human nature. They are parts of human nature taken to an extreme absolute evil.

My problem is I have no idea how my protagonists can fight such an enemy. I really want to stay away from throwing the ring in mount doom ending, the heroic last stand where they kill evil overlord. See this is where they start to seem like a terrorist organization, because each acts independent of the other, and they can be anyone. How do you fight that? The way I've created them it doesn't make sense for them to pursue the MCs they would simply push their corrupted minions to create chaos or suffering while vanishing into the mists. The setting is a low tech, very early dark ages, low magic.

So I'm thinking of two solutions. One make the seven something that can be killed and banished, still that leaves how to do it.
two. Don't even try, instead have the heroes focus more on the people and realms of man trying to eradicate the corruption in it's infancy.

The thing is I really want to do this in a way where I don't destroy everything I have built. I really like the symbolism between the seven and human nature so I don't really feel that killing them would work. But the way I created them you cannot really just leave them alone and focus on the realms of man because well eventually they will take over.

I don't know what nor how to do this.

this is a really interesting concept, so first of all thank you for sharing.
I haven't read through all the replies yet, but something I think that may make sense for your story would be focusing less on the antagonists themselves and more on the people they corrupt. Perhaps your MCs could figure out a way to "cure" the corrupted souls. maybe then it becomes less about killing your antagonists, and more about suppressing them. I think it could be a very beautiful story of hope, and how these things will always be part of human nature, but we don't have to give into them.

Edit: This is HOW old???

 

[pmmg]

Meh, just eight years, but....even if Ascanius does not return to see it, the topic can still be good. Who knows what people may come in and find useful.