A Pyramid of Villains
As I’ve been slow churning through ten seasons of Stargate SG-1, I’ve noticed something they do really well and for lack of a better term I’m calling it the Pyramid of Villains. Many of the main villains come from an alien race, a faction called the Goa’uld. Within the Goa’uld are a large number of ’system lords’ that all fight and compete with each other for power. This creates a shifting, dynamic pyramid of villains.
Outside of that race, there are other alien races and enemies who further expand the pyramid of villains. The result? The heroes never have any shortage of enemies, or conflict. What’s interesting is that all the villains within the pyramid scheme have an explanation for how they got there, their alliances (or lack of) with other members of the pyramid, conflicts between factions, etc. When it’s done well, a pyramid of villains should have a history, a background, and examples within the story of the relationships between different members of the pyramid.
Got a pyramid of villains?
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March 25th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I have a small one that is building up as my blog novel progresses. There is Luthien, the ‘evil dictator’ if you will who is trying to capture or kill the main character and at the same time conquer everything else. There is his sort of henchman–Nara’karesh–who is only as controlled by Luthien as a Segfried and Roy’s tigers were and who also hails from the ‘hell’ of my world, which makes for an interesting concept since in theory no creatures from this ‘hell’ should be capable of coming to reality…
Then there is a new plotline that I’ve added with some person or being known as Zagra, which nobody knows about yet, except for me, and for that purpose I am not going to give it away who or what he is. So, it’s not a big pyramid, but it’s a triangle at least :)
March 26th, 2007 at 1:27 am
I don’t right now, but I’ve got ideas for developing some “bad people” in a couple of manuscripts I’m working on. This should make things a bit more interesting for the other characters!
March 26th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
SMD, sounds like you’ve got your pyramid going on.
KG, go for it.
I think it’s easy to get fixated on one particular villain, and forget that villains rarely work alone.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:08 am
In my first book. Or I should say trilogy. *grin* Right now it’s a political thriller set in the 24th century.
First you meet Thomas, who’s psychotic. Soon you discover he’s being manipulated by Paul, who’s a sociopath. Paul’s boss is Joseph, another sociopath who thinks Hitler and Machiavelli are real cool. Joseph has bosses I haven’t discovered yet, that we see in the third book (not even outlined, just an idea).
There are minions: Raoul, who talks about killing people without blinking; Enrique, who seems the perfect sidekick but is there to watch Joseph for his boss; Velasquez, the FBI spy; also a bunch of amoral scientists who don’t find it odd that they’re making nukes or chemical and biological weapons.
The villains are as much fun to write as the heroes.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Pat, villains ARE just as much (if not sometimes more) fun to write as heroes!
As a writer it’s fun to play the devil sometimes, and think of the worst possible things you can put your characters through.