Rewriting: Warriors Main Villains
May 18, 2018 10:41:30 GMT -5
briarfrost, Tas, and 3 more like this
Post by Basement Cat on May 18, 2018 10:41:30 GMT -5
Thought I'd take a crack at this.
The main villains are warriors are a bit...lacking. Either they have no reason for being evil, they have no personality, or both. They're tools to set the scene, or written and adjusted as needed to oppose the main characters. So let's hypothesize how they could have been written to have a more fleshed out story and character.
Darktail is not included as I have yet to read aVoS.
Tigerstar has always been the classical villain. Antagonist to the hero, evil for ambition's sake, kind of cheesy at times, maybe has a bit of a promiscuous side...he ticks all the marks. However, Tigerstar himself is not that fleshed out a character. He's meant to be an antagonist to Firestar, and his personality fills that role as needed.
The Rewrite:
Make Tigerstar more human. Er...more catlike. This analogy really doesn't work, sorry. ._.
Basically, don't just make Tigerstar a villain as the plot demands. Tigerstar always closely mirrored Hitler in his ideals, so make his character reflect that. Tigerstar isn't inherently evil. It's what he is doing that is evil. He truly wants to make the clans great (again, heh), but his idea of doing so means antagonizing the cats around him. To Tigerstar, the ends justify the means. He believes he can't create a Utopia without a little bloodshed to get there. In the end, Tigerstar is a tyrant, but tyrant who believes he's doing what needs to be done to 'save' the Clans. Let him truly love his mates and kits, all of them. Let him take time to mourn the dead he has killed, as a last act of honor for their 'sacrifice'. His ambition to lead is not out of power, but out of misguided concern and hubris. He thinks only he has the ability to lead the Clans in the right direction.
Hawkfrost himself has almost zero motivation for being evil. It's either he wants to be like his pappy, or he was afraid of cats judging him for his mother. Neither are solid reasons. And it is an absolute shame, because Hawkfrost is brilliant in death, as a cunning manipulator.
The Rewrite:
Make Hawkfrost a sociopath.
He never shows any reason for why he's evil. So what if he's evil not because I'm EEEVVILLL, but because he is incapable of feeling any remorse for his actions, and only cares about what benefits himself? What if he's willing to do morally wrong things just because it is most useful to him? It's utter apathy. Everything is about him, and he doesn't like when he loses control of a situation. He's a cunning manipulator, has a way with words, and when he loses his tempter, its because cats aren't doing what he wants them to.
We know that he idolizes his father. But, this motivation, what it entails, is rather shallow. Wouldn't it make more sense for him to idolize his father because of the power he wielded?
Hawkfrost has demonstrated he gravitates towards power. He likes to be the one of charge, and thinks himself the one pulling the strings. So making him a character afflicted with a disorder that makes him unable to care about any other's emotions would make his desire for power make more sense. Tigerstar denounces him not because he's a jerkass dad, but because Hawkfrost utterly perverted Tigerstar's ideals into something 'selfish.'
Brokenstar has zero personality. We get backstory that he was abused by his adoptive mother, yes, but he has no purpose, no reason. He's essentially Tigerstar, and ambitious because he is evil. Yellowfang says he has a silver tongue, but we never see this either. Brokenstar is all talk and no show. We only get a glimpse of his so called power when he kills Beetlewhisker (who is now a zombie).
The Rewrite:
Make Brokenstar have lasting effects from the abuse he suffered. Until he's so far gone, Yellowfang makes a last choice as his mother to put her son out of his own misery.
Perhaps Brokenstar wasn't as okay as Yellowfang thought. Perhaps some mental facility in him broke. Make Brokenstar a tragic character who was starved of affection, and has a skewed understanding of things. He sees no wrong in kidnapping kits to replace his own. Not because he's EEVIIL, but because he has lost the ability to understand right and wrong. He sees cats equally, but perhaps there is a difference between fighting a kit and fighting a seasoned warrior. He takes the helm as leader as a puppet to another cat, and the cats suffer under Brokenstar's leadership because Brokenstar is permanently scarred into the mindset of a child. As for the cat pulling the strings? Lizardstripe, his dear 'mother'. Who he kills out of love.
Yellowfang reveals she is his true mother, enraging him for blaspheming his 'true' mother. Who then Yellowfang has to kill before he can hurt any more cats.
Thistleclaw's character is especially insulting because not only is he boring, he's written in one of the worst ways to give a character an excuse for being evil. But okay.
The Rewrite:
Make Thistleclaw bloodthirsty as as hell.
Instead of making him a kit-cuddler, make him love fighting. A lot. To an almost inappropriate degree. But here's the catch. He does have loved ones. He does love Snowfur, and Whitekit. He mourns for days after Snowfur's death, and tries to teach Whitekit to be a strong warrior, afraid to let him die like his mother did. There's only one problem.
Thistleclaw is absolutely insane.
He's not a mindless beast. No, that would mean he couldn't torment his victims, or coax out their bloodthirsty side, where he fought them at their most vicious. He's insane in that no sane cat would torture their opponents in battle by reminding them of the loved ones they lost, the kits that have been cruelly mauled to death by a fox, or the limb they were missing. Thistleclaw above all else loves battle, and wants to fight cats at their lowest depths. He want to see them sink to the utmost lows, until they become mindless beasts who only see red. The fact he died in battle was glorious to him, seeing their enraged eyes as they tore him to shreds.
Mapleshade, other than Tigerstar, probably has the second most obvious personality. She's cruel, petty, and wants revenge for her kits. Or at least, she did at first. Now she just wants to see cats suffer.
Then there is her book. Which makes every cat around her a jerk to make her look good in comparison. It doesn't really make a believable story, at least for me.
The Rewrite:
Make Mapleshade to have always been petty, cruel, and vengeful.
Even as a kit, Mapleshade did not settle things done against her lightly. If another kit teased her, she would put ants in their nest. If some cat talked about her behind her back, she would make sure to give them bad prey that upset their bellies. Mapleshade does not handle things well.
Just as well, Mapleshade is vindictive. She wants her way. I'd like to think she was spoiled by her mother, and her mother would scold cats for getting angry at Maplekit/paw for her little 'tricks'. And when Mapleshade wants her way, she gets it.
So, if Mapleshade wants to be deputy, she better get it. No cat will stand her way. Not even medicine cats.
I'd like for her childish behavior to be played up. Instead of being a clever cunning cat, Mapleshade is outdone by her own selfishness, hubris and envy, which consumes her in her quest for revenge. I'd also like it if Mapleshade caused the demise of her kits by her own actions, and blames everyone else instead of facing the reality her own arrogance is the problem.
The main villains are warriors are a bit...lacking. Either they have no reason for being evil, they have no personality, or both. They're tools to set the scene, or written and adjusted as needed to oppose the main characters. So let's hypothesize how they could have been written to have a more fleshed out story and character.
Darktail is not included as I have yet to read aVoS.
Tigerstar has always been the classical villain. Antagonist to the hero, evil for ambition's sake, kind of cheesy at times, maybe has a bit of a promiscuous side...he ticks all the marks. However, Tigerstar himself is not that fleshed out a character. He's meant to be an antagonist to Firestar, and his personality fills that role as needed.
The Rewrite:
Make Tigerstar more human. Er...more catlike. This analogy really doesn't work, sorry. ._.
Basically, don't just make Tigerstar a villain as the plot demands. Tigerstar always closely mirrored Hitler in his ideals, so make his character reflect that. Tigerstar isn't inherently evil. It's what he is doing that is evil. He truly wants to make the clans great (again, heh), but his idea of doing so means antagonizing the cats around him. To Tigerstar, the ends justify the means. He believes he can't create a Utopia without a little bloodshed to get there. In the end, Tigerstar is a tyrant, but tyrant who believes he's doing what needs to be done to 'save' the Clans. Let him truly love his mates and kits, all of them. Let him take time to mourn the dead he has killed, as a last act of honor for their 'sacrifice'. His ambition to lead is not out of power, but out of misguided concern and hubris. He thinks only he has the ability to lead the Clans in the right direction.
------
The Rewrite:
Make Hawkfrost a sociopath.
He never shows any reason for why he's evil. So what if he's evil not because I'm EEEVVILLL, but because he is incapable of feeling any remorse for his actions, and only cares about what benefits himself? What if he's willing to do morally wrong things just because it is most useful to him? It's utter apathy. Everything is about him, and he doesn't like when he loses control of a situation. He's a cunning manipulator, has a way with words, and when he loses his tempter, its because cats aren't doing what he wants them to.
We know that he idolizes his father. But, this motivation, what it entails, is rather shallow. Wouldn't it make more sense for him to idolize his father because of the power he wielded?
Hawkfrost has demonstrated he gravitates towards power. He likes to be the one of charge, and thinks himself the one pulling the strings. So making him a character afflicted with a disorder that makes him unable to care about any other's emotions would make his desire for power make more sense. Tigerstar denounces him not because he's a jerkass dad, but because Hawkfrost utterly perverted Tigerstar's ideals into something 'selfish.'
------
Brokenstar has zero personality. We get backstory that he was abused by his adoptive mother, yes, but he has no purpose, no reason. He's essentially Tigerstar, and ambitious because he is evil. Yellowfang says he has a silver tongue, but we never see this either. Brokenstar is all talk and no show. We only get a glimpse of his so called power when he kills Beetlewhisker (who is now a zombie).
The Rewrite:
Make Brokenstar have lasting effects from the abuse he suffered. Until he's so far gone, Yellowfang makes a last choice as his mother to put her son out of his own misery.
Perhaps Brokenstar wasn't as okay as Yellowfang thought. Perhaps some mental facility in him broke. Make Brokenstar a tragic character who was starved of affection, and has a skewed understanding of things. He sees no wrong in kidnapping kits to replace his own. Not because he's EEVIIL, but because he has lost the ability to understand right and wrong. He sees cats equally, but perhaps there is a difference between fighting a kit and fighting a seasoned warrior. He takes the helm as leader as a puppet to another cat, and the cats suffer under Brokenstar's leadership because Brokenstar is permanently scarred into the mindset of a child. As for the cat pulling the strings? Lizardstripe, his dear 'mother'. Who he kills out of love.
Yellowfang reveals she is his true mother, enraging him for blaspheming his 'true' mother. Who then Yellowfang has to kill before he can hurt any more cats.
------
Thistleclaw is boring as all hell. He had maybe a few basic personality traits. Liked Snowfur, but SYKE! He never loved her at all. Then we find out he was ****phile. Okay...Thistleclaw's character is especially insulting because not only is he boring, he's written in one of the worst ways to give a character an excuse for being evil. But okay.
The Rewrite:
Make Thistleclaw bloodthirsty as as hell.
Instead of making him a kit-cuddler, make him love fighting. A lot. To an almost inappropriate degree. But here's the catch. He does have loved ones. He does love Snowfur, and Whitekit. He mourns for days after Snowfur's death, and tries to teach Whitekit to be a strong warrior, afraid to let him die like his mother did. There's only one problem.
Thistleclaw is absolutely insane.
He's not a mindless beast. No, that would mean he couldn't torment his victims, or coax out their bloodthirsty side, where he fought them at their most vicious. He's insane in that no sane cat would torture their opponents in battle by reminding them of the loved ones they lost, the kits that have been cruelly mauled to death by a fox, or the limb they were missing. Thistleclaw above all else loves battle, and wants to fight cats at their lowest depths. He want to see them sink to the utmost lows, until they become mindless beasts who only see red. The fact he died in battle was glorious to him, seeing their enraged eyes as they tore him to shreds.
------
Mapleshade, other than Tigerstar, probably has the second most obvious personality. She's cruel, petty, and wants revenge for her kits. Or at least, she did at first. Now she just wants to see cats suffer.
Then there is her book. Which makes every cat around her a jerk to make her look good in comparison. It doesn't really make a believable story, at least for me.
The Rewrite:
Make Mapleshade to have always been petty, cruel, and vengeful.
Even as a kit, Mapleshade did not settle things done against her lightly. If another kit teased her, she would put ants in their nest. If some cat talked about her behind her back, she would make sure to give them bad prey that upset their bellies. Mapleshade does not handle things well.
Just as well, Mapleshade is vindictive. She wants her way. I'd like to think she was spoiled by her mother, and her mother would scold cats for getting angry at Maplekit/paw for her little 'tricks'. And when Mapleshade wants her way, she gets it.
So, if Mapleshade wants to be deputy, she better get it. No cat will stand her way. Not even medicine cats.
I'd like for her childish behavior to be played up. Instead of being a clever cunning cat, Mapleshade is outdone by her own selfishness, hubris and envy, which consumes her in her quest for revenge. I'd also like it if Mapleshade caused the demise of her kits by her own actions, and blames everyone else instead of facing the reality her own arrogance is the problem.