My villain is subtly theatening, meaning not running around mass murdering, and so on. My question is this:
Just by looking at someone, what is the more dangerous looking?
A. Being unable to see their eyes due to a low, covering hood
B. Unable to see eyes due to something like dark glasses
C. Being unable to see the lower parts of the face due to a veil or face-wrap type thing
D. Masked, upper face
E. Masked, lower face
F. Masked, half face (right or left)
G. Able to see full face, with other characteristics on the face.
H. Other
It's not something people hear about.
A good, subtle villain looks just like everyone else.
Take George R.R. Martin's story. The most subtly-threatening villain was Cersei (others may disagree with me, since she had moments where she was anything but subtle), who dressed herself in royal garb with gold and red gowns.
But what is your definition of subtly threatening, anyways? What is this villain doing? Is he acknowledged as being wicked (ie: everyone knows who he is and knows he's evil), but working behind the scenes? Does anyone even know he's villainous? Is he running an empire? What's he doing? Mr. Parcelan fucked around with this message on 02-27-2006 at 02:56 PM.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
Heavens!
edit: I found a picture that shows this perfectly
Liam fucked around with this message on 02-27-2006 at 03:00 PM.
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Verily, Karnaj doth proclaim:
Oh, everything's a horrible cliche. Even coming up with something outrageous and new is cliche. What's most disconcerting, however, is when eyes are not visible. Eyes reveal a great deal of information about a person, consciously and unconsciously speaking.
This is true. Eyes are generally considered the window to the soul, ergo, if you can't see someone's eyes, you subconsciously assume they have no soul.
Also, what kind of threatening are we going for, here? The faceless horror? Sheer "don't fuck with this guy" badass intimidation? This goes a long way to tell us what kind of villain he is.
Ask yourself these kinds of questions as an author.
my villain is already drawn up, but I wanted some input on what was most disconcerting.
The villain is female, not notably 'evil' but more standoffish but that can be attested to her position as court mage. She wears a hood that doesnt shadow her face, but rather than just framing her face, it sits against her eyes, the hem of the hood resting just below the bridge of her nose. Basically, all that is visible of her face is her nose, lips, and jaw. There is actually an explanation for the hood though. She's blind. This is also set in the midevil type era, and no member of the aristocracy will tie a bandage about her face like a commoner.
It looks a lot better than I described it... however, I have no webhosting so I cant put up her picture. :/
Glasses (like...normal glasses) can be very sinister. Why do you think the Presidents of the United States never show up on TV with them if they can help it? Even the first George Bush (who wore glasses the whole time he was VP) tends to ditch them when he speaks publically (while candid unofficial pictures have him wearing them). Glasses make you look insincere. They're transparent, but the glare of light off of them might conceal your eyes, or subtly magnify the size of your eyes, or tamper with the shade of your eyes via diffraction. Plus glasses tend to make you hold your head in ways that are subtly...off.
So if you want something really subtle, I'd explore the world of normal glasses.
That having been said, body language is what turns me off or on to a person's personality. Unspoken signals. How fast do they talk? Arms crossed over their chest? Not fully facing me? Or are they TOO friendly? Too open is almost as bad as too closed or too disinterested.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
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This insanity brought to you by Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael:
I find that if you want subtle, in terms of appearance, you have to play it subtle. Hoods and masks tend to be over the top. They scream "secretly a badass" or the like, in the way they're generally played, mainly because they're very obvious.Glasses (like...normal glasses) can be very sinister. Why do you think the Presidents of the United States never show up on TV with them if they can help it? Even the first George Bush (who wore glasses the whole time he was VP) tends to ditch them when he speaks publically (while candid unofficial pictures have him wearing them). Glasses make you look insincere. They're transparent, but the glare of light off of them might conceal your eyes, or subtly magnify the size of your eyes, or tamper with the shade of your eyes via diffraction. Plus glasses tend to make you hold your head in ways that are subtly...off.
So if you want something really subtle, I'd explore the world of normal glasses.
That having been said, body language is what turns me off or on to a person's personality. Unspoken signals. How fast do they talk? Arms crossed over their chest? Not fully facing me? Or are they TOO friendly? Too open is almost as bad as too closed or too disinterested.
I concur with Deth on this, glasses can be used to great effect. Another is the eyes themselves. Perhaps your villain smiles but his eyes are hard and dead. Perhaps his expression conveys a sly or slippery look, like he believes he knows something everyone else doesn't. Condescending or contemptuous looks do it too, though that's fairly overt, the idea being that but some arch of the brow or other and a certain aspect of the eye conveys subtly but potently something about the guy.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java the thoughts aquire speed, the teeth acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
quote:
Mr. Parcelan had this to say about Duck Tales:
Take George R.R. Martin's story. The most subtly-threatening villain was Cersei (others may disagree with me, since she had moments where she was anything but subtle), who dressed herself in royal garb with gold and red gowns.
I guess I'll disagree. I thought Cersei was/is a raging bitch who was seldom subtle. She's in the position she's currently in because everyone everyone realized that except the people she's seduced, and even then some of the seduced know it, like Jaime. Personally, I'd say Littlefinger is a far more subtle villain than her.
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Mr. Parcelan wrote this stupid crap:
Take George R.R. Martin's story. The most subtly-threatening villain was Cersei (others may disagree with me, since she had moments where she was anything but subtle), who dressed herself in royal garb with gold and red gowns.
Good source for villains. Even the good guys have a bad habit of coming back as bad guys.
Other good ideas come from stealing from other authors. I always liked the quiet, scheming semi-villain found in Shakespeare's Iago from Othello. I mean, if Dan Brown can lift whole plot lines, why can't you borrow a villain or three?
[tangent] Any idea when A Dance of Dragons is coming out? I keep hearing by early 2007, but I thought he had it basically written. It would severely break my balls to have to wait another 10 months to get the rest of the damn book.[/tangent]
Bad vibes n'stuff. Pvednes fucked around with this message on 02-28-2006 at 01:52 AM.
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Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael enlisted the help of an infinite number of monkeys to write:
I find that if you want subtle, in terms of appearance, you have to play it subtle. Hoods and masks tend to be over the top. They scream "secretly a badass" or the like, in the way they're generally played, mainly because they're very obvious.Glasses (like...normal glasses) can be very sinister. Why do you think the Presidents of the United States never show up on TV with them if they can help it? Even the first George Bush (who wore glasses the whole time he was VP) tends to ditch them when he speaks publically (while candid unofficial pictures have him wearing them). Glasses make you look insincere. They're transparent, but the glare of light off of them might conceal your eyes, or subtly magnify the size of your eyes, or tamper with the shade of your eyes via diffraction. Plus glasses tend to make you hold your head in ways that are subtly...off.
So if you want something really subtle, I'd explore the world of normal glasses.
That having been said, body language is what turns me off or on to a person's personality. Unspoken signals. How fast do they talk? Arms crossed over their chest? Not fully facing me? Or are they TOO friendly? Too open is almost as bad as too closed or too disinterested.
What he said.
Glasses work. You can show the eyes through them, and sometimes show them as hiding the eyes with reflections and glare.
Also, a nice smile works wonders. Especally when the person shouldn't be smiling. Palador ChibiDragon fucked around with this message on 02-28-2006 at 01:59 AM.
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Led wrote this then went back to looking for porn:
How about someone that looks and acts perfectly normal, and just stuffs people into a woodchipper during offtime?
You mean like Sean?
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Tarquinn had this to say about Knight Rider:
You mean like Sean?
He always told us that stuffing people into woodchippers was his fulltime job.
When that dude smiles his eyes light up in a way that makes him look completely fucking psychotic.
So I'd say that a good, sincere looking smile is one of the best ways to look absolutely sinister. The big wide kind, and where the lower eyelids round upward. CREEPY.
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Verily, Mr. Parcelan doth proclaim:
He always told us that stuffing people into woodchippers was his fulltime job.
I tell you what you want to hear.
Because my true job would drive you all mad.
It's not something people hear about.
quote:
So quoth Sean:
I tell you what you want to hear.Because my true job would drive you all mad.
Lube Tech.
Everything I say here is my personal opinion, whether right or wrong.Anything dramatic is going to take away from your subtle villainly.
The two things I find to be the most subtly threatening for villains are their eyes or their smiles. Combinations of the two are even better. One of my favorite movie villains was the guy with the glass eye in Last Action Hero. In a movie that took itself more seriously, he would have been even more awesome. A disarming or slight smile can be made to look almost psychoticly threatening if you wanted it to.
Another thing to consider is someone who has absolute control over their emotions, as well. If your villain has sudden explosions and people dying all around her, then she turns around without the slightest flinch and smirks as she walks to her escape and what not, that can be pretty impressive.
Then again, a lot of this is cliche and as Karnaj said, you can't really escape anything cliche. It basically becomes the presentation and how everything is laid out, less so than the archtype.
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Kaiote wrote, obviously thinking too hard:
Lube Tech.
Only part time! 
It's not something people hear about.
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This insanity brought to you by Sean:
Only part time!
I smell nachos.
You want to make your villain really subtly scary? Leave his whole face visible, but make it hard to see, as if he's always standing in bad lighting.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
