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An impossible question...


  • Sousuke
    Jul 24 8:47 PM
    Reply
    How do you defeat a villain that's perfect in every way? Such as the Joker in Batman. He always has a backup plan that's infallible. He's smart, devious, and always one step ahead. How do you beat him and still keep up that kind of reputation? That's the difficulty I face at the moment =/

  • Oddities
    July 25
    Reply

    you could always

    ditch the hollywood rulebook and let teh bad guy actually win.

  • Pyro Fish
    July 25
    Reply
    yes
    let the bad guy win
    that would be such a cool thing to do in the superhero genre

  • Sousuke
    July 25
    Reply
    Well actually he kinda will. I want the good guys to win, but not totally. idk how to explain it x]

  • Pyro Fish
    July 26
    Reply
    you want to make it like a pyrric victory type thing?
    maybe something more entertaining/realistic than the hero difinitively winning

  • yoshi97
    July 27
    Reply
    My advice ... go with a tragic win.

    Let the good guys win, but have them sacrifice something meaningful to them to succeed.

    In the original Star Wars movie, the Death Star is destroyed by Luke Skywalker, but in the process he loses a mentor and a friend (Obiwan Kenobi).

    He succeeds in saving the day, but tragically loses on a personal level.



    Now, back to your situation. Have the good guys put into a situation where they are asked to make a heavy sacrifice to win. The bad guy thinks he has his bases covered, as he expects the good guys incapable of the sacrifice ... however, the good guys will make the sacrifice, assuming it is what they must do to set things right.

    MAKE SURE you show the effects of the sacrifice on the good guys, or this technique won't work. Too many stories use this idea, showing the good guys all happy in the end, forgetting what they sacrificed to achieve their goal. A sacrifice isn't real to the reader, unless they feel it through the characters.

    • Pyro Fish
      July 27
      Reply
      this makes me think of the death of gwen stacy in the main marvel continuity, Spiderman ends up with Gwen Stacy dead becuase of him rescuing 20 or 30 random people in a trolly car suspended over the bridge, where Gwen has to die in order for a somewhat large number of people to live, also the end of Star Trek 2 the Wrath of Khan where Spock kills himself in order to save the ship

      • GuitarShank
        July 27
        Reply
        Or how about Armageddon? Where Bruce Willis blew himself up to save the whole freaking planet.

        • Pyro Fish
          July 29
          Reply
          yeah
          something like that would make a good "the death of [insert name of superhero here]" type story

  • Oddities
    July 27
    Reply

    lol

    teh classic christian ending.

    you could always go for the morality flip, and kidnap the bad guys wife / child / pet to draw him into teh final showdown.

    The second season of 24 went for someting like that when they held teh terrorist's family hostage to make him talk. Ofc, its an american show, so they chickened out at the end, and it turned out it was all just a dream.

  • Barbara
    July 27
    Reply
    To borrow from 'The Magic School Bus', and Ms. Frizzle - "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"

    Sometimes... sigh... sometimes... the 'good guy' isn't as good as he thinks, and breaks his own moral code just to get the job done. Although, that would tie in with yosh's 'sacrificing something meaningful' to win.
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