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Glad to hear that the video is helpful on your own writing journey - best of luck with that. Creating a villain can sometimes be just as captivating as creating the hero 🙂
I have a really short-sight for villains, and the reason is that when they're present they're beasts or monsters to defeat, an evil God, or opposite sides/factions with their own ideologies thinking the other side is the evil one. Ironically enough I invest more of my time with anti-heroes protagonists. Never tried a cursed villain, I think it'll be fun. Thank you for giving me a new ideia!
Thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback - it's always encouraging to hear when one of my videos is able to spark inspiration in someone (or help in any other kind of way) 🙂 And yes, writing a cursed villain can be fun 😀
Oh my god, this opened up sooooo many doors for me 😮😮😮 thanks so much! I was so lost as to what to do with my bad guy, but making him cursed (and ironically so) was the best idea! Thanks man 😁👌✨
@@TheTaleTinkerer hehe, then go get some. I'm sure there's a couple FLGS (friendly local gaming store) that hosts game night a few nights each week. It's a great, face to face social event that crosses all kinds of demographics.
I'm imagining a Dark Lord type figure who eats mac and cheese. The more wealth and power he gains, the more he is able to feed his horrible addiction to mac and cheese.
A favorite example of (funcionally) cursed villains (who start out as anti-heroes...arguably, two of them remain anti-heroes) of the Midas type: the Feanorians from the Silmarillion. They are a family that swear an unbreakable Oath in order to get vengence on the god that killed their grandfather, wreaked havoc in their homeland, and stole their father's greatest creations, but the Oath turns out to be their greatest curse as it forces them to fight against and murder their own kin when those kin get one of their father's creations away from the god. They end up causing three major genocides. Really tragic stuff.
Thank you for the video. In one of my wip projects, my protagonist is possessed by two entities at once and balancing them out is the key for the protagonist to survive and maintain powers ^;..;^
My villain is... sort of cursed. It's complicated. Essentially, the whole race he comes from suffers from a 6,000 year-old curse (this also includes the main protagonist and a few other major characters). But where most of their people have embraced and learned to work with the curse, the antagonist is driven by his fear of death and how the curse can make death even more terrifying if one subscribes to certain beliefs about the afterlife.
Hey Sascha, das gibt n Like. Erst dachte ich, meh, nicht mein Video, da ich primär Fantasy ohne Magie schreibe, aber irgendwann kam mir ne Romanidee^^' Toll, jetzt muss ich zumindest mal die Idee aufschreiben :D Danke :)
I love cursed characters. My mmc is cursed (inspired by Jekyll/Hyde combined with Wendigo) and the light of light of life is unknowingly bound to him. The darkest powered king and the Goddess of Creation could not destroy one another so my mmc and fmc are cursed to continue the same abusive cycle unless they find a way to break or alter it. Best thing is, no relic or magic breaks it. Death just passes the curse down to someone else. If the curse isn't fixed, the realms and every living thing will die brutally or live in imternal agony. LOVED writing the internal and external struggles. I want more dark fantasy books with cursed characters that aren't easily cured.
"Jekyll/Hyde combined with Wendigo" - that sounds like a very interesting combination. Care to share a bit more what features/traits you picked here? 🙂
@@TheTaleTinkerer The curse is layered. So the goddess cursed him by putting a dark being inside of him who he calls the Beast. They communicate through their shared mind. The Beast pushed Gaelin to choose a dark path when Gaelin tries to hold onto the light. The Beast is more wicked than Gaelin and takes over when Gaelin is weakened causing Gaelin's body to change. In the book he's described as, "... a tall creature with large, thick antlers that looked longer than my arms... The bizarre creature had gray and thin hair, and its pale skin, the color of slate, was taut, seemingly stuck to the bones. On some areas of its body, it looked as if the skin had been ripped off, revealing bone. On its fingers were long, thin claws.... There were black holes where eyes should have been. The corner of its lips nearly touched the gaping holes where ears were supposed to be. Small, curved horns lined his forehead like a crown. " He becomes a cannibal and destroys everything within sight. The cannibalism is the Beast's curse as well because he wasn't that way before. If Gaelin doesn't feed the Beast, worse things happen. There's another layer to the curse but because the book is out, I rather not spoil it. ☺ Also I've been enjoying binging your videos! New subscriber here!
Wroting my first book now (about 300pgs in now) and My plan is to have one of my deuteragonists to go down the path of the Anti-Villain, using his magic affinity as more of a curse, so this video could NOT have come at a better time! Danke Sascha!
I am totally stealing "strategic level cursing" for one of the nations in my story. It is going to replace the overdone necromancer citadel. There are some real story goldmines to the idea of a nation that defends itself with the rattlesnake gambit of retributive curses.
It depends how you define "curse" in sci-fi, meaning, does it still have a magical origin or not? One example otherwise - that is more scientific - would be Stargate SG:1 where O'Neill is aging quickly and almost dying due to a "curse" that in the end was revealed as an infection of nano-technology. Engineered viruses and time loops could be other forms of "curses" that could work in a similar way here. Hope this helps somehow 🙂
Interesting example to think of considering that he isn't actually cursed in the literal sense, but there certainly are elements of a cursed villain that fit here, yes, including triggers, inner conflict etc. :-)
@@TheTaleTinkerer Exactly! I really like your videos a lot, but you often focus too exclusively on fantasy and magic without really considering how those exact same themes and ideas can be applied in a much less fantastical or magical setting yet still be every bit as powerful as their magical counterparts.
Wasn't the matriarchal version of Medusa that Athena gave her the ability to turn men to stone with her gaze so she could protect herself? And we just got stuck with the patriarchal one cuz reasons?
@@TheTaleTinkerer no need for that You do a good job and you have a good reason for it. As someone who didnt have a family growing up i know how scarring and lonely it is. Enjoy them. I help when i can😉😄
If you're on your own writing or worldbuilding journey, make sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter which is packed with practical advice and strategies on key elements, from character development and plot structuring to creating immersive fantasy worlds: thetaletinkerer.com/newsletter
After decades reading fantasy, I'm writing my own, and my ultimate villain follows all of your points. Now I know I'm on the right track.
Glad to hear that the video is helpful on your own writing journey - best of luck with that. Creating a villain can sometimes be just as captivating as creating the hero 🙂
@@TheTaleTinkerer it's been incredibly funny.
This could also be really fun for making a hero whose goal is to break his own curse. This is some really good stuff! Thank you!
Glad to hear it sparked some inspiration for you - and yes, that does sound like an intriguing story. Good luck with that 🙂
@@TheTaleTinkerer thank you!
I have a really short-sight for villains, and the reason is that when they're present they're beasts or monsters to defeat, an evil God, or opposite sides/factions with their own ideologies thinking the other side is the evil one. Ironically enough I invest more of my time with anti-heroes protagonists. Never tried a cursed villain, I think it'll be fun. Thank you for giving me a new ideia!
Thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback - it's always encouraging to hear when one of my videos is able to spark inspiration in someone (or help in any other kind of way) 🙂
And yes, writing a cursed villain can be fun 😀
I love your channel man, I'm using so many of your tips in the first book of my series. Huge thank you 💪🏻
Thank you for the kind words - such feedback is really encouraging to hear 🙂
Oh my god, this opened up sooooo many doors for me 😮😮😮 thanks so much! I was so lost as to what to do with my bad guy, but making him cursed (and ironically so) was the best idea! Thanks man 😁👌✨
Glad to hear the video was helpful, have fun writing 🙂
That was a good explanation. Thank you. I will remember it.
Glad to hear there was something useful for you in the video - thanks for taking the time to leave your feedback 🙂
Love it. Great food for thought, to come up with my next d&d campaign arc.
Glad to hear that you found something useful in the video. Have fun with the campaign. Bit envious here, been ages since I played some tabletop rpgs 🙂
@@TheTaleTinkerer hehe, then go get some. I'm sure there's a couple FLGS (friendly local gaming store) that hosts game night a few nights each week. It's a great, face to face social event that crosses all kinds of demographics.
I'm imagining a Dark Lord type figure who eats mac and cheese. The more wealth and power he gains, the more he is able to feed his horrible addiction to mac and cheese.
A favorite example of (funcionally) cursed villains (who start out as anti-heroes...arguably, two of them remain anti-heroes) of the Midas type: the Feanorians from the Silmarillion. They are a family that swear an unbreakable Oath in order to get vengence on the god that killed their grandfather, wreaked havoc in their homeland, and stole their father's greatest creations, but the Oath turns out to be their greatest curse as it forces them to fight against and murder their own kin when those kin get one of their father's creations away from the god. They end up causing three major genocides. Really tragic stuff.
Thank you for the video. In one of my wip projects, my protagonist is possessed by two entities at once and balancing them out is the key for the protagonist to survive and maintain powers ^;..;^
So three personalities fighting for the same body? That sounds like a complex character to develop - best of luck with that 🙂
My villain is... sort of cursed. It's complicated.
Essentially, the whole race he comes from suffers from a 6,000 year-old curse (this also includes the main protagonist and a few other major characters). But where most of their people have embraced and learned to work with the curse, the antagonist is driven by his fear of death and how the curse can make death even more terrifying if one subscribes to certain beliefs about the afterlife.
I had imagined a kingdom that uses beneficial "curses" to mass-manufacture Super-Soldiers whonare immune to enemy tactical curses (1-Curse Limit).
Hey Sascha, das gibt n Like.
Erst dachte ich, meh, nicht mein Video, da ich primär Fantasy ohne Magie schreibe, aber irgendwann kam mir ne Romanidee^^' Toll, jetzt muss ich zumindest mal die Idee aufschreiben :D
Danke :)
Schön zu hören, dass es am Ende doch für einen Like gereicht hat - viel Spaß mit der Romanidee :-)
I love cursed characters. My mmc is cursed (inspired by Jekyll/Hyde combined with Wendigo) and the light of light of life is unknowingly bound to him. The darkest powered king and the Goddess of Creation could not destroy one another so my mmc and fmc are cursed to continue the same abusive cycle unless they find a way to break or alter it. Best thing is, no relic or magic breaks it. Death just passes the curse down to someone else. If the curse isn't fixed, the realms and every living thing will die brutally or live in imternal agony. LOVED writing the internal and external struggles.
I want more dark fantasy books with cursed characters that aren't easily cured.
"Jekyll/Hyde combined with Wendigo" - that sounds like a very interesting combination. Care to share a bit more what features/traits you picked here? 🙂
@@TheTaleTinkerer The curse is layered. So the goddess cursed him by putting a dark being inside of him who he calls the Beast. They communicate through their shared mind. The Beast pushed Gaelin to choose a dark path when Gaelin tries to hold onto the light. The Beast is more wicked than Gaelin and takes over when Gaelin is weakened causing Gaelin's body to change. In the book he's described as,
"... a tall creature with large, thick antlers that looked longer than my arms...
The bizarre creature had gray and thin hair, and its pale skin, the color of slate, was taut, seemingly stuck to the bones. On some areas of its body, it looked as if the skin had been ripped off, revealing bone. On its fingers were long, thin claws....
There were black holes where eyes should have been. The corner of its lips nearly touched the gaping holes where ears were supposed to be. Small, curved horns lined his forehead like a crown. "
He becomes a cannibal and destroys everything within sight. The cannibalism is the Beast's curse as well because he wasn't that way before. If Gaelin doesn't feed the Beast, worse things happen. There's another layer to the curse but because the book is out, I rather not spoil it. ☺
Also I've been enjoying binging your videos! New subscriber here!
@@WynterRyot Thank you for the support 🙂
Your cursed character sounds intriguing, I really like the spin on things you took here.
Wroting my first book now (about 300pgs in now) and My plan is to have one of my deuteragonists to go down the path of the Anti-Villain, using his magic affinity as more of a curse, so this video could NOT have come at a better time! Danke Sascha!
Glad that I could be of help here, and of course best of luck with your book 🙂
I am totally stealing "strategic level cursing" for one of the nations in my story. It is going to replace the overdone necromancer citadel. There are some real story goldmines to the idea of a nation that defends itself with the rattlesnake gambit of retributive curses.
Go for it, glad to hear there was some inspiration for you to find 🙂
Is there a way to apply this to a sci-fi villain? What would be an example of a sci-fi curse?
It depends how you define "curse" in sci-fi, meaning, does it still have a magical origin or not? One example otherwise - that is more scientific - would be Stargate SG:1 where O'Neill is aging quickly and almost dying due to a "curse" that in the end was revealed as an infection of nano-technology. Engineered viruses and time loops could be other forms of "curses" that could work in a similar way here. Hope this helps somehow 🙂
From a certain point of view, Anakin as Darth Vader is a cursed villain.
Interesting example to think of considering that he isn't actually cursed in the literal sense, but there certainly are elements of a cursed villain that fit here, yes, including triggers, inner conflict etc. :-)
@@TheTaleTinkerer Exactly! I really like your videos a lot, but you often focus too exclusively on fantasy and magic without really considering how those exact same themes and ideas can be applied in a much less fantastical or magical setting yet still be every bit as powerful as their magical counterparts.
Wasn't the matriarchal version of Medusa that Athena gave her the ability to turn men to stone with her gaze so she could protect herself? And we just got stuck with the patriarchal one cuz reasons?
Relevant and Supportive Comment to feed the Algorangim
A wholehearted thanks in response as always 🙂 Really appreciate the support, thank you.
@@TheTaleTinkerer no need for that
You do a good job and you have a good reason for it. As someone who didnt have a family growing up i know how scarring and lonely it is. Enjoy them.
I help when i can😉😄