Deconstructing "Wouldn't Hit A Girl"

This was just a small little thought experiment I made up for myself. I've already got the male hero down who's defining trait is that he's a police officer who accidentally killed an innocent woman while on duty and unfortunately made the bad promise of not hurting another woman as long as he lived. My only snag comes in the form of the villainess: What kind of person should she be? Should I make her hideous yet sympathetic human being or should I make her an elegant, enigmatic monster? I'm also thinking of taking apart the Designated Catfight trope in that the hero's own girlfriend reluctantly tries to take down the woman but is killed before the hero's very eyes. Thoughts?

Just have a female villain exploit the hell out of the trope.

I probably won't get much mileage out of a villain whose only advantage is this trope.

The hero not only accidentally killed his daughter chasing after his arch-nemesis, which prompted him to never hurt another female, but when his arch-nemesis was spying on the hero, he discovered this vow and decided to take full advantage of it by making a combat android that looks and acts just like his daughter, believing that it will break the hero's mind and render him unable to fight back.

I'm inclined towards the 'elegant monster' over the sympathetic one.

If someone is sympathetic then it makes it easier to undertstand, and thus resist, hitting them.

If they're not then there's a lot more willpower involved.

That seems a little out there and would remove the woman as a real threat. Just subdue the android and reprogram her. I'd rather have the hero and the villainess have no real connections other than him trying to stop her. She's already beaten the system by being uncontainable (every prison she has gone to has been reduced to smoldering ruins).

Good point.

edited 6th Jan '11 1:06:54 AM by SandJosieph

Wait, the hero is NOT supposed to break his promise? I thought it was about him gathering the willpower to actually harm a woman.

I can take this story either way. On one hand I like happy, uplifting stories yet for some reason, I don't mind making this a tragic story.

Just because a girl is the one who affected him doesn't mean he would associate and any all females under the same category. Why wouldn't he associated other categories of who he would not be able to attack?

What if the hero is Monk-level obsessive-compulsive, and he is literally incapable of hurting a girl once he swears to it?

I'm taking this for granted- a normal person would forget such a promise the moment a woman becomes a threat.

However, reading the OP again, his reason for making such an oath seems weak. He killed an innocent woman while on duty. Why did he make such a promise after that? I mean, the fact that she was a woman had nothing to do with the incident. It would seem more logical for him to resign or swear to never kill anybody again. But "I accidentally killed a woman, therefore I won't hurt any woman again" doesn't make much sense to me. Perhaps it would if he killed her with his own hands, brutally beating her while deep down enjoying himself. After the event, he thinks about it and concludes that her death was the direct result of him going too far, forgetting about his duty and just enjoying a good beating of a defenseless woman.

Something like that would appear way more believable to me.

Hmm...that does sound far more plausible than my idea. However, since this is a deconstruction, I have to keep the hero in the Wouldn't Hit a Girl mindset.

edited 6th Jan '11 12:12:06 PM by SandJosieph

I like the daughter-android idea. Use it, or I'll use it!

Go ahead and use it. The reason I'm not going to use it is because it offers an all too convenient way out for the hero (reprogramming the android to a more benign mode). My scenario requires the hero to actually kill the woman.

Why does the android have to be reprogrammable?

Anything that can programmed can be reprogrammed. But either way, I'd prefer that it be a human woman as the main antagonist, not some dragon who serves the real villain. And I find it more alluring that she works alone and only mocks the man's unwillingness to hurt a woman rather than use it as an advantage. She's not out for power or money; she just wants to destroy.

The main problem is that the man could always just detain the woman and have her sent to a maximum security prison, which would effectively negate his need to actually cause her harm. So the woman has to be something of an enigma if even the justice system can't contain her. Meaning the only way anybody is safe from her is if she's dead.

edited 10th Jan '11 4:43:15 PM by SandJosieph

In regards to OP: You could also deconstruct it the easy way and make him a massive chauvinist.