Created a Monster

I had read stories on how perfectly normal or even shy indiividuals become monsters due someone's influence. Urasawa's Monster is the most prominent example but could the character could become a villain due to hanging out out with wrong crowd? I had a thought in my mind a character was corrupted by a villain into being evil but the villain realized he succeeded too well and the victim ends up becoming the big bad. What do you think?

edited 8th Jan '11 10:47:09 AM by G.G.

Gone Horribly Right? Yeah, it's a common, accepted trope all right.

I once wrote a story where humanity created artificial Superman to prevent the looming end of the world, only to find that they were mistaken about the whole "looming end of the world" part. So the "Superman", with his sole purpose in existence void, sets out to bring about the Armaggedon himself...

edited 8th Jan '11 2:24:52 PM by Koveras

It's also a good way to immediately establish the threat level of the new villain, as well as showing how flawed the old one can be if he doesn't foresee certain consequences.

Go for it.

I also often herd the catchphrase "I created a monster!", used even metaphorically from someone who, while in the best intentions, made another person as mean as powerful.

There's no reason you can't do it, or even do it well. Obviously, you want to decide just how you want to play it. There are many tropes on either side of whether or not you want the victim turned monster to be sympathetic/tragic/etc.

Especially if you want to make it a Start of Darkness or even play the old favorite, Revenge.

I've been working on a project where part of the underlying background is that one of the villians created a monster completely unintentionally, and the monster is more then happy to repay them in kind.

edited 10th Jul '12 1:26:44 PM by hpl