My teacher's a panda
I suppose it makes sense. There are those that believe that in a world where good and evil must be balanced, evil is just a necessary...evil. The world needs some evil, or else things will be too easy on everybody. People will become too complacent and weak. They need some evil to keep them on their toes and to keep things lively and interesting. They'll probably know that in the end, good will triumph, and they accept it and continue anyway because they know that they'll just playing their part.
In his own words, it might sound something like "Why do I do this? Why? You know those stories? The nice little bedtime lies you were told about how good things happen to good people? The guy who lives in a nicer house than you, has a better job and a hotter wife? He must be the best guy, right? And the bum down the road? Probably the worst person. We all know its lies. I saw bad things happen again and again to people because they were far to nice to take control. It wasn't for me. We both know that good doesn't work out for you like evil does. I've just got the guts to do something about it. Why am I evil? Because I'm better than you. Why am I better than you? Because I'm evil. Take a walk on the wild-side, kid. It's quicker route, with better scenery."
Basic 'The Wages of sin are death, but the hours are easy, and the perks are great' stuff.
I've met some real people who chose to do bad, and it's not that they feel the thing isn't wrong. It's more that they feel like no matter how hard they try to be good, they'll never get acceptance, so they go 'screw this, I'll be what they seem to want me to be'. One of these people had undiagnosed ADHD, and was constantly being punished for things he couldn't help. The other one had a psychopathic father who abused him and trained him to abuse others, and he felt the world owed him and why should he be good when no one had been good to him? (Sadly, by the time he found people who really did want the best for him, he'd forgotten how to love anyone.)
Most people who do bad things deliberately, knowing they're bad, seem to be people who've decided they can't be good and will get nothing but pain from trying.
If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.
Short Hair
Some people do things because they're considered the opposite of what is expected. I think most schools of philosophy arose because someone said, "I refuse to think like everyone else."
Some people steal because they have no choice. They can't get work and their children are hungry. They drink or take drugs first to get their nerve up.
Some people lie and cheat because they think they can get away with it. They're smarter or better than everyone else. Con men and pyramid schemers never expect to get caught, but they get greedy. "One more job, then we quit it...."
Under World. It rocks!
It's kinda hard to understand exactly what you're trying to do when you don't define ^Evil^ and ^Wrong^.
Sounds like you're just creating characters with unconventional personal dictionaries. Which, IMO, is not that interesting. The posts above me have more interesting content.
Blegh not what I meant to say. Anyway, I meant to say that definitely do avoid Blue-and-Orange Morality, having their moral system as a mysterious black box comes off as lazy, I think.
I also want to bring up the possibility of a nihilistic villain. Instead of having weird morals they go with the simple Might Makes Right: 'There is only power and those too weak to seek it.' Which is what RP Genius said, I guess.
edited 18th Apr '11 3:25:33 PM by melloncollie
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
I've previously seen this approached in three ways: Noble Demon, Balance Between Good and Evil, and Blue-and-Orange Morality. The first is simple, but something of a cop-out. The second can be done well, particularly if we replace straight-up "good" and "evil" with "order" and "chaos," but usually it gets botched horribly. The third I've only really seen done well in Freefall, where the alien Sam acts in a manner that would be considered heroic on his home planet, but violates the social order amongst humans. In theory, the Zero-Approval Gambit could go here as well—when the heroes are busy beating each other up, you come in and force them to unite to survive.
Edit: Forgot Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad. That sounds closest to what you're talking about.
edited 18th Apr '11 3:21:50 PM by feotakahari
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
^ They potholed that, actually. But I feel that that trope's easy to do in a way that's cheesy or gimmicky.
Alright, that’s an oxymoron, but bear with me.
I have no set character in mind but I think it would be an interesting idea to look at a Card-Carrying Villain from a subjective morality approach.
Going by the thesis that no-one realizes they are doing anything wrong, a Card-Carrying Villain does the wrong thing because they think it’s the right thing to do.Oh sure they’d rant and rave about how diabolically EEEEEEEVIL they are and would take ten minutes out of their day to steal from babies, but while they consider these acts as ^Evil^, theydon’t consider them ^Wrong^. Basically, they don’t rob banks For the Evulz, they rob banks because they find the idea of just leaving it be morally rehensible.
Can anyone else see where I’m going with this? And has any ideas on what moral rules they might follow?
{Such as “I am compelled to do evil…” }