What Kind Of Villain Is Best Suited For This?

The story I'm writing focuses on a series of grisly murders in which groups of people, sometimes even buildings of them, are found maimed and torn apart. The killer is never caught by any security cameras and leaves absolutely no physical evidence, not even a murder weapon. From a forensics point of view, the crime scene is always completely clean.

So to help track down this invisible killer, they enlist the aid of an imprisoned teen genius and oracle, Matthew. Matthew is presented as a highly fatalistic person, choosing to believe that even if you stop one thing from going wrong, another will fail in its place. Throughout the story, Matthew is portrayed as knowing everything there is to know about the murders, but also as holding something back.

My question is, what kind of killer is best for this? I was thinking a cosmic horror sort of antagonist, but I don't know for sure what fits best here.

Well you seemed to have given the protagonist a very clean precise view of the world. In his mind, so it seems, everything connects. Events can't be stopped. Everything seems planned. Why not create an antagonist who challenges this world view? A character who believes that everything is random, serves no inherent purpose and even admits that theres no real reason that he does what he does? Not only do you create an interesting foil for your character but you add a discussion which you can add your own views through minor characters.

You mean the Joker?

...ill be quiet

The Joker? Hey, that wouldn't be a half-bad starting point.

What about a serious "Joker"?

That is, a character who believes in the chaos and randomness of life and chooses to share with the world, through serial killing. Like some sort of half-genius who understand the mathematics of Chaos Theory, but misunderstands the principles behind it. Perhaps this character wants to be a cosmic horror? And is attempting to bring the universe into a state chaotic enough to allow that to happen? Or maybe they claim to have been a cosmic horror, and perhaps they know more about the world, and how to effect it, than the heroes belive? Madman, or Only Sane Man?

Then, you've got to answer the question, what does this Matthew know about the killer that he isn't saying? A cosmic horror himself? Or something worse?

edited 29th May '11 2:05:47 AM by DudemanThingface

I don't think chaos theory means what you think it means.

Chaos theory = the study of the butterfly effect, yes?

Because a villain with a fascination with that could potentially be pretty interesting. You know, one who commits murders just to see how extreme the consequences are.

So he would kill someone in Europe and then a while later a hurricane hits America because this European was originally going on holiday to the Amazon for butterfly catching but because he's dead now he fails to catch the butterfly that would have caused the hurricane not to form?

It wouldn't really make sense.

^ No, it's more like For Want Of A Nail. He'll be fascinated by how randomly killing someone could ripple out and affect the people that person interacted with.

But wouldnt that tie in with Matthew's own ideas?

Not necessarily. If I'm reading the OP right, Matthew's conception of fate appears to be linear and objective, something which humans can't influence. If you prevent a murder, it doesn't matter, because somebody else will be murdered anyway.

Whereas a For Want Of A Nail-obsessed villain would believe that humans (or whatever species the villain is) could have a powerful influence over the future, and just the slightest change has massive consequences.

The thing is, unless you can look into alternate universes or the society is based around prophecies or something, there is no way of knowing that you circumvented what was "intended by fate." Every attempt to change things could be, in itself, fated to occur.

Only if the villain believed in fate from the start. Otherwise it's just action —> consequences.

Hmmm. All good ideas. I especially like the butterfly effect one. A villain with the mind and means to commit atrocities just to see what would happen. In turn, this madman's constant state of flux would make predicting the future more difficult for Matthew, since he can see all possible outcomes but has to guess which one they'll take.