Pushing a villain over the Moral Event Horizon

Hello everyone! Warning: This post contains major spoilers for a webcomic that I'm writing. You've been warned.

I've got an idea for one of my characters. I'm trying to cement my villain (A very ambitious, very powerful CIA agent named Seth Williams who's been assigned to take down La Résistance after a second American civil war) as a Chessmaster and Complete Monster.

Here's the idea: Seth will select a bunch of CIA troops (they have troops in this story) marked as either incompetent or potentially disloyal and disguise them as Resistance members, replace any CIA identification on the troops with NSA identification without their knowledge, and have them invade a hospital and take hostages while demanding some absurd concession from the government. When the government (obviously) refuses these concessions, the operatives start shooting hostages, including women and children, on Seth's orders. Meanwhile, Seth will do a bit of mass media manipulation make absolutely certain that the real Resistance is aware of this as it unfolds, counting on them to show up at the hospital for damage control. He assumes that in the resulting firefight, A) the real Resistance will win, and B) there will be many civilian casualties. Upon examining the corpses of the troops, they will find the NSA identification and hopefully launch a retaliatory strike against the NSA. If everything goes according to plan (which it will), the Resistance will either launch an all out assault on the NSA, or simply take out the director, plunging that agency into chaos. Seth uses a combination of the NSA's supposed display of ruthlessness/incompetence and a bit of blackmail to convince the President to eliminate the NSA and transfer all its powers to the CIA.

So, to recap: The Resistance loses massive support over a massacre that they didn't commit, Seth takes down a rival agency, and that agency's power and resources get transferred to his own.

I have 2 issues with this. First off, I'm not sure whether or not it qualifies as Moral Event Horizon. Second, I'm not sure how much I want to show Seth actually being involved in - I want just enough to set him up as a Chessmaster without showing the full extent of his meddling.

edited 24th Jun '11 8:54:56 PM by KyleJacobs

Umm, why would the CIA members agree to this? That sounds pretty suicidal, no matter how much influence Seth would have to cover them.

Several reasons.

First, the plan they've been given is "Fake Resistance shows up and starts making demands, government refuses, Fake Resistance shoots hostages, another CIA team under Seth's command stages a takedown, Fake Resistance makes their way out by hiding in the body bags." They don't know that Seth doesn't plan on sticking to the "staged" part, that the real Resistance is going to show up, or that Seth is going to slip NSA identification onto them.

Second, the CIA in the story is made up almost exclusively of people ranging from Well-Intentioned Extremist to full-blown Knight Templar who are willing to do just about anything to hurt the resistance, up to and including a False Flag Operation that includes shooting children and possibly a suicide mission.

Third, Seth is known as a Torture Technician who doesn't hesitate to punish his own men for questioning orders. This has led to at least one well-known-in-story Noodle Incident, as well as a major part of the back story for the series.

Fourth, they have no idea that they're on Seth's blacklist and as such feel that it's safer to just go with it.

edited 24th Jun '11 3:52:33 PM by KyleJacobs

He's an unrepentant torturer, murderer, and mass manipulator. He's already a Complete Monster by your own admission, so he's past the MEH.

Yes, that would definitely qualify as MEH for me. (That trope needs a better acronym. ) If you want to make Seth's degree of involvement unclear, maybe you could present it entirely from the perspective of either the Resistance or the patsy CIA agents.

From the sound of it, this guy is already over the MEH (yeah, terrible acronym). Were readers not supposed to know how bad he was before this point?

They know he's a generally evil bastard, but I've only hinted at how far he's willing to go to get what he wants. Everything I've shown him doing up to this point is evil, but not Moral Event Horizon worthy. He's crossed it well in advance of the plot kicking in, but this is where I want to communicate it to the reader.

Seth's shown involvement includes the following:

• Executing a wounded enemy militiaman during a Second Civil War
• Torturing the main character for information
• Massacring a bar full of civilians that a suspected Resistance operative frequents on the justification of "Potential Support for Terrorists" (note: the government considers this standard procedure).
• Brutally assassinating one of the Resistance's most valuable contacts

All of that is part of his job description. This is the first hint we get that he has a separate agenda.

edited 27th Jun '11 7:38:25 PM by KyleJacobs

1. Depends how you depict it. Is it a mercy-kill and does the villain think that it had to be done because there was no other way, or does he shout "Die filthy rat!" and brags about how he could find brains of his victim a few paces away?

2. Again, depends on the depiction and how he goes with it; some tortures are less of a ticket towards the MEH than others. If he rapes or horrible mutilates the MC he's going to be very evil. If it's impulsive violence like slapping his victim because he thinks he/she's lying he may be more redeemable (YMMV).

3. "It was an order" is not a good way to talk away your guilt, so that action is probably quite bad for his moral position.

4. Define brutal. Lots of sadism or just a bloody and gory manner because that is the easiest?

1. Wordless, but he looks extremely cold while doing it and went severely out of his way to make that kill as up close and personal as possible. Did I mention he's a Knife Nut? Also, the enemy in question is roughly 17. YMMV on whether or not that qualifies as a child soldier.

2. Electric Torture and many, many slices over the course of a month. Again, the guy is a Knife Nut.

3. That's what I'm thinking also.

4. Multiple stab wounds, kneecap shots, and writing "Traitor" on the wall in her blood just so that the Resistance would find her that way. Add to this the fact that she's an old friend (and maybe more than that) of the main character, and Seth knows that, and you start to get the idea.

edited 30th Jun '11 1:46:11 AM by KyleJacobs

[ [ quoteblock ] ]Your text[ [ quoteblock ] ] Leave out the spaces in the tags.

I think the villain is pretty much over the MEH in your case.