How do you write a Bully Hunter?

I am writing a Slice of Life story with a heroic Dark Chick (if possible) and wanted to know how other than having the character take out bullies.

This Dark Chick is a Bully Hunter with a case of Dark Is Not Evil and Loners Are Freaks, but despite her friendliness, she is rather aloof and of course, her "darkness" intimidates others. She, too, had been bullied, and had lost a friend to such torment, leading to her Start of Darkness.

Fighting-wise, she would be considered more of a strategist, but in terms of combat, even though she can defend herself, one wouldn't call her an full-out action girl. However, she is willing to fight dirty, which is a big justification when facing the superpowered bullies. However, there are instances where she does lose, seeing that fighting isn't her forte. However, because of this, she is not a Faux Action Girl.

Isn't the Dark Chick a type of villain characterised by being the odd one out amongst the Five Bad Band? How would having one as a main character even work, let alone a hero?

Also, how do you want to portray her habit of going after bullies - as a virtue, or a flaw? Because Bully Hunter, as a trope, is basically 'underaged vigilante'.

You're right. I don't even know what was I even thinking for having a Dark Chick as a hero. My apologies.

She sees bully hunting as a virtue and that it's something that has to be done.

Your use of the terms "Slice of Life" and "Superpowered bullies" in conjunction bamboozles me. Do you mean "Slice of Life" in a manner similar to the webcomic Questionable Content, which is day-to-day except for the robots, mad scientists, and space stations? Were you using "superpowered" figuratively? Knowing the general tone you're shooting for could be helpful.

Sorry. I had copied and pasted this from one of my older posts, so I should have taken out the superpower part. It's just modern time.

So, just to be clear... you're asking for ideas on how to portray how someone goes after bullies other than simply beating up a bully, right?

Well, the one that immediately jumps out at me is by applying the concept that bullies are only able to bully if s/he has a psychological hold over the person being bullied - e.g. the one getting bullied is afraid of the bully. In which case, the Bully Hunter takes bullies out by humiliating them to the point the bully is no longer able to intimidate others.

But since you mention that this character of yours is more of a strategist, she could manipulate others into doing the deeds for her. For instance, there's bound to be more than one bully in the story/setting. So, rather than confronting one after the other, she pits them against one another to 'thin the herd', so to speak. Meaning, she's planning more for the long game rather than the short. Of course, this would be trickier to write but that's the trouble about writing clever strategists - they can only be as strategic and clever as you, the writer, are.

edited 22nd Jul '12 10:21:39 PM by peasant

Thank you. What if she's an Action Girl? She's a Combat Pragmatist, so I guess it's more of a Groin Attack Kick Chick.

She sees bully hunting as a virtue and that it's something that has to be done.

OK, that's how she sees it. Well, obviously, that's how she sees it, because it's pretty unlikely that she would be doing it if she didn't think it would be a good idea.

Now, how do you, as the author, see it?

Agreed. The tone you're aiming for would help dictate your character's methodology.

For instance, if you want to depict her actions as negative and pathological, she can adopt a Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight approach (i.e. use a gun on the bullies, who aren't generally armed), kidnapping and berating them while showing the bullies pictures of their past actions and/or consequences, before playing Judge, Jury, and Executioner by deciding if the bully deserves to die for his/her past actions or not (the answer is usually yes).

For a more positive spin, she could instead do much the same of ambushing/abducting the bullies and forcing them to realise the consequences of their actions in order to Scare 'Em Straight and get the bullies to turn over a new leaf (as opposed to a precursor for their execution).

edited 23rd Jul '12 6:28:59 PM by peasant

Hell, you don't even have to kill the bullies for the hunting to be a bad thing, so long as the punishment is disproportionate to the crime. Vigilante justice isn't known for its precision, either - if you're operating on your own, outside the law, there's a good chance that you'll end up hurting the innocent along with the guilty.

I have two different BullyHunters in two separate stories, both portrayed very differently.

One of them is a protective older brother who used to take beatings on behalf of his younger brother because his younger brother (undiagnosed autistic) used to unintentionally annoy their abusive father. After they ended up in foster care, he redirects his attention to being a Bully Hunter, taking beatings on behalf of bullied kids. And then one day a bully breaks his hand on the protagonist's face, and the protagonist doesn't suffer so much as a scratch, which leads the kid to redirect his protective instinct into superheroism.

The other Bully Hunter is played less positively. She's a mage in a setting where all mages are dangerous because the use of magic is addictive. In her case, her power is Mind Control, and she first uses this to incite the entire class into rebellion against a mean teacher. Then, when a popular girl starts bullying her a bit too much, she decides to convince the girl that she's going nuts by making her hallucinate. Unfortunately, the girl has a genetic susceptibility to mental illness and starts going insane for real because the mind control triggered something. The mind mage girl has to deal with her horror at what she's done and figure out a way to control her desire to use mind magic so she doesn't hurt anyone else. (She ends up finding a serial killer who is a death mage, and because she understands what it's like, she manages to help the death mage stop killing.)

When the guy in my avatar gained PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!!!, one of the first things he did was stalk and hunt down his old tormentors. He inflicted grievous bodily harm and psychological torment but didn`t kill them. He explicitly stated that "leaving [them] alone" would make him the better man (it probably didn`t).

Thank you everyone for the advice. As of now, seeing that action is more of my speciality, the Bully Hunter will be an Action Girl. Other than her fighting bullies from time to time, I don't know what else to add to that.

That honestly doesn't sound very slice of life.