Help with Villain and Story Definitions

Hi all! I'm new around here, so I guess I should do some introducing myself. I've always been creative and it's a dream to become something like a game designer/screenwriter(?), and I really enjoyed the support of this site (which I got to know through game tropes, obviously). Sorry for the wall of text, too!

So, here's the deal: I have a story (which would eventually turn out to be a whole, long-run series if sucessful) and I have the villain for it. But I'm having trouble trying to define both of them.

Let's start with the story so there's some background for the villain. I don't know which genre fits a story that has both fantasy elements like Earth, Fire and Cosmos, but still no real magic (anything strange or uncommon that happens in it has or will have some sort of scientific explanation or, at most, divine intervention).

The villain himself is someone I can't really define by myself. First things first, he is motivated not by greed or power, but he truly desires the world was more fair. His main trait is that he is really smart and spent his entire life working on what he believe it would be better for the world. Through his friend's help, he could himself form a group of scientist devoted to his dream just like him. He also gave shelter for "traumatized" children (that suffered from similar experiences as himself) that would later develop into his best men at his service. The fact is that he would only kill if really necessary (and wouldn't feel good about), and wouldn't lie or betray any of his own men, because he doesn't have selfish desires and likes to be loyal, honorable and gentleman-ish as possible (That would be Mr. EvenEvilHasStandards for you). In fact, he's well aware people doesn't believe he will achieve anything like changing the world to the way he hope it could be, but he just ignore them rather than hunt down and kill them. Now I'll get somewhat deeper so it's hopefully better than illustrate. Since childhood he has been an avid student of alchemy, and he believes he will be able to change the world using it. After forming a group of alchemy scientist and studying for years long, he discovers there's actually a way to change history timeline entirely so he could hopefully recreates a world where he could wisely rule and give people equal rights and opportunities: Making an agreement with the God of Chaos itself, whose is oppose to the God of Time. By doing this pact, they're allowed to warp into a unmaterial dimension apart from the universe where Time rules themselves are not applied. Then, they break apart all the universe's possible timelines using alchemy (or rather "strong elemental magic channeled through sci-fi devices"), accidentally leaving just some small temporal sections unaltered (which would be later explorable by the heroes). More or less midway the story (and midway the heroes's progress), they manage to reconstruct a timeline so that they're in a world where they're seen as good rulers (which in fact they eventually would be). However, because the heroes know they ruined the original history, they still want to fight and oppose the villain (that, and also the fact that the God of Time himself told them to do that AND the fact that one of the heroes, namely, the protagonist's future self in disguise, made a deal with the villain so he can save his friend's future selves, too). In the end aka Final Battle, if the player has met certain circunstances, the villain will let himself be consumed by the God of Chaos in order to prevent the world from being unfair and cold like it has always been for him. The God of Chaos itself is a completely different characther who only strive to go against the God of Time

I want to make it so spectators get the feeling that there's no true Good or Evil and, through that thought, have some sympathy for the villain and agree he was indeed indeed noble and loyal.

I think he stands between an Evil Overlord and The Chessmaster, except he just LOOKS like a chessmaster (you know, grey stylish old-man hair and stuff like that), he's definitely NOT one because he won't lose focus of changing the world through time-manipulation to play with events, facts and people. He would rather have people do the dirty work for him, IF there is ever need to do it. He would prefer having lots of people devoted working on something he wants to accomplish than doing that alone or inducing other people do it for him. Finally, he would be what you could call "respectable".

So, any thoughts? You may also ask anything you need to in order to give your opinion more precisely, as I'll try to answer. Also, feel free to comment on the plot/story itself, I'd like to know what people currently thinks about it.

Explore more thoroughly what sort of things would happen if you just changed time. I find it highly unbelievable that, even through the use of "magic", a person would be able to go back in time and recreate a world where the only difference is that they're in charge. Every act in history (even horrible ones such as African slave trade, the Holocaust, Japanese rape camps, etc.) have made ripples throughout history to make the world what it is today. As an African-American, I can tell you that if my ancestors weren't enslaved and most probably raped by their captors, I would not exist today. And frankly, I don't care how much better the world would be without me. I like existing.

Instead of trying to ensure that your villain is liked, what I think you need to do is explore the implications of his plot a bit better.

Sounds like a Well-Intentioned Extremist to me. Also an Anti-Villain He most probably believes that Utopia Justifies the Means.

...I'm not sure what you mean when you say you want to "define" him, though. A character can't be fully described by tropes alone.

And what Zeal said. If you want him to appear sympathetic, have him be concerned about the consequences of his actions. Wich, no matter how you go about it, are going to be huge.

edited 18th Nov '10 10:34:52 AM by Dealan

Thanks for the support, guys!

As for Zeal's post, I forgot to mention it is set in a fictional world, not Earth itself, but with similar eras and stuff (talk about Chrono Trigger). When I meant he would "change" time, I didn't meant he would mess with the current timeline itself at some point, but rather have technology create a whole new one from the start. But, yeah, I have to agree that his intentions and ways to act are kinda weak and off, and I have a really hard time both trying to develop them better and trying to explain it to other people. ^^ Feel free to help me with some other more convincing intentions, if you feel like.

Dealan, I liked the tropes you came up for him, thanks. Now I can see which villains looks like the one I'm developing. And I have to say they are somewhat based in secret societies like Templars/Assasins and Organization XIII. I can sympathize, for example, with Master Xehanort's "the World's light and darkness are out of balance" thing, because that's exactly what he would think aswell. Also, I don't know whether that would be pointless or not, but his whole appearence (as well as some traits) were heavily based on Damon Gant, who's also an example of a Well Intentioned Extremist. Oh, and sorry about trying to "define" him through tropes It's that I was just worried if he could actually fit somewhere near a plausible villain. But yeah, that was kinda shameless, sorry! Also, I didn't get what you meant by "have him be concerned about the consequences of his actions". Could you give me an example? I don't exactly remember ever seeing a villain do that (or I just never bothered to notice), so I'm a bit lost, sorry.

edited 18th Nov '10 11:16:49 AM by Drezus

It is interesting, certainly. I've thought before, "We didn't create the system where the act of killing another being is rewarded with food; quit blaming us for your god's doing," and re-starting the universe seems like the only way to change this flawed system. It sounds like this story spawned from you having similar thoughts. This sounds very cool.

I have a few tips:

I suggest using a magical or divine term instead of a scientific term, because using a scientific term will increase the odds of someone being turned off by the supernatural in the story. If you use a magical or divine term you show that you're aware it isn't plausible, and that will probably put the skeptics at ease.

It's still important that the audience root for the protagonists to succeed. Some ideas on how to ensure this while making a sympathetic lead antagonist are to have a minor antagonist be pure evil, to highlight the lead protagonist's superior virtue relative to the lead antagonist's with an event, and to make the antagonist's means be cruel despite the beneficial endgoal.

I look forward to it.

I agree. I would have a secondary antagonist who is in an Enemy Mine situation with your heroes. The secondary also wants the world to remain unchanged- because he loves the horrible parts of the world, which your primary antagonist wants to erase.