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Yes, the police. And he would become an outlaw. Splendid.
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Well I thought so. 🙂
So Alex is an outlaw while Walter goes and gets a job in the government. Fantastic contrast. Hm… should we make this a sly commentary on governmental corruption? Just kidding. 😀
Now what? Walter works his way up the ranks, building an undercover army of his own terrorists (only of course he doesn’t call them that) all the while and preparing to take his revenge, but what is Alex doing all this while?
He is a solo, constantly evading capture. A master of every kind of trick, he can never be caught. In response, Walter will increase his own power and equally his own corruption.
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Okay. Great. Wonderful. I like this.
So when do we pick up? Maybe Alex hid his family before he went into the whole ‘outlaw’ business, and we pick up where Walter finally discovers where they are and decides to go after them. Serves them right, after all. They’re affiliated with terrorists.
Does Alex know of the meditated attack and try to stop it, or does he get the news too late?
Make him learn about the attack last minute and try to stop it, but fail. This will wise him up a bit and give him an element of sadness which will make him all the more interesting.
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Okay. Now when Walter carries out the raid on Alex’s family, let’s say he went there himself, though he didn’t do any of the work, and watched them burn the house and kill everyone in it. We can have him standing there watching, and hearing all the screams and shouts and cries for mercy, and maybe turning white and sick inside, but doing nothing to stop it. That will solidify that he’s maybe not all the way bad at heart, but he’s so bitter he’ll do anything for revenge.
Maybe, as a good emotional moment for our cloth symbol, we can have him clutch at it unconsciously, then realize what he’s doing and let go of it like it burned him as he realizes he’s clutching at his mother’s memory at the same time he’s killing someone else’s mother. And cruel though he has become, he doesn’t want to think of his mother or what she would say to what he’s doing. ‘Kay?Right. Now what happens? You tell me. 🙂
Actually, I think that pretty much wraps up Walter, unless you really want to actually write that story.
I think we should switch gears and focus more on philosophy and less on examples. How about we focus on the use of bad heroes and messed up protagonists to make a point. What points are they especially good for making?
Related to that topic, I just had a thought which is interesting. It is a theory really. I’m thinking that the use of good characters in not to show how wonderful it is not to do bad things, but how great it is to do good things. I think this might just be a nugget. The use of bad character then is of course to show how it is detrimental to do bad stuff. We’ll talk more about that.
If any of you have any more ideas about what can be a driving force behind a bad hero or messed up protagonist, that topic is still open as well.
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That’s a good theory. Quite sound, actually. Did you have any thoughts to elaborate on that, @Daeus?
No, I realized I just actually answered my own question. I suppose that’s good, since it kept me from over complicating things.
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🙂
I think a good thing to use as a driving force for a messed up protagonist would be peer pressure. Yeah, okay— preach, Kate, but really. You guys think peer pressure only exists today? No— people were still people back then, you know. 😛
Imagine a count or countess succumbing to peer pressure— all their influence would be thrown into being ‘normal’— all their money, all their time, all their effort, and that could lead to financial, social, and familial problems really quickly. What do you think?
Yes, that’s an excellent one. I don’t think it’s used much unless to make a quick pithy moral either. That could make a great theme though.
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I just had this incredibly random thought I had to share.
What if we have a protagonist with a tragic background that has made him distrustful of people, so he turns to things for companionship— specifically, art. What if we have a shy, tragic art collector whose mission it is to go around saving great pieces of art from those who don’t value them, even if it means stealing them from museums or making off with family heirlooms?
I just thought it was a really interesting concept.
In fact we could take any hobby and give the protagonist such an obsession with it that he will commit crimes for the sake of the hobby alone.
The Hobby Monster, a thriller.
I could see that actually.
It would be best if the story had several points of view so we could see everybody being terrified of the hobby monster and trying to figure out who he is. Meanwhile, we can see him thinking himself as doing the only good thing someone in his position can do and draw pity on him.
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