How to be human AND evil, with Rumpel and Regina

Here’s the next post in this series where I discuss TV shows and movies and the knowledge that we can gain from watching them. We can apply that knowledge to our writing. As always, I never pretend to be an expert. I just like exploring my own thoughts on the matter as I write these blog posts! I welcome all comments and would love to hear what you think about this topic.

Make sure you check out my previous post, titled, “How to write a strong female character, with Emma Swan.”

The last post in this series was also about the TV show Once Upon a Time. Most of the time I don’t like repeating topics or shows back to back like this, but I felt like it was necessary with this one. As you may or may not know, the series premiere of season 2 of OUAT aired last night. AND I’M SUPER PUMPED! (Sorry.) I knew it would be a great time to explore something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now: villains.

Villains are an important part of any story, and they’re often as complex and interesting as the heroes. Some bad guys are just evil – like Voldemort. I’m a Harry Potter super-nerd, so I have nothing bad to say about any of the characters in that book. BUT it’s important to note that Voldemort is evil, plain and simple. His soul is in pieces and he displays no emotions other than insane glee when things go his way and an all-consuming rage when they don’t. And hey, that’s okay.

But if you’re looking for something a little bit different in your villains, check out Rumpelstiltskin and Regina from Once Upon a Time.

First, Rumpel/Mr. Gold.

Rumpel’s fatal flaw is that he chooses power over everything – over doing what’s right, over love, and even over family. But he does have two weak spots, even if they’re very tiny. The first one is his son, Bae. Through a series of unfortunate events (that have nothing to do with that series), Rumpel chose his power over his own son and his son was sent away to another land. Where exactly he was sent, we’re not totally sure. But Rumpel still feels guilty about it and he wants to see his son again – more than anything.

The other person Rumpel cares about is Belle. (Yeah, that Belle.) He loves her. And she loves him. So what’s the problem? Well, true love’s kiss will take away Rumpel’s power and he can’t have that. He’d rather live as a monster than live without magic. When he gets to the real world, he also feels extremely guilty about this. He loved Belle, and he let her be ripped from his grasp. He’s got a lot to feel ashamed of, but he’s also got a lot of rage running through his veins. The second season sets us up with the question – will Rumpel finally do what’s right? The guilt and the anger are running in opposition of each other and I honestly don’t know which one will conquer and rule his actions.

Cut to the Evil Queen/Regina.

She was living the high life until Snow White ruined everything. I don’t want to give anything away about her back story, but let’s just say that she’s got good reason to blame Snow (although everything Snow did was unintentional). When Snow and Charming kicked Regina out of the castle, she sacrificed everything to come back out on top.

Now that she’s in Storybrooke, she has a pretty good setup for herself. She’s mayor and everyone is afraid of her (as they should be). She’s adopted a son that she genuinely loves. He…doesn’t feel the same way. He knows that she’s the Evil Queen and he does everything he can to help break the curse that she’s placed on this little town in Maine.

Would you ever catch Voldemort caring about his true love or his son? Not a chance. Does this make R&R any less evil? No way. If anything, it juxtaposes just how evil they really are. They’re willing to sacrifice the really amazing things in their life for power and control over everyone else. It truly shows us what they’re capable of. Any bad guy can go around town slaughtering whoever he wants to in order to gain power. But when he does the same thing to his own family or his own friends, it means so much more.

So don’t be afraid to make your bad guys human. Voldemort works in the context of the story that J.K. Rowling was trying to tell, but that doesn’t mean he’ll work in any story. A human villain will allow your readers to connect with the antagonist. They’ll understand his or her motivations and they’ll actually end up connecting with them, on some level, even if they don’t agree with what they’re doing. Anything that gives your audience a reason to connect with a character – good or evil – is something worth thinking about. In my book at least.

Which do you prefer? Do you like your baddies full of evil up to their eyeballs, a la Voldemort? Or do you prefer to be torn between feeling bad for them one week and hating them the next, like I often do with Rumpelstiltskin and Regina?

How to write a strong female character, with Emma Swan

This is my third post in this series where I discuss TV shows and movies and the knowledge that we can gain from watching them. We can then apply that knowledge to our writing. As always, I never pretend to be an expert. I just like exploring my own thoughts on the matter as I write these blog posts! I welcome all comments and would love to hear what you think about this topic.

Make sure you check out my previous post titled, “How to be brothers, with Sam and Dean Winchester.”

There are a lot of strong female characters in literature that, as women, we can look up to as role models. Some of the more modern ones include Katniss and Hermione, to be sure.

There are countless others, but I won’t rehash them here. Who they are and how many there are is less important than understanding how to create a character like this. Most of the time when you have a strong female character, other feminine attributes tend to get overlooked. This is especially apparent to me in Katniss – she’s definitely got female qualities, but I find them to be muted for the sake of her strength.

Of course, we can’t blame her (or Suzanne Collins for that matter). Katniss has been through a lot and she’s adapted her personality to survive. She’s a cold character, especially in the beginning of The Hunger Games. But she has to be. There’s a lot of hardship and death in her past (and her present and her future…) and her strength and introversion are a result of this.

So, how do we make a female character strong, but still compassionate and emotional? My suggestion? Study Emma Swan from Once Upon a Time.

Emma is one of my favorite characters from the show, and for good reason. She’s a totally badass character, but she’s still beautiful, feminine, and expressive. In the beginning of the first season, we see a little less of this softer side, though you can still tell right away how vulnerable she is.

In the pilot, Emma’s son (whom she gave up for adoption) comes to find her and bring her back to his hometown. He thinks there’s a curse on the town of Storybrooke and that Emma is the only one who can break it. You see her panic just a little bit. When you give up a child for adoption, you don’t exactly expect them to pop up in your life one day and beg you to follow them home.

Her immediate plan is to take him back to his adoptive mother and get the heck out of there. But she doesn’t. She sticks around and we now have the makings of a great TV show. We see her quickly fall in love with this boy that she gave up. Her motherly instincts come out (much to her surprise, I think) and she feels protective of him.

Emma’s personality doesn’t change to accommodate this strange half-mother, half-friend role she’s taken up with her son. She’s still an introvert, still walled off from the world. She doesn’t get close to many people, and even when she does she continues to be guarded.

Does that make her “strong”? Maybe. But I think her strength comes from other places. She makes tough decisions. She always tries to make the right choices, even when the opposing team is playing dirty. She’s fair and forgiving, but she also doesn’t let people take advantage of her.

And yet she’s still feminine. She’s beautiful and well-dressed. She cries, she feels. She isn’t hard or cold. She can sympathize, and that makes her stronger and that allows us to connect with her.

So, how do you make a strong female character without turning her into a robot? Give her emotions, give her feelings. Make her cry, but don’t turn her into a wimp. Don’t let people control her. Make her the type of person that falls down and gets right back up. The type of person that takes control of her own fate, no matter how intimidating that notion might be. Give her some obstacles and watch her knock them all down.

Who’s your favorite strong female character? Have you written a strong character in the past? If so, what qualities did you give her (or him!) that made them human and believable?